to pagans, will you help?

Question

how do i learn more about Wicca? Also I am thinking about practiceing Wicca, what are somethings I need know? can you give me some good advice.

Answer 1

Don't decide you want to become Wicca until you know something about it - that is what you need to know - Wicca is a very specific 'branch' of Paganism, it is a priesthood within it's own rights, as well as a lot of study it can be difficult to find a coven in order to become Wicca.

General tips would fall into – study study study – with a lot of misinformation about Wicca it is easy for people to fall into thinking they are Wicca when in fact they are not, I have honestly met people who have called themselves Wicca for 10 years without actually realising they are not Wicca as until that point they had been unable or unwilling to step out of their comfort zone to study further into Wicca past their bad sources they had been used to for so long. Don't fall into that trap, Wicca is a constant learning path and it is no good closing yourself off to new information that challenges your current ideas on what Wicca is – although misinformation is hardly a positive there is at least one thing to be said of misinformation about Wicca, it helps determine those serious about becoming Wicca from those unwilling.

With that said there are things to avoid – Wicca is an initiate-only oath-bound priesthood working within a pagan mystery tradition, generally if a book or web site says otherwise they are not a reliable source, there are other signs to avoid such as people who use the spelling 'magick' are often uneducated themselves, people who use mechanical magic (i.e. copying spells from books or each other) – that is not to say these sources cannot teach you something. You will find most people will pooh-pooh people such as Horne, Ravenwolf, Buckland, etc. however valid their complaints are there are often some parts of their writing that are valid, and if nothing else you can use these as a test to your own knowledge as the more you study the more you can tell the reliable information from the nonsense.

Get yourself into a good forum, you will find many forums are filled with people who look to Wicca as an escape from Christianity or as a fashionable title, however there are some groups around that do have Wicca that have a strong community that can help you study and guide you in the right direction – Amber & Jet being a prime example of this. Another idea would be to find yourself local Pagan contacts or go along to local pagan meetings to form study groups, find a coven, find a teacher, or simply have a community to support you or just chit-chat with (a note here, study should come before training, or else you won't know who is really knowledgeable on the subject and who is not when it comes to finding a teacher or coven).

With that I suppose all I can do is give you some reliable links and books to look through – with books if you cannot afford them try swapping with others online or in your area, and remember you don't have to just stick to books on Wicca but can also get books on related subjects such as paganism, herb lore, mythology, divination, etc.

If you do want to become Wcica in the end if you cannot find a coven locally you will have to find one, many Seekers will actually move locations to find a coven to join so to become Wicca, others simply convert to Neo-wicca if they cannot find a coven.

Good luck :o)


Some links to help you learn a little more about Wicca;

http://amberandjet.spiralpaths.org - Amber & Jet
http://www.cyprian.org/Articles/gardchron.htm - Gardnerian Chronology and Bibliography
http://www.wargoddess.net/index.php - Enyo`s Workshop
http://wicca.timerift.net/ - Wicca: For the Rest of Us
http://www.homecircle.info - Homecircle
http://www.starkindler.org/ - StarFire Rising
http://www.asiya.org/ - Asiya`s Shadows
http://www.whywiccanssuck.com - Why Wiccans Suck
http://www.newwiccanchurch.net - New Wiccan Church International
http://members.tripod.com/~Moonpfyr/gardnerian.html - Gardnerian Tradition
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Agora/2416/wildrose.html - Wild Rose Outer Grove
http://members.shaw.ca/stoneandcauldron/ - Coven Of The Stone And Cauldron
http://www.oldeenchantments.com/coven/ - The Hollywood Coven
http://www.geocities.com/DesertHenge - Desert Henge
http://www.geocities.com/firestonecoven/ - Firestone Coven
http://draknet.com/proteus/proteus.html - Proteus Coven’s Webspace
http://belladonna.hypermart.net/Sage-and-Sickle/index.html - Sage & Sickle Coven
http://paganwiccan.about.com/ - PaganWiccan
http://www.cogcoa.ab.ca/ - Covenant of Gaia
http://www.chasclifton.com/ - Chas Clifton
http://www.ravenwood.com/coven.htm - Ravenwood
http://www.avalonia.co.uk – Avalonia
http://www.rosemoon.com/ - Rosemoon
http://www.geocities.com/k_garber/wicway.html - The Wiccan Way
http://www.wildideas.net/temple/ - The Temple
http://www.candledark.net/silver/ - Pour Down Like Silver
http://www.thewellhead.org.uk/ - The Wellhead
http://dasa.on.ca/qs/ - Quicksilver Site
http://www.gis.net/~nagel/grovepage/ - Page of the Mists
http://www.geocities.com/gwydionfl/ - Pagan Place
http://www.geocities.com/reikihealer2001/ - NFTD
http://www.nectw.org/ - N.E.C.T.W.
http://www.doreenvaliente.com - Doreen Valiente 1922-1999
http://www.boniface.us/CTW/index.html - Compact of Traditional Wicca
http://www.pagansunite.com/ - Witch/Pagan Resources
http://www.geocities.com/thespiraloak/ - The Spiral Oak
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/4177/ - Manor-House For Wiccan Studies
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~sjgavula/wiccahist.html - History of Wicca in England
http://geocities.com/sphinxmuse/wicca/index.html - Wiccan Religion
http://davensjournal.com/index.htm?Header.xhtml&0 - Daven`s Journal
http://www.pangaeasanctuary.org/darkwood/ - Darkwood of PanGaea
http://www.wicca.utvinternet.com/ - Wicca na hErin
http://www.tryskelion.com/ - Tryskelion
http://www.mothersmagic.net/ - Breathless Noon
http://www.religioustolerance.org/witchcra.htm - Wicca, the religion
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/religions/wicca/faq/ - Wicca FAQ
http://www.allonewicca.com/ - All one Wicca
http://www.cuew.org/cffn/index.html - Coven of the Far Flung Net
http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/gbos/index.htm - Gardnerian Book of Shadows
http://www.paganspath.com/ - The Pagan`s Path
http://www.rantingwitches.com/ - The Ranting Witches
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicca - Wicca
http://janus.spawnfar.net/ - The Janus Gate
http://www.hiddenmuse.com/ - Hidden Muse
http://www.geraldgardner.com/ - Gerald Gardner
http://beaufort.bravepages.com/index.html - Beaufort House`s TradList
http://www.tradwicca.org/beginnings.html - A Traditional Alexandrian Coven
http://www.waningmoon.com/ethics/rede.shtml - The Wiccan Rede
http://www.glasstemple.com/home/ - Glass Temple
http://www.witchipedia.org – Witchipedia

