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The world of wicca essay witchcraft practices
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The history of Wicca is often debated by different people. It technically started in 1954, but was based on a mix of ancient religions. We will briefly cover the history of Wicca from caveman days all the way up to modern times in the following paragraphs.
In 1908, a statue known as the Venus of Willendorf was found in a cave near what is now Vienna, Austria. Archaeologists believe that the figure comes from 24,000 and 22,000 B.C. Similar statues have been found in a large area of Europe. The Venus of Willendorf has become a symbol of prehistoric art. Paleolithic Wo/Man believed in a multitude of gods and honored the spirit of each thing. Today, this is called Animism. As Wo/Man matured and traveled across Europe, he took his religion with him and the gods acquired different names. Wo/Man had also developed a belief in a life after death. Burial customs of the Gravettians (22000-18000 BC) showed burials with personal possessions. In some areas of Europe these ritual leaders, or priests and priestesses, became known as the Wicca, which means the “Wise Ones”. During the time of the Anglo-Saxon kings in England, the king would never think of acting on any important matter without consulting the Witan. In 2000 B.C. Babylon's Code of Hammurabi instructs people, "If a man has laid a charge of witchcraft and has not justified it, he upon whom the witchcraft is laid shall go to the holy river; he shall plunge into the holy river and if the holy river overcome him, he who accused him shall take to himself his house." By 350 B.C., the Celts had developed a priestly class called the Druids. Around the third century, AD in the pre-Christian Roman Empire, punishment by the State against witches who brought about another per...
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...urt of Appeals ruled that Wicca is a religion deserving First Amendment protection. The Internal Revenue Service has recognized Wicca as a legal religion, and given a tax-exempt status. Laurie Cabot founded the Witches’ League for Public Awareness. The American Civil Liberties Union came to the legal aid of witches arguing in court in 1999 that a Wiccan high school student should be allowed to wear the symbol of her faith to school.
Wicca has gone down through the history with its many trials and tribulations. It has a very colorful history, that can’t be covered all in one research paper.
E-Books:
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Wicca and Witchcraft by Denise Zimmermann and Katherine A. Gleason pages 17-27.
Buckland’s Complete Book of Witchcraft by Raymond Buckland pages 1-8.
Websites:
http://www.religionfacts.com/neopaganism/timeline.htm
In history the pagans have been viewed as godless infidels. Many who practice paganism live in fear related to the judgment of others that hold differing views on religion. Much of the persecution of the Pagan has been related to their practice of magic. What is amazing is that much of the magic once practiced by pagans was similar to that of modern medicine (Some Basic Pagan, n.d.). Despite their apprehension and fear of persecution, it has been reported that Paganism has been described as one of the most rapidly growing religious movements in the world today (Eilers, p.
Karlsen, Carol F. The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial America. New York: W.W.Norton & Co., 1987.
Yardley, Meg. "Social Work Practice With Pagans, Witches, And Wiccans: Guidelines For Practice With Children And Youths." Social Work 53.4 (2008): 329-336. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.
Liz, Kelly. “Moving in the Shadows: Violence in the Lives of Minority Women and Children” 10. Stonehocker, Kolbie“Witches, Wiccans and Pagans” Rita Morgan: Daily Life, Not Religion 2012 www.cityweekly.net 11. Annemaire de Waal Malefijt, “Religion and Culture: An Introduction to Anthropology of Religion” The United States of America 1989.
The term “Widdershins” (deriving from the Old High German words widar meaning “back/against” and sinnen, “to travel”) means “counterclockwise”, “anticlockwise”, “left-handed direction” or even “coursing in the opposite direction of the sun, in the Northern Hemisphere”. The earliest use of the word, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, shows up in 1513 in the form of the phrase ‘widdersyns start my hair,’, in other words, ‘my hair stood on end,’. ‘Hair standing on end’ or ‘wild/disorderly hair’, was the meaning of the term until the late 16th century, when its current meaning became particularly popular in the Lowland Scots and Scottish Gaelic.
One of Magliocco's main arguments is that these Neo-Pagan cults all have roots in both anthropology and folklore in their early development. Magliocco offers a detailed historical analysis and examines influences found all the way back to classical traditions. She concludes this analysis by bringing her reader back to the contemporary and offers us insight into how both the fields of anthropology and folklore have helped shape Neo-Paganism into what it has become today.
