Class II: The Soul of Nature
I am a paradise of deep wilderness,
The soul of Nature and life of the Divine
Fragrant and fertile is my body,
Touch me in the petals of every sweet blossom.
Through abundance you shall know me.
I am thy oasis, pouring forth the waters of life
—Katlyn Breene, “A hymn from the heart of the Living Goddess”pression: Mitakuye Oyasin! —“All my relations.” In
the creation myths and other stories of all peoples
throughout the world we find tales of connectedness,
of how the original cosmic Parents came into being,
and engendered the world and everything in it. Two of
the greatest archetypes of universal parentage are
Mother Nature and Father Time.Mother Nature (Natura)
I am the beauty of the green Earth,
And the white Moon among the stars,
And the mystery of the waters,
And the desire of human hearts.
Call unto your soul: Arise and come unto me!
For I am the soul of Nature
That gives life to the universe.
From me all things proceed,
And unto me all things must return.
—Doreen Valiente, “The Charge of the Goddess”Mother Nature is the eldest and greatest aspect of the
Goddess, the all-encompassing embodiment of Uni-
versal Life. Her cosmic energy coalesces into Matter-
Mater—the Mother of all forms. The words matter
and mater literally mean “Mother.” Dion Fortune once
commented that all goddesses are manifestations of
the One Great Goddess whose identity is the univer-
sal feminine spirit of Nature.
Nature is the very essence of diversity. She repre-
sents both Darkness and Light and her worship is the
reconciliation of opposites. The search for Balance is
the goal of her people, and it is achieved by the accep-
tance of multiple paths and truths.The First Lesson of the Goddess is...
“All life is sacred.”The Second Lesson of the Goddess is...
“There is only one race... the human race.”Medieval alchemists made continual references
to “Dame Nature” as the source of all life, sustenance,
and knowledge. She is so universally known that she
has even been used in TV commercials to sell marga-
rine, with the famous slogan; “It’s not nice to fool- Introduction: Personifications
Y FAVORITE SEQUENCE IN DISNEY’S
original Fantasia (1940) was
Beethoven’s “Pastorale Sym-
phony,” enacted against a tap-
estry of Greco-Roman mythology
by centaurs, unicorns, pegasi,
and a tipsy Bacchus. There ap-
peared, for the first time on film,
several of the old Gods: Jupiter, Vulcan, Diana...
At the very end, when Nox draws Her veil of night
over the Arcadian landscape, and the thin crescent of
the new moon appears
against the stars, and
the camera closes in to
reveal Diana standing
on a cloud, flanked by a
deer, and Diana draws
the bow of the moon
and shoots a meteoric ar-
row across the sky...
Well, that got me; I was
hooked! Eventually I even
created a statue inspired by
that image.
Understand that
these various personal-
izations of natural forces are just that. As Death so
often says in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels, “I
AM AN ANTHROPOMORPHIC PERSONIFICATION.” (That is,
the representation of an idea in human form.) From
millennia of observation, we have found that natural
forces behave “as if” they actually are such embod-
ied creatures like Disney’s unicorns, deities, and cen-
taurs. Understanding and interacting with these an-
thropomorphized forces works better for most Wiz-
ards when they think of the forces in this way.Lesson 2. The Cosmic Family
of NatureOne of the most important teachings of all tribal
peoples is that all living beings—along with the Earth,
Sea, Sky, Sun, and Stars—are part of one great Family.
Many teachings echo the Native American Lakota ex-Corrected pages 3rd printing.1.p65 22 6/10/2004, 2:59 PM