Magick Whispers

Goddess and God

The Goddess and God are seen as the female and male aspect of Nature. They do not reign over the Universe, they are the Universe itself.

Pagans have a pantheism of many Goddesses and Gods, but they are all just one Goddess and one God. They have appeared in different forms and at different times to match that culture's expectation of them. The various forms that they appeared in were necessary to convey a message, at a certain time, and to a certain people in a way they could understand. This explains why there appears to be so many Goddesses and Gods, but there is only one.

Because there are many traditions derived from many cultures, there are many names for the God and Goddess in each of their aspects. Some Traditions use names that all come from the mythology of a single human culture, for example the Greek or Celtic. Other Traditions use a variety of god and goddess names, and some Traditions will not reveal the names they use to non-initiates. The Gaia Tradition prefers to use titles, rather than names, for the God and Goddess in their aspects. However, we do have a name that we sometimes used for each aspect, in those situations where using a name feels more comfortable than using a title.

Art - Evelyn De Morgan

GODDESS: The Goddess is everything, everywhere. Hers is a natural cycle, a regenerating circle that replenishes the Earth. Her hair is the sky, Her eyes the stars, the soil Her skin, the mountains Her breasts, the ocean Her womb. Her spirit is in everything, from the trees, rocks, and animals, to each human being. Because of Her, we are therefore divine ourselves, and should respect ourself and every person, because we are all connected by Her.

She has no name and a million names. No matter what you call Her---Gaia, Hecate, Isis, Demeter, or Brigid, She is one in all of these names. They are simple aspects of her personality and graces. She of the moon, of the sun, of death, of life, of love and of wisdom---She is all of these things and more.

She is the nurturer, the giver, the taker, She who gives birth, She who brings death, She who destroys and She who creates. She plants the seed with one hand and reaps the crop with the other.

She is viewed as the Maiden, Mother, and Crone. Sometimes in the sacred myths, the Crone will take on the role of the Maiden or the Mother. This is because they are actually one Goddess..

The Triple Goddess (her highest form) is three and one. She is the Celtic example of womanhood. She is beautiful, a good mother, and the giver of good advice. Her colors from the sacred lore and from the three stones of Carnedd of Moelfre (Britain) are red, white, and blue.

The Maiden Goddess: Is young and beautiful. She reminds us to enjoy life to the fullest. Often called the Hunter Goddess. What is she hunting for? Men of course!

She is often called the "Virgin Goddess" and most people think that she did not have sex!

This is untrue, she actually did have quite a bit of sex as Diana's Temple at Ephesus will attest.

There she was also called "the many breasted Goddess" and she was a fertility Goddess. A virgin is a woman not "attached" to any one man. A woman under the authority of a man (married) was prohibited from entering Diana's temple, the penalty was death. Her examples are Artemis, Diana, Brigit, Blodeuwedd, Cinderella, Snow White, Aphrodite, Asherah, Guinevere, Liberty, the Bride in Revelations, and others. Her symbol is the crested moon and her colors are silver and white.

In America, during the 1800's, the Maiden Goddess Liberty was placed on coins and many art works display her holding a chalice, the Holy Grail. One painting has an eagle (the Father God's symbol) drinking from the Grail while held by the Goddess Liberty.

Asherah a triple Canaanite Goddess of the bible, according to the Ras Shamra Epic (15th century B.C.) she is the wife and sister to the Hebrew God. She is a Goddess of love and the sea and she's also known as the Greeks Aphrodite and the Romans Venus.

There are many descriptions of the Goddess. But the description from The Golden Ass by Apuleius, from the second century A.D. describes her like so: "I fell asleep and I dreamed of a divine sea. Then as the moon rose from the sea, a glorious face, worshipped even by the Gods themselves also rose. Then, little by little, as the moon rose, she rose from the sea and walking upon the shore. I could see her whole lovely body, glowing bright. She walked from the sea and stood right in front of me. Her hair was thick, long, flowing, and curled. She wore many garlands with flowers in her hair, and in the middle of her forehead was a crested moon. The crest had serpents on each side. Above the crest blades of corn shot out. Her clothing was of many colors and it's brightness hurt my eyes. The colors were shinny white, yellow, and flaming red. Her cloak was shinny black, and it wrapped around her left arm to her right shoulder. Throughout the cloak stars twinkled and a crested moon was in the center of the cloak. This crested moon shone like a flame of fire and on the edges of the robe was a garland wreathing unbroken, made from all the flowers and all the fruits that the earth grows. In her right hand she had a tambourine of brass. In her left hand she held a cup of gold, the holy grail. The handle was an asp with an expanded throat. Her glorious feet were

