Reclaiming the God

By Nic Phillips and Kim Huggens

"Someone asked me the other night, 'why do women take the chief place in witchcraft?' I had to say, 'I don't know.' No one knows."

Thus spake Gerald Gardner in his book The Meaning of Witchcraft.[1] In Gardner's writings we are given the foundations for Neo-Pagan/Wiccan worship, and in the above quote Gardner admits that whilst it is craft tradition to give more importance to the Goddess than the God, he doesn't know why it is so. It would seem pertinent and highly rewarding to question this further: Why is the Goddess revered more than her equal counterpart? Should this be so? What has caused it? In this article we intend to answer these questions, and come to the conclusion that the worship of the Goddess above the God - the degrading of male divinity - is maintaining a dangerous imbalance that works against much of what Neo-Paganism teaches and tries to achieve within the individual.

Imagine for a while that you are standing in a Pagan shop that sells all kinds of Neo-Pagan/New-Age/Occult items. Dozens of books line the shelves and various Tarot and Oracles decks are on display. You will also see lots of statues and paintings of deities. It would seem that Pagans are well catered for, with a wealth of information and items to suit our spiritual and magical needs, but take a closer look.

Books about the Goddess, women's spirituality, and Goddess worship. Tarot decks and Oracle cards that take their cues from the Divine Feminine. Beautiful statues of Mother Goddesses and nymph-like female deities - Brighid, Hecate, Isis, Venus, Diana.

Now try to remember how many times you have come across books oriented towards men's spirituality, the Divine Masculine, and God worship. Compared to the plethora of Goddess statues, how many God statues have you seen? And were they as numerous in variety?

This apparent lack of God-oriented material doesn't stop here. Nearly all Pagans who have worked in a group know the Goddess chant:

"Isis, Astarte, Diana, Hecate, Demeter, Kali, Inanna."

But less know that there is a God chant with the same tune:

"Pan, Poseidon, Dionysus, Cernunnos, Mithras, Loki, Apollo." [2]

If you are familiar with the current trends in today's Tarot world, you will have noticed that many decks portray the Emperor and High Priest/Hierophant as stern oppressive masters - whilst their counterparts (the Empress and High Priestess) are portrayed as kindly, loving, and accepting. [3] This is despite the fact that the Emperor and High Priest represent positive aspects of what are considered masculine archetypes. Many Tarot readers fall in love with the Empress immediately but have reservations about the Emperor. Some are even hostile towards this card, which can be seen as the epitome of masculinity in the Tarot. Witness the Daughters of the Moon Tarot, which does away with this card completely. [4] You can also find several Tarot and Oracle decks that cater specifically for Goddess-worshippers and women. [5] But so far there is not a single deck for men, or one that focuses on the God (although we promise that one is in progress!)

Inarguably the majority of books that focus on the subject of Wicca/Witchcraft devote more space and time to the Goddess in all her aspects than the God, and it often seems that Wicca/Witchcraft is being marketed towards women and teenage girls. There is an obvious lack of God-oriented books and items, and this is a sad state of affairs indeed. What has caused this imbalance to come about?

Many Pagans come to Paganism after a Christian upbringing or after being surrounded by a Christian culture where God is male. Personal experience may cause them to see God as harsh, uncaring, authoritarian, and oppressive. When they encounter the God in Paganism then, they either carry these associations for Male Divinity to Him, or they find it difficult to shake them off, resulting in an almost exclusive worship of the Goddess. After all, how can you feel comfortable worshipping something that has previously had negative connotations?

It is also a fact that Craft law states that the High Priestess of a coven, no matter how many more years experience the High Priest has, will always have higher status than him. Since the High Priestess represents the Goddess, and the High Priest the God, it is likely that this has effect on the way we view the dynamics between male and female divinity. Although it can be questioned whether this practice has a raison d'être beyond 'it's just the way it is', since Gardner himself admitted he did not know why it was so.

