Wicca: Not What You May Think.
This is the original version. About Paganism is the corrected version, minus the part about Beltane.
Who do you worship? Do you worship Allah, all knowing and merciful? Do you worship Father, Son and Holy Ghost? Are you a pantheist who does not differentiate between creation and the creator? Maybe you're an atheist who sees nothing to worship, but seeks the answers to age old human questions in science. In all organized belief systems, something is held as sacred, even if not expressed in that way.
Wiccans, and other neo-pagans, hold the earth as sacred. She is the mother who gives birth to us all. She is the one to whom we return after death and who gives us new life.
Some religions see life as a struggle between good and evil. God is life, is joy, is good. Satan is death, is misery, is evil. Wiccans see life as balance. Darkness balances light. Masculine balances feminine. Death balances life. None of these things can exist without its other side. The other side of the mother is the father. Thus we worship the Goddess and the God, not as opposites, but as two parts of the whole. Neither is the embodiment of total good or total evil. Each has both light and dark aspects. It is the divine feminine and the divine masculine creating the divine whole.
So you can understand why we roll our eyes when people claim that we worship Satan. In order to worship Satan, we would have to accept the Christian concept of an all good god being opposed by an all evil fallen angel both of which are masculine constructs. Believing in Satan does not leave room for the divine feminine. Without the divine feminine, there is no Wicca.
While Wicca borrows concepts from ancient paganism, it is not a direct-line descendent. Neo-paganism only goes back to 1949. That's the year a retired British civil servant, Gerald Gardner, published the book High Magic's Aid, under the name "Scire". In 1951, Parliament repealed the Witchcraft Act of 1735. This made it possible for people to openly explore Gardner's ideas.
Gardener, with the aid of Doreen Valiente, developed what we now call the Gardenarian Tradition of Wicca. Not everyone who joined agreed with everything that Gardener was teaching. One of the dissidents, Raymond Buckland, carried his ideas of neo-paganism to this country. He formed his own coven. Not everyone who joined agreed with everything that Buckland was teaching. They went off and started their own covens. In less than fifty years, the concept spread. Today, there are several traditions of Wicca. It was the Protestant Reformation at high speed and without the violence and bloodshed. The various traditions meet each other as friends and work together to overcome fear and prejudice.
Where do you worship? Do you worship in a magnificent cathedral with gold ornaments and beautiful art work? Do you worship in a store front church with folding chairs and an altar that one of the members made? Do you go outside, appreciate the natural things that you see and call that worship? What do you call sacred space?
Wiccans do not depend on a structure made with human hands. We create our sacred space where we can. We prefer the outdoors but are willing to create it indoors. Instead of defining the space with walls, we define it with a circle. We draw the circle with a ritual blade called an athame. This is the athame's only function. The ritual, or service if you prefer, is held within this sacred space.
We know that ancient pagans held their rituals in circles. The most famous evidence of this is Stonehenge. But why a circle? In a circle, there is no head or foot. All points along the circumference are equal. Each participant is equal. A circle has no corners. It is, therefore, more suited to containing energy.
Now comes one of the most misunderstood aspects of Wicca. An important part of our ritual is raising energy, a cone of power. This energy is needed to cast spells. What does that mean, exactly? A spell is a statement of a desired end or goal. You would not be wrong to think of it as a prayer. After all, what is a prayer? It is a statement of a desired end or goal. The difference is in how the spell or prayer is directed. Prayers are directed to a deity. The supplicant is asking the higher power to grant a favor. A spell is directed to the object of the spell. The supplicant is using the built up energy toward achievement of the desired end or goal. What are these desired ends or goals? The same sort of things anyone prays for — love, healthy children, peace, etc. Just as praying for someone to be harmed is a misuse of prayer, casting of a harmful spell is a misuse of magick. Which gets us to the next question.
What is your moral code? Is it based in the Ten Commandments? Is it based on the concept of accumulating merit and earning your way into heaven? Is it based on the idea that we are all residents of the same ecosystem and therefore need to work together?
The Wiccan moral code is based on two ideas. First is the Wiccan rede, which says: "An ye harm none, do as you will.?" Unfortunately, a lot of people remember the second part and do not notice the first part. It says: "harm none." Only if you are causing no harm can you do whatever you want. So, can you cheat on your spouse? No. This would do harm to at least three people, more if you have children. Can you dump garbage in the park? No. This would harm the ecology of the park and may result in higher taxes. I'm sure that you can come up with other examples.
The second idea is called the Rule of Three. This says that whatever you do will come back to you times three. It is similar to the saying: "Cast your bread upon the waters and it shall be returned to you." Or maybe: "As ye sow, so shall ye reap." Christianity also did a lot of borrowing from ancient paganism. Because of these similarities, some people prefer to call this the Law of Return. It does not change the meaning.
