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Noted Polytheist professor and philosopher, Edward P. Butler, presented a paper at the 17th International Architecture Biennale in Venice, Italy, which was held on November 2021. His paper, “Considerations Regarding Worship in Extraterrestrial Habitats” discussed how to accommodate the spiritual needs of people living in extraterrestrial habitats. What form would this spirit work take and what sort of spirit worker would be needed?
“Considerations Regarding Worship in Extraterrestrial Habitats,” 17th Venice Architecture Biennale (November 2021) | Henadology Both Edward Butler (Polytheistic philosopher) and John Michael Greer (occult writer) have noted that Monotheism presents the universe as unified in one God. Therefore, the diversity and plurality of the Gods is denied. The Monocentric model imposes a structure where all fit into the One (Unity). For example, at the recent Parliament of World Religions, the idea of “unity with plurality” is promoted, with every religion exemplifying the ultimate Oneness.
Monotheism asserts that every great civilization shares the same Gods. It explains that people created their Gods to explain the world around them. For example, the Mesopotamians had Gods to explain the unpredictable floods of their major rivers. The God of War, Ninurta built canals to control the spring floods. Based on that syllogism, El of Canaan and Ra of Egypt are the same as Ninurta.
This assertion is “faulty generalization,” since it is based on a limited amount of information. Polytheisms in various civilizations are often studied by “Monotheistic” scholars. Edward Butler explains in “The Way of the Gods” that “Western Tradition is a Christian and post-Christian tradition.” This forms a fundamental bias that myths are historical or natural events. Since Monotheism strives for unity, hence the scholarly approach to Polytheistic civilizations is to regard their Gods as the same Being. The result of this faulty generalization is a broad sweeping supposition about complex religions. In this case, the complexities of Polytheisms are stripped away forcing the religions into one convenient category of proto-monotheism.
Moreover, Monotheism’s drive for unity infers that no other God can stand alone. Every God’s Pantheon must be taken as one entity. According to Monotheism, all the Gods are all one God with many attributes. Therefore Jupiter, Mars, Vesta and the other Roman Gods are all aspects of the One Roman God.
The other logical fallacy of Monotheism is “special pleading.” That is “insisting that something is an exception to a rule, without justifying why.” Yahweh is the exception to the rule about other civilizations and their Gods. Nowhere is it explained as to why Yahweh is different nor why the myths concerning Yahweh are facts. Instead, it assumes the “specialness” of Yahweh.
Polytheists have taken Monotheistic logic in the opposite direction. If one God is real, then They are all real. Moreover, if all the Gods are the same except for Yahweh, then They are all different. Gods live in families with Beings of all genders. And like families, some within do move between other families and their own. Some Gods belong in several Pantheons, while Others remain in only one.
Further Reading:
Edward Butler, “The Way of the Gods.”
John Michael Greer, “A World Full of Gods.”
Glenn Holland, “Gods in the Desert.”
Johnathan Kirch, “God Against the Gods.”
Lynn Prickett and Clive Prince, “When God Had a Wife.”
Since 2020, there has been a steady drumbeat of essays of how Christianity is under siege. In the Erasmus Lecture (sponsored by the Institute of Religion and Politics) for 2022, the Catholic Archbishop of Sidney (Australia), Antony Fisher, O.P. ponders whether the West is post or pre-Christian. (Note 1) Alarmed by the rise of secularization and the floundering hegemony of Christianity, he believes that the balance between the Church and the State is tipped more and more to secularization.
The Archbishop defines “secularity” as “not only a distinction but a degree of separation between church and state with each sphere and its agents having a certain freedom from the other.” He defines “secularization” as “the process of further separating these spheres, and minimizing or privatizing religion.” Fisher explains “whereas other civilizations identified sacred and profane power, Christianity has always insisted that some things be rendered unto Caesar and some unto God, even if we bring the one conscience to both spheres.” According to the Archbishop, not only is Christianity being marginalized, but that it has been pushed aside for “progressive orthodoxies.” (Note 2)
Archbishop Fisher considers Christianity to be the capstone of civilization. He contrasts that with Ancient Rome, which he says allowed for human sacrifice, cannibalism, slavery, and immoral behavior. Since in Rome, religion was also civic religion, people obeyed the authorities as sacral figures. Fisher maintains that the ancient Romans had a multitude of deities which exercised arbitrary power over life and death. Therefore, according to him, Roman ethics left much to be desired. Noting that many societies were only converted partly to Christianity, Fisher states that they still held onto Pagan values. These values are reflected in the movement toward secularization which includes relative morality. Fisher alludes to the destruction that Progressivism has made on modern society. (Note 3)
The Archbishop concludes his long essay with “Christianity must speak truth in love.” He writes, “Only such a Christianity can reunite a divided Church and culture, provide a foundation for a genuinely tolerant, pluralist society, and bring God and humanity closer together.”
