The God
The God has been revered for eons, but not as the stern, all-powerful deity of Christian and Judaism. We see the God in the Sun. Without the Sun we would not exist; therefore it has been revered as the source of all life. With the warmth of the Sun the dormant seeds burst into life and there begins the greening of the Earth after the cold winter.
The God is also the tender of wild animals. He is sometimes seen wearing horns on His head, symbolising His connection with these beasts. In earlier times hunting was one of the activities thought to be ruled by the God, while domestication of animals was seen to be Goddess oriented. The God's domains are forests untouched by human hands, towering mountains and burning deserts. Some consider the stars as under His domain because they are distant suns.
The annual cycle of greening, maturation and harvest has long been associated with the Sun, from whence come the Solar festivals of Europe, which are still observed in Wicca. The God is the fully ripened harvest, intoxicating wine pressed from grapes, golden grain waving in the field, luscious apples hanging from verdant boughs.
With the Goddess He also celebrates and rules sex.
Wiccans do not speak of sex in hushed words, nor consider a celibate life as better than a sexually active one. Sex is part of nature, brings pleasure, shifts our awareness away from the every day world and perpetuates our species. It is seen as sacred. Although the God lustily imbues us with the urge that ensures our species' biological future, we are not tied to a genetically set pattern of fertility and sexual activity as are other species. We are privileged to be granted the use of sexual activity as an expression of deep love and tenderness as well as the necessity of reproduction. The gift of the freedom of choice with sex is accepted with great joy and pleasure and treated with great respect.
Symbols often used to depict, or in worship of the God include the sword, horns, spear, candle, gold, brass, diamond, the sickle, arrow, magical wand, trident, knife and others.
Sacred creatures include the bull, dog, snake, fish, stag, dragon, wolf, boar, eagle, falcon, shark, lizard and many others.
