Monotheism is like tying together a python, a bear and an ostrich in a room, then telling three blind men that there’s only one animal there. They will feel about in perplexity, each devising some imagined chimera, and begin to argue between them about whose perceptions might be right. Thus in monotheism the effort to imagine a single god who contains justice and mercy, love and wrath, cunning and honesty, who manages the whirling cosmos and knocks the sparrow off its branch is as unlikely and confused as some hairy, feathery, serpentine beast.The divine is multiple, and it cannot be understood if the perceiver insists otherwise.
There is no Monad?
ReplyDeleteI don't know.
ReplyDeleteI think John Michael Greer's A World Full of Gods makes a great argument that polytheism is a much more rational argument than monotheism. However, I am much more likely to call my self a polytheistic monotheist than pure pagan. I also like the British Trad concept of the Drycthen (spelling?) much better. I am more of an include as much as I can stomach model than an exclude all others model.
Check out Henotheism some time. there's plenty of room for Monotheists and Polytheists in Henotheism. Hermetic theology falls into Henotheism, I think.
ReplyDeleteLove this post Ian, it is good to see more Pagans standing up and saying that YES some concepts really are just plain wrong.
ReplyDeleteThere will also be those who can feel the rope.
ReplyDelete