A friend of mine wrote a few years ago,
...we ended up discussing the differences between Ethics and Morals. She said she figured it out, like a lightbulb–Ethics are what we ought to do, and Morals are what we actually do. I beg to differ. Ethics is what is right in the eye of society, and Morals are what we actually believe in. We can go against our morals and regret it later.I don't think they're actually that distinct. I've certainly used the two words interchangeably over the years. I looked up some dictionary definitions and the more I read, the less difference I see between the two. Ethics tends to deal more with systems of morals, morals more with specific guidelines of behavior within those systems.
Stan commented on “How God works in Wicca” with the question, “.. what do you think of the idea of a separation God and Goddess, in the sense of “King and Queen,” (a.k.a “The Crown”) where they’re both acting as a single, governing entity, and yet are two, distinct individuals?”
I’m sure that’s very much what happens. I do not think they work to cross purposes at all. An example of this in Wicca is the Wheel of the Year, the Wiccan liturgical calendar, a celebration of the life of the Gods, male and female, and how they compliment each other and work together. One person might relate better to the female aspect and work with it more, where another like myself might do the same with the male aspect but both are generally acknowledged and celebrated and considered equal in power.
They do generally have different attributes and “kingdoms” if you will. Men and women are quite different in general, and the Duality celebrates and finds joy in these differences. The male aspect is generally more celebrated in summer, the female in winter, the male is usually associated with the sun, the female the moon, etc. There are exceptions to this in individual worship but Wicca is nothing if not a highly individualistic faith, which is part of what makes it so challenging.
I’m sure that’s very much what happens. I do not think they work to cross purposes at all. An example of this in Wicca is the Wheel of the Year, the Wiccan liturgical calendar, a celebration of the life of the Gods, male and female, and how they compliment each other and work together. One person might relate better to the female aspect and work with it more, where another like myself might do the same with the male aspect but both are generally acknowledged and celebrated and considered equal in power.
They do generally have different attributes and “kingdoms” if you will. Men and women are quite different in general, and the Duality celebrates and finds joy in these differences. The male aspect is generally more celebrated in summer, the female in winter, the male is usually associated with the sun, the female the moon, etc. There are exceptions to this in individual worship but Wicca is nothing if not a highly individualistic faith, which is part of what makes it so challenging.
One of my favorite things about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is their focus on families and the effort they go to as a group to create activities for them. Now, as someone who’s children are grown, I do sometimes feel a bit left out, although never actively excluded but I still think it’s a great thing.Pagans don’t do as much of this. I think part of why we avoid it is fear. There are still cases where children are removed from the home of pagan parents based solely on the religion of those parents. You see this more in the south, I think, than elsewhere but that it still happens at all is scary for parents, and understandably so.
Another reason is a common belief that religion is something you choose as an adult and that to “indoctrinate” a child into any particular path is a disservice to the child at best, and emotional abuse at worst. While many pagan parents will expose their children to Wicca, many allow the children to say, “No, I’m bored and not interested.” and go do other activities. This is of course something all parents must decide for themselves, but I don’t think it would be a bad idea to create some activities the family did as a group that were based around principles, rather than ritual details.
Lastly, especially in more recent years, paganism is growing more amongst the teen demographic than anywhere else. So many pagans don’t even have children let alone think of ways to involve them.
For those who do, adapting some of the family activities from the LDS Church might be a great idea. For example, LDS Living Magazine has this article about the Godhead. A parent might take that and explain to their kids how they believe that Deity is male and female, or has many aspects. How detailed an explanation you made it would depend on the age of your children. Of course, the first step in any adaptation of this nature will be to determine what you believe to be true. You can’t teach what you don’t have faith in.
From there, you can still use the activity and the refreshment recipes from the article. Kids could clip images from magazines of things the gods created, perhaps parents could even work in the idea of connectivity to all life into that. And what kid, of any age, doesn’t love chocolate? Making them together while you discuss what the gods are gives your kids a reason to want to stay and talk instead of run off and play the Gameboy in the living room.
If your family isn’t used to this kind of thing, the first two or three times you do it will probably be uncomfortable or feel forced but as you continue these kinds of activities, you’re all going to enjoy them more and even look forward to them and I think it’s a great way to teach kids the principles of your faith without indoctrinating them into the rituals and trappings.
Darius099 commented on Deity Concepts, “Creating your own religion? I mean… what for? Seems silly, childish, and altogether not what faith is about to just go and make up something to worship.” If that’s what I was doing, I’d agree completely so let me explain.
First, and foremost, I’m Wiccan and follow one over-riding rule no matter what I do, which practices I choose, how I go about doing things and that is: “An it harm none, do as you will.” This has been the Rede for over a hundred years now and tends to be what defines a Wiccan as a Wiccan.
