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Post by Lady Motevia on Jun 23, 2011 15:32:56 GMT -5
What is your stance? For those who don't know:
Hard Polytheist: The gods are each individuals. (Odin is a different person than Zeus)
Duotheist - All male deities are aspects of The God and all female deities are aspects of The Goddess. (Odin and Zeus are both the Father)
Soft Polytheism - All deities are aspects or manifestations of one Great Divine.
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Post by lorifiya on Jun 23, 2011 15:44:05 GMT -5
I havn't had a direct thought about that. I think I might be between duo and hard. Like they are individuals but at the same time they are linked with the God and Goddess.
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Post by Lady Motevia on Jun 23, 2011 15:49:11 GMT -5
That's how I see it, too. But I don't know what the term would be for that, lorifiya.
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Post by lorifiya on Jun 23, 2011 17:25:30 GMT -5
Me either, I havn't run across it in either of my books or as of yet online.
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Post by Lady Motevia on Jun 23, 2011 17:36:14 GMT -5
I was just looking up Hellenism today randomly and found that they refer to themselves as Hard Polytheists and then proceeded to call Wiccans "soft". So this started a whole new search into Hard vs Soft. It kinda felt like Hellenists see themselves as better than Wiccans because of this. Yet I have yet to meet a Wiccan or solitary practitioner who isn't in the "Hard" category. Makes me think Hellenists really don't understand everything about Wicca.
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Post by lorifiya on Jun 23, 2011 20:05:50 GMT -5
Mabey their like an extreme religioius group. every religion has one.
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Post by Lady Motevia on Jun 23, 2011 20:54:06 GMT -5
It seems like it. From what I learned, they're dead set on bringing back the Grecian religion exactly the way it was before. Exactly how, I'm not certain. But they don't seem to like Wiccans and other neo-Pagans very much.
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Post by lorifiya on Jun 23, 2011 21:11:05 GMT -5
Wow,
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Post by windstrm99 on Jun 24, 2011 21:39:41 GMT -5
Soft polytheism is more like thinking there are one set of gods and that other cultures just had different names for them, but they are all the same 12 or 50 or 300 or whatever you think.
Hard polytheism is that every single deity is different, it can go as far as to say Diana and Artemis are two separate individuals.
Then there is a so called medium polytheism, where they believe that the Gods are individuals, but they leave room to suggest that some are probably the same deity but just a different name, such as Diana/Artemis or Dionysus/Bacchus.
Personally, I'm a medium polytheist bordering on hard.
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Post by windstrm99 on Jun 24, 2011 21:43:46 GMT -5
It seems like it. From what I learned, they're dead set on bringing back the Grecian religion exactly the way it was before. Exactly how, I'm not certain. But they don't seem to like Wiccans and other neo-Pagans very much. It is a difficult religion to follow for those who are used to mixing. They are reconstructing the religion by going through volumes and volumes of text, literature, myths, legends, etc. Hellenism is fairly easy to reconstruct since they wrote so much down, everything from temple worship to household practices. The reason they don't seem to like Wicca very much is because it is considered a mixed religion as it takes parts of belief from many different cultures and makes it into one. They are trying to practice their religion in a pure form and do not like mixing of any kind. |
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Post by Lady Motevia on Jun 25, 2011 8:39:30 GMT -5
It seems like it. From what I learned, they're dead set on bringing back the Grecian religion exactly the way it was before. Exactly how, I'm not certain. But they don't seem to like Wiccans and other neo-Pagans very much. It is a difficult religion to follow for those who are used to mixing. They are reconstructing the religion by going through volumes and volumes of text, literature, myths, legends, etc. Hellenism is fairly easy to reconstruct since they wrote so much down, everything from temple worship to household practices. The reason they don't seem to like Wicca very much is because it is considered a mixed religion as it takes parts of belief from many different cultures and makes it into one. They are trying to practice their religion in a pure form and do not like mixing of any kind. Yea, that's what I read on their main website. It just seems like a difficult religion to devote one's life to. All of the literature and volumes of text to go through to reconstruct everything. I mean, there are like 3 or 4 creation myths for Dionysus alone. Which one do they decide is truth? With all of that research, is there just one person who decides what the truth is or is there some sort of religious committee? Not to mention that a great deal of literature was written later during the Renaissance era and based off of what the Greeks wrote. Is that included or dismissed? I love the Greek deities, don't get me wrong. My patron deities are Dionysus and Aphrodite and I love them as my own Mother and Father. But this Reconstructionism just seems so complicated. |
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Post by Lady Motevia on Jun 25, 2011 8:42:35 GMT -5
Soft polytheism is more like thinking there are one set of gods and that other cultures just had different names for them, but they are all the same 12 or 50 or 300 or whatever you think. Hard polytheism is that every single deity is different, it can go as far as to say Diana and Artemis are two separate individuals. Then there is a so called medium polytheism, where they believe that the Gods are individuals, but they leave room to suggest that some are probably the same deity but just a different name, such as Diana/Artemis or Dionysus/Bacchus. Personally, I'm a medium polytheist bordering on hard. That's what I am too. I've been trying to find information on Astarte, but it seems that every website refers to her as being the same being as Isis or Aphrodite. In my opinion, that's completely false and rude, you know? |
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Post by windstrm99 on Jun 25, 2011 13:49:30 GMT -5
Yea, that's what I read on their main website. It just seems like a difficult religion to devote one's life to. All of the literature and volumes of text to go through to reconstruct everything. I mean, there are like 3 or 4 creation myths for Dionysus alone. Which one do they decide is truth? With all of that research, is there just one person who decides what the truth is or is there some sort of religious committee? Not to mention that a great deal of literature was written later during the Renaissance era and based off of what the Greeks wrote. Is that included or dismissed? I love the Greek deities, don't get me wrong. My patron deities are Dionysus and Aphrodite and I love them as my own Mother and Father. But this Reconstructionism just seems so complicated. In Greek culture every major city had it's own holidays, slightly different belief system, and important deities. Most people who follow Hellenism for the Athenian calendar and set of important myths. Theirs is the most complete and well documented. There are other major cities that have some documented information, such as Sparta. But to be honest I have not met any Hellenistic person who didn't follow the Athenian calendar. Within the walls of Athens it is possible that only one form of the Dionysus birth myth was followed or agreed upon. Then again it could be seen that all of them were correct in their own way and are just windows into how the Gods work and into the nature of their being. |
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Post by Lady Motevia on Jun 25, 2011 14:15:13 GMT -5
My only point is that all Pagans want to bring Paganism back to what it was before Christianity but that's not entirely possible. They may see Wicca as "mixed religion", but there's no sure way (even with loads of literature) to know exactly how the Ancient Greeks worshiped in their religion. Egyptians wrote down their religion, as well (although in a much different way), and you still have the issue with language translation. I mean, look at the Bible. There's no way to tell exactly what the Bible meant back when it was written without looking at the different languages and dialects used. So why must so many Pagans remain divided in their beliefs with the whole "My religion is better than yours" attitude when most of us turned to Paganism in the first place to escape that sort of prejudice? Isn't religion just a matter of taking beliefs of one culture and turning it into your own? In fact, Herodotus once traced the origins of the Greek culture to Ancient Egypt. And if that's the case, that means that the Greeks took aspects from both Egypt and the Minoans in order to create their culture. How is that any different than Wiccans taking aspects of other religions for use in their own rites? It's basically what all humans have done since the Beginning. I just think that instead of being divided by jealousy and hatred, Pagans should try to work together to bring back what we lost.
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Post by firemoonw on Jun 25, 2011 15:20:25 GMT -5
very good answer amber I like it alot!
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