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Nature Vs. "Supernature" in Wicca
by Esra Free©
Whether it is being lovingly described by its adherents,
tallied as a social movement by impartial statisticians, or even decried as
"Satanic" by Christian apologists, Wicca is almost universally
(alongside its many modern neo-pagan cousins) labeled an "Earth
Religion."Wicca is most certainly, in practice, a religion closely aligned
with the Living Earth and Her seasonal changes, which lie at the root of our
most important celebrations, the Sabbats.
But to call Wicca an "Earth Religion"and stop there is to seek
the whole of Wicca's thealogical foundation in, and to limit the scope of its
meaning and applicability to, the details of human existence on this one tiny
planet floating like an anonymous raindrop in the vast ocean of stars, quasars,
nebulae and galaxies we now know the universe to be.
Our ancient ancestors did not share our modern understanding
of cosmology, as evidenced by the tendency of pretty much every pre-science
religion on Earth, pagan or otherwise, to locate this one tiny planet at the
center of physical reality (where it surely appears to be to earthbound humans
observing the circular movements of stars in the night sky), rather than where
we now objectively know it to reside on the insignificant edge of a minor
galaxy nowhere near the center of anything.
Any religion that hopes to maintain its relevance in the age
of quantum physics and the Hubbell Space Telescope must be able to offer
meaningful spiritual insight into the real grandeur of our universe, on the
smallest and largest scales, as it is revealed by modern science, as well as
the Earth's place in that grand universe, and Humanity's role not only in the
life of the Earth, but also in that of the real physical Heavens the Earth
inhabits, and of everything existing between Heaven and Earth as well. Such a
religion must be flexible enough to incorporate new discoveries about Humanity,
the Earth and the universe into its beliefs without surrendering its
credibility, to welcome new scientific discoveries as puzzle pieces to be fit
into a continuing revelation of an infinite spiritual truth.
I believe that Wicca is the one religion on Earth most
uniquely equipped to face this challenge of modernity, for, in spite of even
well-intentioned misrepresentations, Wicca is not now, nor has it ever been,
solely an "Earth Religion." Wicca is a religion that is centered in
and reveres Nature whether that Nature
be expressed in the teeming life and wind and water of our planet's biosphere,
in the nuclear processes that energize our sun, or in the swirling push and
pull of gravity that spins our (and every other) galaxy into being.
Wicca acknowledges that there is only one Nature, and it is
everywhere. There is not anything,
anywhere not in galaxies rushing at breakneck speed through the depths of
space, not in the Earthly water cycle that brings Alaska's glaciers raining
down on China's croplands, not in the invisible bustle of bosons zinging this
very moment through my computer's micro-processor, or anyplace in between
that can be rightly labeled un-natural, outside of Nature, whose processes are
determined by any force other than Nature's sovereign power.
Wicca is not a supernatural religion like Christianity,
Islam or Judaism, although it is often condemned as supernatural by these very
institutions. These major Middle Eastern religions all posit a God who exists
outside of the physical universe, a male "Creator"deity who is said
to have fashioned the universe from dead matter just as a stonemason
"creates"a solid wall by gluing together rocks, and who is believed
to reside in a "Heaven"located somewhere "outside"the
physical universe He created. How much
more supernatural can you get? Every
aspect of this belief violates the evidence to be found in real, physical
Nature as to how things are and came to be
beginning, and very much to the point here, with the supposition of an
un-observable "outside"to the physical universe. Wicca, being a natural (as opposed to
supernatural) religion, posits no such "outside,"or any deity
inhabiting such an unlikely space.
Nor does Wicca posit any such wildly supernatural notions as
male-only deity or, really (though many Wiccan authors use the term in my
opinion, quite thoughtlessly), a Created universe or an implied building-block
Creator of any kind. Referring to the
physical/natural world as Creation immediately centers the discussion in a masculine,
Judeo-Christian context, and I feel all Wiccans everywhere should stop using
this term at once.
The central deity of the Wiccan religion is the Great
Goddess, and we see concrete evidence for Her reality and presence in every
living particle of the real natural world.
If there is not one single living thing on the Earth, from amoebas to
human beings to the whole spectrum of life between them, that can be observed
being "created"by anybody out of the "bricks"of "dead
matter"(and there's really not think about it!), then why should we
assume that an opposite rule applies to anything else in the universe let
alone to everything else, as is posited by those Middle Eastern religions?
Everything alive, here on Earth, is born of a woman, of a
female creature of its own species. In
Wicca, we see everything that is from the sub-atomic particles that make up
atoms, to the molecules atoms come together to form, to all matter and energy
(and the water and rocks and gases and plants and people and suns and galaxies
that arise from their eternal, cosmic dance) as alive and conscious, varying
only in degree. For Wiccans, the
physical universe is not a dead thing constructed for Man's pleasure or control
by some distant male god. It is Her
body, the real, physical, sensually vibrant, lush and beautiful body of the
Great Goddess, the Mother of All, and everything we believe as Wiccans flows
from this understanding. We exist within
Her and participate in the intimate processes of Her being, alongside every
other living thing in the universe that, like us, and following the observable
pattern to be found in real Nature (as opposed to some unlikely, imagined
"super-nature), was never created at all, but that is rather continually
born within Her, and who is composed, just like us, of the real physical
substance of Her body.
To view the reality of the Great Goddess of Wicca for
ourselves, we need look no further than our own bodies, our own planet, our own
universe. Our Goddess is not some
distant, invisible, disembodied spirit, nor is she "supernatural"in
any way, shape or form. Our Goddess is Nature, in all its manifestations. From the inconceivable whole of the vast,
living universe to that universe's tiniest constituent particle, She is
physically, spiritually, energetically and personally everywhere. All the time. The Great Goddess of Wicca is
All That Is, past, present and future, here on Earth, in every distant corner
of the physical cosmos, and in all the seen and unseen spaces in between. There is nothing you can look to that is not
Her, that is not born of Her, that does not bear the imprint of Her essence, or
that fails to play its assigned role in Her life.
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From WICCA 404: Advanced Goddess Thealogy
by Esra Free, HPS
Cosmic Goddess Coven
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