GOD AND GODDESS

GOD AND GODDESS is the divine totality personified into masculine and feminine aspects, an important part of Wiccan/Witchcraft theology. In many traditions, the concept of a Great Mother Goddess and her consort is a cornerstone of belief. Many modern Wiccans/Witches embrace the archetypes of a mother and father deity, drawn from various cultures corresponding to the individual Craft traditions. Most often the Goddess is also linked to the moon and the God to the sun. In addition, the Goddess is often divided into three aspects: Maiden, Mother, and Crone. In some traditions, the God is divided up into three aspects as well: the Hooded One, the Horned One, and the Old One. The Goddess and God figures are based upon ancient concepts of divinity as expressed in pre-Christian Paganism.

The God figure is derived from the Lord of the Animals, the Stag-Horned God of the forest. Over time, this image evolved into the Goat-Horned God, as humans shifted from woodland hunter-gatherers to being farmers. The image of the Great Mother Goddess was also an ancient concept dating back to prehistoric times. These ancient images are the primal forces of Nature that empower the modern images of the God and Goddess of Wicca/Witchcraft. Most traditions today employ a more sophisticated image drawn from Greek/Roman, Celtic, Germanic, or Scandinavian deities among others.

In 1612, Jan Ziarnko produced for a book on Witchcraft an engraving titled "Tableau de l'inconstance." It depicted a couple called the Lord and Lady of the Sabbat. Upon two side-by-side thrones there appeared a queen and a large goat. A figure with a lighted torch glowing between his horns (Grimassi, Ways of the Strega, pp. 42-43). In celebration before them was a group of Witches dancing and feasting, clearly acts of worship and reverence performed for the throned couple. The church elected to interpret the primal image of a horned Pagan god as the devil of Judaic-Christian belief, and labeled the Witches' god as Satan. Despite the fact that the Bible contains no physical description of Satan in part or in whole, the image of the devil remains similar to that of various pre-Christian horned gods.

GIFTS OF ARADIA is a phrase used to indicate the legendary powers of a Witch gained through the practice of Witchcraft. Aradia, a legendary Witch queen, taught that the traditional powers of a Witch would belong to any who followed in the ways of the Old Religion. Aradia called these powers gifts, because she stressed the point that these powers were the benefits of adhering to the Old Ways, and not the reason for becoming a Witch.

1. To bring success in love.
2. To bless and consecrate.
3. To speak with spirits.
4. To know of hidden things.
5. To call forth spirits.
6. To know the Voice of the Wind.
7. To possess the knowledge of transformation.
8. To possess the knowledge of divination.
9. To know and understand secret signs.
10. To cure disease.
11. To bring forth beauty.
12. To have influence over wild beasts.
13. To know the secrets of the hands.

FULL MOON MEETINGS are an integral aspect of Wiccan/Witchcraft practices. One of the earliest references to Witches gathering when the moon is full appears in the ancient writings of Theocritus. In his work titled Pharmakeutriai, Theocritus comments that Witches address spells and incantations to the full moon. In Charles Leland's Aradia: Gospel of "the Witches" (1899), we find a reference to witches gathering for lunar rites:

Whenever you have need of anything, once in the month and when the moon is full, you shall assemble in some secret place, or in a forest all together join to adore the potent spirit of your queen, my mother, great Diana. She who wishes to learn all sorcery yet has not won its deepest secrets, my mother will teach her, in truth all things as yet unknown. And you shall be freed from slavery, and so you shall be free in everything; and as a sign that you are truly free, you shall be naked in your rites, both men and women also...

The purpose for gathering at the time of the full moon is related to moon worship in the Neolithic cult of the Great Goddess. It was here that the foundation for the divine and magical nature of the moon itself was created. Images of the moon displaying a full circle, flanked by left- and right-facing crescents, appear as early as 4500-4300 B.C. A coiled serpent flanked by these crescent shapes also appears during the same period (Gimbutas, The Language of the Goddess, p. 286). The association of the two crescents flanking the full circle would seem to indicate that the ancients had a type of tri-formis concept about the moon or the power of the moon. These may be some of the earliest images to suggest a belief in the moon as something more than a mysterious light in the sky.

FIVE-FOLD KISS refers to part of a ritual associated with initiation in which the initiate is given a single kiss on both feet, both knees, and above the pubic area. This marks a five-pointed star pattern, the quintessence of creation. These five kisses denote the initiate and his or her right to access the mysteries. The feet have brought the initiate to his or her path. The knees kneel before the gods and on sacred ground. The pubic area is the regenerative organ, a token of rebirth into the Old Ways. The five-fold kiss is also applied during rituals of drawing down the moon, when joined with the triad kiss. The triad is another series of three kisses given following the five-fold kiss. Both breasts are kissed on a woman or both biceps on a man, and a last kiss is placed upon the lips. The last three kisses acknowledge the divine spark within the initiate, the divine triad. The triad represents the ultimate unknowable Source of All Things that we personify as Goddess and God. In ancient times, this triple kiss was a sign of entry into groves of the old mystery sect.

FEMININE ENERGY is a term applied to the specific natures of certain occult energies--it is not used here as an indication of gender. Both men and women possess feminine energy as well as masculine energy. According to occultist Dion Fortune, on a mundane level feminine energy is nurturing and expansive. From an occult perspective feminine energy is receptive. As a polarity it has a negative charge, meaning negative in the sense of a battery connection. On the physical plane feminine energy is passive/receptive and on the spiritual plane it is active/transmitive.