Category:Deities

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A delegation of gods meet to discuss the coming Judeo-Christian Apocalypse.

God created the world, but you know who created us gods? You did. You humans. Sort of… When you apes first climbed down from the trees, you didn't pray to him. You prayed to the the sun, the womb, the rain, and the stars. Well, at first, the creator was furious. How dare you not recognize his beneficence?… But soon enough, he birthed us. Ra, Anu, Hera, Mixcoatl, and all the rest. […] Why? Why?… To take the blame. Bad harvest? Stillborn child? Our bad. Not His. Plus, we made for epic stories. But his ego could only handle that for so long. Now he's happy to hide behind whatever religion has the best syndication deal while we survive on scraps in the wilderness… Most gods, they're forgotten. But I'm old. I hold a grudge… Oh, well. What are you gonna do?

Fortuna, 15.11 The Gamblers

History

Deities or gods are powerful supernatural beings representing the dominant authority of a religion. The major deity featured in Supernatural is referred to as God, who merely hides behind whatever religion is most popular at the time, that of the Abrahamic Religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam).

The goddess Fortuna eventually reveals to Sam and Dean Winchester that when God first created humanity, they worshiped things in nature. Initially enraged, God chose to create the pagan deities as scapegoats to take the blame for things going wrong and because they made an epic story. However, God's ego only allowed this for so long and he abandoned his creations and chose to hide behind whatever religion is the most popular. Over time, most of these gods have forgotten their true origins and took to hunting humans for scraps and competing against each other to display their dominance over opposing religions.[1]

Kali shows disgust for Westerners and their belief that they have the right to leadership in their own God's name, accusing them of butchery. She also states that she and the other gods' religions were practiced before his.[2] Michael later confirmed Kali's statement as he was directly responsible for the creation of the Abrahamic religions by having all the angels and every former prophet throughout the past few millennia brand God's visage all over the world.[3] Amara also explained God encouraged these religions as monuments to his ego and promised everyone safety if they adored him.[4]

List of Deities

Throughout the Supernatural series, there have been many deities encountered including:

Abrahamic:

After taking in all the souls from Purgatory, Castiel declared himself the new God.
After taking Chuck's power and absorbing Amara, Jack becomes the new God, balancing the light and darkness and declaring himself hands-off.

Egyptian:

Greek:

One of the three Fates, along with her two sisters.
The son of the Greek titan, Prometheus and a human mother, Hayley.[7]

Hindu:

Norse:

Roman:

The son of Fortuna and an unknown human father.

Other:

Deity Death List

In some traditions, particularly monotheistic religions, deities and gods are thought of as being immortal and all powerful. However, in Supernatural the deities can be killed by humans, other deities, and angels. Death claims that God will one day die.[8]

Attributes

God is well known for creating the entire multiverse and everything in it, though many gods take umbrage to this as they claim to have been around and worshiped long before him. However, it was revealed that God created these deities as well to entertain himself and abandoned them when they no longer amused him, leaving them to eventually forget about their origins and compete against each other for dominance.

In Supernatural, deities have far greater longevity than humans, making them immortal but not all powerful. While their powers and abilities vary greatly depending on the type of deity, they all seem to possess some abilities that may be inherent in all gods like immortality, superhuman strength, enhanced speed, refined agility, and heightened senses.

Appearances

Gods have true forms of their own, but often appear in human form on Earth. For instance, Ganesh can turn into an elephant (which is his symbol in lore),[2] Veritas seems to have a body of a cat but takes on human form,[12] and Eve, the mother of all monsters, appears hideous in her true form when seen through a camera.[23] The pagan gods disguised as Madge and Edward Carrigan actually live as a suburban couple, but when Sam shines a light on them their true visage is shown to have cracking skin and heterochromia iridum affected eyes.[10] Fenrir Odensbane, Narfi and Sleipnir could make holographic representations of their true animal forms appear over their heads though only Fenrir assumed any of the traits related to this form.[20]

Blessings

Mercury's presence positively influencing a dead plant's growth.

