Nature of God

Introduction

It is important from the outset to recognise that all attempts to define God are but human metaphors. They should be seen as such and not be considered as absolute truths. The English Folk Church proclaims there to be one eternal God who has several attributes, such as love, order and creativity. These are the essence of God’s nature or personality. They pervade the whole of creation and are the underlying principles by which creation is ordered. We call these attributes, or divine nature, ‘Orlog’, literally the primal law. Our interaction with Orlog is our interaction with the nature of God and is expressed mythologically as the Web of Wyrd.

We call God’s thoughts, wisdom and creative expression or communication the Logos. And we call God’s spirit the ‘Spirit of Truth’ or the Christos. Orlog, Logos and the Spirit of Truth are all aspects of the divine energies of God. They are not separate personalities, just as our own underlying nature or personality, our spirit, thoughts and our voices are all part of us as a single person.

The way we interact with God’s underlying nature affects the unfolding of creation, both positively and negatively. In this way, our past actions collectively and individually affect our present and what will unfold in the future. This is expressed mythologically as the Web of Wyrd. Past actions have consequences and it is our duty to ensure that we interact positively with the divine law to help the positive evolution of creation.

God is neither male nor female, but rather the dynamic unity of both. This is dynamism expressed mythically as Sky or Sea Father, Earth Mother and the New Life that springs from their union. This myth emphasises God’s creative instinct, embodied in the emanation of thought and spirit from the underlying nature. The process of evolutionary creation is reflected in the eternal cycle of birth, death and rebirth that we see throughout the cosmos. It can be seen in the pattern of day following night, summer following winter, the agricultural cycle or our own life cycles. These patterns are also reflected in the Christian story of the nativity.

The Spirit of Truth, or the Christos, resides within all created beings – more strongly within the folk gods and goddesses than us humans as they were the first created. It is through the Spirit that we are connected to God and to our folk gods and goddesses. But the Spirit and the Logos also exist outside of our mundane world of Middengeard. In them we see the glorified or Cosmic Christ, Christ eternal – the pure mind and spirit of God.

God has created a great many spirit beings that permeate the natural world around us. These are our folk gods and goddesses, the Ælfe (or Elfs) and the land and water wights. Although sometimes confused with Angels in the popular mind, they are not Angels as such as they have free will. All peoples share a common humanity through the universal God. But at the same time, all peoples have a unique relationship with their ancestral folk gods and goddesses who have shaped them physically, culturally and spiritually. Our folk gods and goddesses are assigned specifically to the native people of North Western Europe and our kin around the world. Similar beings are assigned to other peoples of the world. For instance, the EFC considers Yahweh/Jehovah to be a folk god of the Israelites rather than the one God – who we do not give a name.

The folk gods and goddesses shape the physical world we live in and imbue into us their gifts of life so that we are intrinsically related to them. They are literally our spiritual kin.

The mythology of northern Europe is complex and varied. Myth is not to be taken as literal fact, but rather as an expression of an underlying truth. In fact, there is very little written evidence of a specifically English mythology because our ancestors had a mainly oral culture until after conversion. However, important glimpses of it remain in the literature we do have, although often in a Christianised form. We also need to bear in mind that the English are descended from a number of closely related Germanic tribes and so we can construct elements of our ancient mythology from those of our cousins on the continent. These myths themselves vary through time and geographical location. Often different gods and goddesses appear to be performing the same function, sometimes taking over the role of an earlier deity. It can be very confusing! This is why it is important to concentrate on the meaning behind the mythology rather than the precise 'stories'.

The most important element of our ancestor’s understanding of God is the coming together of opposites to produce new life. This can be expressed as the intermingling of fire and ice in the creative process or of the male and female principles. As coastal people, this is sometimes expressed in the form of a Sea Father and an Earth Mother. More commonly, it is expressed as a coming together of Sky Father and Earth Mother. Either way, the underlying meaning is the same.

The Sky Father and Sea Father

Linguistically, English is part of the Germanic family of languages which is in turn part of the Indo-European or Aryan group. Indeed, native English people are generally seen as ethnically part of these family groupings. Similarly, our early religious traditions can be grouped in this way. It needs to be borne in mind though that the further back we go, and the wider the family groupings, the less close we become. Hindu may be a part of the Indo-European family of languages, but it is very far removed from modern English. Dutch, however, is much closer. The same is true of religion, although in this case we have the added complexity of the introduction and development of Christianity.

