Wicca as a religion was introduced to the public by Gerald Gardner in the 1950’s. His tradition was secret. There were initiations and the followers were bound by oath. However, after a few years separate groups with new traditions were formed.
Today, many Wiccan groups owe their basic foundation to the principles laid out by Gardner. Wicca is not an ancient religion, but Gardner did integrate some old obscure knowledge into his original tradition. A lot of Witches and Pagans were perfectly happy to continue practicing their own spiritual path without converting to Wicca.
There is an unlimited deal of debate within the Pagan community about whether or not Wicca is truly the same body of Witchcraft that was practiced before. Nevertheless, many
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It can include Wiccans, Buddhists, Druids, and Eclectic Witches in its description, to name but a few. The basic principles of Paganism are as follows: Pagans revere the Earth. Pagans are typically deeply concerned about the environment. Most Pagans engage in the celebrations of the changing seasons, and see time in cyclical rather than linear terms. Pagans tend to be fiercely individual, but tolerant of the belief systems of others. The Divine has made itself manifest through many Deities in different places and at different times. No one Deity can express the totality of the Divine. This is called polytheism. Pagans believe in balance between the Masculine and Feminine energies of the universe. Many pagans believe in Karma, and the Law of Return. It is no truer that all Pagans are Wiccans than it is true that all Christians are Methodists. Most Pagans accept or embrace the possibility of magick, though not all Pagans believe in or are comfortable with the concept. Many, though not all, Pagans are fond of altars and shrines. Altars and shrines are found in every religious and spiritual tradition in the world, and serve as a focus for personal or group devotions. Most Pagans also believe in reincarnation. Our life on Earth is one of many and the purpose of life is to learn and evolve. Reincarnation was an idea taught by the Druids as well as the more well-known Eastern religions. …show more content…
Each system has its own unique set of beliefs and practice. Keep in mind that one Celtic Pagan may practice in a way that is completely different than another Celtic Pagan, because there is no universal set of guidelines or rules.
Some individuals in the Pagan community practice as part of an established tradition or belief structure. Those people are often part of a group, a coven, or whatever else they may choose to call their organization. The majority of modern Pagans today, however, practice as solitaries –meaning their beliefs and practices are highly individualized, and they typically practice alone.
Reasons for this are mixed. Often people just find that they learn better by themselves, some may decide they don’t like the organized structure of a coven or group and prefer to be alone, and still others practice as solitaries because it’s the only option available not having the availability of others
Witchcraft had always fascinated many people and been a very controversial topic in North America during (seventeenth) 17th century. Many People believe that witchcraft implies the ability to injure or using supernatural power to harm others. People believed that a witch represents dark side of female present and were more likely to embrace witchcraft than men. There are still real witches among us in the Utah whom believe that witchcraft is the oldest religion dealing with the occult. However the popular conception of a witch has not changed at least since the seventeenth century; they still caused panic, fear and variety of other emotions in people…………………….
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.
From the medieval times to these modern ages, the Wicca religion is still confused with the unmoral religion of Satanism. The Wicca religion has been around for many centuries. The Christian religion has harmed Wicca’s reputation by spreading fear that Wicca is an evil religion; no better than the worshipping of Lucifer. From the witch burnings in the medieval period till now, Wicca has been classified as part of Satanism. Common witch lore and costumes around the time of All Hallows Eve depict witches as evil beings, doing unspeakable things with malicious intent. This is a very common occurrence and is unfair to all that practice the ancient religion. Granted, uneducated people could easily place Wicca in the same category as Satanism; however, these two religions are completely different from each other and Wicca is obviously the better of the two.
Wicca and Hinduism are very monotheistic believing that everything is one in creation. In these two religions there are thousands and millions of deities that they worship. It is not possible for a person of one these religions to worship all of them none the less know them. Both Wiccans and Hindus have personal gods or goddess that they pray to either it’s a family god or coven god being worshipped. Also as well as having personal gods or goddess Wiccans and Hindus most of the time worship at home and have home shrines or altars. Also both religions believe that after death the soul gets reborn through reincarnation. In most religions time moves in a straight line from past present to future. In Wicca and Hinduism time moves in a cycle. In Wicca the movement of the circle is spiral. Everything in the universe changes or goes up on the spiral of the circle reaching a new level each time (Dragonsong). This is similar to the Hindu truth about achieving moksha. Moksha is the the end of samsara or reincarnation. It is when something or someone is one with Brahman (the universe) and out of the cycle of
Paganism is a belief system that holds to the ideology of the existence of gods and goddesses, which the Pagans believe affect and interact with one?s daily life. Most pagans hold to a polytheistic view of theology. Some pagans choose to worship a pantheon of deities, while other seek to have a more intimate and personal relationship with only one of their gods. They hold to the view that their gods embody certain attributes such as strength, love and intellect. Some modern Pagans define their spiritual beliefs and practices as being ?Earth-based.? You will often hear the
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.
