Wicca. What are you thoughts? what is it and where did it come from? Do you agree?

Wiccan? It comes from the part of England in which I now live - Hwicce, aka the kingdom of the witch, the inhabitants of which are known as Hwiccans

en.wikipedia.org...

en.wikipedia.org...

We only sacrifice children and virgins on the 3rd Sunday of the month

originally posted by: AndyMayhew
Wiccan? It comes from the part of England in which I now live - Hwicce, aka the kingdom of the witch, the inhabitants of which are known as Hwiccans

en.wikipedia.org...

en.wikipedia.org...

We only sacrifice children and virgins on the 3rd Sunday of the month

I am in the kigdom just below you, I will stay away on said sundays in future.

I just tried to go through and pull a small snippet of each respondents statement about Wicca which I list here (sometimes prefaced by "Wicca is" (if I've misquoted anyone let me know.):

"Wiccans embrace nature."

"Wicca is witchcraft, casting spells, curses, whatnot."

"Wicca understands and respects nature in its beauty."

"Wicca is ideas and concepts thousands of years old ... nature worship, nature kindness, wishing, symbols ... "

"Satan is behind Wicca."

"Wicca is a 20th century creation... a duotheistic theology ... it has just as rightful place as any ..."

"Wicca is one of the better systems because it tries to strike a balance between the masculine and feminine energies."

"Wicca is older than Christianity. Wicca believes in the Goddess."

"Wicca is a 19th/20th century invention ... a "fake" religion ... "

"Some of the Deities might be dated back to Druidic times."

"Wicca is a recently made-up following ... "

"Wicca had its roots in Shamanism."

"Wicca is just the modern-day term coined to cover most non-Abrahamic (Pagan) religions"

"They're all tranny feminist witches ... "

"It seems nice."

"Wicca was invented by a man in c. 1940 as an excuse to run around naked."

"Every living thing had a Mother and a Father ... "

"More than a few of us believe 'An ye harm none do what ye will.' "

"Any magic is black magic."

"Wicca is a rapidly growing religious movement."

"Wicca is into nature, herbs for medicine, different objects for spirituality ..."

"Wicca tends to respect women more ... "

"Wicca is a modern creation using as much info as possible on ancient practice/belief."

"Wicca is about revering Nature."

"Wicca is a way to ground oneself in life."

"Wicca is a human religion."

"Wicca is a modern invention for people who think they practice the "old ways.""

"Wicca is a nature-oriented perspective that attempts to align power to do more good than harm"

"The 'old ways' are primitive beliefs."

"Wiccans are from Hwicce."

"Wicca is about revering nature and all living things, and respecting the Feminine as well as the Masculine - the 'elements' of fire, air, earth, water and spirit. It is about living in harmony with everything."

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Nonspecific, I thought it might be good to see where we've been, thus far.

a reply to: Gryphon66

Great summary

a reply to: Gryphon66

Perfect, Thankyou very much.

I am not overly suprised at the breakdown, Some truth, some misunderstanding, some obviously from the uneducation of other religions and some simply brilliant light hearted opinions.

My personal favorite that I mised in the thread

"Wicca was invented by a man in c. 1940 as an excuse to run around naked."

I am going to go back and give that post a hearty star!

a reply to: nonspecific

Its those witchcraft or witches that can control vampires in those vampire shows on the cw channels, is it not?

a reply to: nonspecific

Glad if it's helpful to the continued conversation.

I had several favorites as I wandered through the comments: but this was my best one (for my own purposes):

"Wicca is a nature-oriented perspective that attempts to align power to do more good than harm."

Simple, full, non-linear yet directive.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

a reply to: interupt42

Its those witchcraft or witches that can control vampires in those vampire shows on the cw channels, is it not?

Yes. It is not.

a reply to: Gryphon66

I just tried to go through and pull a small snippet of each respondents statement about Wicca which I list here

That was brilliant! A brilliant idea. Well done, you.

Thanks.

Here's what I said:

Wicca is about revering nature and all living things, and respecting the Feminine as well as the Masculine - the 'elements' of fire, air, earth, water and spirit. It is about living in harmony with everything.

It wasn't on your list. But that's fine. You've done a great collage there of the confusion around the idea of 'Wicca'.

a reply to: BuzzyWigs

How did I miss that? Thank you for letting me know in time to edit my post.

Your comment is now included in the summary!

a reply to: Gryphon66

No worries.
Your summary said it all anyway.

But thanks.

originally posted by: BuzzyWigs
a reply to: Gryphon66

No worries.
Your summary said it all anyway.

Au contraire ... none of the other comments had addressed the "five elements" specifically.

Good show.

a reply to: nonspecific

Ok speaking as a non Wiccan neopagan (I am a neopagan Druid and Celtic Recon). Wicca is the invention of Gerald Gardner. It is the summation of many other things too, but Gardner created it. Perhaps the best history of how this came about is Ronald Hutton's Triumph of the Moon (he's a British academic).

That being said, Wicca is a perfectly valid spiritual practice. All religions started somewhere, it was the 1950s for Wicca.

It certainly has a place in modern society.

a reply to: Q

Wicca does NOT cover most non Abrahamic traditions. It is a very specific neopagan set of practices.

a reply to: iNobody

We all have demons my friend but unlike yourself we don't like to admit to them. The trance you had reminds me of story of Buddha who was offered lust to forsake his journey to step beyond our physical reality. Clearly you are at a cross-road and your inner self wants to take the right direction, listen to it with a quiet heart.

I don't know much about Wicca but have listened to a female singer called Wendy Rule who is a wiccan with an amazing voice. Her songs sometimes tell of entering other worlds beyond this reality which sounds like its more aligned with shamanism than say Christianity as it seems to deal with spiritual energies rather than our morality.

I don't see wicca as being negative. [erhaps they are just more knowledgeable of the energies that drive our existence.

a reply to: Noinden

Ok speaking as a non Wiccan neopagan (I am a neopagan Druid and Celtic Recon). Wicca is the invention of Gerald Gardner.

Largely correct. The idea was inspired by Margaret Murray, who theorized that witch trials were partly a result of efforts to extinguish a pre-Christian pagan religion that had survived into the middle ages (known as the witch-cult hypothesis). Gerald Gardner took the idea and ran with it, and invented his own religion, borrowing from older occult traditions, many of them with their roots in hermeticism, and added a sprinkling of random pagan nature deities.

a reply to: DeadSeraph

Not quite. Like I said, read Hutton. Murray was one influence, but Graves (Robert) was another (specifically the White Goddess), Aleister Crowley is another, Gardner was thinking of taking over the OTO at the time Wicca was forming in his brain. There are more but lets stop there.

You can see influences from all. The Rede bears many similarities to Crowleys "Do as you will", but is less self serving. Now the problem with Murray (outside of being discredited) is she gives no practices in her books. Others made similar claims (viz Leland with Aradia).

Wicca is a coming together of many ideas, Gardner was the receptacle. Its mutated since, in a good way.

Like I said, I'm a (neo)pagan, not a Wiccan

a reply to: Noinden

Bang on. Although I'm not sure I'd point to Crowley. Seems to be a lot of speculation that many wiccan rituals were plagiarized from Crowley's work, and I seem to remember reading somewhere that he regarded wicca with quite a bit of disdain (maybe for that very reason).

a reply to: DeadSeraph

Gardner and Crowley talked, its in Crowley's diaries Hutton did his research well

Now yes he saw Wicca as Thelema lite. Not quite accurate, but well Crowley had an ego It none the less influenced Wicca, even if Crowley hated it