Goddess Tradition: Explanations for
Children
Who
Is the Goddess?
The earth
is a living being whom we call the Goddess. Everything around us is
alive and part of her living body; animals and plants, of course,
but also some things that may not ordinarily seem to be alive, such
as rocks, mountains, streams, rivers, stars, and clouds.
Even though
we are separate people, all of us are part of her, just as each of
your fingers is a part of your hand. And the earth herself is part
of the larger living body of the universe, just as your hand is part
of your arm, and your arm is part of your body.
Each living
being is important and sacred, the way each part of your body is
important to you. When something is sacred, we must take care of it
and respect it. Human life is sacred to us, and so are the plants
and the animals and all the elements that make life possible. If one
thing is hurt, it hurts us all-just as when you cut even the tip of
your little finger, you feel the pain all over.
The Goddess
is always close to us. You touch the Goddess whenever you hug
somebody, climb a tree, smell a flower, or pet a cat. The water we
drink, the food we eat, and the ground we walk on are all part of
the Goddess.
We also
believe in many different Goddesses and Gods, whom we call by many
different names. They are all spirit parts of the living universe,
and there are many beautiful stories about them. To Pagans, each
Goddess and God is a different way of trying to understand the
universe. The universe is so enormous that our minds cannot
understand it all at once, only in parts. We know that different
people have different names they use for Goddesses and Gods, and
that's good. The universe, being is like a great jigsaw puzzle. Each
of us has a piece of the puzzle, and the more pieces we place
together, the more we can understand about the whole. No one group
or piece has all the picture; no one idea is right for everybody.
The Goddess tradition teaches us to respect other beliefs and ways
of thinking.
The
Goddesses and Gods can help us in different ways. When we call on a
particular Goddess or God, it's as if we stepped into that piece of
the jigsaw puzzle. In the movie Mary
Poppins,
the children step into a chalk picture
and it comes alive and takes them into another world. Calling on a
particular Goddess or God is a bit like that. In our imagination,
that piece of the puzzle comes alive for us, and we learn something
only that Goddess or God can teach us. In this book, the many
stories about different Goddesses and Gods are like magic pictures
we can enter.
From:
Circle Round, Raising Children in Goddess Traditions
by:
Starhawk, Diane Baker, Anne Hill
...be in Love, not
fear...
Liz
