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"We gaze up at the same stars, the sky covers us all, the same Universe encompasses us. What does it matter what practical system we adopt in our search for the truth? Not by one avenue only can we arrive at so tremendous a secret."
Symmanchus, 384CE.

God, Goddess or Divine Force is the ultimate life-giving force, the spiritual framework on which hangs all the universe, the force which ultimately gives fashion to all spiritual happenstances - prayers answered, visions experienced, miracles occurring, return to life from death, judgement or otherwise when dead, arbiter of good or bad fortune. As to whether Divinity 'created' the Universe, via the 'Big Bang', or whether it came into being as a result of the Big Bang, we cannot tell, nor does it matter. What matters is that Divinity exists.

When humanity began its realisation of its own spirituality, it looked at the universe in an animistic way - all being was infused with spirit - animals, plants and stone.

And even today modern atheistic man finds it difficult to believe that certain animals or stones or plants or even places have no "spirit", or have no "immortal soul". The aboriginal is not the only one who has sacred places - we revere Stonehenge, St John's Cathedral, Fraser Island and new icons like the Opera House and Capitol Hill in the ACT. Certain places, certain holidays, certain animals (the koala for example), certain trees (the Moreton Bay Figs along Lutwyche Road) have a special meaning for ordinary folk who do not usually dwell on such matters.

Later, humanity saw ultimate Divinity in the cycle of life, death and re-birth - and the Goddess was revealed - the earth, the womb, the darkness that nourished the seed and gave forth life. The tides, the moon, the menstrual cycle - all were in tune, all waxed and waned, all gave life and death only to be re-born - even the solar year with its seasons and the daily return of light as night gives way to day. The night and dark had terrors and demons but so also did the day - neither was innately evil but recognised as requiring each other for balance and the continuation of life - the old must be re-gathered, re-formed in order to live again. And in the hunt the sacrifice of the God/Stag made life (food, clothing and weapons) for the beneficiaries (the human hunters) - and so the Sacrificial God was revealed, Son of the Mother, Lover of the Maiden, Sacrifice to the Eternal Crone.

And everywhere, images of gods and goddesses arose, in families as we know them. Polytheism was the norm - the knowledge that divinity is diverse and knowable in many forms, each individual, yet each linked. Note that early humanity and humanity of the great bronze and iron age civilisations did not worship nature as sole divinity - pantheism, where all is divine but divinity is limited by what is the universe. Never did they mistake worshipping the created not the creator. However they were pantheistic in the belief that divinity infuses everything with its sacredness, everything is God and Goddess, divinity is indwelling - immanent (from immanere - to inhabit).

The notion of immanence is not always easy to understand. How can the divine be present in matter even though we do not see it? In the Hindu Scripture of the Chandogya Upanishad Svetaketu, a young spiritual speaker, wishes to understand the nature of reality. Svetaketu is told by his father to place a lump of salt in some water and to come back the next morning. He does so and the next morning his father tells him to retrieve the lump of salt. Svetaketu says that he cannot because it is dissolved. His father then tells him to taste the water. Svetaketu tells him that it is salty. His father then tells him:

To Pagans, the Earth is not different in substance to spirit; it is simply another expression of the Divine Energy or Life Force.8 To scientists, E=mc2, i.e. Energy and matter are inter-related in a very basic way.

Western and near Eastern Religion emphasises dualism of an opposing nature, while Pagans see life as a continuum of energy in different forms. They share a world view similar to that of many Hindus; but there is no division or split between spirit and instinct, mind and matter, or between human beings and their environment.

In the mysticism of many spiritual traditions is found the idea that there is a single immanent, divine and unifying force at the heart of all matter. Margaret Studley in her book "Hinduism, The Eternal Law" points out that molecular biologists have discovered the underlying unity of all forms and the fundamental molecules of the cabbage fly or bacteria are the same as those of man. The Nobel prize winning scientist Sir Jayadish Chandra Bose based his scientific investigations on the ancient teaching that whatever could be found in man and animal could also be found in plant life. The crystallographer C P Ramen, another Nobel prize winner based his work on the teaching that inanimate stones are imbued with the mysterious force of Brahman which gives life. Since all life is subject to the processes of creation, i.e. formation and decay, he made the hypothesis, now proven, that crystals, having assumed a certain shape, would undergo continuous change from growth to decay.8

This was written by an eccentric and almost heretical Jesuit priest in the 19th Century and emphasises that everybody and everything has that element of divinity in it (grace).

Amairgen, the chief poet of the invading Celts said the same when their ships beached on to the Irish shore:

"Within a world that is itself divine, where God is immanent throughout, in the impulse of the flight of birds, the lightning, the falling rain, the fire of the sun, there is an epiphany of divinity in all statements, all thought and all deeds, which - for those who recognise it - is a beginning and end in itself. There is for all and within all, a universal revelation"1.

