An Ordinary Girl, A Magical Child
An Introduction to the
Basics of Wicca
Yes, it's a "real" religion.
Yes, it's alive & well where you live.
Yes, it's a Nature religion.
Yes, it's ethical.
Yes, magic is a part of it.
No, it's not Satanism.
No, it's not New Age.
No, it's not like what you see in movies and sit-coms.
What is it like? Read on!
WICCA'S LORE
At the Sabbats, hundreds or maybe thousands of Witches gathered in woods and meadows to celebrate, performing planting and harvest rituals, working magic by the light of the Moon, and conducting rites of passage for young and old alike.
Driven underground by the brutality of the Inquisition, covens survived in midnight meetings, protected by hard-wrought spells and the courage of those who refused to betray their brothers and sisters, even under torture. So did Witchcraft wait in secrecy until, in the middle of the 20th century, Gerald Gardner dared to speak publicly about the Old Religion, inspiring hundreds of new dedicants and saving it from oblivion after centuries of hardship and persecution.
WICCA'S HISTORY
Ancient Paganisms were state religions, and mostly defunct before the Inquisition was declared; folk magics and customs lost their religious meaning. But the 18th and 19th centuries' Romantic Movement, stimulated by the Industrial Revolution, gradually turned fear of Nature into admiration. Scholars became convinced that folk-lore preserved an ancient Witch cult.
When Gerald Gardner "restored" this old religion, calling it Wicca for the first time, he believed he was reconstructing and only slightly modernizing an old faith. Subsequent scholarship (see Ronald Hutton's The Triumph of the Moon, Oxford University Press, 1999) suggests that Gardner was an avatar, not a fraud.
WICCA'S THEALOGY AND COSMOLOGY
Wicca is, for most of us, duotheistic. The Goddess is all that is eternal and generative; the God is all that dies and is reborn. They are "one and more than one": partners, not opponents.
She is the creative void, our field of being, the eternal source. She is grave and womb together; she is Maiden, Mother, and Crone. He is our experience and our inheritance. He is the grain we harvest and replant; he is the Horned One, the game we hunt to survive through the winter. He is her lover and son; deep in the Mother, he dies and is reborn annually.
OTHER BASIC BELIEFS
- All of life is interconnected, through time and space; and this web of life is holy.
- Humanity's natural state is harmonious and "at one" with life, the universe, and everything.
- There's plenty of ignorance and fear, and wonky brain chemistry, but no organized force or coherent entity of "evil."
- This world and the Otherworld(s) – Fairyland, the Astral Realms, the Land of Youth, the Summerland, "the other side," etc. -- are equally real and good.
- Psychic/paranormal talents are natural.
- Magic is a natural force, like gravity; how we use it is a matter of personal responsibility.
- Reincarnation happens. Like most natural functions and phenomena, it happens in many ways.
ETHICS
Ethics apply beyond magic, but jut for the record, the First Rule of Magic is not to do it on, at, for, around, to, or against anyone else without their explicit permission. Parents can work for their infants, but that’s the only exception. Period.
In everything we do, Wiccans follow the Rede: any ye harm none, do as ye will; and accept the Threefold Law: what you give to the world, the world gives back, threefold.
The Wiccan Rede is deceptively simple. Each of us must come to terms with its terms, harm and none. (Will is clarified for us, and isn't just what we "want to," but our deepest calling, our core purpose in life.) The Rede, and another belovéd liturgical piece, Doreen Valiente's Charge of the Goddess, make it clear that "love is the law," and that no one’s true will requires the denial of others’ true wills.
The Threefold Law can be taken as a warning: we need to be careful what energy we put into the worlds, for it's sure to find its way home again. But we also understand the Threefold Law (or Law of Three) as a promise! It lets us know that what we do in the world(s) matters, that our lives are meaningful in the universe, and that the Goddess cherishes us.
Blame and guilt are secular, social concepts. Wicca sees that our lives are more complex than a mundane tennis all tossed against a Newtonian backboard: our energies do return to us, but not unchanged, and not necessarily in clock-time. We dwell less on blame than on responsibility – the ability to respond.
WICCA’S LITURGICAL CALENDAR AND RITUALS
Wicca's liturgical calendar features eight Sabbats (solar holidays) and 13 Esbats (Moon meetings). Sabbats include Solstices and Equinoxes, along with two cross-Quarter days that non-Pagans call Halloween and May Day, and two more cross-Quarter days, Lammas and Bride.
Non-Pagans say "Halloween;" we say "Samhain," (pronounced sow-win), and it's the last of the harvest festivals and our New Year. Yule is what we call the Winter Solstice, when the Sun's reborn. Bride (pronounced breed) is the beginning of Spring. At the Vernal Equinox, we celebrate Ostara as mid-Spring. Beltane (May Day) starts the Summer season, and Litha (usually pronounced lee-ha) is mid-Summer, the Solstice. Lammas, from the Anglo-Saxon for "loaf mass," is celebrated at the beginning of August as the first of our three harvest festivals. Mabon is our name for the Autumn Equinox, and the main harvest festival.
On Sabbats we celebrate the stages in the God's life-cycle, and recognize the agricultural and astronomical seasons. It’s at our Moon Circles that we do our magics.
Oh, and yes, we do cast spells (see Ethics) and dance under the full Moon, and we do dance the Maypole. And if you’d like to join us, there might well be local opportunities.
HAVE QUESTIONS?
Ten years ago, it was still kind of hard to get much information about Wicca. These days, it’s easy. There are web sites like this one – and Witchvox – and lots of books, including a few of O'Gaea's.
Unfortunately, there are still lots of rumors and lies about Wicca, too. There are some non-Pagans who just can’t get it through their heads that Wiccans aren't Satanists. They're like people whose only tool is a hammer, and they need to see everything else as a nail.
So if you've heard things about Wicca that make you wonder ... if you’re interested ... or just plain curious, ask a Wiccan! There are plenty of us "out of the broom closet," so you can ask somebody with experience. Likewise, if you have questions about Druidry or Asatru (that's "the Viking religion"), find a Druid or an Asatruar to ask. If you have any sense of intellectual honesty, you owe it to yourself to make that effort.
Blesséd be!
Copyright © 2008 O'Gaea and Canyondancer. Used with permission.
For more information, contact Adventure Wicca
Post Office Box 35962
Tucson, AZ 85704-5962
www.AdventureWicca.com
www.AshleenOGaea.com
AdventureWicca@Comcast.net
