Wicca
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org, please feel free to visit the school website)
Though not all Wiccans practice magick, a familiarity with the concepts will come to any student of Wicca. The structure of practicing of Wicca is established to facilitate witchcraft, and a personal choice to invest the energetic co-creational process, is all that is needed to turn on the magick within the Wiccan framework. The framework itself is a masterful collage that, by means of both intention and serendipity encompasses both ancient and modern techniques and wisdom. While describing Druidism, Isaac Bone in People Of The Earth (1996), makes a statement true to all neo-pagan religion, “Nobody knows anymore what the old Druid mysteries were. If they say they do, they are fibbing, to put it as gently as possible. But we are rediscovering what the esoteric mysteries are…”
The Wicca practiced today is different from the Wicca of twenty years ago, and will be different still a few years from now. Gavin Frost is quoted in People Of The Earth (1996), “The tradition that I was initiated into would be far too chauvinistic to go over today.” As an emerging, evolving religion each individual alters the picture of the whole movement. Popular media is now involved in creating the identity of Wicca and subsequently a “pop” witch culture now exists. Empowerment is likely the draw that brings many to Wicca, and subsequently to witchcraft, in some form or other.
The educated leaders of modern witchcraft have fortunately abandoned the romantic idea that Wicca is an intact ancient religion passed down secretly and at great danger throughout the last 2000 years. As newer adherents learn more, they too can release this fantasy, allowing for a belief system based on truth not fancy. The result of knowing that Wicca is a modern creation is eventually empowering, as the student is welcomed into the reality that they are part of the co-creation of their own religion, which is a very rare opportunity indeed in today’s all too often dogmatic world.
Wicca is a pagan religion. All of nature is included in the sacred family of a Wiccan. Discussing paganism in People Of The Earth (1996), Oberon Zell-Ravenheart says, “It deals with the Earth, the Goddess. It deals with Nature and with people. It includes all of that—love, sex, nature, blood, death, life, birth, and the cycle of the seasons.” To be Wiccan is to be a priestess or priest oneself, as Raymond Buckland writes in The Witch Book (2002),“In Witchcraft it is believed that all are their own priest or priestess…” A personal contact with the divine as perceived by the practitioner, without the intermediary of a separate person, is expected due to the belief in Divine immanence (to be discussed later). Obtaining and practicing a priest/priestess-hood is built into the progressive adherence of Wicca. Maintaining the role is a process of acceptance of responsibility built upon the foundation of embodying the wisdom within the tradition of Wicca in which one works either solitarily or as a group member.
As a pagan religion, Wicca gleans as much of the worldview of pre-monotheistic humanity as can be deduced. It seeks to rediscover the benefits of the wisdoms of the ancestors of all of humanity, and to then restructure these as relevant to modern life. Cerridwen Fallingstar states in People Of The Earth (1996), “Our traditions are mostly revived traditions, reconstructed traditions. They are not old Pagan.” Modern witches find that although the Industrial Revolution has changed much of outer circumstances for modern people, the long established themes of a nature-based spirituality hold the maps to a personally satisfying existence in modern context. Again from Cerridwen, “It’s really joyful to find your spiritual path if you are a spiritual person. It’s like finding your true love, like being in the perfect-mate relationship. You find a way of relating to God-Goddess, to Source, and it just opens your heart. It brings ecstasy and contntedness.”
Concurrently, some portion of Wicca and modern witchcraft is based on conjecture, fancy, and blatant falsehoods promulgated by various persons and institutions. Less than 100 years into its existence, Wicca is already currently undergoing a reformation and re-assessment of its identity.
The history of Wicca is also a subject of much non-agreement in today’s population of witches. Several traditions accept the purported lineage for each of their groups. Also to be found are those who claim a hereditary form of The Craft with each of these professing an ancient family tradition. Others admit the moderninity of Wicca openly and embrace these beliefs.The elusive and mysterious past of romanticized Wicca is traceable to the trade guilds of Europe and England. These guilds were exclusivist and contain structured hierarchy with degrees of initiation. The Masons are the premier example of this, and much of the ritual of Wicca is based upon the occult leaning interests of the 1800s and 1900s. These guilds were ostensibly Christian throughout the 15-1700’s as was all of feudal Europe. In the latter 1800s and early 1900s, “Spiritualism” became popular and an occult groundswell occurred, interesting some of the influential and eccentric guild-men of the day, notably Alistair Crowley. Crowley practiced an Egyptianized ceremonial magick. Through his writings on ceremonial magick and his poetry—much of it devotional works to divine entities—he created a scorched surface and some fundamental ideas on what life outside of traditional values could be like if created on the stage of life. Crowley was not a witch but in his last days he was visited by a man who would take the stage Crowley crafted and design a romantic story for it.
Gerald Gardiner created Wicca through a combination of study, personal fancy, and will; he started a religion. From meeting with an informal group of Rosicrucians near 1938 Gardiner “realized” they were witches: Authoring his first book, titled Witchcraft Today in 1954, he became the father of Wicca. He was a well traveled man with an interest in archeology and tribal magick, and dedicated his remaining decades to “coven” work with others, notably Doreen Valiente. Together they created the fundamental Wicca.
The influences of Margaret Murray, Sir James Fraser, and other early 20th-century researchers and authors on witchcraft doubtlessly influenced these groups. The availability of any literature on the “witch cults” of history was extremely limited, and therefore those of interest all found varying amounts of this same work.
Other notables in the history of modern Wicca includes Stewart and Janet Farrar, primarily authors and researchers, the Farrars have penned a half-dozen books that are considered by many in The Craft to be foundational. Oberon and Morning Glory Zell-Ravenheart reanimated pagan reality within the container of the Church Of All Worlds, with a deep understanding of ritual, Goddess lore, and an expansive view of science fiction. The inclusivist paradigm of paganism has been established by Oberon and Morning Glory. The Gaian spirituality taken for granted by most nature based religionists was re-birthed through Oberon who also led Green Egg magazine, the pre-eminent pagan periodical of the 1980’s and 1990’s in which witchcraft was explained extensively.
Starhawk, author and co-creator of the Reclaiming tradition, is the most influential figure in witchcraft today. Though there are many others, the gravity of her fiction and nonfiction, and her dedication to eco-ethics, as well as her ability to facilitate massive gatherings, sets Starhawk apart as the current icon of witchcraft. Selena Fox of Circle Sanctuary, author Scott Cunningham, and Raymond Buckland also deserve mention as modern leaders and promoters/teachers of witchcraft.
The Craft is currently expressed at a detailed level, according largely to regional influences. In North America for example, East Coast witches are discernible from Midwest and West Coast contemporaries. Though reading is the fundamental medium of information exchange for pagans, leading to general consensus, the personal fleshing out of the character of witchcraft is influenced by the region resident leaders presenting public events. Charismatic personalities are not new to modern witchcraft, whose founder Gerald Gardiner certainly sets an example. Contributors today, such as Starhawk in the San Francisco Bay area, find themselves coloring large populations of practitioners, especially in their home area.
Wicca
is the practice of pagan ritual. Witchcraft is often associated with
Wiccan fundamentals, but as many find, it is quite different. Any
beginner can find a great deal of information on witch craft and Wicca.
Locating a store that carries a supply of book on the history, living, ritual,
spells, and life is key for any beginner. A good store will provide a free
handbook that includes information on shadow Wicca.