" But you don't believe in any sort of dark spirits behind it?"
What I experience is that there are all kinds of spirits within the matrix which is an outcropping of infinite potential. There are infinite possibilities all driven through the creative mind. This all fires over top of polarity so we have positive and negative components tho the circuit. So these "spirits" can influence through agreement. But it can also be seen as an alignment through thought forms. What we think, we become (experience).
Define gods. Anything that creates or influences reality is a god imo. I believe that some entities have more influence due to awareness. For instance you can influence a cow more than it influences you (depending on the cow).
I believe that deception is interchangeable with influence. A cow would feel deceived by humans as it is led to it's slaughter to sustain a human. There are many levels of that going on. One entities deception is another entities sustainment (through a certain kind of awareness based on entropic filter).
I notice that good and evil are human terms that we pain over polarity constructs. Is there struggle? You bet there is.