The Council of American Witches finds it necessary to define
modern Witchcraft in terms of the American experience & needs.
We are not bound by traditions from other times & other cultures,
& owe no allegiance to any person or power greater than the Divinity
manifest through our own being.
As American Witches, we welcome & respect all life-affirming teachings
& traditions, & seek to learn from all & to share our learning within
our Council.
It is in this spirit of welcome & cooperation that we adopt these
few principles of Wiccan belief. In seeking to be inclusive, we do
not wish to open ourselves to the destruction of our group by those
on self-serving power trips, or to philosophies & practices
contradictory to these principles. In seeking to exclude those
whose ways are contradictory to ours, we do not want to deny
participation with us to any who are sincerely interested in our
knowledge & beliefs, regardless of race, color, sex, age, national
or cultural origins, or sexual preference.
We therefore ask only that those who seek to identify with us accept
these few basic principles:
1. We practice rites to attune ourselves with the natural rhythm
of life forces marked by the phases of the Moon & the seasonal quarters
& cross-quarters.
2. We recognize that our intelligence gives us unique responsibility
toward our environment. We seek to live in harmony with Nature,
inecological balance offering fulfillment to life & consciousness
within an evolutionary concept.
3. We acknowledge a depth of power far greater than is apparent
to the average person. Because it is far greater than ordinary, it
is sometimes called "supernatural," but we see it as lying within
that which is naturally potential to all.
4. We conceive of the Creative Power in the Universe as manifesting
through polarity - as masculine & feminine - & that this same creative
Power lives in all people, & functions through the interaction of the
masculine & feminine. We value neither above the other, knowing each
to be supportive of the other. We value sexuality as pleasure, as the
symbol & embodiment of Life, & as one of the sources of energies used
in magickal practices &religious worship.
5. We recognize both outer worlds & inner, or psychological worlds
sometimes known as the Spiritual World. the Collective Unconscious &
Inner Planes, etc. & we see in the interaction of these two dimensions
the basis for paranormal phenomena & magickal exercises. We neglect
neither dimension for the other, seeing both as necessary for our fulfillment.
6. We do not recognize any authoritarian hierarchy, but do honor
those who teach, respect those who share their greater knowledge &
wisdom, & acknowledge those who have courageously given of themselves
in leadership.
7. We see religion, magick, & wisdom-in-living as being united
in the way one views the world & lives within it - a world view &
philosophy of life, which we identify as Witchcraft or the Wiccan Way.
8. Calling oneself "Witch" does not make a Witch - but neither
does heredity itself, or the collecting of titles, degrees & initiations.
A Witch seeks to control the forces within herself/himself that makes
life possible in order to live wisely & well, without harm to others,
& in harmony with Nature.
9. We acknowledge that it is the affirmation & fulfillment of life,
in a continuation of evolution & development of consciousness, that
gives meaning to the Universe we know, & to our personal role within it.
10. Our only animosity toward Christianity, or toward any other
religion or philosophy-of-life, is to the extent that its institutions
have claimed to be "the one true right & only was" & have sought to
deny freedom to others & to suppress other ways of religious practices
& belief.
11. As American Witches, we are not threatened by debates on
the history of the Craft, the origins of various terms, the legitimacy
of various aspects of different traditions. We are concerned with our
present, & our future.
12. We do not accept the concept of "absolute evil," nor do we
worship any entity known as "Satan" or "the Devil" as defined by
Christian Tradition. We do not seek power through the suffering of
others, nor do we accept the concept that personal benefits can only
be derived by denial to another.
13. We work within Nature for that which is contributory to our
health & well-being.
Back to Lancelot's Sanctuary!
