The Noble Pagan Forums - Wicca in a nutshell (II)

Okay so in the last segment I touched base on the God and Goddess of Wicca. This segment I would like to touch base on:

Duality in Wicca
The Elements and You


As I mentioned previously Wicca is a religion steeped in and based on Duality. The God and Goddess ( The Masculine and Feminine) are only one aspect of that duality.
I would like to mention here that duality does not have to be a term meaning at odds. With Wicca it is a way to compliment and understand the Whole.
Like two sides to a coin if you will.
So we discussed the Gender Coin ( Masculine/Feminine)

Let's look at our World Coin. No I don't mean the entire planet. I mean you. Right now even as you read what I am writing you are not in one World. Physically you are sitting down ( I am assuming) and therefore interacting with and are connected to your Outside World. Perhaps you are at home surrounded by your family, friends, houseplants or pet rock. At any rate at the same time you are connected to your Outside World you are instantaneously connected to your Inner World. This it the realm of who you think you are, how you are processing what you are reading based on understanding and/or mood and so much more.
This brings us to the Light/Shadow Coin ( and eventually the Elements).
By Light and Shadow I am not indicating "Good and Bad". I am indicating that which is seen and that which is hidden.
Who you show yourself to the Outside World is not always the person Inside. For instance you may be terrified of spiders ( Inside World fear.....Shadow aspect) however your niece just got a pet tarantula and she thinks the world of her and so you put on a brave face when she takes you to her room to show off her 8 legged pet in its tank ( Outside World /Light portrayal). Btw if you are able to do something like that you are actually working through a Shadow aspect ( fear) of yourself ( utilizing empathy and love) and in the long run benefiting from it ( becoming stronger).
Wicca urges us to journey inwards to REALLY get to know ourselves. To face our fears, acknowledge our weaknesses and self forgive our mistakes. By working through those things ( as well as realizing our accomplishments, utilizing our strengths, and being proud of who we are) we become closer to being a healthier and more whole self.
By doing so we can better understand others outside ourself (in the Outside World) as well as become a more positive influence to all that we come in contact with ( believe it or not the simple selfless act of holding a door open for a complete stranger can have a bigger impact on their day than you first would have thought).
You can also see the Shadow as the subconscious and the Light as the more readily conscious. By plunging through the Shadow ( weather it be the subconscious, the hidden or negatives you do not acknowledge) your Light ( conscious thought process, the way you portray yourself to others outside yourself) will steadily change ( learning new things, growing from them, thinking in new directions, applying these lessons for yourself and others).
Your fears and subconscious feelings, actions and thoughts have more affect on your conscious actions than you really give time to think about. Sure there are the obvious flags, like you were bitten by a dog when you were a kid so you either avoid them or kick them before you can be bit.....however there are more subtle things lurking inside of each and everyone of us that are more in control than we thought.
Perhaps you were told you were lazy when you were younger and it hurt you to hear that from your favorite parent so now as an adult you are a workaholic and though it seperates you from your family, you can no more turn away the extra hours than you could stop breathing. You don't understand this need. This drive. It simply is and as far as you know it's always been there ( because the memory is hidden in the Shadow).
You don't need hypnotherapy and psychology or counseling to get to the memory ( it could help....everything is a type of tool). Just some HONEST digging.
And that is the Shadow Journey. Being unbearably, vulnerably, nakedly HONEST with yourself. It's hard. It's not fun. It's part of the path though and beneficial in the long run.

So now we discussed Duality and all that stuff. I want to meander over to the Elements and their role for a moment. Bad switch in topics? Not really.

One the outside of things Wicca is about connecting with your environment. That would include the basic elements and directions ( Earth/North, Air/East,Fire/South,Water/West). Those are physical connections and reminders to where we are at right now. I have a house ( Earth), I breathe ( Air), I need to keep warm ( Fire) I am a mostly liquid based lifeform ( Water). There is a fifth element here too which is Spirit. It stands alone by itself (if you see Spirit as just pure energy) and yet it is in everything around us ( everything is made up of energy) and in us ( what we take into us as well as what we are made up of....energy).
So let's see how these outside markers reflect our inner selves. Just like Masculine and Feminine and just like Shadow and Light we are made up of elemental personality bits. A bit of Earth, Air, Water, Fire, and Spirit all in one place ( so to speak). I'm not saying I am walking around with mud in my body. I'm talking about the mind and personality.
Each element is associated with a personality bit.

Earth - Slow to start but dependable, Steady, Procrastinitive, Sedimentary, Lazy, Stable

Air - Mental accuity, Linear thinking, Logic, Communication

Fire - Passionate, Intuitive, Creative, Starts n fits n bursts, Burns out, Lack of Follow through

Water - Transmutable ( has three natural states),Compassion, Empathic, Focused, Moody, Scattered

This is a small listing. You get the idea. I am sure you reconized many of those traits ( or similar ones ) in yourself. Generally speaking people tend to lean towards one of the elements as their leading outward personality. In Wicca we learn that the hardest element to integrate and get to know is the opposite of what we think of as our strong element.
For instance Firey people ( spontaneous) have a hard time pacing themselves while Earth people don't have that problem. Their problems is getting up and going sometimes.
Air people are great thinkers however may not always be able to communicate how they "feel" while Water people have no problem telling someone how they feel.....you just may have a hard time focusing on what the underlying problem for all those feelings are.

When going on your own personal inner journey, part of that is reconizing which is your strongest elements. And then trying to work with incorporating your weakest ones. The more in balance you are Within yourself the closer you can access and more readily feel and understand the element Spirit.

Really it's about harmony and balance. The kicker here is even though it is hard work ( and worth every moment) the goal isn't about attaining harmony and balance. That is just step one. The real work starts when you become consciously aware of that harmony and balance when you get there......and then how to maintain it.

C/S/

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