um, my definition of a 'true deity' is just "an infinite being". which is kinda a paradox, because how can something infinite have a finite persona? but I have it on good authority that such a paradox is possible. The result would be a being which is both finite and infinite. I think of this as something which 'evolves' rather than being made. buddha might qualify. I think some true deities are 'ex humans'. there's no heirarchy, they sort of 'merge'. all infinite beings are kinda like siamese twins with each other. the paradoxical state I mentioned allowing them to manifest as personalized faces of an impersonal infinite.
I contrast that with religious egregores, which are entities created by a group of people, fueled by their belief, energy, etc. egregores are 'man made', and in my view, they are not nearly as impressive as their creators (people). Although with a million followers, an egregore can be 'impressive' in terms of the potency of it's energy, and other such things. it's still a fairly simplistic being which is empowered by the will of people. egregores suffer in much the same way that people don't run very fast in a sack-race. egregores are catering to so many diverse variations on an idea, that they are actually kinda weak without a human standing there getting everyone's religious fervor into a unified sync. I just don't quite see the point of them myself.
archetypal beings are even a bit simpler. 10,000 humans get together and decide that 'fire' is a particular thing, apart from other things. they give 'universal fire-ness' a name, decide what the character looks like, etc. but it's entirely arbitrary. I mean, why have an archetypal fire god, but no archetypal mustard god? I mean, it's hard to eat a hot dog without mustard, this is an important deity... well ok, not really, more like it's an arbitrary personification of a perceived archetype.
in many ways "God" as we often think of him in the west, is both of these, an archetype for absolute 'good', and an egregore based on judeo-roman ideals.
anyway, i think you could meet a 'true deity' (an actual infinite being which is still deific whether anyone worships or not) and you could go around telling people about this being. and in a very short time the group of people you've told will begin pouring their energy & thought into creating an egregore... which is loosely based on an actual deity. I'm sure numerous deities have an origin like this. But that doesn't make the "egregore, based on an actual deity of the same name" any more of an actual infinite being. it's still just an energy mass put together by the collective consciousness of a group of people.
so yeah, I view a true deity as something which exists fully independent of human ideation, worship, areas of land, bodies of water, elemental energies, archetypes of human psychology, nationality, etc. a true deity is just a being which has realized infinite nature, but retained individual identity, a hybrid, embodying the kemetic principal of neter neteru, or the hindu equivalent, where deities are all seen as 'one' at the most vast end of their nature, and as personas at the most finite end of their nature. Most true deities will likely will never be written about. And if they are written about extensively, then the public will create a sort of egregore based on them, and then wander off following their creation, instead of the actual being it's based on.
This post has been edited by Kath: Jul 19 2010, 01:12 PM
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‘Εκατερινη γνῶθι σεαυτόν Audaces fortuna iuvat
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