My Perception of the Divine

"For the two are mystical pillars,
That stand at the gate of the shrine,
And two are the powers of nature,
The forms and the forces divine.

The dark and the light in succession,
The opposites each unto each,
Shown forth as a God and a Goddess:
Of this our ancestors teach.

-----
The master and mistress of magic,
That dwell in the deeps of the mind,
Immortal and ever-renewing,
With power to free or to bind. "

- Doreen Valiente (a part from the Witches Creed).

The divine represent for me the totality of all that is; macrocosm to microcosm, ebb and flow, projection and reception, action and stillness. To me, the divine is very well matched with the Taoist understanding of the Yin and Yang. To me they are less opposite and more complimentary.  Each polarity containing in its infinity the essence of the other. They represent the cosmic union where hot meets cold to sustain the warmth of life, the light and the shade to maintain our sleep/wake cycle, push and pull of life's circumstance to strengthen body, mind, and spirit. There is no act in the universe that does not contain this very dynamic interplay of matter and spirit.

Even in Mathematics I see the divine feminine (which I call Goddess) represented in the number "0" as the originator of all other numbers. And the divine masculine (God) as all numbers hence forth...the cycle of things from no-things. He is also seen in adding (+) and multiplaction (×) where he increases and perpetuates quantity forward. And she is marvelously seen as subtraction (-) and division (÷) where she recedes quantity and transforms it into simpler form.

That description of the Witches Gods is different from the usual description. Usually polarity is talked about in terms of psychology, magick, energy forces, intuition, psychic energy, etc. It is normally thought of in a very non-linear way (understandable, in a world so "left brained" celebrating the non-linear is beautiful and needed! But seldom do we see it described by something as linear as Mathematics).

I am not bound by others understanding of the divine. Constantly I am revealed my understanding of it and my place within it. I know when I work too hard I need the embrace of the Goddess to rest and rejuvenate. I know when I am feeling lacking and lazy I need a push (and maybe a kick in the arse) from the God to energize me. I know when I look of at the moon, her desolate and lifeless surface is a reminder of her cosmic duty: she is the void of non-life that masters the darkness and creates from it life and light. And when I see the powerful sun I am reminded of his logic-bearing light and flowing from him the light and spark of all life; ever moving forward.

As a gay man I am happily content knowing that the divine would be in fact opposites but always remembering that they are above all else complimentary.  I don't need to feel jilted by the sexual imagery of the Witches understanding of nature's energy. I know it takes a man and a woman to create life; that's something that just is concrete in our universe. I am as a gay man now aware that sexuality and gender are not only both separate things but more fluid than we can ever realize. If the divine is opposite (like yin and yang) containing the essence of the other hidden within themselves then the Goddess contains masculinity and the God, femininity. That to me is why I am happily able to call upon the divine in the rhythm of nature as I know that homosexuality is just a form of sexuality.  Simply, just another color on the spectrum of light. Gay and straight aren't opposite in my understanding. They are all a form of sexuality under the branch of human nature. To me, sexuality and asexuality are opposites. But even then, asexuality is still an aspect of nature! So there is truly nothing that is not divine and not sacred to the two of all.

Even our very breathe is a representation of the ebb and flow of life and death oxygen and carbon dioxide. We can't escape the reality of these forces. It is beautiful and it is apart of me and a part of you.