Wicca
is a belief system based in duality. That is to say that we believe in a Goddess
and a God. We celebrate living experience through the changing of the seasons.
On specific days called Sabbats
we meet to celebrate the continuing cycle of life, death and rebirth. For example
on Lammas we celebrate our Harvest time. which is much like "Thanksgiving".
We also meet at least once a month on the full moon to work and worship our
God and Goddess . These meetings are called Esbats, and it is at these times
that we work magic and give thanks to the Lord and the Lady for the many blessings
in our day to day lives. We feel that the Lady and Lord are the embodiment of
creative powers found in all things. These creative energies are both positive
and negative. That is not positive and negative in the sense of good and bad,
but in the sense of positive and negative polarities. We are considered a Pagan
religion.
The Mother Goddess
The God and Goddess are both equally important in our religion. Although the
Goddess is often given a higher priority than the God, it is only because He
allows this.
The Goddess is seen as the Mother Creatrix, she who gives us life and nurtures
us. Her power is symbolized in the Moon and the Earth and in all things/animals
domestic. We do not worship the Earth or the Moon as many believe we do, we
only praise the powerful creative energies that we see in the female energies
of the Moon and the earth. We believe that the Goddess manifests in three aspects,
these aspects are: Virgin, Mother, Crone, which correspond to the times in a
woman's life and the phases of the Moon.
The Horned God
The God is seen very much like the Goddess . He is the provider and the sustainer
for us.
The God is seen as the Father Creator. His power is symbolized in the Sun and
the forests and all things wild, especially those wild animals with horns.
Why Horns? In the tribal times hunters usually
hunted beasts with horns to provide food for the tribe for the coming winter.
An animal with horns was a prime catch as it usually had more meat on it then
say a rabbit. So to the tribe the Horns became as sign of abundance and then
a sign of divinity, thus the God became seen as one with horns to provide the
tribe with food for the coming hard winter.
We, as Pagans, do not worship the Sun or the forest but see it as the manifested
powers of the God and as such pay homage to such power. Like many Christians,
we see our God as having three aspects. Theses aspects are: Youth, Father, Grandfather
and like the Goddess these also correspond with the life cycle of men.
On Satan: Wiccans don't believe in Satan or any form of Ultimate evil.
We feel that all beings make choices in life, some choices are positive in nature
adding to the growth of the spirit and adding in spiritual advancement. Other
choices are negative in nature, blocking the spiritual evolution of the soul
and causing that spirit to have to relearn "the lesson" until they unblock their
growth process. There is no room for an ultimate evil, as all things must remain
in balance and the choices that you make for your own spiritual evolution are
all up to you .
On Jesus: Wicca doesn't ask you to give up any other beliefs to become a practitioner
of this belief system. So if you can incorporate Jesus and Christianity into
your own belief system along with Wicca then that's what works for you. That
is your magick and it is just as true as one who don't incorporate other religions
into their Magick. Do I believe he was my personal savior? No. I believe that
he was a very spiritually advanced man that incarnated on earth to teach and
guide mankind. Did he die for my sins? No I don't think so. I think he tried
to show us what is positive for the soul and what is used as a guide to encourage
us to grow spiritually, just as he shows us what is negative and slows the process
of growth in the spirit and evolution of the soul. I feel that many others ,
not just men, have directed us and guided us to "see" and understand what is
positive for the growth of the spirit and what causes blocks.
Once this has been shown to you, you are the one who makes conscious decisions
as to what you choose to do with your life what lessons you will learn and what
you will not. Up until that point you were still making those choices but not
on the conscious level , rather you are operating more on the subconscious level.
On Reincarnation:
We believe before you incarnate into this physical plane, Earth, you contract
with the God/dess on what lessons you would wish to learn in this life. Perhaps
in this life you must learn compassion, and you choose to do this through the
use of pain and illness. Perhaps you will learn happiness this time around so
that you have a balance on which to draw from during your spiritual growth and
evolution.
In all lives there are many lessons we choose to learn, if we accomplish learning
this lesson then there is no need to repeat it, but if you fail to learn the
lesson that you contracted for then you must return to learn it until you get
it right.
This also accounts for the cycles in your life, those situations that always
seen to occur over and over again.
The Pentagram:
The Pentagram is one of the most misunderstood symbols that we have. To followers
of the Craft, it is one of our Signs of Protection, much like the Christian
Cross or the Jewish Star of David.
The Pentagram denotes all the elements of creation and the spirit of man, how
they interact and are interdependent on each other .
The top point of the star is Man's spirit, the following right point is water,
then fire then earth then air, coming back to Man's spirit. The circle that
surrounds the star is the symbol of life, birth, and death and rebirth.
Satanists, and the media have taken this symbol and twisted it to make it represent
Satan. Yet to followers of the Craft all that an inverted Pentagram means is,
coming from the spiritual plane to the material plane and bringing those attributes
with you.
You may see another type of Pentagram, it shows a Pentagram right side up with
a smaller one inside inverted. To followers of the Craft this means, as it is
above, on the spiritual plane, so be it below, on the physical plane.
Sacrifice: The Craft is a gentle, nature loving religion and we do not believe
in letting blood or killing for the sake of killing or for sacrificial purposes.
We do not sacrifice animals or people , as Hollywood movie-land often shows.
The closest thing to a sacrifice one might find in a Grove, is that of food
or libations, or perhaps flowers.
When the food and libations are set out, it is with the full knowledge that
animals may partake of them and thus, the never-ending cycle of life, death,
and rebirth is continued.
The Law:
Wicca is a religion that encourages personal growth in all areas. Someone once
remarked that trying to make Wiccans follow rules is sort of like trying to
herd cats, it just is not done. That's how it is with rules.
We have no "Thou Shalt Not's" that are set down by our Goddess and God. Wiccans
and Pagans have no great book in which all their rules and regulations are cleary
spelt out for them. It is for this reason that if you go to 100 different Groves/Covens
you may find 100 different ways of doing things.We do all have one thing that
we agree upon however, and that is called the Wiccan
Rede. The shortened version of the rede is:
"Bide the Wiccan Law ye must,
In perfect Love and Perfect trust.
Eight words the Wiccan Rede Fulfill:
An' ye harm none, do what ye will.
Lest in thy self defense it be,
Ever mind the Rule of Three.
Follow this with Mind and heart
And merry ye meet. And merry ye part.
I would like to stress the "Harm ye none" line. This is the very foundation
of our belief system. The rule of Three mentioned here concerns our belief that
no matter what you do in this lifetime, be it positive or negative, it will
come back on you at least three fold.
Remember Tolerance is a two-sided coin, what you give is what you receive
Wicca is not an anti-Christian cult, is is merely a non-Christian belief system.
Basic belief systems of the Wicca religion and my personal beliefs
