Sacred Circles' Coven

The Goddess and The God
Goddess and God as "The Humanized Face of Divinity"

Researched by Priestess Scota
Copyright J Crawford 2000

In our tradition of Wicca we revere and worship the Goddess and God as deities. The belief in a Goddess is as ancient as the human race, and the belief in a God figure is almost as old. Humans back then had to translate that belief into something tangible that others could see and relate to. Thus the idea of idols and icons materialised. Deities began to take human shape as people began to create images in their honour. Archaeologists have found art works that date back at least 35,000 years, which depict figures of earth mothers. They show the fullness of motherhood and the feminine ripeness associated with childbearing.

These idols were carved from bone, stone, ivory or made from clay, their bodies having large bellies, full breasts and powerful thighs. They became known as the Venus figurines. There are no similar figurines of men dating back as early as this, as conception was thought of as magickal back then and men did not realize that they had anything to do with procreation. To the people of that time a woman was the source of life, and so, as her menstrual cycle followed the changes in the waxing and waning moon, it was only reasonable to assume that the creator should be a female - a Goddess.

For us humans it is hard to imagine what a deity might look like without giving him/her some human attributes.
It is only natural that we should do so, for what else have we to base our images on? The other thing that we can relate to is the Animal kingdom. And this is where we find the god; especially in the guise of the Horned God - part way between Human and animal in image.

The Horned god stirs up images of Pan the faun. From earliest times the Horned god has been depicted as wearing animal skins and animal horns. He is a hunter; his symbols are the animal skins and horns, just as the goddess's symbols are the full belly and large breasts.
Also the goddess is the symbol of life and fertility, with god representing a symbol of protection and food. He is a
hunter-gatherer. We honour his bravery and Commitment to the Goddess, for he would lay down his life for her.
Today religions around the world still revere humanized images of the Goddess and the God. We can see this everywhere we

look. Christians revere Mary as the mother of Christ {she is the Christian version of the Goddess} and countless idols and icons have been made in her honour, the same goes for many other goddess idols. At some point The Goddess has become a humanized deity. The same is true of the many forms of the God. In Christianity again, Jesus is revered and his image is everywhere. In the other religions of the world we can see the same thing, in Hindu tradition there are many gods and yet for worshiping purposes, they too have been humanized in one way or another. We do seem to find it difficult to worship what we cannot see, and even harder to worship something completely animal or abstract, hence the need to humanize our deities.

However, this is not a bad thing. An image is a way to help us concentrate on worshiping the goddess as the lady, or the God as the lord. Just as a lesson is a way of helping us to learn and remember what we have experienced.

Immanent vs. Transcendent Deities

What is an Immanent Deity?

In Scholastic philosophy, immanence envisions the action or process that is both the beginning and ending with an identical entity. Immanence is most commonly used in discussions of the relationship between God and the universe. The idea of God being absolutely Immanent in the universe would certainly approach pantheism. Opposing such a concept of pantheism is transcendence, which implies, in an absolute sense, that God is unknowable and unconnected with the universe.

Some deities are characterized as being one or the other. One might refer to the Greek god Pan as a pantheistic god and the Voodoo god Gran Met, the Supreme Being, as a transcendent god.

In Christian theology attempts have been made to combing both of these characteristics when viewing God. God is seen as Immanent in His actions toward and presence in things apart from Himself, but He is viewed as transcendent in His essence.

Immanentists hold different views of the universe. They generally see the universe as being self-sufficient and
self-determined. Another view is a universal substance that embodies the principles of actions at all levels of life.

Therefore, all beings are seen to encompass each other since they come from the same substance.

When Immanentists view human knowledge they stress thought content rather than the mental reaction toward objects. One view is that it is impossible for man to know anything, which exists outside of himself; a view, which implies agnosticism in regard to a transcendent reality. An opposing view is there is an inherent force, which forces the human toward self-awareness and self-perfection. Accordingly significant thought and action is measured in terms of individual self-fulfilment at any particular time or stage of life.

What is a Transcendent deity?

Transcendentalism, in philosophy and literature, belief in a higher reality than that found in sense experience or in a higher kind of knowledge than that achieved by human reason. Nearly all transcendentalist doctrines stem from the division of reality into a realm of spirit and a realm of matter. Such a division is made by many of the great religions of the world.

The Greek philosopher Plato developed the philosophical concept of transcendence. He affirmed the existence of absolute goodness, which he characterized as something beyond description and as knowable ultimately only through intuition. Later religious philosophers, influenced by Plato, applied this concept of transcendence to divinity, maintaining that God can
be neither described nor understood in terms that are taken from human experience. The doctrine that God is transcendent, in the sense of existing outside of nature, is a fundamental principle in the orthodox forms of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.

The terms transcendent and transcendental were used in a more narrow and technical sense by Scholastic philosophers late in the Middle Ages to signify concepts of unrestricted generality applying to all types of things. The Scholastics recognized six such transcendental concepts: essence, unity, goodness, truth, thing, and something (Latin ens, unum, bonum, verum, res, and aliquid).

The German philosopher Immanuel Kant was the first to make a technical distinction between the terms transcendent and transcendental. Kant reserved the term transcendent for those entities such as God and the soul, which are thought to exist outside of human experience and are therefore unknowable; he used the term transcendental to signify a priori forms of thought, that is, innate principles with which the mind gives form to its perceptions and makes experience intelligible. Kant applied the name transcendental philosophy to the study of pure mind and all its forms. Later German idealist philosophers who were influenced by Kant, particularly Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling, and Edmund Husserl, described their views as transcendental. Consequently, the term transcendentalism came to be applied almost exclusively to doctrines of metaphysical idealism.

