The Fallacy of One

I was recently reading Deborah Lipp’s book “Bending the Binary” again to further contemplate the concept of polarity in occult and Pagan practices. Something has always nagged at me about this concept. I know humans love to find order and make categories, so it’s not unusual to find us doing this about magic, magical practice and our ideas about the nature of divine reality. But while reading her discourse on oneness, duality and three-ness - in the context of her discussion - I realized what concerns me.

She writes: “In two, we find the energy of polarity, a source of immense power and often wisdom. In two, we also find the oppressiveness of the binary. In three, we find creation, synthesis, and a rainbow of possibilities. In the end, though, almost everyone who had ever touched upon polarity comes back to one.” (pg. 39)

As Pagans, we look to nature for our spiritual information. What in nature is only one? Why would we hold any concept such as all goddesses and all gods are one? Does it come from our experience as individuals in our bodies? But we are all part of the human species and we share many, many experiences with other members of our species. We all eat through our mouths, see with our eyes, hear with our ears, mate in similar ways, have language, etc. The multiplicity of ways humans figured out how to live on this planet is the reality of our planet. There is no one human culture.

There is no one type of flower or tree or insect or mammal or fish or bird. Nature seems to adore diversity and ecology shows us how interconnected all of nature truly is. We have one star close to us, but the universe is full of stars. We live in a galaxy, but the universe is full of galaxies. Where in nature is there only one of anything? Why anyone would think there is one god is beyond me.

“In the ancient world, the concept of monotheism as we understand it today did not exist; all ancient people were polytheists. They may have elevated one god as higher than the others (henotheism) but nevertheless recognized the existence of divine multiplicity.” (https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1454/monotheism-in-the-ancient-world/)

Lipp identifies “one” as wholeness. How can “one” be wholeness when the wholeness of nature is diverse? Isn’t wholeness a robust biosystem that has a healthy ecology? I understand she is speaking metaphorically, but our symbols matter. Symbols are very powerful concepts that tell us how reality works or how our culture works or how our spirituality works. Psychological ideas may tell us to seek wholeness within ourselves. Instead, might we frame it as - do we have a healthy internal ecology of body and mind? Are we nourishing both, so we may thrive? Some may argue that there are two sexes and two genders, but those are also is not a polarity since there are more intersex people than red haired people and gender is definitely a continuum and a completely internal experience.

If we take the occult idea – As above, so below – then any concept of oneness makes no sense. Mathematically, yes, two comes after one and all the maths that exist are manipulating numbers for a variety of

outcomes, some of which have practical consequences. But math cannot just have “one” either. It needs all the numbers. The notion of positive and negative in electricity has no real meaning. Someone just decided to give those currents such names. We are so conditioned now to see things in polarity, we haven’t considered that we may need other terms to discuss how magic works or how we might have symbol systems that are not based on dualities.

Lipp’s book is attempting to rectify how polarities have reinforced heteronormative ideas in our Pagan understandings and proposes different polarities, but doesn’t examine how the symbol of polarity and subsequent turn to oneness, are not expressing how nature works and what we should be learning from nature. She does note that some do not work with polarities and that is alright with her, and then uses the rest of the book to argue how powerful polarities can be.

I also do not care of anyone uses polarities in their Pagan practice. Polarities are human concepts. Symbols are powerful. We must be careful and intentional about how we use symbols, especially in ritual, where symbols take on the aura of being “really real.” Why not learn from nature, instead of projecting our ideas on to it? We are nature and to understand it is to understand ourselves.