Author Topic: Am I understanding the God and Goddess Properly? (Read 3398 times)

loverofapollo · « **on:** September 03, 2013, 10:10:30 pm »

I am new to Wicca and Paganism in general (Wicca has held my interest for a long time so I thought it was about time I gave it it's due and looked into it in more depth) I just finished reading Fundamentals of Philosophy and Practice Wicca for Beginners by Thea Sabin and I'm just curious as to if I understand the God and Goddess correctly.

As I understand it their is one divine force in the universe and The Goddess the female aspect of that divine force and the God is the male, and that they encompass in a way all other gods and goddess?

If I'm wrong could someone please explain how the God and Goddess are traditionally understood within Wicca?

Blessed Be,
David

yewberry · « **Reply #1 on:** September 04, 2013, 01:50:39 am »

Quote from: loverofapollo;120800

As I understand it their is one divine force in the universe and The Goddess the female aspect of that divine force and the God is the male, and that they encompass in a way all other gods and goddess?

If I'm wrong could someone please explain how the God and Goddess are traditionally understood within Wicca?

From what I understand of Wicca, the way the God and Goddess are understood is through initiation (i.e. direct experience/revelation). Everything else is kinda academic.

Brina

Sage · « **Reply #2 on:** September 04, 2013, 09:45:54 am »

Quote from: loverofapollo;120800

I am new to Wicca and Paganism in general (Wicca has held my interest for a long time so I thought it was about time I gave it it's due and looked into it in more depth) I just finished reading Fundamentals of Philosophy and Practice Wicca for Beginners by Thea Sabin and I'm just curious as to if I understand the God and Goddess correctly.

As I understand it their is one divine force in the universe and The Goddess the female aspect of that divine force and the God is the male, and that they encompass in a way all other gods and goddess?

If I'm wrong could someone please explain how the God and Goddess are traditionally understood within Wicca?

Blessed Be,
David

Hi David! I dabbled in solitary Wicca for a bit and belonged to an eclectic Wiccan coven for about a year.

You may have already found from your exploration that there are many different approaches and traditions that can fall under the "Wicca" category. Because of that, it's not really possible to talk about "the" Wiccan approach to deity, any more than we can talk about "the" Christian approach to honoring Mary.

Older or more traditional Wicca (the kind directly descended in some way from Gerald Gardner's coven in Britain) is often oathbound, meaning that a lot of inner theology is kept only to members of that group. The actual names of a coven's God and Goddess were kept secret.

There is now eclectic Wicca - which is usually NOT oathbound, that you can find in books and online, that is sometimes called Neo-Wicca to distinguish it from the initiatory Wicca of Gardner and co - which has gone its own path. I have known Neo-Wiccans who believe in the God and Goddess as universal beings from whom all other deities emerge. I have known some who thought of them as just archetypal beings, powerful for their psychological and poetical value but not real. I have known others who were polytheistic that would honor specific god/dess pairs when doing ritual (for example, Freya and Freyr or the Dagda and the Morrigan).

Thea Sabin offers her own Wicca in her books. If you are practicing solitary eclectic Wicca - that is, not part of any group or coven - then you are able to come to your own conclusions about the nature of deity. If Thea's approach works for you, awesome! But don't be afraid to read different authors and experiment with new things.

loverofapollo · « **Reply #3 on:** September 04, 2013, 11:18:32 am »

Quote from: Sage;120829

Hi David! I dabbled in solitary Wicca for a bit and belonged to an eclectic Wiccan coven for about a year.

You may have already found from your exploration that there are many different approaches and traditions that can fall under the "Wicca" category. Because of that, it's not really possible to talk about "the" Wiccan approach to deity, any more than we can talk about "the" Christian approach to honoring Mary.

Older or more traditional Wicca (the kind directly descended in some way from Gerald Gardner's coven in Britain) is often oathbound, meaning that a lot of inner theology is kept only to members of that group. The actual names of a coven's God and Goddess were kept secret.

There is now eclectic Wicca - which is usually NOT oathbound, that you can find in books and online, that is sometimes called Neo-Wicca to distinguish it from the initiatory Wicca of Gardner and co - which has gone its own path. I have known Neo-Wiccans who believe in the God and Goddess as universal beings from whom all other deities emerge. I have known some who thought of them as just archetypal beings, powerful for their psychological and poetical value but not real. I have known others who were polytheistic that would honor specific god/dess pairs when doing ritual (for example, Freya and Freyr or the Dagda and the Morrigan).

Thea Sabin offers her own Wicca in her books. If you are practicing solitary eclectic Wicca - that is, not part of any group or coven - then you are able to come to your own conclusions about the nature of deity. If Thea's approach works for you, awesome! But don't be afraid to read different authors and experiment with new things.

Sage,

Thank you!

