Today we’re going to go in depth about the God and Goddess; their names, associations, meanings, purposes, etc.

The God is the representational being of all that is Masculine and He is associated with the elements Air and Fire. He has four forms: The Horned One is the name of His most common form which describes his appearance of deer legs and deer antlers with a human male body. This signifies His connection with the animals of the wood and his antlers symbolize His knowledge and connection to Wisdom.   This image was taken by Christian Priests and used as the image of the Devil in order to scare people away from the pagan ways. There is NO description of the Devil depicting him as a half man half goat, and originally he was depicted with blue skin since he was so far away from the warmth of the Christian God; there is a description of him in his angel form that describes him as unbelievably attractive. The Green Man is more common in the Celtic based traditions and is seen as a green, leafy, happy face. This is in reference to his domain, the woods and the land, watching over it’s creatures. The last two forms coincide with each other; The Oak King and Holly King.  You may remember me mentioning it yesterday in the Wiccan Rede. These two phases represent the phases of change for all men. The Oak King represents the youthful, ambitious, adventurous, excited first half of a man’s life. The Holly King represents the older, slower, wiser, calmer second half of a man’s life. After I learned about these two phases of the God, I started thinking about men in society and how this concept applied. I found that men tend to be adventurous, exciting, and childlike (let’s face it, women “grow up” a lot sooner than men do) until they hit mid-life and have a crisis about their struggle for identity (which is like the fight between the Oak and Holly Kings at Litha). Eventually, men realize that they have to step aside for the new generation of men and teach them their knowledge and wisdom. All of the beliefs in Wicca are based on observances in Nature like that. 

The Goddess is representative of all this Feminine and She is associated with the elements Earth and Water (The God and Goddess together create the element Spirit). She also has four forms: The Maiden is Her first form, a young, beautiful, elegant, caring, sweet, and explores the adventures of Nature. She represents new beginnings, a young mind, potential, and the first stage of women (either from birth to their first child, or from their first period to their first child). The Mother is Her second form, wiser, knowledgable, nurturing, abundant, skillful, and ever watching. She represents balance, abundance, a guiding hand,  universal love and the second stage of women (when they have their first child or hit about 30 until menopause). The Crone is Her third form, wise, cunning, crafty, advanced in Her magick, and connected to the dead and to the changes of the Earth. She represents the secret Wisdom of Nature and the skill of divination. The fourth phase is Mother Goddess, this is different than Her “The Mother” form because Mother Goddess is the Almighty Being, the one who gave birth to the God, and supreme deity.

BOM: Research Gods and Goddesses of different cultures. How are they the same? How are they different? Which ones do you feel a connection with?