Why do you Believe in the Gods?

I am a Polytheist. This simple statement seems to elicit a strong response in people. On the one hand there are those who profess a belief in a single, Supreme Divine Being, and who are shocked if not outraged that anyone could conceive of Divinity being both multiple and various. On the other hand there are those who do not understand why anyone in this enlightened age could believe in any sort of God whatsoever. Yet by my admission I not only believe in God - but in many of them. This is merely my conviction, my understanding of the way things work - yet people see it as a fundamental challenge to their way of being, and so they find it necessary to question me on every aspect of it. I am by nature a lazy man, and I do not like repeating tasks any more than I have to. So I have undertaken to explain why I believe certain peculiar things, in the hope that I can simply direct the curious to my previous answers, and not be bothered with making a continued defense of them. These questions were supplied by a good friend of mine, and I thank him greatly for his assistance. I hope he - and you, my beloved reader - find my answers acceptable. But if you do not - so be it. You have your way, and I have mine - and time shall tell which of us was correct. What God or Gods do you believe in? I believe in many Gods. I believe that each God is a distinct and independent being, with its own personality and powers. I do not believe that there is a Single Divine Being, of which the various Gods are merely facets or archetypes, but rather that each God is uniquely and wholly a God. I believe that the Gods have incredible power and wisdom and that they are immortal. I do not, however, believe that the Gods are perfect. I believe that there are certain things which they cannot do - though this may be a self-imposed limitation placed upon the Gods by the Gods, and not due to their lack of power. However the power of the Gods - even if it is limited - is vastly beyond the scope of man to comprehend, as is their wisdom, love, ability to act and all of the other virtues that they possess. In addition to the Gods, I believe that there are a number of semi-divine beings which are neither Gods nor men. Intermediary beings of this sort would be Daemons, Heroes, Nymphs, Satyrs, Muses, Oceanids, Numina, Avatars, Djinn, Faeries, Ghosts, Angels, and Spirits of rivers, lakes, hills, mountains, forests, trees, families, homes, sacred places, etc. There are more - quite a bit more actually - but I think you get the point. These beings are not as powerful as the Gods, nor are they immortal. They are still, however, far in excess of mortals, and as such are worthy of tendance. I am an Hellenic Polytheist. That means that I worship the Gods of Greece in a manner similar to that of the Ancient Greeks. I believe that there are Gods of which the Greeks did not know, and Gods that they did know of, but did not worship. These would be the Gods of the Celts, Germans, Persians, Jews, etc. I believe that these Gods do in fact exist - but I do not worship them in any particular way, unless they are included in an offering or prayer made to "All the Gods" or to "the Unknown God". Just as I do not worship every God in existence, I do not worship all of the Greek or Olympian Gods. I make general offerings to all of them, but I reserve particular tendance for only a very few. This, actually, was the practice in Antiquity, so it is hardly an innovation in religion. The Gods that I honor in particular are: first and foremost, Dionysos. He is my patron God, and my devotion to him is almost singular in nature. However, jealousy stands outside the Divine chorus, as Plato said, and Dionysos neither requires sole worship, nor desires it. This is something that I learned from the God himself. He led me to the worship of the other Gods as well, and so I honor the Magna Mater Kybele, Apollon, Hermes, Zeus, Athena, and the Muses. There are others, but these are the ones that I am closest to. How is it that you've come to have a belief in them? Pascal said that there were three sources of belief: reason, custom, and experience. One has true faith when these three are in harmony. All three of these contributed to my belief in the Gods. From certain personal experiences that I've had, I came to the conclusion that there was something more to the world than was at first apparent. Something that took notice of me, guided me, acted in my favor. In short, a God. Many people have had this experience, yet they believe in a single God. Why did I come to believe that there was more than one God at work in the world? Because this force which I experienced was not always the same. It would feel masculine, now feminine, now something which was neither. Further, there were certain things unique to each personality; images, emotions, scents, etc. The direction that they gave me was not always of