Quote:
Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty
Hmm, good question. Off the top of my head, that's basically the equivalent of moving down the Patron list -- that is, you're slowly moving from "true god" to "limited manifestation of a true god" to "limited manifestation of a minor god" when it comes to power level. (. . .)
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I'm thinking that this way of "diminishing the true god" could be a viable approach, too, for breaking down the "monotheistic" "One God" to the "multiple gods" according to the so-called "polytheism": a "plurality of non-absolute gods" in pantheons that would be
sharing the divine power in different measures.
Think about "the whole divine pantheon" as a
compartmentalized equivalent of "the One God" (
1). Each one of these "gods" could have a limit in the scope of the miracles that he can grant to their human or creatural agents, because none of such "gods" would be completely proprietary of the power nor of the "divinity" -which in "polytheistic" contexts isn't usually portrayed at all, remaining as something completely impersonal and unknown, utterly esoteric.
In the sense of that different aspects of the "divinity" (
2), aspects that are perfectly integrated in itself but not so much -or even not at all- in the existential, outwardly domain, they -the seemingly "different gods"- can actually offer the appearance of clashes of interests (
3). Here is important again to take in consideration the god/s' agendas, too, for finding or justifying the reasons of such seeming clashes.
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1) According to this, having "multiple pantheons" in a given world or setting a la
AD&D Deities and Demigods makes no sense —but however it makes sense under a different, more particular, point of view, linked to the
dunamis of specific, different cultures.
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2) Which is beyond any quantitative measure, so it can be symbolically expressed in a "monotheistic" -individual- or a "polytheistic" -plural- way, but essentially it's always the same under different appearances, phenomena and social structures.
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3) <<We have indicated in another part the recognizable parallel in any representation of the mystery of Saint George and the Dragon: the opponents, that had been friends, and perhaps even brothers, in the "dressing room" (in the other world), appear in the setting (of this world) as mortal enemies, but they are friends again when return to the darkness of which they emerged in first place. Thus also, in the Egyptian mythology, Horus and Seth are at the same time friends and enemies.>> (Extract from
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: Indra and Namuci, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, Speculum Vol. 19, No. 1 (Jan., 1944), pp. 104-125, Medieval Academy of America.)