September 24th 2017
In Wicca we recognise that the divine comes in many forms and in many different guises. One of my teachers once told me that ‘God’ is a concept that humans created in order to help them understand the unknown. Pagans tend to gravitate towards the expressions of the Divine that make the most sense to us, that we can relate to. You may be naturally drawn to working with the Egyptian Pantheon, or to working with the Yoruban Orishas, or the Northern tradition – it doesn’t matter which you work with as long as they mean something to you. We all have our own unique path. Another friend once said to me that these expressions are just the ‘same bush, different way round it’. What is crucial in Paganism is a relationship with some form of the Divine. (This is why when I teach you different aspects of Paganism and Witchcraft, I will always endeavour to introduce you to the cousins and counterparts of whatever deity we are working with.)
In Wicca, however, we work with a god and a goddess, and we always recognise the divine feminine as equal to the divine masculine. If the Wheel of the Year was divided into two – Summer and Winter, dark and light – then the Goddess holds dominion over the light half of the year, while the God rules the dark half. I will introduce you to aspects of the Goddess when we come back round to her half of the year, but now the darkness is gathering, it is time to explore Him.
The Horned God
Our god is usually depicted with stag horns. Somewhat akin to the roman Pan, he is Herne the Hunter to some, Cernunnos to others. What he is not, is the Christian devil, but he has frequently been mistaken for it because of the horns. There is no devil in the Craft, except that which we carry within ourselves. On the Gunderstup Cauldron, he is depicted as having horns like a stag and is surrounded by animals. He is the wild side of us – natural, alluring, and untamed.