The earliest Indo-European ideas of God were little more than a vague notion of a Heavenly Father, sometimes referred to as the Sky Father. There was also a belief in an Earth Mother, the provider. This tradition celebrated the annual joining of the Heavenly Father and the Earth Mother to produce new life. It was a joining of spirit with earth. As different Indo-European traditions evolved, so they took different paths and moved further away from each other. The Germanic traditions evolved a variety of mythologies to try to understand and relate to the divine powers they saw at work. In considering these myths, it is important to remember that they are not intended to be literally true, but rather a symbolic expression of people's understanding of these things. Often, different tribal mythologies convey the same underlying message using different, but related stories.

The Norse and Germanic traditions maintain this understanding of a Sky Father. We cannot be certain what names they gave the Sky Father. Indeed, it would be true to say that several gods have adopted this role. In the early Germanic tradition, which is of most relevance to English folk religion, many scholars view the Sky Father as Tuisto. However, not all agree with this and there is certainly a strong view that Tuisto himself was seen as a 'son' of the Sky Father, an emanation or created being. Having said this, he was almost certainly the first of the gods to be associated with the Sky Father. It is likely that his name literally means a 'two-fold' being, or a being that 'separates'. In this sense, he may be cognate with the Norse 'Buri'. The Folk Church believes that this notion of separating is an expression of how our folk gods proceeded from or emanated from the one God.

In mythology, our folk gods and goddesses are divided into two ‘tribes’; the Ese (or gods of the air) and the Wanes (or gods of the land). A great deal of rubbish is spoken about how the Ese represent immigrant groups moving into Northern Europe and changing the culture. Much of this stems from Snorri who called them Asians who fooled the local people into worshipping them as gods. A much more logical explanation is to see at play here the coming together of opposites – that great principle that runs through mythology. Sky and earth – spirit and land. In a sense, any of the Ese could be seen as sky gods, if not the Sky Father. In practice, mythologies have developed over time so that at least two Sky Fathers are acknowledged – Tyr and Woden. Some scholars hold that Tuisto and Tyr are one and the same and the name Tyr is related to the Indo-European word 'Dayaus' and the Latin 'Deus', simply meaning God. It is possible that this name was originally applied to an understanding of the Oneness of God, but in mythology it has come to be applied to a Holy Warden – Tyr or Tir. To the Folk Church, these Holy Wardens are reflections of the male principle of the Godhead our ancestors took to be God – but they are not that God themselves.

Sometimes, the 'father' is expressed as a god of the Sea rather than of the land. This is understandable given the close relationship of many Germanic tribes, including the ancestors of the Anglo Saxon English, to the North and Baltic seas. For instance, in Norse mythology, Njordr is a wind and sea God who ‘fathers’ the new life of Ing Frey (Ingeld) and his sister Freyo (Freya). Mythological accounts differ as to who their mother was. Some say she was his ‘wife’ Skadi, representing not just the coming together of male and female but also sea and land. Other accounts suggest that Skadi was only their step mother and their real mother was Njord’s unnamed ‘sister’. In many respects, the actual personalities are less important than the principle. Myth is not referring to a literal brother and sister – or husband and wife for that matter – but to coming together of the male and female principles to create the new life. Ing Frey, as the son, is an especially important god to the Folk Church because he appears to have been particularly loved by the early Anglo Saxon English and because in him we see the closest connection to Christ. In the Anglo Saxon tradition, Ingeld (Ing Frey) is descended from Nerthus, who Tacitus tells us is an earth Goddess. We do not know who her ‘husband’ is, though he would be a sea god or a sky god. Some scholars argue that Nerthus is actually a god rather than a goddess, because of the masculine nature of the name’s ending. Thus Nerthus would be cognate with the Norse god Njordr and his ‘bride’ would be mother Earth (Skadi in the related Norse myth). It does seem likely that Tacitus, who was reporting second hand, got his gods and goddesses mixed up – probably because he was assuming that the Germanic gods were simply localised names of his own Roman gods. Thus Nerthus became Terra Mater or Mother Earth. But the story of Ingeld being the ‘son’ of Mannus, the masculine gender of the name Nerthus and the Norse myth of Njordr, suggests that the Anglo Saxons saw things in terms of a sea god called Nerthus and a land goddesses called Eartha. As is said often on this site, the precise stories and names are not as important as the principles behind them. We see the divine masculine coming together with the divine feminine, father and mother, spirit and earth (matter) to produce new life. This is a reflection of the dynamic nature of the Godhead, which is itself reflected right through creation as a fundamental principle of life.

