Polytheism

Polytheism (from Greek: πολύς polys 'many' and θεοί theoi 'gods') refers to the widespread religious worship of a multiplicity of gods in ancient times, which replaced the time of the ancestor cults. According to Rudolf Steiner, it was mainly Archangels that were worshipped, whereas during the time of the ancestor cults, contact was sought with the Archai.

„So by going back to the ancestor cults, we have the worship of the time spirits, the Archai. Then people descended further and began to worship those deities which are known to us from the various mythologies and which we know as Archangels; even in Greek mythology Zeus and so on, they have the value of Archangel appearances. In the oldest times men looked up to the spirits of time; then they looked up to those spirits which are now no longer spirits of time, but which are equivalent to the spirits which also have the guidance of the tribes, to the Archangels. So that we can say: polytheism follows ancestor worship, and men worship Archangeloi.“ (Lit.:GA 172, p. 202)

Literature

• Ernst Haeckel: Die Welträtsel. Gemeinverständliche Studien über monistische Philosophie, Alfred Kröner Verlag, Leipzig 1909 archive.org
• Rudolf Steiner: Das Karma des Berufes des Menschen in Anknüpfung an Goethes Leben, GA 172 (2002), ISBN 3-7274-1720-X English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org

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