the same sort - in fact it sometimes seemed to contradict what had been given before, as if a different person were giving it - yet whenever I followed the advice, things always turned out for the better. Whenever I failed to do as they had urged - I would soon regret it. For these reasons and others, I concurred that there must be different sources for the advice, different divine wills or beings acting for my benefit. Further, the existence of multiple Gods answered a number of difficult questions that I had been puzzling over. For instance, if there was a single all-powerful God in charge of everything - why was the world so full of chaos, multiplicity, and suffering? Isn't it more likely that such things arise as a result of contention between a number of different and powerful divine forces? If belief in God is what determines our future existence, why hadn't he revealed himself to the generations of people before the Jews, or in lands far distant from Palestine? Gods had revealed themselves to those people, and they continued to do so even to this day. A God in charge of the fathomless stretches of the infinite universe could not be expected to take notice of an insignificant speck of dust such as I - but if there are many Gods, it becomes more likely that some could take notice, and that some had. When I began to study what others had experienced and come to believe about the Gods - it lined up with my own experiences and beliefs, lending confirmation to them. The stories of the Gods - as told by Homer, Hesiod, Ovid and Virgil, as well as the countless other poets, prophets, and philosophers - caught my attention, filling in gaps in my knowledge, and whisking me away to the distant past and the high peaks of shining Olympus. These stories found root in the fertile soil of my imagination, and an unshakable faith has grown up from it, like a mighty oak tree. The ancient customs of my ancestors have lent shape and meaning to my life today, showing me how to act, and what to expect in the world to come. What sort of things do your Gods do for you? Well, the Gods perform a thousand tiny miracles each day, and over time they have performed a couple large ones for me. I do not generally like to speak about these things, because it smacks of bragging to me. "Ooh look, the Gods love me more because they've done such-and-such for me. What have they ever done for you?" And I base my belief in them as much on reason and logic as personal experiences and miracles. Yet, they have acted in my life, and it is only fitting that I share a couple stories with you. My life was saved by the Gods, acting through a witch. I know that sounds quite fantastic, but it is the truth. When I was a child, I attended a Christian Women's retreat with my mother. (I was only 4 or 5 at the time, so it was okay that I attend.) I was off playing in the woods when I came upon a swarm of mosquitoes, and they proceeded to make a feast of me. I had been bitten all over. Not one part of my little body escaped their attack. This would have been bad enough - but I am highly allergic to insect bites, and I promptly became quite sick. The bites swelled up terribly, some as large as an orange, and my breathing became restricted. Well, this retreat was in the country, some ways from the nearest town, and even further to the nearest hospital. It would be a long drive and an even longer wait for an ambulance, and I was in a bad condition. My breathing almost stopped altogether a couple times. Well, as they were discussing what to do with me, a woman came up to my mother, and said in hushed tones, "I am a healer, a witch, and I can help your boy. But I understand if you, being a Christian, are uncomfortable about that, and do not want me to do anything." My mother thought it over a bit, and decided that anything that could help me out would be okay, so she consented. The woman came over to me, said a few reassuring words to me, and then began to pray over me. She then placed her hands lightly on my body, or a little above it, and I instantly felt a warmth enter me. And that warmth began to spread and the pain and itching and fever that wracked my body lessened, and then disappeared altogether. I eventually passed into a contented sleep, and they were able to drive me to the nearest town with a hospitable. When we got there and the doctors examined me, the swelling had completely disappeared, and only a few bites were left. They thought my mother and the other women had exaggerated - but they all knew how bad off I had been. Such was my first experience with magic and the Gods - but it was not my last. Another instance that I'd like to share with you was when the God Dionysos spoke to me. This was shortly after I had become disillusioned with both Christianity and Wicca. I had set out to "create" my own religion, centered around the God of Wine. I did not, however, really know the God. Oh, I thought