Gods and Goddesses

<<  What I have read indicates that Wicca is an earth-based religion that  recognizes a goddess who wears a crescent moon and a horned  god.  The  seasons are highly significant, and the year revolves around  the   interplay betweent these two.  However, all of you speak of  many  different gods and goddesses and talk of being a dedicant of  one.  How  does all of this fit together?  Or does it?  Are all of these different  deities actually different names for a single god/dess force (as, for   example, in Shamanism or Hinduism or Buddhism or even Islam)? Or do they  compete with one another?  Or both? >>
 

Perfectly understandable question! Now, I shall don my  orators cap and step up to the soap-box. <steps up> (Hey no groaning in the back row! lol)

Wicca is an extremely versatile and diverse religion. The  wonderful thing  about Wicca is that, for the most part, you can worship Diety however you see Her/Him etc. Since each of us see the world differently, why  should we not see Diety differently as well? There is an ongoing debate in many   Wiccan circles  as to whether Wiccans are truly poly-theistic or mono-theistic.

My personal  beliefs are that there is one Omni-present Diety in the  universe, but I relate  best to It as being double-natured, both male and female.  Therefore, the God and Goddess are two different faces of the SAME energy. Likewise, I believe  all Gods are one God and all Goddesses are one Goddess- The Lady  has many faces-Kuan Yin, Diana, Astarte, Isis, Tara etc, but they are all facets of the same stone-at least, to my theological mind they are.

The traditional Triple-Goddess and Horned Lord are, from what I can tell, a modern re-construction of what we believe the Ancients worshiped. Of course, certain dieties fit these images better than others, making some Dieties more popular in some Wiccan circles than others. For example, the Triple Goddess can be found in the faces of Persephone, Demeter, and Hecate. Or the Morrigan,  who's aspects are Ana, Badb and Macha. The Horned One can be seen as Pan, leader of the satyrs through the woodlands, or Herne the Hunter. Originally, as one theory states, all dieties had a cyclical nature-young,  mature, and  wise.

As for being dedicated to one certain Diety, the energy of  certain aspects of the Lord and Lady are different-for example, for compassion,  you might call on Kuan-Yin-definitely NOT Kali. Many times you will feel drawn  to a certain Diety-your energy just 'clicks' with Theirs. And sometimes, a Diety will make it VERY obvious you are under Their protection- They do this through dreams, visions, and sometimes very interesting revelatory ways. Some of the Dieties energies dont work well together, however, usually one will just go and do something else and let the other one who is better suited to the task help you out. Has this made sense? If you are further interested in the faces of Diety, I recommend you look at 'The Witches God' and 'The Witches  Goddess' by Janet and Stewart Farrar-they do an excellent job of explaining things and various aspects. Hope I helped.
B*B
Ariadne