Stormwatcher

"Thou Art God / Goddess"

The World is holy. Nature is holy. The body is holy. Sexuality is holy. The mind is holy. The imagination is holy. A spiritual path that is not stagnant ultimately leads to the understanding of one's own divine nature. Thou Art Goddess, Thou Art God. Divinity is imminent in all Nature. It is as much in you as without.

The above quote, when I read it in "Drawing Down the Moon" had an immediate and profound effect upon me. I was laying in bed and as soon as I read these words the book dropped to my chest, my mouth popped open and I starred at the ceiling above my head for an inordinate period of time. Amazed, I realized that someone had at last put into words the very thing that I had been feeling for years!
In addition to that profound revelation I also realized that this was not an isolated incident but that there were, almost certainly, people aside from myself that believed exactly what I had always believed! I was at once thrilled and a little sad ~ for I had thought for a long time that I had just about invented the concept. Oh Well.

I first started trying to grasp this concept in the early 60's after I had read a book called "Stranger in a Strange Land" by Robert Heinlein. A strange place to start a spiritual journey?
Yes, some may say that but, at the time, it all seemed to make perfect sense to me and, at the time, was the only material I had available. In this book I first became familiar with the concept of "Thou Art God". Why did these simple words have such a powerful effect on me? Why did I decide to adopt the concept as something more than just words written in a science fiction book? And more importantly, how was it that I understood what it meant...

I remember that it was soon after this that I started talking to trees, cherishing insects and a lot of other things that I do to this day. There had to be a reason for all this. My parents believed that it probably had something to do with my uncle Ken, who was know to be a little "strange".
I know now that I was Pagan, even then. I believed the world to be a Magickal place and what's more, I believed that I could have some small impact upon it if only I could figure out how to work with it as a kind of partner.

I spent a lot of years out there alone. Searching for a religion ~ something ~ that would give me the same feeling inside as did those simple words I had read in Heinleins book. I read the book over and over and still read it occasionally to this day. I traveled to many strange places in my search, from Haight Ashbury in the late 60's to Colorado, Arizona and Mexico. I got involved in the Magick for the first time in Tucson Arizona in the 70's but it did not work out. It was NOT Wiccan.

 I tried to practice my own version of "Thou Art God" and at times did well with it and at others times not so well. I tried to see God in everything, and my credo sort of went like this ~ "Thou art God, and so am I, and the sky, rocks, and everything that IS; We are all one ~ inviolate." Still, though I knew this to be true I was in the main part alone with my views, at least I thought I was.

There came a time when I became frustrated about my situation and my life and once again began to actively look for others who were "Like Me ..." LOL!. I was back in Tucson so I started with the things that I knew the most about and that was the belief system of the South Western American Indians and Shamanism. I loved this and it took me into Herbs and Herbal medicine. Still, it wasn't exactly right. There came a day when I learned of Wicca. I knew a little about Magick and such but Wicca? What was that? I got on the Internet and started searching. I found the TAWN site in Tucson Arizona and started reading. Then I started talking to others and emailing those who seemed to want to inform me about exactly what they did and who they were. They suggested readings, and more ... Pretty soon there was no longer any doubt. I was definitely Pagan and most probably Wiccan and had been practicing "The Craft" for years on my own by intuition! (I had invented little "rituals" that I used as an ingredient in my herbs and medicines. They were really simple and dealt mainly with asking the "Spirit of the Earth" to bless the herbs with the power of natural influences.)

With my budding knowledge of Wicca I, at last, had a name for what I was and how I had always been and felt. That feeling of being a "A Part Of" and not "Apart From" is with me today and is like a cool breath from the Goddess / God. The really cool thing is that there was never a question about "Converting" to this "new thing" that I had found. By seeking it, finding it and living it ... I found myself already there ~ I am an now and Eclectic Wiccan with a strong leaning toward Native American Philosophy and shamanism.

What is "Eclectic"? A friend of mine came up with a really good definition. Other Eclectics might not agree. "I am one who steals (borrows ... LOL!) the best parts of others traditions and makes them my own ... Hmmmmm?" Actually, its a lot more than that but I do like to keep things simple. Anyway, I found that I was feeling a lot of things that I had been looking for all those years. I was home, at last.

My story is not particularly strange. There are a lot of instances like it in the Polytheistic religions, at least I find it so from all the people I talk to. We Pagans are a "diverse" people of decidedly diverse beliefs and practices. There are certain constants however. The beautiful thing is that though we are diverse we, in general, respect each others beliefs and focus mainly on the commonality. We agree to disagree and it is pretty Natural, don't you think? After all, we are Polytheistic, aren't we?

The journey has been a long one with many ups and downs. In fact, I found it necessary to lose many things and also lose many preconceived notions and attitudes before I could begin the "best" part of the journey ... and that part continues to this day ~ of course, for journeys such as this one never end.

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© 1998 bce
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