Archbishop Fisher does what many Monotheists do. Since God in Christianity is the absolute moral center of right and wrong, the problem of evil needs to be dealt with. One way is to put the evil outside onto the secular or Pagan (Polytheistic) culture. Since the faith no longer needs to address evil within it, it can focus on the “outside evil.” Therefore, the usual response to any threat is the call to return to “traditional Christianity.”
Edward Butler in “The Way of the Gods,” writes “The strain of absorbing the weight of Europe’s own pre-Christian heritage, not to mention the encounter with living polytheist civilizations in every other part of the world, leads to a massive deployment of intellectual resources in defense of the existing paradigm, working to transform it in a controlled manner rather than allowing it collapse.” He continues, “In this way, the so-called ‘Classics’ also became safe for Christians to study through the notion that either they had no real religious significance at all, or that if they did, this aspect of them necessarily belonged to the merely historical conditions of their cultural production, as distinct with the fundamental truth of monotheism.” Butler stresses that the imperative to defend monotheism will distort any examination of Polytheistic cultures. This is apparent in Fisher’s assessment of Roman society.
Butler points out that Monotheists when faced with autonomous independent Pagan cultures will deflect the reality of Christian hegemony. The bad aspects of Christianity are foisted on the Polytheistic culture. The fragility of Christianity inspires its believers to control or at least double down on their efforts to discredit the Polytheistic culture. Otherwise, the Christian culture will become disoriented and unglued.
What has become apparent to me is that Archbishop Fisher’s essay echoes the writings of Jonathan Cahn and Naomi Wolf (Note 4), except that he blames the secularists instead of Gods. The uneasy feeling of being out of place is combined with a call to traditional religion. Oddly enough, various Neo-Pagans are also writing about the same unraveling of society. In their case, they are calling for a return to Progressive values. Both the Monotheists and Neo-Pagans seem to be unsettled since they perceive that their places of safety are under siege.
Is the West, pre or post Christian? Since I believe that Polytheism is the default religion of humankind, I think that Polytheism is reasserting itself. In that regard, the West is returning to its natural faith. As for the secularization that the Archbishop rails about, I think that is modernity’s reaction to Monotheism, which I consider to be an unnatural religion.
Notes:
Note 1: Read Archbishop Fisher’s essay here: https://www.firstthings.com/article/2023/02/the-west-post–or-pre-christian
Note 2: He calls them “secular fixations – on autonomy, sexuality, victimhood, diversity, and inclusion (of everyone except believers).”
Note 3: Meanwhile, Neo-Pagans decry the rise of traditional Christianity which they believe threatens them.
Note 4: See my post, “‘Return of the Gods:’ A Polytheistic Perspective.”
Since the beginning of COVID-19, various Monotheists have worried about the world becoming post-Christian. They describe how society is unraveling, making them fearful. From this increasing “dark” chaos, many have concluded that the hegemony of Monotheism is ending. Troubled, some have ascertained that evil entities are to blame. Notably Jonathan Cahn and Naomi Wolf (Note 1) have written about the “Ancient Gods” returning to wreak havoc. (Note 2)
In a series of books, Jonathan Cahn decries how the United States has turned from God. Claiming to be a prophet, he receives special insight from the mysteries unveiled in the Old Testament. Cahn says that the future is dire unless the U.S. repents its ways. (Note 3)
In his latest book, “The Return of the Gods,” Cahn details the plot of the Gods of Mesopotamia to take back control from God (Yahweh). He writes “could these gods, or beings, actually be the unseen movers and catalysts of modern culture?” In the introduction, Cahn continues “And so the gods returned. And having returned they began working their dark magic…And as the seeds of their planting come to fruition and their spirits infused more and more of the modern world, they grew still more powerful.”
The thesis, which Cahn has presented in his earlier books is that the “Word of God, the Spirit of God, the Gospel” came to the Roman Empire. This Spirit of God cast out the “Pagan” Gods and cleansed the West of their evil. According to Cahn, blessed by God, Western Civilization became hegemonic in the world. However, beginning in the 1960s with the ending of prayers in public schools, the United States cast out God. Because nothing has replaced God, the “old” Gods came back in force to dominate.
