I was contacted by students in a sociology class at Meredith College and asked to give a lecture about Wicca. I thought it might be worth posting...
WICCA, Old English for wise, the Craft of the Wise, Witchcraft, the Old Religion, has it’s origins in the wise men and women of the past. The Shamans, the Healers, the Medicine Men and Women, those people responsible for not only the physical health, but spiritual health as well, for those of their tribes, their villages, or their people.
When humankind was young, all was magic. But there were always those who not only respected and sought knowledge of that which was beyond our knowledge, but those who wished to connect to the divinity itself, to the originator of the magic. Most people had only time for survival, but there were those for whom survival was not enough. They would become the spiritual guides and healers for their people. They would seek to understand nature and its power to heal and it’s magic.
Were they all seeing and all knowing? No, just as today, no one person is all seeing and all knowing, that belongs to the divine. Many Wiccans believe that we all carry a part of the divine within ourselves. And it is through that part that we connect with the divinity and we attempt to communicate with the divine.
We feel the restless energy within ourselves and seek to express it. It is that energy that we use in our magic, or the energy within nature, or we may call upon the divinity itself. We know the outcome is not always certain, but we endeavor to precipitate change. Destiny, like a river, flows endlessly as it will. But if the river is small, like a stream, a person can possibly change its direction, even stop it perhaps, for a purpose, but this is never without consequence. As they say, “for every action there is a reaction”. Wiccans not only believe in not doing anything that harms others, the “Wiccan Rede”, we also believe in the “Threefold Law”. The Threefold Law, and variations of it, states that any magic done to others, will come back to you, in this case times three.
We also believe in the cycle of life, birth, death, and rebirth. And we believe in balance, the balance of feminine and masculine, that each is but one half of the whole. Certainly men and women can live, survive, and be happy without the other. But in nature, without one, the other can not survive, without both, no new life.
Wicca today is made up of as many different variations as there are people to think them up. It is an open and living religion that adapts to the individual, so that the individual can literally make their own personal version.
A religion, as such, that is a reflection of its practitioner, and must be viewed as such. If the person is caring, respectful, knowledgeable, honorable, then so will be their practice. But if the person is not, then their practice will not be, and it is a reflection of the individual, not the religion. Those who perform horrific acts in the name of a religion that specifically condemns those same acts are they themselves to blame, not the religion.
Ok, off the soap box. Some look at Wicca as a place for old tree hugging hippies, but within our ranks are doctors, lawyers, scientists, teachers, technicians, and every other kind of person imaginable. We have a deep love and respect of nature and of life itself. The majority of Wiccans I’ve meet are wonderful, loving, caring people. But we are, as any other group, not perfect, and some individuals far from it. If you want to find out more about Wicca or any other religion, the answers are as close as your laptop and the Internet. Just remember, like shopping for clothes, you want to pick what’s right for you, works best for you, and what you can afford, and leave the rest for someone else.
Blessings,
Eric “Ric” Moser
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