Is all the spirit stuff really necessary? Why not just work with God directly?
A lot of the bells and whistles aren’t necessary. A lot of what’s done pertains to folks who have a particular calling to work in some way as mediators and bridges between human and other-than-human beings. The fact that there are these other kinds of beings doesn’t mean any given person has to spend much time engaging with them. In many traditional cultures the healer/shaman types are the ones who spend a lot of time relating with these other kinds of people and most living humans in the community just go about their lives, maybe coming together for festivals or healing or to share a dream. And then in some other cultures, everyday folks also spend more time relating with the spirits. Just depends. Islam, perhaps the most adamantly monotheistic major tradition, sees it as a major problem to engage in shirk, often translated as idol worship and meaning to associate other beings with Allah/God/Source. And yet in the Qur’an there is an entire sura (chapter/section) where God (through Gab
