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Gender in Wicca: Moving Beyond Traditional Ideas

© Karen Mitchell

I've read, from time to time, of people becoming dissatisfied or disenchanted with the concept of dual deity in Wicca. (Fancy term meaning we worship a God and Goddess.) Most recently, it was a letter to the editor in the Fall 2004 issue of newWitch magazine that took up the topic. The author of the letter was a young bisexual who just didn't like the idea of gender polarity in her gods. I feel that her problem comes from an incomplete and simplistic understanding of the roles of gender polarity and dual deity in Wicca.

Before we dive in to this complex topic headfirst, let's establish a few baseline definitions. Dual deity has already been defined as worshipping a God and Goddess. This is also sometimes called duotheism. Gender polarity is the idea that the God and Goddess, and by extension masculinity and femininity, have opposing characteristics. It's also important to note that when I use the terms "masculine" and "feminine" I'm referring to personality traits or societal roles rather than biological gender. I will refer to biological gender as "male" and "female". Ok. With the definitions out of the way, we can begin to explore these concepts.

One of the first things seekers learn about Wicca is that Wiccans honor (or worship) a God and Goddess in their rituals, as this is one of the major differences between Wicca and a monotheistic religion like Christianity. Authors will go on to talk about the various correspondences attributed to the God and those of the Goddess. Perhaps they'll give you a table of deities from various pantheons and a few invocations. Afterwards, perhaps they'll move on to talking about the Wheel of the Year and its roots in agriculture.

If you find a really good book, the author may talk a little about what I term the "Wiccan Mythology", incorporating the dying and reborn God and the triple faces of the Goddess. Each of these ideas could easily fill up a separate article. To sum up, the God is born of the Goddess at Yule. He grows to maturity and couples with Her around Beltane, impregnating Her. At Lughnasadh, He is sacrificed to ensure a prosperous harvest for the dark times, and She mourns him. But at Yule, the cycle begins again.

It's easy to conclude, from the above paragraphs, that Wicca is a fertility religion with a strong focus on sexual reproduction. While this is true, it really only skims the surface. I can understand why someone with an alternative sexual preference would be uncomfortable with this idea, because they can't relate to it. But we all know that sex, for humans, is about more than biological reproduction. Plus, if you've ever sat through a high school biology class, you may recall that plants do not sexually reproduce anyway. So what's really going on here, on a deeper level?