Post by emeraldfiredancer on Feb 5, 2007 15:09:16 GMT -5
THE HORNED GOD
The Horned God is born of a Virgin Mother and is a model of male power. He has no father, because he IS his own father. As he grows and passes through the changes on the Wheel, he remains in close relationship with the prime nurturing force of the Goddess. The Horned God represents powerful, positive male qualities that derive from deeper sources than the stereotypical violence of some men present in our society. When a man strives to emulate the God, he is free to be wild without being cruel, angry without being violent, sexual without being coercive, spiritual without being chaste, and able to truly love.
For men the God is the image of inner power, and of a potency that is more than merely sexual. He is the undivided Self, in which mind is not split from the body, nor spirit from flesh. United, both can function at the peak of creative and emotional power. Men are not subservient or relegated to second class spiritual citizenship in Welsh Witchcraft. But neither are they automatically elevated to a higher status than women, as they are in other religions. Men in the Craft learn to interact with strong, empowered women.
Many men find this prospect disconcerting at first. For women raised in our present culture, the God begins as a symbol of all those qualities that have been identified as male, and that they, as women, have not been allowed or encouraged to own.
The symbol of the God, like that of the Goddess, is both internal and external. Through meditation and ritual a woman invokes the God and creates his image within herself. In this way she connects with those qualities that she may lack. As her understanding moves beyond culturally imposed limitations, her image of the God changes and deepens. He becomes the Creation, which is not simply a replica of oneself, but something different and of a different order. True Creation implies separation as the very act of birth is a relinquishment or letting go.
Through the God, women find this power within themselves, and so, like the Goddess, the God can empower women. In the Craft, the cosmos is no longer modeled on external male control. The hierarchy is dissolved and the heavenly chain of command is broken. "Divinely Revealed" biblical texts are seen as poetry not the "Word of God." Instead, a man can connect with the Goddess who is intrinsic in the world, in nature, in women, and in his own feelings. She is intrinsic in everything that childhood religions taught need to be overcome, transcended, and conquered, in order to be loved by God. The very aspects of the Craft that seem threatening also hold out to men a new and vibrant spiritual possibility: that of wholeness, connection, and freedom.
The Goddess and the God, our Supernal Parents, guide us through our many lives in ways that may be mysterious to some who have not been initiated. They appear to us in many disguises in our daydreams, dreams and visions. They also affect our relationship with our surroundings. When we properly recognize each of them and we allow their influence to balance us, we grow healthy, happy and spiritually mature. When we deny them, or attempt to follow one to the exclusion of the other, we become unhealthy, unhappy and spiritually destitute.
The Horned God is born of a Virgin Mother and is a model of male power. He has no father, because he IS his own father. As he grows and passes through the changes on the Wheel, he remains in close relationship with the prime nurturing force of the Goddess. The Horned God represents powerful, positive male qualities that derive from deeper sources than the stereotypical violence of some men present in our society. When a man strives to emulate the God, he is free to be wild without being cruel, angry without being violent, sexual without being coercive, spiritual without being chaste, and able to truly love.
For men the God is the image of inner power, and of a potency that is more than merely sexual. He is the undivided Self, in which mind is not split from the body, nor spirit from flesh. United, both can function at the peak of creative and emotional power. Men are not subservient or relegated to second class spiritual citizenship in Welsh Witchcraft. But neither are they automatically elevated to a higher status than women, as they are in other religions. Men in the Craft learn to interact with strong, empowered women.
Many men find this prospect disconcerting at first. For women raised in our present culture, the God begins as a symbol of all those qualities that have been identified as male, and that they, as women, have not been allowed or encouraged to own.
The symbol of the God, like that of the Goddess, is both internal and external. Through meditation and ritual a woman invokes the God and creates his image within herself. In this way she connects with those qualities that she may lack. As her understanding moves beyond culturally imposed limitations, her image of the God changes and deepens. He becomes the Creation, which is not simply a replica of oneself, but something different and of a different order. True Creation implies separation as the very act of birth is a relinquishment or letting go.
Through the God, women find this power within themselves, and so, like the Goddess, the God can empower women. In the Craft, the cosmos is no longer modeled on external male control. The hierarchy is dissolved and the heavenly chain of command is broken. "Divinely Revealed" biblical texts are seen as poetry not the "Word of God." Instead, a man can connect with the Goddess who is intrinsic in the world, in nature, in women, and in his own feelings. She is intrinsic in everything that childhood religions taught need to be overcome, transcended, and conquered, in order to be loved by God. The very aspects of the Craft that seem threatening also hold out to men a new and vibrant spiritual possibility: that of wholeness, connection, and freedom.
The Goddess and the God, our Supernal Parents, guide us through our many lives in ways that may be mysterious to some who have not been initiated. They appear to us in many disguises in our daydreams, dreams and visions. They also affect our relationship with our surroundings. When we properly recognize each of them and we allow their influence to balance us, we grow healthy, happy and spiritually mature. When we deny them, or attempt to follow one to the exclusion of the other, we become unhealthy, unhappy and spiritually destitute.