Theology of Spiral
The spiral is one of the oldest and most universal of religious symbols, found everywhere from megaliths in Ireland to petroglyphs in the American Southwest. It represents the continuing dance of life inward to the source of all religion and outward to the world of manifestation again.
The Fellowship of the Spiral Path might be called an “inclusive” tradition of the Old Religion, incorporating elements of Native American as well as Native European religious practice. Individual circles follow an eclectic path, or work within a specific cultural tradition such as Hellenic or Heathen. Our intention is not to reject the religious evolution of the past two thousand years, but to balance it by recovering perspectives and approaches to worship that have been ignored, suppressed or forgotten.
The history of religion reveals a continuing swing between monism and polytheism. between an awareness of the unity of the Divine and a need for diverse images, whether they take the form of gods or saints. In Spiral, we find truth in both points of view, but we feel that at present there is a specific need for awareness of the many faces of Divinity – particularly those which are feminine – and for this reason many of our activities focus on the worship of the Goddess without and within.
The Fellowship of the Spiral Path has no creed. The only requirement for participation in our services is an open mind and a willingness to receive whatever insights or inspirations are being conveyed by what we do. However, those of us who participate in Spiral activities regularly do tend to share certain assumptions. These include the idea that there is a Divine Power, that this power manifests itself in both Female and Male forms as well as through the Androgyne, that this power can be contacted through both individual inspiration and formal ritual, and that the physical world is as holy as the spiritual realm.