The Wiccan Religion
 

A quasi-hobby of mine is researching and reading about religions.

I know very little about Wiccan. I'm aware of only the most basic ideas behind it, and I'd like for someone to tell me about some of their rituals and tenets.

And a more specific question: I was curious which natural cycles must be observed for ritual (or whatever reason that would require attention) ?

There is a very good faq about that here:


http://www.faqs.org/faqs/religions/wicca/faq/

I used to pratice wicca six years ago while I was searching for a religion then I realized that it's all made up by man like every other religion. So I went back to agnosticism.

Wicca is a rough conglomeration of beliefs that center around the belief in the spirit world and how to manipulate various aspects of it, be it invoking actual spirits or the harnessing of spiritual energy for whatever task is required.

The general intentions for good or evil of the practitioner generally determine the types of ceremonies performed as well as the spirits that may be invoked.

The coven is still the most widely known and used grouping of witches (the term 'witch' refers to both male and female wiccans). Covens gather during times of increased spiritual energy or focusing, usually centered around specific times, dates or astrological events, so as to increase the likelihood of success in thier endevours.

Feel free to correct me anyone, I was going mostly from memory on this one.

here's another set of info for y'all: http://www.geocities.com/wiccanresou...emainpage.html

I believe you have a very good memory but i will add my opinion also:
Wicca/Paganism, to me, is a beleif that everything is connect through the cycles of birth, death, and rebirth. Therefore, wiccan ceromonies revolve aroung those three things and also moon phases and equinoxes
The Wiccan reede is self explainitory - "if it harms none do what thou wilt"

Some wiccans will claim that theirs is an old religion, but it's really not:

http://www.theatlantic.com/cgi-bin/o...1/01/allen.htm

That's an iteresting article Neo, but I don't know how I feel about it. It feels to me like the authour was fudging the lines just as bad as she claims the Wiccans are. The modren day Wiccan movement did pick up in the 1950's, with a large hand from Alistair Crowley. That's not to say that it didn't exist before then. And even if it is a new faith, does that demean it?

Actually, Wicca essentially didn't exist until the 1950s, and Aliester Crowley had very little to do with the creation of "Wicca" as it were. The person who invented Wicca, a certain individual named Gerald Gardner who had previously been a member of the occult order known as The Golden Dawn. Aleister Crowley was also a member of said order, and founded a different path known as Thelema, where the entire philosophy can be summed up as "Do what thou Wilt shall be the whole of the Law, Love is the Law, Love under Will." The similiarities essentially end here.

Gardener claims to have been initiated into a sacred cabal (sabbat, whatever those people call it) of witches who practice various magics which all happen to, in some way, involve sadomasochistic sex. Wiccans who don't believe this simply aren't Wiccans, for more information consult Gardener's Book of Shadows and read the typical ritual list.

In my educated opinion, Wicca was started as an excuse for Gardener to get laid. Gardener was, however, a rather prominent occultist, and many seem to have followed the path that was lain by Wicca, so it might very well be something else at this point.

Not as such (though it leads to the question, why has the truth been so obscured over history, which wiccans I suppose have an answer to), but since Wicca claims to be an old religion, it is a somewhat relevant query to ask if it really is as old as it claims.

Every religion has its myths. I say, let them have them.

We have a lot of wiccans around here; the ones I run into tend to be female. In general they're good and tolerant people, which says a lot for the religion.

One advantage of a new and/or decentralized religion like wicca is that it doesn't have so much of a hierarchy; you don't have to go to seminary for four years and eight zillion dollars to be a holy joe. You can both take part in, and help shape, worship in your circle. Much more democratic.

Thank you, luminus. I don't know that much about Gardner, so I didn't want to say anything about him.

and asaris, yes, it is a relevant query, i just didn't think that the age should invalidate the religion, as it seemed the author was trying to do. as long as the Wiccan community is happy in what the believe, then what's the harm?

Well, no one should believe something demonstrably false -- I don't care how good it makes them feel or what 'good deeds' it makes them do.

Just becaue Wicca isn't old doesn't mean that the religion is false. It is full of a lot of Taoist ideas of Yin and Yang and chi. It is also a religion that is against hurting all things. Wicca doesn't make Wiccans do "good deeds," everything they do is to promote peace within nature and the one power that connects everything in it. I don't think that they do things and think of them as "good deeds." They just take responsablility for all of their actions and therefore do not want to do anything that could harm the one power.

Thansk for the info. I didn't know much about Wicca and am always interested in different religions.

After reading two articles about Wicca, I'd like to remind those who know and inform those who don't about Marion Zimmer Bradley's books about King Arthur and other stories. The religion of Wicca was believed to have been practiced in europe during the 11th and 12th centuries.

I don't have many sources about the origin of the religion but some believe it to be 3,500 yrs old."

"How ya like them apples"

The Wiccan Law may be the best moral document ever written. Flatly it states the basis of morality, do's and don'ts, and it applies across all people, it doesn't need to be separated by faith.

Some of the wiccans I know are the best people on the face of the earth, nuff said.

As far as the belief system itself, the best thing to do is google it.

[was going to link "The Wiccan Law" to a site with the whole thing, but it seems that no one HAS the whole thing, so I'll transcribe it here:]
On a side note, the google search for Wiccan Law came up with a bunch of teeny bopper crap sites that had a agonizingly incomplete version of the law. (btw, each word goes to a different, agonizing site. Wicca should not be a fad, it should be a proper lifestyle and/or religion depending on practice.)

I'll be honnest I always thought of Wicca as being something people get into as a way of rebelling against their parents religion, without giving up religion.

