Are there more than one God? Yes, but we should discuss their relevancy not their number and that depends on when you lived? Before your head explodes let me explain a little about Gods and their history. As you go back in time you find more and more gods. Every culture had at least one, most with dozens if not hundreds of gods. Today we have one major God, and I would like to give you a very condensed version of what I think happened to them.
First you should know something about my past. I was raised Christian and I am a Druid - Mage. I have experienced many wonderful and frightening things along this path I have chosen. I have healed and hurt people, some I love in my pursuit of magic. I have seen things few will ever see and most would prefer not to see. I have seen far into my past, watched as I became who I am today. I have witnessed the very essence of existence dance from the earth into the havens and other things I do not understand.
Religion also is a passion of mine; I have read many books of magic and religion in my life. All in my quest for the truth and I have come to the conclusion that I was not looking for the truth. I was looking for what I wanted the truth to be and that Magic is a different culture's religion. This does not invalidate their magic, but it made me look at magic in a different way. If Magic was a different culture's religion, what about my child hood religion, so I looked and I found the Bible was full of magic. Mostly in the Old Testament, in the New Testament it is more subtle but it is there and to me it ties all other magic and deities together in a fundamental way.
By now you probably think I’m mad or delusional but hear me out. There has been a long held belief (to which I subscribe) that a God’s power is proportional to the number of worshipers it has. The winner survives while the loser fades away and this was all prophesied in the Old Testament. It tells of the existence of other Gods in Genesis 1:26 Then God said (Let us make man in our image, after our likeness) and Exodus 12:12 (I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments; I am the Lord,) and who would win in Psalm 82:6,7&8 (I said, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince” Arise, O God, judge the earth; for you shall inherit all the nations!) I suggest you read the entire Psalm, very interesting reading. By the way who is the Most High?
I know some will dismiss some of these passages, saying they are open to interpretation but I take the Bible and other translated ancient text literally, if you can’t why read the? Am I to put myself at risk on someone's interpretation? Why should I assume that they know better than I as to what I read? This might hold true on some ancient script still in arcane form but the Bible has been translated to modern language. It says what it says or it is useless.
We all must agree today there is one God that almost everyone believes in. So that God won, it is realty like it or not. As to why the other Gods lost favor there are many reasons, but the main one seems apparent to me. If I had to live with the threat of me or one of my relations being sacrificed to the God or Gods, I would take any option available that would protect my family and friends. This assumption I believe is proven by the fact that the Druid religion lasted in one form or another until the seventeenth century, after they stopped human sacrifice in Roman times.
While these other Gods' powers are diminished, they are no less potent. But the price required to contact one of them would be quite high if even possible, well beyond what most of us would be willing to pay. For the ones out there willing to pay the price, I doubt you will have any success. If you did explain to me how you would control one of the Old Gods, with powers far greater than that of an Angel or demon and it takes a very powerful mage to summon and control one of them. My advice to you is to take it off your things to do list.
It is my belief there is one major God, with a few others that have enough worshipers to be relative but the vast majority have passed into what is known as the Old Gods. They are confined to their plane and are no longer relevant on this one and won’t be until they once again have enough followers to gain access to this plane. That seems unlikely in a society that is trying to diminish and discrete the few Gods that are left.
Thomas