Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Pagan
How Old Are The Gods and Why Does It Matter?

How Old Are The Gods and Why Does It Matter?

Last updated on: June 29, 2017 at 5:00 am by John Beckett

How Old Are The Gods and Why Does It Matter? 2017-06-27T19:57:40-06:00 John Beckett

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Pagans like to talk about “the Old Ways” and “the Old Gods.” Polytheists like to talk about “the Gods of our ancestors.” Some say the Gods of the old religion became the devils of the new religion, although that statement isn’t entirely true, as any devotee of Brighid will be happy to explain.

If our Gods are old, just how old are they?

Any discussion of “the Gods” is a generalization that may or may not apply to a particular deity. The Gods are many, not one. Apotheosis is a thing, and beings who became divine last week are obviously younger than the Titans. Auset (Isis) is older than her son Heru (Horus). Further, trying to establish an exact age for the Gods or even for a particular God can quickly turn into a fool’s errand, even with the assistance of several bottles of wine.

However…

Recently a fellow polytheist received a bit of UPG: “you have no idea just how old the Gods are.” That may be UPG (Unverified Personal Gnosis), but it rings true to me, and I think it’s worth contemplating.

Christian fundamentalists insist the Earth is only 6000 years old because that’s what the Bible says. Except the Bible doesn’t say that. Archbishop James Ussher (1581 – 1656) said that, based on a chronology that is far more mythical than literal. But Ussher’s calculations seemed reasonable at the time, because the earliest known writings available to him date to about 3200 BCE. Star.Ships showed how stories can be passed down reliably over 40,000 years, but passing down dates pretty much requires writing.

Much of what we know about the Gods comes from stories. Often we intuitively – and wrongly – locate the origins of the Gods in the timelines of the people who first wrote about them. Homer – assuming he was a historical person, which is far from certain – wrote in the 8th century BCE, likely from an oral tradition that was centuries older. So it’s easy for us to place the Olympians in the 1200 – 800 BCE range, or perhaps slightly before that. But that simply ties them to the earliest history and pre-history of the Greeks.

What of Cernunnos? The name itself is Greek, and it only appears once, on the Pillar of the Boatmen, which dates to the first century CE. But I see him when I look at some of the European cave art that dates back 30,000 years or more. It is very easy to imagine hunters from that era praying and making offerings to Cernunnos, even if he would not be known by that name for tens of thousands of years.

Danu is another very old deity and like many old, primal deities there are few stories about her. I haven’t found any that say anything more than listing her as the mother of the Tuatha De Danann – the Children of the Goddess Danu. Most of what we know about her history comes from etymological studies: her name is connected to several rivers in central Europe, most notably the Danube.

How old is the Danube River? I can’t find anything readily available that addresses that question, but the Danube is fed from snowmelt in the Alps (among other sources) and the Alps are at least 65 million years old.

Is Danu 65 million years old? Why not? Not all Gods are Nature Gods, but for those that are, it makes more sense to associate their age with the first appearance of that natural phenomenon rather than with when humans first noticed them.

Does that mean Ra, Helios, and the other Sun Gods are 4.6 billion years old?

Are the various Star Goddesses 14 billion years old? Did the Gods come into being at the Big Bang? Or perhaps they – or at least some of them – are even older than our universe?

Debating the ages of the various Gods is pointless. But contemplating them can be enlightening.

For the most part the world is run by adults (mostly men) 25 to 75 years old. As an example, the average age of a US President at inauguration is 55. That means decisions that affect the future of the Earth and every living thing on it are being made by people with (on average) a 50-year perspective on life. Good education expands that perspective, but even where the education is good and where it’s actually absorbed, humans are not rational creatures. We are emotional, intuitive creatures who make decisions based on our personal experiences and prejudices and then use our powerful brains to justify them.

Imagine having the perspective of 30,000 years. Imagine having the perspective of 65 million years, of 4.6 billion years, of 14 billion years, or maybe even more.

How do you think your analysis of problems might be different? How would your priorities change? How long would you work on something without giving up because you didn’t have result you wanted yet? What seasons and cycles might you be able to recognize, and then react appropriately?

What principles might you be able to distill from such massive experience? The virtues of the Gods are not good because some deity arbitrarily declared them to be good. They are good because they have been shown to produce good results over a perspective far longer than even the wisest of humans.

My polytheism is an ecstatic polytheism – it’s built on the first-hand experience of the Gods, or at least, of a few Gods. Sometimes that experience is subtle, sometimes it’s powerful, and sometimes it’s overwhelming. But it is always intimate and it is always deeply personal. These intimate and personal experiences are difficult to write and talk about, and they can sometimes come across as being more familiar and less sacred than they actually are.

This difficulty with communication has led to criticism of ecstatic polytheism. I’ve heard both atheists and monotheists claim our Gods are no more than wise humans and therefore unworthy of worship. And I’ve heard very devout polytheists claim we’re not showing the Gods proper respect. Although these criticisms are mostly unfounded, they point out a risk of intimate relationships with deities.

But when we contemplate the age of the Gods, and when we understand the perspective that great age gives them, we realize that while they are approachable and relatable (as opposed to the “wholly other” God proposed by some monotheisms) they are so much more than humans. They are worthy of our honor, our respect, and our worship.

So how old are the Gods? The only perfectly honest answer is “I don’t know.” But I do know this: contemplating the age of the Gods helps us put them in proper perspective – a sacred perspective.

Previous Post

June 27, 2017

The Birth of Lugh

Next Post

July 2, 2017 Magic: Amateurs vs. Professionals

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Books Community CUUPS Druidry Foundations and Context Gods and Goddesses Magic Myth Nature Ritual Spiritual Practice Theology Travel Uncategorized Videos

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who said, "It is finished"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Paul Peter Jesus John