Samhain is probably the most celebrated and most controversial of the witch’s holidays. Samhain is sometimes referred to as “THE Great Sabbat” and perhaps the most important of the four High Holidays (Nichols, 1988). This holiday is known to many in the Wiccan world as the time of year when the veil between the physical world and the spiritual world is the thinnest. Laurie Cabot (1989) writes that originally Samhain was the Celtic feast of the dead and celebrated to honor the Aryan Lord of Death known as Samana. Over time, this celebration developed into festivals to celebrate the spirit world, rather than any one deity. It was also to mark the “ongoing cooperation between that world and our own of denser matter.” Offerings to ancestors is also an important Samhain tradition; in modern times it is to reflect on those who have passed and honoring any important aspect of their teaching, life, relationship, etc. However in ancient times, offerings were made with the belief that unhappy or disgruntled ancestors would take advantage of a thin veil and come to our world to do harm t...
The feast of the dead was a mortuary custom of the Wyandot people. It was a time of both mourning and celebration for the Wyandot people. This custom involved the unearthing or removal of relatives who had passed away from their initial graves and reburying them in a final communal grave. Many Wendats stood at the edge of an enormous burial pit. As they stood there, they held the bones of their deceased friends and family members. The bones that they held had been scraped and cleaned of corpses that had decomposed on scaffolds. Before dropping the bones into the pit they waited the signal of the master of the ritual. After the signal has been giving they can finally place the bones of their loved ones in the pit a...
Source 1 displays the aspects of the Indigenous culture and spirituality during the festive season. It acknowledges the native Indigenous Aboriginals of Australia; specifically their land, sea, and their inhabitants. This source is almost a manual, giving instructions to what is to be done, being a step by step process in acknowledging “the light Jesus brought into the world”. “The light”, as Jesus is described, is a symbol of Truth and Righteousness, opposite to Darkness as that of Hell and Evil. The ceremony starts with a spiritual act of a coolamon being placed with stones every week, including the act of placing
In discussing the Jewish sentiment about paganism, Plaskow reveals that hatred of other religions, reinforced by religious texts and aspects of culture can cause Jews to not know how other traditions have shaped their own. Plaskow argues that by hating paganism, the Jewish community misses out on parts of their own history. By pushing away paganism, Jews disguise “the important role that concrete artifacts played in ancient Jewish practice” (Plaskow, [Jewish Anti-Paganism], 1999, 111-112). By ignoring this fact, Jews prevent themselves from seeing the entire picture and the history of their tradition’s beginnings. Additionally, by being uneducated on how women played roles such as “dancers and diviners, musicians and priestesses” in the early days of their religions, Jews have allowed their tradition to exclude “women from religious leaderships” (Plaskow, [Jewish Anti-Paganism], 1999, 112). While Plaskow does not believe that paganism be directly incorporated into the Jewish tradition, only that the paganism should be attended more “closely and critically” in order for the tradition to not suppress “real human beings and distort our understanding of ourselves” (Plaskow, [Jewish Anti-Paganism], 1999,
The growing practice of Neo-Paganism in America has caused many to turn their heads. The misunderstanding of the religion has caused many to equate the practitioners with the popular conception of typical "witches," that perform black magic rituals, satanic sacrifices, and engage in devil-inspired orgies. After many years, the Neo-Pagan community has cleared up many misconceptions through the showing that many of them do not engage in activities, and are rather participating in a religion, just as those would that participate in a Christian community. It's unacceptance continues, perhaps due to its non-conformity to the ideal of worshipping a Christian God. Through the use of ethnography, anthropologists and sociologists are able to present the public with a much different view than what we are bombarded with in popular media.
In history the pagans have been viewed as godless infidels. Many who practice paganism live in fear related to the judgment of others that hold differing views on religion. Much of the persecution of the Pagan has been related to their practice of magic. What is amazing is that much of the magic once practiced by pagans was similar to that of modern medicine (Some Basic Pagan, n.d.). Despite their apprehension and fear of persecution, it has been reported that Paganism has been described as one of the most rapidly growing religious movements in the world today (Eilers, p.
Defined by Margot Adler, writer for Reader’s Companion to U.S. Women’s History, “Wicca is the term commonly used to describe several different traditions of contemporary Paganism—an earth-centered religion that reveres nature; celebrates seasonal and lunar cycles; and worships a goddess, or many goddesses, or sometimes a goddess and a god” (637-638). It is a religion that focuses on worshipping an earth god or goddess, using their power and the earth’s elements for good. For a misunderstood religion it has much history behind it and a deep core belief system.