Immanence was not all there is to Divinity. " The doctrine of immanence certainly banishes the notion that the divine nature shares nothing in common with the physical cosmos, for from our standpoint, the universe itself was originated from within the creative mind of the deity [or the Big Bang - see my early comments]. Some have even gone so far as to intimate that the goddess and god have somehow gone through a process of cosmic incarnation by which they exude divinity through the creative activity of manifesting universal being"2.

"The One exists in what It created yet it also goes beyond that ... embodied in all existence, Divinity goes beyond Its creation and can never be known in Its entirety. Because It exists in nature, nature reveals certain truths about It."3 So Divinity is of and beyond the whole of the Universe.

Perhaps the apogee of goddess civilisation was in Minoan Crete - where the tone was of "general luxury and delight, a broad participation of all classes in a general atmosphere of well being, and the vast development of a profitable trade by sea"1. The art shows the "genial mystic poetic themes of the lovely world of a paradise neither lost nor regained but ever present in the bosom of the goddess mother in whose being we have our death, as well as life, without fear"1.

"As we see now, and seek to resurrect here, is the prepatriarchal goddess in whom death and life reside, who is herself the mythic Garden wearing Death and Life - the Two Queens were one. And to her faithful child Demuzi the Minotaur whose image is the lunar cycle, she was Paradise itself"1.

As humanity became more "advanced" so the patriarchal sky gods and their war like worshippers conquered the peaceful agricultural goddess worshipping civilisations - no more was the god the willing sacrifice - he was now the Lord and Master, subduing the female Dragon, slaying the now evil serpent, previously honoured representation of divine wisdom and the necessary passing into darkness - death or initiation - before coming into light - life or enlightenment. The gods married, raped, demoted goddesses everywhere and for a while, in Greece, this led to the honour of the individual - individual effort, skill, beauty, attainment and experience was most important. Only from the individual could the All be encompassed and understood. The individual was not to be overcome in order to become god like, rather he was to strive for "the good life". The eastern way of the "cog in society without change, world without end" was not the Greek ideal but rather salvation was personal and in control of the individual as well as the gods - and so personal responsibility and honour was born.

Eventually the great empires recognised a tolerance of others' beliefs - and saw that in others gods were their own - and later this process of fusing the functions of tribal gods into those of others (syncretism) led man back to the Ultimate Divinity - "all gods are one god, all goddesses are one goddess and there is one initiator"4. Monaltry - the practice of worshipping one god but allowing that all other gods are somehow part of the same divinity (my god is your god) was the official way of life till the tribal religions of the Middle East burst into the scene about two thousand years ago.

Monotheism - the belief that there is only one god, and all other gods are false delusions (or evil spirits) took the western world by storm - Yahweh, Mithras, Ahura Mazda and Christos. With it came the attitude "I am right - if you do not agree you must be wrong, and if you are wrong you can either repent or be saved (i.e. agree with me) or else you must be evil and therefore I must save others from you by removing you from their lives (and you from yours!)" Christianity has not been the only religion of intolerance. In its way so is Islam, so was Zoroastrianism, and so was the Jewish religion.

At the same time, there was a strict dualism in these three religions - an oppositional dualism, with good versus evil, light versus dark, God versus Satan, male right versus female wrong and temptation, celibate purity versus sexual degradation, spirit versus matter, heaven versus earth, life versus death. God was outside - we were bound by dross materialism and must seek to deny the world in order to know God. These are the solar religions, where dark flees before the all conquering sun.

As opposed to these were the mystery religions - where the secret was the experience of the individual, where there was pantheism but also panentheism - divinity which includes and penetrates the whole universe but is also beyond it - both immanent and transcendent. Immanence - the interior and immediate proximity of deity (God is revealed by what we are and what nature is - all is God, we are God, and we may as well get good at it) and transcendence (from transcendere - to climb over) - God is over and above all nature, divinity is infinite in extent and consciousness - beyond the limits of experience and knowledge - are thus complementary, not oppositional. Here light and dark are balanced opposites, complementary and necessary to each other - the lunar religions of waxing and waning, the dark nurturing the seed, rebirth after death; matter and spirit are not only equally important, they are inextricably bound up into each other - so all matter has spirit and spirit is manifest as flesh.