Cahn focuses on what he calls the “Dark Trinity.” (Note 4) He accuses Ba’al, Molech, and Ishtar with destroying society. Ba’al, a rival of Yahweh in the Old Testament, is the Possessor, who has taken possession of the children in the modern age. Ishtar, who is a stand-in for Astarte (Note 5), is the Enchantress and the Transformer. (Note 6) The Destroyer, Molech is the God that Christians often use to defame Polytheists by accusing them of child sacrifice.
Since these three Gods are often named in the Old Testament, They are usually considered the “Gods of Apostasy.” It is little wonder that Cahn has fixated on Them. He stresses that the Trio is active in the spiritual realm and now work to “re-paganize” the West. In other words, “evil” is winning. He writes “we are largely unaware of how the other realms affecting our world and lives.” (Note 7) He continues “Modern culture …. is now marked by the same signs that once marked the ancient pagan world: purposeless, emptiness, and hopelessness.” Meanwhile, Naomi Wolf has been more emphatic saying “This may, indeed, be what Hell itself looks like.” (Note 8)
Edward Butler’s “The Way of the Gods,” puts Cahn in perspective. According to Butler, Polytheism is the record of human relations with the Divine. Therefore, having multiple Gods is a natural part of being human. Polytheists have a rich body of relationships with various and many Gods. It was the default religion of the world until Christianity and later Islam sought to eradicate it.
Cahn has employed reductionism to make his points. Butler notes “…this to be a common circumstance with respect to every (Polytheist) tradition…these reductionism dismantle the meaning of traditions in order to build their own edifice whether it is a univocal narrative of world history of a totalizing psychological narrative, just as a temple is disassembled and its stones incorporated into a different building.”
In “Gods in the Desert,” Glenn Holland notes, “A monotheistic religious culture also offers worship and devotion to only one god, but his or her worshippers believe their god is the one and only god that truly exists. The devotees of the god maintain that all other beings called ‘gods’ and worshipped by other people are not really gods at all.” Holland observes, “The god is also the absolute moral arbiter of right and wrong, and as such is absolutely righteous.”
In other words, these “dark Gods” are of Cahn’s owns fears. They stem from the very real efforts of the Bible writers to erase Polytheism in order to have the “one true God.” Therefore, Ba’al and the other Gods have become the generators of chaos with Yahweh the restorer of order. For Yahweh to reign supreme, the others must be demonized by claiming that they have nefarious ends.
What Cahn writes are the usual things that Monotheists say of any Polytheistic culture. He puts Monotheistic fears onto “straw man” Gods. What Cahn and others do not understand is that the Pax Deorum (Peace of the Gods) is beneficial. The Pax Deorum is the right relationship between the world of humans and the Divine Powers. As as long as Divine laws remain unbroken, grace, beauty and harmony will be the norm. The world of the Gods is a far different one than what Cahn is imaging.
Notes:
Note 1. Cahn is a Messianic Jewish minister. Wolf, who is Jewish, was inspired by Cahn’s latest book, “The Return of the Gods,” to ponder this evil in her essay on Substack. “Have the Ancient Gods Returned?”. https://naomiwolf.substack.com/p/have-the-ancient-gods-returned
Note 2. At the same time, various Neo-Pagans have written about the “Great War” between those who would do humans harm and those who would prevent that. They cite the climate change crisis and the rise of Donald Trump as evidence. Most Neo-Pagans are Progressive, while Cahn and others are Conservative.
Note 3. Cahn had said that the Clintons were the modern Ahab and Jezebel, while Trump was Jehu, sent by God to “drain the swamp.”
Note 4: Three Gods are mentioned more often in the Old Testament by the various Prophets – Ba’al, Asherah, and Moloch. In his book, Cahn claims that Asherah, Astarte, and Ishtar are the same Goddess. Ba’al is the Canaanite God of Storms and Fertility. Ishtar is the Mesopotamian Goddess of Sex and War. She is often conflated with Astarte, who is the Canaanite Goddess of Fertility and sometimes Consort of Ba’al. Moloch (Molech) is only found in the Old Testament. Scholars believe that the term means “sacrifice,” and is meant as an insult to Polytheists.
Note 5: Asherah and Astarte are often confused. Asherah is the Sister of El and the Mother of Gods, while Astarte is the Daughter of Asherah.
Note 6: Cahn spends half of his book focused on Ishtar’s sexual proclivities. According to him, She is the reason for the destruction of humanity through gender confusion, homosexuality, and women’s liberation. He uses reductionism to conflate her with other Gods of Love, notably Venus.
