Editing Wicca (section)

===Theology===
{{Main|Wiccan views of divinity}}

[[Theology|Theological]] views within Wicca are diverse.{{sfnm|1a1=Pearson|1y=1998|1p=49|2a1=Doyle White|2y=2016|2p=86}} The religion encompasses [[theism|theists]], [[atheism|atheists]], and [[agnosticism|agnostics]], with some viewing the religion's deities as entities with a literal existence and others viewing them as [[Jungian archetypes]] or symbols.{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|p=86}} Even among theistic Wiccans, there are divergent beliefs, and Wicca includes [[pantheism|pantheists]], [[monotheism|monotheists]], [[duotheism|duotheists]], and [[polytheism|polytheists]].{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|pp=86–87}} Common to these divergent perspectives, however, is that Wicca's deities are viewed as forms of ancient, pre-Christian divinities by its practitioners.{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|p=87}}

====Duotheism====

[[File:Horned God and Mother Goddess (Doreen Valiente's Altar).jpg|thumb|right|Altar statues of the [[Horned God]] and [[Mother goddess|Mother Goddess]] crafted by Bel Bucca and owned by the "Mother of Wicca", [[Doreen Valiente]]]]

Most early Wiccan groups adhered to the duotheistic worship of a [[Horned God]] and a [[Mother Goddess]], and practitioners of Wicca typically believe that they were the ancient deities that were worshipped by the [[hunter-gatherer]]s who lived during the [[Palaeolithic|Old Stone Age]], and according to practitioners of Wicca, the veneration of these deities was secretly passed down to the present day in the form of rites.{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|p=86}} This theology derived from Egyptologist Margaret Murray's claims about the [[Witch-cult hypothesis|witch-cult]] in her book ''The Witch-Cult in Western Europe'' published by Oxford University Press in 1921;{{sfn|Murray|1921}} she claimed that this cult had venerated a Horned God at the time of the Early Modern witch trials, but centuries before it had also worshipped a Mother Goddess.{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|p=87}} This duotheistic Horned God/Mother Goddess structure was embraced by Gardner—who claimed that it had Stone Age roots—and remains the underlying theological basis of his Gardnerian tradition.{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|pp=87–88}} Gardner claimed that the names of these deities should be kept secret within the tradition, but in 1964, they were publicly revealed to be Cernunnos and Aradia; the secret names of the Gardnerian deities were subsequently changed.{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|p=91}}

Although different Wiccans attribute different traits to the Horned God, he is most frequently associated with animals and the natural world, but he is also associated with the afterlife, and he is also viewed as an ideal role model for men.{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|p=88}} The Mother Goddess has been associated with life, fertility, and the springtime, and has been described as an ideal role model for women.{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|p=89}} Wicca's duotheism has been compared to the [[Taoism|Taoist]] system of [[yin and yang]].{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|p=87}}

Other Wiccans have adopted the original Gardnerian God/Goddess duotheistic structure but have also adopted deity forms other than those of the Horned God and the Mother Goddess.{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|pp=89–90}} For instance, the God has been called the [[Oak King]] and the [[Holly King (archetype)|Holly King]], as well as the Sun God, the Son/Lover God, and the Vegetation God.{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|p=90}} He has also been seen in the roles of the [[Wild Hunt#Leader of the Wild Hunt|Leader of the Wild Hunt]] and the Lord of Death.{{sfn|Pearson|2005}} The Goddess is often portrayed as a [[Triple Goddess (Neopaganism)|Triple Goddess]], thereby being a triadic deity that consists of a Maiden goddess, a [[Mother goddess]], and a Crone goddess, each of whom has different associations, namely virginity, fertility, and wisdom.{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|p=90}}{{sfn|Farrar|Farrar|1987|pp=29–37}} Other Wiccan conceptualisations have portrayed her as a [[lunar deity|Moon Goddess]] and a Menstruating Goddess.{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|p=90}} According to the anthropologist Susan Greenwood, in Wicca, the Goddess is "a symbol of self-transformation—she is seen to be constantly changing and a force for change for those who open themselves up to her".{{sfn|Greenwood|1998|p=103}}

