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Balance Within A Goddess Path
Linda Reichert
In the process of trying to create and share Women�s Spirituality, I keep running into those who declare there must be a god and goddess in order to have balance. Being a women�s only group and focusing on women�s issues, we don�t have a balance. So we MUST have the god present in what we do. Well where is the freedom in that statement and who�s dogma are we following? Paganism is not supposed to be about following someone else�s path.
The word gender came from the Latin root meaning to generate, to create, to produce, to beget. Gender has a broader meaning than just the general meaning of sex. Scientist used female and male to describe negative and positive. I feel the word gender has been taken way out of context.
The All is one and the one is All. The great divine source is just that, one source of energy, no sex, no positive, no negative, a large source of universal energy. To break this down in easier terms of understanding, think of a big disco ball.
One large ball, with many facets. For many of us, a large ball of Divine energy is hard for us to relate to on a personal level. As humans we need to break this down in smaller pieces, so that we can have a better understanding. Humans have broken our Divine into male and female aspects, like ourselves or positive and negative, if you will, to have a better understanding and relationship. No matter how you break it down the All is one and the one is All. It would not be beneficial if we only had a male aspect or just a female aspect, then we would be the same as the Christian religion. People need images they can relate to. Some feel men could better relate to a god aspect as to how they must live their lives and women could better relate to a female aspect to how they need to live there lives. So we have the God and the Goddess. They are both equal, because the One is All and the All is one.
The issue of balance, I believe, comes from within ourselves and does not require an outside source. Within each of us we carry a dark side and a light side. We would not want the dark to take over the light, but we must heal and nurture and work with that dark side to have balance. In each of us we carry passive and aggressive behavior. To much of either is not healthy for you or those around you. We need to balance our passive, aggressive. We have our logical way of thinking and we have our creative way of thinking. It takes both ways to be productive. Without logical thinking we would always be in a dream state, without creative thinking we would have no art or inventions, our inner selves must be balanced. We must have evil in the world to know what good is and we must have sadness to be able to experience joy etc.
If a women chooses to follow a Goddess path, because it strengthens her, encourages her, empowers her and she works on balancing her inner self, what possible harm could come from it? Women have husbands, sons, brothers and male friends. If there is something women can grasp to help them grow and reach enlightenment, it seems wrong to tell them they have no balance.
We are all here to grow and experience life, we are here to enlighten ourselves and one day become one with the All. The Divine All is here to help and assist us in becoming enlightened. So why would the Divines facets work against each other? The Divine has already been enlightened. I doubt seriously the Divine resorts to the trivial human games of jealously and bickering with each other.
If a women has a ritual and decides to call upon the Goddess only, I really don�t see Pan in the corner pouting because he was not invited. Maybe the Gods are a little to busy running the universe, for that type of human behavior. Maybe the God sits back under a tree in the forest and thinking great the Goddess has this one today!! I do imagine running the universe can be a tough job.
Personally my vision of the situation is, a women calls upon the Goddess for the type of energy she needs to accomplish her task of her own higher self and the God in the background saying, hooray she�s got it!!! She�s doing it!! Not stomping their feet and crying �she won�t let me in�.
While I am on this subject, do Goddesses really argue with each other?
If you think they do, go back and read this again.
Women seeking the Goddess within to come full circle unto themselves and men seeking the God within themselves does not create a division, but a unity. As we seek who we truly are, we become happier, healthier, secure with ourselves, then we can bring peace and harmony into our relationships.