Wiccans, other Pagans, or anyone with some amount of knowledge regarding the subject?

Question

Is this quote accurate?

"Wicca is a priesthood, you MUST be in a coven and initiated to be a Wiccan witch, there is no other way to call yourself a Wiccan. This does not mean you cannot study it, and apply the principles you think are fitting to your life, but you cannot be Wiccan without being initiated in a coven. