For many Pagans, there is a God and there is a Goddess but not like in major religions. Paganism is such a broad topic that it is impossible to cover in one post. Many people wrote many books about it and still just scratched the surface. In this post, I will try to explain male and female energies that are represented in pagan deities.
Before I move on to details, a little DISCLAIMER is in order. Paganism is not a religion, it is a spiritual path or a way of life. There are no dogmas here as they are in religions. It is a large umbrella that holds so much stuff underneath and the only thing that is common to all pagans is the belief and worship of nature.
"We worship Nature.
Funny, we can prove it exists."
There are pagans who believe in God, those who believe only in Goddess, the ones who believe Nature is the only god-like deity/energy and the majority of us who believe in male and female energies of God and Goddess that are very different in their nature but completely equal in their importance. I will cover this philosophy but I urge you to learn about the other ones too.
In the philosophy of male and female, those energies are different, but equal in their importance. One can not exist and thrive without the other. They are supporting each other and allowing the growth. There are both male and female energies in every human, and only if one of them is in extreme excess we experience problems.
Pagans do not see male or female as better or supreme, we cherish them equally. For a woman needs the male energies and a man needs female energies. Think of them as two labels (in lack of better terms) or two boxes full of attributes. If you pick from only one box, you will go to the extreme in building of your character.
The problem arises when women have only female energies, and men have only male. Remember that we are talking about energies here, not sex. Your sexual organs have nothing to do with your gender, something that pagans knew all along and science has been discovering lately.
Women have female energy in excess and men have male but they need the opposite to be complete. If you are a woman, you have to have strength, power, and passion which are male energies, and if you are a man you need to have gentleness, nurture, and kindness which are female energies.
Have you ever seen women who can not stand up for themselves and are completely reliable of men? They have little or none male energies inside them so they are looking outside to compensate. The same goes for overaggressive men who are not in touch with their emotions. If you have issues (which you should deal with, just saying) with terms male and female, use any other you want but try to understand that a dog is a dog even though you want to call it a cat.
One could say that the divine or supreme goal of spiritual growth would be to nurture both of our energies until they are completely equal, 50-50 in percentage, and to have equally strong male and female energy. I have yet to meet a person who has managed this.
In paganism Gods and Goddesses were always present in folklore. There are many myths from every country in the world, from Greek and Nordic to African and Chinese. Every culture had their Gods and their adventures that served as an inspiration to humans and educated them about values and knowing the difference between right and wrong.
Pagans do not believe that there is an actual Thor or actual Zeus out there somewhere but there are Thor like energies. There is no magical Goddess with a wand and no place where all Gods and Goddesses live and watch over humans. Those are energies that are represented in that way so we can easily understand them.
Those energies are in some way superior to humans BUT those energies can be invoked in us. We have divine spirits inside of us and we are, in our own way, Gods and Goddesses. The relationship between a human and a God varies from person to person but it is always full of love, not fear. Pagans do not fear their Gods for it would mean we fear ourselves.
To worship is a strong verb and it often does not represent the pagan behavior very well. We HONOR our gods and goddesses, we love them, learn from them and give our gratitude, but we do not worship.
God and Goddess (some people have one set of them, and some have many), are here as teachers, guides, and friends. We are extensions of them and what we see in them can always be nurtured in us. All we have to do is rise and grow. There is a huge potential in human beings and our evolution has not stopped. We have so much more to become.
God represents male energy and is often described as either a green leaf man or a man with deer horns on his head. He represents wild nature, hunt, and protection. There are representations of him in two forms: Oak and Holly (Summer and Winter) and there is a representation that pictures him in 3 stages, a boy, a man, and an old man. The color of God is red.
The main symbol for God is the Sun and all pagan sabbats revolve around the Gods life (Sun's behavior during the year). We celebrate the birth of God on 21st of December (Yule) and his death on 31st of October (Samhain). Goddess gives birth to God on Yule sabbath, he grows and impregnates her on Beltane, dies on Samhain and is born again on Yule. The wheel turns once again.
Again, the energy of God here, not the child impregnating his mother, lol. Stay focused and concentrated. We are talking about energies, not people.
As for the Elements (earth, air, fire, and water), two of them are male and connected to God, they are fire and air. Fire represents change, light and rebirth while the air represents intellect, thought and imagination. Those two elements are not only in contrast to each other but also in contrast to other two that are female.
When talking about what aspects the God represents in humans, the first would be life. There is no life without the Sun, and there is no life without the God. Male energies are those of strength, hunt, food, change, progress, rage, fight, conquering and protecting. Can you see how powerful they are and yet incomplete without the female ones? There was no balance in this world for a long time, too many male energies, and too little female. War is in its very essence a consequence of male energies.
Goddess represents female energies and her major symbol is the Moon. She is often shown in her 3 forms, Maiden, Mother, and the Crone. Those three interchange in monthly cycles and have their own attributes but women also experience them as three periods of their lives. The color of Goddess is green.
God is being born of Goddess but the Goddess is always present. She changes her form from Maiden to Crone but nobody gives birth to her. This is an energy that gives reincarnation a new meaning. Goddess does not give birth to herself, she just is, with no beginning and no end. This is also one of her features, sustainability.
I have said that God creates life, Goddess is the one that nurtures it. Without her, all life would die immediately. To create life and to produce life is not the same. There would be no life if there were no sperm that made it but all the sperm in the world can not nurture that life, that is the job for the womb.
Female energies are those of emotions and nurture, beauty, caring, and intuition. As God is in charge of food, Goddess is in charge of water, humans need both, life needs both. As God is material, Goddess is spiritual in Nature. You will hear a song because of the male energy but you will feel it because of the female ones.
The elements that are female are Earth and Water. Earth represents heritage, pride, sustainability, and growth while the Water represents emotions, feelings, and supporting of life.
When talking about sex and seduction, male energy is sexual and the female one is sensual. There is a big difference there. A strong man is sensual, and a strong woman is sexual. A week man is only sexual, and a week woman is only sensual. Without female energies, men would be beasts who would kill each other at first sight. Female energy comes to the rescue because it represents peace and has a forgiving nature. Male is conflict, and female is the resolution of the conflict.
I have not covered 10% of this topic while writing this post, and as I was writing, more and more things came to mind that I need to say. I have not said them all. There is just not enough space or time for it. Keep in mind that I have been living and studying paganism for 15 years now and still have much to learn. Consider this a preview or an intro and if you are not familiar with paganism, read and learn about it. Explore it for yourself.
“Paganism is more of an attitude of mind than a fixed creed. It is always tempting to ask, “what do Pagans believe?” but a better question is “what do Pagans do?”
Yvonne Aburrow
Everything written in this post is based on my knowledge, experience, and personal thoughts and even though it can be found in many pagan practices, it is not true for all pagans. We are funny that way, but as I have said at the beginning of this text, paganism is not a religion, and it does not have rules and truths that everyone has to follow. The beauty of it is that you need to find your own path and your own truth while respecting others and theirs.
Pagans read and pagans evolve. We love science and there are so many of us in that field. This is because we want to learn and we want to discover. We are never satisfied with blind faith and taking someone's word for something. We want to experience life. We want to live life and we want to grow with each day. There is still so much we can learn from Nature and so much we do not know about ourselves.
KEEP YOUR SMILE ON!
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