The second important concept is that most Wiccans believe the God and Goddess are one God and Goddess with many faces and aspects. Some take it farther and say there is one Source to whom the Duality themselves are just different faces. The idea here is that Deity speaks to us in languages we can understand and relate to and so the “face” of Deity changes. Deity itself has no name, no face, is not truly knowable but humans cannot relate to that very well, thus the belief is that it used aspects to interact with humanity.
Once you accept that concept, you move onto “All gods are true.” because all gods are just a different face of the God and Goddess. For me, this includes the Christian gods of Jehovah and Satan and Christ but many Wiccans don’t take it that far and exclude the currently popular pantheon from the aspects of Deity they’re willing to relate to in any way. To be fair to them, many have bitter and unhappy experiences involving Christianity and wouldn’t relate to these aspects well without alot of negative subconscious baggage anyhow.
If all gods are true, then any god I can relate to is the God I can worship, as they’re all same God anyhow. This also holds true for Goddess, obviously. Therefore, choosing which “face” I’m going to use is of great importance as I need to be honest enough with myself and know myself well enough, to be able to choose “faces” of the God that will work for me.
First, and foremost, I’m Wiccan and follow one over-riding rule no matter what I do, which practices I choose, how I go about doing things and that is: “An it harm none, do as you will.” This has been the Rede for over a hundred years now and tends to be what defines a Wiccan as a Wiccan.
The second important concept is that most Wiccans believe the God and Goddess are one God and Goddess with many faces and aspects. Some take it farther and say there is one Source to whom the Duality themselves are just different faces. The idea here is that Deity speaks to us in languages we can understand and relate to and so the “face” of Deity changes. Deity itself has no name, no face, is not truly knowable but humans cannot relate to that very well, thus the belief is that it used aspects to interact with humanity.
Once you accept that concept, you move onto “All gods are true.” because all gods are just a different face of the God and Goddess. For me, this includes the Christian gods of Jehovah and Satan and Christ but many Wiccans don’t take it that far and exclude the currently popular pantheon from the aspects of Deity they’re willing to relate to in any way. To be fair to them, many have bitter and unhappy experiences involving Christianity and wouldn’t relate to these aspects well without alot of negative subconscious baggage anyhow.
If all gods are true, then any god I can relate to is the God I can worship, as they’re all same God anyhow. This also holds true for Goddess, obviously. Therefore, choosing which “face” I’m going to use is of great importance as I need to be honest enough with myself and know myself well enough, to be able to choose “faces” of the God that will work for me.
The first step in any new Tradition is to define the focus. Who are you going to worship most of the time anyhow? This very important piece of information defines a great deal of everything else you do - from holidays to colors to attitudes. Well, I always tell people “Google is your friend.” so… I googled “Dragon gods”. Interesting results including one of the best pieces of art I have ever seen. Gorgeous. But for gods themselves, the data was thin as apparently worshipping Dragons isn’t something people have really done much of in history.As a fan of Dungeons and Dragons, of course some of my first interest was in Bahamut and Tiamat. The writers of the Monster Manual must have had very active imaginations for while they do exist, neither one was historically a dragon. Bahamut was a very large fish who supported the world and Tiamat was the ocean, among other things, but not a dragon. This is not what I’m looking for at all.
I decided to go back to the drawing board and simplify my thoughts a bit, and entered “dragon” into Wikipedia. This turned out to be an excellent idea. Almost immediately, I have results I can use and went to take a closer look at Quetzalcoatl. He has a long, varied history due to cultural changes in the regions where his followers lived. Most importantly to me right now is this, “He was known as the inventor of books and the calendar, the giver of maize (corn) to mankind, and sometimes as a symbol of death and resurrection.” Given my love of education, the inventor of books is an excellent focus and since, up to this point at any rate, my main deity of choice was Anubis, his being a symbol of resurrection works out well, too. Shortcomings? I wouldn’t be interested in doing this halfway so I’d have to look more into learning about the Mayan calendar, symbology, culture, etc. Having already done this once for Egyptian mythology, I’m not sure yet if I’m up to that kind of time investment - something to seriously consider.
As for female dragon figures, there don’t seem to have ever been many of those at all. Almost all dragons in any cultural mythology around the world were apparently male. Well, given I literally went years before discovering Neith in Egypt, this could take awhile.
I just finished reading a good starter book, Silver Ravenwolf’s “To Ride a Silver Broomstick”. Not a bad book but definitely a beginner’s tool, it was a good refresher course. But it’s time to move on to something more advanced.
Since I can’t find a coven, “Living Wicca” by Scott Cunningham seems to be a good choice. In this book is a whole section on creating your own tradition. I could probably do this without the book but it never hurts to use it and cover all the bases.
