The title says everything. The story of the God and Goddess weirds me out in a major way.

To anyone who doesn't know, the story of the God and Goddess goes like this: At Yule, the Goddess gives birth to a son, the God. He grows up and around Midsummer (I think?) he begins to desire The Goddess. They have sex and the Goddess becomes pregnant. The God dies at Samhain and the Goddess gives birth to a son who will then become her lover and father of her next child....

It weirds me out!

So my questions are as follows:

Can I direct my worship to the God and Goddess but not follow the storyline presented above?

Can I still be Wiccan if I do that?

Can I send my rituals to The All, which formed the God and Goddess instead of directly to the God and Goddess?

Am I even still a Wiccan if I don't follow that path?

I know that I'm not supposed to take it literally; that it is symbolism but I still can't get the thought of incest out of my head.

Advice? Thoughts? Comments?

~Firebird

This might make it a little less weird http://thegoodfairy.wordpress.com/2010/ ... ove-story/

Wicca is not the only path, you might find as you go along that Wicca is not right for you and make your own path.

I think the story weirds just about everyone out at first who's not into incest. Well, at least it kind of did for me when I first read it. Some time later I've come to understand it as an allegory of the sun's path*; the sun gains light from the darkness of winter and grows longer ("grows up") during the spring, becomes full strength in the summer, wanes and wanes in the autumn and seems to die in the coldness in the weeks before the winter solstice, which after that night the sun is reborn again and it all starts over. The moon, ever present in her cycles in the sky, witnesses it all. I see the romantic setting of it all as incorporating the process of natural cycles of life, loving, and death into the whole story. But, since there is only two "people" giving birth, romancing and dying, well, that's where the story gets kind of tricky. I try not to think of the Gods as people (well, frankly they're not) but rather try to see it as the story of natural forces propagating the natural world.

About being "Wiccan", heh, that's a sticky situation there for another thread. There's a traditional side that won't consider you Wiccan at all if you're not in a coven, and there's a liberal side where you can literally do whatever "feels right to you", and there's a whole hodge podge of people in between. Technically since you're not in coven you can do whatever you feel like doing in regards of the Wheel of the Year story, keep it, ignore it, whatever. I'd say continue your research and see how you feel about things as you go along and keep learning. Learning rocks.



*EDIT: I suppose I should say 'the Earth's path around the Sun', since we did figure out years and years ago that the Sun does not, in fact, revolve around the Earth.

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This one seems to incorporate a little of the Oak King/Holly King aspect to it, though it's a story I don't know as well. Essentially the Oak King and the Holly King fight for the Goddess's affections, one winning out for the winter and one winning out for the summer. There might even be a death God story out there similar to this one where the Goddess goes to the underworld for a while during the winter months. Usually it seems to be the God who 'flies south for the winter'. Very pretty story, nonetheless. Thanks for sharing.

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"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a Communist." - Dom Helder Camara

"On the internet, no one knows you're a cat." >^.^<

Yeah, I agree focusing on the God and Goddess as people in 'the story' makes it very weird!!! But my feeling is the God and Goddess are an embodiment of nature and 'the story' is simply reflecting earths cycle of birth, fertility, life and death.

As to whether you can still be Wiccan, only you can answer that!!! Continue your studies and find what's true for you. It sounds like it may be a little early to say.

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Good topic. It takes courage to question and be forward in your ideas sometimes and I would say this is one of those topics that could get tricky in some conversations. Luckily we have Magicka.

I've heard stranger things from other religions, but I can see how the incest part might weird you out. I like the way Frodo put it. If you think of it as the path of the Sun and Moon, it takes away the romantic trickiness that bothers you. That way, you still get the story of the Sabbats (which is almost just a simple way to remember the order and meaning anyway), but in a less personified way.

"Being Wiccan" is something you definitely need to define for yourself. My path is heavily Wicca influenced, but I do not consider myself Wiccan.

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It's the age old story of the sacrificial god who dies and is reborn. Ladywindsong a book that explains 'the story of the God and Goddess' is The Witches' Bible by Janet and Stewart Farrar. It's actually two books in one (so you get your money's worth, lol) and they cover each Sabbat and and the myths behind it. It will give you a good understanding of what Wicca is all about and thereby help you to figure out if you are, or want to be, Wiccan.

Briganta

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