All is both immanent and transcendent, mortal and immortal, sexual and virginal (pure), male and female, yin and yang. Indeed the great psychiatrist Dr Jung, and many others since, have recognised the importance of balanced "femaleness" and "maleness" in everyone. Note that what many pagans call polarity is in reality these disparate forces - not even all are opposite (is green the opposite colour of brown? is child the opposite of lover?) but all complementary parts of the jigsaw that make up each of us, our universe, and our gods. As Gwydion Pendderwen, the late pagan bard of Church of All Worlds, said "we are the gods, in the sense we, as the sum total of human beings, are the sum of the gods. Pagans do not wish to pinned down to a specific act of consciousness but to keep an open ticket". Starhawk in Spiral Dance has also said "we each have a complex and multifaceted self that embraces the possibilities inherent in many different forms, including gender, animal and spirit selves (and probably vegetable and mineral selves) - not just the Jungian female or male self. Our imagination should not be limited by our imagination". Further elaborating upon this vein of thought Frank Ballard has written "no more is there any reason to regard as irreconcilable the coexistence of the divine immanence and transcendence. It is rather to be affirmed that they are as inseparable as distinct. The immanence is but the complement of transcendence. Immanence without transcendence would be effect virtually without cause. Transcendence without immanence would be cause without corresponding effect. A balanced theism thus stands for the valid unification of the immanent and transcendent in the divine Personality which is revealed in nature as we know it, and therefore presumably throughout the universe beyond our knowledge. Hence it is saved from the disabilities which attach to the pantheistic suggestion of an impersonal and therefore insufficient deity - the God/Goddess - who was identical with nature, (the concept of pantheism) which could be no more truly divine than a God/Goddess helplessly severed from nature (the concept of Enlightenment Deism). The unity of nature, in the widest reach accessible to our observation, is but the expression of the will of God/Goddess who is at once in nature and beyond nature. The in-ness and the beyond-ness are both alike manifestations of the divine, even though the one to us is visible and the other invisible. So far as our vision extends, God/Goddess is at once the distinct Source of nature's grandest unified totality, and the ever present secret spring of its minutest workings. Thus one may venture upon the suggestion, nor would less be true, that nature is but the unified totality of the sphere of which god/goddess is alike the centre and radii, circumference and contents. Analogy confessedly fails, but the reality to which it imperfectly points endures. "In him, we live and move and have our being" (quotation from an early pagan poet)".5

From a pagan theistic and panentheistic perspective, there is no need to perceive immanence and transcendence as two incompatible theological beliefs, since both are complementary to one another; immanence being the internal manifestation of divinity within the cosmic spectrum of multilevelled, interior realities, and transcendence being the trans-spacial limitlessness of the infinite Numen (sacredness) by which its nature and consciousness is not capable of being contained6.

And indeed the great Goddess herself and her Son-Lover also were seen to be made of many, seemingly opposing parts - Hera, Athene, Aphrodite, Demeter, Artemis, Persephone, Hecate; Zeus, Apollo, Mars, Poseidon, Hades, Dionysius, Pan, Hermes; yet they are all part of the same. We see the Mother Goddess in Kali, in Inanna, in Astarte, in Isis and more latterly in Mary, Queen of Heaven, Stella Maris, star of the morning, and her Son the Sacrificial Dying and Rising God - Adonis, Demuzi, Dionysius, Osiris, and Christos.

These "emanations" (from emanare - to flow out) of hierarchically descending mediations from one Ultimate Unknowable Mystery to intermediate steps - the Goddess and God - and then the many Goddesses and Gods - or "avatars" are what can reconcile polytheists with a monotheistic viewpoint and yet have a monaltrous attitude - your God is my God, my God is your God. Polytheists therefore logically honour the Gods (not necessarily the dogmas or intolerance of their worshippers) of others - Mary is just as much the Goddess as Isis, Christos just as much the God as is Osiris. Polytheists can therefore say that what we say is right - even if you do not agree with us, you may also be right - and so we learn from each other rather than persecute and lay down dogmas to prevent mythological development. As Isaac Bonewits, the founder of the major druid organisation in the United States, has stated "reality, divine or otherwise, is multiple and diverse. Polytheism is a logical system based on multiple levels of reality and the magical law of infinite universes: every sentient being lives in a unique universe". Miller from New Polytheism states that "it is that reality - social and philosophical - experienced by man and woman when Truth cannot be articulated reflectively according to a single grammar, a single logic, or a single symbol system". Indeed, as Le Shan puts it - there is no deadlier idea to the human spirit and civilisation, and to the development of a suitable ethic that enables human life to continue, than that there is ONLY ONE TRUTH. More than one answer can be correct for any given question - the better way to look at this is what is the most USEFUL answer in this context.

