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59-527: The Odyssean tradition is strongly connected with the Wiccan Church of Canada , a public Wiccan church also founded by the Jameses. The Odyssean Tradition of Wicca was founded by Richard and Tamara James in 1979, along with other members of their coven . The name of the tradition was inspired by Homer 's Odyssey , and is meant to emphasize a belief in life as a "spiritual journey". The tradition grew out of

118-453: A Sed festival , a sort of royal jubilee intended to reinforce the Pharaoh's divine powers of kingship. Traditionally held in the thirtieth year of the Pharaoh's reign, this possibly was a festival in honour of Amenhotep III , who some Egyptologists think had a coregency with his son Amenhotep IV of two to twelve years. Year 5 is believed to mark the beginning of Amenhotep IV's construction of

177-547: A Wiccan church or other organisation. Churches are often formed from hive covens . Some Wiccan and neopagan witchcraft organisations have chosen to achieve formal legal status by becoming non-profit corporations within their states or provinces, and sometimes they additionally obtain tax-exempt status in the United States under § 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code . This modern paganism -related article

236-536: A component or opposite force of Ahura Mazda. Post-exilic Judaism, after the late 6th century BCE, was the first religion to conceive the notion of a personal monotheistic God within a monist context. The concept of ethical monotheism , which holds that morality stems from God alone and that its laws are unchanging, first occurred in Judaism , but is now a core tenet of most modern monotheistic religions, including Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, and Baháʼí Faith. Also from

295-592: A greater exposure to the ritual style of other Wiccan and Modern Pagan traditions is offered to Odyssean laity, neophytes, and initiates through the Wiccan Church of Canada . Wiccan church Wiccan organisations are groups formed by Wiccans , particularly in North America. While in Europe Wicca is most often organised into independent covens , in the United States some covens choose to combine to form

354-561: A monotheistic view. The Naiyanikas have given an argument that such a god can only be one. In the Nyaya Kusumanjali , this is discussed against the proposition of the Mimamsa school that let us assume there were many demigods ( devas ) and sages ( rishis ) in the beginning, who wrote the Vedas and created the world. Nyaya says that: [If they assume such] omniscient beings, those endowed with

413-496: A new capital, Akhetaten ( Horizon of the Aten ), at the site known today as Amarna . Evidence of this appears on three of the boundary stelae used to mark the boundaries of this new capital. At this time, Amenhotep IV officially changed his name to Akhenaten ( Agreeable to Aten ) as evidence of his new worship. The date given for the event has been estimated to fall around January 2 of that year. In Year 7 of his reign (1346/1344 BCE),

472-417: A powerful presentation of what the monotheists denounce as Hindu Polytheism. I had never read anything like it. It was a revelation to me that Monotheism was not a religious concept but an imperialist idea. I must confess that I myself had been inclined towards Monotheism till this time. I had never thought that a multiplicity of Gods was the natural and spontaneous expression of an evolved consciousness. Sikhi

531-708: A public Wiccan priesthood providing religious services for a Neopagan laity . In 1987, the James' purchased much of Gerald Gardner 's collection back from Ripleys, this included Ye Bok of Ye Art Magical. It is after this purchase that the James' received valid initiations and elevations into the various traditions and lineages British Traditional Wicca . The Odyssean tradition and the Wiccan Church of Canada reached their apex in 1992—at that time there were four temples (Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, and Kitchener-Waterloo) and three proto-temples in Brampton, Oshawa, and Montreal. Currently,

590-450: A unitary God is Plato 's Demiurge (divine Craftsman), followed by Aristotle 's unmoved mover , both of which would profoundly influence Jewish and Christian theology. According to contemporary Jewish, Christian and Islamic tradition, monotheism was the original religion of humanity; this original religion is sometimes referred to as "the Adamic religion", or, in the terms of Andrew Lang ,

649-460: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Monotheism This is an accepted version of this page Monotheism is the belief that one god is the only, or at least the dominant deity . A distinction may be made between exclusive monotheism, in which the one God is a singular existence, and both inclusive and pluriform monotheism, in which multiple gods or godly forms are recognized, but each are postulated as extensions of

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708-611: Is a divine figure with attributed supremacy in Vaishnavism. The Rig Veda discusses monotheistic thought, as do the Atharva Veda and Yajur Veda : "Devas are always looking to the supreme abode of Vishnu" ( tad viṣṇoḥ paramaṁ padaṁ sadā paśyanti sṻrayaḥ Rig Veda 1.22.20) "The One Truth, sages know by many names" ( Rig Veda 1 .164.46) "When at first the unborn sprung into being, He won His own dominion beyond which nothing higher has been in existence" ( Atharva Veda 10.7.31) "There

