What is the Goddess?
Listen to my sound. I am the wind, which echos through the trees. The gentle breeze which tickles your flesh. Touch that which you walk upon. I am the green fields filled with fresh flowers. My breast the mountain peaks which reach toward the heavens. My curves the endless canyons. The waters that run through my womb, nourish the sacred river of life. I am the song within the storm. The whisper on the edge of the forest, the silence, the rush of raging waterfalls. Open your eyes, my child, for I am everywhere. I have never left you and never will.
The truth is... only you can really answer this question for yourself.
One amazing thing about paganism is that for most paths it is pretty open to interpretation on what the gods are. And we can, as individuals, discover what makes the most sense to us.
Is the Goddess an actual being(s)?
Is She Immanent?
Transcendent?
transcendence- existence or experience beyond the normal or physical level.
immanent- existing or operating within
Goddess is within vs Goddess is above/beyond
Think about how you view the world and your place within it.
Do you create your own reality? Do you have total control of your reality?
Or is there a divine purpose? A deity pulling the puppet strings?
Or is it a spectrum between the two?
Or something completely different?
To begin with, we are going to look at different types of -theisms.
There are lots of different -theisms out there that explain how one views the deity.
Theism- belief in the existence of a god or gods, especially belief in one god as creator of the universe, intervening in it and sustaining a personal relation to his creatures.
Deism- belief in the existence of a supreme being, specifically of a creator who does not intervene in the universe. The term is used chiefly of an intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries that accepted the existence of a creator on the basis of reason but rejected belief in a supernatural deity who interacts with humankind.
Atheism- disbelief or lack of belief in the existence of God or gods.
You can be an atheist witch!
Agnostic - a person who believes that nothing is known or can be known of the existence or nature of God or of anything beyond material phenomena; a person who claims neither faith nor disbelief in God.
Monotheism- the doctrine or belief that there is only one God.
This would be Christianity, for example. Can pagans be monotheists? Yes technically they can but it would be rare.
Polytheism- the belief in or worship of more than one god.
Hard Polytheism- is the belief that gods are distinct, separate, real divine beings, rather than psychological archetypes or personifications of natural forces. Hard polytheists reject the idea that "all gods are one god
Soft Polytheism- the belief that "all gods are one god", gods may be archetypes, images, representations, or aspects.
Pantheism- a doctrine which identifies God with the universe, or regards the universe as a manifestation of God.
Panentheism- is the belief that the divine pervades and interpenetrates every part of the universe and also extends beyond space and time.
These are what I would call the major views on deity. There is of course more and if none of these sound right, I'd encourage you to explore more.