WICCA - Explained
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I've forgotten who wrote this - but if you visit, then let me know and I'll put your name up!

Wicca, what is it really then?

Wicca is a faith, a religion, just like any other. We believe in the existence of the divine, we believe that a greater power than ourselves is responsible for creating the universe, and we believe that this power is present in all things.
In us, in the trees, in the wind, in the plants, water, seas, rivers. In the animals, in thunder and lightning, in the stars the sun and the moon. In short, in all.
When a Wiccan says a prayer to the moon, or celebrates life by casting a circle and sharing cakes & ale with friends. What we are really doing is worshiping God, by praying, worshiping, and celebrating the existence of Gods creation. When we do our work in aid of the planet, its Gods planet that we endeavour to look after.
The only major difference with Wicca and ohh lets just say for example Christianity :) is that we worship the divine (God in other words) manifest as primarily two deities. One male & one female, the God & Goddess or the Lord & Lady.
This represents the perfect balance of the divine, the harmonious and equal . For if God resides in all, how can God be purely male? How can God be one thing and not the other?
Similar in belief to some Hindus. Who although any individual may worship and pay homage to many Gods & Goddesses, s/he still realizes that in fact these different deities are all part of the one. That in worshiping Lord Ganesh, s/he is in reality worshiping, not a different God, but the aspect of wisdom, of the one God.
There is only one God.
How you choose to worship is not important. What route you take to God is not important. It is even unimportant if you fail to find God. The importance lies in the fact that you have tried, and that in trying you have treated the rest of Gods creation with love & respect. Read your Bibles (Yes I do read the Bible) and holy scriptures of other faiths. Within each one that I have studied it says that God asks two things of you:
Love your God, who created you and the universe for you to dwell in.
Love Gods creation as you love your God (Love thy neighbour)
Well I hope that this gives you a clearer picture. Yes its true, everything that you have been told about Witches is a lie. Not only do we believe in God, we actively worship it.

So what's this Satan thing all about then?

Ahhhh the ole' 'You worship Satan' thingy!
Well no we don't. When you think about it, saying a Pagan worships Satan is like telling a Jew that he worships Kali.
Satan is a part of Christianity. A Christian story a Christian myth. Okay now this myth may have been the churches ruse to demonize our horned God, then again it may not be. Either way it is a part of the Christian faith. I am not a Christian, therefore I hold no Christian values. I hold no belief in Christian mythology, and basically I just don't believe in the existence of the Christian Devil.
Again though having said that, I have spent a while thinking on the whole Satan concept.
If you realize that the word Satan, basically means adversary. Then what is this telling you. That Satan is Gods enemy? Well yes I guess so, if you are a Christian. However as stated above, I'm not Christian. So what does Satan mean to me?
Well again, this is only my personal view, and as of yet I have not meditated nearly enough on this issue to have made my mind up.
Satan=Adversary.
In many Indian faiths, there is an idea that to truly find God, one has to completely overcome human ego.
It is stated that the human ego, is the block that stops any one person meeting with God.
Now this block could be treated as an adversary of your self. A self imposed enemy that stops one seeing the ultimate truth.
The ego is the Satan within, that makes you concentrate on Earthly matters, when you mind should be focused on reaching God.
I have my Sikh brothers to thank for this idea.
Might be true might not be. I urge everybody to find out for themselves. That is what true spirituality is all about. Find your own way to God. I always say, 'my way may not be the right way, but it is the right way for me!'

Well what about all this nakedness then?

Yeah, yeah, I know, all about that. Heh the drunken orgies, the naked people everywhere. The swapping of partners etc. and so on.
Well really do ya know any religion that practices these sorts of things as a matter of course? Well I bloody don't :( might be fun though :)
Yes some Pagans, do perform their rites and ceremonies without cloths on. This is called going skyclad.
Me meself? heh what a wicked question!
Naaa I don't.
Some people will say that clothing impedes the flow of magikcal energy during a working. I have never had any problems though. Mind you I have never performed naked, so I don't know how much it helps :)
As in everything about Wicca though, the choice to go skyclad or not it just that. Your choice, nobody will force you to take you cloths off, if you would rather keep them on. Ohh yeah some groups/covens do practice all the time skyclad, however if you don't want to do it, you don't have to join them groups.
Also a lot has been made about your typical Pagans rather open view on sex and sexuality. This is no bad thing. Being open minded is good, being open minded means that you are always learning. You never close your mind to new ides, that could change your life drastically. Part of the Wiccan rede states:
'An ye harm none, do as thou will'
This means that every single person in the World has the right to live life as they see fit. As long as in doing so, you try not to cause any kind of harm to anybody. Again a personal interpretation. The whole idea of being Pagan though, is that if other people disagree with my ideas, they can say so, and I'll either take on board what they say or not. Either way as long as I'm doing no harm, my opinion is the correct one (for me) and I have the right to it, the same as everybody else. You can see how this makes for an open minded peoples. I may disagree with your ways, but if you believe in them, and your ways do not harm me, then who am I to judge you? That's not my decision to make.

Sooo what's with this Magik then?
Why is it spelt with that K?

Magik, with a K. This is to differentiate it from things like stage magic.
Magik, all that mumbo jumbo. You don't seriously expect me to believe that it works do you?
Heh now this, or variations on this, is what I hear an awful lot of. Yes believe it Magik, is real and it does work.
What is it though. Well that could be explained in a hundred different ways, and each one would be correct.
perhaps however the easiest is to liken it to highly advanced prayer.
When we perform a magikcal working, in essence what we are really doing is asking a higher power to intercede on our behalf.
Now call this higher power the inner self, call it the soul, call it your fetch, or call it God. Whatever you wish, the truth of the matter is this.
Remember that God is in everything, so even if I was to go out into a thunderstorm, invoke (or evoke) the power of Thorr, and ask him to lend me the force of the storm (something that has to be tried to be fully appreciated:)) I'm still dealing with God.
Thorr is to me the protective aspect of God.
It is Thorr's job to look after all the inhabitants of the realm of Midgard (The Earth)
He was also, many years ago the God of farmers. Who used to pray to him for a good crop etc. God is also present in the force of the thunder and lightning. So when I ask Thorr (God) to lend me the power of the storm (God) I'm beseching God, to lend me his aid.

Ohhh I think I'm begining to understand, but what else?

What else? Well although you may think that we all have separate ideas about our faith, and in some little ways we do all differ.
The root concepts of our faith, and the ideas that our people have seemed to arrive at off of their own backs, remain the same.
Those are:
There is a God.
We worship God as manifest via our Lord & Lady.
Most of us believe in reincarnation.
We all have the ability to work magik.
The majority of us are pyschicly gifted in some way (divination for me)
The Wiccan Rede. (see above)
The law of three: Whatever you do, will be visited back upon you threefold (this ties in well with the next one)
A belief in the law of Karma.
Open mindedness.
Meditation.
These are just a few thoughts on what and who we are.
Please before you condemn us, get to know us.
We are nothing special, or frightening, or evil.
We are your Brothers, Sisters, Mums & Dads. Your neighbours, work colleagues, bosses. We can be found dishing up your food, fighting for your country, policing your streets. Dancing on tables, looking after your children, teaching you kids. giving you driving lessons, saving your life, rescuing your kitten from a tree.
We are normal people, like you. We feel like you, we feel for you. Some of us love, some of us hate.
The only difference between me and a Christian is the same difference as between a Mormon, and a Sikh. I am of a different religion than you. That's it, that's all it is.