Spiritual: God, Goddess & Spirit

Inspired by another dear pagan housewife, I have decided that as part of my blogging, I'm going to try to answer the prompts found at the Pagan Blog Prompt site. The most recent one is this:

A lot of Pagan paths are Goddess-centered, sometimes seen as a rebuttal against the God-centered churches. But as Pagans, we also understand that balance in all areas of our life is important, and even necessary to our personal growth.

Today’s topic is the balance between the God and Goddess in our own journey. Are you more attuned with the Lord or Lady? Do you follow a path that focuses on one more than the other? Or have you found a good balance between the ‘two halves’?

I self-identify as pagan because I do not believe it is possible for there to be only one 'right' way. I do not believe Christianity, or Buddhism, or Judaism, or Wicca, or Jainism, or Islam, or any of the hundreds of faiths that exist can claim to be the only right wait for an individual to find meaning in their life. And that really is what religion is all about, it's about finding meaning in ones existence. Edie Brickell probably summed it up for me in the song What I Am: "Religion is the smile on a dog."

Some time ago, on a website I no longer follow but I found to be a very good resource, I discovered that I am at heart an Animist. I see Spirit in all things. No, I don't go around assuming that my water bottle has a soul, and I don't not eat something because I'm afraid to hurt it, even if it's an apple or a breast of chicken. but I do thank the things that I consume for their sacrifice. My father in law has a particular way of blessing the food at family meals which says in part 'bless this food for the nourishment of our bodies', and that's sort of how I feel when I consume something.

Getting around to the point of the prompt, while I see all things as having a spirit, I do have a believe in a greater power, what I tend to call the Divine. I can't always define it, and my eloquence fails me when I try. I typically express it as the Lord and Lady, the God and Goddess, but beyond that, I fail to be able to explain what it is I believe they are. They simply are the guiding force that exists for all persons. For Christians, it's God and Jesus Christ, for me, it's the God and Goddess. Certainly, I envision them with different names, depending on the particular purpose. If I'm working in the home, I seek Hestia's guidance. If I am looking to honor the dead, I ask for Cernunnos' blessing. When I sit down to write, I try to ask Thoth for his wisdom. I work with many different pantheons, sometimes for the same aspect of my life, though typically I stick with Celtic, Egyptian and Greek.

I am not terribly balanced when it comes to honoring both, however. I am distinctly skewed toward the feminine. Sometimes, I think that's only natural; I am a woman, after all. I'm bound to be more aligned with the feminine force of the Divine. I call myself a Hearth Witch after all, and much of my 'magic' has to do with the home, so I think maybe it is only natural for me that I lean towards the Goddess more often. Maybe it would serve me to find a little more balance in my life when it comes to that. Perhaps if I spent a little more time listening to the masculine forces around me, I'd feel more balance in my life.