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POSTINGS
(Number 399)
ARCHETYPE 's of the GOD/DESS
I was just reading Damiana's lovely posting
(placed at the end of this posting for the readers on the main site here)and it
reminded me of a
deep discussion on the Craft and what it meant to differing people
taking part in that chat. There was ceratinly a lot of talk that
sort of went back and forth on The Goddess/God aspects and/or
archetypes so, I thought I'd try and make a summary here of that
fiesty chat and post it out as food for thought. The discussion was
certainly interesting at the time and when I saw Damiana's posting,
it brought out those feelings once again. I've posted these concepts
in a sort of bullet form to emphasize the way the discussion went and
hope that it comes accross ok.
I - THE ARCHETYPE OF THE GODDESS
A. The Craft has always been a religion of poetry and love, not so
much theology.
1. The myths, legends, and teachings are recognized as metaphors
for,`That which cannot be told'; the absolute reality our minds can
never completely express because of the limitations placed on it
through biology.
· The mysteries of the absolute can never be explained - only
felt or intuited.
· Symbols and ritual acts are used to trigger unusual states of
awareness in which insights that go beyond words are
revealed.
2. When the phrase `secrets that cannot be told' is used, it is not
a matter of oaths taken or the threat of penalties that might be
imposed.
· The true meaning is that the inner knowledge literally cannot
be expressed in words.
· It can only be conveyed by experience and no one can
legislate what insight another person may draw from any
given experience.
· This is why the Craft is not a spectator religion, where you
can refuse to put any effort in and gain anything meaningful
for your own development.
· This is also why entrenched priesthoods foster the belief
that non-priests must go through a hierarchy of priests,
heads of churches, and eventually through chosen prophets and
sons of the deity in order to receive special attention by
the deity.
3. The primary symbol for `that which cannot be told' in the Craft
is the Mother Goddess. She has an infinite number of aspects and
thousands of names because She is the reality behind many metaphors
for the creation of the universe.
· Unlike patriarchal systems, the Craft sees the Goddess as
giving birth to the world rather than creating it out of
nothing.
· The fertile Lands were made from Her Flesh, the Waters from
Her own bodily Fluids, the Mountains from Her Bones, and the
Winds from Her own Breath.
4. The Goddess does not rule the world, She IS the world and since
She gave birth to us all, we have the potential to reconnect with the
spirit of Her in all Her magnificent diversity.
· Religion for us then, is a matter of re-linking with the
Divine within and with Her outer manifestations in the entire
human and natural world.
· One of the basic beliefs that the Craft is founded upon is
what Stewart Farrar called the `Theory of Levels', which
recognizes that reality exists and operates on many planes.
· A simplified but generally accepted list would be - physical,
etherical, astral, mental and spiritual.
· It is recognized that each of these levels has its own laws
and that these laws, while special to their own levels, are
compatible with each other and their mutual resonance governs
the interaction between the levels.
· The point of this excursion into the esoterica of how the
universe works, is to point out that we do not separate our
physical existence from our spiritual existence. In the
Craft, spirit and flesh are joined together and physical
aspects of being human such as sex are not
considered `dirty ` or `sinful'.
B. The importance of the Craft for women is a direct outgrowth in
the decline of Goddess religions and the rise of God dominated
religions.
1. Male images of divinity are characterized in both western and
eastern religions today, and women are thus deprived of religious
models and spiritual systems that can speak to female needs and
experience.
· In the extremes of male dominated religions, women are not
encouraged to explore their own strengths and realizations.
· They are taught to submit to male authority, to identify
masculine perceptions as their spiritual ideals, to deny
their bodies and sexuality, and to fit their insights into a
male mold, no matter how ludicrous that may seem.
· The image of the Goddess inspires women to see themselves in
a very different light.
· As Daughters of the Goddess, they are divine, their bodies
are sacred, and the changing phases of their lives are holy.
· Their aggression is healthy, and their anger can be
purifying.
· Their power to create and nurture as well as their ability to
limit and to destroy, when necessary, is seen as the very
force that sustains all life.
· Through the Goddess, women can discover their strengths,
enlighten their minds, own their bodies and celebrate their
emotions.
· They can move beyond narrow constricting roles and become
whole people.
3. For women, the Goddess is the symbol of the inmost self and the
beneficent, nurturing, liberating power within all women.
· The cosmos is modeled on the female body, which is sacred.
· All phases of life are sacred and age is a blessing, not a
curse.
