Understanding Pagan Deitites

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Within paganism,wicca,shamanism, and the craft in general, most traditions don’t believe in literal "creation deities." Most belief that surrounds gods and goddesses depicts them as a personification of a complex philosophical ideology. So for example, The Green Man is a Celtic pagan god. He helps plants grow and protects the forests, animals, rivers, and natural growing life on the planet earth. He is celebrated during spring equinox, and Lammas, and many other sabbaths across Europe.

The thing is, they do not believe an actual green man god walks around protecting plants. He isn’t a ghost in the sky that judges you. He isn’t a ghost in the sky that is using his magic to help plants grow. He is a personification of a very complex philosophical ideology.

He represents the idea that the energy in the universe is all connected. All things are connected. All plants and trees and forests and beaches and tundras and mountains are connected. There is healing energy circling through the world. The law of attraction helps to channel the energy of plants and animals into healing energy that helps forests grow and helps to heal and transform nature. That energy has been there since the dawning of time. That energy is considered to be where magic comes from. It’s existence is god like. The ideology behind it is so complicated and complex and difficult to understand. So instead of trying to describe it and define it and name it, they personified it, and named it The Green Man.

 

So if a god or goddess is calling to you, what is actually calling to you is the philosophical ideology that goddess represents. Your brain, mind, body, and soul are starting to understand large complex philosophical concepts and the energy that connects you and your soul to all living things, and all humans who have lived and died, is interacting with the energy that radiates off of you, while your subconscious slowly starts to work through these philosophical concepts.

 

For example, if someone close to you died and you were working through the trauma and trying to understand death, the image Persephone might call to you. The reason this happens is because people have used Persephone as the personification of death, love, transformation, change, reincarnation, and the underworld for so long, and they have channeled so much energy into the image of Persephone, and the ideology that she represents, that her image calls to you when you’re working through that ideology. The reason that happens is because the energy of all humans that have ever lived is flowing through the universe. As we know, through physics, no energy can be created or destroyed, so for thousands of years humans channeled energy into this personification of death and transformation, and named her Persephone. You have a connection to every human who has ever existed because their energy flows through the universe. When you’re contemplating death and transformation, the image of Persephone calls to you. Even if you had never heard of Persephone before.

 

Of course there are always exceptions. Some cultures throughout the world have worshipped pagan dirties as creation gods that truly exist. Some pagan cultures believe in the existence of gods and goddesses, as creation deities, much like Christian, Jewish, and Islamic religions. Pagan religions such as Hinduism are polytheistic and their deities are much more than personifications of philosophical ideologies. We will not be learning about these types of pagan religions in class. Many of these cultures and religions are closed practices.

 

There are many pagan religions that have very literal gods and goddesses and very sacred rituals to worship those deities. We will not be learning about these in class. We will learn about their existence, but we will not be learning about their sacred practices or ritual work.