Diety and Human History

The Wiccan belief system is predicated on the concept of a God and Goddess duality.

Many Americans derive from a monotheistic (one God) tradition.  What does this mean?  It means that the nature of God according to the monotheists is generally this:

A Male

In the Catholic faith, people worship The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Again, there is no feminine aspect to the Deity.

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"Pagan" is a term used to describe anyone who does not subscribe to the dominant religion of a society.

Wiccans are a type of Pagans.

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The Pagan religions are the foundation of many popular religions today.

Looking, for example, to the Catholic religion we can see very clear evidence of the Pagan foundations.

For example:

Mother Mary    =  Goddess/Feminine Aspect

Saints  =  Demi Gods  (e.g. Pagans might have prayed to the God of the Harvest, while Catholics pray to the Saint of Good Harvest)

Incense =  used by Pagans and Catholics alike to carry their prayers to Heaven and to spiritually cleanse an area

The Chalice = The recepticle, the Feminine, the Grail

Holidays =  Many of the Catholic holidays are based on Pagan ones

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The Female Aspect of Deity in Wicca sees (by most traditions, though some recently have argued for a quadruple aspect) a Triple Goddess:

Maiden

Mother

Crone
(the fourth would be the void)

The Maiden comes as the earth refreshes from the sleep of death.  The world becomes fecund and fertile once again.  The holidays Ostara and Beltane celebrate this aspect.

The Mother is celebrated in Midsummer as the feminine aspect of birth and motherhood is represented in the abundant time of Summer.

The Crone, who is an old, infertile woman, is the third aspect of Deity represented by the dying of Autumn as the earth slips into a winter's death.  You can see how our "Wicked Witch" is a direct descendant of the Crone.

The Male aspect of the year is represented in Winter.  The Horned God who has masculine aspects such as aggression rules the Death half of the year.