Wicca

Quotation by Margot Adler:

"We are not evil. We don't harm or seduce people. We are not dangerous. We are ordinary people like you. We have families, jobs, hopes, and dreams. We are not a cult. This religion is not a joke. We are not what you think we are from looking at T.V. We are real. We laugh, we cry. We are serious. We have a sense of humor. You don't have to be afraid of us. We don't want to convert you. And please don't try to convert us. Just give us the same right we give you--to live in peace. We are much more similar to you than you think."

 History of Wicca

Christianity, Ancient Celtic Beliefs and Witchcraft

Wiccan and a Christian at the same time?

Wiccan beliefs

History of Wicca

Wicca, is a religion with roots in an ancient Pagan religion of Northern Europe which pre-dates the Christian era. Most Wiccans do not believe that their religion is a direct, continuous descendent of this earlier religion. They see it as a modern reconstruction.

Silver RavenWolf writes in her book  (Llewellyn's 1999 Magickal Almanac, Llewellyn Publications, 1998):

"Wicca, as you practice the religion today, is a new religion, barely fifty years old. The techniques you use at present are not entirely what your elders practiced even thirty years ago. Of course, threads of 'what was' weave through the tapestry of 'what is now.' ...in no way can we replicate to perfection the precise circumstances of environment, society, culture, religion and magick a hundred years ago, or a thousand.   Why would we want to ? The idea is to go forward with the knowledge of the past, tempered by the tools of our own age."

Modern day Wicca can be directly traced back to the writings of:

Margaret Murray, author of The Witch Cult in Western Europe and The God of the Witches,  promoted the concept that some of the Witches who were exterminated by the Christian Churches during the "Burning Times" (circa 1450-1792) were remnants of an earlier, organized, and dominant pre-Christian religion in Europe. Her writingshave not been well received by anthropologists.

And

Gerald Gardner, a British civil servant and author who:   wrote that he joined an existing Wiccan Coven in 1939, taking the (then)  usual vows of secrecy   persuaded the coven to let him write a book in 1949 about Wicca in the form of a novel, High Magic's Aid. In this novel he carefully revealed a few of the Old Religion's beliefs and the historical persecutions that they endured.   wrote Witchcraft Today in 1954   describing additional details about the faith.   wrote The Meaning of Witchcraft  describing in detail the history of Wicca in Northern Europe.   added many rituals, symbols, concepts and elements from ceremonial magick, Freemasonry and other sources to "flesh out" the coven's beliefs and practices, most of which had been long forgotten.

Regarding the origins of Wicca, according to Gerald Gardner:

Wicca began in prehistory, as ritual associated with fire, the hunt, animal fertility, plant  propagation, tribal fertility and the curing of disease.

 

It developed into a religion which recognized a Supreme Deity, but realized thatat their state  of evolution, they "were incapable of understanding It" . Instead, they worshipped what might  be termed "under-Gods": the Goddess of fertility and her horned consort, the God of the hunt.

 

Wiccans continued their predominately Moon based worship, even as a mainly Sun-based  aith of priests, the Druids, developed and evolved into the dominant religion of the Celts.  By this time, Celtic society had gradually spread across Northern Europe into what is now  England, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Scotland etc. They never formed a single  political entity, but remained as many tribes who shared a common culture and religions.

 

Wicca survived the Roman, Saxon, and Norman invasions by going underground.

 

It suffered a major loss in numbers during the active Christian genocides, which  continued into the 18th Century.

 

It reached a low ebb by the middle of the 20th century by which time much of the theology  and ritual had been lost.  Wiccan covens had become so isolated that they had lost contact  with each other.

 

Wicca was revived in the UK by  Priestess Doreen Valiente, and others, who took the surviving beliefs and practices, and fleshed them out with material from other religious, spiritual and ceremonial magick sources.

Gardner further claimed that after he wrote his books, he received many letters from members of isolated covens who believed that their groups had been in continuous existence for generations or centuries.

Other individuals discount this belief system and maintain that there was no continuous  Wiccan presence from Celtic times to the 20th century. They maintain that present-day  Wicca was created by merging a few ancient Celtic beliefs, deity structure, and seasonal  days of celebration with modern material from ceremonialmagick, the Masonic Order, etc.

 

Still others trace Wicca back to a little known faith group in New England in  the early 20th century.

