Night Gods and Goddesses are called “night deities.” Night deities are commonly found in polytheistic religions. Polytheism is the belief in more than one God contradicting monotheism which is the belief in only one God.
Sometimes these Gods and Goddesses are more highly respected or worshiped as they are believed to possess more power or to be the original creators.
Taoism, Shenism, Chinese folk religion, Japanese Shinto, Santera, many traditional African religions, and numerous neopagan faiths are examples of notable polytheistic religions practiced today. Here we will be discussing night Gods and Goddesses.
But first, let’s discuss a little more about polytheism.
Polytheism
In polytheism, different gods and goddesses may be representations of natural elements or ancestral principles. They might be considered autonomous, as facets or emanations of a creator God, or a transcendental absolute principle that manifests immanently in nature (monistic theologies).
Before the emergence and expansion of the universalist Abrahamic religions of Christianity and Islam (which compel monotheism), polytheism was the most common type of religion. Polytheists do not always worship all gods and goddesses equally; henotheism specializes in one deity’s worship, or kathenotheism worships many gods at different times.
Some Hindus consider themselves to be pantheists, while others consider themselves to be polytheists, hence, Hinduism cannot be classified solely as either pantheistic or polytheistic.
Now that you have a brief understanding of polytheism, let’s look at the night Gods and Goddesses that we’ll discuss in this post.