Monotheism vs. Polytheism vs. Animism vs. Pantheism

Monotheism:

Monotheism is the belief in a single deity. It is not known when this particular belief system first appeared in history, but we do know that it originated in the Middle East, in an area known as Mesopotamia. Most of us are familiar with at least one of the major monotheistic religions in this world: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. These religions may trace their ancestry back to Abraham, who came from the Mesopotamia area. The dynamism that monotheism brought to religion
spread only gradually. Most ancient societies of the West persisted with polytheism for another 2,400 years. In eastern and southern Asia, polytheism endures today, while in Africa, traditional animism has long competed for position with missionary religions from the outside.

What is Polytheism?

Polytheism is the belief in the existence of many gods or divine beings. It has been widespread in human cultures, past and present, and has taken many forms. Natural forces and objects-celestial, atmospheric, and earthly (such as stars, rain, mountains, and fire)-have often been identified with divinities. Gods have also been worshiped in the form of trees, plants and animals (for instance, the monkey in India and the hummingbird among the Aztecs). The assumption of human forms and characteristics by divine beings (anthropomorphism), as in the emphatically human passions and behaviour of the Greek and Roman gods, is virtually a universal feature of polytheism.

Polytheism is clearly related to a belief in various kinds of demons and spirits, as in animism, totemism and ancestor worship, but in polytheism the spirits are distinct, personified deities who belong to a cosmic hierarchy described in myths or sacred writings. Scholars have proposed several theories to account for its emergence. It has been attributed, for instance, to the need for supernatural moral sanctions or to the awe inspired by (and the desire to appease) the uncontrollable forces of nature. It has also been associated in some theories with the development of a social structure characterized by specialization and class distinctions.

Many polytheistic religions, such as Hinduism and ancient Egyptian religion, have exhibited a clear tendency toward monotheism, the belief in and worship of one god or divine power, and polytheistic beliefs and practices sometimes coexist with an essentially monotheistic theology.

The Indian Vedas, for example, feature Agni the fire god, Vayu the wind god, and Indra the storm god. Dynastic Egypt had hundreds of deities, but worship (as in Greek Olympianism) was city-cantered. The gods of polytheistic systems are organized into a cosmic family, featured in legend and myth and expressing beliefs about the individual's relationship to the universe. The lesser deities of polytheism tend to diminish with time until the religion exhibits monotheistic tendencies. Thus the Olympian sky god Zeus became the head of all Olympian deities; the Egyptian Ammnon RA became the supreme god; and the trinity of Vishnu, Shiva, and Brahma gradually displaced the several thousand Vedic gods.

The Body of Animism

Animism is a body of knowledge founded upon the belief that the things around us are infused with more than mere existence. Animists believe that the hills, valleys, waterways, and rocks are spiritual beings, as are the plants and animals. Further, they believe that there are other, less obvious spiritual beings not commonly associated with the phenomena of everyday experience.

Beyond these basic beliefs, animism comprises a practical system of knowledge designed to be of benefit to the possessor.

This system of knowledge usually involves techniques for entering into beneficial arrangements between the practitioner and the spiritual beings that are accessible to them. The Native North Americans who lived on the northern plains developed a mature and coherent system of practical animism. The worldview of these early Americans was inextricably entwined with their animist beliefs and methods. They sought to live in harmony with the world, in both the practical and the spiritual sense. Their body of animist knowledge was the treasured thread that bound their lives together and gave each one meaning. This knowledge was passed from generation to generation, its practitioner?s valued members of society, and its tools revered as the very soul of the group.

Pantheism:

Pantheism is the belief that the universe and nature are divine. Every religion has had its pantheists. Pantheism is the perennial religion, which continually emerges from all transcendental, or idealist religions. In addition people in every religion have seen God in nature, whether they formally express that identity or not. Examples include Shaftsbury, Rousseau, and many poets from Wordsworth to Robinson Jeffers.

Pantheism has taken many diverse forms. Strict or scientific pantheism holds that God and the material universe are identical. Taoism is a form of materialist pantheism, as are some types of Mahayan Buddhism. Many pantheists, while accepting that the material world exists, are world rejecting, believing that the material world is in some way separate from and inferior to the spiritual world. A common view is that the body is the prison of the soul, which can only be liberated if it suppresses the body's needs, and only fully liberated after death.

Pantheists do not propose belief in a deity; rather, they hold nature itself as a creative presence. Pantheism reconciles science and religion through ecology leading to strong environmental awareness.

Pantheists believe in Divine Immanence. To the Pantheist, divinity does not transcend reality; it surrounds, and is within. All share divinity. This leads the pantheist to personal ethics of tolerance and understanding.

What about Wicca?

Wicca encompasses many of these ideas without subscribing to one or the other. However our tradition of Wicca is not Monotheistic, as we believe both in the Goddess and God as deities. Therefore one could argue that we are Polytheistic, but there are some covens that are Dianic, which means that they honor and worship the Goddess exclusively. Therefore they may be termed as Monotheistic. The way that we work with the elements could have us placed into the category Animists, and then we could say that the regard that we hold for nature, and the belief in the cosmic power that we gain from the universe and the natural world would make us Pantheists. Because we do not subscribe absolutely to one form of belief system or the other, we and many other paths of Wicca encompass these systems without wholly subscribing to any.

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