What "God/dess" Represents to Many....

The primary symbol for "that which cannot be told" is the Mother Goddess

She has an infinite number of aspects and thousands of names because she is the ideal behind many metaphors for the creation of the universe.

Unlike patriarchal religions, the Craft sees the Goddess as giving birth to the universe, rather than creating it out of nothing. The fertile lands were made from her flesh, the waters from her bodily fluids, the mountains from her bones, and the winds from her breath.

The Goddess does not "rule" the world .... she is the world. And, since she gave birth to us all, we have the potential to reconnect with the spirit of her in all her magnificent diversity.

Spiritualosophy, then, is a matter of relinking with the divine within as well as with the outer manifestations in all the human and natural world. One of the basic beliefs that the Craft is founded upon is what Stewart Farrar calls the "Theory of levels," which recognizes that reality exists and operates on many planes. A simplified but generally accepted list would be physical, ethereal, astral, mental, and spiritual. It is recognized that each of these levels has its own laws and that these laws, while special to their own levels, are compatible to each other, and their mutual resonance governs the interaction between the levels. The point of this excursion into the esoterica of how the universe works is to point out that we do not separate our physical existence from our spiritual existence. (To many of us, myself included, "spirit" is the energy that is contained in all the universe, including ourselves.) Spirit and flesh are joined together, and physical aspects of being human such as sex are not considered "dirty" or "sinful."

The importance of the Craft for women is the outgrowth in the decline of Goddess symbolism due to the rise of God (male) dominated religions.

Male images of divinity are characterized in both western and eastern religions today, and women are thus deprived of religious models and spiritual systems that can speak to female needs and experience. In the extremes of male dominated religions, women are not encouraged to explore their own strengths and realizations. They are taught to submit to male authority, to identify masculine perceptions as their spiritual ideals, to deny their bodies and sexuality, and to fit their insights into a male mold; no matter how ludicrous they may seem.

The image of the Goddess inspires women to see themselves in a very different light. As daughters of the Goddess, they are divine, their bodies sacred, and the changing phases of their lives holy. Their aggression is healthy, and their anger can be purifying. Their power to create and nurture as well as their ability to limit and destroy, when necessary, is seen as the very source that sustains all life.

Through the Goddess, women can discover their strengths, enlighten their minds, own their bodies, and celebrate their emotions. They can move beyond narrow, constricting roles and become whole people. For women, the Goddess is the symbol of the innermost self and the beneficent, nurturing, liberating power within all women. The cosmos is modeled on the female body, which is sacred. All phases of life are sacred, and age is a blessing.... not a curse.

The Goddess is not limited to women's bodies. She awakens their minds, spirits, and emotions. Through her, they can know the power of love.

The image of the Goddess has a great deal to offer men as well as women.

Men are also oppressed in a God-ruled, patriarchal society. Men are encouraged to identify with a model that no human being can possibly live up to. Men are expected to be mini-rulers of their own very narrow universe. Men are internally split between a spiritual self, that is supposed to conquer their basic animal instincts, and their emotional selves. They are at war with themselves. In the west, they are expected to overcome their tendency to sin, while in the east they must suppress the desires of the ego. Needless to say, no man comes away from this type of struggle undamaged.

Every male who is raised by a mother will from birth carry within him a strong feminine imprint. This is so because women give birth to males, nurture them at their breast, and in our culture are primarily responsible for their care until they reach adolescence.

The symbol of the goddess allows men to experience and integrate the feminine side of their nature without danger of losing those feelings which are the touchstone of their masculinity. The goddess becomes.... the Mother who will never abandon their child; refuse to nurture him when he is feeling his most vulnerable; tempers her justice with compassion and understanding.... all these in ways not always possible in human women and other men.

For a man, the symbol of the Goddess is his own hidden Female Self, as well as being the Universal Life Force. She embodies all the qualities society teaches him not to recognize in himself. His first experience with her may be somewhat stereotypical, in that she appears as the cosmic lover, the gentle nurturer, the eternally desired Other, or the Muse. All that he is not. As he becomes more whole and aware of his own "female" qualities, she seems to change, to show him a new face. Always holding up a mirror, she shows what may seem ungraspable to him. He may chase her forever and she will elude him, but through the attempt he will grow until he learns to find her from within.

The God is born of a Virgin Mother.

He is a model of male power that is free from father/son rivalry or "Oedipal" conflicts. He has no father, because he is his own father. I know, sounds strange at the least, incestuous at the most.... but, if one looks upon the Christian Father and Son, Jesus is also his own father; it is clearly stated by the Christian religion that Jesus and God are really one and the same (Father, Son, Holy Spirit as one). Therefore, according the the Christian religion, God begot himself in human form, to be sacrificed and return to "Himself" when resurrected. Hopefully this analogy can make one see the comparison and link, once again, to other religious belief systems.

As he grows and passes through the changes in the Wheel of Life, he remains in relationship with the prime nurturing force of the Goddess. His power is drawn directly from the Goddess, and he participates in life through her.

The God represents powerful, positive male qualities that derive from deeper sources than stereotypical violence and emotional crippling of men present in our society. When a man strives to emulate the God, he is free to be wild without being violent, sexual without being coercive, spiritual without being unsexed, and able to truly love.

For men the God is the image of inner power, and of a potency that is more than merely sexual.

He is the undivided Self, in which the mind is not split from the body, nor spirit from flesh. United, one can function at the peak of creative and emotional power.

Men are not subservient or relegated to second class spiritual citizenship in the Craft. But neither are they automatically elevated to a higher status than women, as they are in many other religions. Men in the Craft must interact with strong, empowered women who do not pretend to be anything less than what they are. Many men find this disconcerting at first.

For women raised in our present culture, the God begins as a symbol of all those qualities that have been identified as male, and that they, as women, have not been allowed or encouraged to own.

The symbol of the God, like that of the Goddess, is both internal and external. Through meditation and ritual, a woman invokes the God and creates his image within herself. In this way she connects with those qualities that she may lack.

As her understanding moves beyond culturally imposed limitations, her image of the God changes and deepens. He becomes the Creation, which is not simply a replica of oneself, but something different and of a different order. True creation implies separation, as the very act of birth is a relinquishment or letting go. Through the God, women know this power within themselves, and so, like the Goddess, the God can empower women.

The cosmos is no longer modeled on external male control.

The hierarchy is dissolved and the heavenly chain of command is broken. The "divinely revealed" texts are seen as poetry.... not the "Word of God." Instead, a man must connect with the symbol of the Goddess who is immanent in the world, in nature, in women, and in his own feelings. She is immanent in everything that many childhood religions taught needed to be overcome, transcended, conquered; in order to be loved by "God."

The very aspects of the Craft that seem threatening also hold out to men a new and vibrant spiritual possibility.... that of wholeness, connection, and freedom. Men of courage find relationships with strong, powerful women exhilarating, and they welcome the chance to know the Female within the Self. They enjoy the chance to grow beyond their culturally imposed limitations and become whole.

(For those who choose to work within covens, women and men can experience group support and the affection of other women and men. They can interact in situations that are not competitive or antagonistic. Men in covens can become true friends with other men, without giving up any part of themselves, or subjecting themselves to derision or ridicule.)