One thing that has drawn me for years is Dragons. I’ve been involved with them by owning figurines, being an active member of an online fan group, editing and publishing a newsletter for that same group. So it makes sense that dragons and dragon magick should be a huge part of anything I do ritually. And it’s definitely going to be the western variety of dragon. Celtic dragons just don’t do it for me. I’ll probably work Chinese dragons in somewhere, but as Elder advisors perhaps, not real totems of power. Their wisdom is undeniable but they don’t thrum many of my subconscious mental strings.
I already use dragons as elemental guardians when circle casting. Water, earth, air and fire dragons all guard my watchtowers every ritual now. It’s not that large a step to include them more and seek doing more work with them in other ways as well.
For God/Goddess archtypes… I don’t know. I’ve followed Anubis so long, had him looking over my shoulder, challenging me to grow, that I don’t know if I’ll change that at all.
Note to self: this is a great site for dragon art. Print it out, color it, paint it, do something with it.
Pagans often choose new names when they choose to dedicate themselves to the Craft. There are a variety of reasons for this but the most important one is that it’s a new path, a whole new way of living - and as such, deserves it’s own identification. Rikka on Witchvox says, “A magickal name can help define you in your new life, it can affect what others think of you and you can use this to your advantage.” Most importantly, what she doesn’t say, is that affects what you think of yourself.
My birth name conjures images of strife and unhappiness, arguments and low self-esteem. Add to that, I’m named after someone I don’t even like at all, and it adds the images I associate with her as well. There is no reason in the world I would want that in a Circle, or anywhere else. I hate it so much that I’m going to legally change it one day.
For a long time, in ritual at any rate, I used a name I wasn’t completely comfortable with. I still am not. It doesn’t fit me. But one I picked up in the SCA, and often used online, invaded my life to a greater and greater degree until I began to use that name even offline. Before long, I was using only that name and to this day, use it by preference.
Viriatha de Cordova. This is who I am, who I choose to be.
Viriatha is the Latin feminine form of Viriathus, a Lusitanian leader who fought the Romans in western Iberia (Spain and Portugal). Not only was a he a great leader and successful general but Wikipedia has this to say about the etymology of the name itself:
There are several possible etymologies for the name Viriathus.[1] The name can be composed of two elements: Viri and Athus. Viri may come from:
My birth name conjures images of strife and unhappiness, arguments and low self-esteem. Add to that, I’m named after someone I don’t even like at all, and it adds the images I associate with her as well. There is no reason in the world I would want that in a Circle, or anywhere else. I hate it so much that I’m going to legally change it one day.
For a long time, in ritual at any rate, I used a name I wasn’t completely comfortable with. I still am not. It doesn’t fit me. But one I picked up in the SCA, and often used online, invaded my life to a greater and greater degree until I began to use that name even offline. Before long, I was using only that name and to this day, use it by preference.
Viriatha de Cordova. This is who I am, who I choose to be.
Viriatha is the Latin feminine form of Viriathus, a Lusitanian leader who fought the Romans in western Iberia (Spain and Portugal). Not only was a he a great leader and successful general but Wikipedia has this to say about the etymology of the name itself:
There are several possible etymologies for the name Viriathus.[1] The name can be composed of two elements: Viri and Athus. Viri may come from:
- the Indo-European root *uiros, “man”, relating to strength and virility;
- the Celtic *uiro- ‘man’; and the older forms viros, viri, viro, viron from which derived the Old Irish word for man, fir;[2]
- from *uei-, as in in the viriae or Celtiberian “twisted armbands” used by warriors (Pliny XXIII, 39);[3]
- the Latin viri meaning man, hero, person of courage, honor, and nobility.
Cordova was something I chose because of the city in Spain. When the Europeans retook the Iberian Penninsula from the Islamic Caliphates, they found a great many scrolls and books in the libraries of Cordova, including mathematics and the Arabic numeral system. A great deal of European Renassaince learning was inspired by the knowledge they pilfered from conquered Islamic territories at the time.
Strength. Honor. Education. It’s a great name.
Strength. Honor. Education. It’s a great name.
- Full Moon Goals - Quit smoking, shield my home, learn my purpose in life at this time.
- New Moon Goals - Decide how that purpose fits into my life and the steps needed to accomplish it, work on healing the damage done to me by smoking and by my birth family, ask for the blessings of the Gods in my search for faith and fellowship.
- Waxing Moon Goals - Attract energy to this home so that the goals of everyone in it can be accomplished, find a positive story.
- Waning Moon Goals - Quit smoking, be less angry.
- Dark of the Moon Goals - None.
Subscribe To
Posts
All Comments
Unique Visitors
