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- Wicca, Witchcraft, Whatzawhozit?
PART TWO: Threefold, Fivefold, Sevenfold... what were the rules again?
- On Moral and Ethical Guides
PART THREE: Miscellanea
- Mag/j/ic/k/q/ue...?
Wicca, Witchcraft, Whatzawhozit?
There are some very basic definitions that are commonly misused today; the most common of these is referring to all Pagans or all witches as "Wiccan". Not only is this blatantly untrue, it is also incredibly annoying to those who aren't Wiccan (and that's a LOT of the Pagan population). Let me say something that's going to make a lot of you angry unless you keep reading: 98% of you are not Wiccan, have never been Wiccan, and may never want to BE Wiccan. Why? Follow along with me for some basic vocabulary that will help your Pagan selves out for the rest of your lives.
You can think of it like this:
Paganism > Witchcraft > Wicca
(This is a very simplified version, as Wicca itself has denominations)
So, just as not all Christians are Orthodox Christians, and not all Orthodox Christians or Christians are *Greek* Orthodox, not all Pagans are witches, and not all Pagans or witches are Wiccans. Yes, it's confusing, but it's systemized like this so that people know who practices what; a Catholic wouldn't say they're a Baptist, because both denominations practice differently. This is why people find it so appalling when someone who KNOWS what Wicca is keeps insisting that they're a Wiccan even though they're clearly something else, just because they happen to like the word Wicca. That brings us to...
Paganism: This is the umbrella term for any number of religions that aren't part of the "Big 3" (Christianity, Judaism, Islam). Simply put, there is no one term other than Paganism to cover all our different paths, because a long time ago, it was just "what you and your tribe/city/empire did". The Romans didn't call what they practiced "Roman Ceremonial Magick" because it simply WAS their religion, and Christianity was, at that point, "just a weird, crazed cult". You will never go wrong calling yourself "Pagan," because it IS a correct and all-encompassing term. It's like calling yourself "Christian," whether you're a Catholic or a Baptist; both are Christian, they just practice different forms of Christianity, and to call them by each others' names is silly and misleading.
Witchcraft: Witchcraft is a really tough thing to define. To some people, it's a religion; to others, it's a skillset. If you continue researching Paganism, you will find many many definitions, far more than there are books on the subject. What I'm going to TRY to do, however, is give you the most commonly agreed upon definition; the one that tries to cover all the others, in essence. Just remember that you WILL hear other definitions, and they may or may not be right.
Wicca: Here's where I get blunt and don't sugarcoat. Wicca is an initiatory, oathbound, lineaged religion that was created in the 1930s-1950s by a man named Gerald Gardner. If you are not initiated into a lineaged coven (lineaged means that your High Priestess can show you that coven's "lineage" back to the first Wiccan coven, Gardner's), you are simply not Wiccan. You can still be a Witch or a Pagan though, and there is NOTHING WRONG with ANY of the paths you choose, but please call them what they are, because Wicca is already being used.
Traditions: There are various denominations of Wicca, called "Traditions." Many are NOT legitimate, and are simply people who themselves can't tell the difference between Wicca and Witchcraft (do you really want someone that misinformed teaching you?), or want to look more "legitimate" by using the word Wicca. The most commonly known denomination of the original Gardnerian Wicca is Alexandrian Wicca, but there are many others.
Neo-Wicca: I'm going to be very honest with you (the reader or readers of this thing) when I say that I simply don't understand why this term exists. Neo-Wicca is, essentially, Eclectic Paganism or Eclectic Witchcraft. Nine times out of ten, it has nothing to do with Wicca AT ALL, unless you follow a single God and Goddess... then you're using the Wiccan duohenotheistic principle. Other than that, Neo-Wicca usually has nothing to do with Wicca. So why is this word used instead of just "Eclectic Paganism"?
What Else Is There?
Oh heavens, a lot! There are Ceremonial Magicians (who will refer to themselves as mages), various shamans in various shamanistic traditions (who don't tend to practice outward ritual but will go directly onto the astral plane to communicate with spirits for their purpose), Druidic and Celtic Reconstructionists, Chaotes, Blood Magicians, Vodoun, Santeria, Setians, Satanists, Shintoists, Taoists, Buddhists, Asatruar, various localized and native ways of worship (Grecian, Roman, Mongolian, Asian, what have you), Stregheria, Appalachian folk magic, Slavic Paganism...
The list goes on. No one knows them all. Do you HAVE to follow a SPECIFIC tradition? Certainly not; be eclectic if you wish. Just be respectful to the traditions that already exist and don't call yourself one of them if you aren't.