767-450: Is a monotheistic and a revealed religion . God in Sikhism is called Akal Purakh (which means "The Immortal Being") or Vāhigurū (Wondrous Enlightener). However, other names like Rama , Brahman , Khuda , Allah , etc. are also used to refer to the same God, who is shapeless , timeless , and sightless : niraṅkār , akaal , and alakh . Sikhi presents a unique perspective where God

826-657: Is a monotheistic faith that arose in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent during the 16th and 17th centuries. Sikhs believe in one, timeless, omnipresent, supreme creator. The opening verse of the Guru Granth Sahib , known as the Mul Mantra , signifies this: The word "ੴ" ("Ik ōaṅkār") has two components. The first is ੧, the digit "1" in Gurmukhi signifying the singularity of

885-550: Is based on the worship of the Greek Gods of antiquity. Blue Star Wicca does have a special relationship to the Odyssean tradition, as a "sister" or "cousin" tradition. The Dymond line of Alexandrian Wicca also has a unique relationship with the Odyssean tradition and the Wiccan Church of Canada. Because the Odyssean tradition has been created from the known published material (circa 1979) of Gardnerian Wicca and Alexandrian Wicca

944-566: Is monotheist as well as pantheist. The Great Spirit , called Wakan Tanka among the Sioux , and Gitche Manitou in Algonquian , is a conception of universal spiritual force, or supreme being prevalent among some Native American and First Nation cultures. According to Lakota activist Russell Means a better translation of Wakan Tanka is the Great Mystery. Indeed, "Wanka Tanka" among

1003-420: Is no other way open. In other words, Nyaya says that the polytheist would have to give elaborate proofs for the existence and origin of his several celestial spirits, none of which would be logical, and that it is more logical to assume one eternal, omniscient god. Many other Hindus, however, view polytheism as far preferable to monotheism. The famous Hindu revitalist leader Ram Swarup , for example, points to

1062-612: Is none to compare with Him. There is no parallel to Him, whose glory, verily, is great." ( Yajur Veda 32.3) The number of auspicious qualities of God are countless, with the following six qualities ( bhaga ) being the most important: In the Shaivite tradition, the Shri Rudram ( Sanskrit श्रि रुद्रम्), to which the Chamakam (चमकम्) is added by scriptural tradition, is a Hindu stotra dedicated to Rudra (an epithet of Shiva ), taken from

1121-571: Is often contrasted with " polytheism ", but many scholars prefer other terms such as monolatry, henotheism, or one-god discourse. Quasi-monotheistic claims of the existence of a universal deity date to the Late Bronze Age , with Akhenaten 's Great Hymn to the Aten from the 14th century BCE. In the Iron-Age South Asian Vedic period , a possible inclination towards monotheism emerged. The Rigveda exhibits notions of monism of

1180-520: Is present ( sarav viāpak ) in all of its creation and does not exist outside of its creation. God must be seen from "the inward eye", or the "heart". Sikhs follow the Aad Guru Granth Sahib and are instructed to meditate on the Naam (Name of God - Vāhigurū ) to progress towards enlightenment, as its rigorous application permits the existence of communication between God and human beings. Sikhism

1239-504: The 18th dynasty of the New Kingdom . He raised Aten , once a relatively obscure Egyptian solar deity representing the disk of the sun, to the status of Supreme God in the Egyptian pantheon. To emphasise the change, Aten's name was written in the cartouche form normally reserved for Pharaohs, an innovation of Atenism. This religious reformation appears to coincide with the proclamation of

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1298-525: The Brahman , particularly in the comparatively late tenth book , which is dated to the early Iron Age , e.g. in the Nasadiya Sukta . Later, ancient Hindu theology was monist , but was not strictly monotheistic in worship because it still maintained the existence of many gods, who were envisioned as aspects of one supreme God, Brahman. In China, the orthodox faith system held by most dynasties since at least

1357-461: The Enlightenment and Christian views. Many definitions of monotheism are too modern, western, and Christian-centered to account for the diversity and complexity of the ancient sources, which include not only the biblical texts, but also other writings, inscriptions, and material remains that help reconstruct the ancient beliefs and practices of the people of Judah and Israel. The term "monotheism"

