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Wicca 101 Questions

To: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (Hsi Wang Mu)
From: tyagi mordred nagasiva 
Subject: Wicca 101 Questions
Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 07:59:20 -0800 (PST)

Kali Yuga 49950117

|From: Sherry Michael 
|Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 00:22:41 -0500 (EST)
 
|**"Wicca 101" Class 1 -intro, from the teaching coven of the Three Crescents**
|  **Please send all e-mail to this account. moonowl@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu**
|***** Please do not distribute in full or in part without this header*****

Kept per request.
 

|1.  The divine Spirit is present in all creatures and things:
|    people, animals, plants, stones...

What does 'divine Spirit' mean?  What else is there but 'divine Spirit'?
Why is it 'in all creatures' instead of 'composing all things great and
small'?

  
|2.  The ultimate creative force manifests in both feminine and
|    masculine modes; therefore it is often symbolized as the
|    Goddess and The God.

What about the 'ultimate destructive force'?  Is this somehow separate
from the gods (or 'the Goddess and The God')?  Isn't this heavy focus
upon 'creativity' more Christian religion warmed-over?


|3.  In some covens, both are celebrated equally.  In others, The
|    Goddess is given precedence or even celebrated without
|    reference to the God.

Do any celebrate the God without the Goddess?  If not, why not?

  
|4.  All Goddesses and Gods are aspects of The Goddess and The God.

Is this a slight to personality and culture?  Are you being syncretistic
without acknowledging the sources of the fusion?


|5.  Reincarnation and karma are valid concepts.  Upon death one
|    goes to a state of rest and reflection, and eventually chooses
|    where and when s/he will be reborn.
| 
|[Most Wiccans adopt SOME reincarnational belief, not necessarily this one.
|More on this in this class.]

Thus Wicca is a DOCTRINAL religion?  That is, we may presume that Wiccans
believe that reincarnation (by whatever definition) is a true concept and
that whoever disbelieves or refrains from such belief is not Wiccan?


|6.  Magic is practiced for positive (helping) purposes: spiritual
|    development, healing, guidance, safety, etc.

Are negative purposes ever helpful?

  
| 9.  There is no holy book, or prophet, no equivalent of the Bible
|    or Jesus or Mohammed.  Individuals have access to the divine,
|    and do not require an intermediary.  Every initiate is
|    regarded as a priest/ess.
| 
|[Some traditions have multiple levels of initiation; much like earning
|"belts" in Karate]

What about the coven's 'Book of Shadows'?  Isn't this considered part of
the group's 'scripture'?  Without it or proof of it wouldn't a Wiccan's
claims to initiation be considered suspect?

  
|11. We should live in harmony with the Earth and Nature, and not
|    exploit them.

How is it possible to live OUT of harmony with 'the Earth and Nature' when
we are part of them?  How can we determine when our actions taken in good
conscience have become 'exploitation'?

  
| 13. The concepts of original sin, sacrifice, redemption,
|    confession, the divinity of Jesus, sinfulness of sex,
|    Judgment, Heaven and Hell , denigration of women, bodily
|    resurrection, and the Bible as divine revelation are not part
|    of Wicca.  Neither are Satanism, the Black Mass, desecration
|    of cemeteries, the sacrifice of animals, etc.

Is this an absolute exclusion?  If a Wiccan attempts to merge any of
these elements with her practice does she ipso facto 'leave the Wiccan
fold'?  If this is the case, aren't you defining Wicca WITH RESPECT TO
AND DIRECTLY COUNTER TO Christianity and/or Satanism?
  

|2) Ask 20 Wiccans for an opinion, you'll get 25 answers. Wicca is a
|"build your own" religion. Because Wicca lacks a central structure and does
|not have a bible or Koran, there are few, if any set rules. Thus, my
|standard disclaimer: nothing I state is the One and True Way (tm). I try to
|generalize the best I can and state what is only my opinion. Any articles
|and readings are up to debate and possibly inaccurate, as many Wiccan and
|Pagan readings are. If you don't like it and think you have a better
|philosophy for you, please, go with it.

What about the questions above (re: reincarnation and exclusion of
Christianity and 'the Devil')?
  

|3) Wiccans believe in magic, or the ability to change and effect an
|outcome. Magic, psi, and other "supernatural" forces are not seen as
|supernatural, but just another force of nature, like gravity.

What other conceptions of 'magic' are held by Wiccans besides this rather
technology-oriented sort?

  
|Reincarnation is not something to force yourself to swallow. Because
|Wiccans see life as cyclic, reincarnation seems logical. If you have
|trouble with reincarnation (or any other concepts) research it. Look at
|other points of view, and then you may be able to adopt one of them into
|your own. Wiccans have a bunch of different reincarnation concepts.

Is it necessary to 'adopt a point of view' on this or any other matter?


|The common view is:
|        a) That each life is seen as a learning experience

Do we retain our learning from life to life?  Is there an overall 'goal'?


|        b) We reincarnate into people each time and usually the same sex

I've never heard this one before.  Why don't we reincarnate into flowers and
monkeys and stones, women, men and hermaphrodites?


|        c) reincarnation is not a state of levels as seen in Eastern thought,
|           but each lifetime is just another lesson.
| 
|Some also believe the soul is put to rest to life with the God/dess after
|all the lessons are learned, and others that the soul never learns all.