· The Goddess does not limit women to their bodies. She
awakens their minds and spirits and emotions.
· Through Her, they can know the power of anger and aggression,
as well as the power of love.
C. The Image of the Goddess has a great deal to offer men as well as
women.
1. Men are also oppressed in a God ruled, patriarchal society.
· Men are encouraged to identify with a model that no human
being can possibly live up to.
· Men are expected to be mini-rulers of their own very narrow
universes.
· Men are internally split between a spiritual self that is
supposed to conquer their baser animal instincts, and their
emotional selves.
· They are at war with themselves. In the west, they are
expected to overcome the tendency to sin, while in the east
they must suppress the desires of the ego.
· Needless to say, no man comes away from this type of struggle
undamaged.
2. Every male who is raised by a mother will from birth carry within
him a strong feminine imprint.
· This is so, because women give birth to males, nurture them
at their breast, and in our culture, are primarily
responsible for their care until they reach adolescence.
· The symbol of the Goddess allows men to experience and
integrate the feminine side of their nature without danger of
losing those feelings, which are the touchstone of their
masculinity.
· The Goddess becomes: the mother who will never abandon
Her 'child: refuse to nurture him when he is feeling his most
vulnerable: tempers Her justice with compassion and
understanding, all these in ways not always possible in human
women and other men.
3. For a man, the Goddess is his own hidden Female self, as well as
being the Universal Life force.
· She embodies all the qualities society teaches him not to
recognize in himself.
· His first experience with Her may therefore be somewhat
stereotypical, in that She appears as the cosmic lover, the
gentle nurturer, the eternally desired Other, or the Muse.
· All that he is not.
· As he becomes more whole and becomes aware of his
own `female' qualities, She seems to change, to show him a
new face. Always holding up a mirror, She shows what may
seem ungraspable to him.
· He may chase Her forever and She will elude him, but through
the attempt, he will grow until he too learns to find
Her within.
II - THE ARCHETYPE OF THE HORNED GOD
A. The Horned God is born (of the Goddess)
1. He is a model of male power that is free from father-son rivalry
or `Oedipal' conflicts.
· He has no father, because He is his own father.
· As He grows and passes through the changes on the Wheel, He
remains in relationship with the prime nurturing force of the
Goddess.
· His power is drawn directly from the Goddess and He
participates in life through Her.
2. The Horned God represents powerful, positive male qualities that
derive from deeper sources than the stereotypical violence and
emotional crippling of men present in our society.
· When a man strives to emulate the God, he is free to be wild
without being cruel, angry without being violent, sexual
without being coercive, spiritual without being unsexed, and
able to truly love.
· For men the God is the image of inner power, and of a potency
that is more than merely sexual.
· He is the undivided Self, in which mind is not split from the
body, nor spirit from flesh.
· United, both can function at the peak of creative and
emotional power.
· Men are not subservient or relegated to second-class
spiritual citizenship on the Craft.
· But neither are they automatically elevated to a higher
status than women, as they are in other religions.
· Men in the Craft must interact with strong, empowered women
who do not pretend to be anything less than what they are.
· Many men find this prospect disconcerting at first.
3. For women raised in our present culture, the God begins as a
symbol of all those qualities that have been identified as male, and
that they, as women, have not been allowed, or encouraged to own.
· The symbol of the God, like that of the Goddess, is both
internal and external.
· Through meditation and ritual a woman invokes the God and
creates His image within herself.
· In this way she connects with those qualities that she may
lack.
· As her understanding moves beyond culturally imposed
limitations, her image of the God changes and deepens.
· He becomes the Creation, which is not simply a replica of
oneself, but something different and of a different order.
· True Creation implies separation, as the very act of birth is
a relinquishment or letting go.
· Through the God, women know this power within themselves, and
so, like the Goddess, the God can empower women.
4. In the Craft, the cosmos is no longer modeled on external male
control.
· The hierarchy is dissolved and the heavenly chain of command
is broken.
· The "divinely revealed" texts are seen as poetry not
the "word of God."
· Instead, a man must connect with the Goddess who is immanent
in the world, in nature, in women, and in his own feelings.
· She is immanent in everything that childhood religions taught
needed to be overcome, transcended, and conquered, in order
to be loved by `God'.
· The very aspects of the Craft that seem threatening also hold
out to men a new and vibrant spiritual possibility: that of
wholeness, connection, and freedom.