It could be argued that Wicca seeks to continue an 'ancient tradition' of Goddess-worship above God-worship. People point to the Venus of Willendorf-esque statues as evidence of a matriarchal Neolithic religion: statues of large-breasted, pregnant women, usually lacking arms. [6] However, there is no proof that these statues represent the Goddess. It is merely an imposition of our own world-view upon a statue that is equally as likely to simply be a representation of women, or a statue to bring about fertility. It is not necessarily a Goddess statue at all. We do not know enough about the context of the statue to make such assumptions about Neolithic religion.

Even if there was a (highly unlikely) matriarchal, Goddess-worshipping society, there is no reason for us to do the same today. Older is not always better. The apparent lack of ancient male statues does not mean they did not exist, just that they did not survive the wears of time, or they have not yet been found. So to say that Neo-Paganism's reverence of the Goddess above the God is founded in antiquity and practised by our ancestors is not necessarily true.

There are also other ancient cultures that have many God statues: to choose to emulate one ancient culture over another is arbitrary. Archaeologists have unearthed various statue and images of Norse gods Odin, Frey, and Ing. One look at Roman and Greek culture will reveal as many temples dedicated to male deities as female ones.

Another defence of the higher status of the Goddess comes from some radical feminists, who believe it is the turn of women and the Goddess to have dominance over men and the God after what they see as 2000 years of patriarchal rule/oppression. This is very similar to the backlash against the God of Christianity mentioned earlier. Others feel that they've already experienced male divinity through their experience of the Christian God, and so to balance this out they focus on the Pagan Goddess. But to say that the Christian God represents all facets of male divinity is inaccurate: he represents merely one aspect, and so by ignoring the other aspects (as represented by other Pagan gods), they are missing one half of the whole that is the Divine. To go from a 'patriarchal' culture and religion to a Goddess-only version of Paganism is just as imbalanced, and therefore halts progression towards real equality and spiritual unity: both between different people and within the self.

To take this one step further, let us answer the question: why should the God be placed on an equal footing with the Goddess? What good will it do?

Both men and women need the God as much as they need the Goddess. This has nothing to do with gender (female does not equal feminine, male does not equal masculine), but instead the fact that each person, regardless of gender, contains qualities and traits that for convenience sake are anthropomorphized as the God/Goddess. For instance, 'nurturing' is seen as a feminine trait, and associated with the Goddess. This does not mean that all women are nurturers, or that men cannot be, since we all potentially contain these traits, though some more than others based on how they are brought up (amongst other things). In just the same way 'action' is seen as a masculine trait associated with the God, but this does not make it only male.

One of the main goals of many spiritual and mystical paths is to attain a perfect balance within oneself, and to unite conflicting aspects of the self. This is exemplified in the Wiccan Great Rite, which is performed at the Third Degree initiation, and not only represents the unity and balance between the God and Goddess, but the unity and balance between the anima and animus; the masculine and feminine; the yin and yang, within the initiate. Thus it is logical to say that since this is the goal, the God and Goddess should be worshipped and worked with equally.

The symbol of the yin-yang from the Eastern religions pictorially describes this alchemical process: the white equal with the black, each containing the seed of the other.

In Kabbalah we find more evidence for the equality of the God and Goddess. The Tree of Life, a map of the Universe, shows how Spirit descends into matter. It begins with 'Kether', the representation of pure Spirit. This pure Spirit is then split into Chokmah and Binah, which represent masculine and feminine respectively, or 'The Word' and 'The Word brought into birth'. Without Binah, the spirit of Chokmah cannot be born into the material realm, and without Chokmah, Binah has nothing to give form to. [7] This shows that Goddess without God or God without Goddess is redundant, taking away an important aspect of the Universe. It can be likened to standing beneath a canopy with small holes in it, and claiming to have an accurate view of the night sky.

Finally, we come to examine what happens when we balance the God and Goddess equally. This is known by many names, the most common being the Hieros Gamos, [8] the Sacred Marriage or Chymical Wedding, [9] and a pictorial representation of it can be found in the Tarot.

It is based on the premise that the God and Goddess represent aspects of ourselves, and that when Spirit descended into matter it was split from its non-gendered form. Through the Sacred Marriage the initiate attempts to unite God and Goddess within themselves and return their self to a state of balance and unity that was lost.