When discussing it, often a reference is made to the word itself and its origins, but the discussion quickly starts to focus on The Wiccan Rede and its moral consequence.
The Wiccan religion is one of the fastest growing religions in the United States as well one of the most misunderstood due to the controversies surrounding its history and mystery shrouding its beliefs and doctrines. Due to a series of popular TV series that have shown Witchcraft in a positive light, such as Sabrina, the Teen-aged Witch and Charmed, the popularity of Wicca has grown, especially amongst teenagers; but sadly this popularity has not been partnered with a growth in understanding and respect (Kaminer). Although Wicca offers a nature-oriented, egalitarian belief system with a rich collection of customs and rituals, ignorance and historically-rooted misconceptions still dominate public opinion.
Wicca Spirituality,Beltane: The Great Rite,Erin Dragonsong,http://www.wicca-spirituality.com/great-rite.html 4. ] Internet Book of Shadows at sacred-texts.com,Beltane: Its History and Modern Celebration in Wicca in America,Rowan Moonstone,http://www.sacred-texts.com/bos/bos032.htm
In the 1990s and 2000s, Wicca began to become recognized as a religion in popular culture. Aspects of Wicca were combined into the New Age movement, and a lot of Wiccans began to start using New Age beliefs and practices. Wicca was also began to be added in to movies, books, and shows; in 1996, the American film “The Craft” was released, it was about four witches who are changed by their power. The same year the tv series “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” came out, which was followed by “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, and then, the year after that, “Charmed” and the movie “Practical Magic”. While these were criticized alot by a lot of Wiccans, they did encourage many teenagers and young adults to learn more about the religion. Most covens and Neopagan groups did not allow people under eighteen into their coven, and so many teenagers started using books to find out more. Because of this, quite a few books were published to provide for them, including Silver Ravenwolf's Teen Witch: Wicca for a New Generation and Scott Cunningham's Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner. This helped wicca to get more younger people involved in their religion, and it has been thought that the reason why so many young adults are paying attention to the faith can "Be attributed to the fact that it tackles issues that teenagers are interested in — in a way that other religions...
Witchcraft is said to be the most widespread cultural phenomenon in existence today and throughout history. Even those who shun the ideas of witchcraft cannot discount the similarities in stories from all corners of the globe. Witchcraft and its ideas have spread across racial, religious, and language barriers from Asia to Africa to America. Primitive people from different areas in the world have shockingly similar accounts of witchcraft occurrences. In most cases the strange parallels cannot be explained and one is only left to assume that the tales hold some truth. Anthropologists say that many common elements about witchcraft are shared by different cultures in the world. Among these common elements are the physical characteristics and the activities of supposed witches. I will go on to highlight some of the witch characteristic parallels found in printed accounts from different parts of the world and their comparisons to some famous fairytales.
In Jw.org it states that thousands of people in European colonies died and millions of others suffered from torture, arrest, interrogation, hate, guilt, or fear. Also there was well over seventy percent of the people accused of witchcraft was women especially the poor, and or elderly. Therefore no one was safe not even the men, rich or poor. In the case of being accused of being a witch it state that if you are going to be blessed which means to be thrown into deep water that if you were to float then you were to be hanged on the spot but if you sunk then you were deemed as innocent so you do not get hung you get pulled out. Also another way to be deemed as a witch is to look for the devils mark which consist of a complete inspection of the body. Therefore modern day witchcraft did exist all over the world and thousands of people were accused of witchcraft and thousands also lost their lives due to scapegoating.
WITCHCRAFT: The word witchcraft comes from the word “Wicca.” Wicca means the wise one. Witchcraft is to be believed as a pagan worship and or religion, a stereotype as a “magical phenomenon. In 1000 A.D., the practice of witchcraft became a threat to the Christians and their beliefs. They believe that wit...
Lehmann A. C. & Myers J. E. Magic, Witchcraft and Religion – An anthropological Study of the Supernatural (Fourth Edition) (Mayfield Publishing Company, 1997)
III. Smithson, Jayne. “Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion.” Class lectures. Anthropology 120. Diablo Valley College, San Ramon 2004.