Naturalistic Polytheism

There is a continues debate between two ends of the spectrum of polytheism. The two sides are often labeled hard polytheism and soft polytheism. The soft polytheists accuse the hard polytheist of being to literal in their interpretations of deities as “actual” beings. The hard polytheist accuse the soft polytheists of blanketing the deities depicted in ancient narratives being “stereotypes”, often derived from the archetype structure of Jungian psychology. This debate will not be solved any time soon. Both sides accuse me of being in the “other” camp. I am what I call a naturalistic process polytheist. Where as my views of polytheism drive both from religious naturalism and processes theology. Much of my ramblings on the subject can be attributed to the book Dancing With The Sacred by Karl Peters. The thing is I experience the concept of deity in a different way, and do not depend much on anthropomorphic representation. To me the deities of old which have been preserved for us today, have come from a unique time and place. The names are not names to me as much as they are titles representing a relationship, and those relationships are different for us now, and for me living in North America. I became more concerned with creative evolutionary processes as something sacred in which I am an active participant. Relate better to gods or deities as a verb and not a noun. The following is my wondering thoughts on the subject and have changed and adapted with my experience and understanding. Therefore, there are inevitable contradictions in these writings due to them being a brain dump of sorts allowing me work through complex ideas and experiences.