questions about wicca?

Question

okay well i just had some questions about it. just curious. i was wondering what a eclectic wicca is and a solitary wicca is. also, is it possible for a catholic or christian to be part wiccan? like a christian wiccan? did that make sense? if you decide to be wiccan, do you have to be pagen and worship the God and the Goddess? or can you still believe in God,Jesus,etc? please help?

yeah there are a lot of questions.. sorry.

wow guys. thanks so much for all your help! i was pleasently surprised. :)
i'm not sure what i will do yet. i'll wait and think about it. thanks again though, to all of you. sorry but i won't be picking a best answer. thank you all so much though.

Answer 1

An ecletic Wiccan is simply one who borrows from other sources. Since every Wiccan does that, technically every Wiccan is one. A solitary Wiccan is one who does not belong to a coven. Most Wiccans nowadays fit that bill.

If you are a Wiccan, you cannot be a Christian. There is no such thing as a "Christian Wiccan" or a "Christian Pagan". This past answer will help you:

Christian Wicca Debunked
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AnJF3rfPcj84C8UMNc9AVuzsy6IX?qid=20070109183416AANvtAH&show=7#profile-info-6cde159d6ded150dc951d129d2bbe58aaa
History of Wicca
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AhU3APMDMy3JSWiLuyb6vR_sy6IX?qid=20060915145049AAkDSCG
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AnmpBWCNQ4STCeOacIJt2avsy6IX?qid=20060923114119AAAusg9&show=7#profile-info-85e3efd122e8f209277b7bb6e4c2d432aa
Meaning of word Wicca
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AgXeuUT6PMwvqlnBRPezIfvsy6IX?qid=20060915145049AAkDSCG&show=7#profile-info-AA10929287
Meaning of word Witch
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AvAGLfx2yAunbOKyoditCmXsy6IX?qid=20060924205638AAvbb6K&show=7#profile-info-68090b5d557ec89c0e51a9c78de0dafbaa
Silver Wiccan Ravenwolf Money spell
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AgXeuUT6PMwvqlnBRPezIfvsy6IX?qid=20060918191343AA1dAL3&show=7#profile-info-f49ad034abd28a4bd6e30b7088b096a3aa
Jenny's Frostie Wicca Expose'
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AiPNdQz1cyOLeB7iTkvU9R7sy6IX?qid=20060920141547AA0e3fT&show=7#profile-info-79401d523b04ee9784e7438998679c4daa
Salem Witch Trials
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AjJ7TpnKS_XXcZfDiK0CpNTsy6IX?qid=20060904163917AAcBiEQ&show=7#profile-info-AA11725587
Wicca vs. Satanism
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=An.v6DF_RGP.oG2FNsRshDzsy6IX?qid=20060924212214AA8bflE&show=7#profile-info-8c76be37c6da788dc5d6e0fe923aaef1aa

Answer 2

Well... a Chatholic Wiccan would be an "eclectic" wiccan... YAY two birds with one stone.
To be eclectic, means to take what ever you want, and add it to wicca, and take out things you dont want, until you've got something that looks nothing like the original religion.
I have seen one Christian/Wiccan tradition... they used the God and the Goddess as representation which was the One, the all might powerful force, and named "the one" jehovah after the christian god. The male aspects were represented "the god" by Jesus, and the female aspects were represented "the goddess" by Mary.
They called it "Reformed" I called it eclectic tradition.

My opinion...
If its not Wicca, its not Wicca.
Once you change the religion, it becames something different. It becomes your personal path, and your personal religion.
Please, dont become like those fluffies who have destroyed wicca, and call yourself wiccan, if what you practice is 1% wicca, 99% what ever you feel like.

...Oh... and Wicca's traditional form is done in covens, but the new age movement, which went against the secrecy of Wicca and made a solitary form.
A Covens with other people.
Solitary is by yourself.

Answer 3

A Solitary Wiccan is Wiccan who practices alone. An Eclectic Wiccan is a Wiccan who takes many things from different things from different sources.

You can combine Christianity and Wicca, but you shouldn't call it Christian Wicca, since it is neither fully Christianity nor fully Wicca, but instead a synthesis of the two.

Generally Wiccans worship the God and the Goddess in their several forms, and don't consider Jesus to be a part of our religion. However, if you decide to combine Christianity and Wicca you can worship the Christian God and Jesus.

