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The history of witchcraft

begin the cycle once more.

A misconception in Paganism is that it is a female based religion only. The male counterpart to the Goddess is God. The God is as powerful and equal to the Goddess. Believing that the balance of the moon and sun were needed; just as the female and male balance must exist for birth cycles to continue. It began around this time frame to be known that the male counterpart was necessary to create life - not only the female.

The role of man was the hunter and protector of the female. Yet, even as the role of man increased, the male power was considered to be a hidden power unlike the female power that was considered to be prominent. The moon's connection to the female was still revered and thus began the upstart of the ancient Goddess religion that we see today.

It was during this time that the Goddess represent the life-giving and the cycle of life itself. The God represented life conception of birth, procreation and birth, back to conception. When agriculture was the focal point of food, the Sun God was a primary deity to appease when wished the crops to grow. During this time was when the well known "Stonehenge" was built as a place of worship to the Sun God. Although, many still argue today that it was built to appease the Moon Gods.

The Bronze Age arrived. It was established as a belief that there are two polar sides to everything and they were of equal value to balance out life. The Sun was the active force in life encouraging growth, while the moon was the passive force nurturing life and in complete tune with the cycles of life, land, and sea. It was believed at this time that the Goddess deity never dies but only changes from one form to another. The God has to pass through a series of stages which aided in life, death and the turn of seasons.

There are many myths that came about during this time from the British Holly King and Oak King that were twin opposites of one another doing battle between darkness and light. This is one of the oldest tales known that is still told to many pagan children today. In Egypt, the same type of myth came about between Osiris and Set. This Egyptian myth was based on the flooding of the Nile believing that it was a personal journey of life, death and rebirth of the Egyptian God. Many of the names developed by personification of objects and the earth's natural cycles. Every season, weather, stars, darkness, and light were given names of Gods and Goddess.

As civilization began recording the cycles of


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