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Understanding of Wiccas
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Does Wicca mean evil? Is Wicca a witch? These are just a few descriptions and questions of what people believe Wicca represents. When I hear the word “Wicca”, I right away think of a witch. There is witches and witchcraft in Wicca but it is not about Hocus Pocus and spells. Wicca is a religion and not just a religion with one God but the belief of many Gods. Wicca is an earth based religion. I believe Wicca’s beliefs is similar to that of the Hinduism religion. There are three topics in Wicca that stood out to me the most. The first topic that stood out to me was the Wicca’s belief in how creation came to be, the second topic is the many Gods and deities that the Wiccan religion believes in, and the last topic that was the most interesting
It starts out with some kind of cosmic force from darkness. When I watched the video “Wiccan Creation”, I realized that many religions start off with the creation in darkness and then there is that spirit or force that ignites. “The world was in darkness and from this nothingness, a spirit created our lady. The lady dance and give birth to the stars and planets and with her joy and love she created trees and flowers (“Wiccan Creation, 2011). The Wicca’s creation story does not stop there. The spirit created the Lord for the lady’s soulmate. The lord is half spirit and half animal and together with the lady they will populate the planet (“Wiccan Creation, 2011). In other stories of Wicca’s creation, they called the lady and lord the Goddess and God. The Wiccan Goddess is the mother of all things, the moon is the symbol of the Goddess. She also represents death in which is necessary for rebirth. The Wiccan God is a horned God and the sun is his symbol. He is also the lord of the underworld who tends souls until they are reborn (Sabin, 2011,p 235) Wiccans pray to the Goddess and God (Sabin, 2011, p233). These Gods created witches for the soul purpose to help heal. The witches were taught to communicate with spirits and to communicate with the energies such as earth, air, fire, water and spirit (“Wiccan
(2012). Wicca: a guide for the solitary practitioner. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications.
Sabin, T. (2011). Wicca for beginners: fundamentals of philosophy & practice. Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications.
Wiccan Creation (n.d.) (2011, May 15). [Video file]. Retrieved August 05, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NPYBH3mjyg
S. (2016, July 07). Minute Faith ~ Wicca.[Video file] Retrieved August 05, 2017, from
What images come to mind when you think of witches? Many people immediately imagine a black pointy hat, bubbling cauldron, green warty skin, and Halloween. Usually the image that comes to mind is something scary and evil. Real witches do exist. Most modern witches go by the label Wiccan now. Wiccans practice Wicca, which is a nature-based religion with many different branches or denominations. The basic tenant of all Wicca is called the Three Fold Law. The Three Fold Law states that whatever you do will come back to you times three, good or bad, so do not cause harm or, in other words, “harm none”. It is kind of like the concept of karma in one lifetime. There is debate over how old the religion actually is with some saying that it is an ancient religion that pre-dates Christianity and some saying it is more modern, starting in the 1950’s with Gerald Gardener. Regardless of how old the religion is, Hollywood’s portrayal of witches often does have some kernel of truth, albeit sometimes it is hard to find.
Throughout history, citizens have branded people as witches, and warlocks. Maybe, a person acts differently than us, or they have strange habits, does this make them a witch? In the Massachusetts Bay Colony in January of 1692, you would be branded a witch for these odd doings. Being accused of witchcraft has serious consequences (Spark notes).
Witchcraft has always fascinated many people and been a very controversial topic in North America during the seventeenth and 17th centuries. Many people believe that witchcraft implies the ability to injure or use supernatural power to harm others. People believed that a witch represented the dark side of female presence and were more likely to embrace witchcraft than men. There are still real witches among us in the Utah who 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 a variety of other emotions in people.
Wilborn, Bruce K.. Witches' craft: a multidenominational Wicca bible. New York: Skyhorse Pub., 2011. Print.
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.
Wicca is a spiritual path, a way of seeing the world and Divinity, and our relationship to it. They believe that Goddess is imminent in the world around us. Goddess permeates every living thing, and most of them define rocks, soil, water, air, fire, and the plant herself as living things. "The God of Wicca is the Horned God, the ancient God of Fertility: the God of the forest, flock, and field and also of the hunt." He is Lord of Life, and the Giver of Life, yet he is also Lord of Death and Resurrection. http://www.interlog.com/~spawn/gods.html
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...
Because little hard fact is actually known about the beginning of time, not too much emphasis is placed on having a sound creation story. Therefore, creation beliefs vary greatly between not just Wiccans, but Pagans in general. Many Wiccans have a combination belief of accepting what science has shown of evolution, and ancient creation myths. Believing pieces of the creation stories by the ancients allows for Wiccans to compliment their spiritual beliefs. (Wigington, P., No date, paganwiccan.about.com) One version of a commonly believed creation story tells of how the stars, planets, and Earth were created by the Goddess through moves of her beautiful dancing. The Goddess, wanting to share these things, created the male god, Lord, and together they made all living animals, sea life, and humans from their love of each other. (Rayne, E., 2010, momsawitch.blogspot) As one Wiccan author states, “From the Goddess we all proceed, to the Goddess we must return.” (Bowen, A., No date, www.beliefnet.com) Even though creation truths have minimal importance and focus in the Wiccan religion, these general beliefs tie in with the notions of the Goddess being present in the beginning and in the end. The beginning of creation was made in love and beauty, and the continuing of life after the body also occurs in love, betterment, and beauty. Unlike much of ancient Greek
Giordano, G. (2001). Everything You Need to Know About Wicca. New York, NY: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.
Jewish mystics explain that before manifest creation, everything that ever would be was contained within the Creator as pure potentiality. This field without end created vessels through which its divine energy could pass and differentiate, each representing a specific attribute, such as wisdom, compassion, kindness and strength. The energy being transmitted was so powerful that the vessels shattered. It is said that some of these shattered pieces of divine energy fell to earth as sparks where they have remained all these eons.
In today's society, new religions are popping up all over the place. One of the oldest, yet fastest growing faiths today is witchcraft. This earth-based, nature oriented belief has been established since the thirteenth century, but it is not until recently that it has began to spread across the world. Everywhere we look we see something associated with the practice of wicca. The movie, Blair Witch Project, is one example of the growing belief in spells, charms, and covens. However, there are many people who disapprove of this practice and are labeling it as a 'false religion.'; Christians, for example, greatly disagree with the belief of witchcraft and find it in association with the devil. Today, there is considerable debate as to whether witchcraft in today's society is simply a harmless religion, or if it is an evil practice in league with Satan.
Witchcraft is a term which sprouts many different meanings. As stated above, it is attributed to witches. But what is a witch? Probably an evil haggish-like women who has signed a pact with the devil if we think of it in the English sense. So witchcraft must be evil doings; putting curses on people to make their life miserable, using wicked spells to transform humans to frogs etc. But does this hold true to everyone's idea of what witchcraft is.People's believes on the subject of witchcraft might differ between different cultures.
shows the witches are ones who believe in evil spirits, as most witches are portrayed as.
WITCHCRAFT: The word witchcraft comes from the word “Wicca.” Wicca means the wise one. Witchcraft is to be believed as a pagan worship and or religion, a stereotype as a “magical phenomenon. In 1000 A.D., the practice of witchcraft became a threat to the Christians and their beliefs. They believe that wit...
In most African societies, a witch is seen as the enemy of life and society. Laurenti Magesa affirmed “African Religion has a pragmatic approach to life: Everything that promotes the well-being of the community is good, and everything that destroys the community is evil.”