Seems rather popular with the goth crowd, and people who like to think of themselves as 'different' from normal people.

Maybe in another 1000 years it will get some respect.

I have trouble believing that Wicca was practiced 3500 years ago. There may have been similar practices, but I have seen neither historical, archaeolgical, nor credible literary evidence of such. Wiccan practice is not, by nature, particularly secretive. Were it being upheld, I am sure someone would notice and comment. Those times and places in which alternative religions were persecuted might have kept records of such heresy (you know what I mean when I say heresy, it's not a value judgement).

Wicca is new. Wicca is modern in every sense of the word, with an eye towards "ancient" tradition only because religion must uphold a veneer of great age if it wants credibility. Does this devalue the religion? Not in itself. It does damage credibility when said religion claims to be thousands of years old yet can offer not one piece of credible evidence.

I see nothing "wrong" about Wiccan practice or belief. I have some very good friends that are Wiccan and they are great people. I also have friends that are Party Pagans and see the Wiccan thing as a great excuse to go out to the woods for some drinking, nudity, and sex, all in the name of spirituality.

Whatever floats your boat.

Laugh, thats why whenever anyone asks me what my religion is or the like I tell them Pagan on weekends :)

Wicca is a Neo-pagan belief system based on the structures and practices of the many older pagan beliefs that were used before the crusades. However, (supposedly) all of the records, most of the practitioners, and all artifacts were destroyed during the crusades.

The other reason that there are no records (other than "myths and fairytales") is because many of these beliefs were only passed down by word and training. Ancient Druidry was spoken to have been done this way.

Basically, because of lack of records, all neo-pagan beliefs are based on what was thought to have been done. The thought to have been done was created through understanding the "myths and fairytailes" of the past and through study of the pagan beliefs that were still around at the time (ie tribal shamanism in africa).

Wiccanism is a Pagan belief. Not Paganism. Never should Wiccanism be considered as the sole form of paganism (which it seemed it was in a post above).

Another fact...Paganism should never be confused with Polytheism. Though some Paganist beliefs do follow Polytheist traits, many others do not and thus should not be classified as thus.

The best information given above was to google it. You will have to weed through all the faddybs to get to the "truthful" info, but there is a lot of good information out there.

Oob

I think this document is far more useful.

Convenient.

As I said, it is attempting to assume the mantle of antiquity in an attempt at credibility. I would personally think that simple honesty would be a better tactic. If everyone thinks the religion is new, and one of the major arguments deriding said religion is that it claims age that it does not possess, why not just tell the truth and thus remove the argument?

I can personally respect a faith that is constructed with reverence to the past but no pertinent and direct connection to it. It is the spiritual heir of Paganists long passed. That's cool. This hokum about all records, artifacts, and such being lost sounds trite and ludicrous to me. The idea that it is a purely oral tradition and thus undocumented is equally bunk as we have detailed accounts of innumerable oral traditions.

Tell the truth, it's easier, sheesh.

^^^ agreed

I wasn't supporting the beliefs i was just giving background on them.....as per the request of the original poster ;)

Oob

All right...hows this, wicca is supposed to be what has been remembered of some of the ancient germanic tribal beliefs. Naturally it has been dramatically corrupted thru time, as all the "modern "religions have.(read all organized religions)
Some of the pieces are indeed intact to an extent,ritual names and such. However, it would be extremely unlikely for any verbal tradition to be untouched by time.
MUch the way the Bible is unlikely to be the word of god(verbatum), after umteen translations and more-teen versions.

I'd be curious to find out how Wiccan number grew in relation to the advent of the internet, vs. other religions in the same time period.

What would you discern from that? What correlation would you expect to find between the growth of Wicca and the growth of the internet? Wiccans do not proselytize; you have to seek them out. Unless you are looking for a correlation between their growth and easier access to information, I don't see a connection.

I have a theory about the internet and one of it's fortunate, but unintended consequences, and yes, it has to do with easier access to information. I first thought about it when I saw a news report on Wiccans wanting representation among military chaplains.

First, a disclaimer: This is in no way meant to offend Wiccans. Even devout Wiccans would admit, I suspect, that theirs is a religion that is somewhat outside the bounds of what is considered "normal" in society. I am not equating the Wiccan religion's beliefs to fetishes or Rennaisance Fairs, nor am I saying that all practioners of the Wiccan religion are "misfits".

Let me explain:

You have a kid living in any small town to medium sized city. They might be a bit weird and a misfit, and don't do well in their society(person A) or they might be perfectly normal, but have an interest in "X" (person B) which is a little bit weird or not so normal. X can be drugs, a specific historical era, pornography, literary genre, fetishes, religious beliefs, political beliefs, etc..

Prior to the internet, person A might act in socially unacceptable ways, because they see themselves as not fitting in to society. Person B might live a life that fit in with society, but would be personally unfulfilled due to their unrequitted interest in "X". The only way this changes is if either person stumbles into other people that share these same traits. This is made more unlikely for several reasons. Person A, that feels they do not fit in society, might be less likely to interact with many people in society. Person B doesn't share their odd interests with just anyone, and don't want to share their odd interests with those they are close to, for fear of their rejection for being not normal.

With the advent of the internet, person A finds many channels to exhibit their societal rebellion, and person B finds reaffirmation in the fact that they are not alone, and can excercise the interest in X.

I think that both of these outcomes are good for society as a whole. I also think the increase of Wiccans is a result of this scenario, but I'm not sure. Maybe this is just intuitive and obvious to everyone else, but I was hoping for some confirmation of a theory that I came up with, sitting in my chair, drinking a beer, and watching TV.

I've never even heard of Wiccan. I can't wait to see what people respond to this one!