OK, first of all, Iwould not everwish to offend anyone. Now, that's out of the way, I do wish to set the record straight on a few things about Traditionalist Wiccans and Pagans.
Pagan is a generic term for any non-judeo/christian religion. Wicca is a philosophy. A lot of pagans call themselves 'Wiccan' and unfortunately, their understanding of Wicca isuninformed and influenced by TVand/or movies like the TV series Charmed or the movie The Blair Witch Project and so forth.
A lot of the young (and some not so young) people we used to call nonconformists are enamored of the mystique of Wicca and Paganism, and the Hollywood folk make it seem so neat! Why not? Right? I mean, if you do it right, you can hex someone who has pissed you off or done you wrong, and think of all the spells you can cast!! NO!
Traditionalist Wicca
Traditionalist Wicca is one of the kindest, most loving, accepting philosophies of any. The first tenet of Wicca is Do no Harm! I think it is probably where Hippocrates got it - yes, Wicca is that old. In fact, it is even older. At best guess (no written history - have to go by pictographs), Wicca is over 8000 years old. The Wiccan philosophy contains the basic core of every religion in the world - past and present. All you have to do is read a little, and you will find the core concepts of all of them - all from long before they came into being. Yes, it's pieced together from old pictographs, but then, so are most of our oldest historic documents, aren't they?
Anyway - got off the point. Wicca states that above all, there is The One, and there may be legions of lesser deities (saints, gods, goddesses, prophets, etc) who serve The One and who are ultimately answerable to The One. I do not assign any gender to The One. I don't really think that is relative or possible, for that matter. Wiccans have several of the lesser deities they 'talk' to regularly, and the top of the list is the Bright Lady or the Mother. Mainly, they refer to the creative force as Mother. This will often translate to Earth Mother and some Wiccans say Earth Magic. Wiccans believe that you should care for all living things. If you don't, if you disrespect life, it will bite you on the ass. Makes sense, take care of Mother and Mother will take care of you, right? Sometimes we carry it a bit further, and follow what some of the Native Americans teach, and thank the animals we harvest for food. We thank them for their sacrifice that we might live, and ask their spirit to tell the Mother that we respect her and her creatures. We don't kill unless we have to - to survive. Should we have to kill - to end the suffering of a wounded animal, for instance, and not for food - we apologize to the animal first and ask the Mother to care for the spirit of the animal and speed its time of the wheel of life and return it to its next life with love. Then we help speed its spirit to the Mother rapidly and with mercy.
Nothing says being a Traditionalist Wiccan should interfere with any religion you care to practice. As I keep saying, it is a philosophy. One thing Wiccans are not is evil, or Satanic devil worshippers. The very concept is totally contrary to our philosophy. We do not 'cast spells' or 'hexes' or the like. We do heal. Think of it anyway you wish. My husband calls it the power of prayer. I cannot see that in any way as evil or against God - by whatever name you call The One.
Pagans
Today's 'Pagans' or 'New Age Wiccans'as they style themselves, believe in spells, hexes and yes, blood magic. That is their way, and as much as I oppose the practices, I cannot in good conscience tell anyone that theyshould notdo it. That is not my place. Pagans are easily identified by the black and/or darkcolors they prefer, and the fact that they believe in the practice of spell casting. I am not saying you cannot cast spells! Bright Lady forbid!! More things are possible than you or I can imagine. I'm saying that they believe in the doing. Wiccans do not cast spells. We might wardagainst harm or work to heal. We do not work to injure or inflict harm. Wiccans prefer natural, undyed fibers, and shun black for ritual work (other than certain wardings) as you would shun someone with a highly gemunicable disease!!
The Celtic (pronounced Keltic) knot is so beloved of Wiccans because there is no beginning, and no end to them, and they can be highly geplex. Just like life.
One last thing to clear up. Wiccans do NOT worship the moon anymore than Christians worship the cross, or Jews worship the Star of David, etc. The moon, in all her phases, is simply a symbol. One we have a tendency to talk to, as if she could hear us, but do you not talk to your cross or whatever when you talk to your God?
Mainly, remember: what goes around truly does gee back around. In more ways than one. When one gives you a harsh word, smile and bless them. When someone cuts you off in traffic, wave at them (no, not THAT wave!) and smile.Let someone in at an intersection, help someone with a package, open a door - little things. Mostly, you should find something to be happy about, find something to laugh about - because if you don't, you'll spend your time crying.
May the Bright Lady Bless you and yours today and always.
No comments:
Post a Comment