Yardley, Meg. “Social Work Practice With Pagans, Witches, and Wiccans: Guidelines for Practice With Children And Youths.” Social Work 53.4 (2008): 329-336. Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 Apr. 2014.
The Wiccan religion is one of the fastest growing religions in the United States as well one of the most misunderstood due to the controversies surrounding its history and mystery shrouding its beliefs and doctrines. Due to a series of popular TV series that have shown Witchcraft in a positive light, such as Sabrina, the Teen-aged Witch and Charmed, the popularity of Wicca has grown, especially amongst teenagers; but sadly this popularity has not been partnered with a growth in understanding and respect (Kaminer). Although Wicca offers a nature-oriented, egalitarian belief system with a rich collection of customs and rituals, ignorance and historically-rooted misconceptions still dominate public opinion.
Not many consider death and the fear it conjures something to celebrate, but the sole purpose of El Dia de Los Muertos and Halloween is to cheerfully confront these themes. One might view a skull or skeleton as a symbol of death, but for many Latin Americans, these things are looked upon in a positive light. They exhibit a unique stance concerning the dead, and death in general, by facing these things with fun and humor instead of horror and fear (Halloween and Festivals of the Dead” 195-209). Likewise, the Ancient Celtic viewed death and darkness much differently than many modern societies. The Celtic tradition believed that darkness could bring forth life just as much as it could bring evil and death. In celebrating Samhain, people were comforted by the thought that their souls could never truly be gone (Trevarthen 6). During Samhain,
"All religions are structures built on reverence of Deity. Wicca is no exception. The Wicca acknowledge a supreme divine power, unknowable, ultimate, from which the entire universe sprang," (Cunningham, 9). This is a Witch's concept of the Divine. However, it is a distant, powerful image that is not easily understood. For the purpose of worship, the Wicca recognize the duality of this power. It is both male and female, good and evil, and therefore is worshipped in the form of a Goddess and a God. These are the primeval gods o...
Wicca has gone down through the history with its many trials and tribulations. It has a very colorful history, that can’t be covered all in one research paper.
Wicca, like many fellow Pagan traditions, focuses on the beliefs of the deities that all share a different, yet common purpose in the universe-to keep balance and harmony in the world. Wicca, unlike other religions, categorizes the divine; honoring the Goddess in form of the Triple Goddess of sometimes referred to as the Patron Goddess, whose aspects are the Maiden, Mother, Crone; representing the three phases of the moon: Waxing, Waning, Full Moon, and Dark Moon (Morrison, 2001). In form of the Maiden, as stated by M...
Yardley, Meg. "Social Work Practice With Pagans, Witches, And Wiccans: Guidelines For Practice With Children And Youths." Social Work 53.4 (2008): 329-336. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.
For hundreds of years, Wicca and witchcraft has been considered the practice of the Devil. In result, many witches throughout those hundreds of years have been tortured, burned, hanged, and killed outright. Although the “witches” from the infamous Salem Witch Trials were not actual witches, it is the thought that counts. The assumption that witchcraft involves summoning the devil and sacrificing animals is extremely inaccurate, as well as a little insulting. Wicca and witchcraft has been misunderstood throughout the time it has existed, and it is actually a very beautiful practice.
First, Wicca, the formal organization of witchcraft, is a mystery religion. Each practitioner is considered a witch, and practitioner of The Craft, which contains several different beliefs concerning theology and divinity depending on an individual because of their freedom to study what they seek. Members may choose to be solitary, or part of a coven, which is a group of Wiccans that share beliefs and conduct rituals together. Though different groups of Wicca may differ in certain viewpoints, there are few unambiguous attributes of the religion. These explain that “deity is inspiring, and immanent; Humans are a part of nature; Divinity is manifested in all things and is the central part of nature; God and Goddess images are recognized as higher forms of divinity.” (Church and School of Wicca). The main rule that the Wiccans abide by is the Wiccan Rede, which preaches: “An ye harm none, do what ye will.” (Church and School of Wicca). Magic plays a huge part in the Wiccan religion, with spells, rituals, ceremonies, healings, and divination, etc., among the fundamental practices.