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causticusShort answer: Hell No.
Long-winded answer:
The notion that polytheistic traditions of yore are somehow a direct refutation of the kind of religious hierarchy we find in... say... various Christian churches, is an idea that is quite popular among many self-styled "pagans" of this current era. Of course this is an erroneous and baseless idea.
It seems that so many people in this era who are attracted to ‘paganism’ flock to it because of the perceived ‘lack-of-hierarchy’ or something along those lines. Neopagans of various stripes do a bang-up job convincing themselves that the pre-Christian religions and their practitioners lacked hierarchical structure and were categorically opposed to the entire concept. Umm, no. In reality, the neopagans, who are usually some combination of naïve and rebellious youths, and sometimes outright misfits who fail to make any headway in the competence hierarchies of normal society, are just shopping around for a ‘religion’ they believe to be the opposite of the (likely) Christian environment they were raised in, or some other type of hyper-structured (and possibly dogma-based) upbringing that left a bad lasting impression on them.
Of course the idea that pre-Christian folk religions lacked hierarchy is a totally ahistoric view, and quite ridiculous to those of us who have actually done the relevant homework on this. I often quip the actual neopagan worldview (and obnoxious reconstructionists that I also class as neopagans) who like to make this claim is actually much closer to that of the Protestant Christians they’re under the impression they are running away from (not quite!!), than anything resembling an ancient culture where honoring the gods was the norm.
The second major thing that might give them the impression of non-hierarchy, is that, in practice modern polytheistic movements are actually not very hierarchical owing to the fact that the movement as a whole is so small, niche (compared to the big popular religions) and geographically scattered all over the place; and to boot, it’s subdivided into many different sub-movements based on differing folk traditions. Such small numbers means the lack of resources to establish and sustain brick-and-mortar polytheist religious institutions, which seems to make it appear as there aren't real clerical/priestly hierarchies (though this isn’t really true once we scratch beneath the surface).
This is aslo the major reason why pagan/polytheist spaces seem to be so chock full of Leftists (i.e. people's whose true religion is modern-day secular-left ideology) wearing ‘pagan’ skinsuits. The broader movement seems to attract mostly the wrong type of people, as opposed to genuine seekers and devotees seriously interested in honor the gods, and placing the honoring of the gods above whatever petty contemporary secular political ideology-of-the-week happens to be favored at any given moment. Organizations without clear leadership, a strict vetting process for leadership positions, and a clearly-defined, tradition-faithful knowledge base that can’t be quickly rewritten or memory-holed on a whim, are super-easy for entryists to subvert and pervert. The entryists easily use their tried-and-true emotional bullying and gaslighting tactics to strongarm the typically-easygoing founder of the original group to bend to their will and let them hijack the group.
Finding polytheists these days who are serious and rightly put religion over politics seems to be like finding a needle in a haystack. They do exist though and thankfully I've found a few great people to interact and exchange ideas and insights with.
Long-winded answer:
The notion that polytheistic traditions of yore are somehow a direct refutation of the kind of religious hierarchy we find in... say... various Christian churches, is an idea that is quite popular among many self-styled "pagans" of this current era. Of course this is an erroneous and baseless idea.
It seems that so many people in this era who are attracted to ‘paganism’ flock to it because of the perceived ‘lack-of-hierarchy’ or something along those lines. Neopagans of various stripes do a bang-up job convincing themselves that the pre-Christian religions and their practitioners lacked hierarchical structure and were categorically opposed to the entire concept. Umm, no. In reality, the neopagans, who are usually some combination of naïve and rebellious youths, and sometimes outright misfits who fail to make any headway in the competence hierarchies of normal society, are just shopping around for a ‘religion’ they believe to be the opposite of the (likely) Christian environment they were raised in, or some other type of hyper-structured (and possibly dogma-based) upbringing that left a bad lasting impression on them.
Of course the idea that pre-Christian folk religions lacked hierarchy is a totally ahistoric view, and quite ridiculous to those of us who have actually done the relevant homework on this. I often quip the actual neopagan worldview (and obnoxious reconstructionists that I also class as neopagans) who like to make this claim is actually much closer to that of the Protestant Christians they’re under the impression they are running away from (not quite!!), than anything resembling an ancient culture where honoring the gods was the norm.
The second major thing that might give them the impression of non-hierarchy, is that, in practice modern polytheistic movements are actually not very hierarchical owing to the fact that the movement as a whole is so small, niche (compared to the big popular religions) and geographically scattered all over the place; and to boot, it’s subdivided into many different sub-movements based on differing folk traditions. Such small numbers means the lack of resources to establish and sustain brick-and-mortar polytheist religious institutions, which seems to make it appear as there aren't real clerical/priestly hierarchies (though this isn’t really true once we scratch beneath the surface).
This is aslo the major reason why pagan/polytheist spaces seem to be so chock full of Leftists (i.e. people's whose true religion is modern-day secular-left ideology) wearing ‘pagan’ skinsuits. The broader movement seems to attract mostly the wrong type of people, as opposed to genuine seekers and devotees seriously interested in honor the gods, and placing the honoring of the gods above whatever petty contemporary secular political ideology-of-the-week happens to be favored at any given moment. Organizations without clear leadership, a strict vetting process for leadership positions, and a clearly-defined, tradition-faithful knowledge base that can’t be quickly rewritten or memory-holed on a whim, are super-easy for entryists to subvert and pervert. The entryists easily use their tried-and-true emotional bullying and gaslighting tactics to strongarm the typically-easygoing founder of the original group to bend to their will and let them hijack the group.
Finding polytheists these days who are serious and rightly put religion over politics seems to be like finding a needle in a haystack. They do exist though and thankfully I've found a few great people to interact and exchange ideas and insights with.
