The Wiccan Deities Demystified

All religions are built upon a foundation of worship, whether it is worship of a singular God/Goddess or many different Gods. The Wicca believe in a divine power also, in the form of the Mother Goddess and Father God. This divine power is a concept that we accept as far beyond our understanding and so we must relate to it as best we can. In Wicca we relate to said divinity by giving it two faces; that of the Mother and Father.

This makes sense to us because all things in nature have male and female counterparts. We know that every goddess and every god that have ever been are merely facets of the God and Goddess we revere in Wicca. Every Goddess is The Goddess and Every God is The God. Our deities have many faces and we embrace them all.

In the past the deities were worshiped via rituals that celebrated the seasons of the earth and phases of the moon. Still today, Wiccans celebrate these seasons and the deities responsible for them. We see the Mother Goddess in the waxing and waning of the moon and we see the Father God in the Sun and the seasons of the earth. These rituals and celebrations create a bond between the physical and divine, a magical place that we can attune with the God/Goddess within us and everything around us.

This is not to say that the Sabbats (seasonal celebrations) and Esbats (lunar celebrations) are the only times that we connect with the deities. The Wicca do not need ritual to attune with and appreciate our beloved God and Goddess. For us, the beauty of nature, the plants and trees, the stones and earth beneath our feet are all constant reminders of the omnipresence of our deities. Observing wild animals or watching a sunset can be a powerful ritual all its own and we can feel the God and Goddess in all of these things.

The Wicca do not believe that the deities existed previous to man's recognition of them but we do believe that their energy has always been here. We created the "God" and "Goddess" as faces that we can understand and connect with. However, this primeval deity or eternal energy, so to speak, has always been and in fact, created us. Primitive man recognized the divinity in nature and as such personified the deities to better understand the complex workings of the universe. The Goddess was attributed to the fertility of animals and crops while the God was associated with the hunt and harvest.

When attuning with the God and Goddess of Wicca, many practitioners envision them as ancient deities from older religions. Cerridwen, Isis, Pan and Cernunnos are some of the most well-known of these deities. Still other Wiccans prefer to place no name upon the deities as this can impose limitations on our interpretation of them.

Although Wicca is a new religion it is founded on rituals and myths that are ages old. No matter how one person sees the deities, the Wicca accept that they are all the same God and Goddess and they will reveal themselves to each person differently. As such, there is no standard picture of the Goddess or the God, no one definition that can encompass them. They are simply the male and female energy of everything that is. They look however we wish them to. They are all the deities that have ever been or ever will be.

As explained previously, the Wicca believe that deity is twin: both male and female as are all things in nature. They are also equal, one no greater than the other. They both deserve our respect for you cannot have one without the other. All things in nature require both male and female aspects, including our deities.

Some religions and religious traditions will place more importance on one of the deities over the other but this leads to an imbalance. The Wicca believe that the God and Goddess are even and neither more deserving of our love and devotion. Although some practitioners of Wicca have been known to place more importance on the Goddess than the God, this is often the result of feeling misunderstood or shunned by patriarchal religions. However, this is not a belief of Wicca and religion that is based on female deity alone is as unnatural as religion based on male deity alone.

The deities of Wicca are equal and balanced, complimenting each other perfectly. The God and Goddess are both a part of Wicca and we honor them in all of nature and in every human being and animal.