Thoughts on Advanced Goddess Theology by Esra Free

 I am reading the pdf book "Advanced Goddess Theology" by Esra Free of the Cosmic Goddess Coven which is approximately 104 pages long. 

The first thoughts that I had about the book was that this was/is a High Priestess I will either get along famously with or have some serious heavy debates with, but either way someone I would want to meet. 

This book is an excellent one for delineating exactly the differences between the Wiccan point of view and the Middle Eastern point of view on deity.

As Above, So Below is to be kept in mind for all things. Meaning that just as we would remove troublesome things from our bodies, so to will the Goddess remove troublesome things from herself. The other way around in regards to things that benefit. So to live "Correctly" according to this is to live in a manner that is a benefit to the Goddess. (I am using quotations on "Correctly" as everyone will interpret it differently based on their life experience and I am not wanting to promote one interpretation over another) Clues as to how to live in this manner can be found by observing the natural world. The use of the religious language in Wicca regarding the elements, seasons, and cycles is a means to draw attention to those things that shed light on how the world works, thus allowing a chance to live "correctly".

Using the colorations in the book, one can question the full width of the damage done by the Middle Eastern though process of highlighting the male over the female. In that area of the world, the need to hide and protect the women is great. It is a part of the world that the resources for life are rather low; water, food, shelter. With that in mind it does make sense that the God/Male side of things would be held in higher regard. As typical with all aggressive active things it has decided to over shadow the other side that it needs to continue. After all you can't have Hot if you don't have Cold. 

Back to my original comment; the full width of the damage done. By weakening the female/Mother/passive half of the equation in areas where it is not needed, where hiding female is not needed, these aggressors have created weak mothers for their young and as such have essentially created all the problems inherent in todays world.

When strength and aggression are valued more than compassion and understanding you get hate crimes instead of just polite "that is not for me." Living in a plural world is not possible without compassion and understanding. What is ironic is that is a lot of what the Jesus of the Bible was trying to teach. For the most part the teachings of compassion and understanding have been successfully spread, but possibly at the cost of understanding the whys and hows. 

On the other side of the coin one needs to be able to defend one's self from strength and aggression. This sets up a cycle of constant aggression if there is no one to play the part of passive which leads to constant war. hmm That's a familiar thing from the Middle East too; constant war. From my understanding of the world history this was a problem back in the time when the Roman Emperor Constantine (I could have the wrong name) converted the Roman Empire to Christianity. Emperor Constantine may have been attempting to bring a more balanced approach to life for his people by bringing in a god that had compassion? This state could also be called Toxic Masculinity (link here).

"All Wicca must be eclectic because it is a religion that is by nature both Gnostic and scientific" FINALLY someone who is Wiccan who gets why the whole looking down their nose at those not in a Tradition is wrong. "The real question of eclecticism in Wicca is less one of if, than it is of when. "Non-eclectic" Trad practitioners surelly hold as fast as they can to the exact structure, rules, rituals and beliefs handed down to them by their nearest known ancestors – but what about their ancestors? And theirs, and theirs...? Somewhere down the line, somebody, somewhere, gathered a disparate body of knowledge together, worked it into a coherent system of belief, and began the "Tradition" of initiating new members into that system."