"All Gods are One God"

[TeaDidikai]

Shearaha

I have always believed that all of the gods expressed diffrent personalities of one bieng while still maintiaing status as an individual.

This reads as a paradox. When you frame it with the example you list here:

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Just like I believe that all humans are connected in some way yet are individuals I belive the same thing of the gods.

This speaks of Monistic Hard Polytheism.

Soft Polytheism (all gods are one god) would not hold that assertion. It would read "Because Tea is human and I am human we are the same person- thus I can use Tea's bank account because even though we are individuals- we're the same".

Whereas Monistic Hard Polytheism says that Nuri is Nuri, Deo is Deo, and Tea is Tea- but they are all human females and thus share certain characteristics (in our case being humans of the same gender, similar interests etc).

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They are all individuals who need to be worshiped separatly but are also interconnected with in culture and across culture. I really hope that made sense sweatdrop

The "across culture" part gets sticky. Especially when you come across deities that are actively hostile to other cultures.
It also gets sticky when the deities themselves denounce (through lore or oath- or sometimes both) that this is not the case.  

[Shearaha]

That's where I always saw them as maintaining individuality. When a god says "I am for these people only" that god, while still being part of the whole of the divine, is only for those people. I am an ecletic, but I do not work with any gods who have declared themselves for a specific people.

As far as gods who are activly violent or antagonistic towards the gods of other cultures, have you never argued with yourself? Have diffrent aspects of your own personality not warred with others for supremicy? I am constantlyasking myself questions and constantly waring with myself. Sometimes one aspect of my personality wins and sometimes another wins.

I'm sorry I seldom manage to get my thoughts out into anything coherent.  

[TeaDidikai]

Shearaha

When a god says "I am for these people only" that god, while still being part of the whole of the divine, is only for those people.

What is "the whole of the divine"?

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I am an ecletic, but I do not work with any gods who have declared themselves for a specific people.

Which ones do you work with?

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As far as gods who are activly violent or antagonistic towards the gods of other cultures, have you never argued with yourself?

No. I have also never raped myself, murdered myself or mutilated my own children- who are me. stare This of course is irrelevant to your position.

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Have diffrent aspects of your own personality not warred with others for supremicy?

Nope. I don't disassociate within my thinking process.

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I am constantlyasking myself questions and constantly waring with myself.

If you're disassociating, you may need to seek professional help, or develop a better understanding of self. None of this is analogous to the nature of individuality within a species by the way- and none of it addresses the internal processes of the gods and how that relates to your analogy.

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Sometimes one aspect of my personality wins and sometimes another wins.

I'm sorry I seldom manage to get my thoughts out into anything coherent.

Read the link I responded with on the first page and use those terms to express yourself.  

[patch99329]

TeaDidikai

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As far as gods who are activly violent or antagonistic towards the gods of other cultures, have you never argued with yourself?

No. I have also never raped myself, murdered myself or mutilated my own children- who are me. stare This of course is irrelevant to your position.

How literal are the myths? How many myths are divine in origin?  

[Shearaha]

Ok from the link you gave me I'd have to say that I'm a Monistc Polythesist. From the brief description there it seams to match my philosphy.

As of right now I do not work with any gods, I have not done enough studying to know what I'm doning and I don't want to offend anyone by going about it incorrectly. I'm still learning which is why I often have trouble expressing my beliefs.

What I ment by the diffrent aspects of my personality fighting each other I ment something like my compassion, pride, or other personality traits haveing the upper hand in certian situations. I never thought of it a dissociating with myself, simply a way to make decisions when given the time to meditate on a problem. I look at it from all angles and examine all of my feelings on a given subject.  

[Laura Lobotomy]

This whole concept always reminds me of what taoists say about ying and yang being not two, and yet not one. I know it's not much of a contribution, but I was wondering if anyone else saw the correlation.  

