I learned about the 7 Holy Powers from my teacher, mentor, and friend in the Craft, Lady Nicole Everett (she passed away 4/00). She taught that, from a human perspective, we seek a beginning point. To be polytheistic in nature doesn’t make sense to a lot of people because they don’t understand how there could be 2 or more Gods and Goddesses. Where did they come from? So, according to Nicole, there is the Almighty, the Lady, the Lord, the Earth, the Air, the Fire, and the Water.

Taking this a step further, the Almighty, Lady, and Lord come from the spiritual area of life, that “unknowable” force. In Wicca, that is our true trinity: the Almighty, Goddess, and God. The 4 Elements are manifestations of Divinity.

After a lot of soul searching, and philosophical questions from my family, I have decided that (in my definition of the world, at least), there is an Almighty Creator of All. Part of this Almighty Creator is Feminine and part is Masculine. The Christian concept of a male God creating everything and giving birth to the Universe is illogical. Nowhere, ever, do men give birth. That is a feminine function. Therefore, the Universe was “birthed” by that feminine aspect of the Almighty (known by many names and many faces). The projection of light (as the first manifested creation, if you believe that) into the Universe means that fire is the basis of life, because fire is the basis of any light. This is why fire is associated with the spiritual. Fire is also a masculine element, which is why the Goddess gives birth to the God of Light.

Symbolism upon symbolism. I could go on for a long while.

By the way, we own a Bengal cat, not a leopard. Someone gave him to us and he is 10 years old. His name is Johnner and he is very beautiful. There are lots of cool stories I could tell about him!

Thanks for the opportunity to post my comments.
Merry Yule!

Blessings,

Sandra Richardson

re: the 7 powers: It looks to me like the journalist may have just tallied up the mention of a creator, gods and goddesses and four elements and said, oh. that’d be 7.
While I acknowledge that there’s some sort of ultimate power in the universe, like Gardner and others, I work instead with tribal deities. Though like others have said, I acknowledge theologically that that power informs part of my essence and the essence of everything else.

This is true a book is not the same things as experience which is by far more useful. I would love to see what Cherry Hill Seminary develops as course work for dealing with the press, though. Unfortunately, it seems the the actual belief structure of Wicca doesn’t lend itself well to sound bites as so much is up to individuals to figure out for themselves. Since we have to give long answers when questioned it also makes it easy for words to get taken out of context.

Blessed Be
Dragon Daddy

But the best advice I ever got on this one is advice I still pretty consistently fail to take: when speaking to the press, keep it simple, keep to your talking points, and don’t worry about repeating yourself.

Because I so enjoy all the nuances in different traditions and theologies, my interviews have often been long and useless… or yielded sound bites and quotes that I’ve felt distorted my real position on something.

It’s what I get for enjoying the process enough to forget the product: something short, sweet, and to the point.

Yeah, journalism–even when it’s done well–can be a painful process!

Someone did – it’s “The Truth About Witchcraft Today,” by Scott Cunningham. While that particular book is getting a bit dated, it is still in print. (Last I checked at Amazon.) I think most Wiccans need to have a case a copies of that book to hand out to people, on hand at all times. Such a thing would save me sooooooo much time in my life.

Anyway, I do always preface my views on ultimate divinity by stating to people that my personal beliefs are heavily influenced by Oriental mythology, particularly Taoism. I see the divine as the animating life force that exists within all of creation (chi) that is made manifest in male and female deity (Yin and Yang). Usually this combined with a description of Wicca as similar to Native American spirituality but with a European mythological basis, tends to back people off. Rarely, I have had to get into an explanation of the “all gods are one god” concept.

I know that not all Wiccans and Pagans and Neo-Pagans… view these things the same way, and I do try to state that my own personal beliefs are my own personal beliefs. Just my thoughts.

Blessed Be

Someone should write a Pagan PR manual to help aid us in working with non-believers, ESPECIALLY the press.