Post by Alraune on Jul 30, 2018 18:04:47 GMT
If you are new to the idea of Wicca you may have encountered a lot of confusing and seemingly contradictory information about what exactly Wicca is and entails. Message boards and forums may house a variety of different opinions about Wicca and even well-respected authors may differ on certain aspects of Wicca. You may have been told that Wicca is the religion of Witchcraft, or that it is a closed Mystery Tradition or even that Wicca is a satanic cult! It isn't, but with all these statements made about Wicca it can be difficult to determine its nature.
So then, what exactly is Wicca?
Wicca is a modern day fertility Mystery Tradition in which its members practice witchcraft, which is practical magic. Wicca is duo-theistic in nature, honouring a male and female deity, commonly called The God and The Goddess or The Horned God and the Triple Goddess, as the supreme principle forces in nature. Wicca celebrates a the yearly cycle of birth, death and rebirth of The God symbolising the fertilising, rising and falling aspects of nature.
Wicca has many different denominations but sprang from Gerald Gardner, a Liverpudlian civil servant who travelled in the East and had an interest in the Western Mystery Tradition. Gardner claimed he had been initiated into a coven of witches who called themselves ‘The Wica’ and who practiced an ancient fertility cult dedicated to a pre-Christian god and goddess. Whether this is true or whether Gardner made it up to give Wicca a rooting in history is unknown, however Gardner certainly publicised Wicca widely with his books and initiated several people into Wicca, including the influential Doreen Valiente who brought her ritual poetry to the Craft and went on to publicise Wicca after Gardner’s death. Alex Sanders, an occultist and Wiccan also did much to publicise Wicca and his Alexandrian Wicca became the subject of several books by Stewart Farrar, who was an initiate of Sanders.
It was after Wicca was brought to the United States in the 1960s that it began to be divided into two distinct formats. One encompassed the traditionally Gardnerian and Alexandrian styles, Wicca as a closed Mystery Tradition that only the initiated could count themselves members. The other came on the back of the publication of several Books of Shadows and mingled with the burgeoning New Age movement, neo-paganism, feminism, ecological and social awareness and was eclectic in its approach.
This more eclectic approach to Wicca embraced a looser ‘do what you feel’ attitude, causing it to be labelled as ‘not real Wicca’ by the traditionalists who argue that practicing Buddhism or Hinduism or skateboarding and calling it Wicca doesn’t actually make it Wicca. Debates on whether Eclectic Wicca can be considered Wicca at all still continue today so the question becomes, what makes your practice Wiccan as opposed to something else?
The core elements of Wicca could be described as:
So, while it is impossible to become an initiated Gardnerian or Alexandrian Wiccan without actually going through the training and initiatory process, we would consider anyone practicing Wicca to be a Wiccan, albeit from the eclectic/solitary variation of Wicca which we feel has much validity as an esoteric path.
Debates on whether Eclectic Wicca can be considered Wicca at all still continue today.
Further reading:
Towards the Wiccan Circle: A Practical Introduction to the Principles of Wicca, by Sorita d'Este
The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft, by Ronald Hutton
Modern Wicca: A History from Gardner to the Present, by Michael Howard
Wiccan Roots: Gerald Gardner and the Modern Witchcraft Revival, by Philip Heselton
So then, what exactly is Wicca?
Wicca is a modern day fertility Mystery Tradition in which its members practice witchcraft, which is practical magic. Wicca is duo-theistic in nature, honouring a male and female deity, commonly called The God and The Goddess or The Horned God and the Triple Goddess, as the supreme principle forces in nature. Wicca celebrates a the yearly cycle of birth, death and rebirth of The God symbolising the fertilising, rising and falling aspects of nature.
Wicca has many different denominations but sprang from Gerald Gardner, a Liverpudlian civil servant who travelled in the East and had an interest in the Western Mystery Tradition. Gardner claimed he had been initiated into a coven of witches who called themselves ‘The Wica’ and who practiced an ancient fertility cult dedicated to a pre-Christian god and goddess. Whether this is true or whether Gardner made it up to give Wicca a rooting in history is unknown, however Gardner certainly publicised Wicca widely with his books and initiated several people into Wicca, including the influential Doreen Valiente who brought her ritual poetry to the Craft and went on to publicise Wicca after Gardner’s death. Alex Sanders, an occultist and Wiccan also did much to publicise Wicca and his Alexandrian Wicca became the subject of several books by Stewart Farrar, who was an initiate of Sanders.
It was after Wicca was brought to the United States in the 1960s that it began to be divided into two distinct formats. One encompassed the traditionally Gardnerian and Alexandrian styles, Wicca as a closed Mystery Tradition that only the initiated could count themselves members. The other came on the back of the publication of several Books of Shadows and mingled with the burgeoning New Age movement, neo-paganism, feminism, ecological and social awareness and was eclectic in its approach.
This more eclectic approach to Wicca embraced a looser ‘do what you feel’ attitude, causing it to be labelled as ‘not real Wicca’ by the traditionalists who argue that practicing Buddhism or Hinduism or skateboarding and calling it Wicca doesn’t actually make it Wicca. Debates on whether Eclectic Wicca can be considered Wicca at all still continue today so the question becomes, what makes your practice Wiccan as opposed to something else?
The core elements of Wicca could be described as:
- Worship of the Divine Feminine and Divine Masculine, usually called The Goddess and The God
- A celebration of the life-cycle of The God who represents the growing and declining solar year in a series of festivals known as The Wheel of the Year
- Adherence to an ethical code called The Wiccan Rede which consists of “An it Harm None, do as you Will”
- That there is a standard ritual format that Wiccans follow (see the sections on ritual for more information)
- Wicca is experiential, to practice Wicca is to be a Wiccan. Reading about it isn’t the same as practicing it
- Wicca is a Mystery Tradition in that is deals with the Mysteries of life and death, our place in the universe, and our connection to the Gods
- The practice of magic, usually in the forms of folk magic and cunning arts or witchcraft
So, while it is impossible to become an initiated Gardnerian or Alexandrian Wiccan without actually going through the training and initiatory process, we would consider anyone practicing Wicca to be a Wiccan, albeit from the eclectic/solitary variation of Wicca which we feel has much validity as an esoteric path.
Debates on whether Eclectic Wicca can be considered Wicca at all still continue today.
Further reading:
Towards the Wiccan Circle: A Practical Introduction to the Principles of Wicca, by Sorita d'Este
The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft, by Ronald Hutton
Modern Wicca: A History from Gardner to the Present, by Michael Howard
Wiccan Roots: Gerald Gardner and the Modern Witchcraft Revival, by Philip Heselton