Wicca—one of the most recognizable pagan religions today in the USA and Great Britain—is also unfortunately, like many pagan religions, still greatly misunderstood by the general population: mainly due to the media’s often inaccurate or highly skewed presentation of Wicca and Wiccan practitioners. This inaccurate depiction of Wicca and Wiccans often leads to people lumping Wiccans together with occultists and Satanists and all the negative connotations that surround those words. Luckily, Wiccans are neither occultist nor Satanists. Instead Wiccans are part-witch-part-pagans whose unique beliefs, traditions, and practices set them apart from other witches and pagans.
A large part of being a Wiccan is also being a witch. But what exactly makes a witch a witch? To some a witch is a person who is an old crone with green skin and warts casting spells over bubbling cauldrons to bring misfortune to others. To others a witch is someone who casts a spell by wrinkling her nose and reciting silly incantations in order to improve her life and that of her family. Then to others a witch is someone who goes to a school for witches and wizards and uses magic to fight the forces of evil. The thing all these definitions have in common is that witches use magic. What then is magic? Magic, or magick as it is sometimes spelled to differentiate it from stage illusions, according to Geraldine Giordano, is simply “the movement of energy for a purpose” (59) through intent and concentration. This means that praying and ill wishing, which according to Rosemary Ellen Guiley is a type of cursing that involves envisioning or hoping that misfortune befalls someone else (95), can be considered magic. This is certainly not how magic is displayed in the med...
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...cepting and open. Because in our ever-shrinking world when one is hurt—all are hurt.
Work Cited
Giordano, Geraldine. Everything You Need to Know About Wicca. New York: Rosen, 2001. Print. Everything You Need to Know About.
Guiley, Rosemary E. Witches and Wiccans. New York: Chelsea House, 2008. Print. Mysteries, Legends, and Unexplained Phenomena.
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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.
Woman/man may become a witch through the influence of another witch or contact with another witch. Witches do not intend to do harm; they are as much the victims of witchcraft as those upon whom they practice it. They have innate power and often don’t know what they are doing. The belief in witchcraft helps people explain the causes of illness, death and misfortune experienced by a person or a group when no other explanations can be found. Most of the time when witches create injury and calamity, they are punished by death, sometimes by exile.
In discussing the Jewish sentiment about paganism, Plaskow reveals that hatred of other religions, reinforced by religious texts and aspects of culture can cause Jews to not know how other traditions have shaped their own. Plaskow argues that by hating paganism, the Jewish community misses out on parts of their own history. By pushing away paganism, Jews disguise “the important role that concrete artifacts played in ancient Jewish practice” (Plaskow, [Jewish Anti-Paganism], 1999, 111-112). By ignoring this fact, Jews prevent themselves from seeing the entire picture and the history of their tradition’s beginnings. Additionally, by being uneducated on how women played roles such as “dancers and diviners, musicians and priestesses” in the early days of their religions, Jews have allowed their tradition to exclude “women from religious leaderships” (Plaskow, [Jewish Anti-Paganism], 1999, 112). While Plaskow does not believe that paganism be directly incorporated into the Jewish tradition, only that the paganism should be attended more “closely and critically” in order for the tradition to not suppress “real human beings and distort our understanding of ourselves” (Plaskow, [Jewish Anti-Paganism], 1999,
Sabina Magliocco, in her book Witching Culture, takes her readers into the culture of the Neo-Pagan cults in America and focus upon what it reveals about identity and belief in 21st century America. Through her careful employment of ethnographic techniques, Magliocco allows both the Neo-Pagan cult to be represented accurately, and likewise, scientifically. I argue that Magliocco's ethnographic approach is the correct way to go about this type of research involving religions.