Many Pagans see the Gods as images which reflect an underlying reality. It is not the images which are important but the divinity which they represent. Nona Mathers in Qabala Unveiled states "The distinction between monotheism, polytheism and pantheism hardly exists for the initiate. Verily there is little difference between a single God and the harmony of supreme forces." However to adopt only monotheism and worship a single God could be a mistake. The forms or archetypes through which we worship the universe or a divine force are ways and channels for the human mind with its limitations to perceive and communicate with the infinite. The Gods can be thought of as incarnations, avatars or personalities through which the Divine Unity manifests in order to help us understand and communicate with it. These images are a mutual creation of God and worshipper. Human minds which think in words and images receive the abstract message of the Divine and translate it into pictures and symbols based on our knowledge and experience of the world around us. They are manifestations of the underlying spiritual force which gives rise to the great spirit which permeates all. The archetypes of the Gods are mysteries which reveal lives of meaning and wonderment which take us many life times to understand and unravel.

The idea that the forms of the Gods may be human images of reality rather than reality itself can be threatening to some people who fear the reduction of religion to mere psychology. However as anyone who has encountered the powerful archetypal forces will know the Gods cannot be treated as though they are not real. Once we are in the grip of these forces, once we have awakened them and they have taken an interest in us then we are indeed at the mercy of things mysterious and ineffable which are much stronger than ourselves. Of course this also begs the question of what is reality - is there only one true reality, or are there multiple models, some of which are more useful in some contexts than others. Quantum physics would strongly state this.

The archetypes of the Gods originate in that repository of energies which is the collective unconscious of humanity. They are immensely powerful, but not all-powerful. Many of our Pagan ancestors believed that if the Gods were not worshipped they would die. Like many religious statements this has many levels of meaning. One meaning is that if we do not keep ourselves open to our Gods, if we neglect their worship and forget them, then the channels of communication between us and them may be lost. This will not mean that the Gods have died but our way to them may be forgotten. One Pagan invocation to the Horned God has the plea,

We are in danger of losing the maps of the cosmos, which the myths of our ancestors revealed to us, to be set adrift floating aimlessly in the starry seas of the universe, orphaned of the Gods. Monotheisms were a natural extension of a growing rationality in the human psyche although they are themselves based on certain irrational premises. They created over the centuries of their existence, beliefs far removed from the sources of inspiration which gave birth to their original revelations, and required people to believe the irrational, that which their own experience showed them to be untrue. Myths and allegories were raised to the status of objective fact. Modern Paganism has re-evaluated these, as did earlier religious movements; the task now at hand is to replace them with a vision from the original source.

Religion is the "re-linking" of divinity and humanity, spirit and flesh. Religion can be seen as a system of beliefs and practices by means of which people struggle with the ultimate problems of human life. It typically contains doctrines, myths, ethical teachings, rituals and social institutions and is animated by religious experiences of various kinds. Ultimately it is a system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive and long lasting moods and motivation in people by formulating conceptions of a general order or existence, clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic.

Religion provides the overall blueprint by which persons organise their lives and provides meaning to ones actions and sense of identity to the person. Such a blueprint thought is only maintained in conversation with other people who share it, so it would seem appropriate that part of the definition of religion is some verbalisation of the "meaning" system, something that "stands as its basic myth" and some form of social contact of sufficient regularity to allow that conversation to go on. It is a common consensus of the group two or more who try to relate their experience of the divine through symbols, language, myths, rituals. It is a mirror to reflect the individual and societal experience in relationship with the ultimate/divine/void (Amalgam of Definitions of Religion by J Yinger, N Smart, G Geertz, B Hargrove, M Radford). Too often however, it becomes ossified into authorised clichés with no "balance between belief or disbelief that is proper to the contemplation of an image or idea of god."1 Personal experience is then subjected to the dogma of priests.

Mythology is the synthesis of religion, poetry and philosophy bringing religion into "a fresh and healthily vivified relationship to the well springs of creative thought"1 - i.e. the authority of personal experience - surprise, joy or anguish - is imperative.

Mythology can be approached from various perspectives, such as anthropo-logical, sociological, folk-lorist, psychological and metaphysical. Our understanding of what myth is depends on the perspective we use. The folk-lorist is interested in the variety of myths and their spread with migrations of peoples. The anthropologists study myth as part of a peoples' culture. The sociologist is interested in how it helps society to function. The psychologist studies its effects on peoples' perspec-tives, and how it helps them cope with the world in which they live. The occultist and mystic regard it as a tool to help them achieve their aims, whether that be union with the divine, or a greater understanding of themselves and the divine within. Myth occurs in the history of most, if not all, human traditions and communities, and is a basic constituent of human culture. It occurs both with and without associated rites (though not all rites have myths associated with them).

Myths can be seen as extended symbols, describing vividly the typical patterns and sequences of the forces of life, at work in the Cosmos, in society and in the individual. …… Because every myth has arisen straight out of the human psyche, each one is full of wisdom and understanding about the nature and structure of the psyche itself. Mythology is dramatised psychology (Tom Chetwynd, A Dictionary Of Symbols, P 276).

