Finding Balance: A topic on The goddess

[-xX-A n g e l i c u s-Xx-]

Okay.

So Its been a while since I've posted, because Ive moved off into my own personal soul-searching. Well, I'm proud to dub myself A full Pagan [who believes a lot in the old ways] With a couple flecks of druid, and the morals of a wiccan.

The point is, though....When I'm....okay. Im not sure how to explain this but I cant really feel a presence other than that of the Goddess. I prefer to call her "Mother" Not "The" Mother...just mother. [I'll tell you why in a second]. And I remember one of my fellow pagans talking about "Balance", And that there needs to be a God as well. Now I can understand the Goddess needing a consort on Beltane...but...I dont know.

What are your opinions? On sticking to just Goddess-worship?

And, I have a memory...A couple, actually...

One was from my past life.

All I can really tell from my memory was the overwhelming feeling of shame and violation. [I think I was raped] And I was cold...wet....[raining? I'd been swimming away from....whatever...?] And I saw this woman....With long reddish-brown hair and beautiful green eyes. She pulled me into her arms and cradled me...I remember feeling warmth and healing and love sweeping through my body....washing away everything...
-end memory-

And then, I dont care to go into the details, but I've had a really really screwed-up childhood. And I'm not kidding you when my mother just CHECKED out. like completely, all day in bed...etc. But there was always this feeling....whenever I was by myself in the garden...this feeling of these warm arms around me. And this voice telling me that one day it'd all be over....One day I'll tell this story and not be weak but stronger for it.

And I somewhat feel the need to "Name" my goddess. .__.;

"but all the other pagans have one! ;-;" haha. not really. anyways.

Back to my original questions.

1.Whats your opinion on sticking to just the goddess to worship?
2.Is that kind of Balance really needed [for other than creation, of course]

 

[Elizabeth Tarion]

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1.Whats your opinion on sticking to just the goddess to worship?

"the goddess"? You mean there's only one?

Plenty of people stick to worshiping, or really just paying attention to, only one deity that happens to be female. I don't have much of a problem with it.
If however, the person in question only wants to worship a female deity because they didn't like one male deity, I'd say that there's a problem with it.
Just because you don't like one male deity doesn't mean you don't like them all. And there are tons of male deities recorded in various Pagan religious texts.
That's the only problem I can think of regarding "Goddess only worship". (Except of course for the "Men suck. Women rule." mentality, but I shouldn't have to mention that)

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2.Is that kind of Balance really needed [for other than creation, of course]

Why do you think that at least one male and one female deity is needed for Creation?
There are plenty of stories of dieties being created from nothing, from clay, from blood; of mortals being made in similar ways...
One creation myth of Ra has him masturbating beings into existence, he didn't need to impregnate or combine energies with a female for that.
So, no, I don't see the need for Creation Myth "balance", unless the religion in question has an emphasis on, say sexual fertility or male/female dualality like Wicca is.

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Well, I'm proud to dub myself A full Pagan [who believes a lot in the old ways]

As opposed to half? "Pagan" doesn't mean "One who believes in a religion that predates Christianity/Judaism/Islam". It means one who doesn't follow or have anything to do with the Abrahamic god.
You're no bigger a Pagan than I am.

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With a couple flecks of druid,

A couple flecks of ages long dead priests (etc) of the Celtic people who never kept records of their beliefs and practices?

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and the morals of a wiccan.

What are the morals of a Wiccan?
Also, 50 years old is not old. So Wicca =/= Old Ways.
Hinduism would, it being 3000+ years old.

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And I somewhat feel the need to "Name" my goddess. .__.;

Simple: Ask her.
Humans have this need for giving things names, otherwise our lexicons would be significantly smaller (pretty much nil); I'd think that a deity who took an interest in human contact would/could understand that.
(Are you sure that this woman is not a product of your imagination? Just checking.)  

[-xX-A n g e l i c u s-Xx-]

You really didnt need to pick apart everything i said....But thank you for your opinion... -cough-

And when I said the "morals of a wiccan" it meant I believe in the rede and the 3-fold law. I'm not stupid, although I am pretty new at this, but I'm well aware that wicca is younger than my grandmother.

