knowingthecreator asked this question on 5/14/2000:

Please, what is Wicca?

spiderchilde gave this response on 5/14/2000:

Wow! This is a difficult question to answer. Basically it would be like if I asked you to explain Christianity's philosophy in a paragraph length answer. ( Laugh) Okay..here's an abridged version of what I personally think Wicca is. I advise that you read MANY responses on this question, because I assure you that EVERY Wiccan has a different answer and by no means am I claiming that mine is the be-all-end-all answer.

Wicca is a pre-Christian pagan polytheistic religion that believes that God is a polarity of both male energy and female energy that manifests itself through nature. We believe that each and every thing is interconnected and affects us (humans) daily. For example, the changing cycles of the moon are honored as representing the changing cycles of life, i.e. growth (waxing moon to full moon), fertility or the fruition of life (full moon), and waning moon to new moon (harvest, death and replanting). These cycles also relate to the seasons. Many Pagan religions resulted from what was seen as most influential to the lives of the people at the time. During pre-Christian times, the planting, growing, and harvesting of crops for survival was seen as being most important as well as the seasons in which to plant those crops. The many Wiccan holidays revolve around the planting cycles which these first pagans and Wiccans followed for survival. The role of women at this time was to prepare the meals, organize the family, give birth to children, and generally as mothers and the providers of sustenance after the hunt or harvest. This is why Wiccans honor the Goddess figure as the mother of all things....the bringer of life..in one kind or another into the world...

BUT there is still MORE about Wicca that makes it complex. Wiccan belief revolves around natural cycles. The concept of the Goddess in Wiccan religion as being a Triple Goddess comes from the fertility cycle of women. The triple Goddess consists of Maiden, Mother, and Crone. The Maiden corresponds to the general age period of a woman before puberty and is the Goddess in her virgin aspect...pure, innocent, playful, childlike, naive, and at the beginning of her life. The Maiden is the "seed before it is ripe and planted". She is the potential for new things to come. She is the waxing moon..before it is full. Springtime is her season. The Mother corresponds to the general age period of a woman after puberty -her "birthing" years or the time period where she menstruates, has children or can become pregnant. The Mother is seen as the womb or "giver of life." She makes the Earth green, watches over her children (the humans on the Earth) by providing them with food, beasts to eat, and nurtures and cares for the Earth by causing rain and many other natural occurrences. Her season is Summer into Autumn or Harvest time and her moon-phase is the full moon. The Crone corresponds to the time of a woman's life where she is beyond her child-bearing years and is in menopause. She is wise from her frivolity as the Maiden, and has nurtured many creations, provided many crops, and has created fertility for all beasts and plants. She is death, but ALSO the promise of rebirth...for the cycle continues in life over & over again each year with the turning of the seasons. The Crone's season would be Winter...the time of stasis and the resting time for the Earth to be reborn when Spring comes and the waning to new moon phase.

The OTHER aspect of divinity in Wiccan faith is the God. Often times he is seen as a Triple God...just like the Goddess. He is seen as the Sun God who brings warmth and the long days of summer to Earth and sunlight to crops. He is seen as the Horned God of Plenty who brings fertility and growth to the Earth, and as the Lord of the Underworld who brings protection and rest to the Goddess during the transitory time between Her Crone aspect and the rebirth of Her Maiden aspect. He is both brother, husband, and child of the Goddess. Their connection is inseparable. He rules over the forests, the beasts that roam the land, hunting, the sun, and is the "seed" in which the Goddess as Maiden plants during the Spring season. What I mean, is that without the relationship the Goddess and God have, she cannot become pregnant with life to bring fertility to the Earth. During the Spring Equinox ( approximately March 21st), a Wiccan holiday is celebrated in which we honor the symbolic copulation of the Goddess with the God to create fertility and life on Earth. She then become "pregnant" with all life and "gives birth" to the fertility that is seen on Earth during the Summer and harvest. The role these aspects of divinity play in the Wiccan faith is inseparable. We cannot honor just one aspect in our faith, because without the other, life cannot exist.

BUT...Wicca is much more than just our views on divinity. We celebrate MANY Holidays and days of worship that revolve around the seasons, the planting season and the moon. Major holidays that revolve around the changing of the seasons or the Earth's natural occurrences are referred to as Sabbath. The rituals that take place to honor the phases of the moon as the reflect the continual cycles of womanhood are referred to as Esbats. Esbats are like mini-rituals between Sabbath in which Wiccans do magick to achieve a goal, honor and pray to the Goddess & God, and to do divination (tell the future by means of an outside indicator i.e. tarot or runes). Sabbath are the large holidays in which a major Earth event takes place...such as harvest or the changing of the seasons. We honor the cycles of life on Earth in Sabbath whereas we honor the cycles of the moon in Esbats.

ANOTHER part of Wicca is the practice of magick. (I spell it m-a-g-i-c-k to distinguish it from magic which is the creation of illusions for entertainment). Wiccan magick is done during certain moon phases to achieve a desired goal or outcome to a situation. The Wiccan Rede ( i.e. the basic law of Wicca) states: "Do as thou wilt an it harm none." What this means is to do what you want without physically hurting or emotionally hurting yourself or another person or controlling the others' will to have freedom in their choices. For example, it would be against our religion to put a love spell ON a PARTICULAR person ( regardless of how many books on Wicca contain a LOT on love spells), you'd be attempting to control someone's identification. Maybe that person isn't meant to fall in love with you. NOW..if you did a love spell to attract a TYPE of person, it would be safe within the guidelines of Wicca because you are doing magick to draw a general TYPE to me that are of the same faith, same emotional needs, etc. NOT trying to control the reactions of ONE specific person.

Well, I hope this helps you to understand Wicca better. By no means is that even the beginning of a thorough answer to what Wicca is, but I hope it intrigues you enough to read more on the subject. Take Care & may the Goddess and God shine light upon you.

-SpiderChilde

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