The Nature of Goddess and the Divine

Letme sing of the maiden of contraditions, goddess of the wild chase and the busy spindle. An archer, a hunter, she races through the mountain shadows and the windy hills, drawing her bow and loosing her arrows of sadness. The mountains tremble, and the forest resounds with the agony of animals. Earth and sea both shudder as the strong-hearted one delights in her hunt. And then, when she has had enough, she leaves the forest. Hanging up her bow and quiver, she robes herself in splendor and goes forth to lead her maidens in dance, smiling as they sing of her mother Leto, of how she bore such a wondrous daughter.

--Homeric hymn to Artemis

But Artemis is not a gentle goddess, however much we may love her.

And frankly, why should she be gentle? Just because she's a goddess? As I see it a goddess should be beyond such labels as 'gentle' or 'harsh' or 'loving' or 'vengeful' She just /is/. Such divinity is primal, it has no conscience, which is not to say its bad - just that it is amoral - which is distincly different from having no morals. It's an existance outside of our human morality; our human notion of right and wrong, good and evil... all of that far too prissy, prosaic rot!

Goddess is

God is

Just as with 'power' in which it is the use to which it is put that defines its nature, so God and Goddess are 'defined' by the the nature, perception, prejudice and actions of those who recognise and worship them. To take and extreme example... let's consider Satan - originally Lucifer - an angel who was cast out of heaven basically for disagreeing with God (yes I know it was more complicated than that, but lets keep it simple for now). Over the centuries, Lucifer/Satan has come to be seen as 'evil' because many people that have done bad/cruel/depraved things have done so on the name of Satan, ergo, Satan is evil. However... there exists a people somewhere in the world who openly and happily worship Satan, not because he is good or evil, but because he has dominion over this earth, and in their thinking, they must live upon the earth, and therefore he is the one to hear their prayers and supplications. When they are dying and ready to move from the world, this earth, then they will worship God. In this case they see neither as evil or as good - just with different spheres of influence.

I mean - how many times have you heard complaints like, how can god allow such and such to happen if he's a kind and loving god? Doesn't that just prove the point that god is. He exists as a primal, divine force in the Universe. Why should it be any different for Goddess than for God?