In the Virgin Womb,
the Black Heart of Innocence
fell in love with Light. |
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~ Victor Anderson
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The Andersons were more than happy to share the thealogy
[1] of their Craft, both
in print and in person.
In talking about their beliefs, the Andersons often cited
Aradia:
Or the Gospel of the Witches by Charles Godfrey Leland
(published in 1899):
Diana was the first created before all creation; in
her were all things; out of herself, the first darkness,
she divided herself; into darkness and light she was divided.
Lucifer, her brother and son, herself and her other half,
was the light.
And when Diana saw that the light was so beautiful,
the light which was her other half, her brother Lucifer,
she yearned for it with exceeding great desire. Wishing
to receive the light again into her darkness, to swallow
it up in rapture, in delight, she trembled with desire.
This desire was the dawn.
After reading the above quotation from Aradia, some
might conclude the Andersons believed in the Roman deities
Diana and Lucifer. While the Andersons did indeed understand
these names to refer to their deities, that fact falls far
short of the scope of their beliefs.
Vicia thealogy is not defined by any single culture. Victor
might quote Aradia when speaking of God Herself, or
he might quote the Book of Genesis, or he might speak of Vodou,
or Mesoamerican beliefs, or the Kabbalah.
Ultimately, the names and terms are not as important as
an understanding of the underlying reality.
God Herself is seen as the very power that hatched our universe.
She is the one who "haunts the universe and sings her
lullaby between the stars in the darkness of the night."
She is the the most ancient form of deity.
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In the theology of my religion, of my Craft, God is a
feminine being, but She is both male and female. She is
called the Holy Virgin because She is complete within
Herself. But She is not without sex. Through Her Divine
lust She desired two bright spirits whom She brought out
of the darkness and carried within Her until they were
worthy to be Gods and brought them forth as the Divine
Twins which are Her dual consort. They are exactly alike
and one can play one part and one can play another, or
they can both blend together like two flames of a candle.
They are the God.
~
Victor Anderson, interviewed
by Ellen Evert Hopman in Being
a Pagan
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Together with the primordial Goddess, the Twins are at the
core of our belief system.
In the ongoing play of the Twins, they can manifest as dual
year gods, such as the Oak and Holly Kings of British folklore;
as a primordial male/female couple, such as the Japanese Isanagi
and Isanami; or as sexually active lovers—male/male or
female/female. The Twins can also unite and function as one
being, our bright and shining God, the Lord of thunder and
light.
Cora wrote in Fifty Years in the Feri Tradition: "We
could put
it this way and say the bright and dark Godhood are the two
sides of a chessboard with the Divine Twins at play while
Mother makes the rules."
| We hold the natural humanistic view of the Gods
as great and highly evolved nature spirits. |
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~ Cora Anderson
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In Vicia, we work with and honor many beings.
We honor our Divine Parents. We honor our Ancestors, whether
of the blood or of the spirit. We also honor other Gods and
spirits present in our world—including the spirits of
our own souls.
Or as Victor put it, "We have studied the ancient one,
the Mother of God, because that is the center, the root of
the cosmology of this universe. It doesn't mean we ignore
all the beautiful spirits that are all around us and within
us."
Vicia is animistic and has much in common with Shinto.
We believe that all existence is imbued with living spirit.
This includes rocks, plants, animals, fish, birds, natural
forces, et cetera. We are all connected, and we are all related.
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When I teach, I often compare the Universal to a great
sea of light, and its monads to photons, or units of light.
Imagine a great flood of light pouring down from the sun
and saying, "I am the light." When we deal with
it as a whole, how can we say whether light is a stream
of photons or a system of waves? Yet when we work with
nature on the atomic and molecular levels, we must treat
a beam of light as a stream of photons, which it is. Is
it not just as logical for one photon to say "I am
the light," as it is for the whole glory of the day?
We teach that every God and every creature is a part of
the Universal.
~
Victor Anderson, Etheric
Anatomy
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Once the three spirits of the soul are aligned and the gates
of psychic perception are opened, we can connect in a very
natural and direct way with the other awarenesses around us.
It's important to remember, however, that natural laws still
apply. If you dive into a school of sharks, you may quite
naturally become a shark's lunch. So know what you're doing,
and always work with the three spirits of your soul in harmony.
[1] We use the spelling
"thealogy" because Vicia emphasizes the feminine nature
of God.
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