1416-506: The Shang dynasty (1766 BCE) until the modern period centered on the worship of Shangdi (literally "Above Sovereign", generally translated as "God") or Heaven as an omnipotent force. However, this faith system was not truly monotheistic since other lesser gods and spirits, which varied with locality, were also worshipped along with Shangdi . Still, later variants such as Mohism (470 BCE–c.391 BCE) approached true monotheism, teaching that

1475-455: The Vedas as being specifically polytheistic, and states that, "only some form of polytheism alone can do justice to this variety and richness." Sita Ram Goel , another 20th-century Hindu historian, wrote: I had an occasion to read the typescript of a book [Ram Swarup] had finished writing in 1973. It was a profound study of Monotheism, the central dogma of both Islam and Christianity, as well as

1534-581: The Yajurveda (TS 4.5, 4.7). Shri Rudram is also known as Sri Rudraprasna , Śatarudrīya , and Rudradhyaya . The text is important in Vedanta where Shiva is equated to the Universal supreme God. The hymn is an early example of enumerating the names of a deity , a tradition developed extensively in the sahasranama literature of Hinduism . The Nyaya school of Hinduism has made several arguments regarding

1593-534: The " Urreligion ". Scholars of religion largely abandoned that view in the 19th and 20th centuries in favour of an evolutionary progression from animism via polytheism to monotheism. Austrian anthropologist Wilhelm Schmidt had postulated an Urmonotheismus , "original" or "primitive monotheism" in the 1910s. It was objected that Judaism , Christianity , and Islam had grown up in opposition to polytheism as had Greek philosophical monotheism. More recently, Karen Armstrong and other authors have returned to

1652-436: The 6th century BCE, Thales (followed by other Monists, such as Anaximander , Anaximenes , Heraclitus , Parmenides ) proposed that nature can be explained by reference to a single unitary principle that pervades everything. Numerous ancient Greek philosophers, including Xenophanes of Colophon and Antisthenes , believed in a similar polytheistic monism that bore some similarities to monotheism. The first known reference to

1711-640: The Aztec. As an old religion, Hinduism inherits religious concepts spanning monotheism, polytheism , panentheism , pantheism , monism , and atheism among others; and its concept of God is complex and depends upon each individual and the tradition and philosophy followed. Hindu views are broad and range from monism, through pantheism and panentheism (alternatively called monistic theism by some scholars) to monotheism and even atheism. Hinduism cannot be said to be purely polytheistic. Hindu religious leaders have repeatedly stressed that while God's forms are many and

1770-427: The Egyptian people. Key features of Atenism included a ban on idols and other images of the Aten, with the exception of a rayed solar disc, in which the rays (commonly depicted ending in hands) appear to represent the unseen spirit of Aten. Akhenaten made it however clear that the image of the Aten only represented the god, but that the god transcended creation and so could not be fully understood or represented. Aten

1829-559: The High Priesthood would be autonomous of both the tradition's founders and of the WCC. That meant that they could initiate and/or elevate their students up to the highest degree (3rd Degree) without requiring approval from the other High Priesthood of the tradition. For those initiated after 1987, these initiates would have to retain active status—they must perform a minimal level of religious services (public rituals and public classes) to one of

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1888-717: The James' creation of the Wiccan Church of Canada , with which the tradition is still very closely associated. While the James’s and their coven members claimed to have had backgrounds in Gardnerian Wicca , Alexandrian Wicca , and Continental Wicca, these claims were never substantiated—the general consensus of the British Traditional Wiccan community in Ontario prior to 1987 was that these claims had no substance whatsoever. Regardless, those traditions were not ideally suited for

1947-645: The Lakota was considered a "council of gods" in pre-columbian times, and their religion is not monotheistic. Some researchers have interpreted Aztec philosophy as fundamentally monotheistic or panentheistic. While the populace at large believed in a polytheistic pantheon, Aztec priests and nobles might have come to an interpretation of Teotl as a single universal force with many facets. There has been criticism to this idea, however, most notably that many assertions of this supposed monotheism might actually come from post-Conquistador bias, imposing an Antiquity pagan model onto

2006-578: The WCC to follow their path elsewhere. There are more former members of the WCC laity and more retired neophytes and initiates of the Odyssean tradition than there are active initiates. Many of these retired Odysseans have gone on to found their own covens and traditions that are based upon Odyssean practices. Many of the other Wiccan churches that exist in Canada, and to some extent the United States, have drawn upon Odyssean sources and retired Odysseans. Prior to 1987, an Odyssean initiate who had been elevated into

