{"id":203,"date":"2004-06-06T14:40:00","date_gmt":"2004-06-06T14:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=203"},"modified":"2004-06-06T14:40:00","modified_gmt":"2004-06-06T14:40:00","slug":"203","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=203","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Psychological polytheism<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Juggler<\/a> links to a piece by a writer discovering the psychological polytheism of James Hillman<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Hurray,” I say. But I have to say too that Hillman’s psychological writing takes some getting used to. The best introduction might be the collection A Blue Fire<\/em>, introduced and edited by Thomas Moore<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And let me put in a plug for Ginette Paris’ books Pagan Grace<\/em> and Pagan Meditation<\/em> too.<\/p>\n

Psychological polytheism rejects the idea of a single, true “self,” instead admitting that we all function as a collection of selves, Hillman seems to suggest too that “soul” (one of his favorite words, and used in his own way) is made over time rather than bestowed by a creator deity.<\/p>\n

Hillman’s thinking is often capital-A Archaic; in other words, more in line with the previous 30,000 years of human culture than with 20th-century psychology. But he also does what philosophers should do: tell you how to live. Here’s a sample from the Scott London interview linked above:<\/p>\n

Hillman:<\/strong> It’s important to ask yourself, “How am I useful to others? What do people want from me?” That may very well reveal what you are here for.<\/p>\n

London:<\/strong> You’ve written that “the great task of any culture is to keep the invisibles attached.” What do you mean by that?<\/p>\n

Hillman:<\/strong> It is a difficult idea to present without leaving psychology and getting into religion. I don’t talk about who the invisibles are or where they live or what they want. There is no theology in it. But it’s the only way we human beings can get out of being so human-centered: to remain attached to something other than humans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Psychological polytheism The Juggler links to a piece by a writer discovering the psychological polytheism of James Hillman. “Hurray,” I say. But I have to say too that Hillman’s psychological writing takes some getting used to. The best introduction might be the collection A Blue Fire, introduced and edited by Thomas Moore. And let me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6xQTg-203","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1057,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1057","url_meta":{"origin":203,"position":0},"title":"Polytheism and Punctuation","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 4, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Have you seen the new ads for Gillette's Venus-brand razors? Do you think some copywriter once read some classic of pop-psychological polytheism, such as Goddesses in Everywoman: Powerful Archetypes in Women's Lives?Or perhaps more amazingly, what if someone read Pagan Meditations: The Worlds of Aphrodite, Artemis, and Hestia?Gods below! Polytheistic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"polytheism\"","block_context":{"text":"polytheism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=polytheism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3929,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3929","url_meta":{"origin":203,"position":1},"title":"Polytheistic Writing Sought","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 9, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I am passing this along as a favor to the editor. Gods are real.And these gods are everywhere, in all aspects of existence, all aspects of human life.\u201d James Hillman Minneapolis writer is compiling an anthology of modern, polytheistic experiences, tentatively titled Return of the Gods: The Varieties of Polytheistic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"polytheism\"","block_context":{"text":"polytheism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=polytheism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5073,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5073","url_meta":{"origin":203,"position":2},"title":"Gerald Gardner and the Question of Polytheism.","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 14, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I recently reviewed Philip Heselton's latest biography of Gerald Gardner, but I did not have time to discuss one of his final observations, written in a too-brief closing chapter, \"An Assessment of Gerald Gardner.\" Heselton writes, \"Indeed, he really didn't, I think, have any of what we might call 'spiritual'\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"nature religion\"","block_context":{"text":"nature religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=nature-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10186,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10186","url_meta":{"origin":203,"position":3},"title":"I Will Be Buying this Book on Polytheistic Theology","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 2, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"New from Bibliotheca Alexandrina: Ascendant: Modern Essays on Polytheism and Theology. From the publisher: Monotheistic assumptions so pervade our culture that even those few people born into polytheist religions (or those who grew up with no religion at all) cannot help but be influenced by them. Polytheology raises questions that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Pagan studies\"","block_context":{"text":"Pagan studies","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=pagan-studies"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":841,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=841","url_meta":{"origin":203,"position":4},"title":"Polytheism, not Tradition","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 24, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Keep an eye on the International Year of Polytheism Web project.This is really more of a conceptual art piece than any sort of reconstructionism (definitely not reconstructionism or capital-T Tradition), although it has been mentioned earlier in the Pagan blogosphere.Still, if anyone wants to \"wants to overcome the epoch of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"polytheism\"","block_context":{"text":"polytheism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=polytheism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":821,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=821","url_meta":{"origin":203,"position":5},"title":"Blog Valhalla, Polytheism, Books and More","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 14, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00b6 Yvonne Aburrow's Pagan theologies wiki has what might be the definitive list of active Pagan blogs. I am adding a link on my sidebar.\u00b6 Speaking of which, this blog now appears on BeliefNet's Blog Heaven page again. Thanks to everyone who made a fuss.\u00b6Bedside reading: I started, put aside,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"blogging\"","block_context":{"text":"blogging","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}