Some definitions of myth:
"Myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energy of the cosmos pour through into human cultural manifestation." (Campbell: The Masks of God - Primitive Mythology)
"Myth is a psychic phenomenon that reveals the nature of the soul." (Jung: The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious)
"Myths are accounts about how the world came to be the way it is, about a super-ordinary realm of events before (or behind) the natural world." (Keesing: Cultural Anthropology - a Contemporary Perspective)
"A myth is a statement about society and man's place in it and the surrounding universe." (Middleton: Myth and Cosmos)
"Myth is a collective term used for one kind of symbolic communication and specifically indicates one basic form of religious symbolism, as distinguished from symbolic behaviour (cult, ritual) and symbolic places or objects (such as temples and icons). Myths are specific accounts concerning gods or superhuman beings and extraordinary events or circumstances at a time that is altogether different from that of ordinary human experience." (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

From these definitions it can be seen that myth has two functions, esoteric and exoteric. The exoteric function is to: "...bind the individual to his family's system of historically-conditioned senti-ments, as a functioning member of a sociological organism." (Campbell: ibid)

In this role myth is explanatory and narrative. An example is the North American tale: Old Man saw a circle of cottontail rabbits singing and making medicine; they would lie in the ashes of a hot fire and sing while one of their number covered them up; it was lots of fun. Old Man asked to be shown how to do this, and was covered in the coals and ashes and was not burnt. Then he wanted to be the one to cover up the others, and all the rabbits jumped into the fire. Only one got out, who was about to have babies; Old Man let her go so that there would continue to be rabbits. She went off with a dark place on her back where she got singed, which all rabbits since have had. The others he roasted and laid on red willow brush to cool. The grease soaked into the branches and even today, if you hold red willow over a fire, you will see the grease on the bark. This myth is explanatory; it explains two observed features of the natural world.

Another myth explains not the natural world, but the use man puts it to. This is an Ojibway myth explaining the origin of maize and man's use of it. To summarise this myth: a young man went to the forest to fast for seven days and search for his spirit guide or guardian. During this period he was visited by a richly-dressed handsome young man, sent by the Great Spirit, whom he had to wrestle, despite his weakness from his fast. Before the last time the visitor told him he would prevail this time, and gave him instructions: how to prepare the ground, how to bury his body, how to care for the ground after, and how to harvest the maize that would grow. This he did, so his people now have maize. This myth not only explains the origin of maize, but also gives instructions for planting, care and harvesting, thus ensuring that all the tribe know how to grow it, as well as learn where it came from.

Other myths are justifying and validating, answering questions about the nature and foundation of ritual and cultic customs. An example is the Blackfoot myth about the origin of the Buffalo Dance. The Blackfoot hunt buffalo by chasing them over a cliff, but at one time they could not induce the animals to the fall, and the people were starving. A young woman, seeing a herd of buffalo near the edge of the fall said, "if you will only jump into the canal, I shall marry one of you." The buffalo did so, and a big bull came and carried her off. Her father came looking for her, but was trampled to pieces by the buffalo. The woman got a piece of his backbone and sang over it until his body was restored and he was alive again. The buffalo allowed the woman and her father to go, on condition that they learn the dance and song of the buffalo, and not forget them. For these would be the magical means by which the buffalo killed by the people for their food should be restored to life, just as the man killed by the buffalo was restored. This myth tells the people why they do the dance, and the consequences if they don't. It is also a piece of sympathetic magic designed to increase the fertility of the buffalo herds when the dance is performed. As such it gives them a sense of control over some of the important factors of their environment and indicates appropriate action if the buffalo do decline.

Myths also have a descriptive function, explaining facts beyond normal reason and observation. Creation myths are an example. The Norse creation myth describes Niflheim forming out of the Abyss, with ice to the north and fire to the south. From the melting ice where these two realms met formed a giant, Ymir, and a cow, Audmulla, who became the wet-nurse of the gods. From Ymir came the frost giants, and Audmulla's licking of the ice freed the progenitors of the gods, Odin, Vile and Ve. And so the myth goes on, describing the creation of the world, the gods and mankind. This myth does not describe or explain the world as it is, but how it came about in the first place. It is an explanation of something that man couldn't see or comprehend, that is beyond his knowledge and experience.

Another purpose of myth is to help tie a community together. When myth is expressed in ritual, it builds the community, or specific segments of it, together. An example is the Aborigines' use of myth in boys' initiation rites. Myths are revealed to the boys as part of their initiation to manhood; since the women and children do not know these mysteries, they serve to bind the men together, an important factor for a group that needs to hunt together.