Does Wicca mean evil? Is Wicca a witch? These are just a few descriptions and questions of what people believe Wicca represents. When I hear the word “Wicca”, I right away think of a witch. There is witches and witchcraft in Wicca but it is not about Hocus Pocus and spells. Wicca is a religion and not just a religion with one God but the belief of many Gods. Wicca is an earth based religion. I believe Wicca’s beliefs is similar to that of the Hinduism religion. There are three topics in Wicca that stood out to me the most. The first topic that stood out to me was the Wicca’s belief in how creation came to be, the second topic is the many Gods and deities that the Wiccan religion believes in, and the last topic that was the most interesting
The controversies that surround Wicca start with its exact origin. There are some who believe that it has its origins in Witchcraft due to the similarities between the two. Witchcraft itself is a Pagan practice [polytheistic and non-Christian, Muslim and Jewish in origin] that began with the Celts around 700 B.C. As the movie The Burning Times depicts, the region during this time period was primarily a rural culture so the Celtic traditions were based completely on Nature. Their months were even named after trees and their festivals revolved around the solstices and equinoxes (Steiger). A polytheistic religion, they worshiped a host of female and male deities and are most notably associated with the concept of Goddess worship, a strong belief in the divinity of the female (Burning Times). These paganistic beliefs and rituals gradually over the centuries combined with other European religious practices, such as magic, potions, and ointments for healing, to form what we call in modern times Witchcraft. Groups who did not hav...
Murphy, Kate. Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft. University of Virginia, 2001. Web. 6 Dec. 2013
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.
What images come to mind when you think of witches? Many people immediately imagine a black pointy hat, bubbling cauldron, green warty skin, and Halloween. Usually the image that comes to mind is something scary and evil. Real witches do exist. Most modern witches go by the label Wiccan now. Wiccans practice Wicca, which is a nature-based religion with many different branches or denominations. The basic tenant of all Wicca is called the Three Fold Law. The Three Fold Law states that whatever you do will come back to you times three, good or bad, so do not cause harm or, in other words, “harm none”. It is kind of like the concept of karma in one lifetime. There is debate over how old the religion actually is with some saying that it is an ancient religion that pre-dates Christianity and some saying it is more modern, starting in the 1950’s with Gerald Gardener. Regardless of how old the religion is, Hollywood’s portrayal of witches often does have some kernel of truth, albeit sometimes it is hard to find.
What do you think when someone calls someone a witch? What comes to mind? Do you think of the movie, ‘Hocus Pocus’ or do you think of the black pointed hats and the long black, slit ended dresses? What about witchcraft? Does the term “Devil worshiper” ever cross your mind? Do you think of potions and spells? For many, many generations, we have underestimated what the true meaning of a witch and what witchcraft really is. What is the history that hides behind it? Witches and witchcraft have been in our history since the ancient times. There is a little bit more than the ghost stories told on Halloween, the movies shown on TV and dressing up on Halloween.
Lehmann A. C. & Myers J. E. Magic, Witchcraft and Religion – An anthropological Study of the Supernatural (Fourth Edition) (Mayfield Publishing Company, 1997)
In general witchcraft is sorcery, the magical manipulation of the supernormal forces through the use of spells, and the conjuring or invoking of spirits. Wicca is the most common witchcraft. During the middle ages and the renaissance, it was defined as evil magic. This is the very reason Joan of Arc was burned at the stake; she was accused of being a witch. Although many think that it is a religion that worships the devil, Wicca does not have anything to do with worshiping the devil or Christianity. The most common form of witchcraft is done with the use of spells. To set a spell, the person doing it will set up an altar/table in which to place the candles and symbols on. The spells consist of words that can either be chanted or inscribed in something. The candles are used to direct the spell towards a specific purpose, such as: pink-love, white-healing and peace, and black-death. These colors can be used for different meanings; however, these are the standard meanings. There are many other colors out there with their own unique meanings, like if a spell was being set on a person; a candle that was their favorite color could be used. The symbols used consist of charms, pictures, flowers and belongings depending on the spell being set. These symbols must represent the spell and they cannot just be anything done quickly without thought. For example, if the person were trying to make their friend heal from a sickness a picture of the person or something that represents them would work.
III. Smithson, Jayne. “Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion.” Class lectures. Anthropology 120. Diablo Valley College, San Ramon 2004.