ELEMENTOS Y PRINCIPIOS DE DISEÑO
LOS PRINCIPIOS DEL DISEÑO
Just how the Celts conceived of their gods is very difficult to know, since, in every recorded story, people refuse to name their deity, always saying, "I swear by the gods that my people swear by ... " This secrecy warded the gods from the scrutiny of outsiders, for only tribal members might partake in the mystery of their god, which included the knowing of his or her names and titles. And so, our knowledge of Celtic mythology is a tentative mixture of speculative archaeology and texts transcribed during the early Middle Ages.
T
he traditional image of deity is represented in Wicca by a crescent-crowned goddess and a horned god. This divine couple imagery is commonly found in southern Europe, some examples being Diana and Pan or Artemis and Dionysus. Although in ancient Celtic iconography we do find a moon goddess and a horned god, we find no divine couple icons of the two figures together. For example, the Celtic moon goddess Cerridwen was the wife of Tegid, and not Cernunnos, the Celtic horned god. There are several possible reasons for this, which we will examine further in this chapter.The majority of our knowledge concerning Celtic religion derives from the discovery of icons and inscriptions from the Roman period. The Celts of the Iron Age did not depict physical representations of deity with enough regularity to constitute an artistic or cultural tradition of such expression. However, after the influence of the Romans there is a sudden surge of Celtic deity representations reflective of the Roman tradition of iconography.
In her book Symbol & Image in Celtic Religious Art (Routledge, 1 989), Miranda Green states that some scholars believe that the Celtic gods depicted in art may have come into existence only after Celtic submission to Rome and the formation of Romano-Celtic provinces. (Green is a tutor in Celtic studies at the University of Wales College of Cardiff, and an Honorary Research Fell ow at the center for advanced Welsh and Celtic studies at Aberystwyth.) She
believes it is more likely, however, that most Celtic gods appearing in iconography did exist in the pre-Roman era, but that their natures were no doubt modified by Roman influences. Concerning this influence, Green writes:
The Romans brought to Celtic lands the recurrent tradition of representing deities by images which were more or less mimetic, where artists used naturalistic human and animal models as the basis for image-projection ... lastly the Romans introduced divine concepts which were on occasions absorbed and adapted by indige nous belief-systems.
According to Green, it is apparent that the iconography which preserves the Celtic god forms is owed in a large part to the Mediterranean artist tradition. She states that some images of Celtic divinities occur for the first time only under Roman rule. These she lists as the Mother-goddesses, divine couples, and Nehalennia. She goes on to say that these aspects cannot be traced back prior to Roman times. According to author Caitlin Matthews,
(Ladies of the Lake, Aquarian Press, 1992), the Celts had no creation myths as such; perhaps this is why the Mother goddess does not appear in Celtic religion prior to Etruscan and Roman influence. It is possible that evidence of their pre-Roman existence may once have been depicted on wood (now long since disintegrated) if such was ever the case, for we are reminded by Green that the Celtic king Brennus, in the third century B.C., laughed at the Greeks for
creating human-like images of their gods.
The Kurgan/Indo-European invasion of central Europe resulted in the abrupt decline of the indigenous Neolithic Goddess Cult. The Celts originated in central Europe centuries after the patriarchal transformation of the Old European Goddess religion in that region. This may also shed some light on the issue of the Mother Goddess in pre-Roman Celtic religion. Chapter eleven addresses this in greater depth, and also examines the Tuatha de Danaan who worshipped a Mother Goddess-therefore we will not pause here to consider it further. As this chapter continues we shall examine the basic concept of Deity within Wiccan Religion,
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and seek out historically traceable lines leading to the roots of Wiccan theology. Generally speaking, we can say that most Wic cans conceive of deity as the Creative Source which is both mas culine and feminine. These polarities are personified as the God dess and the God, each known by many names within the various traditions comprising Wicca. However, some traditions (particu larly the Dianic) conceive of Deity as a Goddess with both mascu line and feminine aspects.
In mainstream Wicca, Nature establishes the pattern and
therefore the God and Goddess exist in Wiccan theology as sym bols of this polarity. We know that in Nature the physical mani festations of distinct male and female entities exist in order to pro create. There are some creatures, such as the snail, that possess both male and female sexual organs and can self-reproduce, but for the most part the natural pattern appears to require both separate male and female entities in order to maintain a species. We can dis cern from this that the Creator/Creators set forth a pattern reflect ed within Creation of both male and female agents. In this pattern there exists something of the nature of the Creators as well.
