SYLVAN

WICCA /SHAMANISM

 

LESSON 9A

 

Lesson Nine: The Deities (Part 1)

Within the embrace of the Craft, you soon learn that Witches generally

view the divine

as more than just a male God - that we see the source of life as both

male and female,

both Goddess and God. This may seem confusing at first, especially if you

are coming

from a monotheistic system of belief such as Christianity. Your first

response may be to

think that we are simply adding another deity to flesh out the paths we

follow. Actually,

the truth of the matter is quite a bit different than that.

When I work with students in person, I constantly encourage them to use

their minds

and think, to analyze the world around them and draw conclusions, and to

look for

parallels within the weave of Nature. There is an ancient law which

simply states, "As

above, so below," reminding us that reality is interconnected and that

because of this

interconnectedness, the physical is a reflection of the spiritual, just

as the spiritual is a

template for the physical. This interconnectedness is clearly

demonstrated within an

ecosystem. If a species is removed or a new one is introduced, it doesn't

simply impact

its immediate surroundings; it effects the entire web of life.

Introducing rabbits into an

area where they have no natural predators will result in a devastating

impact to plant

life as the rabbits multiply unchecked. Other species that feed on those

plants suddenly

have competition for a food source and, if their reproductive rate isn't

as high as the

rabbits, it's only a matter of time before the native population begins

to decline.

A single change can impact an ecosystem in ever-widening circles.

Because physical reality is so intimately interconnected, it is only a

small step to

understand that other levels of existence also influence the physical.

When you're

depressed, your immune system falters. When you're happy, you can often

bring joy to

those that aren't. A rousing pep-talk at half-time in the big game can

rally a team to

victory. Whether we are using visualization to improve our athletic

training or

meditation to release stress and improve our health, we can influence our

physical

environment through non-physical processes. It only makes sense that this

relationship between the physical and non-physical continues with the

sacred. If the

laws governing the spiritual realms were significantly different than

those which bring

order to the physical, there would not be any sort of connection. It

would be like trying

to use Macintosh software in a Windows environment. It simply wouldn't

work. It is

only logical to believe that if the spiritual truly exists, it mirrors

the physical realm as the physical likewise parallels the spiritual.

There is another principle, this one of from my own observations,

that states, "The closer you draw to source,

the more refined the energy becomes." Think for a moment

of a river. It is filled with silt, fragments of decaying plant matter,

and a great deal of

impurities. But as you draw closer to the river's source, to the spring

where it pours out

of the earth, the cleaner the water becomes. If we think of "God" as not

simply a

spiritual being, but as the embodiment of "Life," then the closer we come

to a perception

of what God is, the more "impurities" will disappear from our

perspective. Where the silt

and debris in river water would disappear at the spring, so a great deal

of human concepts

disappear as our perception embraces a clearer image of the divine.

Looking at the concept of the deities from a this perspective, we can

apply the law "as

above, so below" to draw a few simple conclusions. First of all, when we

look at Nature,

we see that life is not simply composed of male energy. Life is composed

of both male and

female, dark and light, and an infinite blend of those states of being.

In all of Nature, the

male joins with the female, creating life. It is a union, not an

exclusive state of being.

Likewise, when we look at the divine, we must understand that to focus on

a deity that

embodies one type of energy and not another (for instance, with a single

father god) that

we are excluding a large portion of reality.

Why? It's actually very simple. When we apply the concept of "as above,

so below" to

reality, we understand that physical life is a reflection of spiritual

life and that the spirit

world mirrors the physical. We realize that having only a male deity is

unbalanced. To be

exclusively male, the divine is incapable of embracing the female. It

goes back to the

theory, "The closer you draw to source, the more refined the energy

becomes." If "God"

was simply male, as we drew nearer to Him, the female would fall away as

it is not

something the male encompasses. If "He" was simply light, the dark would

disappear. As

we look around us, we see that there is also darkness in life; if this

darkness does not

come from "God," then it is outside of "His" being and he cannot be the

true source of life

as he is not composed of all things. But if "God" is the source of all

life, of all reality, then

"God" must be composed of all of life, the light and the dark, the male

and the female. If

there is a God, then there must also be a Goddess. If God is light and

life, then God must also be darkness and death.

 

Exercise Eight: The Divine

This is a simple exercise which some will find tremendously easy

while

others will find surprisingly challenging.

Sit and make a simple list of ten things you consider to be "good"

or

associated with "light" and ten things which you consider to be

"bad" or

"dark." For each item on your list, sit and think of a way that item

could be

embraced by the divine. Try to imagine a god, a goddess, or simply a

force that would see that as sacred.

For example, many of us fear death, but death can often be a release

from

sickness and pain for those with debilitating diseases. Fear can be

used to

strengthen us as we learn to face it. Sorrow gives us the

opportunity to

open our hearts and let the love of a friend or family member

comfort us,

which builds strong bonds of love and trust between us and them.

This exercise is designed simply to break you out of your mode of

thinking where the

divine is concerned. Many of us look at the things that occur in our

lives as being good or

bad, as right or wrong. How often do we hear ourselves say, "Why do I

have to go

through this?" or "How could God do this to me?" To look at each moment

as truly being

filled with the divine, and each occurance in our lives as a potential

learning experience,

this exercise will help us move beyond the way we normally view the world

and help us

embrace each moment as sacred and filled with divinity and life.

As you've seen, I've chosen to embrace the concept that many of my

ancestors held to be

true -- that there is a Goddess and a God. Within many modern Pagan

beliefs, the Goddess

is considered to be Maiden, Mother, and Crone, while the God is seen as a

duality -- both

Oak King (light) and Holly King (dark). In the coming sections, we'll

look at what this

means to us from the perspective of personal growth.

The First Cycle course is written by Graelan Wintertide

and is © 1999 All Rights Reserved