Answer 4

1. I believe in the Law of Return and that it is a universal truth, like the law of gravity: it affects you regardless whether you in believe it. I do not believe in the "Threefold Law," which I find highly unnatural in concept. The commonly known form of the Threefold Law comes from the Rede of the Wiccae, which was published in the 1970s. 2. There is no long version. The "long version" is called the Rede of the Wiccae and was published in the 1970s. It ends with the actual Wiccan Rede. The Wiccan Rede is advice. It is also granting permission rather than stating any rule. IT doesn't tell us what we have to do or not do. Merely some of what we can do if we choose. 3. Traditional Wiccans are generally hard polytheists. Eclectic Wiccans have a lot of variation among them. I'm a hard polytheist, but I don't see soft polytheism as any reason to not consider someone Wiccan. 4. Different magical systems work in different ways. Witchcraft is based on willpower and emotions and generally doesn't accept that there is power in certain words. Thus, simply reading a witchcraft spell will do nothing if the reader doesn't understand what the words are supposed to evoke within him or her. Agrippa's magic is a completely different system tied up within a complex Judeo-Christian cosmology. Ceremonial magic often accept that there IS power in particular words and symbols. However, even Agrippa still says that you can only properly use his books if you understand the concepts behind it. An untrained person can't simply pick up his works and read out of them with any effect. 5. Magic is a manipulation of energy. Prayer is a request to the gods. They are not the same thing. 6. For eclectics, there is no required training period. On the flipside, there's nothing requiring us to take someone calling themselves "Wiccan" seriously, either. If you insist you're devoted to Wicca and then admit you've only been studying a week, you're probably going through a phase. If you insist on being respected as a knowledgable Wiccan yet have never heard the phrase maid/mother/crone, I'm not taking you seriously. If you say you're a beginner and you ask questions, I'm going to respect you as being responsible regardless whether or not you actually call yourself Wiccan. My *suggestion* is that people study at least a year and a day before deciding to dedicate themselves. If they feel they need more time than that, they should take it. There's no shame in needing time to better figure things out. 7. I understand the theories of magic and do various energy manipulations, but I don't do what people commonly call "witchcraft" (which I also find to be a problematic word). I call what I do magic, but not witchcraft. I don't find a need for the latter.

Answer 5

An ecclectic wiccan is a Wiccan who blends a lot of other things into Wicca. A solitary is a Wiccan without a coven, some prefer that. There are Christian Wiccans, in where The God is Jesus, and The Goddess is Mary, and Yahweh is the ultimate truth [Usually they are laughed at, but many do.] Wiccans are Pagans, the reverse is not true, I am not a Wiccan, but I am a Pagan.

Answer 6

I am addressing the Christian part of your question as there exist many online answers regarding Wicca (try a Google).

Wicca is a pagan religion. I have known Christians and Catholics that practiced Wicca and called themselves Christian witches. The problem is, according to christianity, witchcraft is punished by death and according to Wicca, christian beliefs are not Wiccan beliefs and you cannot be both.

Here's the interesting part: you get to be, believe and call yourself whatever you choose.

Christianity and especially Catholicism have many pagan traditions incorporated into their holidays. The Jehovah's Witnesses are the exception (although JWs think themselves christians, christians don't think JWs are christians).

You see, there's a whole lot of people and religions thinking a whole lot of things about themselves and everybody else. What really matters to you is what you think. Do some research, search your heart, take what you like and leave the rest.

Answer 7

Eclectic Wicca is Wicca that doesn't follow any certain tradition such as Gardenarian or Alexandrian. Solitary Wicca is Wicca not in a coven setting but simply for the individual.

Some Wiccans retain part of their Christian beliefs as part of their Wiccan beliefs. http://paganwiccan.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&sdn=paganwiccan&cdn=religion&tm=11&f=21&tt=14&bt=1&bts=1&zu=http%3A//www.religioustolerance.org/witchcr5.htm
http://paganwiccan.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&sdn=paganwiccan&cdn=religion&tm=12&f=21&tt=14&bt=1&bts=1&zu=http%3A//www.christianwicca.org/

Wicca is more than just witchcraft, it's a Pagan religion based on the polarity of the Goddess and God. If you don't believe in that polarity, you can't call yourself Wiccan. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ8rlDy9HZ0

The concept of Wiccan Major Deities is as follows: A Dual God (Young and Old) and a Triple Goddess (Maiden, Mother and Crone). The Dual God being Yahweh and Jesus and the Triple Goddess being Mary Magdeline, Mother Mary, and Shekinah the Consort of Yahweh.

Yes, it is necessary to believe in the Duality. Otherwise, you'd not be consdiered Wiccan. There are other Abrahamic Magickal Pathways if Magick is what you want. There is Enochian Magick. Thelema, and Kabbalah.

Answer 8

wow, there are a lot of questions rolled up into this..

Eclectic wicca takes from many different traditions, pantheons, etc..
A solitary wicca is one who practices solo and is not a member of a coven.

You'll hear a lot of people tell you that one cannot be both a wiccan and a christian. The christians will especially tell you this because their bible says "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live"

At one time the church and paganism lived peacefully side by side and many worshipped both the God of heaven and the Goddess of the earth.

