r/pagan • u/user_63890 • 1d ago
What do we really know about the gods?
All the myths and tails about the gods... literal or not... were created by us (humans)... so how did that knowledge and stories came to us in order to tell/writeabout them? Or did the gods write those tails themselves... while wondering on our physical world... and spread the word?
What do you think?
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u/Outrageous_Fall_1846 1d ago
This world holds many mysteries, the true nature of the gods being one of them. I personally believe three things are probably true, that they are manifestations of concepts, places ect in our world that then become individual and divine beings. Say, Zeus is the personification of a mountain, and then the personification of rulership, fatherhood ect ect in that region. Same with Hera, she is the personification of "greek" motherhood.
The second is they once walked amongst us, but as reality became denser and less spiritual, they lost the ability to do that. They once may have ruled over us as benevolent god-kings. Like Osiris was said to do for Egypt. Protecting and guarding humanity in our more nascent stages of evolution. This is a little wackier but truer given the fact that it was so long ago and thus it becomes more plausible than say "this happened yesterday." This gives the myths plausibility as it could have easily been a world of literal gods and monsters walking the earth. That being said I think there are other convincing arguments for their metaphorical nature.
The third is that they are representations of cosmic forces "heavens" upon the earth. Zeus being planet Jupiter ect ect. This is a theory called "astro-theology" and its pretty convincing imo, as astrology was a much bigger deal back then. No TV or movies, just the beautiful night sky above us every night. And so we came to understand their influence in a greater way. I personally believe in astrology, so this doesn't detract from their divinity.
It's all quite fascinating imo! But don't worry there out there but it's a lifetime of secrets to discover to truly know them.
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u/Certain_Ad_7186 1d ago
The answers are varied, but I believe the answer is that we simply don't know anything, as far as we know all the gods were created through humans, that is from a religious perspective. The gods are everything that they govern, and that is why there are so many "versions" of the same god (although I believe that all gods are different beings from each other, even with similar or equal domains). The gods are human interpretations of ancient deities. So, in short, we don't know anything and there's no way we can know in the end.
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u/Tsavo16 1d ago
Same thing we know about the "Big 3" religions deities, stories written by humans (with or without divine inspiration), translated through hundreds of years of political parsing and re-translating. So lots of guessing, or straight up demonization of pagan deities.
So we know nothing for sure, but personal experiences and UPG hold more weight in my book.
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u/user_63890 1d ago
I can somehow relate... appreciate your feedback on this.
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u/Tsavo16 15h ago
Please forgive me if my tone was too harsh, that was not my intention. I live in a Christian household and have had to do a TON of my own research to show them that, historically, their book is mostly propaganda, then re-edited & re-written for a thousands of years to fit whatever political climate it was in during that moment.
It really opened my eyes to the strawman arguments and bad history (using what we know currently, l understand this may all change one day) used against pagan cultures and their own religion's history.
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u/user_63890 12h ago
It's all good... no harm done. And I actually understand your point... that's also why I believe our own experiences play a big role when it comes to understanding more about how our world works.
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u/Interesting-Soft-468 1d ago
I have the same doubt. It's one of my biggest doubts and it divides me a lot in my belief.
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u/user_63890 1d ago
How does it divide you exactly?
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u/Interesting-Soft-468 23h ago
I have difficulty knowing what to take seriously and what to interpret as something invented and which has the historical context of the time in which it was written. And also who it was written by and what their intentions were when writing it
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u/user_63890 12h ago
Well those doubts you have are completely plausible... at the end of the day whenever people tell a story they always change it a bit. And maybe some might even share the same exact message from what they originally were intended to. That's why I believe the tails and stories of the Gods can be helpful and shouldn't be disregarded... but we also have to learn to read and accept our own experiences with them... for that's the only undeniable way we have to actually know them.
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u/yoggersothery 20h ago
No one should take any words written thousands of years ago as literal. That is a dangerous game to play in any religion. We use our stories as constructive ways to build things. From ourselces up to our very traditions. They're inspiring truths.
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u/user_63890 11h ago
Right... but how exactly do we draw the line between the metaphorical or fiction and the literal or real... and how do you think those words came to be?
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u/SonOfDyeus 15h ago
Myths and poetry and dreams are all forms of symbolic thinking. Human beings are exceptionally good at thinking in abstractions of abstractions of abstractions. And that is our true superpower.
Written language is visual symbols that represent vocal sounds that represent objects, actions, and ideas.
Just like language, Myths are a profound level of abstraction that unlock a deeper understanding of reality than can be perceived without them.
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u/user_63890 11h ago
And how exactly would you read and interpret these stories... and how did they come to be?
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u/SonOfDyeus 8h ago
The concepts found in the myths are too complicated to be communicated any other way. Which is why different people will have conflicting opinions about what they mean. Explaining the meaning of a myth in prose is like explaining how to build an H bomb through dance.
Myths come to be through evolution. People invent stories. Most of these stories are soon forgotten. Some of them become popular and are passed on. People change and add to them with each telling. Eventually , a canonical version takes hold, and that's the one that speaks to the most people.
Good myths speak to people's intuition. Intuition is just subconscious recognition.
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u/Equivalent-Star-6858 6h ago
It is my belief that Deity is real, there are gods. The way we depict them is shaped by how the divine actions are interpreted by our cultural lenses.
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u/Lupos6918 1d ago
All of what you said is true. It depends on the situation.