I did! Believe me, I thought I knew him. But as I look back on all of that, I realize how wrong I was. I think I even realized it then. It wasn't coming along well, and I was really agonizing over it. Well, I prayed real hard, attempted to meditate, screamed and yelled - but still, nothing would get through my writer's block. Eventually I just gave up writing for the night, and went to sleep. Well, as I dreamed that night, the God came to me, and he spoke with me. I don't remember what he said - or even if he really "said" anything. But I felt this calm come over me, and I realized that he was real, I wasn't just making it up - and because he was real, I couldn't just cobble it all together. He had his prefrences, the things that were sacred to him. The Mysteries were real, and because they were real, I had to seek them out instead of invent them myself. I'm not sure if I'm explaining this right. It made sense to me then - it makes sense to me now. But as a result of that dream, I put aside my book and the "religion" I was inventing, and sought out the actual religion of Dionysos. Since then I have had so many wonderful experiences. I cannot tell you the number of times my prayers have been answered, or I have received an omen directly from the Gods warning me of what to do or what not to do. I have performed magic, and received very exact results, that left no doubt in my mind or in the mind of the people for whom I performed the magic that it was not merely an act of chance or circumstance. When you pray to the Gods for wealth and the next day win $10 in a scratch ticket - that can be passed off as nothing more than a coincidence. But when you make that prayer and win $10 FIVE TIMES IN A ROW - well, then it becomes a bit harder to ascribe it to chance. Yet that kind of thing happens all the time, and not just to me. By believing in the Gods, we open ourselves to their influence, and allow them to work through us and in our life. Do the Gods really intervene in your life or do you just attribute these things to them? I have no idea. That is my honest, unalloyed answer. I know that what I've said is true. I've felt their influence, and I've felt what it's like when they weren't there. When you have prayed or performed a spell, and it comes out exactly as you wished - that is very exhilarating. It completely affirms one's faith. You know that the Gods are real, and that they take notice of you. And yet - how much of that is just our selective memory? If we pray to the Gods or perform a spell, and it doesn't come true - is our faith shaken? Usually not. We say, "Oh, the spell wasn't done right." Or "I didn't believe strong enough." Or "It is the will of the Gods that this should not be." We have these built-in safeguards against the loss of belief, and if we were completely honest with ourselves, and stripped them away - would we still be able to say with certainty that the Gods acted in our lives? Probably not. And yet, when something goes my way, or something I've asked for comes true - I will continue to say, "Look at that! The Gods have done this wonderful thing for me." The will to believe is strong, and it has a great many psychological rewards. And besides that - who would believe in Gods that do not take notice of us, and act in our lives? How do you know that they are the least bit interested in your life or your problems? The universe is vast beyond our ability to comprehend its vastness. That unending emptiness is so daunting that we cannot help but feel alone, unnoticed, insignificant in the scheme of things. If there are Gods, how could they ever take notice of us? And if they managed to notice us - why would they ever care about our puny lives and our worthless problems? Yet, in spite of the sheer absurdity of it, the Gods in fact do take notice of us, and they do act in our lives. Homer reminds us time and again that the Gods look down upon our doings from their place in Olympus, either with favor or disfavor, and as to whether they act on our behalf, he has said: "Laughing Aphrodite forever stands by her man and drives the spirits of death away from him. Even now she has rescued him when he thought he would perish." [Il. 4. 