2065-513: The Wiccan Church of Canada has only two temples; the mother temple in Toronto, Ontario and a temple in Hamilton, Ontario . While the influence of the Wiccan Church of Canada has declined over the past decade, the indirect influence of the Odyssean tradition has grown. Because the WCC is a public Modern Pagan church, and because many members of the laity, many neophytes, and many initiates step away from

2124-427: The Wiccan Church of Canada temples, their status will be downgraded to inactive. An Odyssean initiate who has been inactive for more than one year and one day can be reclassified by the High Priesthood of the tradition as retired. A retired Odyssean initiate can only return to active status with the permission of the High Priesthood of the tradition. Therefore, while the Odyssean tradition and the WCC were separate during

2183-401: The capital was moved from Thebes to Akhetaten (near modern Amarna), though construction of the city seems to have continued for two more years. In shifting his court from the traditional ceremonial centres Akhenaten was signalling a dramatic transformation in the focus of religious and political power. The move separated the Pharaoh and his court from the influence of the priesthood and from

2242-408: The construction of some of the most massive temple complexes in ancient Egypt, including one at Karnak and one at Thebes, close to the old temple of Amun . In Year 9 (1344/1342 BCE), Akhenaten declared a more radical version of his new religion, declaring Aten not merely the supreme god of the Egyptian pantheon, but the only God of Egypt, with himself as the sole intermediary between the Aten and

2301-411: The devotion to a deity (or group of deities) . The Odyssean training system is remarked upon as being notably rigorous , which can be observed in the Wiccan Church of Canada weekly classes. These classes comprise the basic body of knowledge considered necessary by Odysseans, and can span upwards of 150 hours of class time or more. Completion of these classes (which includes the student completing

2360-438: The eminence of Aten as the renewal of the kingship of Ra. Under Akhenaten's successors, Egypt reverted to its traditional religion, and Akhenaten himself came to be reviled as a heretic. Some Egyptian ethical text authors believed in only a single god ruling over the universe. Native American religions may be monotheistic, polytheistic, henotheistic, animistic, or some combination thereof. Cherokee religion , for example,

2419-527: The famous statement of the Bhagavatam" (1.3.28). A viewpoint differing from this theological concept is the concept of Krishna as an avatar of Narayana or Vishnu . It should be however noted that although it is usual to speak of Vishnu as the source of the avataras, this is only one of the names of the God of Vaishnavism , who is also known as Narayana, Vasudeva and Krishna and behind each of those names there

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2478-401: The first monotheistic religion in history sometime as early as the middle of the second millennium BCE, leaving a lasting influence on other belief systems such as Second Temple Judaism and, through it, on later monotheistic religions. Scholars are conflicted whether Zoroastrianism is best characterized as monotheistic, polytheistic, or henotheistic religion due to the centrality of Ahriman as

2537-466: The foundation years of the church, it has been the practice for the past twenty years that the Odyssean tradition and the Wiccan Church of Canada are firmly linked one to the other . Beyond the emphasis on public ministry, the Odyssean tradition is characterized by the following: it is an Eclectic tradition in its origins that has a strong British Traditional Wicca style to its forms of organization and initiation; although it emulates British Traditional

2596-463: The function of lesser gods and ancestral spirits is merely to carry out the will of Shangdi , akin to the angels in Abrahamic religions which in turn counts as only one god. Since the sixth century BCE, Zoroastrians have believed in the supremacy of one God above all: Ahura Mazda as the "Maker of All" and the first being before all others. The prophet Zoroaster is credited with the founding of

2655-406: The goal of creating a place for public Neopagan worship, nor did any of these reflect the ritual style that the coven (and, by extension, the church) were adopting—with the exception of Pagan Way (an Outer Court system created by Gardnerian initiates) that had a direct influence upon Wiccan Church of Canada liturgy. The Odyssean tradition is a British Traditional-like Eclectic tradition of Wicca—with

2714-527: The god Mukuru . The deceased ancestors of the Himba and Herero are subservient to him, acting as intermediaries. The Igbo people practice a form of monotheism called Odinani . Odinani has monotheistic and panentheistic attributes, having a single God as the source of all things. Although a pantheon of spirits exists, these are lesser spirits prevalent in Odinani expressly serving as elements of Chineke (or Chukwu ),

2773-467: The homework exercises assigned) is often considered a minimum requirement by Initiates before they accept a person as a new student. As mentioned above, Odyssean Wicca was inspired at least in part by the Gardnerian, Alexandrian, Continental, and Blue Star traditions. Despite the first part of its name, like all forms of Wicca, Odyssean Wicca has no connection to the modern religion of Hellenismos , which