====Monotheism and polytheism====

Gardner stated that beyond Wicca's two deities was the "Supreme Deity" or "[[unmoved mover|Prime Mover]]", an entity that was too complex for humans to understand.{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|p=92}} This belief has been endorsed by other practitioners, who have referred to it as "the Cosmic [[Logos]]", "Supreme Cosmic Power", or "[[Deity|Godhead]]".{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|p=92}} Gardner envisioned this Supreme Deity as a [[deism|deist]] entity who had created the "Under-Gods", among them the God and Goddess, but who was not otherwise involved in the world; alternately, other Wiccans have interpreted such an entity as a pantheistic being, of whom the God and Goddess are facets.{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|pp=92–93}}

[[File:Horned God.JPG|upright|thumb|right|Sculpture of the [[Horned God]] of Wicca found in the [[Museum of Witchcraft]] in [[Boscastle]], [[Cornwall]]]]

Although Gardner criticised monotheism, citing the [[Problem of Evil]],{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|p=92}} explicitly monotheistic forms of Wicca developed in the 1960s, when the U.S.-based Church of Wicca developed a theology rooted in the worship of what they described as "one deity, without gender".{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|p=93}} In the 1970s, [[Dianic]] Wiccan groups developed which were devoted to a singular, monotheistic Goddess; this approach was often criticised by members of British Traditional Wiccan groups, who lambasted such Goddess [[monotheism]] as an inverted imitation of Christian theology.{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|p=94}} As in other forms of Wicca, some Goddess monotheists have expressed the view that the Goddess is not an entity with a literal existence but a Jungian archetype.{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|p=95}}

As well as pantheism and [[duotheism]], many Wiccans accept the concept of [[polytheism]], thereby believing that there are many different [[deities]]. Some take the view espoused by the occultist [[Dion Fortune]] that "all gods are one god, and all goddesses are one goddess" – that is that the gods and goddesses of all cultures are, respectively, aspects of one supernal God and Goddess. With this mindset, a Wiccan may regard the Germanic [[Ēostre]], [[Hindu]] [[Kali]], and [[Catholic]] [[Virgin Mary]] each as manifestations of one supreme Goddess and likewise, the [[Celtic deities|Celtic]] [[Cernunnos]], the ancient Greek [[Dionysus]] and the Judeo-Christian [[Yahweh]] as aspects of a single, archetypal god. A more strictly [[polytheism|polytheistic]] approach holds the various goddesses and gods as separate entities in their own right. The Wiccan writers [[Janet Farrar]] and [[Gavin Bone]] have postulated that Wicca is becoming more polytheistic as it matures, tending to embrace a more traditionally pagan worldview.{{sfn|Farrar|Bone|2004}} Some Wiccans conceive of deities not as literal personalities but as metaphorical [[archetype]]s or [[thoughtform]]s, thereby technically allowing them to be [[atheism|atheists]].{{sfn|Adler|1979|pp=25, 34–35}} Such a view is held by the High Priestess [[Vivianne Crowley]], herself a [[psychologist]], who considered the Wiccan deities to be [[Jungian archetypes]] that existed within the subconscious that could be evoked in ritual. It was for this reason she said, "The Goddess and God manifest to us in dream and vision."<ref>{{cite book |last=Crowley |first=Vivianne |author-link=Vivianne Crowley |title=Wicca: The Old Religion in the New Millennium |publisher=Thorsons |location=London |page=129 |year=1996 |isbn=0-7225-3271-7 |oclc=34190941}}</ref>
Wiccans often believe that the gods are not perfect and can be argued with.{{sfn|Pearson|1998|p=52}}

Many Wiccans also adopt a more explicitly polytheistic or [[animism|animistic]] worldview of the universe as replete with spirit beings.{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|pp=95–96}} In many cases, these spirits are associated with the natural world, for instance, as ''[[genius loci]]'', [[fairies]], and [[elementals]].{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|p=96}} In other cases, such beliefs are more idiosyncratic and atypical; Wiccan [[Sybil Leek]], for instance, endorsed a belief in [[angel]]s.{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|p=96}}