The Green-level Witch does not require detailed instructions on approaching the Divine because the Witch and the Divine are connected as One. The Green Witch performs only those rituals that appeal to the individual’s point of focus as being as elaborate or as plain as the mood dictate. With many people who practice a natural Witchcraft there is a sense of cheerful anarchy along with profound belonging, for the Witch is not steward of the earth, the Witch is the earth. What the earth is, a Witch is—be it part of the solar system, the galaxy, the universe, or more—we are integrated part of All.
By being part of the earth in all of its manifestations, one is then both pantheistic and animistic. The planet is like Cerrdwyn’s cauldron, and we are a part of the stew bubbling inside. Sometimes we rise to the surface, pop, and return to the soup to intermingle and rise again. The forms of creation are always changing, for change is a sign of life and not something to be feared. Science recognizes, as the ancients did, that energy is immortal, which is a view at odds with the central message Christianity—believe in Jesus’ immortality or die. But even this dogma is confused, as the Scriptures state that non believers will actually live forever, only in a lake of fire and/or the torments of Hell (a place curiously named after the Norwegian Goddess Hel, ruler of the Norse Underworld, where everyone went after death to rest before rebirth).
In the Green level, life is an immortal energy. The Goddess’ message that we do not “die” is what the Judaic religion tried to suppress two and a half thousand years ago in its story of the Tree of Life (a Dravidic theme). For students of religion and cosmology, it is common to say that the Goddess represents matter (Mater; Matri; Mother), and the God represents energy (Spirit; Fire; Father). He is life, and she is the form that life takes; the one requires the other for definition. This is the nearly 30,000-year-old heritage of Dravidic Shiva and Shakti. It is the mainstream rejection of matter in favor of energy that throws people into a conflict with their very existence. Denial of our unity of body and spirit projects a self-loathing element into the new religion that curbs one’s enjoyment of life by imposing artificial restrictions making death preferable to life.
For the human species, hatred for the material container of the spirit, the body, is suicidal. Much of society’s wars and psychological problems can be traced to the separation of people from the joy of life through unity with the Goddess and the God. Indeed, early Christians, including the revered St. Augustine, taught that all sexual union was evil, having children was evidence of committing sin, and all people should celibate to be worthy of the Kingdom of God. Augustine kept a mistress for most if his priestly life, however, postponing baptism in the belief that he would then be forgiven. Interestingly enough, the fate of “bad” King Herod—a painful death from intestinal worms, seen as a sign of God’s punishment—was the same death experienced by St. Augustine, yet he is called holy. The result of people actually practicing what early Christianity preached, however, would have been the end of the human species. That is why modern calls to espouse “Christian family values” are historically humorous—it was the Roman Pagans up through the fifth century C.E. who denounced Christianity as being detrimental to family values (Tacitus).
The connections found through the Green elements of the Craft place the practitioner of the Craft in harmony not only with the Lady and the Lord (who are seen as equals), the earth, the stars, and the universe, but also with other life forms and elementals. The four elementals are more than personification of earth, air, fire, and water; more than the symbols of colors, directions, seasons, and aspects. They are the real entities of powers that the practitioner can invoke for assistance. They are part of the Goddess and the God, but in the same way that many Christians find it more comfortable to work with the Son of God or with saints; many Witches find they can work better by directing their forces on the elemental power of the Dual Deities. Because these are aspects of the Lord and Lady, two are seen as relating to each Deity; earth and water to the Lady (Matter), and air and fire to the Lord (Energy).
By becoming connected with nature and the universe the Witch can expect to have new, meaningful experiences from which to gain insights, which is one reason it is a good idea to keep a journal for dreams and visions.