The Numinous World of Polytheism

Jordan Paper, Professor Emeritus of Humanities at York University has released a book that should become an instant classic among the modern Pagan and Heathen movements. “The Deities Are Many: A Polytheistic Theology”

“The Deities Are Many is a lively and learned introduction to polytheism. Drawing from both his scholarly research and his personal experience, author Jordan Paper is the ideal guide into this milieu. Paper was drawn to polytheism through his love of nature, seeing it as a source of the divine. In this book he focuses on Chinese and Native American religious traditions, as well as West African, African-Brazilian, Hindu, Polynesian, and circum-Polar traditions, to describe the theology of polytheism. The book provides a topology of polytheistic deities, focusing on the cosmic couple, Father Sky and Mother Earth; animal, plant, and mineral deities; ancestral spirits; divine ghosts; and culture heroes and tricksters. Paper also shows how monotheists misunderstand polytheism and provides a polytheist perspective on what it means to be human when the “deities are many.” This is a fascinating, illuminating book, especially for those raised in monotheistic societies.” – SUNY Press

Unlike the book “Pagan Theology: Paganism As a World Religion” by Michael York which doesn’t really deal with theology until the final chapter (but is otherwise a very worthy book to read), this book seems to be the real deal. Plus it is a fifteen dollar book. So it is very affordable. It is academic in tone but completely accessible to the layperson.

A quick quote:

“When such a deity comes to us in a vision, she or he teaches us what we need to know to develop the relationship. We may be taught a song and/or a ritual, be given a name, learn when and under what obligations are in turn…these obligations are confused in the literature, for everyone who develops such a relationship is given a potentially unique mode of interaction. For example, in the case of a relationship I have [with the animal spirit who visited him], I can kill the animal for others to eat and otherwise use, but I cannot eat it myself. Someone else, having a relationship with the same diety, may have the opposite mode of interaction. Or it may be only part of the animal that cannot be eaten. Or eating may be irrelevant.”

Which really helped clarify my own gnosis about my patron deity. It is my vision and interaction with that diety. It is what that diety and I have agreed apon as a means of service. A polytheistic worldview would honor that choice, just as I honor the choices of those who do not walk my particular road.

In any event. To my serious Pagan pals. You want this book. Really.

Tags: Neopaganism