The Different Way to view the Gods and Goddesses

[graveghoul]

I know that there are many different views on how the Gods and goddesses are seen by people of different paths but here's a doozy.

Coming from a Christian upbringing, and relatively new to Paganism (or rather newly aware of its roots and meaning) would it be undermining the Gods to see them as the equivalent to saints or angels in Christianity? What i mean is, lower level beings under the whole, The One? Kind of like "The Whole's children or The Whole's associates or disciples.

The root of me reveres energy but also feels that matter and spirit are intertwined. I identify with Monism, Panentheism, and Paganism all at once. When i pray, i pray to God who, to me, is the source. But that's not to say that praying to the Gods and Goddesses is more informal, rather, they work their own deeds, kind of like angels or disciples that have specific interests.

For example, my mother prays to St. Jude for money or for when she has lost something seeing as how he's the saint of "lost causes" (coincidentally a green candle). Is this making any sense? What're your opinions? Is this complete nonsense or does it mesh well?

[Xiao Rong]

Yeah, I think I'm leaning this way at the moment. I think of myself mostly as a panentheist, although I think there are many other kinds of consciousness/intelligence that are all parts or aspects of the Goddess, although they are independent of her too. As it is now, I'm finding that my main interest is in the Goddess (whom you refer to as the Whole or the One), and she shows me different faces of herself as needed.

[Yex]

This is more or less how I view things. There is an ultimate, panentheistic Deity, and then beneath that Deity there exists a myriad of other beings, some of which are closer the the source than others. At least that's how I see it.