Sylvan Wicca: The Goddess and God

From my personal point of view see that there is a supreme creative force of energy in the universe, which is then divided into male and female energies. This creates fertiliy and balance. From this fertile presence the divine spark is created. This is then divided into further blocks of creation of earth(female), fire (male), water (female), air(male). These four elements are what the ancients believed all creation was made from. Today we realise the rational thought of molecules and such make up the universe, but think of them as the spirit of the molecules, the magic that makes this molecule wanting to attract and bond with another to create. These Elements are very powerful as you will find if you ever work with them.
Witches worship the masculine and feminine energies of nature We personify these energies into various Goddesses and Gods from mythology. This aids in visualisation and concentration as we can relate to the well know forms. It also aids us to relate to the specific energy we are trying to relate to or work with, for instance if we wanted to bless a home we could call upon Hestia, a female force of positive energy relating to happy homes from Greek mythology (of Vestal virgins fame).

Goddess worship goes back many thousand years .In the Paeolithic period , when we were the good old cave men , there is evidence of Goddess worship. Many figurines of Goddesses were found, many, many more than male. The relationship between fertility of the land the fertility of women were likened to each other, hence Mother Earth. Remember there is strong evidence from modern stone age tribes that most of the tribes nutritional needs were forfilled from the gathering from nature, not from the hunting( like in the cartoons about cave man!)

Goddess worship has been a world-wide pheromone for at least fifty thousand years. Evidence of this worship is clear from many societies. Only in the last couple of thousand has she been swept away to all but a few small pockets of society. Larger burgeoning populations meant warfare, to compete for ever needed recourses. Strength of arm was needed to forfill this, and this and the Goddess was put aside for a more aggressive age. Until now, why are so many now rediscovering this important feminine side of divinity?

Because of my personal drawing towards Greek mythology we tend to use many Greek Goddesses and Gods in our workings. Our Crone is drawn to Celtic, we occasionally also use Norse, Egyptian or Summarian mythologies also.The choice is usually made by how close we feel and understand the specific myth or personality of the deity in question and how they relate to the energy we wish to achieve..

Never blame the popular rise of Christianity for the temporary demise of the Goddess worship, this religion just happened to come about at the right time, after the fall of power from the Roman empire and it was used as a political tool to unite people. The phrase in the bible "thout shall not suffer a Witch to live" is a mis -interpretation from its translation, it was apparently meant to say something such as a sorcerer. Our persecution from the church was a political farce to gain money. All around it was politics, not Christians that caused the problem. But I must admit to the saying,' Christianity is a great religion, pity not many of them practice it.' (Hey ,they burn nine million of us, I'm allowed a small dig!)

Many Witches worship the Goddess and see the God as merely consort. This is showing no disrespect to the God but merle acknowledging the seasonal phases . The Earth is constantly here but the Sun's strength waxes and wanes with the seasons of the year bringing fertile energy to Mother Earth when strong .

In the Sylvan temple we worship the Goddess and God as equal, as we see that both are of equal importance. We need both to balance our workings and ourselves personally. We acknowledge within ourselves a masculine and feminine sides to our personalities and try to achieve balance of them. Through this balance we will achieve a harmony and strength within ourselves.

It would be beneficial to you to read some mythology , you might even suprise yourself by enjoying it. Myths can be read on many levels, it can be an entertaining tale, a learning of morals and an explanation of natural events all in one. For example a myth about Juno may have her getting angry at her husband Zeus for his infidelities. She was patron of marriage, the personification of the atmosphere, so one can see why such tales of her abounded. Try reading a myth or two and see if you can find a story behind the story.

The sun is a masculine energy. The Earth is feminine because of its fruitfulness, as is the ocean, her waters being the embryonic fluid of all creation. The moon is also feminine because her phases are likened to a woman's menstrual cycle.

We also worship our higher selves as divinity, realising that we are made of the same cosmic stuff as everything else. In honouring our higher selves we are acknowledging that we honour the supreme creativeness of nature .We are a part of everything and everything is a part of us , all is one.We believe In the Goddess and God because we believe in nature. We trust in divinity, because we know our selves to be part of this divinity .Balance is needed for creativity and we crave this balance in ourselves.

Blessed be.