Riothamus12 · « **Reply #4 on:** September 05, 2013, 04:26:22 pm »

Quote from: loverofapollo;120800

I am new to Wicca and Paganism in general (Wicca has held my interest for a long time so I thought it was about time I gave it it's due and looked into it in more depth) I just finished reading Fundamentals of Philosophy and Practice Wicca for Beginners by Thea Sabin and I'm just curious as to if I understand the God and Goddess correctly.

As I understand it their is one divine force in the universe and The Goddess the female aspect of that divine force and the God is the male, and that they encompass in a way all other gods and goddess?

If I'm wrong could someone please explain how the God and Goddess are traditionally understood within Wicca?

Blessed Be,
David

That is one way they look at it. Some believe they are two separate deities entirely who embody all Goddesses and all Gods respectively. Some even believe in a third deity that is androgynous called Dryghten.

Adaire · « **Reply #5 on:** September 05, 2013, 08:40:06 pm »

Quote from: Sage;120829

Neo-Wiccans who believe in the God and Goddess as universal beings from whom all other deities emerge. I have known some who thought of them as just archetypal beings, powerful for their psychological and poetical value but not real. I have known others who were polytheistic that would honor specific god/dess pairs when doing ritual (for example, Freya and Freyr or the Dagda and the Morrigan).

Thea Sabin offers her own Wicca in her books. If you are practicing solitary eclectic Wicca - that is, not part of any group or coven - then you are able to come to your own conclusions...

This, and not just Neo-Wiccans. I'm BTW and circle with people who are duotheists, agnostics, and soft or hard polytheists. Thea Sabine is BTW herself, but that doesn't mean she speaks for all of us in her approach to theology, though I think it's a great book. I'm an over-medium polytheist myself

Louisvillian · « **Reply #6 on:** September 06, 2013, 06:52:30 am »

Quote from: loverofapollo;120800

As I understand it their is one divine force in the universe and The Goddess the female aspect of that divine force and the God is the male, and that they encompass in a way all other gods and goddess?

That is one interpretation, and has been one of the more popular ones over the decades, yes. There are tinges of it in the original texts Wicca produced in the 1950s. And it almost certainly was the most popular approach from the 1960s through the 1990s. Arguably a close second was the notion that the gods are all Jungian archetypes or thought-forms; a very intellectual approach that was popular among the college-bound folk that spearheaded neopaganism as a social movement in the 60s. Either direction, soft polytheism was pretty dominant in Wicca and in the more eclectic forms of Pagan and Polytheist revivalism.

There's some evidence that the first Wiccan practitioners in the 1940s and 1950s were more on the hard polytheist side than has been previously thought. Particularly due to Gardner referring to the Horned God and Triple Goddess as native deities of the British Isles, which is very different from the soft polytheist approach. And hard polytheism as an approach is becoming more popular in Wicca and other neopagan religions in the past decade or two.

But these are demographic trends or historical anecdotes. Your personal interpretation is what ought to truly matter to you. Your experiences and your perception.

Louisvillian · « **Reply #7 on:** September 06, 2013, 07:23:08 am »

Quote from: Louisvillian;121019

Post-script to this:
Wicca is framed around orthopraxy, or "correct practice", rather than orthodoxy, or "correct thought". The religion places its emphasis on proper conduct and structure of rituals, rather than on thinking or believing a certain way. Hence why Wiccans range, theologically, across the whole scale from atheists to monists to hard polytheists; and why a specific code of ethics are hard to nail down. But, as a result, a practitioner has a great deal of institutionalised freedom; a liberty of conscience that isn't just accepted by co-religionists, but encouraged.

Micheál · « **Reply #8 on:** September 08, 2013, 09:57:35 am »

Quote from: loverofapollo;120800

I am new to Wicca and Paganism in general (Wicca has held my interest for a long time so I thought it was about time I gave it it's due and looked into it in more depth) I just finished reading Fundamentals of Philosophy and Practice Wicca for Beginners by Thea Sabin and I'm just curious as to if I understand the God and Goddess correctly.

As I understand it their is one divine force in the universe and The Goddess the female aspect of that divine force and the God is the male, and that they encompass in a way all other gods and goddess?

If I'm wrong could someone please explain how the God and Goddess are traditionally understood within Wicca?

Blessed Be,
David

Since Wicca is orthopraxic, personal interpretation of the divine is very personal and subjective, however Wicca is also a priesthood that serves two specific Gods that we do refer to by specific names in ritual. That's not to say those outside the priesthood cannot connect with the Wiccan Gods(most of us that sought it out did so because of that very calling) but in Wicca they're called, and served in a specific praxis abiding by unique myths&oral tradition that makes it "Wiccan."

dragonfaerie · « **Reply #9 on:** September 17, 2013, 01:32:13 pm »

Quote from: Micheál;121180

Since Wicca is orthopraxic, personal interpretation of the divine is very personal and subjective, however Wicca is also a priesthood that serves two specific Gods that we do refer to by specific names in ritual. That's not to say those outside the priesthood cannot connect with the Wiccan Gods(most of us that sought it out did so because of that very calling) but in Wicca they're called, and served in a specific praxis abiding by unique myths&oral tradition that makes it "Wiccan."

