Alcestis and I are riding the new light rail system in Phoenix – all twenty miles of it – across the heated metropolitan span of the city. We are in search of the sparking force that speeds, inhabits and blesses this train, the force that rides with its electricity. We are looking to discover and greet a new urban god.

Contemporary paganism is building a scholarly model of what it means to be a 21st century pagan, as well as where our traditions originated. Reconstructionists are doing invaluable work in translating and making easily available ancient source documents from a variety of spiritual traditions. But modern paganism is also very much an experiential one – "What did I do, how did I do it, and what happened when I did it? Let me tell you about it." Consider this article an exploratory foray into the subject, a precursor and perhaps model for further journeys. A meeting place; a talking point. Let us explore together.

The City is the territory here, the urban landscape of 21st century America. Erik Davis, in Techgnosis, describes the city as a nexus of "the myth of information, of electric minds and boundless databases, computer forecasts and hypertext libraries. Immersive media dreams and a planetary blip-culture woven together with global telecommunication nets."

How are gods created? The first gods of the Greek pantheon were created by the Primal Forces – Chaos, among others. Those first-forged gods physically mated, creating other gods who sometimes mated with humans. And that's how it happened in just one ancient pantheon.

What might that really mean? How does it apply (if it applies at all) to us today? Are any new gods out there?

There are a number of views. Some believe that the gods have always existed in some form, as primal forces. As human cultures developed, the gods were lent aspects of those cultures and anthropomorphized to varying degrees: Hades and Ah Puch are both gods of the Underworld, ruling in their respective Greek and Mayan realms.

Other pagans believe that the gods have not always existed. M. Macha Nightmare says, "No, I don’t believe they always have. This goes to the very controversial and complex issue of thea/ology." Thea/ology addresses the goal of developing a “core pagan philosophy and a more unified pagan theology – or 'thea/ology.'" It also discusses what paganism offers (or might offer) to the world at large.

"I think they [the old gods] may fade from prominence now and then," Macha continues, "depending on people and culture. And I think new gods reveal themselves when we call them forth, intentionally or not."

Some believe that there are no "new gods," urban or otherwise – only new aspects and faces of ancient ones.

Authors Raven Kaldera and Tannin Schwartzstein, in their book Urban Primitive, a survival guide for urban pagans, say that new gods do exist and are created out of the infrastructure – architectural, geographical, transportational, cultural, subcultural, tribal – aspects of the city and of the developing 21st century needs and devotions of pagan inhabitants. The urban power grid as invisible temple, perhaps.

In the book, they devote a chapter to the places in the modern city the old gods can be found, too. You might find Athena or Thoth in a public or university library; Artemis in women’s shelters and health clinics; the goddess of good fortune, Kwan Yin, in a soup kitchen or Goodwill store. Dionysus might be found in a drag bar or at certain rock concerts. Aphrodite, Oshun, Ishtar might be encountered in a singles bar or a strip club; as the authors write: "The girls working there might not know it, but they are the heiresses of the sacred harlots of ancient times..." The local city hall or state capitol provides a home for Zeus or Odin. And that’s just a few of old gods-turned-contemporary-urban that Kaldera and Schwartzstein mention.

They also describe a modern urban pantheon – the Triple Urban Goddess, consisting of Squat, Goddess of Parking Spaces, Skor, Goddess of Yard Sales, Flea Markets, and Trashpicking, and Skram, the "goddess who tells you when not to be there." The Triple Urban God consists of trickster-god Slick, who "gives the gift of fast-talking and thinking;" Skrew, who "as you might imagine, gets you laid," and Sarge, the "one who really gets you off your ass and gives you the motivation to do some important thing you really hate to think about."

Laid against these literally-existing gods and goddesses are also “pagan atheists” who believe that the gods have no objective existence but only archetypal, symbolic, or psychological functions.

And the entire subject of gods is, as Kaldera says, "...a tricky theological subject." He continues:

"First, I believe that the line between 'god' and 'spirit' is more like a grey area, and more a matter of human opinion. While I do think there is a difference between a small spirit and a large god, I’m not hubristic enough to figure out what the line is. Nor any other human, either. Neo-pagans call the Vodoun Yemaya a goddess; Voudoun practitioners call her a spirit and say that only the overarching personal deity is a god. Who’s right?"

Who’s right, indeed? Taylor Ellwood, author of Multi-Media Magic and The Pop Culture Grimoire, suggests two models: "...a new god is really just a new face for an old god…a revisioning of the archetype if you will into more modern terms. The new gods really do exist and have been brought into existence by the belief/attention/need of people for them to address problems, explain situations, and otherwise influence the lives of the people who believe in them.

"The latter model pisses a lot of pagans off because they don’t like the idea that a new god can come into existence, or that their gods might only exist because people believe in them. But to my mind, if a deity needs worship/belief, there’s a relationship there that is similar to a human being needing food and water."

Moreover, who has the authority to declare a new god "real" and part of a pantheon? But – by what authority? And which pantheon?

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