The Earth Mother

Belief in the earth as our Mother was as important to our ancestors as belief in the Sky or Sea Father. It is the Mother who was mythologically 'impregnated' by the Father each year and gave birth to the new life as a result. She is our earthly mother and represents the coming together of spirit and material to create a new life which is both.

There are many mythological expressions of Earth Mother. Tacitus’ reference to her as Nerthus has already been discussed. In other myths she is seen as mother Frigga, ‘wife’ of Odin and probably originally ‘wife’ of Tyr. However, whatever mythological names we ascribe to her, she is our Mother – the Earth Mother or Erce. She was recognised and called upon even into Christian times as the famous 11^th century Erce Bot demonstrates: "Erce, Erce, Erce, Earth Mother, may the Almighty Eternal Lord grant you fields to increase and flourish.."

This poem reflects the underlying principles of a Heavenly Father impregnating an Earth Mother to produce new Life. The ancient heathen fertility rites for good crops were Christianised, but the underlying principle remains remarkably similar. Furthermore, Mother Earth was seen by early Germanic peoples as the spiritual embodiment of our national homelands. We know that Germanic soldiers in the Roman army honoured their homelands in the form of their local 'Mothers'. This practice was certainly known by the English, even into early Christian times through the celebration of Modranecht, or Mother's night. Bede also tells us that the early English honoured at least two 'Mothers' even after they arrived in Britain. These were Rheda, who was honoured in May, and Eostre (probably cognate with the Germanic Ostara and possibly with the Norse Frigga), who was honoured in April and has given us our modern word Easter.

So it would appear that the English, in common with other Germanic tribes, would have honoured an earth goddess representing their homeland. Our ancestors knew her by many names, sometimes representing their particular national homelands and sometimes just their 'earth' in general. Either way, the folk recognised the spiritual aspects of their homeland and national soil. They honoured her and worshipped her. We can simply call her Mother or Allmother as some prefer. We can honour her by the different personas our ancestors came to know, such as Nerthus and Freo.

Our Earth Mother is represented in the Christian stories as Mary, the mother of God. She represents our human world, of earthly substance who was impregnated with the spirit of God to produce new life in the Son. She is the means by which God came into our world, the God bearer. She is the Queen of Heaven and first amongst the saints. This concept reflects our ancestral tradition and is also embodied in the holy Eucharist, by which we offer to God earthly produce and receive spiritual food in return.

She is 'Our Lady', the holy 'Mother', the embodiment of our folk and our land. She has made herself known to us in more recent times as Our Lady of Walsingham. We can call her 'Our Lady of the Angelcynn' - Our Lady of the English people.

The New Life

Our tradition teaches that the Sky or Sea Father and the Earth Mother come together each year to create the new life of the new season. We see this new life at work in the warming rays of the sun as it nurtures new growth over the summer. We see it in the gentle, and sometimes not so gentle, rains that provide the essential water for our crops to thrive.

The Folk Church acknowledges two of our folk gods as being the new life, one of the Ese and one of the Wanes. Thor, who is the son of Woden and Frigga, brings rain to our fields and maintains the balance of creation against the forces of Chaos – much as Christ the Pantokreter. Ingeld or Ing Frey, the son of Mannus and Mother Earth is a god of peace, fertility and plenty. In the Norse tradition, Baldur is also strongly associated with the life, although he appears not to have been known to the early English. Indeed, his cult may have derived from that of Ingeld and so he can be honoured through him.

Within this pantheon, Ingeld is given a special place of honour as he seems to have been particularly honoured by our Anglo Saxon ancestors. Ingeld is the father of the western Germanic peoples, who named themselves after him. Indeed, the names ‘England’ and English’ are likely to be ultimately derived from his name – the people of Ing. He is a god of peace and fertility, both in terms of the Earth herself and of human beings. His emblem was the stag. In time, he also came to be seen as a warrior and was looked to for protection. His emblem in this respect was the sacred boar, which was believed to protect a warrior from harm in battle.