10-13] Our sacred stories are full of tales of the Gods coming to the aid of mortal man. Zeus and Hermes saved the pious couple of Philemon and Baucis when the valley in which they lived was flooded. When the terrible creature Agdistis - half man, half woman - ravaged the land, and even the Gods were shocked at the horrible things it did, Dionysos came, and with cunning and power, tricked the beast into getting drunk, whereupon he castrated it, taking away its awful strength. Though Poseidon hated the crafty Odysseus, and sought to slay him many times, the Goddess Athena brought him safely home to Ithaca, and his lovely wife Penelope. Heracles performed so many wonderful things for the benefit of man that he, though but only half divine, was allowed entrance into Olympus, home of the Immortals. After an Oracle from Apollo told the Romans to bring the Great Mother from her home in Pessinus to the city founded by Romulus, Kybele brought them victory against Hannibal, and raised them up to govern the whole of the world. So, one can see that the Gods do intervene - but as to why they intervene, that they alone know for sure. I believe that the Gods view us as their children, and what parent would not offer what assistance they could to their children? Even a stubborn and willful child receives love and affection from it's parent, if the parent is worthy of the name. Then again, perhaps the Gods have some great plan, or are attempting to avert an awful calamity, and we humans are to play a part in it. By helping us, they contribute towards making the universe a better place. Or maybe the Gods are bored, and it offers them a pleasant distraction to meddle in our affairs. Who can say? The ways of the Gods are not our ways, and they shall remain ever a mystery to mortal man. How does your God answer you when petitioned and through what means does he convey his wishes to you? I have received answers in a number of different ways. The most common means of communication are by what Socrates described as the voice of his daimonium, something akin to a conscience or guardian angel that offers advice, and warns against wrong action. This still, quiet, inner voice seems to originate outside of our being, and its advice, when followed, always leads to proper action and a nobility of spirit - if not physical safety, as Socrates himself learned when it led him to confront the corrupt Athenian authorities. But the Gods have other ways to communicate with us. They speak directly with us through dreams and visions and flashes of insight, and indirectly through omens and portends. Omens are visual or auditory occurrences which are beyond the ability of man to control, and so are completely under the sway of the Gods. The flight of birds, the rustling of leaves, the glint of shiny metal, sudden noises or voices, a sneeze, the spin of a pendulum, the layout of cards, the shape of entrails - all of these and countless other things reveal the will of the Gods for those who are trained to see them, and who know how to interpret them appropriately. How do you know that the Gods you worship are who you imagine them to be - for instance, what if they are demons deceiving you into a false belief? This is a question that anyone who has come from a Fundamentalist Christian background must wrestle with at some time or another. In order to keep their followers in line, Pastors and Priests fill their parishioners' heads with awful stories of torments and terrors in the world beyond. They assert that there is no salvation outside the Church, and anyone who thinks that there is is deceived by the Devil. The Devil doesn't just deceive Non-Christians, but Christians from other traditions as well. For instance, Protestants believe that Catholics or "Papists" as they rudely call them, belong to a Church which is really the "Whore of Babylon"; Catholics consider Protestants to be hateful heretics. Baptists are against Methodists, Seventh Day Adventists are against the Worldwide Church of God, and Jehovah's Witnesses are against everyone. Sectarian squabbling all around! They almost don't have time to condemn those of us completely outside the Church - yet somehow they find a way. So here is my response to that question. In Matthew 7:17-18, 20 Jesus says, "Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." This is indeed a good standard to judge things by. Therefore, let us apply it to both the Christian God, and the Greek Gods, and to the cultures which they spawned. Here is how the Bible describes YHWH, many times putting these words in his very mouth. Psalm 137:9 "Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones." Numbers 24:8 God will "eat up the nations of his enemies, and shall break their bones, and pierce them through with his arrows." Deuteronomy 28:53 "And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters" Exodus 34:14 "For thou shalt worship no other God: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God" Nahum 3:4 God will "discover thy skirts upon thy face, ... show the nations thy nakedness" and "will cast abominable filth upon thee." Malachi 2:3 "Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it." John 15:6 "If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned." Matthew 13:41-42 "The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." Matthew 10:35-36 "I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household." And here is what the Greeks said about their Gods. Metamorphoses of Apuleius, 11:6: "Behold, I am come to you in your calamity. I am come with solace and aid. Away with tears. Cease to moan. Send sorrow packing! Soon through providence