On Moral and Ethical Guides
The Threefold Law, the Rede, and all manner of other codes of conduct (the Golden Rule, the Ten Commandments, the Roman Virtues, the Norse Code of Honor...) are all created by humans. They are not universal. When practicing your beliefs, when posting on a message board, when using a mailing list, remember that not everyone believes in these rules and that, in fact, a lot of people don't. It is not your job, or your place, to dictate what other people can't do. I've seen people get as vicious telling someone their "karma" is going to "hurt them" for "negative energy" as Radical Fundamentalist Christians get telling Pagans that they're going to Hell for sinning. Is that REALLY the way you want to act?
The Rede of the Wiccae (The Wiccan Rede)
The Rede of the Wiccae (the original title of this poem) is NOT part of the Wiccan religion. Note "Wiccae" instead of "Wiccans" or "Wicca"? The lady who wrote this was using the original old english word "wicca," meaning "wise person". In modern terms, it would be called "The Rule(s) of the Wise". Let me restate: The Rede is NOT part of the Wiccan religion.
"Do what thou Will shall be the whole of the Law. Love is the Law. Love under Will."
The Threefold Law
While the origins of a threefold principle are many, an actual "What you put out comes back to you times three" principle also comes from the Rede of the Wiccae, so again... it's a take it or leave it thing. No one has ever been able to demonstrate any sort of backlash for a negative spell unless the caster him or herself feels guilty or messes up and brings the backlash on themselves that way. Spells to curse your enemies, avenge wrongs, and bring the love of a certain man or woman have been around a lot longer than the Rede or the Threefold Law. You may incorporate it into your practices, but don't expect everyone else to.
Karma
The original meaning of karma is not "If you do something bad, something bad will happen to you." Karma is a belief that every action you take has its own consequence, but it does not say what *kind* of consequence. It just means that everything you do has consequences; it's like a basic law of physics, action and reaction. It DOES NOT, however, place a moral value on those consequences; it simply says that if you do something, something else will happen, which is really quite common-sense.
Mag/j/ic/k/q/ue...?
All the above spellings apply. Before Aleister Crowley came along, most people were content to refer to magic as magic. For whatever reason, Mr. Crowley was not happy with this, and it was with him that the tradition of adding a "k" on the end of magick (to distinguish it from "magic," which he used to denote stage magician illusions) began. Please please please never jump on another poster (or anyone, really) for not adding a K to the end of magick; they really don't have to. There are also spellings like majick and magique... as long as the persons using those spellings don't try to tell you that's the "real" spelling, let them be. Some are content to simply keep using the proper spelling of "magic". It's not that big of a deal.
Color-Coding Your Magic
People are far too quick to say "I'm a white witch only! I don't do black magic!" in the interest of sounding non-threatening and politically correct. The original meanings of black and white magic had no moral connotations, however; rather, they were used to denote specific TYPES of magic. For more on black and white magic, please read this essay written by Lolly (a very cool Ceremonial Mage) at Cantrap.
There are also traditions that will separate magic into colors by its intent, but that can be more properly discussed on the Coven list itself. If you want to know, ask.
If you have any more questions, feel free to e-mail the writer of this welcome FAQ or post them to the list. After all, that's what the list is there for.
Welcome and good luck,
Hi, and welcome to the NW_C list. Since there is SO much basic info that apparently needs to be covered, judging by the applications received, this is a fairly long document. To help, I've created an index. Once you read through the entire thing, you can click on a specific part of the index to go back to just that part.
PART ONE: Knowing Your Religion's Name
(You'd be surprised how many people don't)
- Paganism
- Witchcraft
- Wicca
- Traditions
- Neo-Wicca
- What Else Is There?
All that stuff people use to tell you what to do
- The Rede of the Wiccae (The Wiccan Rede)
- The Threefold Law
- Karma
Everything that won't fit anywhere else
- Color-Coding Your Magic
PART ONE: Knowing Your Religion's Name
Christianity > Orthodox > Greek
Witchcraft is a collection of folk practices, often called "low magick" or "practical magick". It is, in effect, the stereotypical image people have of witches; it involves the use of herbs, candles, straw dolls, what have you... all that "witchy" stuff. Some people call it a religion, and use it as such: I don't know much about these people, and can't presume to speak for them, but I assume whatever they do works for them. Most commonly, however, witchcraft is simply a skillset that you add into your religion (i.e. two people can use the exact same ingredients and procedure to do a spell for love, but one will petition Aphrodite and the other will petition Freyja). Does this mean you HAVE to worship a god or several gods to use witchcraft? Not at all.
When Gardner first started creating Wicca (he was already initiated in a lot of Ceremonial Magic orders, such as the OTO, and because of this Wicca is VERY heavily influenced by the CM style), witchcraft was still illegal in England. In the 1950s, when these witchcraft bans were repealed, Gardner went public with Wicca; there is a lot of controversy surrounding its origins, and he falsified a lot of documents, so we really don't know how much of it is true... we do, however, know what ISN'T true.
