So I guess before I begin I should add some disclaimers. First, this is just my view. I can't and won't say that my views are shared by most, or even many. But that's the beauty of Paganism. It's all excepting of any and all views. It's a very personal religion, and it's different for each and every person. No two people see it the exact same way, or practice it the same way. People who have similar, or wish to have similar, views, can form or join a Coven. But other then that it's everyone for themselves and what you believe. Your Pagan sisters and brothers will back you up and believe in you and what you do. As long as you are harming none.
So onto my world view. The Idea of Yin and Yang is prevalent in all my thoughts of Gods and our existence as a whole. This is an ancient eastern (Chinese) philosophy, first appearing in I Ching and Taoism. In Taoism it's called Taijitu, and the traditional symbol show above is a classic example. It has also appeared in Celtic artwork, and on roman shields, in much the same form. It's seems in all three cultures it has much the same meaning, a sign of balance, and how everything is connected and part of a whole. Both examples are given in the article I linked above for Taijitu.
The basic idea is that all things are two parts of one whole. Male/Female (or Mate/Mate for some **see footnote below), Light/Dark, Hot/Cold, Water/Fire, and so on. These are NOT opposites, in the traditional sense, they are not opposing forces like we often think, but two halves that together make up one whole. Without dark, what meaning would Light have? Without Cold, what would Hot mean? In most ancient views, Good/Bad and other moral considerations were not a part of it, since it's main purpose was in defining natural laws. But as moral philosophy has grown we can also see the moral impact and import of this Taoist thinking.
From the first time I saw and understood this symbol and it's meanings, it's been a guiding principle of my life. Much of my inner musing and soul searching has been focused around this idea. So it's also a intricate part of my Wiccan life and beliefs. Let me break it down a little more. The circle itself has meaning, it's what the two halves make as their whole. It's a part of, but a greater and separate thing than the halves themselves. It's the whole, the end result of the two halves. So let me first look at that and how it relates to the Gods for me.
Let me look at the whole first, then we'll look at the parts. The whole is Everything, the Universe. The power and force of everything's Creation. I don't want to call this force God(dess), because this force in neither male or female, neither good nor bad. It's both creation and destruction. It's the Whole of every two parts of the Yin Yang. It is the circle itself. The matter in the universe is it's body, and the energy of the universe is it's spirit.
It's spirit is every energy and force in the entirety of existence. It's light, gravity, flowing electrons, magnetism, radio waves, and the soul and spirits of all things in the universe. It's heat, and it's cold. It's the burning of the stars and the force behind the sea. It's the spinning of the planets, and the splitting of atoms. It's all things that grow, all things that think, all things that feel. It's in our brains, and our bodies. It gives us life and allows us to command the matter of our bodies to our wills. It is also our wills, our soul, and our spirit. We're all a piece of that greater whole.
It's body is the earth we walk on, the air we breath, the water we drink, the bodies we live in. It's all things made of atoms and electrons and protons. It's all the elements of the periodic table, and many we have yet to discover. It's the gasses that make the starts, and the matter that creates the forces of spirit, like gravity and magnetism. The spirit binds it all and collects it into the solid forms we see all around us, The moon, the earth, our bodies, and all the animals, rocks, and plants upon it (their physical forms). So there we have our first Yin Yang, the greatest and most basic. Energy and Matter. And together they make up everything we know.
So, everything, down to every last sub-atomic particle, is GOD (for lack of a better term, you could use Goddess or any other name here). I capitalize all the letters there to separate it from the God and Goddess, that are ASPECTS of GOD. GOD is neither male or female. GOD is neither Good or Evil. GOD is neither Creation or Destruction. GOD is EVERYTHING. However GOD is also not something we can talk to, to relate to. You can worship GOD, but GOD doesn't care. Any more then we are aware or care about individual cells in our bodies. We all make up GOD, and GOD makes up us. But GOD is so alien, so "beyond" us that we can't relate to GOD at all. I think GOD has will, and I think GOD has purpose, but it's nothing like anything we could ever understand.
What we can relate to, and what we can understand (in our own way), are the aspects of GOD. We cannot fathom the circle as a whole, but we can understand it's parts. We can understand the God and Goddess, the male and female parts of GOD. The Good and the Evil, the Light and the Darkness. These parts we can talk to, pray to, worship. We can ask of these aspects, and be listened to. We can be granted power and understanding by these aspects. GOD created these aspects of ITSELF, and we, and the whole of creation around us, are reflections of these aspects in some way or another.
First of all, this is not "standard" belief in most Wiccan systems, but I believe there are several "levels" of "life" as we know it. There is a First order of beings, beings of spirit and soul but not matter. These are what Christians would call Angels and Demons. While I think they have always been, I also think life as we know it moves towards that state of being, and that all people can "move on" to this level in time. I think life moves from matter to matter/spirit, then onto spirit. In time, all things will become spirit once again, then it's time for another "big bang". And it all starts over, but we grow all throughout this process. So we move from the body of GOD to the spirit of GOD.