[godhi]

Deoridhe

In order for all gods to be one god, "God" has to be stripped of all possible characteristics, including gender. I am a hard polytheist, but I do think there is something to a deeper energy of some sort out of which the patterns for all things emerge and descend again. However, most people who claim all gods are one god, then proceed to claim their pet characteristics are aspects of this "god", such as association with a given luminary body or opinions on human sexual relationships.

Right around the time I'm told I'm supposed to feel "at one" with the moon because "the Goddess" is a moon goddess is around the time I start to get hostile.

Especially since in both Norse and Japanese mythology, the gender roles for Sun and Moon are reversed; the Sun is feminine and the Moon is masculine. So much for ol' Margaret Murray, right?  

[Labores Luna]

I don't understand why this issue has to be so black and white. I don't seem to fit into the category of hard or soft polytheism. My Gods are individual beings and energies, like you and I, but ultimently we are a part of a greater whole. We are one being with many different parts, working on many different levels. I just don't refer to this greater being as "One God". It's like an ecosystem. On the outside, it may seem simple...but the more you look at the individual beings and what they consist of, and how they interact with each other, the more complex it becomes. Ultimately, it still functions as one forest, meadow, ocean, Earth, Universe. If the physical universe isn't completely separated from each other, why should our Gods be? To a certain point, I do believe that we give the Gods "faces". But that doesn't mean that they themselves are just "faces". They are more than that, and ones to be respected.

That's how I see it, very much summed up. Thoughts?  

[TatteredAngel]

It doesn't have to be black and white, and there's a lot of middle ground covered here-- Check out the "A Collection of Understanding" thread for just how much gray area there is. But a blanket statement like "All gods are all the same because they're just different names for one god" implies to the hard, and even the middle-of-the-road polytheists that the very individual gods they see are just... what, delusion? The problem is that the "All gods are one god" statement produces a black-and-white argument. Either you agree with that assumption, or you think there's more to it, and are maybe understandably upset that Vishnu and Yahweh and Isis and Freya are all somehow supposed to be exactly the same in the end.  

[TheDisreputableDog]

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"godhi"

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"Deoridhe"

In order for all gods to be one god, "God" has to be stripped of all possible characteristics, including gender. I am a hard polytheist, but I do think there is something to a deeper energy of some sort out of which the patterns for all things emerge and descend again. However, most people who claim all gods are one god, then proceed to claim their pet characteristics are aspects of this "god", such as association with a given luminary body or opinions on human sexual relationships.

Right around the time I'm told I'm supposed to feel "at one" with the moon because "the Goddess" is a moon goddess is around the time I start to get hostile.

Especially since in both Norse and Japanese mythology, the gender roles for Sun and Moon are reversed; the Sun is feminine and the Moon is masculine. So much for ol' Margaret Murray, right?

And in Egyptian mythology, the Earth is masculine (Geb) and the Sky is feminine (Nut and Hethert). The Moon is masculine too (Khonsu and Djehuty), and the Sun is mixed (Ra, Heru, Aset, Hethert, Sekhmet, Bast).  

[Labores Luna]

@TatteredAngel

I understand that it's not always black and white, but skimming through the discussions sometimes makes me feel that it is the general attitude. On my behalf, I made an over-generalization there. When I hear something like "All Gods are One" it means something different to me than the soft polytheist that takes it as "All Gods are the same thing", which is much different. I find this to be annoying, and often unthoughtful, as well.

I have checked out that thread, actually. I seem to be a Monistic Polytheist...or a Polytheistic Monist...  

[Deoridhe]

"All gods are one god" is an appealing statement for pagans in a monotheistic society because it allows pagans to enfold within the larger culture.

Don't give in.  

[maenad nuri]

Deoridhe

"All gods are one god" is an appealing statement for pagans in a monotheistic society because it allows pagans to enfold within the larger culture.

Don't give in.

Resistance is Futile! You will be assimilated!  

[Recursive Paradox]

I don't even believe in deities ^^

So I'm really unappealing to the mainstream.