Gardner claimed that he had been initiated into a coven that practiced Wicca back all the way to the stone age; not only has this been completely unproven (to date, no one has been able to track down a member of the New Forest Coven, or any mention of them, and to this day not a single member has spoken up, although all the members are likely long since dead by now), the "stone age religion" theory was put forth by an archaeologist of Gardner's time, a woman named Margaret Murray. Soon after she published her theories, lack of evidence (and new evidence surfacing that proved contrary to hers) discredited her theories. Her follow-up, Marija Gimbutas, had no sense of archaeological integrity, and has falsified, invented, and twisted facts to extremes just to prove her pet theory. As you can see, even if there WAS one stone-age religion (which is doubtful), we don't know about it. Wicca, as we know it, was started with Gerald Gardner; therefore, Wicca is about 50-60 years old. End of story.
Wicca is ALSO oathbound; what this means is, unless you've been initiated into a lineaged coven, almost all of the Wiccan teachings will remain closed to you. Many people have claimed that they stole a Wiccan Book of Shadows, and will sell you the contents for such and such a price, but how do you know they aren't lying if you don't know for sure what the real Wiccan teachings are? You don't; so, since you can't know what Wicca is without being initiated (did you know that Wicca has three gods, not just a Lord and Lady? This is basic info given to people studying for their initiation. Think of how much we AREN'T told.), why try to cheat?
When looking for a Wiccan coven (if indeed you want to join one), use your good judgement and ask for their lineage back to Gardner; if they can't provide one, or a certificate of initiation (yes, they do give you a certificate) into ANY Wiccan tradition, ask them why exactly they think they're Wiccan; don't make it sound rude or accusatory, just ask them why they choose to use the word Wicca if they aren't initiated INTO Wicca.
If they get defensive and rude, be very careful; it's supposed to be their job to answer questions and appease your curiosity (within the limits of oathbound materials), so if they get defensive when you ask for their credentials, they probably don't have any. A coven is supposed to be a bond as close as family, and an initiation in Wicca is a very intimate ritual (it does NOT, however, involve sex; don't ever let anyone force you into that)...you do NOT want to enter into it lightly.
Exploitation, that's why. It all started slowly enough; an initiation ceremony listed here, a few words listed there. Eventually, Scott Cunningham published a great book called "Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner". It was a beautiful and well-written intro to Outer Court (Outer Court is a term used to denote the non-oathbound Wiccan teachings that people who haven't been initiated are allowed to know) material, with one very real flaw: he said you could initiate yourself. The only real reason this chapter was in the book is because his publisher (Llewellyn; they have a VERY bad reputation in the Pagan community for their "publish anything that will make money, even if it's complete bull" attitude) refused to publish the book unless he said you could do it yourself. After all, won't more people buy a book that says you can do it yourself as opposed to a book that says "For the rest of this book, go join a coven"? And gee, the latter kind of takes away the possibility of a sequel (a second Cunningham book on Wicca was later published; this book was written by Cunningham and a Llewellyn co-author, and Mr. Cunningham was very ill at that point in his life, so who do you think did most of the writing?).
From then on it only got worse, degenerating into authors like Silver RavenWolf, who blatantly lies about the Craft and will do or say anything to make money. Anyone who challenges her on her lies gets told that they "Aren't a REAL witch." She also, on her website, belittles the parents of the teens who read her books. She says, and I quote, "Oh, and for parents who don't like this statement? You may not care about your childrens' spirituality, but I do." WHAT?! That was one of the most commonly-used lines by cults in the '60s: your family doesn't care about you, but we do. For more on Silver RavenWolf and just why she is NOT a credible anything, read: The Problem with Silver RavenWolf (http://www.fortunecity.com/roswell/vanthal/608/id140.htm).
I'm still not sure why people get mad when you tell them they aren't Wiccan. Why is being a Pagan or Witch somehow less to them? For me personally, Wicca is NOT my path. I don't believe in just two gods, I don't like working in a coven, and I don't like the initiation rite. I'm also not a big fan of Ceremonial Magick. Does that mean I'm less of a person because I don't call myself a Norse Wiccan? Of course not! I just call myself an Asatruar or a Seidhkona (you probably won't understand these terms, but I figured I'd use them as an example), which is what I am (or rather, what tradition I'm studying in). That's far less confusing.
PART TWO: Threefold, Fivefold, Sevenfold... what were the rules again?
The Rede of the Wiccae was first published in the 1960s or 1970s in a magazine called "The Green Egg" and is typically accredited to a woman who went by the name Lady Gwen Thompson. She stated that her grandmother had written this poem as part of her Family Tradition; whether Lady Gwen herself or her grandmother wrote it, the fact remains that the Rede is a part of Lady Gwen Thompson's Family Tradition, so unless you're a member of her family, or adopted into their tradition, you can pretty much take it or leave it.
The phrasing of the Rede, "An it Harm None, Do What Thou Will" is curiously similar (and probably bastardized from) Aleister Crowley's famous tenet:
PART THREE: Miscellanea
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