Other pagan gods are able to provide blessings to influence the weather and vegetation both positively and negatively as well, such as the Vanir,[9] who could influence the growth and health of the crops, or Madge and Edward Carrigan, who gave mild weather in the middle of Michigan on Christmastime.[10] Both types of gods seemed to be able to perform these in exchange for human sacrifices. Without their sacrifices, the power of the gods would wane or fail.[9][10][11] Mercury's presence can also influence the growth of vegetation positively, as demonstrated when a pot of dead flowers sprouts in his presence.[2] Moloch is capable of providing wealth to whoever feeds him, however his powers have diminished as a result of being starved for two decades, which required him to take multiple sacrifices to replenish his strength.[24]

Powers and Abilities

Most gods possess their own unique powers. Tricksters can alter reality and make objects, people, and other average organisms appear out of thin air and dispose of them just as quickly.[25] Leshii can shapeshift, read human minds, make himself invisible, and move at incredible speeds.[11] Mercury can also move at incredible speeds in an instant. Baldur, Ganesh, Odin, and Zao Shen all possessed extraordinary strength. Kali uses pyrokinesis to attack her foes and bind beings to her if she possesses their blood.[2] Veritas possesses telekinesis, the agility and speed of a cat, and can cause any human to speak only the truth. However, Sam Winchester was rendered immune to her power when he didn't have his soul.[12] God can teleport people anywhere on Earth without being physically present.[26]

In contrast, Sleipnir appeared to be relatively weak and was easily defeated in a fight by Dean after he was disarmed. Sleipnir also showed no extraordinary abilities of his own besides making a holographic image of a horse's head, his presumed true form, appear around his own head.[20]

Demigods

Demigods are typically conceived by the union of deity and a mortal. According to Gabriel, the Norse pantheon is different than most of the pantheons. Gabriel tells Sam and Dean that Loki's three sons are not really "demigods", but closer to "god-begotten monsters", which are monsters born from the union of two deities.[20] Noah Ophis later reveals that gorgons are in fact closer to demigods rather than monsters.[21] Fortuna reveals that her son Pax is a demigod as well, but hints that an angel blade can potentially kill him as his father was human.[1]

Weaknesses

Despite being immortal, they all seem to be vulnerable in some way and can be killed by various weapons or by other beings. Tricksters, immortal demigod like creatures, can be killed with a wooden stake dipped in the blood of one of it's victims.[25] Higher beings, such as archangels, are capable of killing pagan gods with ease, as shown when Lucifer kills nearly every pagan god in the Elysian Fields Hotel.[2] Atropos, one of the three fates, can be killed by an angelic weapon.[27] Eve can be killed when exposed to phoenix ashes.[13] Mr. Vili is able to be killed by Mjölnir[16] and the weapons of Artemis are able to kill other immortals as well.[7] The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse can also be listed as deities each representing their archetypal personifications, however they are also susceptible to killing through Death's Scythe. Death states that even God will someday meet his end and he would reap him when the time comes.[8]

Dean: Well, I gotta ask: How old are you?
Death: As old as God. Maybe older. Neither of us can remember anymore. Life, death, chicken, egg – regardless. At the end, I’ll reap Him too.
Dean: God? You’ll reap God?
Death: Oh, yes. God will die too, Dean.

For killing Fenrir Odensbane, Narfi, Sleipnir and Loki, the archangel Gabriel specially-crafted a wooden sword for each god. These appeared to be a more weaponized version of the stakes used by hunters against gods and Sleipnir's appeared to be stained with an unknown type of blood. Gabriel created these weapons because, with his powers weakened by Asmodeus, he could not simply kill the gods with his archangel powers, but use the more traditional means of dispatch instead.[20]

For Mars Neto, he couldn't be killed as long as his amphora was intact. After Millie Winchester broke it, Mars was vulnerable to normal methods of harm as John Winchester was able to kill him by impaling Mars on a broken spear and then bashing him in the head several times.[22]

Apocrypha

"Only reason the stake worked was 'cause nobody'd worshiped those two for centuries. Gods're only powerful when people believe in 'em. You meet Zeus in a dark alley, he can probably muster up a lightning bolt, but a couple of thousand years ago? He'd fry you as soon as look atcha."

  • In Supernatural: Mythmaker, an event called the Apotheosis occurs where a multitude of new gods are created and fight to the death to determine which god will survive to become immortal. Sam suggests that other examples of the Apotheosis are Ragnarök and the war between the Greek gods and the Titans and believes it to be a method of reproduction. The Apotheosis ends with all of the new gods killed, the last, who was the winner, by Sam and Dean. However, Sam also suggests that it was triggered by hunters, in particular the Winchesters, pushing the species nearly to extinction.

Gods in Lore

References

Media in category "Deities"

The following 118 files are in this category, out of 118 total.