knowingthecreator asked this question on 5/14/2000:

Please, what is Wicca?

casra gave this response on 5/15/2000:

Ok, Here we go. Wicca was not started by Gerald Gardner. Frankly I'm astounded that no one has mentioned Alex Sanders yet. Wicca as a root word means "wise". Wicca and/or witchcraft has been around for thousands of years, it far predates even the earliest forms of judeo-xianity. It has it's roots ini animism, basically the sympathetic practice of animal magic that is still practiced by many "primitive tribes" today. It does have elements of religious practice and is compatible with almost any other religion if you think about it. As a practice of magick, it has an enormous amount of involvment with nature, elements, and just about every pantheon of diety. It focuses heavily on divination and healing. "An it harm none" as well as the 3fold law are excellent guidelines but I find it odd that people forget the importance of protection and self defense. A good analogy might be, you know someone is doing something bad, the police can't seem to ever get enough evidence to do anything about it (oh yeah, that never happens?) so, you decide to use a few spells to make him stumble a bit and screw up in order to get him caught. Basically you're trying to increase his error rate to get him busted. Is that black, white or grey? Sure, you're helping society at large, but your'e also hurting him. Which do you do? You decide and take your lumps. What can you live with? Wicca, witchcraft, paganism, magick, etc etc etc.... No matter what you practice bear in mmind one thing, it's not all happy bunnies and sunshine out there and you need to weigh the pro's and cons. Be prepared to get your hands dirty.