Polytheists?

Question

Just out of curiosity, at what point did your path lead to your belief in many deities? Was it a precursor to a religious change? Or have you believed it your whole life?

Blessed be

Answer 1

Not so much many deities as many names for one comprehensive Deity.

I've pretty much believed my whole life that there must be a reason why there would be so many different gods and goddesses--I didn't think the whole rest of the world could be wrong (which was what my Baptist church tried to tell me.)

I look at it this way--my mother named me one thing. Those of you here on YA know me as Jewel. My daughter calls me Mom, and my mate calls me Honey (when he's not using something more explicit.) I also have titles--Kitchen Supervisor at work, High Priestess in my coven, She Who Keeps the Dishes Filled and the Sandbox Clean among my cats. All of these names and titles refer to my different roles in people's lives, but none of them change or limit who I really am.

So in my prayers and spells, I call upon many names or functions of the divine, but none of them encompass what it really is. They only describe parts of the whole. Yet I consider myself polytheistic, because those parts of the whole are very real in and of themselves, just as the word "mother" doesn't wholly describe me, and yet I AM a mother.

Answer 2

To be honest I believe that this is the path I am meant to be on. It feels so right. It's as though I have traveled this path many times before. Christianity never fit me, no matter how hard I tried, but Wicca is a perfect fit. I really have believed this for many years (since I was old enough to begin to think for myself) but I just didn't know there was actually a religion out there that matched what I believed.

Answer 3

Frankly, it was the hardest part of heathenry for me to wrap my head (and spirit) around . . . when I was first exposed to Asatru, the heritage and culture and values all appealed to me immensely, and struck a deep and resonant chord with my essential being---but having lost any real belief in the existence of A god, the notion of *many* gods was . . . a bit much to swallow.

Then, not to put too woowoo a point on it, Freyr made himself very, VERY real to me, and I more or less said "Well, alrighty then. If HE'S real the rest of them must be too." I've had ample evidence (subjective, of course) since then that my conclusion was correct.

Answer 4

I became a polytheist when I met my gods. Before that, I was an atheist.

It was actually the second one I met that made me realize that I was a POLYTHEIST, not a monotheist, as these gods were absolutely not "faces" of the same being.

Answer 5

At the point I noticed I was communicating with different ones, and they were acting differently and telling me different things.

Answer 6

I grew up that way. I can't imagine any other way.

Answer 7

mine have always chosen me, not the other way around