Keeping the Balance – Faith in the Lady and the Lord

It is a beautiful full moon.  As you begin to cast your circle for this esbat you are also reflecting on the deity you will call upon in your ritual.  Will it be Isis, Innana, or Astarte?  Perhaps it will be Tiamat, Hecate or even Kali.  But wait…something is missing.  As you call to the elements the balance of them encircling you, you realize, that’s it – the balance.  Where is the God along with the Goddess?

I am not writing to inspire a political debate. I realize that each of us has our own beliefs and must follow our own truth. I simply wish to call attention to our need for balance and the power of the masculine aspects of the divine. Too often I have stumbled upon a site or read a book that places the God on the backburner while elevating the Goddess.  Where is the balance?  How can you have the female without the male?  In almost all of our beautiful mother nature there is male and female, and for a reason – to procreate (this is with the exception of asexual creatures of course).  Nature, the universe, the energy of the divine all maintain a balance in all things; why should we not?  I realize that for some it is a personal choice, that’s fine, it is after all spirituality with that freedom. 

Often we thank the Goddess and forget the God or include him as an after thought.  Is this because the mainstream religions see their one God as male and we do not wish to be associated with that belief?  Yet again and again we place the God next to the Goddess in our stories and our Sabbats, why not in everyday ritual.  To me it is a natural thing.  Even after being a reformed mainstreamer, I still see the need for the God, only in a different form from the mainstream.  After all, most of the Goddesses and Gods are sired from a God and Goddess (with a few exceptions of some springing from various areas of their progenitor).  A Goddess usually has an equal in a God – what I mean by that is that they share attributes. If you were to call upon both, would not a ritual be stronger for it?  I believe it would be.  After all, the saying goes “Two heads are better then one” a Goddess and God in balance have twice the power as the one.  That being said the possibilities of having twice the danger is there as well.  One must be very careful when calling upon the Divine not matter what the form, know what you wish, know your heart, and know your soul.  Know that the Divine is within you and all around you.  The energy is in everything, from the smallest insect to the larger star.  Be careful.

I cannot tell you what to do, no one can.  Only you can decide what is right in regards to the Divine.  I just want to place the idea out there that maybe we need to think harder on what it is that we believe.  What philosophy drives you?  What brought you down this path and to the hearth you now sit before?  What is important to you?  Once you have decided upon this then, and only then are you able to truly know what you need spiritually. 

With all the Blessings of the Goddess and God on your path,

Saguina

November 24, 2004