do you have to be initiated in to a wiccan coven to practise wicca?

Question

i have been on many pagan forums and alot of people get peed pff when people who practise wicca alone call themselves wiccan so what are the bloody differences? what do you do in covens that is so different and secret? please enlighten me someone

Answer 1

Don't know what forums you go to. 99% of all wiccans I've met are solitary. I don't think I've honestly ever met one who belongs to a coven. I wasn't even sure they still existed until someone once brought up the idea that she was thinking of joining one.

Answer 2

If we are talking about Wicca; the British Tradition path of the craft, then yes it requires a coven setting or being taught by someone of Brit Trad training who is willing to and of a degree to teach you.

If we are talking wicca as most people these days do, that being any pagan craft, then that is something that one can do on ones own.

Unfortunately those who are Brit Trad can't tell you what it is that they practice as they take an oath not to share their knowledge with anyone outside of their trad or who is not "properly prepared"

A lot of the "Old School" Wiccans get ticked off because they hear people claiming to know as much as they do without having spent the years in study and training and they did it all by themselves, as well as claiming titles for themselves that have more than a little meaning to those who "came up the ranks". While there are some folk who are truly gifted, there are a whole lot of posers out there too

Answer 3

I like Arcadian's answer--he explained it well. I live in an area where we have both traditional Wiccan covens and witch's covens as well as many eclectic practitioners.

Traditional Wicca practice the religion that was founded by Gerald Gardner. It is an initiatory religion which has oathbound mysteries. To practice Traditional Wicca, one must be initiated into the religion. Until initiation into Wicca, oathbound information such as the names of the deities worshiped and beliefs and practices and the coven's BOS are kept secret. It is a mystery religion.

We also have many who practice different forms of witchcraft in groups that are called covens. These covens do not call themselves "Wiccan covens" because they aren't lineaged from a Wiccan coven nor do they practice all of the core tenets of Wicca (if they haven't been initiated into Wicca, they don't even know what the core tenets are since it is a mystery religion). They are witches and/or pagans practicing their path in a group.

We have a few solitary Wiccans--they are people who were once members of a Wiccan coven but moved here. They still keep in contact with their old coven members because of the close relationships they have with them. They were initiated into the religion of Wicca, and are still considered members of that religion. It would be the same if my husband were initiated into the Masons and then we moved. He would still be a Mason because he was once initiated and learned some of the mysteries.

We have solitary practitioners who practice the outer court (non-oathbound) material of Wicca. They are Neo-Wiccans. They like the freedom of Neo-Wicca because it fulfills their needs and is much less structured than Traditional Wicca. For a good definition of Neo-Wicca:
http://www.witches-tutorial.com/paths/neowicca.html
Neo- simply means new. It is not traditional and structured, it is new and eclectic.

I doubt if anyone will give out oathbound information so you can compare your practices to theirs. BTW's take their oaths very seriously. I respect them for that.

My practice is very different from Wicca, but many of my friends follow a Wiccan or Neo-Wiccan path so I like to read about the history of it. I am grateful to the elders of the movement that they have paved the way for religions like mine.

Answer 4

(Obligatory "I am not a Wiccan" disclaimer.)

The problem, as I understand it, is not in the solitary practice, but the lack of initiation. "Traditional" Wicca, as it's often called, started as an intiatory system, with more and more information being imparted as one progressed. There was/is a structure in place to teach people various levels of information, to verify peoples' training, etc. There's a variety of information that's considered secret ("oathbound"), up to and including several things referred to as the Mysteries. The Mysteries are somewhat central to the religion - so lacking those particular things means you've only got a partial picture. (As to the details of what's oathbound, I've got no clue - and, frankly, if I did, I wouldn't reveal them anyway.)

Now, there's plenty of material out there - some of it by people who broke their oaths of secrecy. As such, a non-initiatory parallel religion sprung up - sometimes called Solitary Wicca or Eclectic Wicca, though neo-Wicca seems to be favored by a lot of people. Some of the neo-Wicca traditions actually do include intiations of their own, which can cause some confusion.

Combine the two things, and you've got a bit of a sticky situation - someone states that they practice Wicca, and it's uncertain (at least initially) what they mean, which one they're referring to. Some of the Traditionalists feel a bit put out - they've put a lot of work into their path, earning their degrees, etc... seeing someone else come along, read a book, and claim that they have equal (or greater) standing can seem offensive. The big thing seems to center around the usage of terms - one group wants the term to signify one specific thing, another group wants it to mean something broader... and both feel that the term belongs to them.

Answer 5

Gardnerian and Alexandrian Wiccans are usually the ones who get upset when someone is "working" solitary. They are mainly the one's who feel you HAVE to join a coven in order to be legit. This is as bad as any other religion claiming to be the Only One.

I used to be a member of a coven years ago. The only difference is there are more people. There really are NO secrets because so many of the founders of these different sects wrote books and told EVERYTHING in them. You can find the basic set-ups and ideas within the book Drawing Down the Moon (no, this is not a spellbook, as some believe... this woman compiled the different sects and gave basic outlines for them and the people she personally interviewed within them).

You do not have to join a coven in order to practice Wicca. I think when they do this, they are trying to give their personal sect more form for the public eye, as there is no secret reason to do these things. They make it sound like they draw more energy with people and sometimes they do, but for the most part, the rituals and gatherings are boring and lack enthusiasm. Some I have been to has been more for show than for any real purpose (which is why I left it for a while... I wasn't seeing it as fulfilling when I was around people like that).