Everything is constantly changing over time and one of the things that has changed drastically is our society's view on Witchcraft. It started out as being a regular religion but was more negatively talked about as the years went by. Society’s view on Witchcraft never really changed but our morals as people did. We have accepted that it is a religion and
In order to understand the game of Runescape, a player must first understand the pagan religion. The pagan religion concentrates on witchcraft and wizardry. A lot of the game centers on witches and wizards and the ability of a character to use magic. Pagans today still believe in witch craft and the ability to cure or even prevent certain illnesses from spreading to a community of people. The world of Runescape will help players delve deeper into the pagan traditions and help them understand more about their religion.
The controversies that surround Wicca start with its exact origin. There are some who believe that it has its origins in Witchcraft due to the similarities between the two. Witchcraft itself is a Pagan practice [polytheistic and non-Christian, Muslim and Jewish in origin] that began with the Celts around 700 B.C. As the movie The Burning Times depicts, the region during this time period was primarily a rural culture so the Celtic traditions were based completely on Nature. Their months were even named after trees and their festivals revolved around the solstices and equinoxes (Steiger). A polytheistic religion, they worshiped a host of female and male deities and are most notably associated with the concept of Goddess worship, a strong belief in the divinity of the female (Burning Times). These paganistic beliefs and rituals gradually over the centuries combined with other European religious practices, such as magic, potions, and ointments for healing, to form what we call in modern times Witchcraft. Groups who did not hav...
traditions and practices within Pagan religion. Among these various traditions and practices there are commonly shared beliefs such as respecting all life, the honoring of male and female energies, a Father God and a Mother Goddess and that all things within the universe are interconnected. Pagan religions also share an ethic of self responsibility in doing as you choose, so long as it brings no harm to anyone or anything.Among the first hand accounts of a group of practicing Pagans of varied levels and years of experience, the majority were raised within the teachings of main world religions such as, Catholic, Baptist, Christian and Protestant religions.
The history of Wicca is often debated by different people. It technically started in 1954, but was based on a mix of ancient religions. We will briefly cover the history of Wicca from caveman days all the way up to modern times in the following paragraphs.
There was a huge influence of both paganism and christianity that can be noticed in Old English Poetry. To better understand these two values, let us explain what paganism and christianity mean. Christianity is a monotheistic religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. As presented in New Thestament, Christians believe Jesus to be the Son of God and the Messiah prophesied in The Old Testament. Christianity began in the 1st century AD as a Jewish sect, and shares many religious texts with Judaism, specifically the Hebrew Bible, known to Christians as the Old Testament. The name Christian means belonging to Christ or partisan of Christ. As far as Paganism is concerned, the word comes from latin paganus and means a country dweller, rustic. It is a term which has come to connote a broad set of spiritual or cultic practises or beliefs of any folk religion a nd of historical and contemprorary polytheism religious in particular. (...) Characteristic of pagan traditions in the anscence of proselytisation and presence of a living mythology which explains religious practice. The term Pagan is a Christian adaptation of the goy of Judaism.
Witchcraft has been in practice for centuries upon centuries, having been traced back to the beginning of mankind, where it was seen as a religious practice that instilled magical rights upon the user (Witchcraft). Prehistoric art exemplifies this, with inscriptions detailing magical rites that were used to ensure that their hunting was successful (Wiccan One’s Universe). Witches were commonplace all over the world with different stigmas and stereotypes attached to them from each respectful culture that contained them. The belief in magic predated Christianity, Judaism, and recorded history, and over time magic became mainly associated with one group - Witches (Erzulie). This could have been due to the fading out of many other ancient religions as well as the growing popularity that Witchcraft gained from incorporating man...
4. One major belief of Animism and Shamanism is everything in the universe contained a spirit or soul (nature worship.)
This view is consistent with the notion that more liberally aligned religions are more congruent with progressive sexuality standards; though it seems to be the polar opposite of the more conservative religions such as Christianity, Catholicism, and Islam which all have more strictly defined and enforced sexually regulated roles within them (Wright 2013). The issue of sexuality is a socially polarizing one that divides people on the notion that it is a question of morality, the more conservative and rigid religions finding the acceptance of its whole scale to be immoral and profane to their sacred texts (Wright 2013). I believe that within the religion of Wiccanism, there is a larger acceptance of various forms of sexuality due to modernity and the instilled ideals of the belief due to the extent of its promotion of varying sexualities, its feminist ties, and the controversy over its