Does this exist???

[WaterLilly]

Is there a Pagan religion similar to Wicca in nearly every respect but that the "Goddess" is seen as the Earth, "God" (still) as the Sun, and the Moon not a part of the deity structure?

(honestly trying to find out if a religion like this exists)

[Myst]

A lot of Wiccans think of the earth as Goddess and the God as the sun.

[WaterLilly]

I'm aware of that in the way I think you mean it. I'm well versed in Wiccan beliefs (don't take that as bragging... I just realized that didn't sound the way I wanted it to and I don't know how to change it to do so), so I understand what you are saying... but Wiccans call the Earth "Mother Earth" just as often as they talk about the "Moon Goddess". I'm trying to figure out if there is a tradition that does not think of the Moon as a female divine entity, that just the Earth fulfills that role.

[astrokaiju]

Originally posted by WaterLilly
I'm aware of that in the way I think you mean it. I'm well versed in Wiccan beliefs (don't take that as bragging... I just realized that didn't sound the way I wanted it to and I don't know how to change it to do so), so I understand what you are saying... but Wiccans call the Earth "Mother Earth" just as often as they talk about the "Moon Goddess". I'm trying to figure out if there is a tradition that does not think of the Moon as a female divine entity, that just the Earth fulfills that role.

according to wicca, the goddess has about a thousand faces. a wiccan doesn't have to regard them all. there's no uniform set of beliefs for every single aspect of wicca. so just because one wiccan considers the moon a goddess doesn't mean another would.

[astrokaiju]

not to mention that there are plenty of ancient and/or indigenous religions that regard the *sky* as the God and the earth as the Goddess (or, as in Ancient Egypt, vice-versa), but i guess that's not exactly the same.

[Mercuria]

I'm sure that there would be a particular pagan religion that sees the Goddess as earth and the God as sun.

Many pagan religions have different views on the divinity of natural objects. As an example, I know of one ancient european religion which sees the sun as the mother Goddess and the moon as the God of death, which is the opposite of many other religions.

It might be an idea to research some ethnic-specific pagan religions, as often the views on divinity are slightly different. I don't know how similar they would be to wicca though, which is what you're looking for.

Mercuria

[Myst]

I'm not so sure that there would be a specific religion that is exactly like Wicca except for that one small thing; except Wicca itself wherein you can work with deities as you wish.

To satisfy both your requirements with a "labelled religion" may be interesting.

[amberlaine]

Just to throw a wrench into things, Wiccans don't actually believe that the Earth *is* the Goddess, nor that the Sun *is* the God. They are merely associated with these bodies. But in Wicca, God and Goddess are incorporeal--they are energies in flux. When we talk about MOther Earth or Moon Mother, etc, we are speaking in poetic metaphor--we don't actually believe that the ground itself *is* the Creatrix.

[WaterLilly]

I figured the closest it would come is "some indiginous religion waaaaaaaaay back when". I was just wondering if there is any modernly practiced versions for a paper I'm doing. It's sort of a religious comparison paper that was going to include comparison of Wicca to other modernly practiced Pagan religions. I'd heard from someone that there might be a religion such as the one I described earlier, and I thought it would be fun to find its roots, but it doesn't sound like if it does exist it would be anything more than just a small family trad or something.

[astrokaiju]

Originally posted by WaterLilly
I figured the closest it would come is "some indiginous religion waaaaaaaaay back when". I was just wondering if there is any modernly practiced versions for a paper I'm doing. It's sort of a religious comparison paper that was going to include comparison of Wicca to other modernly practiced Pagan religions. I'd heard from someone that there might be a religion such as the one I described earlier, and I thought it would be fun to find its roots, but it doesn't sound like if it does exist it would be anything more than just a small family trad or something.

okay...well, according to Gaianism, which is modernly practiced, the earth is a big sentient entity. but one could argue whether that means "goddess" or not. also, it doesn't say anything about a god or the sun or anything.

[WaterLilly]

Hmm, maybe that was what they were talking about. I'll go do a search on that. I tried searching on just "Gaia" once figuring I'd get lots of info, but I didn't. I'll try the term you used.
Thanks

[astrokaiju]

Originally posted by WaterLilly
Hmm, maybe that was what they were talking about. I'll go do a search on that. I tried searching on just "Gaia" once figuring I'd get lots of info, but I didn't. I'll try the term you used.
Thanks

i know that a number of books have been written on the subject. someone came up with the theory that the reason that all kind of pestilences are going on on the earth is because the earth is literally sick, and its immune system is trying to fight off the things that are harming it (e.g. human beings). it was really popular in the early ninties when ecology was in vogue, but i think people don't really care anymore.

anyway, there should be lots of information, but many people who talk about Gaianism don't associate it with paganism, so that's something to consider. it might be hard to find pagan-related resources about it or any sort of connection with paganism.

[WaterLilly]

Actually the first search I did listed the first 10 pages as being about Gaianism AND Paganism. Go fig.