· Men of courage find relationships with strong powerful women
exhilarating and they welcome the chance to know the Female
within the self.
· They enjoy the chance to grow beyond their culturally imposed
limitations and become whole.
· Within Covens, women and men can experience group support and
the affection of other women and men.
· They can interact in situations that are not competitive or
antagonistic.
· Men in Covens can become true friends with other men,
without giving up any part of themselves, or subjecting
themselves to derision or ridicule.
III - ETHICS AND VALUES SHARED BY MOST MEMBERS OF THE CRAFT
A. The ethics of the Craft are more positive than negative.
1. Rather than being exhorted with a plethora of "thou shall not's"
the Craft is guided by principles more along the lines of "blessed be
they who...."
· The Craft is a joyous creed; it is also a socially and
ecologically responsible one.
· Witches delight in the world and their involvement in it on
all levels.
· They enjoy their minds, their psyches, their bodies, their
senses and sensitivities; and they delight in relating, on
all these planes, with their fellow creatures and the Earth
Herself.
· Wiccans believe in a joyful balance of all human functions.
· This outlook is perfectly expressed in the Charge of the
Goddess, which is an integral part of most of the rituals of
all witches.
· "Let My worship be within the heart that rejoices; for
behold, all acts of love and pleasure are My rituals, and
therefore let there be beauty and strength, power and
compassion, honor and humility, mirth and reverence within
you."
· This provides a model of a balanced ethic, which presents
eight qualities that are positive and not restrictive.
· Compassion means empathy, not condescension; humility means a
realistic appraisal of your own stage of development;
reverence means a sense of wonder.
· The Wiccan is always conscious that compassion must be
partnered with power, humility with honor, and reverence with
mirth.
2. Love of life in all its forms, is the basic ethic of the Craft.
· We are bound to honor and respect all living things and to
serve the Life Force.
· It has been said that we all serve the Goddess, even if only
as compost.
3. Witchcraft recognizes that life feeds on life.
· We must kill in order to survive, but life is never taken
needlessly, never squandered or wasted.
· To ensure the survival of the species, females are not hunted
as game, for they share the sacred bond of motherhood with
the Goddess.
· Serving the Life Force also means working to preserve the
diversity of natural life, preventing the poisoning of the
environment and the destruction of species.
4. The World is seen as the manifestation of the Goddess
· What happens in the World is important because the Goddess is
directly affected.
· While the seasons of the year renew the Goddess, She needs
the participation of Her creations to keep the cycle going.
· This is the real function of the Sabbats. They reinforce the
ties between humankind and the Planet that gives us life.
· Unlike other gods, that allow humanity to exist at their
sufferance, the Goddess needs us just as much as we need Her,
and we are partners in the pageant of Life.
5. Justice is seen as an inner sense that each act brings about
consequences that must be faced responsibly.
· This is based on the belief that all things are
interdependent and interrelated.
· Therefore, we are all mutually responsible because an act
that harms anyone harms us all.
· This is summed up in the form of a law known as Karma, which
dictates that all actions bring about changes.
· There is a saying in the Craft that illustrates the effects
of Karma known as the Threefold Law of Return'
· `Whatever is sent out is returned three times over.'
· It is a sort of amplified `Golden Rule'
6. Honour is a guiding principle of the Craft.
· It is an inner sense of pride and self-respect
· Refusing to do anything which would make you ashamed of
yourself, strengthens your magical will and leads to the self
respect that comes from setting your own course, guided by
your own inner sense of right or wrong.
· This makes you rightfully proud of past accomplishments and
encourages you to stay the course.
· The Goddess is honoured in oneself and in others.
· Women are respected and valued for all their human
qualities.
· The Self, one's individuality and unique way of being, is
highly valued.
· Like Nature, the Goddess loves diversity.
· Oneness is attained not through losing the Self, but through
realizing the Self's potential.
7. Self-development and the full realization of one's unique, yet
many aspected potential, is a moral duty for a witch.
· Life is seen as a gift from the Goddess and it is up to us to
push the evolution to mankind.
· If suffering exists, it is not our task to reconcile
ourselves to it.
· We must work for change in all ways at hand.
· That which helps this evolution to come about is seen as good
and desirable while actions that thwart it are to be avoided
because each of us is a factor in the cosmic evolutionary
process.
B*B
Damiana's postings..........
Degree System
within Wicca Working Tools of Wicca
Elements of Witchcraft More Witch
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With Thanks
