Question for My Wiccan witch and Pagan Friends?

Question

I am trying to explain our concept of deity to a young lad... i know we all differ slightly on this so i thought i would ask you all to explain how you view the god/dess....
Please help if you can.....
Blessed Be!
Ariel
)O(

LOVED your words Wiccan Rider,,,,my friend will find them very inspiring! Thank you!!! )O(

Answer 1

Well, of course the god and goddess are equal and just as in nature there is male and female, there is male and female sides to Deity.

One concept is there are multiple gods and goddesses while another concept is there is only one Deity, the creator and Deity has many facets. Just like a diamond is one stone, but has many facets.

One concept is there is only one god, but that god relates to different people in different ways. Thus seeming to be many gods and goddess. I first encountered this concept by a Christian lady that went to a Methodist church. Then when coming to Wicca I have talked to many Wiccans who also think this way.

Deity does not want or need our worship. Deity does not punish for bad deeds, but Deity does like us to commune with them and will help us and guide us. We have a relationship with Deity much the same as Christians do with their God, possibly more so.

I read Raymond Buckland a lot and I like what he says about religion in general. Religion is humankind's way of explaining that which is impossible to explain. I know that is about religion and not god, this does explain a lot to me at least.
BB

Answer 2

I found out I had been a witch in another life from a psychic. I didn’t believe in either until then. It hit my heart hard, she was absolutely right. From that day I've believed in reincarnation, that’s changed my entire life for the better. I discovered what some of my past incarnations had been, and it released me from fears that were not from this lifetime. Through meditation, I've discovered I have many psychic abilities I never knew about. I love the belief of, “Do what you will, but harm no one.” If you read the Principles Of Belief written by The Council of American Witches, it explains why I love the Wiccan religion so much. I am a solitary practitioner, so I am very careful. I happen to be a Witch who worships the Christian God, but not the Old Testament one. The One that is in all the religions I studied, just a different tag on Him/Her. I put what touched my heart from each religion I studied, and added all of them together. I ended up with a living religion that grows and matures as I do. There’s so much I’d like to tell you, but I fear my space is used up. I would dearly love to be published. I wanted to be a minister, but couldn't find a religion I could stand up for, or believe 100% of the time. Now I have it. Blessed Be

Answer 3

I see all the Goddesses and Gods as one entity predating all we know. There has always been some-sort of concept of a higher 'being' for as long as I know of. I don't believe anyone EVER got it 100% right or wrong. I choose to follow and learn about the Celtic and Norse pantheons but, more than either of those I guess you could say I'm Agnostic. The Norse feel all the God/desses are sperate beings.The Celtic are more on the same page with me, that all are one. I just feel that ALL the dieties in history have been different aspects of the same thing, or rather different groups impressions of it.
)o( Blessed Be!

Answer 4

for me, the Goddess is just another name for Mother Earth, poetically, and the God is a poetic way of referring to the sun. The Sun shines on the Earth, the Earth brings forth and nurtures life, just as a man and a woman come together to produce a baby. Our life force comes from our planet and our sun, and all this is real stuff. I know that every atom of everything I have ever known has come from natural places and not from something out there somewhere.

I don't even really think of them as deities per se, because most people use the term deity to mean something separate and apart from themselves. Not me.

Blessings,
Lady Morgana )0(

Answer 5

I consider all gods and goddesses to be metaphors for a reality too abstract and esoteric for human minds. So, for example, when I refer to Mother Nature, it is my way of personifying the natural forces I perceive around me. To me, they have a will and a consciousness, but I can't really see or describe it. Artists have done some marvelous pictures (I'm no artist), and writers of more imagination and talent than myself have written stories, some quite ancient. They take on a reality that may in fact be as real as the reality of my own body, for all I know. For all I know, the whole thing, including the computer and the fingers clicking away at it, are manifestations of the Mind of God . . . or Goddess. Gender is a very different thing when you get past the physical world, after all. Maybe irrelevant, maybe not, but different, we must admit.

Answer 6

I am a polytheist. I believe in multiple, individual deities. Although I feel that they may share the same "spiritual bloodline" they are as individual as my great grandmother and my aunt would have been. I feel that mankind also shares this "spiritual bloodline" although we do not have the experience and wisdom to be a deity. I also feel that all living things have a type of soul and share this bloodline in various degrees (animism?). I don't believe that any deity is all-knowing, all-powerful, all-positive or all-negative. I believe that there are many deities, known and unknown, though I only honor a few.

I don't feel that all deities are concerned with the welfare of humans. They have their own agendas and humans may not be one of their concerns. I'm not the center of my deities' lives, nor would I want to be.

Answer 7

I'm a Celtic Pagan and a hardcore polytheist so I believe in many Gods and Goddesses.

I believe they all have different roles and traits and while all are powerful beyond human understanding their exact powers vary a little with the individual

Answer 8

Ariel, your answer is going to differ based on the tradition the person belongs to...

For example, the idea that all gods are one, or all women look alike in the dark, or however it goes, doesn't fly with most traditional Wicca, including a lot of newer traditions....mostly because those who've interacted with their gods can't really imagine it....

I don't have a relationship with abstractions.

Why not ask some elders of the form of Paganism *YOU* follow what to say?

Edit: Since some of the youngers are probably going to think I attacked them by presenting the historic view, so I'm already garnering some tds, let me add this....

DEITIES. DEITIES.... it's pronounced Dee-it-ies, from dei, deus/dea...... not diety. there in no die in deity, because they are immortal. lol.

Answer 9

MM Ariel

Well as I explain it to my students - I view the goddess/god diety as friends. Companions and friends. They don't ness. "rule" our lives, but just ask for respect.

They are the light that fills our daily and ritual lives. They are the air that keeps us moving and living. They are the grass that we walk on. The trees that give us air. They are all encompassing.

BB Always
Lady Phoebe

Answer 10

dieties are beings that hold specific meaning to us and our life. there are them main deitie or creator who may be worshiped as one whole or two aspects of its self such as the god/goddess. there are other deities who can be worshiped for the qualities that each has such as Artimis who is the goddess of the hunt, animals,and nature. for people who wish to base their beliefs off of a nature deitiy. and then there is the worship of mother earth or other wise known as Gaia, who i feel is more of a spirit then a diety. these deitys fit a particular persons life style and choice of worship.