Myth gives a community a common framework, a common view of the world. The whole community has the same understanding of why the world is the way that it is. It also tells them how to behave in certain circumstances and why they should do so; why their society is structured the way that it is, and what will happen if they break cultural taboos. An example in our cultural context is the myth of David and Goliath. This myth tells some of us how to behave in a situation where we are faced with overwhelming odds. It teaches us courage rather than running away, and suggests an approach that can be used to cope with the situation.

Myth provides the moral values of the culture. Many of our moral values, for example, come from the Christian myths. The story of David and Goliath is one reason why we revere courage. Murder and theft are regarded as wrong, evil, as the myth of Moses teaches us. The myth of Noah and the Ark tells us of the consequences of evil and righteousness. To summarise then, myth provides a guide for the individual throughout his life; one that aids him to live in health, strength, and harmony in the particular society in which he was born.

Myth also has an esoteric function, which is almost the opposite of the exoteric function. Myth transforms the individual, detaching him from his local historical and cultural condition, and leading him to some kind of ineffable experience. It provides a bridge between an in-dividual's local consciousness and universal consciousness. Myth and rites constitute a mesocosm, a mediating middle cosmos through which the microcosm of the individual is brought into relation with the macrocosm of the all, the universe. Myth, "... fosters the centring and unfolding of the universe in integrity with himself (microcosm), his culture (mesocosm), the universe (macrocosm) and finally with the ultimate creative mystery that is both beyond and within himself and all things." (Houston: The Search for the Beloved)

Myth bridges the gap between ourselves and godhead, providing a path that we may use to become aware of the cosmos, the godhead. In this context, R J Stewart describes creation myths not as explorations but as, "... resonant re-creations that echo the original creation... an organic timeless flow of images and narrative within which such questions [of the nature of the world] were by-passed altogether, for the 'answers' of such mythology come from deep levels of consciousness, in which universal patterns or intimations are apprehended." (Stewart: The Elements of Creation Myth)

When we imagine a creation myth, irrespective of our belief or disbelief in the myth, we re-create or re-balance ourselves. Another function of myth is to act as a filter. The full, unadulterated experience of the universal consciousness is more than our minds are capable of holding, and there are those who went too far and fell into psychosis and other imbalances as a result. Myth provides a way of experiencing universal consciousness or godhead without it overwhelming us to the point where we cannot return to ourselves.

There is an alternative way of looking at the esoteric levels of myth. C G Jung considers mythological processes to be, "symbolic expressions of the inner unconscious drama of the psyche which becomes accessible to man's consciousness by way of projection." (Jung: ibid.) He views the unconscious as having two levels; personal and collective. The personal unconscious contains experiences that have been forgotten, whereas the collective unconscious has contents and modes of behaviour that have never been through consciousness, and are more or less the same everywhere and in everyone. The contents of the collective unconscious are called archetypes. They are expressed in myth and fairy-tale in a specific form, but can also be experienced by the individual in a more naive and less understandable form as dreams and visions.

An archetype is a memory deposit, derived from endless repetition of a typical situation in life. It is the psychic expression of an anatomi-cally physiologically determined natural tendency. Archetypes are normally referred to as figures; the wise old man, the mother, the trickster. However, they also include experiences, of which an example is the birth experience. Everyone goes through this experience, so it has made a strong imprint on the collective unconscious. As a result, rebirth experiences are a very powerful mythic image, and form the core of initiation rites and the process of becoming a shaman.

For example, as part of his initiation into manhood, an Arandan boy, after the trauma of circumcision (which mirrors the birth trauma), stands in the smoke of a fire, a repetition of the smoking he underwent as soon as he was born. Similarly, many shamans, in describing the experience that made them a shaman, report being swallowed or eaten by an animal or spirit person, then being reborn. Taking on a new name at initiation is an outward symbol of the rebirth that has occurred.

Archetypes have given rise to the eternal images in myth and religion. These are meant to attract, convince, fascinate, overpower. They give man an experience of the divine, while at the same time protecting him from being completely overwhelmed. In this sense, archetypes and mythic images are the same; they are both the gateway for this experience of the divine. They are an image or a reflection of a god or goddess, but are not the divine itself.

In the Greek creation myth Gaea is the archetype of the earth mother, the image of that aspect of godhead; the image that allows us to reach out and touch that aspect of godhead.

However the mythic image of Gaea, the archetype image from the myth, is not actually godhead itself. Both are filters, not the actuality. Jung sees archetypes as having psychological as well as metaphysical significance. In our daily lives our attention is focused outwards to deal with the world, and we lose contact with our inner world, powers in our psyche such as creativity. Myth is a means to bring us back in touch with these inward forces. When archetypes are activated in our lives we have two choices: either let the archetype have its way irrespective of other factors, or block it, producing a conflict that leads to neurosis.

