The God and Goddess also have little *direct* relation to the bodily sexes: they are symbolic. The Morrigan, the Irish goddess of war, is identified with the Maiden aspect of the three-part goddess, but she is hardly a little girl. Same with Diana/Artemis.

Its not really a case of authors protraying some kind of patriarchal binary as it is them attempting to embody masculinity and femininity in recognisable forms. The God can be represented as a virile man, a masculine butch, a wise male elder, or anything else masculine, really. The goddess can be represented by the fierce Blood Crow Morrigan, or by the Virgin Mary. In my opinion, they are both important and should be inclusive. As a butch myself, I find both the God and Goddess in the forms I worship to be extremely empowering.

Any privilage assigned to each aspect of deity – such as associating ‘male’ with power and ‘female’ with nurturing – is very much our cultural association, not the reality of deity. To deny that men are a part of life is really just as bad as denying that women are. Seeing as Wicca and other forms of Celtic paganism are essentially religions of life, I think maleness should be celebrated as much as femaleness is, even if we are not ourselves men. It can be easy to forget, when exposed to negative examples of maleness and masculinity in our world, that men are also responsible for life and that a God figure is a celebration of their virtues, strengths and positive powers as well. Everything in balance

Dion.

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