God's Will Hunting

A question to members regarding god/goddess worship: why?

Obviously, considering the location of this post, I'm referring to non-abrahamic folks, particularly wicca/pagan and spinoffs thereof. It apppears (via previous threads) that many of you that fall under the aforementioned description may have been athiests at some point, and for whatever reasons (interested in hearing why) have "changed" to goddess worship.

I can see why strong athiesm can be a bit of a downer, rather bleak actually (color me a "pantheist"), but goddess worship? magic? :huh:

Questions that may be enlightening:

1) how do you choose the goddess to worship? do you just pick the ones you like/resonate with? are told to worship?

2) what does "worship" entail? do you praise this diety? does this diety do anything for you? does this diety want to be worshipped for some reason?

3) if you were an athiest and now "practice" paganism/wicca, do you feel more fulfilled? happy? can/did you actually make a logical/reason based decision to abandon athiesm or was it more an emotional choice?

Karalora

There are probably just about as many ways of being a Goddess-worshiper as there are Goddess-worshipers. I would start by reminding you that most Goddess-worshipers revere one or more male gods as well. Some, such as Dianic Wiccans, focus on the female to the exclusion of the male, but for most, balance is key.

You will often see Neopagans refer simply to "the Goddess", not giving Her a name. This is because many--most, even--Neopagans are soft polytheists, who hold that there is, at the root, a single overarching Divinity, of which every deity that has ever been revered by humans is but one limited aspect or facet. The Goddess, then, is the sum total of the female principle, and Aphrodite and Durga and Corn Woman and Kwan-Yin are more specific concepts of femininity.

Others prefer to focus on a more specific goddess, either because they find the universal Goddess too abstract to handle comfortably or because they are strongly drawn to particular images and concepts. You will also find those who, while envisioning the Goddess as universal, nonetheless call Her by a name from world mythology such as Isis or Diana. Of these, some go with personal preference and others feel that a particular goddess is calling to them.

I have my own names and images of Her. They are entirely personal to me; as far as I know, no one else in all the world uses them. I don't feel close to any of the traditional pantheons, so I am developing my own by meditating on sounds and images (also known as brainstorming) until I find something that immediately seems perfect. (So far, this has happened only a few times.)

The details of Goddess worship are also widely varied. Reconstructionists try to recreate ancient rituals and ceremonies as faithfully as they can. Most of the rest of us write our own, relying on (divine?) inspiration.

Praise? I suppose so, although it's not the same type of semi-groveling [theosyncophancy (hey, I just made up a word!) you find in certain Christian congregations. I praise the Goddess the same way I praise my biological mother--she's not perfect, but she's more good than bad, I wouldn't be here without her, and I love her.

I'm actually something of an agnostic as Pagans go; I don't pretend to any confidence that the Goddess exists in objective reality. But if She is nothing else to me, She is a paragon of me: the best and greatest I can potentially be. And for my money, that's enough. My religion doesn't cost me anything that I miss.

lulay

From what i have learned, the idea of a Goddess goes way way back in our species' history........One can FEEL that this should be so....That associative poetic related MEANINg was intuited in order to relate to reality
So for example, we all know that females of many speicies give birth, NOT the male. The male may spurt his seed, but he can then go on and spurt it further afield if he wishes. Tis the female who carries the foetus, and it is a PART of her body for up to 9 months, and then it is she who goes through the birthing process, AND baby of course. Or in the case of animals, babies

So from there, EARTH was seen to birth everything. and this is the important point: that Earth was the BODY of the Goddess--"Mother Earth". Meaning that Goddess was IMMANENT

But the male element wasn't ignored, or denigrated--as has been the case with the denigration of the goddess and the femimine by the patriarchy. No, he was reprsented as the Horned God, Son/Lover of the Goddess.....Lord of the Beasts, AND he was also the sacred mushroom. The phallic-shaped mushroom which springs up from her bowels.

Of course Abrahamic monotheistic religions subverted this horned god into the 'evil "Devil"' thought to be at the centre of matter

this belief is still believed by many!

Kassiana

A question to members regarding god/goddess worship: why?
--Why not? If it amuses us and doesn't harm you, why protest our personal religious choices?

1) how do you choose the goddess to worship? do you just pick the ones you like/resonate with?
--Normally, yes.

are told to worship?
--Ha. Ha. Ha. While there are a few neo-Pagan control freaks out there, the likelihood that a Pagan worships a God or Goddess simply because "Fred told me to" is next to nil.

2) what does "worship" entail? do you praise this diety? does this diety do anything for you? does this diety want to be worshipped for some reason?
--I don't see the Gods as "needing" anything from us and I don't think they mind if we don't do anything for them. I like talking to the Gods, so I do. I think that what I do enriches my life.

