I keep hearing about Wicca/Wiccans. Is that considered a religion? What do Wiccans believe and practice?

Question

Like, is the pentagram part of Wicca? I've always wondered what that stood for. I've been shopping for rocks and crystals because I want to collect them, and I see a lot that are categorized as "Wiccan." How is that a part of the practice? Also, is "Wicca" the same as "paganism"? All these different names are confusing!

Please, I'd like to hear from some people who follow Wicca or can speak objectively about it. I understand that there's probably people who don't agree with it, but only hearing from people who hate the whole thing won't help! Thanks a lot!

Answer 1

Wicca is a religion without laity, this means that it is only consisting of priests and priestesses, so it is more accurately called a priesthood, some people would also call it a cult – cults have a bad reputation, they are not bad, cult simply means a small religious grouping with a charismatic leader, even Christianity was once a cult.

Wicca is not an officially recognised religion, when people say a religion is recognised what they usually mean is that it is included in the Army Chaplain's handbook for ministering to people of various faiths or that some religious organisations can incorporate as a church and attain tax-exempt status. It is not possible to have a recognised religion because to recognise one religion and not another would go against the U.S. constitution. Within the U.S there is no such thing as an officially recognised religion.

Wicca is an initiate-only oath-bound priesthood, those who are Wicca are brought into Wicca through a British Traditional Witchcraft coven, and this means a coven with a direct line back to the founder of Wicca Gerald Gardner or the New Forest coven. The line back to Gardner or the New Forest coven is important because the information about the beliefs, practices, doctrines, mysteries and gods of Wicca are only taught to those within Wicca to maintain the integrity of their path so if the line is broken the full information about Wicca is not known to the coven so cannot be passed onto new members.
The information you find online is 'outer-court' material, this means things that are taught to those outside of Wicca that are not oath-bound, often placeholders are taught rather than the real beliefs just to make it easier to explain their beliefs to those outside of Wicca.
Many people claim to be Wicca when they are in fact not, there is a new faith known as 'Neo-wicca' this is a belief system based upon the outer-court teachings of Wicca, many of these Neo-wicca call themselves Wicca because misinformation has lead them to believe this is what they are, there is a lot of misinformation about Wicca.
Wicca is a mystery tradition; the mysteries are the Wicca insight into life.
Wicca are hard-polytheists meaning that they believe in their own specific gods, they don't disbelieve in other peoples gods; they simply don't follow other gods but their own. Wicca gods are known as the Great Mother Goddess and Horned God, these are the outer-court names.
Wicca are often thought to follow the rede, this is a poem that describes their belief but a line most often quoted is 'an if it harm none, do as thou wilt' some people take this as 'harm none' however it is actually to do with cause and effect – meaning you can't do as you wish as it could harm others – it is most often taught to those new to Wicca to make them realise the potential outcomes of their actions, Wicca themselves are largely dependant on their own personal morals and ethics, the rede is more commonly followed by Neo-wicca as meaning 'harm none' or try not to intentionally cause someone harm.

Here are some good sites on Wicca & Neo-wicca;

http://amberandjet.spiralpaths.org
http://www.geraldgardner.com
http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/gbos/index.htm
http://www.starkindler.org
http://www.tradwicca.org
http://www.newwiccanchurch.net
http://www.thewellhead.org.uk
http://www.mothersmagic.net
http://www.asiya.org
http://janus.spawnfar.net
http://www.angelfire.com/co2/evenstar/faq.html


The pentagram is a common symbol of Wicca but it is also included in other religions such as Satanism and Christianity, as well as a symbol used within Paganism in general, there are various reasons why the pentagram is used as religious symbolism.
Within Wicca and Paganism the pentagram tends to symbolise the four elements [earth, fire, water, air] with the addition of the fifth point at the top symbolising spirit, the circle surrounding them as binding them in harmony. Within Christianity the pentagram represents the five wounds of Christ. Within Satanism it represents Baphomet with the point showing downward, or similar to the inverted cross with the three points of the pentagram representing the trinity of Christianity pointing downwards.

Gem stones and crystals are commonly used within Wicca for their magical and healing properties, people tend to categorise them as 'Wiccan' because people know they can cash-in on the fad of Wicca – those interested in Wicca are more likely to be attracted to something labelled 'Wiccan gemstones' than 'gemstones'. Crystals are used throughout a lot of occult and new age practices, for example they are used in healing such as crystal healing or charka-related practices.

Wicca is not the same as Paganism but part of Paganism.
Paganism is an umbrella term that is used for any religious path outside of Christian, Jewish or Muslim faiths, however generally when people say Pagan they are referring to Neo-Paganism. Neo-pagans are either pantheist or polytheist.
Pantheist means someone who believes the divine is present in all, everything living or throughout everything within the universe or world. Polytheist is someone who believes in many different deities, for example someone who is Asatru is polytheist because they believe in the gods within Norse mythology.
Wicca is a polytheist religion, thus Wicca is a Pagan religion, but not all Pagans are Wicca, Wicca actually makes up a very small percentage of Paganism it is just because it is one of the better known Pagan religions that it is so often heard of.

