Why are Christian concepts used in Wicca?

Question

In no way is this question meant as an attack on either religion - It's just really something that is important to me to learn. I understand how many of the similarities between the two religions can be explained away by the controversial notion that Wicca's beliefs and practices are derived from pre-Christian faiths, and Christianity adopted them. What I don't get is why Wiccans use certain obvious Christian concepts, such as the Archangels. Angels play no part in the Wiccan religion, yet these are called upon in relation to the elements, correct?? Could someone please explain? Thanks!

Answer 1

Most Wiccans do not use archangels, and I can't think of a single Wiccan I take seriously that uses them. (Silver Ravenwolf rather imfamously told teenagers to tell their parents Wicca was about angels, which is the #1 reason why I warn everyone away from her books, because she's just making it up as she goes along.) When people talk about using them, I pose to them this question: why would you ask a favor from a being in the service of a deity that you do not worship and may not even believe in?

When Wiccans invoke the elements, they make address the quarters, may call on elementals, may call on guardians or watchtowers (the last of which is also rooted in Judeo-Christianity and is borrowed from the Golden Dawn, I personally avoid those terms as well), but not generally angels. If you have heard od someone calling quarters with angels, its more likely that they were some form of ceremonial magician than a Wiccan.

Answer 2

Those are NOT Christian concepts.

More like Hebrew ones.

The reasoning is because wicca is based mostly of Western Ceremonial magic, combined with some other symbolism. Western Ceremonial magic is based off of many sources, especially Qabbalah. In Qabbalah, the Archangels and various types of angels have importance.

The idea you point out, Archangels in the elements is due to a ritual called "The Lesser Banishing Ritual of The Pentagram," written in the 1800's, by Eliphas Levi. At each direction [East- Raphael, South Michael, West Gabriel, and North Auriel] an archangel is invoked [The symbolism is great, and I won't explain due to time] Because of that, on every table of corresponencie, those Archangels are mentioned as tied to the elements.

Angels play a part in most world religions as well, not just Hebrew systems.

EDIT: Sorry, after reading this, I realized I had "800's," as opposed to "1800's."

Answer 3

While different traditions of Wicca have different mythic systems upon which they draw, most do not utilize the Archangels. Those that do are more influenced not by Christianity per se, but by ceremonial magick and the Western occult tradition--which did grow up syncretically from a number of symbol systems in a Christian historical context in Europe, and which incorporates Christian cosmological and mythic figures.

So some contemporary Wiccan syncretize the four directional Archangels with other metaphorical representations of the Four Directions/Four Elements. But Judeo-Christian angelology would even then be understood as just one other mythic formulation of a universal archetype of the Guardians of the Four Directions.

Answer 4

No dear you have it backwards, the Christians indocturnated our practices into their faith to try to turn Pagans into Christians way back when.

They hoped that by making their Christianity look more the pagan practices and mysticism that the people would be willing to switch to the new religion. When that did not work, the people were to ingrained in the old ways, so the church decided to use brut force.

Angels are used by some in Wicca, not all traditions use them.

There are many Wiccan traditions, like there are Baptists and Pentecostals and other different sects of Christians. Each of our traditions have different teachings. Some have angels and archangels some dont.

Blessings,
Aviana

Answer 5

Calling the Archangels is part of the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, which is from Ceremonial traditions that originate from Crowley's teachings. I've known eclectic Wiccans/Witches use LBRP in their everyday teachings and I've know some "traditional" trads that will use it on occasion. It's powerful. I've used it many times. Whatever you call yourself, when you get attacked viciously, you call on the energies that work for you. I will call Archangel Michael in situations when for example I'm asked to clean up a haunted house and it's fricken Amityville and things are being thrown at people's heads, and the owner of the house is Christian. Happened a few weeks ago in fact. There are so many energies out there, and so many are helpful! Why discriminate? I pull out the one who will be the most helpful to the situation. Philosophical discussions have a time and place, but then real life happens and you get a call to action. You gonna pull out the Internet and expound on history or are you gonna deal with the situation?

