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A Short Conversation With a Witch: A Primer on Wicca

NOTICE: View the abridged version of this article HERE.

The pentacle, a symbol of Wicca.

What is Wicca? The phrase probably means nothing to most, but to Wiccans it is the name of a unique and vibrant faith tradition.

Edvard Zhavo, who has practiced Wicca sporadically for about the past six years, sums it up this way: "It's a practice that has nature at its center, utilizing the powers or energies of nature."

Many Wiccans do indeed revere nature, as do Neopagans more generally.

"But what, then, is Neopaganism?" you might ask. And I will tell you—to the best of my ability:

Neopaganism, also known as Contemporary Paganism, is a complex of various religions or "new religious movements" which take influence from, or claim to be derivatives of, historical pagan traditions. By "pagan traditions" I mean those religious traditions, often polytheistic (adhering to the belief in multiple gods, or deities), which existed in areas of the world (especially Europe) prior to their conversion to the monotheistic (adhering to the belief in one god, or deity), Abrahamic faiths. (That is, those faiths based on the tradition of the Jewish prophet Abraham—namely Christianity and, to a lesser extent, Islam, though also including Judaism.)

Many forms of Neopaganism are known for their attempts to revive, re-establish, or re-invigorate ancient or lost, indigenous faiths: For example, Neopagans who practice Hethenry (also called Heathenism, and better known as Germanic Neopaganism) base their religion on that of ancient Germanic peoples (such as the Vikings of Scandinavia), and revere or worship the Germanic or Norse gods (i.e. Odin ("Wotan" in Old High German) and Thor ("Donar")); Neopagans who practice Religio Romano ("Roman Religion"), also known as Italo-Roman Neopaganism or Cultus Deorum Romanorum ("Care of the Roman Gods"), base their religion on that of the ancient Romans, and revere or worship the Roman gods (i.e. Jupiter ("Zeus" to the Greeks), Mercury ("Hermes"), and Neptune ("Poseidon")).

The examples above, it should be mentioned, are forms of what one might call "reconstructionist" or "revivalist" Neopaganism, which (as the terms imply) attempt to reconstruct or revive some religious tradition, and thus emphasize the relevance of that particular tradition—its sources, culture, rituals, or mythology.

On the other end of the spectrum are those forms of Neopaganism which are eclectic, meaning they represent faiths or spiritual systems which espouse broader, more compromising views of doctrine or theology. Many eclectic forms of Neopaganism allow their followers to borrow freely the philosophies, practices, or deities of any number of religions or spiritual systems, and incorporate those aspects into their own, personal sense of religion or spirituality, as they see fit.

Religious studies scholar Michael F. Strmiska, who came up with the eclectic-reconstructionist spectrum of Neopaganism as a way to help identify and describe the numerous Neopagan faiths, notes in Modern Paganism in World Cultures (ABC-CLIO, ISBN-10: 1851096086) the differences between Reonstructionists and Eclectics in this way:

"Reconstructionists dedicate themselves to a... study of the ancient texts, folklore, archaeology, and languages that are believed to contain reliable information about the past religious traditions of the peoples of their particular region of interest. For Reconstructionist Pagans... the more that modern Pagan practices and ideas can be brought into line with what is known of the Pagan religion of the past, the better. This is not to say that Reconstructionists do not take liberties with ancient traditions and create their own interpretations... rather, they regard older traditions as better established... and more authentic than those that are newly created or vaguely imagined...

"Eclectic Pagans are also highly interested in understanding Pagan traditions of the past, but they do not feel bound... to the past religious traditions of a specific region as their ultimate frame of reference... they see the traditions only as a provisional gateway into deeper spiritual experience. Eclectics view the... Pagan past as a general source of spiritual inspiration, but they do not undertake to recreate past rituals, beliefs, or other religious traditions with scholarly attention to exact detail... Eclectics are more inclined to freely select religious ideas, practices, and even deities from a wide variety of sources... and to combine them based on what they take to be their similarity or complementarity."

The symbol of the Triple Goddess, revered by many Wiccans.

"But what does this all have to do with Wicca?" you might ask.

Well, Wicca is one of the most recognizable Neopagan faiths, for one, and, secondly, on the eclectic-reconstructionist spectrum of Neopaganism, Wicca is generally considered eclectic. (Although there are a number of different Wiccan denominations, some of which are more reconstructionist than others.)

