The Goddess and God and a Wiccan Creation Myth

One of the key sources for modern witchcraft is nineteenth century American folklorist, Charles G. Leland’s, Aradia, Gospel of the Witches[4]. This work was used by Gerald Gardner as a foundation for his development of the Wiccan religion and led Doreen Valiente to declare that it was “probably the first major influence (on the lineage of modern witchcraft) in relatively modern times”[5]. She was to take Leland’s translation and use it as a source of inspiration for writing The Charge of the Goddess, which is one of the more important ritual constituents in traditional Wicca based on a Gardnerian model. However, the work is not without controversy. Leland asserted that he had found a surviving witch cult in the Tuscan mountains of Italy, near Siena, that he proposed had survived there from ancient times. He based his work on a manuscript known as the Vangelo delle Streghe (Gospel of the Witches) that he said had been given to him by a woman called Maddalena -whether this individual existed or not is a moot point. The Vangelo is widely considered to be fraudulent by modern historians, although whether Maddalena or Leland was the culprit continues to be debated[6]. However, all scholars agree that Leland’s claims of an ancient lineage of witchcraft have no basis in fact[7]. Wiccan attitudes about the work are varied. Some believe it to be true whilst others see that, while it may well be a forgery, this doesn’t necessarily undermine its value as a creation myth or as a source for Wiccan rituals.
Although written in a naïve style the Vangelo contains an allegorical creation story called How Diana Made the Stars and the Rain[8]. This can be interpreted in a variety of ways by different Wiccan traditions, and the student will likely want to explore this document and come to their own conclusions. For the moment though we offer our own interpretation.
The Vangelo says:
“Diana was the first created before all creation. In her were all things”.
This can be understood that in the beginning there was nothing and that from this state of non-being arose the One. This has resonance with Kabbalistic thought on nothingness and the appearance of a “concentration” or spark of energy, as well as the scientific theory of the Big Bang where a creative flash appeared from nowhere. Scientists believe this flash quickly developed into simple molecular structures such as Hydrogen; there were no stars and darkness reigned. Diana, or the Goddess, can be identified with this initial state, within which there is the potential for all things.
The Vangelo continues:
“Out of herself….She divided herself. Into darkness and light she was divided. Lucifer, her brother and son, herself and her other half, was the light.”
Scientists theorise that over time gravity caused the simple molecules to clump together and eventually form stars. For the first time the Universe had light and darkness and that light was borne from the dark. Furthermore, stars are now seen as the generator of all the other molecules in existence, for when they explode star dust is created out of which planets, and all living things, are formed. This passage is also reminiscent of the ideas of Yin and Yang, the cosmic feminine and masculine principles, whose polemic tension lies behind all creation. The state of the One became dynamic existence when divided into two forces. Diana was the darkness and Lucifer[9] (the God) was the light. This again tallies with the theories of the Kabbalists who posit that the One reflected upon itself to become the Two, and that this was the basis for creation.
The Vangelo goes on:
“And when Diana saw that the light was so beautiful, the light which was her other half, her brother Lucifer, she yearned for it with exceeding great desire. Wishing to receive the light again into her darkness, to swallow it up in rapture, in delight, she trembled with desire. This desire was the Dawn. But Lucifer, the light, fled from her and would not yield to her wishes; he was the light which flies into the most distant parts of heaven, the mouse which flies before the cat.”
This section perhaps shows that the Goddess, who represents the dark feminine Yin force of creation, wanted to experience the light masculine Yang force that the God represents. But she could not, for although the two forces were working closely together, Yin and Yang were not one. Diana therefore consulted with the “fathers of the Beginning...[as well as] the mothers, the spirits who were before the first spirit, and lamented that she could not prevail with Lucifer”.
She was advised that “to rise she must fall. To become the chief of goddesses, she must first become a mortal.” If the Goddess wanted to be joined with the masculine forces of creation she had to enter into manifestation, for only here on the material plane could the the two forces be bound together, and only here could the Goddess and God unite.
And so Diana took the form of a cat and manifested on the material plane to become as one with the God. At first Lucifer was angry, so to maintain this union of creative forces and his love “she hummed the song, it was as the buzzing of bees (or a top spinning round), a spinning wheel spinning life. She spun the lives of all men: all things were spun from the wheel of Diana. Lucifer turned the wheel.”
Put another way the God and Goddess worked together to maintain existence; she provided vibratory energy (the song), whilst he provided spinning motion by turning the wheel. They gave the Universe form and movement; the vibratory energy created the structures and was complimented by a spinning force which maintained them and gave them movement. Together the Goddess and the God can therefore be seen to be the essential nature of existence.


Footnotes
[3] Aleister Crowley, John Symonds and Kenneth Grant ed., The Complete Astrological Writings, 1988, p.42. The Sun crosses the equator at the autumn equinox and dips below it which can be seen as a kind of crucifixion. This, of course, contrasts strongly with the crucifixion of Jesus at Easter, around the time of the vernal equinox.
[4] Published today as Charles G. Leland, Aradia or the Gospel of the Witches, Phoenix Publishing Inc, 1999.
[5] Ibid., quoted on the back cover.
[6] See JB Russell, A History of Witchcraft, Sorcerers, Heretics and Pagans, Thames and Hudson, 1991, pp. 148-52.
[7] See Ronald Hutton, The Triumph of the Moon, A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft, Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. 145-146.
[8] Charles G. Leland, op. cit. pp. 18-20.
[9] It needs to be stated here that this is not the notion of Lucifer in a Christian sense. For Wiccans, Lucifer was the angel of light who fell into existence on the material plane. This descent from Spirit into physical manifestation has nothing whatsoever to do with a descent into evil that rejects goodness.