Answer 2

Here is a good place to start. The person who runs this site has taken the time to sort out the 'hype' that most (not all) people think about Wicca, and gets straight to what Wicca is while telling you what it is not.

http://wicca.timerift.net/

Look over in the right hand corner of your screen for the section called 'Wicca Basics' and click the links there to start off with. The person all so reviews the books on Wicca and tells the read what books they suggest to read, and which to avoid.

Hope this helps.

Peace Out and Blessed Be
)O(
Pagan College Student

Edit: The person above all so has cleared up a lot of the myths others think are true, but in truth are nothing more than rumor. She all so has really good points for those who are seeking credible information on Wicca and/or witchcraft.

Answer 3

You're missing something here. Paganism isn't a religion, it's a word used by Christians to describe any non Christian spiritual belief. It comes from the ancient Latin word for 'rural' (or backwoods, or whatever), and it's probably spelled paganus or something in its original form, but there is no such thing as The Pagan religion and never was. It was many religions and beliefs, and the only common trait is that it wasn't Christianity. And to a hardcore Christian, any non-Christian faith is always Satanism. That was their mentality during the great witch hunts in history, and many of them still think that way. Most religions and faiths don't have a "the devil" in their belief system. The devil, aka Satan himself, is only used in Islam, Judaism and Christianity. Other religions have tempermental and / or mischievous spirits, but only the Big Three religions have one lord-of-darkness spirit who is all evil all the time. And most neopagan (modern pagan) followers aren't very devout. The majority of Wiccans, for example, are teenage girls. And once they figure out they can't use magic to change their eye colour or turn their ex into a frog, they give up on it. That doean't leave a whole lot of room for devil stuff.

Answer 4

I don't know how far along you are, but I'm sure you can find some useful information on the web. Wikipedia usually has good information. Religious tolerance is good too.

Just as a funny side note: the first few times Wikipedia came up on my search results I thought it had something to to do with Wicca, I thought "damn, these Pagans are doing there own encyclopedia now?" I did figure it out...

Answer 5

wicca is an artificial practice borne of the revival of Celtic studies approximately 150 years ago. The Celts of Ireland and Scotland did not keep written records of their religious practices, so much of the revival studies were based on Roman accounts of the Britons, which are needless to say biased and inaccurate. their is no real evidence of the true practices of Celtic religions, so people made up their own ideas as they went along. gradually, one society and another have evolved into Wicca, which is basically a look at life through a pagan filtre. it is often mistaken for black magic, as it is a form of witchcraft, but it has no recognition of Christ or Satan, et al. Celtic beliefs predate a belief in one god and so Wicca is founded on the belief that there is more than one power at work in the universe
there is a great deal of diversity in the Wiccan world, and as it is a religion which is still in the process of being born, there is no one way to define it; it is defining itself.
if you wish to understand Wiccan beliefs, it would be helpful to study Celtic and Hindu beliefs, which grow from the same root. Remember that Celtic and pagan beliefs are much older than Britain. The Celts had their origins somewhere in Eastern Europe some five thousand years ago.

Answer 6

You need to know whatever you focus your attention on is most likely to manifest in your life. Rituals are a means to focus and direct your energy into creating thins,as such they are secondary,I believe.Useful, though! Paganism is about realising you are at one with Nature and getting to know it better and co-creating with the power of the moon, the water spirits,air,fire,earth etc...
Do you have a local esoteric boutique in your area?You could pick up any book that seems fit for you.And maybe meet like-minded people.

Answer 7

There is an excellent book called "Drawing Down the Moon". I believe the author is Margo Adler. She is the granddaughter of psychologist Alfred Adler.

Answer 8

I totally agree with the Drawing Down the Moon recommendation! Its a perfect introduction to your path :)

Answer 9

if you have a near by coven they will be glad to help you out try searching online or in the local newspapers... also if you go to...i think it is theshadowlands.com you can find some information. my best friend is wiccan and i know ALOT about the religeon...is it a religeon? sorry

Answer 10

ok,,good advice.