shall your salvation arise." The precepts of Apollo inscribed at Delphi were: "Know Thyself" but also "Nothing in excess;" Homeric Hymn XXIII "I will sing of Zeus, Chiefest among the Gods and Greatest, All-seeing, the Lord of all, the Fulfiller who whispers words of wisdom to Themis as she sits leaning towards him." Plutarch, On Superstion 6: "What qualities do we say belong to the Gods: goodness, magnanimity, kindness, and protective care for mankind." Pindar's Pythian Ode 5: "It is Apollo who dispenses remedies to men and women for grievous diseases, and who bestowed on us the cithara, and gives the Muses' inspiration to whomever he will, bringing peaceful concord into the mind, and who possesses the oracular shrine." Euripides, the Bacchae: "Dionysos, the son of Zeus, delights in banquets; and his dear love is Peace, giver of wealth, savior of young men's lives - a Goddess rare! In wine, his gift that charms all griefs away, alike both rich and poor may have their part." From the Orations of The Emperor Julian: "How can the man who, while worshipping Zeus the God of Companions, sees his neighbors in need and does not give them a dime - how can he think he is worshipping Zeus properly?" Now you tell me - which passages describe a Holy God - and which a spiteful demon? "Oh, but that is not fair! You are taking these quotes out of context. And anyway, even a demon can say sweet and flattering things." Very well. Let us consider what society was like when the Olympians were worshipped, and what it has become since man has turned his back on them. In Greece, the home of the Gods, man either first discovered or developed to such a degree that it is impossible to discuss them without mentioning the Greeks, all of the following: mathematics, the physical sciences, astronomy, medicine, architecture, sculpture, philosophy, politics, economics, poetry, drama, and history. Further, as Victor Davis Hanson and John Heath point out in their book _Who Killed Homer?: The Demise of Classical Education and the Recovery of Greek Wisdom_ the Greeks bequeathed to us the essential traditions of Western Civilization, including the separation of science from political and religious authority, civilian checks and balances on military power, constitutional and consensual government, an aversion to theocracy, belief in the goods of private property and free economies, a tradition of dissent and open criticism of authority, and firm faith in average citizens as the backbone of society. (At least that's what the review in the August edition of the Kerux said. Heheh. ) And the Romans, who adopted the Gods of Greece as their own, were no less blessed by them. Through the agency of the Gods, the Romans built up a world Empire that stretched from Britain and Ireland on the one hand, all the way to Arabia, Palestine and India on the other. Throughout that vast Empire there were just laws, reasonable administration, and unequaled peace. With the Golden Eagle of Rome came aqueducts, theaters, temples, and roads which last even to this day. Culture, learning, and sophistication flourished, and all races were accepted as citizens of Rome, the Holy City beloved of the Gods. For a thousand years Rome was mighty, unequaled in all the world - unmatched throughout the whole of history, even to this day! And then the Christians came to power, and under their rule the hallowed city founded by Romulus was brought low. Made weak and inefficient, it was sacked by Barbarians whose ancestors Rome had always driven back. From the ashes of the Eternal City rose the Medieval world - with it's all-powerful Church, and its bickering, constantly warring nation-states. We call this period the Dark Ages for a reason. So what was the world that Jesus made? It was a world a frightening ignorance and unimaginable cruelty. The learning of the Pagans was scoffed at, and their beautiful Temples and statues were defiled and then destroyed. Justinian closed the Schools of Philosophy, and anyone who did not accept the Church's teaching was hunted and killed as a heretic. Culture all but disappeared from the world, save for in moanstic refuges, where soon even the monks had forgotten how to read the precious things entrusted to them. Do we read books from this period? Or admire their art? Do we sing their songs or wonder at their architecture? No - only academics do - and they are, by their own admission, a peculiar lot. Barbarians ravished the land, and there was safety nowhere to be found. Plagues and wars were constant, and the life of the peasant was short and bitter. Everywhere there was bigotry, hatred, unrestrained cruelty. The Church, which should have been a refuge during this dark period, cared only for itself, and grew fat on land and wealth which it extorted from the growing nation-states. This - - this is what the world is like under the awful grip of Christ. Do you disbelieve me? You have but to open a