Lesson Nine: The Deities
Basics of Witchcraft
by Jeffrey Pierce
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 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 Goddess
When I work with students, I don't promote a goddess from any particular pantheon. During that portion of the instruction, we either explore the gods and goddesses the student's ancestors followed or consider the deities from a specific culture that the practitioner feels particularly drawn to. If a practitioner connects with a specific deity, the deity is normally only called upon in solitary practice. Within group work, instruction, and much of our discussion, we use an archetypical Goddess and God.
The Goddess we focus on is considered to embody the aspects of Maiden, Mother, and Crone, similar to the Christian concept of the Trinity (Father (God), Son (Jesus), and Holy Spirit). In much the same way, the three phases of the Goddess are considered to be held within one deity. As we'll soon examine, we don't consider these aspects to be separate entities and this concept of the Goddess is a powerful tool in understanding personal growth and development cycles.
In magickal work, the Goddess is generally associated with the moon. Certain ritual tools can be seen as corresponding with the Goddess; these are typically circular in shape, are able to hold materials in a womb-like receptacle (like a bowl or round dish), or are curved without sharp lines or angles. For group ritual work, the Goddess is associated with the left hand side of the altar.
The first aspect of the Goddess which we focus on is the Maiden. Practitioners often visualize her at any age from a young girl to a young woman. We associate many of the same qualities with the Maiden that we would to a stereotypical woman in the same age group: She is young and vibrant, sees the world as full of discovery and excitement, and is often associated with the absence of pain or darkness. As specific aspects of the Goddess are often associated with specific phases of the moon, we typically connect the Maiden with the waxing moon, from a point just past new until just before it is full. This is because the Maiden's energy is seen as young and vibrant, as it is still rising toward it's peak. There is no criteria to what the Maiden must represent. She can be a warrior, a huntress, a carefree child, a playful lover; the key is that the Maiden's energy is associated with very little responsibility for anything other than herself and her own life. It's a phase devoted to newness, life, and exploration of the world within and around you.
As we'll consider a little later, the Goddess follows a natural cycle from Maiden to Mother, from Mother to Crone. The Mother aspect of the Goddess is typically associated with two types of energy. First of all, she is often represented by a pregnant woman or by Mother Earth, corresponding to the Mother's fertile nature, her ability to give life, and her abundance of productive energy. But she is also represented by a Mother who already has children of her own, and in this aspect she is seen as nurturing, caring, strong, intelligent, and growing in wisdom. Like the Maiden, she can take many forms. She can be a warrior protecting hearth and home, a huntress bringing food to the table, a gentle mother caring and nurturing her children, or a wise woman taking the first steps to train a new generation of Witches. What's important is the specific energy that is associated with her. The Mother is normally associated with the full moon, representative of her abundant energy. It's not as vibrant as the Maiden's energy which is still rising toward it's peak. But it is strong, a combination of the Maiden's passion for life and the Crone's endless wisdom.
The third phase of the Goddess we look to is the Crone. She is often pictured as an old woman, her wisdom drawn in the wrinkles which cover her face, and is generally associated with the waning moon as her energy is beginning to fade. However, we must remember that at this point, the waning moon has observed the preceding lunar month and has learned from the phases that came before. More than any other trait, the Crone is associated with wisdom. Knowledge is often added to this, but the Crone is normally honored for her wisdom, occasionally in exclusion of other traits which she is also associated with (such as her perspective and vision, the ability to see cycles and work magick, and the understanding of death and the otherworld). Like the other phases of the Goddess, the Crone can be many things, but the vibrancy of her energy is fading, like the waning moon she's associated with, and her path often explores the power of wisdom that is slowly developed over the decades.
Exercise Nine: Discovering the Goddess
Sit quietly, much the same way that you did with the observation exercise for the
Exercise One: Learning to Listen. If you feel it's appropriate for your meditation, you may consider lighting a candle, burning some incense, and/or putting on some soft music. Make sure that you won't be disturbed (the ringer is turned off on the telephone, etc.) for at least five minutes, but for no longer than a half-hour.
