Yes, Virginia! Wiccans Can Be Polytheists

One of my values is *sovereignty* and that means respecting the rights of individuals, as well as different traditions and cultures to speak for themselves and define their boundaries. That includes Wicca. Some Wiccans are polytheists. They have explained their polytheism, though they shouldn’t have to, only to have *some* (not all) polytheists explain this away.

This not mean that I accept everyone who claims the label polytheist as polytheist- I have an inclusive definition, but it still has limits, so the word doesn’t become as watered down and meaningless as “pagan” has. Words can have some fluidity in meaning yes, but we need some degree of shared meaning in order to communicate.  I wonder a bit if the adjective might be more helpful than the noun. I also like the Anglo-Saxon “manygodded”- it’s a description, not an “ism”.

I just added this to my Inclusive Polytheism post- since it seems some folks need a reminder-

• Polytheists do not all adhere to any one political ideology or party, apart from most likely, supporting religious freedom and impartiality towards a variety of religions and non-religious people. (As for separation of church & state- this may very by country)

Granted, there are polytheists out there that have political/ideological and theological beliefs and practices that I have serious moral objections too (racism, sexism, homo/bi/transphobia et al) But I’m not claiming their polytheism isn’t genuine just because I disagree or don’t want to collaborate with them.

There are many religions like Wicca that include polytheists in their midst, but aren’t *only* polytheist by definition. Other examples-

A theistic Satanist or Luciferian might be a henotheist- who focuses worship on Satan or Lucifer within a framework of polytheism, or a more general polytheist.

Buddhism is often depicted in the West as the Super-Rational Atheist-approved No Gods Here! religion/philosophy, but in spite of it tending to be less worship focused, deities, buddhas, boddhisattvas (who are more like saints) and ancestor spirits are honored. There’s also some overlap with Hinduism, and Shinto…and I will just let more knowledgeable folks explain this more.

There is a lot of disagreement about whether polytheistic monism (as found in Hinduism, some types of Neoplatonism, some kinds of Wicca) counts as “true” polytheism. Honestly, I am mostly just sick of the hostility of this debate. If theology nerds want to hash it out in a civil fashion, OK great.

One of my fellow members (indeed a founder!) of Clann Bhride, a devotional Brighidine order I belong to, is Chris Scott Thompson, and he has a well-put together explanation of polytheistic monism here on Patheos- Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4. Agree or disagree respectfully with his theological views or his scholarship- in any case, he knows a lot more about Neoplatonism and Hinduism than I do, but more importantly to me anyway is that he’s a great person who does a lot of good work for his communities and his Gods/spirits/ancestors. We have a quite diverse membership in Clann Bhride and hold these Nine Elements in common, but there is much room for interpretation. Devotion, ethics, and fellowship are to us what matter.

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Unitarian Universalist Ancestors

Honoring ancestors is a key part of many polytheist & animistic traditions, however “ancestors” are much more than our blood relations, though they are certainly important. There are many groups of ancestors, spiritual, cultural and socio-political, that I consider worthy of honor- one of them is Unitarian Universalist ancestors, heroes, founders and martyrs. This is complex because while the American Unitarian and the Universalist denominations only merged in 1961, our spiritual roots go back much further to the beginnings of Christianity. Why do these people who questioned orthodox Christian doctrine matter to a Pagan UU? Because we are still UUs, and many of these people were promoting freedom of thought and religion far before the Enlightenment or the Bill of Rights! So anyone in the Western world, in particular who is not Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox can be thankful to these folks. (Pagans- whether UU or not certainly should be!) Since this is such a long time span- enough that I took a series of 3 classes on UU history at Unity Unitarian- I will start with some early heretics.

Early Christianity was much more diverse before 325 C.E. when the Council of Nicea formed and hashed out the Nicene Creed. After that, sorry unitarians* and universalists, you’re heretics now!

Some early unitarians like Arius, interestingly had Neo-Platonic influences on their beliefs. Neoplatonism is a classical Greek philosophy which also had a great deal of influence later on the development of Jewish mystical traditions like Kabbalah and some modern polytheists like Edward Butler are now taking a new look at Neoplatonism.

Arius– denied the full divinity of Christ. This was one of the biggest scariest heresies for the early church.

Pelagius– a British monk whose ideas became influential in early Celtic Christianity. He was very ascetic but also had a strong emphasis on human free will and the potential for humans to improve themselves spiritually and morally.

The Ebionites were a Jewish-Christian sect that viewed Jesus as the Messiah, but rejected his divinity. After migrating to Arabia, they may have later influenced Islamic views of Jesus. They had an emphasis on voluntary poverty (the word ebionite is related to the Hebrew word for poor or needy) and may have been vegetarians (as they believed Jesus and the Apostles were)

*Lowercase for unitarian and universalist as theological positions, rather specific sects that called themselves that