My opinion is that you can believe whatever you like.. the beliefs are yours and yours alone to follow.
The problem is going to be in reconciling the beliefs where they differ.. and they do differ in many ways..again, your personal beliefs are up to you.

Answer 9

First, the basics.

The central tenet of the Wiccan religion is the Wiccan Rede: "If you harm none, do what you will." This is a deceptively simple "commandment" which can take a lifetime to contemplate and to master.

Wiccans honor Deity as both male and female, God and Goddess -- or at the very least as Goddess. We believe that the universe is the body of God/dess, and therefore that all things contain Divine energy and that the world itself is sacred. Some Wiccans are polytheists (many God/desses); others are duotheists (God and Goddess, of whom all other Gods and Goddesses are simply aspects); others are monotheists (God and Goddess Themselves are simply aspects of an unknowable Source).

Wiccans do not believe that God/dess is separate from the world; therefore, we have no concept of salvation, since God/dess is present to all and always. Many Wiccans believe that God/dess is too big to fit inside one religion -- all religions/spiritual paths are ways of reaching the same goal, and atheism and agnosticism are honorable perspectives on the mystery of life.

Each Wiccan operates as their own priest/ess. We do not have a distinction between clergy and laity. Therefore, each Wiccan is responsible for their own personal development and for forging their own relationship with God/dess.

Wiccans do not usually have churches. We create sacred space as and where needed, by casting "circles" of energy which function as temples. When inside those circles, we invite the spirits of the four Platonic elements (air, fire, water, and earth) to join us, as well as the Goddess and the God (or at minimum the Goddess).

Many Wiccans practice witchcraft, which we see as working with the Divine energy that permeates the world to bring about change. In accordance with the Wiccan Rede, the vast majority of Wiccans will not curse or perform magic to bring harm upon anyone else.

For a relatively objective (non-Wiccan) set of articles on what Wiccans do and believe, you can visit:

http://www.religioustolerance.org/witchcra.htm

As to your questions... an eclectic Wiccan is one who does not follow a set Tradition (our term for denomination) of Wicca, and a solitary Wiccan is one who practices alone as opposed to in a coven.

As to whether Wicca can be harmonized with Christianity... there are sites out there for Christian witches, but personally I doubt the two belief systems can be pushed together. Christianity has the doctrine of "Christ is the only way", whereas Wiccans are Goddess worshippers and generally believe that all religions are paths to the Divine. While some Wiccans honor Jesus as a great teacher, I've heard of very few who honor Him as the God in the Wiccan context (which deals with the eternal dance of love of the Goddess and the God in very sexual terms).

Wicca is a subset of Paganism, so yes, if you're Wiccan, you're Pagan. :-)

Hope this helped. It was certainly long-winded enough, wasn't it?

Answer 10

I agree with those who have said that you can practice whatever calls to you but it would be neither Christianity nor Wicca. I've been a polytheist since I was a child. I like the Christian golden rule. But is that enough to label myself a Pagan-Christian? No. That is because I don't follow the core tenets of Christianity--like believing in sin, an all-positive or all-negative deity, feeling that I need a savior, proselytizing, believing in their bible, tithing, etc. I am simply a neo-pagan who likes the Christian tenet of their golden rule.

By the same token, I'm not a Wiccan either because I don't follow their particular mystery religion, I don't believe that all gods/goddesses are manifestations of a single god/goddess, I've never been initiated into their religion, I seldom cast circles, I don't celebrate the solstices and equinoxes as religious holidays, I don't believe in their three-fold law, etc. I like some of their practices and have added them to my practice but I don't follow enough of their core tenets to feel comfortable in calling myself a Wiccan. I am simply a neo-pagan who has some beliefs/practices in common with Wiccans.

How many core tenets of a religion can one discard and still say that they practice that religion? This is something that only you can decide for yourself. I suggest some serious study into what the core tenets of these religions are and then writing them down to help you decide. I encourage you to believe/practice whatever feels right for you--I just want you to think a bit about what you will choose to call your practices.

Answer 11

Eclectic Wicca has been described as a 'shopping basket' - you pick and choose between many different faiths for your rituals but stick to thins like the Wicca rede.

A solo practitioner or hedge witch works alone or with a partner unlike others who work in a group (coven) a hedge witch initiates themselves and becomes a priest or priestess in their own right. It sort of follows the old wise woman/ wise man tradition.

I don't know how it works but I have a friend who is a christian Wicca - so obviously it could be done you just have to find your own path to it. Read a lot, for basics try Wicca for beginners by Thea Sabin and if you are interested in the solo route try Hedge Witch by Rae Beth.

Hope that helps