Selene Silverwind, in her The Everything Paganism Book (Adams Media, ISBN-10: 1593371187), identifies Wicca as "a modern blend of polytheism and occult practices... the largest of the faiths within Neo-Paganism," noting that it is one of the fastest-growing religions in the United States.

Other have called Wicca "an earth-based pagan religion", pointing to its closeness to the cycles of nature, as well asaccording to Merriam-Webster—"the religious cult of modern witchcraft, especially an initiatory tradition founded in England in the mid 20th century and claiming its origins in pre-Christian pagan religions."

Merriam-Webster's definition is one of critical importance here, as it clarifies the where and when of Wicca, which lead us to a man by the name of Gerald Gardner.

Gardner (1884-1964), also known by his religious name, Scire, was an Englishman from Lancashire who lived much of his life abroad before returning to England in the late 1930s, where he joined a Rosicrucian order of occultists. Gardner claimed that, during his time participating in the order, he encountered a cabal within the group known as the New Forest coven, whose members purported to preserve a "witch-cult", a pan-European, matriarchal pagan tradition that flourished before Europe's conversion to Christianity and honored a great Mother Goddess and her male counterpart, the Horned God, as part of a duotheistic (adhering to the belief in two gods, or deities) system of belief.

Gardner made it his priority to resurrect this witch-cult in modern times, forming his own religious society around the concept. Thus Wicca was born. (Or perhaps revived, if the claims of the New Forest coven are correct.)

Gerald Gardner, the founder of contemporary Wicca.

Wicca, like the Neopagan movement it is a part of, is broad and, at times, ill-defined. But it is also this lack of specificity that makes Wicca (and many other Neopagan traditions) attractive to ever-more people in contemporary society: it feels "free" and "open", especially when compared to the relatively strict Abrahamic faiths.

Practitioners of Wicca are known as wiccans, and sometimes refer to themselves as witches. While Wicca has no central authority or specific set of practices or beliefs associated with it, many Wiccans feel some attachment to the concept of witches and witchcraft, and practice paranormal or ritual magic, or "magick" (spelled with a "k" to distinguish it from stage magic), as a form of meditation, self-development, or for practical purposes.

I asked Mr. Zhavo what he thought of the terms "Wiccan" and "witch", and he had this to say:

"A Wiccan is someone who practices Wicca as a religion. A witch is someone who practices magick. Not all witches are Wiccans, and not all Wiccans are witches."

"What do you mean by "magick"?" I asked.

"There are many types of magick," he said. "For example, there's ceremonial magick, divination (or scrying), sigil magick, and kitchen magick, A lot of different kinds."

Aleister Crowley (1875-1947), arguably the world's most recognizable occultist, and the principal revivalist of magick (he coined the term), occultism, and the esoteric traditions of Europe in modern timesas well as the founder of a religion known as Thelema, which has greatly influenced many Neopagan traditions, including Wiccagave a now widely-accepted definition for magick in his book Magick (1912): "The Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will."

That is, magick, for whatever reason it is put into use, is believed by its practitioners to be a method for changing either oneself or one's external conditions in some way.

Also under this definition, everything we do is in some sense "magick". Crowley once wrote, to this effect, that, "Every intentional (willed) act is a Magical Act."

But without delving into the psychology of concepts like "will" and "intent", or the metaphysics behind the very mystical notion that everything is, in some sense, inherently magickal, most of us still look at magic, if we are aware of it at all, as superstitious and petitionary, and a lot of usraised in the Abrahamic faiths, which decry "witchcraft" or "sorcery" as idolatry and sacrilegeare deeply suspicious of the concept.

But if we can clear away the prejudice and misconceptions that surround much of magick (not that no one has ever actually practiced magick for what would otherwise be malevolent or "Satanic" purposes), perhaps we will find something intriguing, and actually quite whimsical.

It was along this line of thought that I delved into further research, which revealed to me what the different types of magick Mr. Zhavo mentioned entail:

Ceremonial magick (also known as high magick), for instance, is almost a kind of theaterit usually involves elaborate rituals, whether solitary or in groups, in order to work out the (assumed) effect of its "spells", the end goal of which is often psychological or spiritual transformation, on either a personal or group level. This kind of magick is part of an ancient tradition closely connected to the occult and mystical traditions of various religions.