How do you pray? Do you kneel, holding your hands together, and speak to God. Do you stand, repeatedly bowing from the waist, and read from a prayer book? Do you kneel with your face on the ground and say your prayers? Wiccans stand, or sometimes sit, in a circle. We call upon the spirits of the four sacred elements, earth, air, fire and water. Each is associated with one of the directions, north, east, south and west. We invite the Goddess and the God to join us. We cast the circle. When we need to raise energy, we do so by beating drums and shaking rattles. We then state the reason for the ritual. Most often we are celebrating one of the seasons of the year. We bless the food that we are going to eat at the end of the ritual. Finally we dismiss the four directions, thank the Goddess and God and then open the circle. We then share food and drink.
What holidays do you celebrate? Do you celebrate the birth of Christ? Do you celebrate the birth of Guru Nanak? Do you celebrate getting to the end of the Torah and starting all over again? Wiccans celebrate the seasons of the year.
Our calendar is based on The Wheel of the Year. There are eight sabats, each having to do with a season. The year starts with Samhain, appropriated as Halloween by Christians. This is the time of harvest and remembrance of our dead. Next comes Yule, the winter solstice. Darkness has triumphed, but light is not dead. Next is Imbolc, also called Brigid. The light begins to grow. Ostara, or Eostar, is next. Spring has returned. Light and darkness are in balance. This is followed by Beltane or May Eve. Now the Lady and Lord meet and rejoice together in the warm sun. This is the dance of life. Near the end of June we celebrate Litha, the summer solstice. We now see the Goddess as Mother Earth and the God as Sun God and King. As August starts we celebrate Lughnasad. The God is the Corn King who dies with the waning year. The Goddess, the Mother, is the Reaper. She accepts the Gods sacrifice so that the people may live. As harvest begins, we celebrate Mabon. This is a time of thanksgiving. It is also the time of the waning of the light. At the end of next month is Samhain and the cycle begins again.
Next week is Beltane. In the words of Christina Aubin:
Beltane is the last of the three spring fertility festivals, the others being Imbolc and Ostara. Beltane is the second principle Celtic festival (the other being Samhain). Celebrated approximately halfway between Vernal . . . equinox and the . . . Summer Solstice. Beltane traditionally marked the arrival of summer in ancient times.*
In the cycle of birth and death, Samhain marks the time of winter darkness. That is when the God lays the dead at the feet of the sleeping Goddess so that she may give them new life. Beltane marks the time of summer light. The Goddess has awakened and the God is prepared to help her in the act of re-creation. Ancient peoples built fires to encourage the birth of the sun. Today, we simply celebrate the return of the sun and the promise of the coming warmth. We still like to light fires, but we know that the sun will have its rebirth whether we use sympathetic magic or not. Like Samhain, this is a time when the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead is very thin. Unlike Samhain, we do not use this time to speak of the dead. Rather, we use this time to look forward to new life. This is the time of fertility. The main symbol that is used is the maypole. It represents the coming together of the Goddess and the God. Again, Christina Aubin:
The Maypole is an important element to Beltane festivities, it is a tall pole decorated with long brightly colored ribbons, leaves, flowers and wreaths. Young maidens and lads each hold the end of a ribbon, and dance revolving around the base of the pole, interweaving the ribbons. . . . As the dancers revolve around the pole the ribbons will weave creating a pattern, it is said that the pattern will indicate the abundance of the harvest year. *
What is the symbol of your belief system. Do you use the cross to remind yourself of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Do you use the wheel to remind yourself of the cycle of rebirth? Wiccans use the pentacle to remind us of the five sacred things — earth, air, fire, water, and spirit. Most traditions use it with the point up. This further reminds us that there is a higher power. The Goddess and God were here before us and they will be here after us. There is also the human tendency to look up when being positive.
So, what is Wicca? It is a reconstructionist religion based on the more positive aspects of different ancient pagan religions. It is, therefore, a neo-pagan religion. It is an ethical earth based religion. It celebrates the seasons of the year with group rituals. Its followers are usually polytheists or pantheists. It recognizes that life is diverse and therefore welcomes diversity and respects everyone's right to believe as they will. Wicca is at once a very ancient and a very modern religion. It is older than Christianity, Judaism and even Zoroastrianism. It is younger than a lot of people in this room. It is the hidden past of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It is the fastest growing religion in the United States today even though is one of the smallest religions.
Some Wiccans gather in picket lines to protest war. Some of us proudly serve in the armed forces. We are nurses, social workers, computer programmers, lawyers, students, factory workers and many other positions in life. We are black, white, yellow and brown. We come from a variety of backgrounds. We are your neighbors.
We wish you peace. Blessed be.
*Beltane — Holiday Details and History, Posted on The Witch's Voice
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