In Wicca we have a Goddess and a Horned God, much emphasis is placed on the Goddess, the Divine Feminine, the Kore aspect, the nurturing Mother, the Dark Crone , but the Horned God is equally important and together they form a balance. This is called Polarity; however, this is not simply male and female. The God and Goddess can represent complementary cosmic principles; for example, the Moon is the Goddess aspect, and the Sun is Male, The Goddess is receptive and the male is reactive.
We each have our own personal relationship with the God/ess, some may meet them, psychologically, some symbolic and others could have direct religious experience. None of these experiences preclude the other and all are equally of value.
The Goddess in Wicca is eternal, she pre-exists, she creates, the Horned God is sacrificed at Lammas and transforms into the Lord of the Underworld till at Yule he is reborn again. This means that as Wiccans we follow the natural wheel of the year and the circle of birth, death and rebirth. This is also reflected in the cycles of the Moon.
The Goddess in Wicca: A Deeper Dive
“ I am thy Goddess, before the beginning of time was I”
The Goddess is the beginning and the end, the first and the last, she who creates the world, she is birth and death, compassion and severity, beauty and terror, darkness and illumination . She is therefore the whole. The God desires her and is ready to make the heroic journey to find the Grail which is the Goddess herself, but she doesn’t need him. Man is inspired by her, but she is unattainable, his role is to worship and adore her. This is a very powerful expression of the Feminine, which has been used to being neglected, dominated and repressed. It is a celebration of femininity and is empowering . One of the beauties of Wicca is the confidence it gives many women, it allows women to become fully adult, to come into her own power. It gives woman a huge sense of potential, access to her inner power, she can become strong in a supported environment.
The Goddess has many faces.
She is the Goddess of the Moon , birth, death and rebirth, she represents all phases of the Moon and shows us how life grows reaches its fullness and declines, disappears and then returns.
The Goddess as the Triple Goddess not just Maiden , Mother and Crone, she is the Earth, the Moon and Spirit.
The Dark Goddess, she controls the unseen, the unconscious, for in the darkness life grows. The womb is dark, the night is dark, and the earth beneath the soil is dark.
She is all Nature and can be found in all things a few examples might be sexuality, plants, animals, the human body. Nature is not a resource for us to use it is a sacred living presence. We honour her in all things. She is a sacred creative power.
“ Fear Me
Love Me
Adore Me
Loose yourself in me
I am the Power”
The God in Wicca: A Deeper Dive
“ In caverns deep the old Gods sleep, but the trees still know their Lord”
Again, the God is represented in many forms, we see him as a God of nature, of the wild, animal vitality, he is strength and carries the power of nature. He is usually depicted as a Horned God, the horns are seen as a form of divinity, and his connection with the natural world. He is a composite of many gods, for example Pan, Cernnunous, Herne, and Odin. After Samhain he takes to the sky as the Lord of the Hunt, following the constellation Orion the Hunter. He is also Lord of the underworld, and in the spring a young vibrant youth, lusty, energetic; by Summer he is mature, ready to take responsibility, and to give his life at the hand of the Goddess for the land to grow. He takes on the guise of John Barleycorn the Corn King. He then retires to the underworld ready to be reborn at Yule. He is the Sun, his heat nourishes the earth, he is fire that changes one state into another, he is transformation through surrender. His journey takes the year, and he represents the life force of nature.
In Wicca we honour the God, and he supports the Goddess in all things, neither is more important, they depend and rely on each other to play their part in the cycle of existence. Their union produces life. The God is a magician, he represents hidden forces, transformation, nature, death and rebirth.
The God has many roles as:
The male life force
The hunter
The youth
The lover
The King
The sacrifice
The Lord of the underworld.
The consort
Wicca shows us that we can use the power of the God and the Goddess in our lives, we try to make the world a better place by honouring the Divine made manifest in Nature.