What is Wicca?

This is actually a tough question to put an answer into words. Wicca is overall a very flexible religion, representing people from many paths and backgrounds. At the simplest level, Wicca is a religion which embraces nature, individualism, and magic. But Wicca really does get to be much more than that, in many ways it's a way of life, and a kind of thinking too. It's accepting that the fact that you do have an impact on the world with the things you do (mundane as well as magical), and that you have a responsibility for those impacts. It's thinking about your actions, and using your own gift of reason and morality to decide for yourself what impacts they will have, and if they are good or bad. It's also the responsibility to do this reasoning well.

There are some basic tenants of Wicca which are pretty firm. If you don't follow all of these, you are probably pagan or neo-pagan (more general category which Wicca falls under), not Wiccan.

-"an ye harm none, do as ye will" ... a law prohibiting harm (wording varies)
- the belief in a god and a goddess, who work together in harmony.
- the belief in reincarnation (though exact definitions vary)
- the belief that magic is natural, not supernatural, and can be used for good purposes, provided the user is careful. note: you need not USE magic to be Wiccan (though most all do), just accept it.
- the belief that all actions you do, good or bad, will return upon you (most believe that this return is threefold of the original action). Thus if you wrong people, bad things will happen to you and if you help them, good things will happen.
- Wiccans do not practice evangelism (attempting to convert people who aren't interested) *EVER*.
-Wiccans do not practice fundamentalism ("my path is the only right path therefore you are wrong...").
- a deep respect for nature.

There are also many other common beliefs which cover 95% of all Wiccans, but omitting one or two probably doesn't make you non-Wiccan

- The Gods are the sum of all things, good, bad or inbetween.
- all Gods and Goddesses are merely aspects of the Goddess and God, since they encompass all things, good and bad.
- The God and Goddess are honored equally (the Goddess is "higher" in some interpretations, but the God *never* exceeds her in importance).
-Between each incarnation which we experience, we establish lessons we should learn in our next incarnation. Certain events in our lives have been "predestined" by our own choice, so that we may learn these lessons.
-The Goddess is associated with the moon, ocean, birth, and death (among other things)
-The God is associated with the sun, hunt, harvest, and all wild animals (among other things.

This File Copyright 1997 by Matt Kettler. All Persons may freely duplicate this file for educational purposes, provided author credit is retained.

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