It could include gods adopted from foreign cultures, and sometimes even humans: deceased pharaohs were believed to be divine, and occasionally, distinguished commoners such as Imhotep also became deified.

Goddess beliefs take many forms: some people in the Goddess movement recognize multiple goddesses ; some also include gods ; others honor what they refer to as " the Goddess ," which is not necessarily seen as monotheistic, but is often understood to be an inclusive, encompassing term incorporating many goddesses in many different cultures.

Some fantasy-type films might also include quasi-religious or supernatural characters such as angels, lesser gods, fairies or in the case of live action / animation hybrids cartoon characters.

Other figures in Greek mythology punished by the gods include:

Bruckner remarks that the name of the Lombards stands in close relation to the worship of Odin, whose many names include " the Long-bearded " or " the Grey-bearded ", and that the Lombard given name Ansegranus (" he with the beard of the gods ") shows that the Lombards had this idea of their chief deity.

Well-known spiritual systems include animism ( the notion of inanimate objects having spirits ), spiritualism ( an appeal to gods or communion with ancestor spirits ); shamanism ( the vesting of an individual with mystic powers ); and divination ( magically obtaining the truth ).

These rituals include bathing the murtis ( the statues of the gods / goddesses ), performing puja, a ritualistic offering of various items to the Gods, the waving of a ghee or oil lamp also called an offering in light, known in Hinduism as aarti, before the murtis.

These references to the gods include a character comparing a mortal woman to a god, or saying he would rather be loved by a woman than by the gods.

The practice of a religion may also include rituals, sermons, commemoration or veneration a god or gods, sacrifices, festivals, feasts, trance, initiations, funerary services, matrimonial services, meditation, prayer, music, art, dance, public service or other aspects of human culture.

Other terms used to refer to the events surrounding Ragnarök in the Poetic Edda include aldar rök (" end of the world ") from stanza 39 of Vafþrúðnismál, tíva rök from stanzas 38 and 42 of Vafþrúðnismál, þá er regin deyja (" when the gods die ") from Vafþrúðnismál stanza 47, unz um rjúfask regin (" when the gods will be destroyed ") from Vafþrúðnismál stanza 52, Lokasenna stanza 41, and Sigrdrífumál stanza 19, aldar rof (" destruction of the world ") from Helgakviða Hundingsbana II stanza 41, regin þrjóta (" end of the gods ") from Hyndluljóð stanza 42, and, in the Prose Edda, þá er Muspellz-synir herja (" when the sons of Muspell move into battle ") can be found in chapters 18 and 36 of Gylfaginning.

In East Timor, one of the two predominately Christian nations in southeast Asia ( the Philippines being the other ), for some, the roof of the house is reserved for gods and spirits of ancestors, the lower portion remains for the nature spirit and usually occupied by animals, and the cock is admired because of courage and perseverance, with the courage of a man compared with that of the cock, with the cockfight occurring regularly and “ many tais designs include the cock ”.

The Dagda's siblings include the gods Ogma and Lir.

Later, it expanded to include those chosen by the gods, the righteous, and the heroic, where they would remain after death, to live a blessed and happy life, and indulging in whatever employment they had enjoyed in life.

In their distant origins the Cabeiri and the Samothracian gods may include pre-Greek elements Hittite, Thracian, proto-Etruscan, or Phrygian elements.

Other important deities include the twin war gods, the kachinas, and the trickster Coyote.

Atea then married Atanua, and their children include the lesser gods and humankind ( Tregear 1891: 29 ).

The consciousness is not restricted to human consciousness, but may include that of animals, rocks, everything in the world around us both seen and unseen, therefore can include gods and goddess ( akua ) and the spirits of the departed (' aumakua ) who often appear in the form of animals.

Other notable inhabitants of the heavens include the celestial sages, and Narada the messenger of the gods.

By Late Antiquity, some Gnostic and Neoplatonist thinkers had expanded this syncretic equation to include Aion, Adonis, Attis, Mithras and other gods of the mystery religions.

