Paganism and Wicca

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I myself have been a Celtic-wiccan for Two years and a quarter. As theology and spirituality are my "specialist subjects" being autistic, I know much about global belief systems. For those who do not know what a "Wiccan" is, well to put it simple, I am a (male) witch, that worships nature, honours the ancient pre-Christian God, and tries to help humanity to the best of my ability. Nothing evil about that is there? Yet some would disagree. Anybody else here who is pagan or wiccan, would like to chat? Also for those who have any questions (or answers) about the "Old religions" please feel free to ask! I will try my best to answer...

I do have a question, no guarantee can you answer, but it does not hurt to try.

Do you know whether Wicca as currently constituted has been in fact passed in unbroken tradition, and if so where . by whom?

Or is it, like the revived Cornish language - an interesting experiment. by the way - reconstructing extrapolating recreating?

Very little is documented about preChristian Celtic religions, whether Gaulish, Old Irish, or Older Btritish.

Actually, we know that, like with Germanic paganism, Celtic pagans glorified war gods as much as nature and fertility deities.
But hey, those were my ancestors, so I can't come down hard on them.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

If you and I cannot diss our ancestors, who can?

I'm a Pagan-atheist.

I did study to become Wicca, I did my year and a day but then I converted to Neo-wicca just before my initiation, then started considering myself as Pagan-atheist a few years later. As much as I dig the tradition within Wicca being aspie meant being in a coven which was too much to cope with, and I wasn't up for the idea of earning my 1st degree then taking off to be a solitary practitioner, I have my regrets of course...then that's mainly as I'd like to have been privy to the oath-bound stuff

Oy - yes, the coven thing.

That would be a deal-breaker for me if I had any inclination that way.

The congregation in a church, where you can sit at the back behind a pillar and get out fast, is hard enough.

Wicca is a reconstruction, not an unbroken tradition.(to answer you question phil) There are self initiations you could run through if you wish, as well as apprentice type relations which essentially amount to a small coven. If I remember correctly it was largely reconstructed in Britain moving to America later.

I am a solitary practitioner, as were all of the women in my family before me. I have a very hard time with organized religion of ANY kind...I don't think that anyone really has a right to tell me the 'right' way to connect with the Lord and Lady and that's why I refuse to participate in a group.

why? things are just there. there is no god controlling stuff. the moon and the stars don't tell us how to act or behave. we just do.

I wish people would stop blaming some invisible force for stuff they can't understand.

"oooh, how does that tree grow? it must be the god of...oh, what haven't I already used? Ooh, Wood! The god of wood! Blessed be the god of wood. May this tree grow tall and cancer free so that we might burn it for light and warmth. Light and warmth - they don't have gods yet..."

"god", HA!

You're right it's British then migrated over to America. It's reconstruction in that it is an attempt to piece together remnants of pre-Christian religions, folk traditions, etc. Wicca is an unbroken tradition, thus the importance of lineage from Gardner and the New Forest Coven; if you don't have lineage then you're not considered Wicca. That is not considered to be Wicca by anyone other than yourself, and others who may not accept this or are not fully aware of Wicca, which is common given the amount of misinformation and misrepresentation.

A person can't 'self-initiate' into Wicca as it's a priesthood - there are no laypeople within Wicca, so a person calling themselves Wicca without initiation performed by a HP would be like calling themselves a Catholic Priest without being ordained. Wicca is also an oath-bound mystery tradition, so the mysteries, beliefs, practices, doctrines, and identifies of gods are inner-court teachings, so a person who 'self-initiates' will be no wiser of the beliefs/practices of Wicca. A person can dedicate themselves to Wicca and to being a Seeker, or a personal can 'self-initiate' into Neo-wicca, which is similar to Wicca but it's a new age approach so requires no formal initiation, it's also largely eclectic and self-taught from outer-court teachings of Wicca...so preferable to those of us who don't do groups

I nearly turned pagan once when I was 15, I was mostly interested in the wicca side of things. I changed my mind in the end because I didn't know where to start so I just collected spell books and other bits and bobs as a hobby. I didn't believe in the gods or the ancient myths the paganism is based off, I was still very much an atheist but the mindset, traditions and imagery appealed to me quite a lot. I tend to agree with quite a bit of what paganism says, and they are a lot more liberal about things like sexuality and life in general. And in my opinion worshipping the sun, moon and other natural phenomenon makes a lot more sense than gods that look like people, because the sun is pretty damn important at the end of the day.

I am a pagan myself. I have always been fascinated with ancient mythologies, languages and magic. I grew up Catholic, so a lot of that was carefully monitered. I remember getting into trouble when I found some of my dad's Dungeons and Dragons spell books and decided to write imagined runic spell words and take notes on the spells the book contained. I was about fourteen, and that was a little before I found British paganism. I fell in love with the idea and read voraciously on the subject. My dad was angry, but my mom and my paternal grandmother supported it. They were the ones who took me to metaphysical shops, and my mother in-law helped me get supplies for my husband and my handfasting.

Goodness what is this?

D&D/RPGs and their magic systems were a fascination for me as well, and I can see where I might well have ended up pagan/Wiccan as a result. (In RPGland, I effectively did.) That fascination, though, intertwined with my "bad years" to the point where I don't know which was influencing which; and the entire area is poison now. There's too much of "evil Willow" in me when I get near it.

Last edited by Natty_Boh on 28 Feb 2011, 1:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.