Articles

The Truth About Wicca

This was a letter written in responce to an article about Wiccan, and while I do not have the original article, the points and ideas submitted her, are useful in understanding the mindset of "modern-day witches".

Witches actually do address the dark aspects of the Goddesses.  Although,  granted, it's probably not the first thing talked about in any Wiccan PR  kits.  =)  There are countless books on the subject, and I'll get back to
that in a moment, but first, let me ask you this.  What about the dark  aspects of the Christian God?  The one who killed the firstborn babe of every  Egyptian?  Turned Lot's wife into a pillar of salt?  Stuck poor Jonah into the  belly of a whale?  Sent down plagues and destroyed entire cities in his  wrath, not to mention the whole world in the Great Flood?

The reason deities (all deities, in every religion) are portrayed as having a  dark and light side is because people have a dark and light side.  By  studying the stories (and they are just that--stories.  Kali was never an
actual living being who actually ate any children, any more than Jonah was ever  actually in the whale's belly) we can learn more about ourselves, about who  we are and what makes us tick.  If we ignore the dark side, and pretend it  doesn't exist, we are denying an entire part of ourselves.

Part of the Charge of the Goddess, embraced by most practicing Witches reads,  "I do not demand sacrifice, for I am the mother of all things!"  So rest  assured, modern day Witches aren't sacrificing anyone anymore than modern day  Christians are.

But back to the subject at hand.  The tales of goddesses who ate children and  caused death and destruction are there for a reason.  To make us look at  death, at what it means, and what it is.  Death is not an ending, but simply  a change.  The same Goddess who gives life is the one who takes it.  Look at  what those tales are trying to teach.

All they really are, are lessons to help us see a reflection of the cycles in  which we live every day.  There is spring, there is birth.  Summer and life.   Autumn and harvest or aging.  Winter, and death or a fallow season.  Followed  by Spring and rebirth.

The Christian tale of Jesus preaching to the souls in hell for 3 days before  being resurrected is almost an exact retelling of a far older tale found on  stone tablets beneath the sands of Iraq, which was once called Sumer.  The
story was recorded some 4000 years before Christ, and was likely passed on in  the oral tradition for centuries before that.  In the old version it is the  Goddess Inanna, who goes to the land of the dead, the Underworld, and spends  three days there, in death herself, at the hand of her "Dark sister"  Ereshkigal.  (the dark sister is a symbol, you see, for the dark side of the  goddess.  It was her own shadow side she was exploring.)  After the three  days, Inanna is resurrected.  Sound familiar?   The point of the tale is one  of seeking out knowledge, of exploring the darkness as well as the light to  get a full understanding.  It's about learning the truth regarding  death,  what it is, and is not.  And that it is not an end.  But a new beginning.   That no one goes to "Hell" or the "Underworld" or the grave for an eternity.   We go into death only to emerge again with more knowledge than before, and so  on, and so on, lifetime after lifetime.  Just as spring follows winter, life  follows death and enlightenment follows darkness.

This is why we have tales of Gods and Goddesses (the Christian God included)  causing death and destruction.  They are parables teaching us the meaning of  life and death, good and evil, darkness and light.

Witches do address these issues, openly and often.  They are one of the most  discussed aspects of the religion of Wicca.

Now to the next subject.  You mustn't condemn modern day Witches because  their ancient counterparts used odd ingredients in their spells.  Not unless  you would also condemn modern day Christians for the murderous crusades of  their predecessors.  You see?  There's also much evidence that because of  persecution at the time, those early "recipes" were often written in a sort  of code.  So something like "the blood of a virgin" might have simply been  referring to the sap of a young tree, for example.  The persecutors those  searching a home and finding a jar of tree sap wouldn't be able to make the  connection to Witchcraft with it.

Also, just so you're clear, the defendents in the Salem Witch trials, were  for the most part faithful Christian women who wouldn't have known a Witch if  one bit them on the butt.  However, some of them were likely herbalists and  healers and midwives, and were likely putting the "real" physicians'  practices in jeopardy by treating a fever with willow bark tea (which worked)  as opposed to leeching (which didn't.)

Wicca, as every Witch will admit freely, is not the same religion practiced   by Pagans of hundreds of years ago.  As practiced today, it is relatively  new, even though many of the traditions and symbols and some of the spells  from long ago have been preserved and are used today.  As you said yourself,  older doesn't mean better.  But there is wisdom and beauty to be found in the  religions of days gone by--just as there are wisdom and beauty to be found in  every religious practice.

The number one rule of Wicca is this: Harm none.

The main difference between Wicca and Christianity (since that is the  religion you used most for comparison in your piece) is that Christians  believe their way is the only way, and everyone who believes differently is
damned to spend eternity in hell. It can be a bit divisive in this regard.   In fact the belief in any religious system that it is the only right way, has  the cause of more wars, and bloodshed than anything else in the history of
the world.

Wiccans believe there is no one way.  We are all connected to each other, and  to God.  We don't believe God is female.  We don't believe God is male.  We  address the creator as both Goddess and God simply because it makes it easier  for us to identify with these aspects of what is in truth a force too immense  for the human mind to comprehend.  We believe God is the sum total off all of  us, that we are all a part of God, and that God is male and female, darkness  and light, ancient and newborn, joy and sorrow, sun and moon, life and death,  and everything else.  Because everything that exists sprang from God--The  Source.  But your information that Wicca only recognizes the female part of  deity is off the mark.  We believe that God is both, and we also believe that  human beings have masculine and feminine sides to them--both sides exist  within every one of us, male and female.  And neither is in any way superior  to the other.  In fact, we strive to teach newcomers the value of embracing  both sides.  One without the other is powerless.  The key to it all is  balance between the two.  Masculine energy is seen as force without form.   Femine energy, as form without force.  Each impotent without the other.   Combine force with form (or containment and direction) and you can do  anything.

And please don't go by The Craft, or Practical Magic, or Sabrina or Charmed.   These films and TV shows have bits and pieces of Wicca in them, but they're  taken totally out of context, and used for dramatic effect, rather than  honestly.  In Charmed, religion isn't even mentioned.  In the Craft, they  were shapeshifting, for heaven's sake.    None of that is any more  representative of Wicca than....than Catholicism was represented by The  Flying Nun.

Actually, Wicca is a beautiful religous system that is loving, and tolerant  of all others, and embraces everyone's ability to choose for themselves the  religion that suits them.  We can only hope that someday all those other
systems will be tolerant of us, as well.   No doubt you've had letters that  give you reason to believe otherwise.  But Wiccans are an imperfect lot just  like everyone else, and there are hot tempered inidividuals among us.   However, turning anyone into a toad is totally against the rules.

=)
Blessings to your and yours,

Maggie Shayne
Maggie@maggieshayne.com
www.maggieshayne.com