history book, and you will see that not only did I refrain from exaggeration, but that my words could not begin to describe the horrors of the world under an all-powerful Church. It was only the rediscovery of the Wisdom of Greece that brought about the Renaissance (literally the rebirth) of Western Culture. So if my Gods be demons - then I will gladly worship demons so long as they stand against the atrocities of the Christian God. Doesn't the fact that people stopped believing in the Gods give you reason to wonder if they even exist? Not at all. For all of the untold millions of years that the world and the universe have been in existence, we were not here. Evolutionarilly speaking, we're the new kids on the block. We just appeared on the scene yesterday, as it were. From the beginning the Gods have existed. I believe that they exist independent of us. How they are viewed may depend on the person viewing them - but the essence of the God is eternal, unchangeable, and in no way altered by mortal man. What the Gods were doing in the untold aeons before our coming - I do not know. Perhaps, as Ausgustine said, they were preparing a place in Hell for people who ask such questions. Even though man appeared just seconds ago on the biological clock - he's walked the earth for about two million years or so. And during almost all of that time, man has believed in some kind of God - and usually a fair number of Gods. So, just because the worship of the Gods has been forbidden in a small corner of the world (in India, and Africa, and parts of South America native traditions have continued on uninterrupted even to this day) for only a thousand and four hundred years, out of the two million that we've been around - that's not enough to cause me to doubt their existence. Especially since, despite legislation, torture, murder, and attempts by both Christians and Atheists (as if those terms were not synonymous) to convince them otherwise - people have held fast to the Old Gods. The Hermeticists and Alchemists, the men of the Renaissance and Enlightenment, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Percy Byshhe Shelley, Thomas Morton, Thomas Taylor, Heinrich Schliemann, Friedrich Nietzsche, Edward Carpenter, Kenneth Grahame, Walter Otto, C. G. Jung, Aliester Crowley - all of these and countless others have remained faithful to the Immortal Gods of Ancient Greece. So some may have turned their backs on the Gods - but by no means all, nor the best of men. What sort of rituals do you perform for your Gods? The central religious act is the sacrifice - usually an offering of grain, flowers, candles, or votive art - and a libation of wine, honey, or water - depending upon the God(s) to whom the sacrifice is made. This may be accompanied by other actions (a procession or dance) and a recitation of a sacred hymn or poem - usually an Homeric or Orphic hymn, but sometimes a piece of one's own composition - or again, it may not. In larger communities you find more complex rituals with full processions, dramatic performances, athletic competitions, etc as befits the particular festival. But from what I've seen, such gatherings are rare to nonexistant. The solitary or small group model seems to be the norm within Hellenism at this time. (We really are a small minority. ) Why should I believe in the Gods? You shouldn't. Not if your present beliefs make you happy, help you confront life's adversities, and give your existence meaning. The Gods do not threaten or punish those who fail to believe in them - merely those given over to unremitting pride (hybris), foolish men such as Pentheus and Lycurgus, fighters against God. (I would say that the fanatics who tore down our temples and murdered the Priests of the Gods fall under this category - but the average Christian does not.) So by all means - go on worshipping a dead Jew on a stick, or no Gods at all, if doing so in some way makes your life better. For as Symacchus said, "What matters the path by which one seeks the truth? One road alone does not suffice to attain so great a mystery!" "But aren't there benefits in worshiping your Gods?" Oh yes, indeed there are. These are the Gods who govern the world and the whole of the cosmos. They have power over every aspect of nature and our lives. They require nothing, but appreciate freely-offered worship. Those who honor the Gods with the fullness of their hearts and from the depths of their souls are like the favorite children of the Gods, and receive all of the benefits of that love. The Gods give meaning to our lives, banish fear and insecurity and open us to the wonders around us and within us. Further, proper religion imbues our lives with virtues such as Dignity, Freedom, Self-control, Beauty, Honesty, Philanthropy, Appreciation for Variety, and Tolerance. These are the things that made Greece great, and brought Rome to power. Therefore, let us each and everyone, praise the Gods!