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Starting with the very basics, who are the God and Goddess?

The God has many titles: The Lord of Light, Lord of the Hunt, Lord of the Dance, The Horned man, The Green Man, just to name a few. We can see the first images of him in prehistoric hunting rites in which mimicries of a successful hunt were preformed in hopes of making an actual hunt successful. I'm sure you have all seen depictions of primitive man wearing animal hides and antlers as a part of these rituals. This coincides with the modern image of the God as the Horned Man. Now as this is one of the images of the God that causes the most trouble let me clear something up right form the start. The Horned Man is NOT a reference to Lucifer. As a matter of fact the image of Lucifer with horns is itself erroneous. The original text describes him as having a halo or aura around his head, remember he was a fallen angel. This was intentionally mistranslated to meaning horns during the spread of Christianity across Europe in an effort to draw a comparison between the two. It seems the gods of the old religion are always destined to became the demons of the new one.

The Goddess is often refered to as the triple or triune Goddess in reference to her three forms, the maiden, mother and crone. This refers to the three stages of a woman's life. The Goddess is all at once the freshness and beauty of youth, the caring a nurturing of motherhood, and the wisdom and experience of age. Stone “talismans” depicting a very pregnant female form have been found and some belief them to be depictions of the Goddess mother aspect.

Of course these primitive roots bare little resemblance to modern Wicca. And, it is obviously impossible to trace the history all the way back to these primitive seeds conclusively, however the similarities are strong enough on which to base a reasonable assumption. Primitive man had two main concerns, feeding the current generation and creating the next one. Towards these ends he worshiped a god of the hunt and a goddess of fertility. This fits the most basic definitions of the images modern Wiccans hold of the deities today.

I will try to edit this with supporting links and images as I can find them.

Next time we'll go into what forms of worship go into modern Wicca. Thanks fro reading, and please pose any questions so that this thread can be used to help you find answers.

PEACE, LOVE AND MAGIC
vwytche