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Religion Wicca
Religion Wicca
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Wiccan religion: The Goddess and Gods of the Wiccan Religion
"Wicca is the most prevalent form of reconstructionist neo-paganism in the United States and is the pre-Christian spirituality of the Celtic peoples who resided in the British Isles and Brittany and on the western coast of France." Wicca is a religion based upon deep personal understanding of oneself and the multi-verse in which one resides.
They work with the Gods and Goddess that call to us, and we develop relationships with them that help and support them in their evolution.
Wicca is a spiritual path, a way of seeing the world and Divinity, and our relationship to it. They believe that Goddess is imminent in the world around us. Goddess permeates every living thing, and most of them define rocks, soil, water, air, fire, and the plant herself as living things. "The God of Wicca is the Horned God, the ancient God of Fertility: the God of the forest, flock, and field and also of the hunt." He is Lord of Life, and the Giver of Life, yet he is also Lord of Death and Resurrection. http://www.interlog.com/~spawn/gods.html
Wicca is considered to be a radical faith in spite of significant numbers of goddess devotes who are extremely conservative in their lifestyles and the tenets they hold. The wiccan religion is not solely a women’s faith. While their are "women-only" groupings, and women-led, or women-predominant ones, there are just as many mixed gender groupings, in some of which men are dominant. There are also numerous solitaries, both women and men.
In Wicca, practitioners notice the holy duality of the sexes in nature and in themselves, and worship the Divine as both God and the Goddess. Most modern Wiccans feel that while the God and Goddess are separate and equal, there are also two separate sides of the same coin: all in one. And all that they see, touch, feel, hear, or sense is Holy. The Goddess is known as "The Powerful Lady Mother" each of whom could appear in many, guises depending on the personal needs of the individual invoking them. The God is known as the "Horned God." The Horned God is the group soul of the hunted animal, invoked by the primitive shaman and the tribe.
"The Goddess, whether Gentle Lady-Mother or thundering and Powerful Seductress has never really been broadly attached specifically to an animal form as much as the God was.
Paganism is a belief system that holds to the ideology of the existence of gods and goddesses, which the Pagans believe affect and interact with one?s daily life. Most pagans hold to a polytheistic view of theology. Some pagans choose to worship a pantheon of deities, while other seek to have a more intimate and personal relationship with only one of their gods. They hold to the view that their gods embody certain attributes such as strength, love and intellect. Some modern Pagans define their spiritual beliefs and practices as being ?Earth-based.? You will often hear the
In Hesiod’s Theogony and the Homeric hymns, we see various mothers many of which are gods. Throughout these texts there is a repeated behavior displayed by mothers; by analyzing them and their behavior one can determine what the role of a mother consists of in these texts. The actions of Gaia, the earth, her daughter Rhea, and the goddess Demeter display some of the key characteristics that make up the role of a mother in these ancient texts.
The growing practice of Neo-Paganism in America has caused many to turn their heads. The misunderstanding of the religion has caused many to equate the practitioners with the popular conception of typical "witches," that perform black magic rituals, satanic sacrifices, and engage in devil-inspired orgies. After many years, the Neo-Pagan community has cleared up many misconceptions through the showing that many of them do not engage in activities, and are rather participating in a religion, just as those would that participate in a Christian community. It's unacceptance continues, perhaps due to its non-conformity to the ideal of worshipping a Christian God. Through the use of ethnography, anthropologists and sociologists are able to present the public with a much different view than what we are bombarded with in popular media.
Defined by Margot Adler, writer for Reader’s Companion to U.S. Women’s History, “Wicca is the term commonly used to describe several different traditions of contemporary Paganism—an earth-centered religion that reveres nature; celebrates seasonal and lunar cycles; and worships a goddess, or many goddesses, or sometimes a goddess and a god” (637-638). It is a religion that focuses on worshipping an earth god or goddess, using their power and the earth’s elements for good. For a misunderstood religion it has much history behind it and a deep core belief system.
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 are similar to that of the Hindu 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 to read about is the reincarnation beliefs of a Wiccan.
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...
One first hand account is that of someone that could be said to have been born into Paganism, Daphne B, a 49 year old, who feels she is not Wiccan nor technically a Witch, but more Episcopagan,considering herself as a nature based but starry eyed mystical type stated, “ I come from a long line of traditional wise woman healers and herbalists from Appalachia.My ancestry are mixed from the British Isles, France, Germany, Shawnee and Cherokee, my personal motto pretty much sums up my attitude,,hold all sacred”
Every culture has some form of higher being, to be a model for their behaviour, as well as to look up to. In Greek times, these were the gods and goddesses who made their home on Mount Olympus. Women identified with the goddesses because they shared some feminine attributes. Goddesses were a “symbol of motherhood and fertility, but also of strength, wisdom, caring, nuturing, temperance, chastity, cunning, trickery, jealousy, and lasciviousness” (Clarke, 1999). However, not all of the goddesses possessed all of these attributes. The goddess Aphrodite, for instance, was not nurturing, nor was she very caring.
...ey also worship a goddess who changes with the phases of the moon. Another similarity is Christians and wick both have communion in wicca a chalice is passed around their wiccan circle so each witch can take a drink from the chalice. And the words “may you never thirst” are said to the person with the chalice. Even though both religions have communion they are for two completely different reasons. Christianity has communion as a reminder of the last supper which Jesus gave thanks and took bread and told his disciples that the bread is his body and the wine is His blood which is given to us for the forgiveness of sins. So even though both religions have communion this does not mean that they mean the same thing. Lastly both religions have a doctrine only where chriastianity has the bible wicca has the wiccan rede which is much shorter in comparison to the bible.
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.
also the goddess of war and the patroness of arts and crafts. Which led her to be a great leader
In considering the relationship between the meanings of myths and their representation of women, we learned that the major role in shaping the narratives was played by men. Myths reveal to us the experiences of women living in the patriarchal society and we gain the symbol value accorded to women and we come to realize what the term "Woman" meant to the ancient Greek man. Reading through the various stories on Goddesses and queens, monsters and more. Princesses, we learn that there are three major levels of women in Greek mythology. The first level is composed of the divine beings known as the goddesses.
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...
For example, the sun god is the god of the number four as well, and the moon goddess is the goddess of the number one. Inanimate objects had spirits, like animals and numbers, which had the ability to achieve the rank of deities (Thompson, 200).... ... middle of paper ... ...
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.