Jung sees the symbols of modern psychology analogous to those of myth, and considers that we have replaced myth by psychology. We have done so as a result of a growing impoverishment of symbols; as our culture has become more scientific and rational, we have analysed our cultural mythic symbols until they have appeared to die, leaving us with a culture that seems superficial to many.

Some individuals have coped with this by turning to the myths of other cultures, leading to the popularity of eastern philosophy in western culture. Others haven't coped at all, hence the increased violence, crime, despair, suicide, and so on, of our culture. Some are developing new modern myths, inspired by visions such as the blue-green jewel of the earth seen from space.

Because myth is a means of regeneration for both the individual and the group, this turning to old myths, to myths of other cultures and to new myths coming out of our culture is seen by people such as Campbell as the beginning of a new age, a rebirth of mankind. Whether this is so remains to be seen.

What does this teach us about the use of myth in magic? What we often do in Neo-Paganism is to take an old myth and apply it or adapt it in some way for our use in ritual. Understanding the distinction between the two levels of myth, exoteric and esoteric, aids in this adaptation. To modify a myth for use in ritual, those aspects of the myth relating only to the exoteric, i.e. the explanatory and justifying aspects, can be excluded with impunity. However, those aspects relating to the esoteric function (some, of course, may relate to both) cannot be excluded or modified without changing or destroying the myth's ability to take us beyond ourselves and towards the universal consciousness.

Another aspect to consider is how this journey to universal conscious-ness is achieved. To experience myth fully requires the willing suspension of disbelief. Logic is set aside, imagination comes into play, and the masks used change from the symbolic to the actuality. Enactment of the myth becomes, not people masked and dressed up, but reality itself. Children do this easily; to a child playing, a piece of wood is a person or a horse, to the extent that the child can become terrified of a piece of wood that at the beginning of the game he or she pretended was a monster. To the adult westerner with his developed rational mind this is more difficult, and much of western occult training is aimed at attaining this child-like state of experiencing the world and myth again. How ironic that it was Christ who said, "Unless ye become as a little child, ye shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven".

Meditation stills the active mind. Visualisation and imagination create the symbols, the game, the mythic images. Ritual gives the images life, enacting the myth so that it might impact upon the individual. Con-centration maintains the images long enough that the desired effect is attained. The result: contact with, and experience of, universal consciousness.

Finally, the fate of our cultural myths warns us of a danger that lies in wait with the myths we use. The mind is a powerful tool that is very useful in magic; e.g., it can prevent us from falling into the trap of self-delusion. However, abuse of the mind in relation to myths can be destructive. Myths are experiential. If we analyse and explain away the myths we use in the same way our culture has recently done with its own myths, we run the risk of devaluing them to the extent that they no longer have an impact on us and can no longer be used effectively to touch godhead.

Thus the nature of divinity is approached not from a purely religious point of view but from a poetical and philosophical view point as well. This is mythology which marries religion, philosophy and poetry.

The four essential functions of mythology as outlined by Professor Campbell can be discerned:
1) eliciting and supporting a sense of awe before the mystery of being, this is therefore the most distinctive function vitalising all others. It grades from demonic dread to mystic rapture; it can be defined, talked about and taught, but it cannot be produced save by experience and the signs of a living myth. Authority cannot enforce it, it is found. As it says in the charge of the goddess, if it is not found within it will not be found without. Once it is found within it will then be found in everything with the realisation that we are all part of the web of life. As above, so below, as within, so without, as the universe, so the soul (Hermes Trismegistus). Therefore what we do to another we do to ourselves. This is the essence of immanence.
2) Mythology renders an image of the universe that will support and be supported by this sense of awe before the mystery of a presence and the presence of a mystery, but which has to correspond to the actual experience, knowledge and mentality of the culture involved. This is the integration and interconnection of all the universe with divinity.
3) Mythology will support the current social order, to integrate the individual organically within his group - advancing from the early tribal cluster to the modern concept of a single world society. This involves rites and a system of sentiments that can link one spontaneously to the ends of the mythology. This corresponds to a sense of community.
4) To initiate the individual into the orders of reality of his own psyche, guiding him towards his own spiritual enrichment and realisation. The final realisation, of course, being that divinity is within oneself, our soul, our spark of life. We sing with our soul.

"Our whole modern tendency to look at myths and deities as role models may be a misappropriation of the powers of these images, born of our desperation at not knowing how to be in the world and culture in which we find ourselves. We are looking for permission to be more than our society tells us we are. But the goddesses and gods are not figures for us to copy - they are more like broomsticks: grab hold and they will take us away somewhere beyond the boundaries of our ordinary lives"7.