Answer 2

You rolled a lot of questions into one.

Yes, Wicca is a religion. Wiccans are followers of that religion.

Gemstones are used as talismans, offerings, etc. But there's no reason for you not to use the gemstones. Wiccans use herbs for magickal purposes, too, but you can still cook with them.

Wicca is a modern Neo-Pagan religion. Neo-Pagans try to integrate the worship of ancient Gods and respect for nature into modern life. A Wiccan is always a Pagan, but a Pagan is not always Wiccan. I'm a Pagan who was once Wiccan.

The pentagram is a Wiccan symbol; it's also an easy way to draw a star. More commonly, it's surrounded by a circle, and that's called the pentacle. It looks sort of like a person with all four limbs sprawled out; the five points also represent air, water, fire, earth, and spirit.

Answer 3

Wicca is generally a nature based religion that is a recreation of what is believed to be practices of ancient people - it is not an "old" religion - fairly new in fact - but is similar to what is felt was practiced before Christianity came about in early pre-Christian societies. There is no written history of what was actually practiced so really it is surmised from some relics and legends. Their holidays are based on the seasons and cycles of the earth. Most (not all) are somewhat Goddess based and also may worship a God. Wiccans all follow a Rede - harm none do as ye will (in short form - there have been a lot of modifications to it and you will see various long forms) Most (not all) practice some form of witchcraft in spells and ceremonies. There are several forms of Wicca with some differences in practices and beliefs - some join covens and some practice solitary.

I'm not exactly Wicca but kind of have a parallel beliefs. I would be Pagan ( perhaps a witch) - Pagan being any belief system outside the mainstream Judeo Christian and Muslim - but nowadays pretty much refers to Wicca and other nature or primitive based religions (Asatru, Shamanism).

Answer 4

You're asking a question that will take a lot of explaining.....in short:

Yes, the pentacle is a part of Wicca. It represents the elements and spirit. Rocks and crystals can be a part of it. There are several "branches" of Wicca and they don't all believe exactly the same. All Wiccans are Pagan and a part of Paganism but not all Pagans are Wiccan. Paganism is a blanket term for any who don't believe in the Christian faith.

Here is a link to some more detailed explanations. http://www.religioustolerance.org/witchcra.htm

Answer 5

Wicca follows a lot of teachings of love, and reverance for nature, the crystals have to do with earth spirits and so fort, Paganism is more of a blanket term, wicca is a slightly more uniform, but no two wiccans are exactly the same, the pentagram stands for all 5 elements, earth fire air sea, and spirit.
so yeah, email me if you would like to talk more about it.

Answer 6

Wicca is a religion. its a nature based religion. Its followers go to great leangths to appreciate the beutey and wonders of the universe. Its a pretty peaceful religion. their sayingd are harm none love all, Blessed be, and loveand light. the pentagram represents the 4 elements of the world earth, air, fire and water.
i think that the 5th point is the goddess...dont quote me there. the only way it would mean anything bad is if it were upside down where one point was down and two wee up. then it wouldnt be a wiccan symbol at all. Wiccans beleive in spiritual aspects of the world. they worship mant gods and goddeses. when wiccans do spells they are almost never bad. for they beleive that if they put a spell on someone it will come back on them.in 3s. certian crystals are said to bring different energies.
well im not a Wiccan but my husbandis and i think they are very peacful people. i hope ive helped a little.

Answer 7

Yes, Wicca has been a federally recognized religion in the US since 1984. Wicca is an Earth Based Pagan(Pagan religions are usually polythesitic and nature based but not always, There is no uniform code to pagan religions just that they are not Jewish, Muslim or Christian) religion with belief in many Gods. Part of Wiccan belief is that one can attune oneself with Nature and the Elements. One way we do that is through magick. We use stones, herbs, candles, inscence, colors, knots and a myriad of other objects to perform spells and rituals.

I can give you some informative videos on Wicca and Pagan practices. If you have any other questions, let me know.

Answer 8

I see many people have already answered this question much more succinctly than I ever could! I am a Wiccan Witch, which means to say, that I follow some of the rpincipals of Wicca, but am not bound wholly by it's doctrines. I also collect crystals, have thousands of them!

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Answer 9

Many Wiccans use crystals in healing ceremonies. Wicca is understood to be an evolution of paganism, believing in two divine spirits, the god and the goddess. Wiccans are also considered witches by some, and devil-worshippers by others.

Answer 10

It is officially considered a religion, but some people don't consider it as such for some reason. Like, for example, there was this one Wiccan who served in WWII, and they wouldn't put a Wiccan symbol on his tombstone because they didn't recognize it as a real religion. It was only recently (I think within the past week/month) that they allowed the symbol to go on his tombstone.