Sit quietly and clear your mind. Your eyes may be open or closed. As your mind clears, imagine that you are sitting on a large moss-covered boulder near a forest path. As you begin to visualize the forest around you, the Goddess will come. She may come in a specific phase, or may appear as all three at once. She may walk down the path toward you or emerge from the woodlands around you. If you'd like, feel free to speak to her in your mind, but it isn't necessary. Simply observe if that's all you feel led to do.
If the Goddess comes to you in a specific phase, experience her presence for as long as you'd like then visualize her next phase appearing. Do this until you have seen each phase, Maiden, Mother, and Crone. If all three appear at once (or as one) this step is unnecessary.
When you have completely experienced each phase, thank the Goddess for appearing to you and for her presence in your meditation. If you'd like, feel free to ask her to guide you as you grow along your magickal path.
When you've completed the meditation, open your eyes and sit quietly. Think about your experience. Are you comfortable with what you saw? Surprised? Why do you think the Goddess initially appeared to you as she did? Are there any parallels between the Goddess's appearance and your life?
The key to working with the deities isn't to learn what they are from a book and then cater your practice to how you believe they should be. The power of that connection for you will lay in exploring how you connect with both the Goddess and the God. Repeat this meditation as necessary or whenever you have the desire to do so. As you grow more comfortable with the visualization process, trust your instincts and expand or change the meditation as you see fit.
Each aspect of the Goddess can be called upon for the same reason. The key is to cater the way you visualize the different aspects to the strengths of the various phases. For instance, if you were calling upon the Goddess for protection, you could call upon the Maiden as a brave warrior-woman, the Mother's fearless ferocity in protecting her children, and the Crone's sharp wit and cleverness in defeating a challenger with her mind. While each of these can be called on individually, they can likewise be combined into a single visualization as the Goddess is three-in-one. If you have need to call upon the Goddess's energy, simply visualize her as she came to you in your meditation. You'll already have a connection established to reach out to her.
The God
Within much of Wicca and modern witchcraft, the God is considered to be a duality, the embodiment of both darkness and light. Part of the reason for this is his association with the sun. If we look back to our lesson on the Goddess, we'll remember that each of her phases (Maiden, Mother, and Crone) was associated with a phase of the moon. As the moon waxed and waned, the lunar energy cycling from one focus to the next, so too did her phases shift from Mother to Maiden to Crone and back to Maiden again. Where the Goddess is associated with the lunar cycle, the God is associated with the cycle of the solar year. If we use the Summer and Winter Solstices as the dividing lines of the solar year, we find that the year is equally separated into light and dark portions. From Winter Solstice to Summer Solstice, the hours of daylight are slowly growing; each day the light grows a little stronger. At Summer Solstice, the hours of daylight begin to slowly fade, the darkness growing until it reaches the pinnacle of its strength at Winter Solstice (Yule).
When I began to work with the deities, discovering their energy through ritual work and guided meditations, I connected strongly with the concept of a dual god, one who embraced both the darkness and light of the natural world. Similar to the symbolism of mainstream Wicca, I associate one aspect of the God (the Oak King) with the light portion of the year and the other aspect (the Holly King) with the dark half. This duality can successfully be used as a tool for personal and spiritual growth, something we'll look at a little further into this material.
The Oak King, associated with the light part of the year, begins his reign at Winter Solstice. The symbolism of the sun (or a sun god) being reborn at Summer Solstice is such powerful imagery that a number of cultures around the world have adopted it into their early beliefs. It's also the most common reason given for the Christian religion's association of Jesus's birth being on December 25th (which on early calendars fell as close to Winter Solstice as a fixed date can). The Oak King is associated with the things of light, not only noble emotions and love, but also vegetation (as plants grow within his reign).
The Holly King takes over the year at Summer Solstice, slaying his twin. The second half of the year is a time of magick and death as the sun slowly fades. Mirroring the Oak King's association with vegetation, the Holly King is connected to animal life. He is also representative of shadows, both within and without us, and with death, reminding us that death is not something to be feared, but a natural part of life's cycles.
