Divinities
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org, please feel free to visit the school website)
Witchcraft can be practiced in an atheistic or agnostic framework. The belief in divinity is not necessary to perform effective magick. The natural forces used in The Craft are inherent on Earth and within each individual, therefore one may live an entire lifetime immersed in co-creational change while continuing to deepen a relationship with these often unseen forces. The philosophical questions regarding divine existence and the further interaction with these energies need not occur and may not resonate with or interest a witch. In modern witchcraft respect for the belief or non-belief of others is practiced by most, so atheistic and agnostic magick-users are not prejudiced against.
The majority of witches do include a belief in, and interaction process, with divinity. Unlike most monotheistic world religions, the focus of the relationship between humans and higher beings is not one of worship in the sense of being a helpless supplicant to the God or Goddess. A high percentage of modern witches are offspring of Christian and Judaic lineages who have exited those organized religions and rejected the God/worshipper paradigm. The pagan model of polytheism is generally encountered in witchcraft today.
Free of a single deity form, and the enforced guilt and fear control mechanisms used in modern monotheism, modern witches often explore the pantheons of the world both modern and ancient. African, European, American, Asian, and Indian cultures all provide deity forms from which modern witches choose, as they create meaningful pantheons for themselves. Often, an attraction or call to specific gods/goddesses is felt to occur, leading the magick-user into deeper relationship with one or a few deities from the hundreds available.
Wicca, as a Western European and American construct, is influenced mainly by the pre Judeo-Christian goddesses and gods of Great Britain, the North, and Western Europe. An outstanding feature of the majority of Wicca practitioners is goddess veneration. The Goddess forms of antiquity give great evidence of the prehistoric worldview of existence and survival made possible by the Great Mother figure as she who births all life, including humans. This Great Goddess in all her various forms, including that of life taker as well, holds great presence in modern witchcraft. The balancing presence of masculine divinity occurs in the deity forms that portray active life, fertility, and cyclical sacrifice. Examples of some popular deity forms in the craft are: Gaia, Isis, Bridget, Venus, Hecate, Pan, Cernunnos, Lugh, the Greenman, and Father Sky.
These pagan goddesses and gods are celebrated and venerated, invoked and evoked in a belief system in which beneficial co-creation may be aided by benevolent deities. They may also serve to enrich a witch’s life without any requests for direct influence for the sake of a believer. As an Earth-venerating religion, Wicca is a framework from which assistance is asked from the deities for healing and preserving life on this planet beyond the personal needs of the priest/priestess.
Creating eclectic pantheons has been upseting to some ethnic peoples. The sensitivities are caused by the feeling that religions are being stolen or co-opted by outsiders without acculturation. Protests of this type are rarely supported by the respected leadership within the cultures, but rather by vocal minorities as one of multiple complaints against perceived inequities.
Becoming divine is a tough process which some go to meditation school to accomplish. Divinity is a reflection on ones outlook on theology and the universe, becoming a master of power and the ability to bring about incarnation. Once you become divine such tasks as healing and magick are simple and a guide is no longer needed to walk about without a mask of a recipe for trinity.