 

There is general agreement that Wicca was first popularized in England in the 1950's with the publishing of books by Gerald Gardner. It has expanded at an incredible rate in both North America and Europe. Wicca total approximately 250,000 in North America, where they have surpassed in numbers such established religions as Buddhism, the Quakers, and Unitarian-Universalism. The Canadian Census of 1991 recorded 5,530 Neopagans, which would be mostly composed of Wiccans. However, the actual number is believed to be much greater, as many Wiccans are known to lie to the census taker rather than expose themselves to physical harm in the event that their faith becomes publicly known.

Wicca is the 8th largest religion in the United States, behind Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and the Baha'i World Faith. However it is virtually unknown by the general public. This is because almost all Wiccans hide their religious beliefs and practices.

Those who do allow their faith to become known publicly are heavily persecuted in North America.  On a per-capita basis, it is believed they are victimized more often than members of any other religious group. Many assaults, arson, economic attacks, etc are reported yearly. There have been shootings, one public mass stoning and one lynching in recent years!

Reports circulate frequently of misinformed child protection officers seizing children from the homes of Wiccans because they feared that they would be killed or abused in some (non-existent) Satanic ritual.

Unfortunately the perpetrators of this religious hatred tend to be very devout, very concerned but very misinformed people. They believe the misinformation that has been spread about Wiccans continuously since the Middle Ages. It is only in Eastern Massachusetts, Southern California and in a sparse few other cities elsewhere in North America that most Wiccans feel secure while coming out of their (broom) closets. In other areas, they tend to avoid persecution by keeping their religious faith secret.

Unfortunately, this policy can have negative results because people tend to speculate that because Wiccans remain underground, they must have something to hide. This is a "no-win" situation with no obvious solution.

Christianity, Ancient Celtic Beliefs, and Witchcraft:

The first missionary to the Celts may have been St. Paul. He sought converts to Christianity in the Celtic land of Galatia as recorded in his Epistle to the Galatians of the Christian Scriptures (New Testament). Later Missionaries and the Roman army gradually spread Christianity across Europe, easily converting the rulers and the Druidic priesthood, but having less success in bringing the common folk to the new religion.

Much of Christianity was derived from Pagan sources; this includes the sites of many cathedrals, the lives of many Christian saints (who were really pagan Goddesses and Gods), and many Christian holy days. There are many vestiges of Paganism which remain a part of our culture; e.g. Groundhog Day, Christmas, May Day, Halloween, the names of the days of the weeks and months of the year, common sayings, numerous traditions associated with holidays, etc.

In order to gain a complete religious monopoly, the Christian Church decided during the 15th century to hunt down and exterminate what they believed to be Satan-worshipping Witches, and other heretics. The Church created an imaginary evil religion, and said that Wiccans were evil Witches who followed that religion, kidnapped babies, killed and ate their victims, sold their soul to Satan, etc. 

Many suspected witches were exterminated during these "burning times" which lasted until 1792 in Europe and into the 1830's in South America. Some estimates run as high as 10 million and as low as 3,000. An accurate number cannot be determined; it was probably between 100 and 300 thousand. The Roman Catholic church preferred to burn witches; theywere hung in Protestant countries. Some believe that followers of the Old religion went underground, and stayed out of sight until the middle of the 20th century.

Wiccan Beliefs

Wiccan Deities: Most Wiccans believe that a creative force exists in the universe, which is sometimes called "The One" or " The All". Little can be known of this force. They regard the Goddess and the God as representing the female and male aspects of the All. Most regard various pagan Gods and Goddesses (Pan, Athena, Diana, Brigit, Zeus, Odin, etc.) as representing various aspects of the God and Goddess.

Respect for Nature: Wicca is a natural religion, grounded in the earth. All living things (including stars, planets, humans, animals, plants, rocks) are regarded as having spirit.

Gender Equality: Wiccans celebrate the sexual polarity of nature: the fertilizingrain is one manifestation of the male principle; the nurturing earth symbolizes the female. Females are respected as equal (and sometimes at a slightly higher rank) to males. They aim for a female-male balance in most of their covens (local groups),although men are typically in the minority. Sexuality is valued, and regarded as a gift of the Goddess and God, to be engaged in with joy and responsibility, and without manipulation.

Three-fold Law: The law states that: "All good that a person does to another returns three fold in this life; harm is also returned three fold."

The Wiccan Rede: This is the main rule of behavior: "An it harm none, do what thou wilt." "An" and "wilt" are old English words for "if" and "want to." This means that a person should feel free to do what ever they want to, as long as it does not harm themselves or anyone else. This and the three-fold law obviously prevent a Witch/Wiccan from doing harm to themselves or to others, or attempting to manipulate others, or taking harmful drugs,  etc. Thus, many activities that have been attributed to Wiccans, from the laying of curses to conducting love spells, are strictly forbidden to them.