Firstly, the masculine - the God, the Sun King - (represented by the Emperor Tarot card) is united with the feminine - the Goddess, the Moon Queen - (represented by the Empress card) by a catalyst - the initiator - (represented by the Magician - Hermes in the Tarot). [10] The initial union or marriage brings the separated aspects back together (the Lovers card). This can be seen as the 'solve' part of the 'solve e coagulum' process: the two separate parts are dissolved into each other and united. The 'coagulum' part comes in the Temperance card, where the product of the Chymical Wedding is born from the Cauldron. Red Sun King (God) and White Moon Queen (Goddess) have united, dissolved into each other and created the 'philosopher's stone' or the Holy Grail: the reborn initiate (it should come as no surprise therefore, to find Crowley stating that the Lovers and Temperance cards in the Tarot are the most important cards in the deck). [11]

Given all this it would seem that it is time the God was given a more important place in Neo-Paganism. He should not be at the feet of the Goddess, but at Her side, united with Her; for He is Her equal, and She His, and one without the other is like a spiritual vacuum, the possibility of the Hieros Gamos lost. Considering this is a vital part of Wiccan teaching and mysticism, it is odd and possibly dangerous that with the same breath the God is declared subservient to the Goddess.

The God has much to offer each person with His many aspects. He is the Trickster, The Father, the Lover, the Protector, the Resurrected, the Shapeshifter, and more. Thankfully the necessary change is slowly coming about with the growing awareness of the importance of the God (with movements such as the Green Man Gathering at Glastonbury celebrating and experiencing male divinity [12] ), but we are still quite far from having true equality of the Goddess and God in Neo-Paganism.

"Spiritual growth will remain one-sided and incomplete until this connection with the God is made; for true spiritual growth one must understand the Goddess, the God and the companionship and working partnership between these deities"
D. J. Conway, 'Lord of Light and Shadow'.

~ Consummatum est ~

Further Reading:

Nicholas R. Mann, Reclaiming the Gods. Green Magic, 2002

D.J Conway, Lord of Light and Shadow, Llewellyn, 1997

Master Therion/Aleister Crowley, The Book of Thoth, (various printings)

Dion Fortune, The Sea Priestess, Weiser Books, 2003 (a fictional book that focuses on the Hieros Gamos and the concept of God and Goddess within each person.)

Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, (various printings)

Footnotes

[1] Gerald Gardner, The Meaning of Witchcraft p. 128.

[2] This is one version of the chant- there are a couple of others that use different God names.

[3] Notice the attitude that the deck creator and author of the Robin Wood Tarot has towards the Empress and Hierophant: see Robin Wood, 'Robin Wood Tarot: The Book' , p 41-43 and p. 46-48.

[4] Ffiona Morgan, 'Daughters of the Moon Tarot' US Games Systems.

[5] Some of these are:

• Triple Goddess Tarot, by Isha Lerner and Mara Friedman
• Wise Woman Tarot, by Flash Silvermoon
• Daughters of the Moon Tarot, by Ffiona Morgan
• Motherpeace Tarot, by Karen Vogel and Vicki Noble
• Goddess Tarot, by Khris Waldherr
• Oracle of the Goddess, by Anna Franklin and Paul Mason
• Goddess Oracle, by Amy Marashinsky
• Oracle of the Goddess, by Amy Zerner and Monte Farber.

[6] To see this statue, http://faculty.evansville.edu/rl29/art105/img/willendorf_venus.jpg

[7] For more information see Dion Fortune, 'The Mystical Qabalah'

[8]	Hieros	sacred
	Gamos	marriage

[9] This is the term used in alchemy. And yes, the 'y' should be there! See Christian Rozenkreutz, The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rozenkreutz.

[10] The other interpretation is that it is the Hierophant/High Priest who marries the Empress and Emperor.

[11] For more information about this alchemical process and its' relation to the Tarot, please see Aleister Crowley/Master Therion, The Book of Thoth

[12] Anthony Ward, Celebrating the Green Man, Avalon magazine, issue 25, (Autumn/Winter 2003), p. 10-15.