The druid part- They HAVE kept some of it alive, and I agree with some bits and pieces of what they believed. And besides, the whole "what-i-believe-in" part was beside the point. I may be new but I'm not completely illiterate when it comes to this subject.

 

[Starlock]

The Wiccan concept of balance (which is also sometimes used in other Neopagan systems) of male-to-female has always given me a bit of a laugh. Not because it isn't useful but because it goes in contradiction to how the universe as a whole is designed. Unless you perceive these as abstract archetypes that have little to nothing to do with physical sex, this 'balance' exists only in a very narrow range of things in the universe. The overwhelming majority of things in the universe are not male or female. They're neither or both. Humans fixate on male-female dichotomies simply because that's what we're most salient of. The universe itself, though, is quite non-sexed.

On the more abstract level, the male-female concept of balance is based on gender constructs which I find, to be put nicely, a cardload of hooey. Part of the problem I see in Wicca (and other systems that borrow this concept) is that it is assumed that such-and-such is masculine and such-and-such is feminine and without both you're somehow 'unbalanced.' Well, what if the traits are just simply traits? What if this is a false dichotomy to begin with? I believe the deeper mysteries also teach this IS a false dichotomy, actually. Think of the Yin-Yang symbol. While there is a sort of dualism, all is in reality, one. You know why in the symbol the black has that dot of white in it and vice versa? No matter how dichotomous the world might seem to us humans, white is always intrinsically present within even the blackest black.

To apply this to your specific sittuation, perhaps the deity you're working with is more holistic in nature? The Goddess concept (when used as the sole point of worship) goes beyond sexual dualism and recognizes that all is One. Goddess lit. I've read often comments that the Goddess isn't particularly seen as female, but as a sort of quintessence. The Goddess is everything. Everything is contained within the Goddess. Since our language sadly lacks non-sexed terms, it isn't easy to refer to such forces without using a sexed term.  

[The Bookwyrm]

If you only feel drawn to a particular goddess, then by all means work with her; if things feel balanced for you and are working out, there's no need trying to force a relationship with anyone else.

With my current set up, I have a bit of a divine three-some going: One god, and two goddesses. It works, it feels balanced, and so that's what I work from. The wonderful thing about being an Ecclectic Pagan is that you don't have to completely adopt the male-female duality as two seperate entities; it's embodied in us all.

And MoreSpareParts wasn't picking apart your post; just addressing the specific questions. wink  

[Nihilistic Seraph]

Well, everything I would have said has already been said by MoreSpareParts, and Stalock, so I'll just point out that in a couple different Greek myths, Nyx, the goddess of night is the first creating principle.  

[midara the happy banshee]

Nihilistic Seraph

Well, everything I would have said has already been said by MoreSpareParts, and Stalock, so I'll just point out that in a couple different Greek myths, Nyx, the goddess of night is the first creating principle.

Hmm, in Hesiod, at least, she arises out of Kaos after Ge, Tartaros, and Eros, and copulates with Erebos in order to give birth to Aither and Hemera. She doesn't do it on her own. But Hesiod didn't write the only creation myth, of course. What myths were you thinking of?

Edit: So I did a little searching and found that Aristophanes and Hyginus have Nyx existing before Ge, but she always existed along with Kaos and Tartaros and Erebos. Also I didn't find any that say that Nyx created or bore anything alone. But I'll keep looking.  

[Nihilistic Seraph]

midara the happy banshee

Nihilistic Seraph

Well, everything I would have said has already been said by MoreSpareParts, and Stalock, so I'll just point out that in a couple different Greek myths, Nyx, the goddess of night is the first creating principle.

Hmm, in Hesiod, at least, she arises out of Kaos after Ge, Tartaros, and Eros, and copulates with Erebos in order to give birth to Aither and Hemera. She doesn't do it on her own. But Hesiod didn't write the only creation myth, of course. What myths were you thinking of?

Edit: So I did a little searching and found that Aristophanes and Hyginus have Nyx existing before Ge, but she always existed along with Kaos and Tartaros and Erebos. Also I didn't find any that say that Nyx created or bore anything alone. But I'll keep looking.

I think it's the Orphic myths, but there's a good chance as I'm getting my info from Wiki. During the summer I'll be boning up on my myths.