That entirely depends on your flavor of Wicca (and I'm not going to get into a debate on what is and isn't Wiccan at the moment). I'm an initiate of an ecletic tradition that has no one party line on who the Gods of Wicca are. Generically, they're the Lord and Lady or the Goddess and the Horned God or the Green Man but in practice, we call on many different deities, and I know some of my covenmates look on deities as aspects of divine energy rather than separate entities.

Myself, I've become much more of a hard polytheist since my early days in Wicca. I will work with the Lord and Lady sometimes in my ritual, but I see them as distinct from other Gods I work with, such as Brigit and Cernunnos. So I don't entirely disagree with you there.

I like that there's no one way to interpret things. It's been a lovely journey figuring things out on my own, and I'm sure my views will continue to evolve. That's the beauty of Pagan paths.

Karen

Micheál · « **Reply #10 on:** September 18, 2013, 07:30:26 pm »

Quote from: dragonfaerie;122169

That entirely depends on your flavor of Wicca (and I'm not going to get into a debate on what is and isn't Wiccan at the moment). I'm an initiate of an ecletic tradition that has no one party line on who the Gods of Wicca are. Generically, they're the Lord and Lady or the Goddess and the Horned God or the Green Man but in practice, we call on many different deities, and I know some of my covenmates look on deities as aspects of divine energy rather than separate entities.

Myself, I've become much more of a hard polytheist since my early days in Wicca. I will work with the Lord and Lady sometimes in my ritual, but I see them as distinct from other Gods I work with, such as Brigit and Cernunnos. So I don't entirely disagree with you there.

I like that there's no one way to interpret things. It's been a lovely journey figuring things out on my own, and I'm sure my views will continue to evolve. That's the beauty of Pagan paths.

Karen

That is the beauty of pagan paths,

but also a reason why it could be difficult answering questions like these specifically without trying to ask what 'flavour.' Both a Traditional&Eclectic path can be orthopraxic leaving those with personal views to who the Wiccan Gods are, or further to what Gods are to them, but calling them in practise is where answers will vary.

Dragon Heart · « **Reply #11 on:** October 19, 2016, 02:34:07 pm »

Quote from: loverofapollo;120800

I am new to Wicca and Paganism in general (Wicca has held my interest for a long time so I thought it was about time I gave it it's due and looked into it in more depth) I just finished reading Fundamentals of Philosophy and Practice Wicca for Beginners by Thea Sabin and I'm just curious as to if I understand the God and Goddess correctly.

As I understand it their is one divine force in the universe and The Goddess the female aspect of that divine force and the God is the male, and that they encompass in a way all other gods and goddess?

If I'm wrong could someone please explain how the God and Goddess are traditionally understood within Wicca?

Blessed Be,
David

Okay so hi David

My experience with the research is that the god and goddess can be quite open to interpretation. I've heard of cases where instead of them just being a title they actually take the for of a god or goddess that is known to have correlations to the god or goddess aspects. For example the goddess Hecate can embody the Lady (I don't know if your aware but it Wicca the god and goddess are often referred to as the Lord and Lady) Because she has the three aspects which are the Maiden, the mother and the crone. Although then it appears if you chose a goddess for the role of the lady its important to pick a suitable Lord.

If I were you I'd try and look online and see if other pagan pages can give you information as usually you find that quite experienced Wiccans tend to show up online, as well as this you can also try you-tubers. but its important to remember that this is open to a certain level of interpretation and can also be combined with other beliefs to make it more of a personal journey.

I hope this makes sense and has helped

Blessed Be,

Dragon Heart

SunflowerP · « **Reply #12 on:** October 20, 2016, 10:23:43 pm »

Quote from: Dragon Heart;197674

Okay so hi David

Hi, Dragon Heart,

Just so you know, this is an older thread, and the OP hasn't been logged in on TC in almost two years.

Reviving threads is okay, so you're not in any trouble. But since you're directly addressing the OP, it seemed like a good idea to let you know that they're extremely unlikely to respond, or even see what you've said to them.

For more information on how to identify older threads and tell whether the OP is still around or long gone, and on best practices when reviving threads, see this how-to post.

Sunflower
TC Forum Staff

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Author Topic: Am I understanding the God and Goddess Properly? (Read 3398 times)

loverofapollo

Am I understanding the God and Goddess Properly?

yewberry

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Sage

Am I understanding the God and Goddess Properly?

loverofapollo

Re: Am I understanding the God and Goddess Properly?

Riothamus12

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Adaire

Am I understanding the God and Goddess Properly?

Louisvillian

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Louisvillian

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Micheál

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dragonfaerie

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Micheál

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