There are two interesting concepts to consider, which aren't covered in much of the material that I've discovered. The first is the energy associated with both the Holly King and Oak King. The first point to consider is that their energy comes from the same source. In every myth I'm familiar with that holds to the concept of dual male divinity, the dark god and light god are often closely related. Within the material I teach, we look at them as twins - born from the same source, at the same time; as closely related as any two beings can be. On a magickal level, this begins to introduce us to the concept that all energy is the same, that it originates from the same source. From time to time it simply takes on another focus.
This differing focus of energy is most apparent at the transition from one half of the year to the next. In many of the myths surrounding a dual god of darkness and light, the god of darkness (the Holly King) slays his twin to claim his half of the year. Conversely, the god of light is born as a child, taking over as the dark god dies from old age or other natural causes. To truly understand this differing focus of energy, we need to look beyond the concept of one god being associated with life and the other with death. Both aspects of the God are born; both also die. It's the manner in which they enter and leave our perception that is useful to us in our work.
I teach that the Oak King, those aspects of the God that are associated with the rising energy of the earth, is the embodiment of what I call "being in tune." It's a concept that is difficult to explain until you realize that you're actually living it. To simplify, being in tune is simply the process of connecting enough with the energy around you, with the daily flow of your life and the energy of reality, that your instinctive responses and desires bring you to a place of abundance and growth. It's like "being in the right place at the right time," at all levels of your being. As you begin to explore any spiritual path and work on your own personal growth and development, being in tune is a process that simply ebbs and flows with your own natural growth cycles. It is paralleled in our divine mythology by the Oak King growing with the cycles of the earth, rising and maturing as the natural world around him grows and matures.
The Holly King is a force, claiming the dark half of the year by slaying his twin. Where the Oak King is associated with vegetative life (which we grow, nurture, and harvest as a food source) the Holly King is associated with animal life (which we track, hunt, and kill as a source of food). What the Oak King needs, he finds in the natural world around him; as he grows, so his environment grows; they're in synch, in tune, reflecting each other as they grow. What the Holly King needs, he claims. When there is something he believes in, he is willing to fight for it. Where the Oak King teaches reverence of life and the process of finding our calling and following it, the Holly King reflects the need to break through barriers, to fight for our goals and put in the energy necessary to succeed.
Exercise Ten: Discovering the God
Sit quietly, much the same way that you did with the observation exercise for the
Exercise One: Learning to Listen. If you feel it's appropriate for your meditation, you may consider lighting a candle, burning some incense, and/or putting on some soft music. Make sure that you won't be disturbed (the ringer is turned off on the telephone, etc.) for at least five minutes, but for no longer than a half-hour.
Sit quietly and clear your mind. Your eyes may be open or closed. As your mind clears imagine that you are sitting on a large moss-covered boulder near a forest path. It can be in the warm embrace of spring or summer, or swept by the cool winds of fall or winter. As you begin to visualize the forest around you, the God will come in the form most appropriate for that time of year. If he is slow to appear, quietly invite him in your mind; ask him to come. He may walk down the path toward you or emerge from the trees around you. If you'd like, feel free to speak to him in your mind, but it isn't necessary. Simply observe if that's all you feel led to do.
If the God appears as one aspect (either Oak King or Holly King), when you have completely experienced that aspect, say farewell and, when he has gone down the path or slipped back into the trees, invite his other aspect to appear. It's also somewhat common to have both aspects appear in one individual. If that happens, honor your vision and realize that it's not wrong, but simply the way that you view the God.
When you have completed your visualization, thank the God for appearing to you and for his presence in your meditation. If you'd like, feel free to ask him to guide you as you grow along your magickal path.
When you've completed the meditation, open your eyes and sit quietly. Think about your experience. Are you comfortable with what you saw? Surprised? Why do you think the God initially appeared to you as he did? Are there any parallels between the God's appearance and your life?
The key to working with the deities isn't to learn what they are from a book and then cater your practice to how you believe they should be. The power of that connection for you will lay in exploring how you connect with both the Goddess and the God. Repeat this meditation as necessary or whenever you have the desire to do so. As you grow more comfortable with the visualization process, trust your instincts and expand or change the meditation as you see fit.
Within magick, the God is not only associated with the sun, but also with the right side of the altar. Tools that have phallic symbolism (wands, athames, etc) or have sharp angles are usually associated with the him as well.