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Here’s an excerpt from the Second Edition
of Authentic Thaumaturgy, my book on magic and
religion for players of fantasy games such as Advanced Dungeons
& Dragons®, G.U.R.P.S.®, and Magic: The Gathering®,
etc. “A.T.” is published by Steve
Jackson Games and is available from them, from Amazon.com,
or from your local game store.
Mono-, Duo- & Polytheisms
A monotheistic religion is one
in which the theologians claim that only one deity exists (theirs,
of course) and that all other spirits claiming (or claimed) to
be deities are actually “demons in disguise.” Monotheistic
deities are usually created through hyperapotheosis,
which is the promotion of one’s tribal deity to the rank
of Supreme Being of the Entire Universe.
Pure monotheisms are very rare (not until
modern times do any seem to have existed at all) and are magically
very weak. What usually happens is that various divine relatives,
angels, saints, and demons join the “One” God as a
part of the mythology. Most of these entities are indistinguishable
from the deities and lesser spirits of the polytheistic religions
previously occupying the same territory, because most of these
associated spirits are the Gods and godlings from
the previous religions (or current ones from neighboring cultures).
 Historically,
monotheisms are created via henotheisms, which
are religions in which there is one important deity and a bunch
of lesser ones, all of Whom are recognized as “real”
Gods. Eventually the Clerics in a henotheistic faith start getting
more and more power (religious, political, economic, and military)
and they announce a divine coup d’etat and that from
now the King of the Gods is the “Only” God.
A century or so later all the other deities
have snuck back into the religion under different names and the
common people go right on worshipping their Old Gods and Goddesses,
pretending (when the priests are around) that these spirits are
inferior in power to the “One” God they are supposed
to be worshipping. The theologians go through a lot of metaphysical
gymnastics to explain all the lesser spirits, which arguments
wind up convincing nobody but themselves.
An authentic pure monotheism occurs only after
the magical technology in a given culture has become so incompetent
that miracles don’t happen anymore, intellectuals become
completely materialistic, and nobody really believes in any deities
as real personalities. The problem, of course, is that such systems
of belief don’t really count as “religions” any
more (as we’re defining the term herein), because their
philosophical and ethical beliefs no longer have a magical system
connected.
A duotheistic religion is one
in which the theologians claim that there are two deities, usually
of opposite gender, and that all other spirits are “aspects”
or “faces” of these two. The best known example of
this in the modern West is Neopagan Witchcraft, which seems to
be a compromise between polytheistic ideas and a monotheistic
culture (it started as a Westernization of Hindu Tantra and Shakti
cults). For some, however, duotheism is a temporary stop on the
way to a henotheism in which only “the Goddess” will
be important, to be followed by a monotheism in which “the
Goddess” will be the only deity allowed to be worshipped.
Duotheism should not be confused with dualism. This last is the religious doctrine that states that
all the spiritual forces of the universe(s) are split into Good
Guys and Bad Guys who are constantly at war. Almost every existing
monotheism (except for the modern pure ones) is actually a dualistic
polytheism. The process of evolution is this: First they have
to invent a Supreme Spirit of Evil to explain why the Good God
lets there be evil in the world He created. Then this spirit
quickly develops into an Evil God (though seldom officially called
that). Then His minions (displaced polytheistic deities) are
said to be fighting the Good God, Who then needs minions (more
displaced deities) of His own. Celestial and infernal armies
clash throughout the cosmos and various figures on both sides
become popular and/or feared enough that they become full scale
deities again, despite the fact that the monotheistic theologians
never call them that (see In Nomine for
a game based on just this dualist mythology).
Remember that a religion is a psychic
structure composed of the beliefs of all of its followers, not
just the theologians. In fact, the opinions of theologians are
often irrelevant to the real magical and spiritual power of a
religion, though not to the psychological, social, economic,
military, or political power it may accumulate.
Although polytheistic faiths often have spirits
of chaos and/or evil, these are seldom if ever glorified to the
heights of paranoia so common in the monotheistic religions,
simply because polytheistic ones have more good spirits (and
a lot of ambiguous ones) to share the blame for worldly evil
and trauma, and because Pagans don’t usually think of their
deities as “perfect.” So they avoid the logical paradoxes
that force the creation of an Evil God.
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A polytheistic religion is one
in which the polytheologians claim that there are many deities,
of varying power, and usually many lesser spirits as well. Each
separate “cult” (group of devotees) within a polytheistic
culture may decide that its deity is the “best” one,
but all accept the reality of the others as genuine gods and
goddesses.
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Differences in Attitudes of Clergy and Laity
Since just about every religion in the world
admits that there are lots of different kinds of spirits around,
the real differences come in the psychology and most especially
the politics of celestial power. Monotheists want only their
one Good God to be worshipped (have mana given to) and all other
spirits to be respected or reviled — but
never worshipped. Duotheists say that when one is worshipping
the “lesser deities” one is actually worshipping “the
God” and/or “the Goddess.” Polytheists say that
people can and should worship any spirit they feel like worshipping,
or Who chooses them as worshippers.
A lot of the basic differences in the day-to-day
life of Clerics and lay-persons in these various sorts of religions
are based on this “Supreme Being” worship question.
Monotheists feel that only the Supreme Being Who created the
entire universe is worthy of being worshipped and He (almost
always “He”) just happens to be their tribal God
— what an amazing coincidence! Polytheists
usually feel that the Supreme Being has little or no interest
in humans and that She/He/It neither wants nor needs worshipping.
Local gods and goddesses, on the other hand, are said to be interested
in humans and need worship if They are to be strong enough to
help Their worshippers.
Monotheistic religions are based on single
value (“binary” or True/False) logic
systems. Since “there is only One God,” (“and
He is the Sun God. Sun God, Sun God, Ra, Ra, Ra!”), there
is only One Reality, One Truth and One Way of Worship. Any concept
differing from the official theology is not only False, it is
Evil, Evil, Evil! — and
must be stamped out, along with its believers.
Polytheistic religions are usually based on
multiple value (or “fuzzy”) logic
systems. The existence of many deities implies many realities,
truth is thought of as fluid (in vino veritas?) and disagreements
mean error, stupidity or imagination — not
“Evil.”
Monotheistic faiths usually set up official
priesthoods that are the only official channels by which important
matters are supposed to be brought to divine attention. Polytheistic
ones usually set up official, semi-official and amateur priest-
and priestesshoods that are thought of as the best, but not the
only way, to call for divine help in times of dire need. The
head of each household is usually the “Cleric” for
his family.
Polytheistic religions encourage or ignore
a great deal of individual magical and Clerical activity from
the masses. Monotheistic ones actively discourage individual
efforts by anyone who is not an official Cleric and will often
kill anyone who tries to break the established monopoly on mana.
This is to say, that while monotheistic individuals are allowed
to pray for divine help at any time, they are not supposed to
do powerful ceremonies on their own — and
heaven help them if they start doing miracles! Polytheistic individuals
may do both without interference from the Clergy, except that
they are likely to be subjected to intense recruitment efforts
by the local Clerics and/or deities.
In short, in polytheistic cultures the
lines between Mages and Clerics tend to blur, in monotheistic
ones the lines are kept artificially sharp.
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