The Trinity from a Pagan Perspective

by Cerridwyn Raventree

For four years, I struggled through a Trinitarian Christian Seminary as an 'out' Pagan. One of the concepts I had the most difficulty understanding was that of the Trinity, one God, three persons, but not three Gods, not bits of the one God emanating from an overall source. None of my attempts to understand were ever taken as being even close.

In my last semester, of my last year, I finally thought I had it. And, although some of the students still thought I was wrong, the liberal theologians at the school said that my analysis was indeed one of the traditional theological statements of the Trinity.

I want to share with the neo-Pagan community some of my perceptions of the beauty that Christianity has. If the whole of Christianity can be understood within the neo-Pagan community, perhaps we can learn to work well with Christians and their religion, and maybe we can stop throwing the baby out with the bath water.

As a Unitarian, I believe that God is one and all my Gods and Goddesses can be viewed as "masks" by which I can understand that one divine being, God. God, for me, is a unity like an exquisite gemstone. The names and attributes I call on in ritual are facets of this one gem, God.

Bridget is God. I call upon Bridget when I wish to forge myself or create a work of art with words. The closer I get to realizing Bridget, as she has been believed through the millennia, the better I can see and interact with the wholeness of Her divine power. The specifics of Bridget’s Divine powers and personality help me, with a limited human mind, to put God into a box I can interact with in a personal way. For me, these specifics in no way limit God. They just help me to cope with the concepts.

Most Christian theologians also believe that God is one. Their reaction to the multiplicity of visions of God is the Trinity. They have the appearance, if not the actuality, of a tri-part God. These are "masks" of the Divine but the Divine is still a singularity.

The way I described the Trinity in my final year of seminary was thus.

"There is one God. The Trinity is using different words to describe that one God."

God, the father, is the totality of the Divine, the transcendent being. God, the parent, is an unfathomable God. When one views a wonderful sunset over the badlands of North Dakota, or the beautiful panoply of colors on an autumn Vermont hillside, one is just viewing it. It cannot be truly interacted with. A person can perceive the beauty and glory, but it is a passive viewing of something too awesome to fully comprehend, God, just Being.

God, the son, is how God is described as an immanent force.

God, incarnate is seeing God within the world, relating to people and the world. When the same glorious sunset or hillside is described or painted, so that someone else can understand it as you saw it, that is God relating, sharing the vision with someone else. Relating between God and people is larger and more awesome than relating person to person, but it is, in my opinion, comparable. We relate to God the Son through prayer, especially prayer of thanksgiving and communion.

God, the Holy Spirit, is describing God as an acting being. .

God, as the Holy Spirit, is God acting, moving, and changing things in the world. God acts in us through such things as compassion, saving the environment, praying for something to change in the material world, supporting the oppressed and doing social action. Food cupboards and prison ministry are God, as the Holy Spirit, God acting.

The facets of God are; God - Being, God - Relating, and God - Acting.

There is a Quaker saying: “When the worship ends, the service begins.” That is one way to see the difference between God existing in a vacuum, God relating in a “worship service” with other people, and God acting in the world.

This is one God with three "masks" or facets.

As a Pagan, I can understand that. The Trinity is one way of understanding a holy being who is bigger than anyone can see. We use different deities from different cultures to represent whom we worship, because our God is too big to fit in the box of one religion. Christians expanded their view of a single God into the Trinity and the saints. As a Pagan, I see these three Gods and their attendant angels and saints as being different "masks" of the Divine.

(Opinions expressed are those of the author. Rebuttals may be sent to SSanford_1@yahoo.com. Ed.)