ABSTRACT
Nearly all religions of the world recognize orders of inferior or minor deities, spiritual beings which were immortal or nearly immortal and therefore partaking of the nature of the gods. These beings rank below the leading deities, or the gods and goddesses who are supposed to take part in the government of the world and who are worshipped. I do not recall a single religion which has only one god or one supernatural being. These lower orders of spiritual powers seem to have been needed to satisfy the imagination of mankind, to be the hoi polloi or the plebs, to make a public over which the higher gods could rule.
