This week I had the honour of looking at the draft copy of a new book, Call of the God: An Anthology Exploring the Divine Masculine within Modern Paganism by Frances Billinghurst, author of Dancing the Sacred Wheel (which many Southern Hemispheric Pagans will know of as it lives onmany of our shelves) and In Her Sacred Name: Writings on the Divine Feminine (also happily on my shelf!)
Call of the God is a rare find as most Deity/Divine books currently in print are heavily focused on the Goddess. As someone who is obsessed with balance, I was very excited when I first heard of this anthology because it meant access to wonders of information, of stories and prose, of essays and artwork, all in celebration of Masculine Divine.
It is incredible reading. One particular essay I just adore because it tells of a personal connection with the Horned God (in this case Cernunnos) but from an Australian perspective, as someone who grew up with horned animals on the cattle farm. Their view, their feel, their connection with him .
It is a beautiful collection by some amazing writers and yes, part of me incredibly biased because I’m lucky enough to have two pieces of writing included in this book (squee!) but it is absolutely besides the point. This book is something that I have been searching for for my collection for years, and I only know of one other. The one I know is purely on the Horned God in his many guises, whereas this is Masculine Divine – the all engaging power and beauty and strength and wonder that is Male Deity.
The book is available for pre-order for Australian customer’s from the author’s website, and will be available to International customers by the end of the month. My Herne the Hunter (a short story) and my Charge of Herne the Hunter are two of the many pieces included in this anthology.
Book of Eucalypt 
Sounds very interesting! Indeed, when I first came across Paganism it felt very Goddess-centered to me. Which I understand, as many people who are Pagans today have first said goodbye to a very masculine deity or religion. But an overemphasis on female deities, only as a reaction, seems just as unbalanced to me. I’m very much a classic woman, in the sense that I identify as a mother, dress womanly, wear my hair long, but that’s exactly why I crave that masculine energy in my life.
What I do love is that male deities can have a very caring and protective side to them, and female deities can be ruthless fighters. Our own world is complex and cannot be captured by binary definitions and so it seems, is the other world.
I left Christianity because although Catholicism does have Mother Mary, it still felt unbalanced. Then I unbalanced myself by honouring Herne and only Herne for a while! But I find that balance within myself – I’m hands on, love to build things, have my hair almost as short as my husbands. I’ve only just begun to bring femininity back into my life. It’s almost as though I wanted to rebel against what’s become the “norm” in the Pagan community!
But you’re absolutely right – I’ve found this amazing caring side of my Patron, and this hard-hitting “let’s get ’em” attitude to some of the Goddesses I’ve begun working with. I try to give them a human element to properly understand that they’re not as “simple” as some people try to explain them – they’re just like us with their many layers and many different attitudes.