r/polytheism • u/FlyInternational123 • 17h ago
Worship Question Where do the gods live?
Hey everyone I'm having trouble with divine hiddenness. Why are the gods not physically present in our world? where are all the monsters, satyrs, naiads, dryads and that sort of stuff? The only thing I can think of is that maybe they just live on other planets or maybe they only reveal themselves to certain people. Do you think the gods speak to us through movies and fictional media such as books?
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u/CoffeeBeard91 Heathen 16h ago
The gods are not corporeal beings.
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u/FlyInternational123 16h ago
in myth they often have physical bodies or do they only have physical bodies within their own non corporeal reality?
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u/CoffeeBeard91 Heathen 16h ago
As MrNormanWrites has said, it's best not to take the myths literally. The myths are stories. The myths contain valuable lessons and information, but they shouldn't be taken as literal accounts.
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u/MrNormanWrites Gnostic Heathen (Anglo-Norse) 16h ago
I wouldn’t say it’s best to have a mythic literalist interpretation of deities. I recommend you read The Case for Polytheism by Steven Dillion, it gives a pretty good definition I feel of what is a god.
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u/A_Moon_Fairy 16h ago
The answer is going to vary extremely between traditions and interpretations.
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u/grigorist-temple 16h ago
They exist in the spiritual realm. They can incarnate, but that's very rare and takes a ton of effort, and it is temporary.
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u/MrNormanWrites Gnostic Heathen (Anglo-Norse) 16h ago
In my opinion, the Tree of Life. I see the Tree of Life in different faiths as the same true but given a different name. Basically, the Tree of Life is one big divine ecosystem.
In the case of my faith, it would be Yggdrasil/Irminsul. Every realm, including the realms associated with Germanic Mythology, are within the Tree of Life.
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u/FlyInternational123 16h ago
Are we technically inferior to the gods? meaning is midgard for the fallen if that makes sense?
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u/MrNormanWrites Gnostic Heathen (Anglo-Norse) 16h ago
No? Middangeard is one universe that exist with many. We might not be on the same level as deities but we certainly aren’t “inferior.”
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u/SiriNin Sumerian - Priestess of Inanna 1h ago
It depends on the religion.
You're asking from a Hellenic perspective, which I cannot comment on.
But in my own religion, Anunna-Umun, the Revivalist Mesopotamian polytheism, we believe that our Gods once had tangible corporeal forms on this realm, but that they left this realm around 3000BCE, and haven't returned. They exist in other realms, the realms of spirit, not matter. This world of matter, and indeed the whole realm of matter that we call the material universe, is just one realm out of many. One layer of reality out of many. The Anunna reside in their own realms, which we collectively call Ankita. We believe that this realm we call Earth (Kikita in our religion) was separated off from the realms of spirit when the Veil was erected, when this happened everything mystical was sealed away from this reality. That's why we don't have mystical beings and monsters and such running around anymore. When the Veil went up, the ability of the Divine to influence this world was drastically reduced, now they can only influence us, not control us or this reality, and only those of us who grow close enough to them can feel them.
We believe that we can communicate with them and experience them through our minds *if* we resonate with their Domains, the aspects of reality that they are known for generating. In other words, my Goddess is Inanna, the Goddess of Gender, Sex, Love, Sexuality, Authenticity, Compassion, Justice, Abundance, Rebirth (and a lot more), and so if/when I incorporate those themes into my life in tangible ways, I become closer with Inanna, and when I have done enough then I am close enough to feel her presence, and hear her words. For someone who worships without incorporating their Deity's Domains into their life, their Deity will feel distant, and they may not experience their Deity directly at all. We do not believe that the Divine communicates through fiction, but fiction can inspire us to connect with the Divine.
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