Worshiping God and Goddess

[Curious_Kitty]

Ok, so I was raised purely Christian, and taught that there is only one god. Now that I'm trying to incorporate Wicca as well, I find myself having trouble with the whole God/Goddess combination. I know that the one Spirit *or christian God* is just divided into a God and Goddess to make things easier to understand, but I'm still not sure. Can anyone help me understand?

[Tiapan]

Hi Kitty

Please remember I am a philandering, misogynistic, bigoted evil person and proud of it, but my curiosity intrigued me with this post. Ignore me at your discretion.

Is not your current version of reality based on a simple variant of past incorrect distractions.
Why not step back a bit and look at the real universe instead of one with less validity than the Tolkiens "Lord of the Rings".

Why 1 spirit, 10 spirits or a universe of spirits. What of a universe with no spirits simply a beautiful reality? Is that so wrong it cannot exist? Or does it not exist in the preexisting cultural dogma?

Cheers

Call me when you want the answer and its not 42

[te_lanus]

Hi Kitty

At the beginning it always feel strange. But before the Exile of the Jews to Babylon, according to archeologist the Jews had a God and a Goddess. You had El/YHWH as the Male God and Asherah as His wife.

A Hebrew inscription on a broken storage jar, found in Kuntillet 'Ajrud in north-eastern Sinai and dated from the beginning of the eighth century BCE has three primitive figures: a standing male figure in the foreground; a female figure just behind him; and a seated musician in the background. The Hebrew inscription above the drawing reads: 'I bless you by Yhwh of Samaria and his Asherah' (Dever, 1984; King, 1989). Furthermore, a tomb inscription from el-Qom in Judea, dated to the eighth century BCE too, concludes with the words: 'to Yhwh and his Asherah' (Margalit, 1989, 1990 and further references there).

[Curious_Kitty]

Originally Posted by Tiapan

Hi Kitty

Please remember I am a philandering, misogynistic, bigoted evil person and proud of it, but my curiosity intrigued me with this post. Ignore me at your discretion.

Is not your current version of reality based on a simple variant of past incorrect distractions.
Why not step back a bit and look at the real universe instead of one with less validity than the Tolkiens "Lord of the Rings".

Why 1 spirit, 10 spirits or a universe of spirits. What of a universe with no spirits simply a beautiful reality? Is that so wrong it cannot exist? Or does it not exist in the preexisting cultural dogma?

Cheers

Call me when you want the answer and its not 42

Yes, please tell me

[CelticRavenwolf]

I'm not even clear on what you're asking. Are you saying that you want to believe in a single deity like you were raised to, but you want to think of it as him and her? Dual aspects of one being? I would be having trouble with that combination too.

I'm not wiccan, but I wouldn't have thought that they worship a god and a goddess just to "make things easier". My understanding has always been that they are two distinct deities, but - not being wiccan - I could be wrong and am interested to know.

On a side note - I think "incorporating" Wicca kind of defeats the meaning of what it is to be Christian... The Christian god set out his ways in which he should be worshipped, and it's pretty clear in the writings that his believers for thousands of years think that he has bait and tackle. Some sects already consider him to be part of a trinity - father/son/holy ghost - while other sects think that is completely ridiculous. I suppose you could try to start your own sect of god/goddess-but-really-just-one-being-and-a-seperate-Jesus - if it got popular enough it could become a recognized branch of Christianity instead of one person choosing the Religion of Me.

[Curious_Kitty]

I'm not trying to follow just one diety, what im doing is having trouble with the thought of switching from one to two or more. I'd like a simplification, or someone just telling me what to do, and why.

[CelticRavenwolf]

Oh, I get it - so you're trying to wrap your head around the idea of multiple deities when all your life you've been told there is only One?

No one here can really tell you what to 'do'. That question will yield a thousand different answers, and none of them may appeal to you.

What I can tell you is to listen to your heart. I was raised devout Roman Catholic, but my heart, my soul, the very core of my being felt that it was wrong. It was strange exploring a world of multiple - and sometimes fallible - deities, beings that are possessed of both good and evil, who have their own motives. Truly these are the deities whose image we were made in.

Once you explore the other possibilities that are out there, you'll know if they resonate with you or not. Personally, once I got over my childhood indoctrination I found it easier to believe in multiple gods who specialized in different realms of power as opposed to One Faceless Being who controlled absolutely everything.

[Curious_Kitty]

That makes sense, and it was what i was doing. But one night, I had this dream, I died, and went to hell. When i woke up the only thing i could think about is, I'm damned for worshipping the Goddess! It scared the crud outta me.

[CelticRavenwolf]

I would be inclined to say that the dream is merely a reflection of your fears about the answer to the question "what if I'm wrong?"

The way that I see it is a god who casts people into damnation for refusing to believe him or worshiping him in a way that is different to Christian doctrine - regardless of what they did in life - is not a god that I want to worship.

Why is a person who stole from others, dealt drugs to children, and beat up innocent people but still saw the error of his ways and turned to Jesus in the last month of his life more worthy of Heaven than someone who care well for his or her family, always helped a person in need, and generally led a good life other than the fact that they did not believe in Jesus and the Christian God?

That doesn't seem very forgiving to me! Maybe if that god was the kind who met people at the Pearly Gates and said "check it out, sucka! I AM the One True God! Boy were you wrong, eh? But you lived a good life, so come check out all the wicked-cool stuff we have in Eternity."

Instead, we are told that he's meeting those people and going "check it out, sucka! I AM the One True God! Boy were you wrong, eh? All this wonderfulness that you're feeling now in my presence? You're never going to feel it again. For not believing in me you're going to get your wish and be cast out of my Light forever. Bet you wished you had believed in me now, eh?"

While to the criminal who genuinely repented at the end of his life he says "welcome to my Kingdom, believer. An Eternity of wonderful awesomeness awaits you for regretting your sins and believing that I would forgive them."

No. No way. Not for me. I couldn't sleep easy with the knowledge that my faith believed that god condemned more than half of the world's population to hell based on the fact that they didn't believe in him.

The gods that I believe in welcomed me with open arms. They don't pass judgement on me, and they are even-handed in their punishment. They will reward the good that I have done in this life, but they will also discipline me for any wrongs that I have done in the next life too. There is no "get out of jail free" card with the pagan gods. Everything has repercussions - both good and bad.

Ultimately, earthly religions are simply that which comforts the soul. Your religion should comfort you, not scare you into following it.

[Circle_One]

Can I ask, why are you trying to incorporate Wicca in the first place?