2832-418: The idea of an evolutionary progression beginning with animism , which developed into polytheism , which developed into henotheism , which developed into monolatry , which developed into true monotheism. The Tikar people of Cameroon have a traditional spirituality that emphasizes the worship of a single god, Nyuy. The Himba people of Namibia practice a form of monotheistic panentheism , and worship

2891-412: The same God. Monotheism is distinguished from henotheism , a religious system in which the believer worships one god without denying that others may worship different gods with equal validity, and monolatrism , the recognition of the existence of many gods but with the consistent worship of only one deity. The term monolatry was perhaps first used by Julius Wellhausen . Monotheism characterizes

2950-531: The same as Narayana . As such, he is therefore regarded as Svayam Bhagavan . When Krishna is recognized to be Svayam Bhagavan , it can be understood that this is the belief of Gaudiya Vaishnavism , the Vallabha Sampradaya , and the Nimbarka Sampradaya , where Krishna is accepted to be the source of all other avatars, and the source of Vishnu himself. This belief is drawn primarily "from

3009-670: The supreme being or high god. Waaq is the name of a singular God in the traditional religion of many Cushitic people in the Horn of Africa , denoting an early monotheistic religion. However this religion was mostly replaced with the Abrahamic religions . Some (approximately 3%) of Oromo still follow this traditional monotheistic religion called Waaqeffanna in Oromo . Amenhotep IV initially introduced Atenism in Year 5 of his reign (1348/1346 BCE) during

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3068-526: The temples of the Wiccan Church of Canada—for them to even bring a student before the Odyssean Priesthood Council. The Odyssean Priesthood Council is open to all initiates who currently have active status and it is only after obtaining the approval of the Council that an initiate may initiate or elevate their student. If an initiate fails to perform the minimum amount of religious services to one of

3127-428: The tradition's approach to ritual is more flexible and may often be less structured than many British Traditional Wiccans would be comfortable with; the tradition rejects the concepts of Neopagan monism and Neopagan monotheism ; the tradition does accept the base-line Wiccan concept of Neopagan duotheism but does encourage students and seekers alike to choose to affiliate with a particular Pagan pantheon and encourages

3186-411: The traditional centres of worship, but his decree had deeper religious significance too—taken in conjunction with his name change, it is possible that the move to Amarna was also meant as a signal of Akhenaten's symbolic death and rebirth. It may also have coincided with the death of his father and the end of the coregency. In addition to constructing a new capital in honor of Aten, Akhenaten also oversaw

3245-466: The traditions of Atenism , Bábism , the Baháʼí Faith , Christianity , Deism , Druzism , Eckankar , Islam , Judaism , Mandaeism , Manichaeism , Rastafari , Samaritanism , Seicho-no-Ie , Sikhism , Tenrikyo , Yazidism , and Zoroastrianism . Elements of monotheistic thought are found in early religions such as ancient Chinese religion , Tengrism , and Yahwism . The word monotheism

3304-462: The various superhuman faculties of assuming infinitesimal size, and so on, and capable of creating everything, then we reply that the law of parsimony bids us assume only one such, namely Him, the adorable Lord. There can be no confidence in a non-eternal and non-omniscient being, and hence it follows that according to the system which rejects God, the tradition of the Veda is simultaneously overthrown; there

3363-427: The ways to communicate with him are many, God is one. The puja of the murti is a way to communicate with the abstract one god ( Brahman ) which creates, sustains and dissolves creation. Rig Veda 1.164.46, Traditions of Gaudiya Vaishnavas, the Nimbarka Sampradaya and followers of Swaminarayan and Vallabha consider Krishna to be the source of all avatars , and the source of Vishnu himself, or to be

3422-574: Was addressed by Akhenaten in prayers, such as the Great Hymn to the Aten : "O Sole God beside whom there is none". The details of Atenist theology are still unclear. The exclusion of all but one god and the prohibition of idols was a radical departure from Egyptian tradition, but scholars see Akhenaten as a practitioner of monolatry rather than monotheism, as he did not actively deny the existence of other gods; he simply refrained from worshiping any but Aten. Akhenaten associated Aten with Ra and put forward

3481-462: Was coined from the Greek μόνος ( monos ) meaning "single" and θεός ( theos ) meaning " god ". The term was coined by Henry More (1614–1687). Monotheism is a complex and nuanced concept. The biblical authors had various ways of understanding God and the divine, shaped by their historical and cultural contexts. The notion of monotheism that is used today was developed much later, influenced by

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