Divination is probably a term more familiar to the uninitiated: Fortune-telling and predicting the future, whether through the use of Tarot cards, a crystal ball (yes, there are people out there who actually use crystal balls), or other methods.

Sigil magick involves the use of magickal symbols or signs, or sigils, and their creation and destruction as a method of imposing one's will on events in the world. Sigil magick was originally part of ceremonial magick, but has since become an element in different magickal traditions.

Kitchen magick, or kitchen witchcraft, is similar to folk magic (the superstitious or paranormal traditions of various peoples and tribes), and involves developing magical materials or instruments by cooking or baking, as well as through the practice of herbalism (the use of plants for medicinal purposes), at times yielding some practical benefit.

It should be mentioned that, despite the variety of magickal practics that exist, it is not actually necessary to practice magick or witchcraft in order to be a Wiccan. Conversion to Wicca, and being a Wiccan, is first and foremost about doxis (faith) rather than praxis (practice), though many Wiccans take up magick and witchcraft (sometimes called "the Craft"), whether as a solitary commitment or in a Wiccan groupknown as a coven. (Group work in Wicca often takes the form of some kind of ritual ceremonial magick, or is a sort of worship service honoring deities or spirits, or forces of nature and their manifestations.)

Outside of magick, then, what is Wicca all about?

Arguably the most important aspect of Wicca, a moral creed known as the Wiccan Rede, clarifies the ethical philosophy of the religion, and it is expected that any self-respecting Wiccan live out the Rede in his or her life. The so-called "Long Rede" is a poetic version of the Rede with its most essential eight words occurring at the end of the poem, which read as: "An Ye Harm None, Do What Ye Will."

It is in the spirit of non-harm that Wiccans tend to make a distinction between so-called "black magick" and "white magick", with "black magick" being any kind which is intended to cause harm, and "white magick" its reverse. Crowley wrote about black magick in an essay that appeared in the London Dispatch in 1933, deriding it as "a totally unscientific and emotional form of magic," which "does get results," but "of an extremely temporary nature." Crowley went on to say that, "To practice black magic you have to violate every principle of science, decency, and intelligence. You must be obsessed with an insane idea of the importance of the petty object of your wretched and selfish desires."

Wiccans typically worship, or at least honor the symbolism of, the aforementioned Mother Goddess (also known as the Triple Goddess or, simply, the Goddesssometimes associated with the moon) and the Horned God (also known, simply, as the God), divine representations of oppositeswhether male and female, night and day, the moon and sun, among other aspects of naturethe deities' love being their unification in the harmony of the cosmos. As such, the God and Goddess are often represented by the sun and moon, respectively, and in the believer's mind may take on the image of various gods and goddesses.

That being said, and despite the fact that most Wiccans are either duotheistic or in some sense non-theistic (that is to say, they view the God and Goddess as symbols, rather than actual beings), many Wiccans worship (or, in the case of non-theists, honor the symbolism of) multiple deities, often considered to be manifestations of the principle divinity of the God and Goddess. However, Wicca is unique among many religions in that there is no prescribed pantheon, unless one follows a Wiccan denomination which specifies a certain set of deities. (Yet even among these denominations there is usually a good deal of theological flexibility.) One example is a sect known as Dianic Wicca, whose followers venerate only goddessesthough goddesses of many religionsand view them as manifestations of the one, principle Goddess.

Those deities revered by non-sectarian Wiccans can be of any kind or from any culture, from Egyptian to Semitic to Polynesian to Roman. All told, Wicca can be considered on different levels duotheistic, polytheistic, non-theistic (some Wiccans even consider themselves atheists or agnostics) and alsoin its reverence for nature—pantheistic. (Pantheism being the view that nature itself is sacred or divine, that nature is "God".) This makes one wonder where the real difference between a religion and philosophy lie...

A symbol depicting the Wiccan Goddess and God.

Wicca is an intriguing tradition which continues to gain traction throughout the United States and in other parts of the world. It remains a stark departure from the Abrahamic faiths that many of us are used to, and unique among world religions, many of which are entrenched in complex hierarchies and are far more organized and demanding of their followers.

Perhaps, whether Wiccan or not, we'd all be happier if we lived by the words "An Ye Harm None, Do What Ye Will."

I asked Mr. Zhavo, and he agrees.

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