Duotheism and Polythiesm

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OrangeOpal
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Duotheism and Polythiesm

Post by OrangeOpal »

Hi everyone! I’m new to witchcraft and Paganism, and I’m just figuring out my beliefs. I think that i believe in a Goddess and God; the feminine and masculine aspects of ‘the One’ or the Universe, with the Goddess being the energy of the Moon (The Triple Moon) the ocean and Mother Nature, and the God being the energy of the Sun, the sky, the guardian of wild animals.
I think this makes me a Duotheist. But I am interested in the many Gods and Goddesses worships by polythiests. Are the individual Gods and Goddesses seen as different ‘aspects’ of the Goddess and God? Is this what is meant by the quote by Dion Fortune, ‘All Gods are one God, and all Goddesses are one Goddess’?

Basically, I’m wondering how polythiesm works, do polythiests believe in the two masculine and feminine energies, in ‘the’ Goddess and God, with the individual Gods and Goddesses existing too, seperate from them? Or are they seen as different interpretations of the Goddess and God? Or are ‘the’ Goddess and God not believed in at all?

I absolutely do not mean to offend any polythiests with this post by the way! I just want to figure out what my beliefs are and what others believe. Thank you to anyone that’s read my post and for any replies! :flyingwitch:
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SnowCat
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Re: Duotheism and Polythiesm

Post by SnowCat »

For me Bast, Sekhmet, and Anubis are completely separate entities from The One.
Daughter of Sekhmet
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SpiritTalker
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Re: Duotheism and Polythiesm

Post by SpiritTalker »

I can only speak for my own concepts & i accept mono-duo-polytheism as 3 sides of the same coin. Our mind's can perceive multiple realities simultaneously. Generally I hold that the gods and goddesses are anthropomorphized human perceptions of creative forces (energy). And yet I get my head around All individual consciousness together is the One knowing Itself as the many. If this has a name I'm danged if I know what it is.
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Lord_of_Nightmares
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Re: Duotheism and Polythiesm

Post by Lord_of_Nightmares »

That's not dualism. That's monism, which contains dualism but is also outside of it with a neutral middle ground at it's core.

With polytheism there are soft and hard types. Hard believes all gods are individuals. Soft is more like gods being aspects of a greater whole, similar to leaves on a tree. There's also a middle polytheism, where some gods are aspects of each other and others are not. There is no name for this, however. (And it seems to reflect ancient beliefs.)
I am the Earth, The Sun and the Stars
And I am the also the Moon
I am all animal and birds,
And I am the outcast as well, and the thief
I am the low person of dreadful deeds,
And the great person of excellent deeds
I am Female. I am Male and I am Neuter.
- Devi
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barker
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Re: Duotheism and Polythiesm

Post by barker »

Mine - names and faces.

The Creator has no name. God/s understand that one creator. The creation itself - wonder, nothing but. You're name and face, of course, has the right to believe in Self. And that's how a dream works too.

Thus, basically there is no ultimate truth to 'God' except for the right to believe in Self. Believing in others? That's called duty. One has a duty - if one wants - to become a/the God him/herself. That is about sex, of course.
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Siona
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Re: Duotheism and Polythiesm

Post by Siona »

OrangeOpal wrote:Basically, I’m wondering how polythiesm works, do polythiests believe in the two masculine and feminine energies, in ‘the’ Goddess and God, with the individual Gods and Goddesses existing too, seperate from them? Or are they seen as different interpretations of the Goddess and God? Or are ‘the’ Goddess and God not believed in at all?
The God and Goddess are not included in my personal practice whatsoever. This is not to say I don't 'believe' in them, necessarily. I know many pagans honor these deities, I don't mean to discount them entirely. But the concepts of a God and a Goddess as seen within much of modern paganism (the sun god and triple moon goddess you describe) are not ancient concepts. Again, I don't say this to discount them, everything was new at some point, yeah? But, it does mean that for a lot of us pagans who lean more to the reconstruction/revivalist side of things, this particular God and Goddess pair will not really ever factor in to our beliefs.

Which is also not to say the idea of all being aspects of one is a new concept, that itself is also quite ancient. The Metamorphoses of Apuleius shows this when Isis says she is known by many names in other lands. Ancient pagans often looked at other deities from other lands and said, well, that's X deity from our pantheon. Though at the same time, they also incorporated foreign deities into their pantheon, as if they were separate beings...

Either way, often it seems the split into 'masculine' and 'feminine' isn't emphasized as much when that is done. Many schools of Hinduism believe that all their deities are one (and some, that ALL are one, all of us, everything), but the divide into God and Goddess might be skipped. Same with some modern Egyptian reconstructionists, they believe all their deities are aspects of One, but there is no God and Goddess split with this, if that makes sense. But, all that said, there are also a great many polytheists who do not believe all deities are one. They see all deities as distinct, separate entities. Ancient paganism wasn't a monolith, there were so many different cultures, and individual schools of thought within those cultures, so many, many, many different beliefs and ideas were represented. The same can be said of modern paganism. What one polytheist beliefs might be quite different from another.
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