The Common Witch

Pagan originally meant "of the land" or "country dweller", referring to rural people and their beliefs. As Christianity grew and took control of Europe, pagan became identified with any of the non-Judeo-Christian religions, and to some it was equated with heretic, an enemy of the Church's truth. Some equate the word heathen with heretic or savage, but it means "one who lives on heaths". Church officials wanted to replace pagan beliefs and practices with Christian ones, so much so that pagan holidays were adopted into the Christian calendar to get converts. As the word witch is reclaimed, so is the word pagan. Now it refers to a larger group of beliefs with many different traditions and practices. Pagan is to Wiccan as Christian is to Catholic, meaning Pagan and Christian are larger groups with smaller traditions within them. All Wiccans and witches are pagan, but not all pagans are witches. Many identify themselves as pagan, but may not identify with a specific tradition, such as witchcraft. And within the heading of witchcraft are several other smaller divisions. 

Divinity is inherent in all things, material and spiritual. The divine force is apparent in all life and form. Spiritual does not mean divorced from the physical, earthly realm. The Earth is actually one of the most divine forms in all creation. All life, all nature is the divine manifest, and most pagans honor the Earth as a living being, the source of life. In our mythology, the Earth is viewed as Mother, or even Grandmother, the source of all life on Earth. The Earth Goddess can be seen as a symbol of life and interconnection, or a sentient consciousness available for communication in her own right. Science is slowly catching up to the idea of the Earth being alive, and no a lifeless rock. British biologist James Lovelock first proposed the "Gaia Hypothesis" in the 1970's, named after the Greek goddess Gaia, stating that all life, including humanity, is part of a complex biosphere organism. Others have extrapolated that hypothesis into a theory that the Earth is a living being, and all things on Earth are akin to cells within her. To witches, there is no doubt that the Earth is alive. 

The divinity, or life force, present in all things expresses itself in several different ways in witchcraft. Most common in this faith is the expression of the divine not only thought the Earth, but also through the Goddess, the Great Mother, and the God, the all Father. Through the actions of this polarity, Goddess and God, life is created. 

As the Goddess is manifested through the Earth, she is also inherent in the Moon, the changing cycles matching the twenty-eight day menstruation period. The concept of a Triple Goddess-Maiden, Mother, and Crone-seen in the waxing, full, and waning Moon, is rooted deeply in the pagan consciousness. Her three identities could also be the Moon, Earth, and Underworld Goddess. The Triple Goddess is seen as the giver of life, sustainer and destroyer, all in one. The mythologies of old contain the Triple Goddess image. Different cultures alternately see the Goddess in the Sun, ocean, rivers, sky, and spiraling galaxies. 

The God is manifested through various faces, including the Sky Father, encompassing Mother Earth; Solar King; Horned God, the lord of animals; and the Green Man, the lord of the harvest. The God is most aptly seen as dualistic. On the waxing, or warming half of the year, he is life bringer, the god of light, Sun, and growing things. On the waning and withering half of the year, he is the god of darkness, death, animals, and the hunt. 

Each image or archetype in our collective consciousness reveals one aspect of the divine, God and Goddess alike. Neo-pagans and witches have adopted the gods and goddesses of various pantheons as expressions of the Goddess and God. Usually these expressions function as rulers over a particular aspect of nature or human life, such as a deity of storms, the sea, the Moon, hunting, or magic. Usually they have more than one attribute. Even as expressions of the divine, the gods and goddesses are very real, connecting to our innermost selves. 

Although witches are polytheists, meaning they acknowledge and honor more than one deity, they recognize the one spirit running though everything. Perhaps the word monist, one who recognizes the divine in everything is a more appropriate term, but most pagans identify themselves as polytheistic. The gods and goddesses are expressions of that one spirit,leading to a more personal relationship with the divine. 

The one spirit, the Great Spirit, is known by many terms. The Goddess and God move in the love of the Great Spirit. They are different aspects of the divine. Infrequently, some Wiccan traditions call this one spirit Dryghten, a word said to be Anglo-Saxon and best translated to "lord", but without the gender quality, referring to the creative force that is both male and female, the source of all things. Some see this Great Spirit as the Goddess exclusively, who gave birth to the God through her self-fertilization. Ancient myths, such as the Greek creation story, start with the Goddess who give birth to her son/husband to continue creation. 

Critics say that witches worship nature, and to a certain extent that is true, but in reality we worship the creative force found in nature. In essence, we honor life, everywhere, we see the divine in everything and everyone. 

Witches have nothing to do with the Christian Devil. To believe in the Devil, one must already believe in the Christian myths, and most witches feel their spiritual roots predate Christianity. We are not naive. We do believe that harmful forces exist and precautions must be taken, but we do not subscribe to an ultimate author of evil or the concept of sin. An ultimate evil and an ultimate good is a polarity never found in nature. In Christian myths, God is all powerful, but the Devil still exists. For this to be a true polarity, they must be equal to each other, but in Christian mythology, they are not. In Wicca, we focus on the polarity of the Goddess and the God, and the love of their union that births life into beings. Love is the focus, not conflict. The concept of light versus dark, good verse evil, was actually adopted from Zoroastrian religions. 

*Credit to Christopher Penczak