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    #61
    Re: Religious self-identification...

    Originally posted by Rae'ya View Post
    Keep in mind the 'significant portion of gods' part in my last sentence though... it is certainly possible to be a hard polytheist and believe that some gods (almost the entire Roman pantheon comes to mind) are or were not completely distinct entities. I'm about as hard polytheist as it gets, but I actually believe that there are a few deities who were originally the same deity worshiped through a different cultural lens. So there's a little bit of room for cross-over in certain circumstances.
    Firm, but supple.... Pleather polytheism
    Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
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      #62
      Re: Religious self-identification...

      Originally posted by Rae'ya View Post
      Keep in mind the 'significant portion of gods' part in my last sentence though... it is certainly possible to be a hard polytheist and believe that some gods (almost the entire Roman pantheon comes to mind) are or were not completely distinct entities. I'm about as hard polytheist as it gets, but I actually believe that there are a few deities who were originally the same deity worshiped through a different cultural lens. So there's a little bit of room for cross-over in certain circumstances.
      In that case I would fall into that category: semi-hard, though I'm trying to get away from labels and categories. But I think of it as you do... some deities are cross-overs, overlaps, or super-imposed on others, and some are distinct. Saraswati, Hanuman, Ganesha, Lakshmi and other puranic/non-vedic deities come to mind as distinct. That's probably why I am still drawn to them. Some though, like Indra (vedic) are remarkably similar to Thor. It seems common in the IE pantheons that there are correspondences. On the other hand, I can't really find any correspondences to Taoism's Guan gong and Xuan wu in any other pantheon. So I think I get what you're saying... it's not black or white.
      śivāya vishnu rūpaya śivaḥ rūpaya vishnave
      śivasya hridayam viṣṇur viṣṇoscha hridayam śivaḥ

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        #63
        Re: Religious self-identification...

        I'm a soft polytheist and a humanist.
        "I put no stock in religion. By the word religion I have seen the lunacy of fanatics of every denomination be called the will of God. Holiness is in right action and courage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves, and goodness. What God desires is here
        (in your head) and here (in your heart) and what you decide to do every day, you will be a good man - or not."
        ~from Kingdom of Heaven

        "But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."
        ~Thomas Jefferson

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          #64
          Re: Religious self-identification...

          Originally posted by thalassa View Post
          Firm, but supple.... Pleather polytheism
          LOL I'm so tempted to use that next time!

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            #65
            Re: Religious self-identification...

            I'm a hard atheist. I guess I got left in the pot too long. My sugar cracked. :^^:
            Satan is my spirit animal

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              #66
              Re: Religious self-identification...

              Wow, so many hard vocabulary words!!!
              I suppose I'm a soft polytheist...

              I believe that there is one universal creative source of everything and that the individual Gods are beings that the source creates in response to human needs; almost like masks that the source puts on to make it easier for humans to interact and understand it. Like the gem stone with a thousand faces but all still the same gem stone.

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                #67
                Re: Religious self-identification...

                First I had to look up what the difference between soft and hard polytheism is. Neither really fits. Seems I am a semihard polytheist.

                Anyway, it depends on what kind of gods we are talking about. There are god conceptions that I agree with (like immanent, personified natural forces and concepts), some I accept (archetypes or pantheism, the stoic way) but do not follow, and some I decline (like transcendent, supernatural, omni-anything creators).

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                  #68
                  Re: Religious self-identification...

                  I picked soft polytheism. That's rather creative word to describe my beliefs tho. There should be word for "I don't know how many gods there are, or are they all same or not, so I worship it/them in a creative and inconsistent manner." Agnostheism or something like that?

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                    #69
                    Re: Religious self-identification...

                    I went with the 'more than one' option. While I've no doubt that I'm a Pantheist I very much subscribe to a humanism mentality as well. Haven't really decided on if their are defined Gods above and beyond the 'all' mentality but am firm on the divinity within all things.

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                      #70
                      Re: Religious self-identification...

                      I am a Hard Polytheism, animistic solitary witch, which also belives there might be life on other planets also

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                        #71
                        Re: Religious self-identification...

                        Egotheist.

                        I am god.

                        But functionally, a hard polytheist... In which I am part of my own gods. Lol.

                        Check out my blog! The Daily Satanist

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                          #72
                          Re: Religious self-identification...

                          I see,and just how long have you been self touching your god parts there sonny boy...the sun is a god,right?

                          Rock on deity dog...
                          MAGIC is MAGIC,black OR white or even blood RED

                          all i ever wanted was a normal life and love.
                          NO TERF EVER WE belong Too.
                          don't stop the tears.let them flood your soul.




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                          my new page here,let me know what you think.


                          nothing but the shadow of what was

                          witchvox
                          http://www.witchvox.com/vu/vxposts.html

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                            #73
                            Re: Religious self-identification...

                            As a few others said, I'm intellectually agnostic but spiritually polytheistic.

                            I would describe myself as a squishy polytheist. I believe that the gods are manifestations of different combinations of energy - kind of like how chemical compounds are made up of different elements, which are made up of different combinations of atoms. The gods are all distinct entities, but some of them may be made up of the same "elements" so the distinctions between them might be fuzzy. Either these similar gods are like twins - genetically identical but with different identities and personalities - or they're just different names for the same being.

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                              #74
                              Re: Religious self-identification...

                              I voted for pantentheist, but it seems to change from moment to moment. Sometimes I very clingy to a specific kind of divinity, sometimes I'm almost closer to atheism. When it comes to the existence of gods I go by "I don't know" attitude but still keep a personal relation to them. So I'm still quite agnostic at some level. I can't prove anything or believe wholeheartedly in some being existing in some certain form.
                              But I tend to think there is something divine that pervades everything - or nothing divine at all (and if nothing is divine, then it could be as well that everything is divine but that would be just another endless existential debate).
                              baah.

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                                #75
                                Re: Religious self-identification...

                                Originally posted by Rowanwood View Post
                                Hedge Pantheist....all is divine, but not all is physical. I usually don't even bother explaining. People get this glazed look, like a donut.
                                A cop pulls a guy over and says, "Your eyes are red. Have you been smoking pot?" And the guy replies, "Your eyes are glazed, have you been eating donuts?"

                                Back to your regularly scheduled programming.
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                                Can you hear me, Major Tom? I think I love you.

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