About ten years, “Atheist Paganism” (Note 1) emerged, with various Atheists desiring to form their own versions of Neo-Paganism (Note 2). Many Neo-Pagans welcomed these new Pagans into their groups and supported them. However, Polytheists did not. In response, the Atheist Pagans decided that Polytheists were bigots since they did not accept them in their […]
A Polytheist Examines Atheism
A great exploration of terms and how they intersect.
I have come to identify most strongly with the term polytheist, once I realised that for over a decade, I had in fact been practising henotheism.
Henotheism (Greek “one god”) is a term coined by Max Müller, to mean devotion to a single primary god while accepting the existence or possible existence of other deities. Müller stated that henotheism means “monotheism in principle and polytheism in fact”.
As soon as I embraced the term polytheist and that involved reading and meditation and contemplation – it opened the door to relationships with other Mysterious Ones. That may be coincidence, but connecting with specific deities was something that I never felt that I landed in the first 15 years of my practice.
Other reading
The Monotheistic Narrative about the Gods
On the Gods, wherever I might find them
Polytheist Dark Night of the Soul(s)
Patron Deities in Modern Paganism
Ethics and Animism in Polytheism Part 3
Religion and worship are not dirty words
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