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anarchyinaction

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Elise's Details:
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Interests:	the Occult, Witchcraft, Halloween, Anarchy, Autonomy, Anti-Fascist, Earth First!, Nature and Spirituality, Ghosts, Recycling, Music, Native American Tribal Culture and Customs, NORML- Legalizing Marijuana, Infoshop.org, Anime.
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Favorite Piczo Site:	mine: anarchyinaction.piczo.com

Neo-Paganism
Differing Views of the Goddess(es) and God(s)

How do witches themselves view and experience the Goddess(es) and God(s)? Do they really believe they exist? As one might expect from an eclectic religion that highly values autonomy, there are multiple views as to who or what the Goddess and God are. (23) Be that as it may, there are some commonalities. Let's look at the six primary views.

First (but not foremost) is the idea that the deities of witchcraft are simply symbols: the personifications of universal principles, or of the life forces and processes of our world (e.g., the ebb and flow of life as seen in the seasonal changes), and nothing more. They are symbols used to help conceptualize the cyclical pattern of birth, life, death, and birth again.

Second, they are Jungian archetypes: universal symbols of processes and events of nature and of actual potentialities within all humans, springing from the common pool of the "collective unconsciousness" from which we all allegedly drink. Therefore, they exist in the sense that any archetype exists. They are more than "just" symbols, but do not exist externally to, or independently of, humanity. (24)

Third, they are dissociative or dislocative psychological states. That is, they are a split or spin-off from a person's own psyche or being (like a multiple personality state). They have a "life of their own" in that sometimes they can seemingly manifest themselves outside of the person: reason, talk, give advice, travel about, and so on. However, they are dependent on a given person's psyche for their existence.

Fourth, and apparently the most predominant view, the Goddess and Horned God and/or other gods and goddesses are personifications of the monistic, genderless, universal, and eternal Life Force -- the divine primal energy or principle. This source of all life and consciousness, which in this life and mode of existence is unknowable and incomprehensible, is personified by the Goddess and Horned God. They are myths, legends, or metaphors that are used in an attempt to explain or grasp the ineffable absolute One that is all, and gives life to all. This ultimately indescribable Force is primarily manifested in polarities -- female and male, light and darkness, Goddess and God, and so forth. Scott Cunningham tells us that "in wiccan thought the Goddess and the God are the twin divine beings: balanced, equal expressions of the ultimate source of all....They are dual reflections of the power behind the universe that can never be truly separated." (25) Thus, according to this view, they can be described either as personifications of the ultimate Life Force or emanations from or manifestations of it, but they nonetheless can be literal conscious entities. (That is, as literal as you or me.)

Fifth, multiple combinations of the above views are often held, depending on the individual's orientation. For example, some believe that the above four views are all true at one time or another.

Sixth and lastly, we have the agnostic "who cares" view. That is, in working magic or just in everyday life, invoking the Goddess and God seems to work. Thus, because of pragmatic and aesthetic reasons, some who are skeptical about (or even flatly deny) the Goddess's and God's existence still practice witchcraft. (26)

In addition to these varying views of the Goddess and God, some witches believe in good and bad extra-dimensional or intermediate beings, including other goddesses and gods, higher life forms, spirit guides and teachers, elemental spirits, and departed human beings who exist as manifestations of the One and/or are individual literal entities in their own right.

While some witches may be skeptical about the existence of the Goddess and God, they all emphatically deny the existence of the Devil and hell. Therefore, they vigorously reject the charge that they worship the Devil, which many Satanists would admit to.

Working Magic

Just as there are many explanations as to who or what the Goddess and God are, so there are various views among witches as to how and why divination and magic work. We'll survey the four most common.

First is the belief that the ability to work magic or perform divination is due to latent psychic abilities or powers that we all have. Some either have more of these natural gifts than others, or else they have developed them to a greater degree. Others may not even realize they have them. But they are nonetheless inherent within us all. (33)

The second view of magic appeals particularly to those who espouse the fourth view about the Goddess and God mentioned above (i.e., the view that the Goddess and God are personifications of the monistic Life Force). It holds that the working of magic is much like tapping into an electrical current. The "current" is the monistic universal energy or Life Force. Since this primal energy composes, interconnects, and flows through all (though manifested in myriads of forms), one merely has to learn how to "plug into" and harness some of this power for his or her own purposes. Thus, it can be manipulated toward the desired goal of the witch. (34)

The third view is that divination and magic are accomplished by the intervention of interdimensional entities such as gods and goddesses, higher life forms, spirit guides, departed humans, and so forth. They can be communicated with, and will supposedly aid us in our quest for "spiritual" growth, knowledge, and all things occultic. (35)

Fourth, the above theories can be found in varying combinations, such as one and three; one, two, and three; and so forth.