Note 7: Various Neo-Pagans mirror this observation by writing how the spiritual realm is leaking into this world.
Note 8: Many Neo-Pagans believe that Hell is the imposition of Christian values on modern life, which has Progressive values.
Further Reading:
Edward Butler, “The Way of the Gods.”
Glenn Holland, “Gods in the Desert.”
Johnathan Kirch, “God Against the Gods.”
Lynn Prickett and Clive Prince, “When God Had a Wife.”
Written by philosopher Edward Butler, “The Way of the Gods” explores the Polytheisms of the world. (Note 1) Butler not only introduces the reader to the richness of Polytheisms but also to how they exist in the face of Monotheism(s) (Note 2). Because the hegemonic cultures of the world are dominated by Monotheism(s), these traditions face tremendous pressure to conform. Butler discusses the issues that these contemporary and historical traditions face. Since the hegemonic culture places a stigma on Polytheistic beliefs, therefore it becomes difficult to be a practicing Polytheist.
In the Preface, Butler writes “I believe that the concept of polytheism will prove crucial…,because it does not presuppose that all traditions worship the same God, which inherently privileges those religions which launched the long historical struggle to enforce the idea that there is only one God. Polytheism, rather, leaves questions of internal theological self-definition open while honoring the prima facie distinction of names and identities of the divinities that these traditions have maintained….”
Because he states that “all their Gods are real,” (emphasis his) Butler lays out the power imbalance in modernity between Monotheism and Polytheism. Mainstream studies of historical Polytheistic cultures will divorce the religion from the culture. For example, in Rome, the Senate (and later the Emperor) regularly consulted the Will of the Gods. The Roman Civil War was a result of dueling divinations between Caesar and Pompey. However, that aspect of Roman life is ignored by historians.
By its nature, Monotheism strives to eliminate Polytheism. For example, the Polytheisms of North America have been reduced to a monolithic “Great Spirit.” Since these Polytheisms are not regarded to be religions, “spiritual technologies” can be extracted from them. (Note 3). “Monocentrism denies plurality, it totalises structure,” according to Edward Said. (Note 4). Thus, Polytheistic traditions are pushed to the edges.
In contrast, Butler stresses that Polytheistic traditions have the ability to engage with their Gods on multiple levels. Polytheism has the self-correcting method of seeking multiple deities. The existence of other people’s Gods is not a problem, unlike Monotheism which strives to unify all Gods or eliminate Them.
Where Monotheism is the dominant culture, Polytheism is relegated to the corners of society. Moreover, a Monotheist need not engage fully in a Polytheistic tradition. Instead, they can simply extract “useful” spiritual technologies such as Astrology. Furthermore, Polytheisms can be regarded as “proto-Monotheisms.” Polytheists, who protest that their traditions cannot be translated into universal terms, are considered to be xenophobic.
To keep the existing paradigm of monotheism as the defacto religion of humans, many scholars use secularism to examine historical cultures. Butler writes “There is a deep investment in this divorce of the products of ancient polytheistic civilizations from the religions which gave birth to them. Starting from Christianity’s need for a kind of peace with the past which it had violently suppressed, it has become an entire project of conceiving a rigorously secularized sphere of the human, a project which in certain ways undoubtedly continues the work begun by Christian conversion.”
After demonstrating on how Monotheism disrupts each Polytheist tradition, Butler then presents what that tradition is or was. Radically different, the Polytheistic lens presents insights to cultures that people think they know such as the North American or Roman. For greater understanding, I believe that this lens needs to be cultivated more.
Butler concludes the book with the assertion that people cannot ethically study Polytheistic traditions with disinterest. A person needs to reflect on the power relations between Polytheisms and the dominant Monotheism. To protect and to cherish Polytheisms is a part of this engagement. According to him, Polytheism is “the living record of the relationship established between humans and Gods.” Therefore, a person needs to approach Polytheism on its terms.
Notes:
Note 1. This was originally a course given by Edward Butler under the auspices of the Center for Global Polytheism and Indigenous Traditions.
Note 2. Butler differentiates between Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, since their interactions with native Polytheisms differ.
Note 3. Technologies such as sweat lodges and vision quests.
Note 4. Edward Said (1933-2003, Palestine-U.S.) was a noted critic on how Westerners viewed the Middle East and other cultures. Said called their attitude “Orientalism,” to describe how it was imbued with European imperialism.