Our ancestors honoured Ingeld as the divine representation of the new life of the new season. Each spring his spirit was born, nurtured, provided the harvest and then 'died' as winter approached, only to be reborn the following spring. This has similarities to the notion of the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. No wonder they found it so easy to accept Him! The Church certainly played on this for many years, deliberately confusing the two. Jesus was referred to as 'Frea', meaning Lord. Like our other folk gods and goddesses, the Folk Church believes that Ing Frey is a folk expression of the Logos (Word of God) and that through him God speaks to us. We see Christ as the Cosmic Christ, the Pantokreter or Logos; the Word of God who forms part of the Godhead and who was revealed to our ancestors in the form of our folk gods and goddesses. He was incarnate on earth as Jesus of Nazareth, but it is wrong to see Jesus as the only revelation of the Logos. Jesus himself was a man – a human being in whom the Logos resided. In some sense, the Logos resides in us all – but in Jesus he was more strongly present. But we should not worship Jesus as God. One of the defining characteristics of English Folk Christianity is the answer Alcuin's famous question, "what has Ingeld to do with Christ?" We believe quite alot!

The Holy Sprit

There is no specific manifestation of the Spirit in our folk mythology, but it does clearly point to the Spirit as divine action. The Spirit is the breath of God that blew across the Ginnungagap and which was breathed into us by Woden, Will and Weoh. The Spirit is the divine spark that animates our folk gods and gives them form. It is through the Spirit that the Volvas of old made their prophesies. And it is the Spirit that lies within each of us and leads us to seek a return to God. The Spirit is ultimately the divine truth – the Gnosis and the Christos.

The ancient religion of Israel had a remarkably similar view of God to our own heathen ancestors. They saw God as a male Sky Father, but also at least initially, saw the divine presence that resided in the Temple as feminine; Ashera, the female consort of the male God El. When Ashera worship was banned, her presence evolved and she came to be known as the ‘presence of God’, or Shekinah, which literally means ‘God who dwells within’. The word Shekinah is grammatically feminine in Hebrew and indeed, she is also seen as God’s consort – God the Mother. This could be a reference to God as dwelling within the Holy of Holies in the Temple. It could also be a more esoteric reference to the spirit of God dwelling within each one of us. St. Paul wrote, ‘But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you.’ (Romans 8:8). Jewish tradition tells that when the Israelites went into their various exiles, the Shekinah went with them as a comforter. This has direct parallels with the Christian notion of the Spirit as Paraclete – or comforter. Shekinah is seen as divine wisdom and it is she who is called Sophia which simply means ‘wisdom’ in Greek. She is the embodiment of wisdom, love and healing – often depicted as a dove.

Another ancient Hebrew name for the Spirit of God is Ruach, or Ruwach, meaning wind, breath or inspiration. This word is also grammatically feminine. The Greeks translated the Hebrew word for spirit as ‘Pneuma’ which is grammatically neutral. However, they used the name ‘Sophia’ to describe her as the Spirit of Wisdom throughout the Old Testament. The Greek translation for the Holy Spirit as ‘comforter’ took on a masculine grammatical gender in the word Paraclete. Thus it is possible to see in the Greek a recognition at some early time of the Spirit as both feminine (Sophia) and masculine (Paraclete). Collectively, they can be seen as Pneuma – a grammatically neutral word that fits very well with the Folk Church’s view of God as being neither male nor female but rather the dynamic unity of both. The EFC therefore recognises and reveres the Holy Spirit as the dynamic energies of God, with both masculine (Paraclete) and feminine aspects (Sophia) which work together.

Conclusions

There are several conclusions that can be drawn from this study that help move us closer to defining a Christo-Heathen or English Folk Christian theology of the nature of God. It is not the intention of the EFC to set out a precise or fixed dogma as it is simply not possible for the human intellect to fully understand these things. However, it is felt that some clarity of theology is important in setting boundaries of thought and establishing principles of doctrine.

By now it should be clear that our folk myths cannot, and were never intended to be, taken literally or at face value. They developed over many generations of different tribes of our ancestors. Stories developed over time. Gods and goddesses were given different names. New gods and goddesses came into being, sometimes taking over the roles of earlier deities. Stories have been interwoven with each other creating great complexity. It is not possible to piece them all together into a clear jigsaw puzzle – but it is possible to see that they often have common origins and at a deeper level tell the same story.

For these reasons, the EFC is not seeking to precisely reconstruct our native folk religion. Were it to try to do so, questions would have to be asked such as ‘what time period’, ‘which precise tribes or geographical location’ and not least the question of how to fill in the obvious gaps. But reconstructing an historical folk religion is not what the EFC is about. Rather, it aims to draw inspiration from those traditions and to weave this into a form of folkish Christianity that acknowledges the reality and importance of folk gods and goddesses.

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