The ancient axiom of "as above, so below" addresses the issue of the Physical Dimension reflecting the Spiritual Dimension (see chapter two). Essentially this means that whatever results from the action of a catalyst is itself a reflection of the nature of that cata lyst. From this perspective we can conclude that the Great Spirit is both male and female, God and Goddess. This is not meant to dis credit or deny Judaic-Christian perceptions or those of the Dianic Tradition, but simply to explain mainstream Wiccan concepts of Deity and the reasoning behind them.
In this chapter we will examine the nature and origin of both
of the Wiccan concepts of Goddess and God. The origins of these deity forms are quite ancient. Cave drawings from the Ice Age depict them associated with such human concerns as hunting, reproduction, and basic survival. Ancient burial sites reveal that early humans believed in an afterlife and provided tools and other items for the deceased to use in the Other World. It is possible that dreaming (no douht mysterious to primitive minds) led humans to believe in ot lwr t yp<·� of t•xi�t t·nn· outside of everyday life.
In dreams, humans performed acts that they could not accom
plish in everyday life. They also experienced fear, happiness, pain, and pleasure. Early humans knew that this world of dreams was somehow different from the waking world. This mentality led to a concept of other realms and other lives. The forces of Nature also played a role in forming religious thought. Thunder and lightning, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes all presented humans with a need to understand what caused them and how to appease their source. Thus were born the old gods.
This leads us to what some occultists call egregores or "divine thought-forms" and how they function. I am speaking here of metaphysical principles and occult concepts, neither of which can be fully expressed in a few paragraphs. An egregore is essentially a composite entity, comprised partly of human energy and divine energy. When a tribe carves an image of their deity and offers it rituals of worship, then this image forms within the etheric mate rial of the astral dimension. At this stage the deity is what we call a thought-form (energy formed into a mental image). The more rit ual energy provided by the worshippers, the more cohesive the thought-form becomes.
Pre-existing Divinity, dwelling within a higher dimension, becomes aware of this formation due to the ripple effect or domino effect natural to the function of the seven planes of existence (see chapter seven). Because it is the nature of Divinity to respond to contact or communication, it then issues forth a life spark of its own essence and passes it into the thought-form. The form is thus given life by this emanation and is animated by it. It has now become a conscious god or goddess with the attributes perceived by the worshippers.
This is essentially the reason the old Wiccan teachings tell us that the gods need us as much as we need them. They are main tained by our rituals, which provide them energy and by our con sciousness, which sustains their connection to us and to their source. The older the egregore, the more powerful it becomes. When a cult disappears then the egregore sleeps in the mist of the astral dimension, but it can be awakened again when worshippers
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recall its name and perform its rites, as is evidenced in the case of reconstructed traditions seen in Wicca today.
It is important to understand that not all gods and goddesses are egregores. The Great God and Goddess have always existed prior to the appearance of humankind. These are the archetypes, and the egregores are their children. Here we shall consider their origins and importance in Wiccan religion, so let us now turn to the Great God and the Great Goddess of Wiccan theology.
THE GOD
In the initiate level teachings of Wicca, the god has three aspects.
He is the Horned One; the god of the forest, representing the untamed nature of all that is free. In this aspect he marks the stage
of the hunter-gatherer. Secondly he is the Hooded One (hooded in-the-green); the Lord of the Harvest, the Green Man image. Here he reflects the cultivated nature of all that is patterned. In this aspect he marks the stage of agricultural development. Lastly he is the Old One, and symbolizes the cumulative wisdom of human experience. In this aspect he marks the stage of civilization
(defined as the building of cities and their supporting systems).
In Celtic mythology we find a god trinity under the names:
Teutates, Esus, and Taranis (though they have little in common with Wiccan concepts today). Teutates was considered to be the most powerful aspect of the triple godhead. He was also the oldest and most sinister form, appeased with blood sacrifices on his ancient altars. Esus was associated with the bull and later with the god Cernunnos. Esus was appeased with sacrifices involving hang ing humans from trees; eventually he developed into an Under world god. Taranis was a sky god connected to the powers of thun der and lightning who demanded human sacrifice in ritual fires. Lug later replaces the god Taranis as the mythos evolves.
Examining the concepts of ancient god images from the past will help us to understand his Wiccan Mysteries.