Of the truths I seek, but will probably never know in their completeness, either due to lack of concrete information or lack of capability for understanding due to my human condition, are: What is the truth regarding spirit? Regarding gods? Regarding other deities? Regarding spirit guides? Regarding the human soul? While Druidry tends to shy away from theology, and rightfully so, I have an incredible fascination with it and therefore cannot ignore it but must ponder it and continue to wrestle with these concepts in my own head (and in my own blogs!).
I think to see truth in a situation is more complicated than saying ‘the sky is blue’, it’s understanding the complexity of each viewpoint and acknowledging the steps, personalities and vantages that lead to one person saying the sky is blue and another to say the sky is orange and understanding that the sky itself is not a color but light reflections of molecules on the elements in higher stratospheres. I think all truth is relative to perception. One person may see the sky as blue and another as orange but they could simply be looking at different parts of the sky from different parts of the world.
There is pantheism which is a doctrine that equates God with the forces and laws of the universe (Merriam-Webster Dictionary) and an understanding that recognizes and respects all other gods as lesser gods to the Universe, which is god. Polytheistic is the belief that there is more than one god but tends to stick with a specific pantheon of gods within one culture (but not always) such as the Irish Pantheon or the Greek Pantheon etc. Atheistic is one who recognizes the idea of god but basically says “I have no fucking clue and neither do you.” I believe that I tend to be somewhere between Pantheistic and Polytheistic but neither truly suit my ideas so I’d like to propose adding another word to this list: Pandism. Pandism combines Pantheism with Deism, saying that the creator of the galaxies, “the source”, has neither form nor human qualities and ceased to exist as a separate and conscious entity, allowing lesser forms which take the shapes of gods or spirit guides etc to help mold the world and it’s inhabitants.
Unfortunately, we as humans tend to acknowledge certain aspects of the source of all magical energy (example: it’s power) and interpret that through our own mortal filters (ei: I must conquer my fellow man and obtain power in the name of this deity that I am looking at and I will name him ____ and he will be the god of might and masculinity and strife and I will conquer all in his name.) Thus resulting in wars and strife in the name of religion when all that was happening was that the human was tasting a bit of the power that is the source! Herein lies the problem with the current big religions: If my god is real and my god says he’s the only god then your god does not exist and you are without spiritual clout. Polytheism does not separate themselves from this downfall, just because you believe in multiple gods it does not extend that same latitude that pantheism does but can maintain the same closed feeling of monotheism. Therefore: my gods are real and your gods are not. Monotheism and Polytheism are in the same boat here, the only difference is the number of gods in which a person places their identity. While Pantheism and Pandism are open to every god being a god without bringing down another person for believing as they do. The problem with this definition I have proposed lies in the neo-pagan traditions where one person can worship from multiple pantheons. Typically that is atypical for polytheists who traditionally chose to worship within one pantheon. However, practice must change with definitions. Just because one person worships from multiple pantheons doesn’t mean they believe there is an over-arching spirit, presence, or divine source. I believe they would still be considered polytheistic.
