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INTRODUCTION TO WICCA
"Wicca? What's it all about?"
This question is being heard more frequently, here and abroad - for something very different has been quietly appearing on today's scene.
There are a lot of problems in the world today - wars, pollution, repression by one side or another, technology and commercialism gone mad, and far, far too many people. And it's getting worse.
Why?
What has caused the cascading insanity that we see around us? More importantly, what can we grasp onto which is sucure and worth believing?
Some of us think we know why this has all happened; if you're interested and concerned, you, too, may eventually realize why things have turned out this way. (More on this subject latter).
The important thing is to get back, in some small way, to the mental and spiritual outlook which can make this nightmare world, and all its problems, quite unnecessary.
It can be done - our distant ancestors knew how. They knew how to live with nature, to understand the reasons behind it. They had a basic knowledge of the balance which is a part of everything - something we have lost in the centuries and millenia that have passed.
But not lost irretrievably, for it is with us again. It is faith and a way of living.
It is Wicca.
WHY NOW ?
Wicca is returning to the world!
Really, though, it had never left - for folk beliefs and the ancient Witch cult have always been with us. But for the past several centuries folk wisdom was given a Christian overlay and largly ignored; the Witches, with thier age-old lore, were forced underground by persecution - with much loss to the common man.
Now the established major religions are greatly weakened and tottering, thier foundations largly destroyed by a rapidly changing world. Thier efforts to adjust and alter, to "keep step with the times," have only weakened them further. Only the prop of being socially convenient has kept the churches from total collapse. And the structure of society itself is weakening, with "social convenience" having less and less power as a new generation increasingly scorns that which is useless and irrelevant.
Science itself, starting with Galileo and others as a reaction to a stale and oppressive religious establishment, seems to have reached a plateau in its discoveries. New research has become increasingly expensive, and the feeling is growing that the results gained are now justifying less and less of the cost put into them. Political pressures fashion the wonders of science into weapons which are both crule and fearsome. Commercialism, in its mindless striving for money, has managed to pollute much of what still remains of the natural world.
Politics has reached a similar impasse. Both Marxism and Capitalism were created using the precepts of Christianity, and thus both suffer from the same weaknesses as thier parent: inflexability, dogma, intolerance and hypocrisy. Those who have lived under both systems say that Marxism is considerably more drab and mechanistic than its rival. Thus we can exspect that the current intellectual fashions tending toward Marx will ultimately be halted by the dull, hard wall of reality.
But then - where else will there be to go?
The answer lies deep within ourselves - where it has always been - and out in the world of nature, where it has long waited.
For the Wiccan Way is very close to the soul of humanity; it is a natural belief which sees man as he is, and the world as it is, and seeks to push neither into a preconceived mold. Further, Wicca sees the mystery and richness of nature, and opens the way to an understanding of it which the modern world has overlooked.
The Wiccan Way, as it now exists, is based on valid beliefs from the distant past. The present store of rituals and practices has been drawn from ancient sources, restored and updated by scholars from various Witch groups, existing but never advertised, whose traditions stretch unbroken since far before the dawn of history.
There is much flexibility here, for Wicca is not fixed and dogmatic. There are new adventures of the mind and spirit, for Wicca thrives on joy, beauty and colour.
And there is the inspiration of working toward a new world - one totally different from today.
And one far better.
WHAT IS WICCA ?
Wicca recognizes that throughout all things - from the atom to the universe - there is a duality. Night and day, love and hate - the ancient Oriental concept of Yin and Yang which was long matched by simular concepts in what we now call Europe.
The Witch realizes that there is no heaven except that which he himself makes, and likewise no hell but that of his own creation.
Most Witches believe that they have experienced previous lives in previous eras of this world. And they can point to impressive evidence backing them up.
A Witch refuses to believe that mankind is born innately sinful, and realizes that the concept of "sin" is itself arbitrary and harmful to human nature.
The Witch knows that man is not better than woman, nor woman superior to man. What one lacks the other can give, and cannot be truly alive without the other! There is no greater magick than that of man and woman together.
A Witch knows that what is called "magick" does truly exist, and it is often worked by those who are in touch with certain forces of the natural world.
The Witch believes that what cannot be seen is of the greatest importance - that much exists of which the present world's science knows little or nothing. And that anyone can experience what is normally considered to be beyond "reality"
Wicca has a deep love for things natural and wild, as it knows that there are many beings which are intelligent and wise - and not all human. Yet they may be met in places of seclusion and wilderness by those who earnestly desire to know them - and it is for this reason that the Witch does not allow his or her heart and mind to become cluttered by the useless trivia of a commercial-technical society.
A Witch knows that there are deep forces and tides which underlie all things, and that there exist here on earth infinitely complex multidimentional matrices of living power which are far beyond the capability of a human to understand. That there is intelligence here and the greatest of wisdom - for such has always existed and always will.
The Witch realizes that mankind has always known of the existence of this Supernal Intelligence, and has called It by thousands of names for tens of thousands of years. That men and women of all eras have drawn strength and power, warmth and security from this source - at times in ways which seems to transcend reality!
Wicca teaches that the Highest source is both female and male in its aspects and that, though vastly beyond our capasity to understand, we can perceive It - or Them - as individuals, or as Goddess and God to whom we can speak, and receive answers.
The Witch knows that over the past two or three thousand years humankind has stressed a narrow portion of the God in his religions and ignored or denied the role of the Goddess - with the result that history has come to be a chronicle of disasters. A balance is needed, with perhaps a greater stress on the Goddess (right now) in Her many aspects, to restore peace and to assure a meaningful survival of ourselves and our descendants.
This is Wicca!