Art - Evelyn De Morgan

covered with shoes interlaced and imprinted with victorious palm. The divine shape, wore perfumes from Arabian spices. With her holy voice she spoke great words to me." In the mythic cycle, the Maiden emerges from the underworld at Imbolc, returning to the earth from her time of retreat and transformation there. She brings the promise of Spring's return, and with it another season of fertility, growth, and life. At Ostara, she meets first couples with the young Horned God, and that coupling fills her body with the seed that will bear fruit at Yule when she, asthe Mother Goddess, gives birth again to the young God. The two Divine ones are inseparable lovers from Ostara until Beltane, when she and the Horned God wed. As a result of that commitment, both of them move from youth to full adulthood, the Maiden transforming into the Mother.

The Maiden is symbolized by the wreath of candles worn by the Priestess whose body she shares at the Imbolc Sabbat, the celebration of her return to the earth. Her candle color is white, for innocence and newness.

The Mother Goddess: Is the example of love. She reminds us of the importance to love others and ourselves.

She is the oldest of all known Goddesses. One of her statues discovered in now modern-day Turkey dates to 6,000 B.C. A carving of her is found in a prehistoric cave dating to 25,000 B.C. In Barkshire England, the iron age people carved out the White Horse of Uffington to symbolize her. She is the Queen of the Night, in Mozart's opera The Magic Flute. Chaucer Medea calls her, "Lucina the shining, that of the sea is chief Goddess and Queen." Under

Art - Evelyn De Morgan

the shadow of the Great Mother Goddess at Ephesus, the Christian Church (c. 431) seeking to absorb the Goddess from the Pagan religions turned, Mary mother of Jesus into the Mother of God and authorized her to receive worship and prayers.

Her examples from the myths are Arianrhod, Cordelia, the Queen of Heaven, Mother Nature, Dana, Ishtar, Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Mary Mother of God, Ashtoreth or Astarte, Diana of Ephesus, Epona/Rhiannon (the horse Goddess) and others. Her symbol is the full moon, the red cross, and the horse. Her colors are silver and red.

"And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman (Mother Goddess) clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: (the Zodiac) And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour

her child as soon as it was born. (Note the Dragon can't harm the Goddess). And she brought forth a man child (the Sun/Warrior God), who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught (snatched before the Dragon could take him) up unto (The Father) God, and to his throne (to protect his child until he was grown when he could fight the Red Dragon). And the woman fled into the wilderness, (in hiding) where she hath a place prepared of (the Horned Hunter) God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days (years)." From Revelation chapter 12.

Ashtoreth, a Goddess of the bible, and one of the triple Goddesses of the Ras Shamra Epic. She's a Goddess of sex, war, marriage and fertility. King Solomon the wisest man in the world was her worshipper, I Kings 11:5 and II Kings 23:13.

The bible book Esther is really about a priestess of Ishtar. The name Esther is derived directly from Ishtar, the Goddess. Tradition in Persia required the King (Xerxes in Esther) to be married to the Goddess Ishtar (a charged Priestess). Esther in chapter 2 records the purification and selection process for this Priestess as duplicated in other ancient sources. Esther's banquet in Esther 2:18 is the wedding celebration of the Goddess to the King. It has been suggested that Ishtar and Easter (our spring Goddess) are the same Goddess and are connected to the Easter Sabbat. The bible book of Esther doesn�t appear in the dead seas scrolls.

The Mother assumes her role at Beltane, when she weds the Horned God with whom she has dallied as the Maiden since Ostara. As all-mother, she then reigns with her consort the God-King over the year's planting, growing, and harvesting. Her impregnation by him at Ostara is brought to fruition at Yule when she delivers the young Horned God who will replace his sacrificed father. After giving birth to the Horned God, the Mother enters a time of retreat and transformation in the underworld as the Crone.

The Crone Goddess: The Crone is the old, wise Goddess, we use the name Cerridwen from Welsh mythology for her. The Crone is the old, wise Goddess, the epitome of wisdom. We use the name Cerridwen from Welsh mythology for her. Women who have reached their crone phase, that is, have completed menopause and are looked up to with respect and

affection. These are the women whose wisdom enhances us all. We also understand that although their reproductive abilities are over, in crone-phase women's sexuality is by no means finished. The Crone is symbolized by the cauldron of rebirth which she tends in the underworld, through which we all must pass and be cleansed before our rebirth into a new life. Her symbol is the dark or new moon. Her colors are silver, dark blue, and black. She appears in the Arthur legends as the old woman that marries Sir Gawain.