I'll talk more of Angels and Demons in another blog, in an attempt to keep this one shorter. So in my belief those of the First Order are beings of Spirit, the Goddess and the God are members of this Order. The First Order is also split up into "ranks", with the God and Goddess first and foremost, followed by the lesser Gods and Goddesses. All aspects of GOD fall into the First Order, being closest to GODS will, since GODS will is of ITS spirit, and they are beings of spirit. Those of the First Order are not Female/Male per say, since they have no physical body, but as aspects of GOD they do share the aspects of Male/Female in the forms of the Goddess (female) and the God (male). The others of the first order are not so much defined by Female/Male but by Good/Evil, Creative/Destructive,Love/Hate type aspects. However they may also strongly adopt Male/Female aspects as well. On a quick side note, for lack of a standard Pagan/Wiccian term, there is also a Devil/Deviless. The "Evil" aspects of GOD, and counterparts to the God/Goddess. More on that in another blog.
Enough back story, I think I've setup enough to venture onto my main topic here. First lets look at the Goddess, the female half of the Female/Male whole. She gets most of the attention in current Wiccan practice, and while understandable, it's also a little sad. It seems the dis-empowerment, we might even say subjugation, of women in almost all major religions worldwide has driven many women to Wicca as an excepting alternative. But instead of correcting the wrong of the "main-stream" religions, it seems it has made the same mistakes again, but in the opposite extreme. Almost everywhere you go, and everywhere you look, Wiccan is predominately a female religion, with it's main deity the Goddess. This is also something I will address in detail in another blog, so as not to bog down this one, but even though I find it sad, I also find it understandable. Many Gay people had flocked to Wicca because of it's none judging and excepting nature, and I can understand Gay female covens not having much use for the God. But more on that another time.
For me, the Goddess has no name. If you have need of naming her, there are lots of suggestions out there. Aphrodite, Bast, Ceres, Diana, Hella, Indunn, Iris, Isis, Morrigan, Freya, Inanna, the list goes on and on. Sometimes you might want to name an ASPECT of the Goddess by name if your needing a certain aspect of her power. Like for love, or fertility. But for myself I find the Goddess works fine, because that's her in ALL her aspects. Because all those names are the names of the Goddess, and she is all of them. For some people, naming the aspects themselves gives power in working spells, but what will give you power is what YOU believe. A name, the words, have no real meaning or power. The power comes from your will and your spirit calling out to her. I'll get into spells and magic another time, but be warned, you don't get who you call by name, but who you call in your heart. So even if you call to a Goddess of Love, if in your heart it's not love you are seeking but ownership and dominance, the forcing of someones will, you'll get the aspect that you called in your heart, not the one you called with your lips.
The Goddess is not just "Female", and what is that anyway? We all know females with male traits and males with female traits. This is a very blurry line. The Goddess can be war, blood, and destruction, just as the God can be love, compassion, and caring. But when they are expressing traits of the other, they are channeling the others power, that's where the idea of the "dot" in the yin yang comes in. There is some of both in each. But their greatest power lies when channeling their own traits. The Goddess is Love, Creation (of spirit), Nurturing, Birth, Softness, Gathering, Growing, Comforting, Night, The Moon, Home, Beginnings,Water, Emotions, Earth, Passion, Strength of Spirit, Spirit or Soul, Intuition, Healing, and Desire. Among many other things. But still, the Goddess and God are mixed in all things, like in the Yin and Yang. She maybe the night, be he is the Sun, but a billion suns burn in her night sky. And he maybe the light, but her night lives in all the shadows his light throws.
The God, likewise, is not just "Male", and once again, what exactly is "Male" anyways? He also has no name for me, but he's known by many. Zeus, El, Elohim, 'ilah, Baal, Eros, Frey, Ullur, Tyr, just to name a few. As with the Goddess you might call him by name to invoke certain aspects, but the aspect you call with your heart will be the aspect you get. The traits of the God are Hunting, War, Justice or Law, Strength of Body, Logic, Order, Matter, Destruction, Death, Endings, Thoughts, Hardness, Lust, The Sun, Air, Fire, Sky, Journeys, Creation of the Material, Protection, and Providing. Just to name a few.
These aspects are not set in stone, and some are shared. Both the God and Goddess can protect you, but may do so in different ways. The Goddess may wrap her arms around you and shield you from harm, where the God may stand in front of you to block you from harm. She may simply seek to keep the harm out, while he may seek to destroy what is trying to harm you. The goddess may seek justice for you through revenge, while he may seek it through law. Really the God and Goddess will be who YOU believe them to be. Personally, except in very certain situations, I ask them both for help, and let them sort it out. I don't ask the God or Goddess to protect me, I ask the Goddess AND God to protect me. But for me, and the way I believe, that's where the most power lays. You will know where it lays for you, and you will be right.
**Side note, I didn't deal with it here, but I do know Male/Female is not how some people become whole. I'll touch on this another time, but for now, since Male/Female works as an idea for at least 80% (I guess?), for ease of Pro-nouns and clarity I'll stick with Male/Female throughout this posting. I'm am not excluding or belittling those that seek unity outside Female/Male bonding, but no matter how you look at it, or you personally feel, you can't escape the fact that most living things are divided along these lines, and procreate this way. It has nothing to do with love, bonding, power, or the Goddess and God. Any bonding of your choosing, or no bonding at all, holds equal power for each person according to how they themselves feel about it.
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