The Goddess
The
Goddess is the universal mother. She is
the source of fertility, endless wisdom and loving caresses. As the Wicca know Her, She is often of three
aspects: The Maiden, The Mother and the
Crone, symbolized in the waving, full and waning of the Moon. She is at once the unploughed field, the full
harvest and the dormant, frost-covered Earth.
She gives birth to abundance. But
as life is Her gift, She lends it with the promise of death. This is not darkness and oblivion, but rest
from the toils of physical existence. It
is human existence between incarnations.
Since the Goddess is nature, all nature, She is both the Temptress
and the Crone; the tornado and the fresh spring rain; the cradle and the grave.
But though She is possessed of both natures, the Wicca revere Her as
the giver of fertility, love and abundance, though they acknowledge Her darker
side as well. We see Her in the Moon,
the soundless, ever-moving sea, and in the green growth of the first
spring. She is the embodiment of
fertility and love.
The Goddess has been known as the Queen of Heaven, Mother of the
Gods that Made the Gods, the Divine Source, the Universal Matrix, the Great
Mother, and by countless other titles.
Many symbols are used in Wicca to
honor Her, such as the cauldron, cup, labrys, five-petalled flowers, the
mirror, necklace, seashell, pearl, silver, emerald…to name a few.
As She has dominion over the Earth, sea and Moon, Her creatures are
varied and numerous. A few include the
rabbit, the bear, the owl, the cat, dog, bat, goose, cow, dolphin, lion, horse,
wren, scorpion, spider and bee. All are
sacred to the Goddess.
The Goddess has been depicted as a
huntress running with Her hounds; a celestial deity striding across the sky
with stardust falling from Her heels; a Crone walking by waning moonlight
seeking out the weak and forlorn, and as many other beings. But no matter how we envision Her, She is omnipresent,
changeless, eternal.
The God
The God has been revered for
eons. He is neither the stern,
all-powerful deity of Christianity and Judaism, nor is He simply the consort of
the Goddess. God or Goddess, they are
equal, one.
We see the God in the Sun, brilliantly shining overhead during
the day, rising and setting in the endless cycle which governs our lives. Without the Sun we could no exist; therefore
it has been revered as the source of all life, the warmth that bursts the
dormant seeds into life and hastens the greening of the Earth after the cold
snows of winter.
The God is also tender of the wild
animals. As the Horned God He is
sometimes seen wearing horns on His head, symbolizing His connection with these
beasts. In earlier times, hunting was
one of the activities thought to be ruled by the God, while the domestication
of animals was seen to be Goddess oriented.
The God’s domains include forests
untouched by human hands, burning deserts and towering mountains. The stars, since they are but distant suns,
are sometimes thought to be under His domain.
The yearly cycle of greening,
maturation and harvest has long been associated with the Sun, hence the solar
festivals of Europe (further discussed in
Chapter Eight: The Days of Power) which are still observed in Wicca.
The God is the fully ripened
harvest, intoxication wine pressed from grapes, golden grain waving in a lone
field, shimmering apples hanging from verdant boughs on October afternoons.
With the Goddess He also
celebrates and rules sex. The Wicca
don’t avoid sex or speak of it in hushed words.
It’s part of nature and is accepted as such. Since it brings pleasure, shifts our
awareness away from the everyday world and perpetuates our species, it is
thought to be sacred. The God lustily
imbues us with the urge that ensures our species’ biological future.
Symbols often used to depict or to
worship the God include the sword, horns, spear, candle, gold, brass, diamond,
the sickle, arrow, magical wand, trident, knife and others. Creatures sacred to Him include the bull,
dog, snake, fish, stag, dragon, wolf, boar, eagle, falcon, shark, lizard and
many others.
Of old, the God was the Sky
Father, and the Goddess, the Earth Mother.
The God of the sky, of rain and lightning, descended upon and united
with the Goddess, spreading seed upon the land, celebrating Her fertility.
Fonte: Wicca A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner
