The Divine Masculine

The idea of a God perhaps owes its existence to the hunt. Generally, in most ancient prehistoric societies, before the discovery of agriculture, it is believed that it was the males that hunted. Dressed in animal skins, and taking on something of the character of their quarry by way of disguise, the hunters would have set out in search of their prey. It was the responsibility of the men to provide life in another sense -the very sustenance upon which the well being of everyone in their group depended. The hunter’s often horned attire likely became a symbol of power. Hunting skills would have been passed down from generation to generation, but it is likely that in many societies they remained an initiatory secret only given to male children of a certain age. The secrets of the hunt, like the inscrutability of child birth, were thus shrouded in mystery. Small wonder too that what the male provided was similarly worshiped and honoured. Wiccans generally think of the God as being part animal, part human and part divine. He therefore encompasses the three natures of human existence.
The God of the Witches is often portrayed as cloven hoofed, with the body of a man and horns sprouting from his head. This composite image has had a difficult ride through the Christian era where he has become for Christians the figure of the Devil or Lucifer, the fallen angel of light. But the associations of this image with evil and darkness are dreadfully misleading. The God is, in fact, intended to show the incarnation of Spirit on the material plane; he therefore represents the descent of Divine Light into the animal kingdom of our human bodies. For Wiccans he is the Lord of Nature. Upright and true, proud and virile like the stag, he fears no-one and serves to protect his kind, laying down his own life if necessary. He is a leader but must bow to the seasonal cycles of the Goddess. As her consort he reveres and honours her, making sure that her needs are taken care of. Quick and sure footed he traverses the lands, running free through the forests, over the plains and upon the hills -he knows no bounds or limitations.
The God is also seen as having a strongly sacrificial nature. This is based on the cycle of the Sun. He begins the road to death directly after his midsummer reign (June 21st) where, having had his longest days and filled the land with light, his power gradually weakens and wanes. His darkest time follows his sacrifice at the autumn equinox (September 22nd) where he crosses the line of the equator and the nights become longer than the days. Aleister Crowley referred to this as his crucifixion[3] where he descends into the gloomy depths of winter in order that Mother Earth may take her repose before her renewal. However, death is but a stage in nature's cycle and the God is triumphantly reborn at the midwinter solstice (December 21st), from which point the days slowly become longer. Finally, he comes again to full strength at the spring equinox (March 21st) where the hours of day are longer than the hours of night and the Goddess re-clothes herself in green. He is often portrayed by sacrificial or dying and resurrected gods, such as Tammuz, Osiris, Dionysus, Jesus and Balder.
But the God is not merely a deity of an annular cycle for he is also able to encompass the stages of a masculine life. He is the new born child, weak and fragile, dependent on others for comfort, yet full of the promise of greater things. As he grows to maturity he is the fecund and randy youth, replete with hormones, vitality and experiment in the passionate and wild revelry of youth. Like Pan he romps through the landscape and this sometimes means that he is given to an excess of physical pleasure, including food, drink, music and sex. Like the trickster Loki he is fond of playing tricks on others and especially enjoys baiting his elders. It is at this delicate stage of development that he needs the firm guiding hand, love and understanding of the mother Goddess and the fatherly God.
However, as he matures he takes on the responsibilities symbolised by the stag and strives to become a worthwhile member of the community. The young male learns to have respect for womankind and begins to take on his role as contributor to the well-being of his family by providing the things necessary for its nourishment and survival, including protecting it from harm. He becomes a leader and a fighter for what is right, just and true. He thus grows to be a worthy partner to the Goddess and can be seen as the kingly Irish god Lugh or the Norse god Odin. In a sense he sacrifices the waywardness of his youth to the betterment of himself and to others. Finally, at the end of his life, he is old and without the physical strength of his youth. Yet, like the Crone, this does not mean that he no longer has a role. Far from it, in fact, as the new generation looks to his experience and wise counsel.
For the male witch he thus provides a model of masculinity that can readily be related to. The God of the Witches is not a “pure” God representing a rarefied form of maleness, beyond all belief that is inevitably impossible to live up to. He takes into account what it means to be truly male, and points the way as to how a man can play a constructive and useful role within the family and society at large. He is not a being that constantly has his head in the stars and his mind on the divine. He is a blend of the physical and the spiritual and resonates with what it means to be a masculine. That such a role model is desperately needed is reflected in the fact that in the most technologically advanced civilisations young males are the group most at risk of committing suicide. Our society has been failing to provide a positive lead to men for some time now and it is no wonder that they often feel a sense of disempowerment and de-motivation, spiralling into despair. For many the Wiccan God has served to provide a solution.
For the female witch the God provides a model of masculinity that she can be comfortable with; he is not a dominant patriarch but an equal complimentary partner with whom she can grow and develop. This stands in marked contrast to nearly every other religion existing today that seeks to subordinate and mould her to a masculine ideal.