What is Wicca??
To answer this question in my words, I shall first tell a story @:) Oh goodie I hear you say..story time!!!
This all started about two years ago I guess (give or take) I was reading a magazine which had an article about a band called DEF FX, the lead singer was being interviewed (Fiona Horne) and she was telling the magazine that she was a wiccan.
I read the article and thought...what the heck is a Wiccan?? So being my usual curious self..I read on and she told the magazine, that Wicca is a pagan religion with roots in Shamanism (the very first religion) and many other earth based religions. Wicca is quite new in comparison to other pagan religions as it is fairly eclectic in its approach. It combines the best of pagan religions and also offers the Wiccan a very open and free form of worship.
But I digress @:), I finished the article and was quite interested in what she had to say. I decided to do some research...mainly on the internet (I'll have some good links to go to soon) and I found a STACK of info!!! I couldn't believe that there was so much about it on the net. I downloaded and printed as much stuff as I could handle and read and read and read! The main thing that appealed to me about Wicca and Paganism in general was the fact that they don't have churches or temples as such, their places of worship are forests, open plains, beaches, basically anywhere in nature. I have always loved nature (especially the water) and this religion instantly hit it off with me @:)
So after reading all these web pages, I decided to buy some books that were highly regarded in the pagan community. My first book was Wicca by Scott Cunningham. It was really interesting and had several explanations on Wiccan customs and celebrations as well as an overview on their beliefs etc. I can thoroughly recommend it as a starting point.
My curiosity was certainly stirred and I had what a good friend of mine called "an itch in the mind" and I talked to many people over the net on such channels as #wicca, #pagan_tea_house and #triplegoddess. The people on these channels were very helpful and were always there when I needed to ask some questions. It was through one of these channels that I met my very dear friend Alithea. She has taught me (and still does) many things about paganism, wicca, in fact a heck of a lot of stuff!!! She was always there at the right time when I needed help with something and always had such an insight to what I was going through. Her wealth of information and humour always made it easy to talk to her about everything! Love and Blessed Be to her always @:)
Just to clear anything up by the way...Pagans are not devil worshippers or people who sacrifice humans or animals in their rituals!! There has been an inordinate amount of negativity associtated with Pagans from the middle ages and there are still people these days with a mindset that Pagans are evil. Quite simply, this all started because of the simple fact that humans are afraid of what they can't explain. Before christianity came to Europe etc, peasants and farmers would worship the coming of seasons and would celebrate these special times so that their crops would have a good year. Basically, they revered nature and lived a peaceful life amongst it.
Then, when the christians came along and saw that these pagans were worshipping something other than the christian god, they didn't try and find out about it, they simply labelled them as devil worshippers. They didn't accept the fact that there are other gods or goddesses in this world. SO, many many many people were killed as being witches whether they were or not. This disgusting blotch in history is known to witches these days as the burning times.
Witches were forced to work in silence and secrecy so that they would not be killed. Fortunately, paganism still survives today and is also finding a place in many people's hearts these days. People like myself have searched for a different type of religion that is earth based and also very personal at the same time.
Paganism is very very different from christianity in quite a few different ways! First of all, none of us are born into this world with original sin, therefore we need not think that we are going to be damned in hell if we don't worship the christian god. Pagans believe in re-incarnation and that we go through many lives in order to perfect ourselves until such time that we reach Nirvana or Summerlands (there are many names for it).
Pagans also believe in Karma, for those of you who don't know, Karma is a teacher. Let's say that in this life, you life a very peaceful and loving life and try your hardest to be the best you can, in your next life you will be that much closer to reaching perfection. However, if you rape and pillage in this life, in the next life you might have a physical disorder or something and with that you are faced with an obstacle to overcome. If you overcome this and work toward perfection, in your next life you will not have a physical disorder. Basically it teaches you that whatever you inflict on others will eventually come home to haunt you. Wiccans also believe in the three-fold law, if you intentionally hurt someone then you will receive this back to you, but three times worse, the same goes for good deeds.
I shall be entering in some more information about my quest soon and also some cool links around the web!!
Stay Tuned!!!!