Answer 6

This MAY sound odd to you but Wiccans are based on older Religions that PREDATE Christianity and it has been proven many time that Christianity actually have adapted PAGAN rites and holidays into its faith more so.

example Christmas started with the Romans long before Constantine.

so i think many faiths have used similar rituals as others both in the past and current day, WHY? Maybe there is something true to that ritual that maybe is why all use them?

Remember what you call Arch Angels many pagans refer to as other gods within a Pantheon such as Zeus, and APPOLLO would be an Arch Angel. so NO angels themselves as a Christian perspective play no role in Wiccan society the concept that what Christians refer to as God and Angels other pagan religions view as multiple gods of greater and lesser power or spirits of great and lesser power.

Does this make sense? It is a perspective only and view.

i am sure they do not consider themselves using Angels in their pagan religion. NOW if you know of one that is, that would be an odd thing indeed.

REMBER though most PAGANS except that their is a Christian god and his angels also, they just also believe that they are not the only ones for god said himself do not worship any other but him and i take that as that their must be others than for why would he worry about others worshiping other gods if there were no others?

THAT may be why?

i am only speculating as you are so i hope it helps to your question.

Good luck.

bb

Answer 7

Wiccans are not true witches, despite what they believe. They're neo-pagan nature/goddess worshippers. The truth is, most of them don't really know that there's a *huge* difference between wicca and true witchcraft, and don't really know that much (if anything) about either. Some of them will call on anything from fairies to angels to their dead granny.

Wicca has a very short history (invented in 1939 by Gerald Gardner). They don't have thousands of years of meaningful history like many other religions and for some reason they feel they must compensate for this. So they make some things up and they steal from other religions, like Christianity, forms of Paganism, and some Eastern religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism. Then they try to cram it all together, which explains the loopholes, contradictions, and general lack of logic.

Answer 8

Remember that Wicca, with that particular spelling and the capital letter, is quite new. Before that there was witchcraft, or The Craft, or there was ceremonial magick, and various other witchy things. But even recently what is now called Wicca was referred to as Gardnarian Witchcraft.

Many esoteric traditions have attempted to correlate various symbol systems, using 777 by Aleister Crowley as most famous (and useful) example. That's why you see Tarot cards laden with astrological symbols, alchemical symbols, with angel names, and so on. The colors used all have symbolic significance, as well as the number of points on a star figure, Hebrew letters, all sorts of things. So angels and archangels (which are not, by the way, simply higher ranking angels, the way archbishops outrank bishops) are used to represent certain characteristics, elements, etc.

And they are not merely Christian, but also Jewish. They were Jewish first, after all.

Answer 9

well. My Auntie is a spritualist and she uses Angels and Archangels.... but i'm Wiccan and although find their mythology interesting, don't use them as apart of my faith - though i can say that these days it's pretty hard to find someone who sticks to a certain 'branch' of mythology - many people will pick and chose gods and godesses from many faiths - sorry if i offended anyone!

Also Angels are not Godly and are not Human/Mortal. they are servents, sent to do God's bidding (Loki the Angel of War, Wrath and Death anyone?) and there are MANY different Angels.

You may be confusing Angels with Deities, Watchers, Elementals and other creatures which are worshiped. wiccans and Pagans manly worship the Sun Lord and Lunar Lady.

Love Love

Answer 10

Wicca borrows from quite a number of sources. The practice of calling the four archangels is something you find in much older occult lore. So it's more of a second-generation borrowing. As for where that comes, well every culture has had its own share of doing mysterious ceremonies, and it shouldn't be surprising that there'd be a connection with Christian angel hierarchies found practices coming out of Europe, which was largely Christian-dominated. Religions invariably influence each other. Voodoo, for example, borrows a lot from Catholicism, even if Catholics might call their practices heresy.