Having delivered her child, the young Horned God, at Yule, Mother moves into her Crone phase. At the winter solstice, she retires from the earth to rest in quiet solitude, like the earth itself. Just as the apple, bearing her pentacle within its fruit, cannot grow in spring without the dormant time of winter, so the Goddess needs this time as the Crone to rebuild herself from her life during the past year and to prepare to re-emerge once again at Imbolc as the Maiden.

Her examples from the myths are Morgan La Fay, Macha, Mother Goose (who originates from the triple Goddess Epona in her crone form), Persephone Queen of Hades, the Fairy Godmother, Hecate, and others. She is Queen of the Fairies and Shakespeare calls her Titania in his Midsummer Night's Dream. Edmund Spencer in The Faerie Queen (1590) calls her Gloriana.

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Jean Delville

GOD: The God represents the male aspect of the Divine in general. In some traditions, there is just one God who undergoes a variety of changes. In others, a multiple array of entities make up the male Divine. He is the son, husband, father, lover, guardian, warrior, protector, prankster, fertilizer, reaper, bringer of death and life, gateway to the Underworld, the hunter, the healer, the watcher, the shadow, the crop and the harvest. His mysteries are not ones to be lightly dismissed. His presence is mighty and His power eternal.

The Horned God is the God as he first manifests untamed lusty and free. We call him Pan, from Greek mythology. He has also been called Cernunnos, "the horned one" and Hearne, which is Celtic. The Horned God is symbolized by the erect phallus and the stag's horns. Both being symbols of physical virility and sexual potency.

The Triple God is the Celtic example of manhood. He is a good Father, a good provider, and when needed, he is a good Warrior to protect his family and nation. The Horned God is born at Yule, which is the time for the

incarnation of Divinity in the sacred stories of many religions including Christianity and Mithraism. He spends his infancy from Yule until Imbolc in the underworld, where the spirits care fro and teach him. At Imbolc, he follows the Maiden up into the world and takes up his untamed life in the wood he meets and first couples with the Maiden at Ostara, and the two have a passionate love affair from then until Beltane when they wed and he becomes the God-King. He's

the King of the Fairies, Shakespeare calls him Oberon in his A Midsummer Nights Dream. He reminds us that it's fine to party and be an animal sometimes.

The God-King: The God-King is the God in his full maturity and power; we use for him the name Lugh, from he Irish Celtic tradition. Lugh was the leader of the Tuatha De' Dannan (children of Dana) and defeated Balor, the God-King of the Fomors, to become the chief god of the Irish pantheon. Some of his titles are "of the many arts" and "of the long hand". The God-King represents men at the height of their strength, power, and ability. He is a constant reminder, that strength, power and ability must be tempered with love, compassion and respect for all people, men and women, weak and strong.

He has matured from his early life, when he was free of responsibilities and cares. His marriage at Beltane to the Mother has transformed him into the God-King, the lord of growth and harvest. At Litha (midsummer), he presides over the height of the growing season, and the height of both his and the Mother Goddess's power. At Lughnasadh, also called Lammas, he and the Mother celebrate the first harvests and the promise that the people will have enough to survive the winter. However, by Mabon (fall equinox), the efforts he has expended during the growing season have weakened him enough that he transforms into the aging Sacrificed God.

The God-King is symbolized by the staff, which is both a weapon of defense and a symbol of royal power. His colors green and gold.

The Sacrifice God: The Sacrificed God who gives himself for the fertility of the Earth and her people we name Baal, from Caananity mythology. Baal, Tammuz, Osiris, and of course Jesus. All self-sacrificing gods of middle eastern cultures, were carried into northern and western Europe, where the idea of the god who dies for the people took firm root. In many Pagan traditions, notably the Celtic, the earthly king, the consort to the queen, served only as long as he was physically able. Some tribes had yearly contests at which the king had to defend his title against challengers. Some rotated the king out after a period of time (usually seven or nine years); and some simply replaced him when he began showing signs of aging. In all these cases the aging king, like the aging god, sacrificed himself at the end of his reign, either ritually or actually.

Once the Mabon transformation is complete, the God knows that he is too weak to continue to serve as God-King. He "retires" becoming the Sacrificed God and begins preparing himself to give his life for the land and the people, so that both may have success the following year. At Samhain, he completes his sacrifice, dying for his people and trusting the Mother to rule the world alone until her retreat begins at Yule.

The Sacrificed God is symbolized by the white-handled dagger that we use for cutting, in remembrance of his sometimes violent self-sacrifice. His color is black, for sacrifice and death.

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