Seeking and attaining a spiritual relationship with the Triple Goddess or Cernunnos or Diana or any other number of deities from around the ancient world can be a very effective way into the Craft, and many people find their experience to be deepened and sharpened through the practice of more traditional, structured forms of Wicca. But some newcomers to Wicca and Witchcraft are unsure about the notion of “worshipping” deities and may feel strange about searching for one or more specific gods or goddesses to form relationships or alignments with. Borrowing from older traditions in this respect may not quite feel like an authentic approach to a spiritual search. It’s true that it takes time to find and cultivate an interest in and a relationship with a deity you weren’t aware of until recently, and people who were raised in monotheistic religions can struggle even more with integrating the concept of polytheism. But it’s also true that you don’t absolutely have to incorporate a belief in or a relationship with any specific form of the divine. You might just work with the idea of a Goddess and a God, or even less definitively identified energies of the Universe. Faith and belief are far more often developed and cultivated over time than immediately attained. Make effort to study and seek yours, but go at your own pace, and trust your intuition. No one can tell you you’re not a true Wiccan or Witch because your relationship with the divine doesn’t match their experience. (Well, some might, but in a religion with so many variations, it’s only natural that some will quibble about the details.) There’s no intermediary between you and the Universe, and there are as many paths to the Divine as there are people who seek it. If you do see connecting with deities as a possible part of your path, start doing some research. Read about them—in Wiccan books, in ancient myths, in poetry, in history books. (Watch out for bias in the history books, however—in the Judeo-Christian world, the deities of polytheism often get negatively and erroneously portrayed.) You may discover, as some Witches do, that a deity will actually find you, through images, dreams, seemingly “random” events or coincidences, or in other ways.
