I was asked a very good question on a comment a few weeks ago. I've been mulling over how to reply to it and I turned to Freyr for advice. Honestly, I wasn't sure how to explain the relationships between different pantheons. It came perilously close to a taboo that I've been given and I just couldn't figure out a good way to parse things. Freyr, being a diplomat and ruler himself, had some interesting things to say.
1. It isn't my place to dictate how deities relate. What my experience of how deities interact is different from what others experience. All of which is different from how the deities interact with each other and their business with each other.
2. Being a hard polytheist didn't make me a bad follower of Dea. It may make me a confusing person for people who are soft polytheists and for monotheists, but it doesn't make my relationship with Dea bad. It just made it different, which is ok because everyone has different needs that Dea meets.
3. In an infinite universe of infinite possibilities, there is an infinite number of ways for deities to interact and they all happen simultaneously. Because of the limited scope of human comprehension, we can only be aware of a limited amount of this information. Every deity that has been worshiped, is being worshiped, and will be worshiped exists. All religions are valid because of infinite possibility. We're just limited because we can't comprehend it all.
Freyr then gently reminded me that a bunch of very smart physicists detailed this sort of thing when I was young and that it was silly of me to forget one of the reasons why I fell in love with theoretical physics does apply to theology.
He then told me not to worry about what other people thought about my relationships. It didn't matter if it looked 'normal' or 'proper' as long as it was healthy and it worked for me. All of my taboos focus on keeping me healthy and relatively sane. All of my devotional work focuses on health and well being.
The books I write come out of the place of health that I am encouraged to maintain. My daily prayer devotions all serve to give structure to my day, which helps keep me healthy. My daily rituals of devotion again serve to structure my day to help me stay grounded in the present and healthy. The writings are the fruit of that structure.
Thank you for responding! Yes, from what I've seen so far in the Déanic community is that reconciling Déanism with hard polytheism seems like an oxymoron. But then I'm also learning the difference between soft and hard polytheism; is the latter a belief that ALL deities are separate persons and their similarities to other gods are just coincidence? And soft polytheism a belief that 'all gods are one but understood differently', so to speak? Soft polytheism, or monoism as I think it's better known by Hindus and such, seems to be more accepted in the Déanic community. But I think to each their own. I suppose my question really is what defines being a Déanist - does it mean putting faith in Déa above other gods? Is she seen as the Mother Supreme with other gods, spirits, angels and maids as Her children?
ReplyDeleteSorry for bugging you with questions, I just am in love with all your work and value your opinion.