Nature Vs
Supernatural In Wicca
Whether it is being lovingly
described by its adherents, tallied as a social movement by
impartial statisticians, or even decried as "Satanic"
by Christian apologists, Wicca is almost universally (alongside
its many modern neo-pagan cousins) labeled an "Earth
Religion."Wicca is most certainly, in practice, a religion
closely aligned with the Living Earth and Her seasonal changes,
which lie at the root of our most important celebrations,
the Sabbats. But to call Wicca an "Earth Religion"and
stop there is to seek the whole of Wicca's thealogical foundation
in, and to limit the scope of its meaning and applicability
to, the details of human existence on this one tiny planet
floating like an anonymous raindrop in the vast ocean of stars,
quasars, nebulae and galaxies we now know the universe to
be.
Our ancient ancestors did
not share our modern understanding of cosmology, as evidenced
by the tendency of pretty much every pre-science religion
on Earth, pagan or otherwise, to locate this one tiny planet
at the center of physical reality (where it surely appears
to be to earthbound humans observing the circular movements
of stars in the night sky), rather than where we now objectively
know it to reside – on the insignificant edge of a minor
galaxy nowhere near the center of anything.
Any religion that hopes to
maintain its relevance in the age of quantum physics and the
Hubbell Space Telescope must be able to offer meaningful spiritual
insight into the real grandeur of our universe, on the smallest
and largest scales, as it is revealed by modern science, as
well as the Earth's place in that grand universe, and Humanity's
role – not only in the life of the Earth, but also in
that of the real physical Heavens the Earth inhabits, and
of everything existing between Heaven and Earth as well. Such
a religion must be flexible enough to incorporate new discoveries
about Humanity, the Earth and the universe into its beliefs
without surrendering its credibility, to welcome new scientific
discoveries as puzzle pieces to be fit into a continuing revelation
of an infinite spiritual truth.
I believe that Wicca is the
one religion on Earth most uniquely equipped to face this
challenge of modernity, for, in spite of even well-intentioned
misrepresentations, Wicca is not now, nor has it ever been,
solely an "Earth Religion." Wicca is a religion
that is centered in and reveres Nature – whether that
Nature be expressed in the teeming life and wind and water
of our planet's biosphere, in the nuclear processes that energize
our sun, or in the swirling push and pull of gravity that
spins our (and every other) galaxy into being.
Wicca acknowledges that there
is only one Nature, and it is everywhere. There is not anything,
anywhere – not in galaxies rushing at breakneck speed
through the depths of space, not in the Earthly water cycle
that brings Alaska's glaciers raining down on China's croplands,
not in the invisible bustle of bosons zinging this very moment
through my computer's micro-processor, or anyplace in between
– that can be rightly labeled un-natural, outside of
Nature, whose processes are determined by any force other
than Nature's sovereign power.
Wicca is not a supernatural
religion like Christianity, Islam or Judaism, although it
is often condemned as supernatural by these very institutions.
These major Middle Eastern religions all posit a God who exists
outside of the physical universe, a male "Creator"deity
who is said to have fashioned the universe from dead matter
just as a stonemason "creates"a solid wall by gluing
together rocks, and who is believed to reside in a "Heaven"located
somewhere "outside"the physical universe He created.
How much more supernatural can you get? Every aspect of this
belief violates the evidence to be found in real, physical
Nature as to how things are and came to be – beginning,
and very much to the point here, with the supposition of an
un-observable "outside"to the physical universe.
Wicca, being a natural (as opposed to supernatural) religion,
posits no such "outside,"or any deity inhabiting
such an unlikely space.
Nor does Wicca posit any such
wildly supernatural notions as male-only deity or, really
(though many Wiccan authors use the term – in my opinion,
quite thoughtlessly), a Created universe or an implied building-block
Creator of any kind. Referring to the physical/natural world
as Creation immediately centers the discussion in a masculine,
Judeo-Christian context, and I feel all Wiccans everywhere
should stop using this term at once.
The central deity of the Wiccan
religion is the Great Goddess, and we see concrete evidence
for Her reality and presence in every living particle of the
real natural world. If there is not one single living thing
on the Earth, from amoebas to human beings to the whole spectrum
of life between them, that can be observed being "created"by
anybody out of the "bricks"of "dead matter"(and
there's really not – think about it!), then why should
we assume that an opposite rule applies to anything else in
the universe – let alone to everything else, as is posited
by those Middle Eastern religions?
Everything alive, here on
Earth, is born of a woman, of a female creature of its own
species. In Wicca, we see everything that is – from
the sub-atomic particles that make up atoms, to the molecules
atoms come together to form, to all matter and energy (and
the water and rocks and gases and plants and people and suns
and galaxies that arise from their eternal, cosmic dance)
– as alive and conscious, varying only in degree. For
Wiccans, the physical universe is not a dead thing constructed
for Man's pleasure or control by some distant male god. It
is Her body, the real, physical, sensually vibrant, lush and
beautiful body of the Great Goddess, the Mother of All, and
everything we believe as Wiccans flows from this understanding.
We exist within Her and participate in the intimate processes
of Her being, alongside every other living thing in the universe
that, like us, and following the observable pattern to be
found in real Nature (as opposed to some unlikely, imagined
"super-nature”), was never created at all, but
that is rather continually born within Her, and who is composed,
just like us, of the real physical substance of Her body.
To view the reality of the
Great Goddess of Wicca for ourselves, we need look no further
than our own bodies, our own planet, our own universe. Our
Goddess is not some distant, invisible, disembodied spirit,
nor is she "supernatural"in any way, shape or form.
Our Goddess is Nature, in all its manifestations. From the
inconceivable whole of the vast, living universe to that universe's
tiniest constituent particle, She is physically, spiritually,
energetically and personally everywhere. All the time. The
Great Goddess of Wicca is All That Is, past, present and future,
here on Earth, in every distant corner of the physical cosmos,
and in all the seen and unseen spaces in between. There is
nothing you can look to that is not Her, that is not born
of Her, that does not bear the imprint of Her essence, or
that fails to play its assigned role in Her life.
Authors Details: Nature Vs Supernatural
In Wicca - Esra Free Web
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From 'WICCA 404: Advanced Goddess Thealogy' |
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