Still more fundamental principles include ahimsa ( non-violence ), the primacy of the Guru, the Divine Word of Aum and the power of mantras, love of Truth in many manifestations as gods and goddesses, and an understanding that the essential spark of the Divine ( Atman ) is in every human and living being, thus allowing for many spiritual paths leading to the One Unitary Religious Truth ( which Hindus call Brahman ).

Zeus ' other children include an array of " supercelestial " gods, the Olympians and Tartareans, all motherless.

Aeon may also be an archaeic name for omnipotent beings, such as gods.

* In Germanic paganism and Germanic neopaganism, a blót is a sacrifice to the gods or other beings

Charles H. Long writes, " The beings referred to in the myth -- gods, animals, plants -- are forms of power grasped existentially.

Pantheistic and polytheistic faiths make no such distinction ; gods and other beings of transcendent power often have complex, ignoble, or even irrational motivations for their acts.

While the Scandinavian tradition preserves some evidence of the álfar as skillful supernatural beings with positive connotations, much like the æsir or " gods ", the elves of Anglo-Saxon and continental tradition are almost exclusively presented as mischievous or malevolent beings responsible for misfortune or illness.

The opinion of the crowd is, Epicurus claims, that the gods " send great evils to the wicked and great blessings to the righteous who model themselves after the gods ," whereas Epicurus believes the gods, in reality, do not concern themselves at all with human beings.

Alongside him were trees symbolising the female and male aspects of nature, each holding the female and male aspects of the ' Life Essence ', which he, as apparent alchemist of the gods, would masterfully mix to create several beings that would live upon the face of the earth.

With them came various other gods and beings during which a grand funeral for Baldr was held.

Christian churches maintain such beings are distinct from " gods ", even though some churches authorize supplication, prayer and veneration of heavenly beings, angels, and saints, Christians who died in a state of grace and are believed to be in Heaven.

This theory is named " euhemerism " after the mythologist Euhemerus ( c. 320 BC ), who suggested that the Greek gods developed from legends about human beings.

He speculated that myths arose due to the lack of abstract nouns and neuter gender in ancient languages: anthropomorphic figures of speech, necessary in such languages, were eventually taken literally, leading to the idea that natural phenomena were conscious beings, gods.

However, it is equally possible to evoke angelic beings, gods, and other intelligences related to planets, elements, and the Zodiac.

Olympus Mons has become the Mount Olympos of Greek myth, home of beings playing the roles of the various Greek gods.

Many persons and beings have falsely pretended to be gods or demons during history ; in particular, none of the ones claiming to be major figures from Judeo-Christian beliefs has turned out to be the real article, although a number of angels have appeared in recent years, as well as an apparent true rebellion and expulsion of angels from a higher realm known as Paradise, proving that some form of Heaven and Hell do exist in this Universe, seemingly like those in keeping with common real world religious belief.

Above all pantheons of gods, mystical beings, and cosmic / conceptual entities there exists one, supreme " God ", a mysterious but apparently benign entity sometimes referred to as the One-Above-All.

Igbo gods, like those of the Yoruba, were numerous, but their relationship to one another and human beings was essentially egalitarian, reflecting Igbo society as a whole.

The Norns ( Old Norse: norn, plural: nornir ) in Norse mythology are female beings who rule the destiny of gods and men, a kind of dísir comparable to the Fates in Greek mythology.

" it is revealed that the classical Greek and Roman gods were actually a race of advanced beings who had visited Earth thousands of years ago.

Yet the human realm is considered to be the most suitable realm for practicing the dharma, because humans are not completely distracted by pleasure ( like the gods or demi-gods ) or by pain and suffering ( like the beings in the lower realms ).

The inhabitants of such places – gods, mythological beings and forces – are for the most part manifested as human characters who can move at will between their domains and the real world.

Also in Egypt, pharaohs began to posture themselves as living gods made of an essence different from that of other human beings.