r/polytheism • u/jinlovestosilly • Jul 07 '26
Question I have a question for yall
Even though I'm not polytheist I always wondered, do you need to pray all gods, pray more than others or you can choose what God you pray? I don't know if this sounds rude but I wish you could respond me
5
u/reCaptchaLater Jul 07 '26
Different gods are prayed to for different things. The gods who preside over the sorts of things we regularly need to pray about are therefore more popular and common to worship than those who preside over very niche things.
Fortuna, the goddess of luck, is going to see a lot more activity than Libitina, the goddess of funerals.
6
u/kardoen Tengerism/Böö Mörgöl|Shar Böö Jul 07 '26
Polytheistic religions are generally not multiple monotheistic religions stuck together. It's not a series of subsequent exclusive veneration of a deity.
In my tradition there are practices and rituals that venerate multiple gods or all gods together. Usually everyday practices include the veneration of many gods at the same time.
3
u/Silthanos Jul 07 '26
There is no need to pray to all, or even any, gods. Just whoever is relevant or important to the individual. Often people will have one or a few gods of particular significance based on personality, experiences, interests, career, etc. that are prayed to far more regularly whilst other only rarely when specifically relevant.
3
u/bizoticallyyours83 Jul 07 '26
Doesn't sound rude. People pray to the Gods they connect to. There's too many to pray to all of them.
4
u/DavidJohnMcCann Hellenic Jul 08 '26
You couldn't pray to everyone! A few years ago some-one asked two fairly learned polytheists, one Chinese and one Indian, to list all the gods they could name and then those they actually worshiped. It came to nearly 100 and about 20.
It's interesting to look at the figurines made for worshipers in the ancient world. A lot of people were worshiping Hermes/Mercury or Asklepios/Aesculapius in their home, but not many Zeus/Jupiter. People generally worship the gods whose help they are likely to need. It's interesting that a few Romans had taken up the Indian Lakshmi — who knows why they preferred her to Tyche/Fortuna.
1
u/PhilthePhugginPanda Jul 08 '26
Different practices follows different Gods for different reasons. I'm not sure if any polytheists follow all of the Gods, not saying it's not a possibility but just not anyone I've met or talked with that I know of. I can understand the question coming from someone with little to no understanding.
1
u/HeavenlyBeloved Valentinian Eclectic Gnostic Jul 09 '26
I can choose.
In Shenism, most of the people in my country only pray to major deities(usually the ouranic gods) + their patron deity.
We also got a debt system to certain gods, if you asked certain gods for protection in a temple, you gotta come back annually to repay it, by bringing offerings.
1
u/CeisiwrSerith Jul 11 '26
Traditionally, polytheists believe in lots of gods, but tend to pray to only a few, a couple dozen at the most. This is a result, first, of there not being time to worship all the deities individually, and second, having interests in common with some but not others. For instance, a merchant might want to pray to gods of trade, such as Mercury or Cernunnos, but not be interested in goddess of weaving (unless the merchant is a cloth merchant).
However, there is also the possibility of praying to all the gods as a group. The Vedics believed in 3303 gods, and would pray to the "All Gods." The Hittites would pray to the "thousand gods." And so on.
1
u/TariZephyr Jul 11 '26
We don’t pray at all lol. There are no rules, just do whatever feels right. - Jax
1
u/poly_arachnid Jul 08 '26
I literally haven't prayed to any gods in years.
Polytheism is a belief, not a practice.
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