What does 'live with the God/dess' mean?  What could it include?  Is it like
'everlasting life with the Lord'?  What is this about 'souls' and 'spirit',
anyway?  Isn't this Christian religion all over again?

  
|IV. THE WICCAN REDE
| 
|"Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfill: an it harm none, do as ye will".
| 
|If there was a Ten Commandments of Wicca, This would be #1. The rede
|generally states 'don't hurt anyone'. This applies to yourself, too. It
|also can be applied to Nature and animals (why many Wiccans are vegetarians).
|Hurt can be physical or psychological.

What does 'rede' mean?  Why don't you call it the One Wiccan Commandment?

  
|Gardnerian Wicca: Developed by Gerald Gardner, (and Doreen Valiente) this is
|the "first" denomination of Wicca, and almost all Wiccan practices contain
|some Gardnerian ways. Characteristics are a Goddess slightly revered over the
|God, skyclad (nude) rituals, and coveners joining and working in m/f
|couples is almost required.

Don't they also whip each other with scourges?  If so, why/how?

  
|Alexandrian Wicca: Founded by Alex Sanders. This tradition is a mix of
|Gardnerian with some Christian and Cerimonal Magic symbolism.

What sort of symbolism do you mean?  Could you describe it a bit?

  
|Modernly, somewhere in 1940 an English civil servant with a
|penchant for whipping and bondage, Gerald Gardener, got himself
|"initiated" into a "New Forest" coven in England.  

There you go, whipping and bondage.  What part do these activities play in
the rituals?  Why are they used?


|odd little problem.  Gardner had worked in a Ritual Magician's
|lodge with Aleister Crowley, a long-time family acquaintance of
|Sybil Leek's.  Crowley was a consumate showman bent on shocking
|the public.  Sybil was always sad about him, feeling that he had
|strayed from the true path of the Craft, but he was apparently
|born to one of the hereditary witch families of England.  

Wait a second, wasn't Crowley a Satanist?  Didn't he call himself
'the Beast 666' and all that?  Didn't he identify his Angel as Satan?


|EXERCISES:
  
| 1) Below is "Thirteen goals of a witch" (taken from Scott Cunningham).
|Examine each of the thirteen points. What is your interpretaions of each,
|and how do they relate to Wiccan belief? Do you have any deletions or
|additions to this list?
| 
|                THIRTEEN GOALS OF A WITCH
|        1) Know yourself

A very old dictum, often 'know thyself'.  The foundation of magick.


|        2) Know your craft

I am my craft and my craft is me.


|        3) Learn

Redundant.  Eventually even learning is left behind.


|        4) Apply knowledge with wisdom

Experience is left out here, though perhaps this factors into 'wisdom'.


|        5) Achieve balance

Balance is static and therefore limited.  Equilibrium is better but wanting.
Wicca is not about achievement, but about doing things.  We bend with the
wind or bend the wind to our will.


|        6) Keep your words in good order

This is wisdom.


|        7) Keep your thoughts in good order

This is difficult. :> Meditation here assists.


|        8) Celebrate life

And more greatly, death.


|        9) Attune with the cycles of the earth

Discover how we are already attuned.


|        10) Breathe and eat correctly
|        11) Exercise the body

Formulae for neurosis.


|	12) Meditate

What?  Why?  How?  This should be the foundation of the Wiccan esbat.


|        13) Honor the Goddess and God

Devotion is an important aspect of the Wiccan religion.

  
|2) Draw a line down a sheet of paper. 

|On one side list all the things you like about Wicca, 

List A (things I like)
----------------------
devotion to the feminine
devotion to the natural
involved with the magical and mysterious
reflective of myself
empowering of the individual
imaginative and curious
accepting of ecclecticism
centered in sexuality and ecstasy
accepting of the new and the old


|on the other, things that make you uneasy or things you dislike. 

List B (things I don't like)
----------------------------
exclusionary of the Christian
ignorance of relation to things upon which it is founded (ceremonial 
	tradition, Christian mysticism, etc.).
leads to haughtiness re: ecology and mystical development
attempts to trace origins to the past instead of living in the present
retains conventional religious ideas while pretending to novelty
often devoid of mysticism, becoming a social mechanism of indoctrination
rejecting of the dark and wrathful aspects of the divine
rejecting of destruction as an unnecessary natural process
limited of idea, yet pretending to philosophical acuity
  

|Out of the things you dislike or feel unconfortable with, why do
|you feel these things? 

1) consistent exposure to them within the Wiccan community online and off
2) my own preferences balk at these characteristics
3) I have ideals about Wicca which the human organism cannot meet


|Will additional information or talking with others help? 
|Keep this list, because we will use it later.

I don't think that my ideas need 'helping'.


|3) What do you think about reincarnation? 

I think that it is a pleasant way of thinking about the world, and it fits
nicely with materialism.



|Do you find it comforting? 

Not especially.


|Is it something you need to explore? 

What, believing in it?  I've done my share of exploration in this regard.
My preference is for uncertainty and ignorance.


|How does the idea of not having a "heaven" make you feel? 

Hard to say.  I always thought the idea of 'heaven' was ludicrous.
Who is to say whether or not there is such a thing?  I think that
limiting Wicca based on beliefs and ideas is a sad state of affairs.
Heaven is here, now, fucking.


|Please share with your discussion group if you wish.

You asked for it.  :>

Lorax 

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