Wicca: A New Old Religion

There’s no doubt that everyone is looking for the answers to life’s big questions. Why are here? Is there more to life? What happens when we die? Millions of people around the world find their answers to these questions in various religions. While nearly everyone knows about Christianity and Judaism in America, many people no little to nothing about Wicca. Unfortunately there are many misconceptions about contemporary Wicca, even that it is satanic worship or a cult. However, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Wicca is a very peaceful religion that hinges on harming none and being kind to the world around you. Wicca is sometimes referred to as the Old Religion because of the similarities of the Paganism of long ago, however contemporary Wicca is in fact one of the newest religions around, beginning in the late nineteenth century.

Wicca’s central belief system focuses around the worship of the Goddess and God. Religions all over the world believe in a female goddess that is the mother figure of the world. The Goddess is usually worshipped as the triple goddess which means the triple form of the great Goddess, Mother, Maiden and Crone. According to Doreen Brown’s Wicca for Beginners, the Great Goddess is “at once the Mother of all life, creation, and the nourisher of all beings” and in Wicca this is especially tied to the natural world and its cycles (Brown). This a principle belief in Wicca. The Maiden-Mother-Crone is a triple force that acts as one deity somewhat similar to that of Christianity’s trinity. Maiden is representative of new beginnings, morning, spring, innocence and beauty. The Mother represents summer, nature, responsibility, marriage and nurture. The Crone represents night and winter, judgment and wisdom. She...

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...gion, but it has shown no sign of decline. The idea of living your life as you wish so long as you harm no one is certainly a beautiful practice that doesn’t seek to punish and control human nature, but celebrate and trust in it instead. While Wicca is an eclectic, inclusive religion that hinges on individual belief practice, there is no doubt that many people all over the world strongly believe in Wicca and consider the Great Goddess and Horned God sacred. They are both transcendent and immanent through ritual and represent how close the Divine is to us in daily life.

Works Cited

Brown, Doreen. Wicca for Beginners: Spelling It Out!. Get Publishing, 2014.

Cunningham, Scott. Wicca: A guide for the solitary practitioner. Llewellyn Worldwide, 1988.

Sabrina, Lady. Exploring Wicca: The Beliefs, Rites, and Rituals of the Wiccan Religion. Career Press, 2006.