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"Witch Mother"

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Loona Wynd
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 18, 2011 3:50 pm


Do you worship any deities that could be considered the greath mother and origins of all witchcraft?

Are there any deities in myths you have found to be particularly related to witchcraft?

Are all witch mothers essentially the same? If not would you say that there are any connections you can see between them?
PostPosted: Fri Nov 18, 2011 4:24 pm


How could any deity be the great mother of all witchcraft?

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Loona Wynd
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 12:15 am


Sanguina Cruenta
How could any deity be the great mother of all witchcraft?
Firstly I didn't say that there was. Secondly my thoughts on this comes from the fact that many ENP books state that the Goddess is the great mother of all people and so I asked the question. In religious witchcraft is the goddess you worship considered to be connected to witchcraft as the source of witchcraft?
PostPosted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 1:09 am


Loona Wynd
Sanguina Cruenta
How could any deity be the great mother of all witchcraft?
Firstly I didn't say that there was. Secondly my thoughts on this comes from the fact that many ENP books state that the Goddess is the great mother of all people and so I asked the question. In religious witchcraft is the goddess you worship considered to be connected to witchcraft as the source of witchcraft?


You're asking if a deity could be considered the mother and origin of all witchcraft, but if there are two separate deities considered the mother and origin of all witchcraft, then logically neither of them are. I really don't understand the question.

Those ENP books are soft-polytheistic. The goddess in those is mother of everything because she's either the only deity, or one of two. Consequently, if you're worshipping any goddess, they are still that goddess, and will be the mother of witchcraft. Mother of everything, really. I mean, I have any number of problems with their assumptions.

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Loona Wynd
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 1:43 am


Ok. I guess I didn't explain it as well as I could have. I was trying to be brief with the topic and get to the question because many people don't read much aside from the question or topic title.

Any way:

When I look at ENP witchcraft books and read about the God and Goddess I subtract the statements of the Goddess=all goddesses. My theory is that many ENP practioners don't have a deep enough understanding of the mythos around specific deities and see the basic bare bones description (with out reading the myths) and experiences an aspect of the goddess (Maiden=Persephone as an example) and mistake the maiden of the MMC goddess as that other goddess.

To me the deities of ENP witchcraft are indepedent deities that have been connected to all other gods and goddesses through the Soft Poly view. As such I view the mythology as unique and a different paradigm.

Other paradigms such as Strega through the Gospel of Aradia have their Goddess being the ultimate source of all witches/witchcraft.

I am basically asking if you think there is a mother goddess that is the mother of all witches, if you don't have you found any similarities between the deities (from your understanding) or are they to different?
PostPosted: Tue Nov 22, 2011 9:26 am


Personally I don't believe there is or could be a single deity that's the mother of all witchcraft, but I guess that's because of my hard poly views. Wouldn't make sense to me. I also don't worship any, to answer that question.

But, in my religion there is a concept called emuu. Literally it means "mother", and the emuu of something is the being that created or gave birth to those certain earthly things. A mythological mother of sort. Witches have one, too - a goddess called Loviatar, so she's the "mother of witchcraft" in Finnish recon. I don't believe she's the mother of all witches, though, just the Finnish idea of them, perhaps, so I don't know if this even answers your question.

What comes to other mythologies and whether or not these possible "witch mothers" around the world are essentially the same, I don't think so. Hard poly, as mentioned. But I must admit I don't know much about the deities of other pantheons or religions. No idea about possible similarities there.

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Loona Wynd
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 03, 2011 7:38 am


I agree with your Arrow.. I don't believe there could be a single witch mother. It seems that the various different witchcraft traditions are different enough in their practices that they would all have different sources.

I mean I believe Diana and her daughter Aradia to be the mothers of the Strega witches. I would also say that even those who don't practice Stregheria, but are members of witchcults that primarily worship Diana would have Diana as the mother of witches.

Hecate I believe would be the mother of any "Hellenic" witches due to her association with witchcraft. Though I have read many contradictions about Hellenic witchcraft. So that may be a modern invention as my sources have shown me that magic was considered impious in the Hellenic world.

In the Germanic traditions it may be difficult to say who is the witch mother. Some people consider the spirit Holda to be the Mother of Germanic witches. Granted I'm not even sure if she was a real deity or a spirit in folklore.

I think that the Goddess I worship in the Temple tradition (or at least my understanding of the Goddess based on UPG) is the mother of the temple Witches. Though as the Temple tradition originated from the Cabot Tradition she may be the mother of those witches as well, or she could just be the one teaching me my craft.

Like I said the topic was made out of curiosity. I wanted to mostly see if there were any similarities between any of the goddesses of witchcraft in the animal associations, traits, and personality. I do feel there are probably some significant similarities, but more differences. Afterall there are significant similarities between witches but mostly major differences.
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Mythology: Deities and the Myths

 
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