CONCLUSION

We see that an emphasis on transcendence leads to a rejection of the material universe and a belief in the inherent evil of this world. An emphasis on immanence leads to reverence of the world as sacred and good and an animistic, pantheistic world view. Balance between both leads to reverence of all, a belief in balanced forces and in individual importance, to a panentheistic attitude.

Monotheism emphasises that what is not the one way must be wrong and evil. There is only one truth. Polytheism recognises that there are other paths to truth. Dualism can be oppositional - leading to rejection of important parts of life's experiences, a sense of guilt, an inability to come to terms with all aspects of our personality and experiences - or dualism can be complementary, where both good and bad are seen in all, where wholeness and integration are part of one's religious beliefs. The three principles of pagan religion and mythology are immanence with transcendence, interconnection, and community with individuality.

Immanence states we are the manifestation of the living being of earth and we must live our spirituality therefore in this world and take action to preserve this world and its wonders, to act as sacred beings with integrity and responsibility and to treat all as sacred.

Interconnection is the inter-relationship of all - light and dark are related not set opposed - hence twilight and dawn are the most magical parts of day; life and death are necessary to each other, not one to be feared and the other to be grasped at greedily; male and female, plant and animal, spirit and matter, heaven and earth - all are one - what affects one affects all. The web of life is ecologically proven - it is also the state of divinity and pagan mythology.

Community is not just for individual salvation or enlightenment but for the transformation which comes through intimate interactions and common struggles, between two lovers, between small groups struggling towards the same end, towards nations and the world community as a whole. Community is not only personal but also global and universal yet all have their own individual importance and need for striving. We are all one with the Goddess and because of this we are all to be respected and honoured individually and as a community.

REFERENCES

1. J Campbell - The Masks of God - Occidental Mythology.
2. M B Wulf - A Mystery of Grain and Grape, Hallows Vol. II No. IV 1990.
3. Ashi - Ritual Ways: Wild Croft Coven, The Silver Chalice 1,3 1990.
4. Dion Fortune.
5. F Ballard - The True God - A Modern Summary of the Relations of Theism to Naturalism, Monism, Pluralism, and Pantheism 1907.
6. Shadwynn - Crafted Cup, Chapter 2.
7. Starhawk - The Spiral Dance.
8. V. Crowley - Phoenix from The Flame: Pagan Spirituality In The Western World. (Aquarian Press).
9. L. Le Shan - An Ethic for the Age of Space, 1996

REQUIRED READING

1. 'Goddess Spirituality' and 'Gods and Hedgehogs in the Greenwood' - from "Listening People, Speaking Earth: Contemporary Paganism" by Graham Harvey 1997.
2. 'The Religion of Paganism', 'He and She', 'God and Goddess Forms' - from "The Pagan Path" by Janet & Stewart Farrar and Gavin Bone 1995
3. 'Goddess and God: A Revelation of the Mystery' - from "The Crafted Cup - Ritual Mysteries of the Goddess and the Grail" by Shadwyn 1994
4. 'What is considered real' by Lawrence Le Shan from "An Ethic for the Space Age", 1996

PRACTICAL WORK

1. Forming a circle with others, by holding hands. Tell the person to your right your name and something about you. Then physically feel a circle by passing a hand squeeze around anti-clockwise, faster and faster, while all close their eyes and visualise the circle growing with energy. Finally walk anti-clockwise around the circle and get faster and faster, using a drum or chant (e.g. "We all come from the Goddess, and to Her we shall return like a drop of rain flowing to the ocean."). The energy should be visualised as a shimmering energy field coloured white. This exercise also lets everyone let down their defences and feel a part of a group.

   Then discuss the symbolism of the Circle, using the diagram from Shekinah Mountainstar's "Arachne's Web" as a guide.

   
2. Learn the Pagan Cross:
   All perform the Pagan Cross, standing facing east with legs apart. Each word of the Pagan Cross should be drawn out so that each consonant and vowel sets up a physical and subtle body vibration.

   All:
   I am one with the heavens above, (athame on forehead, then raised up)
   the earth below, (athame drawn down to groin)
   with the sun on my left, (stretch left hand out to the left)
   and the moon on my right, (stretch right hand out to the right)
   and with all that will ever be; (cross hand over the chest)
   so mote it be. (bow head)

3. Learn the Invoking and Banishing Earth Pentagrams.
   • Invoking: Start with dominant hand above head, bring it down to left leg, up to right shoulder, over to left shoulder, and down to right leg, then back up above head.
     
   • Banishing: Start at left leg, go up to above head, down to right leg, up to left shoulder, and over to right shoulder, then finally down to left leg.

   All movements should be performed with a lot of energy, and you should visualise the pentagram as being drawn in electric blue flames (or extinguishing them if banishing an invoking pentagram)

4. Talk about centring and grounding and how the Pagan Cross does both.

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