3) if you were an athiest and now "practice" paganism/wicca, do you feel more fulfilled? happy?
--Indeed I do.

can/did you actually make a logical/reason based decision to abandon athiesm or was it more an emotional choice?
--I doubt many 13 year old kids, like I was, make logical decisions to abandon atheism. However, I also never made a logical decision in embracing atheism, either. I became an atheist because the kids around me were torturing me, my parents started taking me to a UU church, the torturing bastards who were making my life a prequel to Hell were all Christians, and I hated them with all my heart. Then I became a fundie Christian for a while. Now I'm a liberal Pagan theist who attends a local UU church.

Shven

The Goddess/Horned God belief was invented by Margaret Murray in the early twentieth century and has no evidence backing it up. It was then used by Gerald Gardner as the basis for Wicca and latyer got hold of by the feminist movement to justify their political aims. The Goddess in her current universal form is a very modern concept. If you went back to Ancient Greece and told them That Athena was actually part of your Goddess they'd consider you a heretic of the highest order. As well as this the fertility element of ancient pagan traditions is seriously over-emphasised.

I'm a neo-pagan. I dont worship anything or anyone. I have no Gods, but there are afew spiritual entities who I am familiar with, and I have a deep reverence for nature - but I dont worship it.

Shven

lulay

yes. u seem very coksure about what you know...i spose you could say that for me...so how do we get around this? maybe there isn't a way to

you seee, the way i intuit or gather evidence is very rlation-al...it involves my bifurcations of spontaneous re-search...PATTERS is what i sense, right?

now, a0 do you agree that the idea of 'Mother Earth' is a very ancient one?
carful of how u answer this, cause if you contradict me too much i will cease chatting to you. i dont suffer fools gladly

of COURSe it is very ancient. associative poetic IMAGE-ry, which pre-ceeds the written word goes very deep. Earth nurtures us doesn't it? like mum. hence the association

your view that the 'honed god' was a recent invention is nonesense. where do you think the Christians got their character of the 'Devil' from?....have you heard of Cernunnos, Lord of the Beasts. THEIR is the horned god...it is a verry ancient idea. FEEL it

this doesn't mean to say i am making you believe in 'gods' mind. what i am doing is getting you toopen up your visual imagination which when done so empathizes with very anient mythopoetic imagery

muthin wrong in that

Look at all the ancient goddess--forget Athena, she was approprated by patriarchal pagans--the Olympians, and masculinized. thy all had Son/consorts--the ever dying ever living gods.....remeber Dionysos? he was around before Margaret Murray wasn't s/he?.......well, he was a horned god....he also was the sacred mushroom

0

The Goddesses and Gods that I chose to worship are those that coincide with my own personality. Within my home I have books and pictures of several deities from many different cultures and historical periods.

I personally do not believe that any diety is in actuality separate from me. A deity is a metaphor that applies to an aspect of my own personality. For example, were I to perform a ritual under to the Goddess Athena, I am speaking to the warrior spirit within me. I visualize myself as Athena, combating my problems, overcoming obstacles. This helps me to focus my energy and attention towards positive goals in my life.

I do not believe that the Goddesses are real entities of their own. I believe their stories and the mythology around them, are metaphors that should be applied to internal truths to find my way on the Path.

The freedom of Paganism allows one to decide for themselves how they should worship or perform those rituals that personally speak to them. There is no right or wrong way, no wrong deity to follow. It is left to individual choice.

Tangie

Shven

Strawman alert.

I never said that Gods with horns didn't exist. I said Gods with horns didn't exist as some Amalgum made into one God until very recently. There may have been several Gods with horns, but they were distinctive Gods and not considered to be all aspects of one God.

To the ancient worshippers of this God this would be like telling fundamentalist Christians, Muslims and Jews that their 3 Gods, God, Yehovah and Allah are all aspects of the Patriarchal Law-making God.

I am very 'Cocksure' of what I know because I read the works of modern historians rather than believe hands down the theories of thoroughly discredited ones from 50 years ago.

And while we're at it there were no Wiccans in the burning times, there was no original matriarchal society and there no little green men on Mars.

Shven

Shven

The freedom of (neo)paganism is not however to redefine history in order to justoify modern ideas.

We are followers of a new religion. Understand it. Live it.

Shven

0

I understand what you are trying to get at. I make no claim to rewrite history to encompass my beliefs. Fact is, there is no religious label that applies to me. I have incorporated Taoism and Buddhism into my belief system, so Pagan or neoPagan doesn't apply to me either. I am a student of Triki and Hatha Yoga, not a person hell bent on trying to convince anyone that Paganism is thousands of years old.

Tangie