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The Wiccan Trinity


This is my personal understanding of divinity in Wicca. Firstly, there is the pantheistic concept of the divine as the One and All, the very Being of the Cosmos, the Source, the Dryghten. This is an impersonal, non-anthropomorphic way of understanding the divine, but sometimes it is symbolised by a hermaphrodite, an ouroboros, an infinity symbol, or a spiral. It is the self-creating infinite oneness of all that exists, and is not an object of worship. Dryghten is the Godhead which is understood by us in the form of Goddess and God. Patricia Crowther wrote the following blessing in her book Witch Blood! The Diary of a Witch High Priestess! 

"In the name of Dryghten, the Ancient Providence, Who was from the beginning and is for eternity, Male and Female, the Original Source of all things; all-knowing, all-pervading, all-powerful; changeless, eternal. In the name of the Lady of the Moon, and the Lord of Death and Resurrection. In the name of the Mighty Ones of the Four Quarters, the Kings of the Elements. Blessed be this place, and this time, and they who are now with us."

Whereas the Dryghten represents unity or oneness, the Goddess and God represent duality or polarity. This is how the Universe is understood by humans, as a great oneness that contains the opposites of light and dark, hot and cold, in and out, up and down, life and death, male and female, etc.


"We regard the whole cosmos as alive, both as a whole and in all of its parts", but "such an organic view of the cosmos cannot be fully expressed, and lived, without the concept of the God and Goddess. There is no manifestation without polarization; so at the highest creative level, that of Divinity, the polarization must be the clearest and most powerful of all, reflecting and spreading itself through all the microcosmic levels as well." Janet and Stewart Farrar, 1987, The Witches' Goddess: The Feminine Principle of Divinity, Page 2-3. The process of the Universe, in which energy is continually transformed, never created or destroyed, but forever recycled, is one great sexual act of procreation between Goddess and God. The Big Bang was one big orgasm, and the vibrations of that orgasm are still moving today, in every particle of our being. 

We cannot see where Goddess ends and God begins, as they are physically united in an exchange of energy. They co-exist in harmony, transmuting into each other, symbolizing the inter-connectedness of all that exists. They are like sunrise and sunset, dependent on one another for each other's existence. Goddess and God are manifestations of the single Dryghten, and are therefore not independent from one another, but rather a variation of the same unifying force throughout all of nature. The Universe is not a continual war of opposing forces, but a reciprocal interaction of complementary forces in an indivisible whole. 

The Goddess and God of Wicca are known by many names, and may appear differently to each individual.  As Dion Fortune explained, "All gods are one God, and all goddesses are one Goddess, and there is one Initiator" The Sea Priestess.






Note:  I have shared my personal interpretation, but this is not neccessarily how all Wiccans will interpret the divine. Every individual is encouraged to interpret the divine for themselves.

Comments

  1. Annika, this was the best description of deity and the universe I have ever read, and I can actually relate to your interpretation.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well written. I sometimes think one can just refer to Doreen Valiente, Dion Fortune, the Farrars, and Patricia Crowther for just about everything one needs to learn about witchcraft.

    ReplyDelete

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