Answer 6

Well, a lot of people belive that you must at least be initiated by a coven (at least if you're Gardnerian, which is the root of Wicca) but afterwards you can practice as you wish. This is usually just to keep the rule of a year and a day's training, so that people who want to be Wiccan can't just decide they are and not spend time thinking about the religion and learning it. However, it is generally held, if you study and train yourself, then do a self-initiation, that is a valid option rather than working in a coven, especially if there isn't a coven in your area. (And especially if you seem dedicated and well-learned.) So really, there is no set rule that everyone agrees upon.

Answer 7

I certainly hope you don't have to be initiated into a coven to practice Wicca, because I've always been a solitary witch. There are some Wiccans who believe very strongly that you have to be initiated into a coven, but I've always understood that to depend very largely on which branch of Wicca you follow. The teachers I've had have always made it very clear that you do not need to be initiated into a coven to practice Wicca. It's a very personal choice and not one that is forced. There's a great deal of trust required when working with a coven, and though my teachers have said to attend some circles if that's something you're interested in, it's by no means required.

Answer 8

The problem is really with fuzzy use of terms.

There are certainly legitimate self-taught solitary Witches!

But big-W "Wicca" refers to a number of initiatory, oathbound Traditions that pass down, through lineage, a body of lore and practice. This *has* to be learned in a coven, or maybe privately through a High Priest or High Priestess. The best-known of these initiatory traditions is Gardnerian. As these traditions ARE oathbound, there is no way that anyone praticing any of them CAN tell you what's "different" about what they do.

So it very well may be that the folks who are annoyed with you are using "Wicca" that way.

Small-w "wicca" is kind of a problematic term.

We can blame the confusion, in part, on people like me, who have been active in the Interfaith movement for a long time.

When we Witches and Wiccans began to get involved in Interfaith groups, it was thought that referring to ALL forms of the Craft as "wicca" would give people uninformed about our religion a non-pejorative name, without the baggage and misconceptions associated with "witchcraft". And we didn't want to start out with having to explain all the different kinds of Traditions; it was enough that we could be there at all, we didn't want to confuse people.

And so we Interfaith folks used the term for any and all types of Witchcraft, including BTW, eclectic Craft, fam trad, and so on.

It certainly doesn't help that there are a slew of books out there that use the term inappropriately, too.

To avoid conflicts, I'd really suggest that you say you practice the Old Religion, or that you're a Witch.

We, as a community, are going through a transition...not a lot of people accept even using small-w "wicca" as a term for self-taught eclectic Witches.

That does NOT mean that what you practice is invalid - I couldn't know without knowing what your practice is.. As Ellen Cannon Reed said "Any good Witch is eclectic...she steals anything that works".

Be a little patient, and be happy with what has changed. There WAS a time, not all that long ago, when self-taught Witches were ONLY EVER considered to be fluffy posers. (I know this from experience - I was a *totally* self-taught solitary Witch, as in no books, nothing but pure intuition, for years before I got trained by someone else) That's changing.

You might also try saying that you are "small-w wiccan" and if anyone asks, you can explain what you mean; that you are a self-taught Witch whose practice is *based in* initiatory Traditions (as it is if you've learned from the non-fluffy books on the Craft - books written by people trained up in initiatory Traditions). But truly, saying that you are a Witch will not make anyone on those boards snicker at you, and will eliminate the problem you're dealing with now.

You have to ask yourself what is more important to you - that these others folks call you "Wiccan" (which they are NOT going to do), or that you get beyond arguments about terms and get on with learning and practicing. You're a Witch, dearheart, and that's a fine and proud thing to be.

On a personal note, my husband and I were initiated into *different* oathbound Traditions, and we can't even talk about the oathbound stuff to each other. We've had to learn a second Tradition so that we can practice together comfortably.

Also, as far as I'm concerned, any Witch has to be able to practice alone if circumstances require it. If you cannot practice without a coven, there's been something missing from your training.

Answer 9

You certainly dont need to be in a coven. It may be helpfull to join one as a beginner, I've never been part of a coven, and I've been practicing just this side of 10 years. I think what most people object to is what I call "Fluffy bunny pagans" they can recite every line of "the Craft" they watch "Charmed" religously, and they wear lots of pentacles, so they must be pagans, right? Their power animal is a pink Unicorn, you see what I'm getting at here? They like to use the terms, and cast pretty love spells, but have no idea what the religon is. But if you are serious, and know what you are doing, or seek honestly to learn, dont worry what a few elitist snobs have to say. It takes a lot of guts to be a solitary practitioner. Incidentally if you're looking to network try www.witchvox.com, they network people from all over the world.. It's how I found my mentor, and a few groups in my area.
Good luck! :)

Answer 10

From what I understand one of the great things about the Wiccan religion is a person can hold their own rituals in private. Some established covens do get kind of upset when a person goes it solo but this attitude is not in harmony with the practice and is just a reflection of the elitist-type attitude that eventually becomes part of all organizations and religions.
When paganism started most people worshiped in private while holding very unique ideas about who and what God was, many of these people invented their own Gods which is quite acceptable. This really upset the early Christian missionaries.
So any way, do what you will as long as it harms no one.
Good luck

Answer 11

It is fine to be solitary, or eclectic as most like to call themselves, you really do not have to put any prefix, but you still are Wicca. There are a lot of sub groupings of Wicca and some consider themselves the "right" one and are trying to exclude solitaries but it is still a young and growing religion and there is room for those who prefer to practice alone. You are just a coven of one.

If you haven't already get the book "Wicca A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner", by Scott Cunningham.