In a previous post, we discussed the Goddess and Her archetypes — the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone — as well as the Dark Goddess/Dark Mother aspect.  However, the Feminine form of Deity is only half of the energy we work in the Craft.  The other half is equally important and vital to the central tenet of creation and fertility in Wicca.  That other half is the Masculine essence, also referred to as the God.

Just as the Goddess will be casually referenced as the Maiden, Mother, or Crone, the God might also be referenced in his archetypal forms.  Most common are the Warrior, the Father, and the Sage.  There is also a Dark Lord as well, but we will discuss him a little later on when we come back to connecting the Feminine and Masculine principles.

WARRIOR: Like the Maiden phase, this is the youthful phase of the masculine essence.  While there is no menarche marking the lintels of the sacred gate with blood, young men go through changes at puberty that lead them through different coming-of-age experiences.  Just as the transition between the Maiden and the Mother is marked by the fertility of the woman and her achievement of child-bearing age, young men transition into men who have the ability to quicken life inside a woman.  With this great power comes great responsibility.  Young men are strong, capable, on the cusp of discovering a new world or staunchly defending what is.

FATHER: Corresponding to the Mother archetype, the Father is the young Warrior grown up and settled into a place of stability for the sake of his family.  The energy of the Father is steady, firm, and practical, skills honed with maturity from his Warrior days and tempered with the first flickers of wisdom.  The Father is the fulcrum of the masculine archetypal line, with the Warrior to one side as impetuous and courageous and somewhat idealistic and invincible.  The Father, having caused life also knows that he has ensured the death of his progeny by bringing them into this world.  This inner knowing of the resposibilities for another life is exemplified in the balance and protectiveness of the Father.  On the other end of the fulcrum, we have the…

SAGE: Companion of the Crone, the Sage has accumulated his wisdom through life experiences and is now at the peak harvest of his life.  The Sage has seen his share of battles and these have shaped him.  The Sage has been the youth, has raised the next generation of youth, and is now the bastion of wisdom and tradition for the grandchildren that follow.  The Sage is elder to his people, holy man, cynic, truthsayer, mystic, grandfather, and soul-shaker.  His very archetypal title, Sage, means ‘wise‘.  It should be remembered that wisdom comes with experience whereas knowledge does not need to take such an arduous route.  Thus, the Sage has earned his place through action and is far more than a mere man of learning.  He is the embodiment of the Masculine Mysteries, experience made manifest and dedicated to the service of family, clan, nation, and world community.

There are many different Gods in the Wiccan and Pagan world.  Whereas the Goddess and the Feminine were subjugated and repressed for hundreds and thousands of years, we now fight to restore the Goddess to Her rightful place alongside the God.  However, the God has his own battle to wage as well.  During the centuries of monotheistic and patriarchal religious organization, the God has also suffered.

Our modern idea of God is a distant old man in heaven, far removed from earthly problems, who leaves His creation to suffer and spin out of control.  This God has no need nor room for the presence of the Feminine half of Himself and thus, He creates nothing for She is not there to inspire him, to arouse him, to offer Him her womb for His seed of new manifestation.  As one might imagine, this God is exceedingly grumpy (you’d be grumpy, too, if you hadn’t been laid in millenia).  He is wrathful, jealous, punitive, and stagnant.  He demands sacrifice from those He loves most and best.  He is willing to send His own Son to die a horrible death for mankind (as some kind of permanent sacrificial king for all Creation).  And that doesn’t even begin to touch the centuries of deplorable and depraved crimes committed in His name, all for the sake of controlling the masses and the all-too-human flaw known as greed.

Yes, men have as much to recover, to learn, to discover and reclaim as women do.  When men come to the Craft, they must discover and reaffirm a completely different face of God than many of them have ever known.  Instead of a God of vengeance, men must discover and embody the qualities of temperance and respect.  Instead of modeling a God of impotence and stagnancy, men must reconnect with their sexuality in positive ways and learn again how to flow and let their emotions move them.

There is a Dark God, Lord of the Underworld, leader of the Wild Hunt.  Like the Dark Goddess, He is not so much bound into a cycle by his age, for He is outside the concept Age.  He may appear young, or in His prime, or Elderly as suits Him or the culture that gave birth to him.  His function is the dread task of keeping the realms of the Dead, foraging and collecting souls in some myths, bringing Death or calling to those about to die.  It is a secret place of transformation when one works with the Dark God or Dark Goddess — death is the most intensely personal experience we have, after all.  Whereas our mothers take upon themselves to share the birth experience with us, physically we must pass through the Veil at the end of life alone.

Before we move on to the Solar cycle of the Wiccan faith known as the Wheel of the Year, let’s spend some time talking about the relationship between the Masculine and the Feminine, for it is central to Wicca and much of Paganism as well.

Next Entry in New To Wicca? — The Power of Polarity

Photo by Eddi 07 (via Flickr).