Aidonian's blog

it was a coincidence that i stumbled upon polytheism all those years ago. Especially Hellenic polytheism. While I did look into other pantheons, no other pantheon spoke to me like the Hellenic pantheon did. I think I’m a practitioner now for around 26 years now. I still learn new things each day. I have the Torah, Bible, Quran and while they were interesting books, I did not find any spiritual truth in them. Last year I wanted to reread the Quran, but due to circumstances, i did not get past the fifth sura. Of the three I would say that the Torah and the Quran were the most interesting of the three. The thing is, i did not find any spiritual truth in them. I tried, but didn’t find it there. Which doesn’t mean that these are bad books, just that it didn’t click with me.

Why polytheism?

When looking into polytheism, one thing is clear that you need to find out for yourself how things work, because most polytheistic religion were dormant for centuries. The last 30 to 40 years there have been people activily trying to reconstruct them based upon historical and archeological evidences published. This means that those books have to be read, examined, which is not for everyone. Even so, reconstructionists of these polytheistic faiths have published books in the last 20 years so people would not need to do that. This is a big threshold, especially when you come from a monotheistic background where you have a holy book that is scripture and everything is chewed for you. In polytheistic faiths, you rarely come acros a holy book or scripture. Most will agree that the myths aren’t scripture. A second threshold will be that its complexer than monotheism. In polytheistic traditions, you will find hard polytheism, soft polytheism, henotheism, pantheism, etc… hard polytheism meaning that all Gods are unique, individual Gods, soft being the opposite. Henotheism meaning that you chose one God above all else while still aknowledging other Gods. You can call it a soft monotheism. But its nothing like that. While most polytheists keep to one pantheon, if you look at history, you will see that the Romans and the Greeks accepted foreign Gods into their pantheon and worship. The Mesopotamians also did that.This could be difficult to grasp. Religions evolve with the times.Another thing to consider when turning to polytheism, that is by looking at those ancient traditions with modern eyes you will come across parts of the tradition that will turn you off. in ancient Hellas, Rome, mesopotamia, there was slavery, sexism, discrimination, animal and sometimes even human sacrifice. Certain myths of certain Gods will be offputing because of rape, kidnapping, etc… Even the bible has that issue. We have to remember that these are human stories, told by humans living in a culture far removed from us. Its perfectly to be put off by it. The Gods are more than just these stories. Biblioteca Alexandria has gone on their way to publish books with modern stories about the Gods. So these stories can change as well.

What is so interesting about polytheism?

Well like stated above, the diversity makes it so interesting for me. I’m free to chose my own path. We all are here to worship the Gods, so there is no need for infighting. There is always some infighting and heated debates on which is better. For me, I stay within the framework of the Hellenic pantheon, while aknowledging other pantheons as aspects of my Gods. Each day, I devote to certain Gods. I admit that I used to be a Henotheist, but i’m a polytheist because in my worship there is Zeus, Plouton, Hekate, Nyx, Erebos, Hermes, Phoibos Apollon, Dionysos. You are free to compose your own hymns, stories about the Gods. There are aspects of the religion that i find offputing: the sexism, animal sacrifice, slavery that was part of the culture. For the ancient Greeks there was no need to give a name for their religion because it was so part of their culture, that they didn’t saw a need for it. We seperate religious practice from a culture, but back than, they didn’t. I aknowledge it. No religion is perfect. Religions are human constructs to form a bond with the Gods. Even if the Gods back than communicated with the people who worshipped them and They still communicate with their followers, sometimes in small ways, sometimes They will smack you on the head for something. Still, communication from Them is filtered for a human mind to comprehend. Take the myth of Semele as an example. She asked Zeus to see the real Him, not the version He wanted her to see. He relunctanly agreed and as a result she was killed by it. The same thing can be applied for any divine communication between humans and the divine. Its going to be filtered because it would be to much for us to grasp and understand.

My belief in Them is very strong. It has helped me throughout these years to keep going. I had the privilige to had encounters with the divine where it felt that They chose to smack me on the head to announce something or that I had to do. I’m certain that any Christian, Muslim, Jew,.. will also have those experiences with their God. There are many roads to the divine and I’m on one of them. I dont want to make a case to convert to polytheism. I’m certain polytheism is not for everyone, just like religion is not for everyone. That’s ok. Follow your own path. If the Gods want you, They will come knocking. The last thing our world needs is more infighting over whose religion is the right one. We have already enough those the last 1800 years. Especially the last millenium. I hope this was in a way usefull?

There are people who are polytheists but mix deities from various pantheons which had no contact between them via their respectfully cultures. In my opinion polytheism works best if there is a connection between the Gods themselves, because it helps shape the worldview. If it somehow works for people who do that, why not? I find it weird, but good for them. This is what i meant by that it is so interesting about polytheism. Your freedom to follow your own path.This is also a roadblock for many, because when you come from a Christian, Jewish or even Muslim background, its hard to filter that background out in your new religious beliefs. Its going to be hard to find people like you around you, because any polytheistic religion is not widely known to the public. The general public only knows of the big three and perhaps even Hinduism, shintoism or even Asatru or Wicca. So when people are out looking for a new religion they go to these three. So it takes dedication, religious curiosity, time, a certain drive to explore polytheism to its fullest and carve out your own religious system. This is not going to be easy thing to do. Online sources and groups help to bridge the gap, but its not going to be easy if you are solitary practitioner. In Europe there aren’t that many polytheistic groups, that I know off. Wiccan yes, but true polytheistic ones seem to be rare.

Religion like most things is also a group thing. In the ancient world, this was especially true. You had city religious festivals, but also private religion. I’m a solitary, i dont mind being alone. I’m a member of Hellenion, but not an active member. Its on my own chosing really. I’m busy with so many things, i don’t have the time to be active there asswell. I joined during the pandemic and i don’t regret it or anything. In Belgium, i haven’t found any polytheistic groups except for Wiccan or Asatru. So get it somehow why people stop being a polytheist if they don’t have the feeling to belong to a group of people. I can understand why. Humans in general are social animals.

To conclude, it seems that polytheism needs more awareness to the general public if we want to perceive it as a alternative to monotheistic religions. There is pagan federation, but I have no idea how much reach they actually have.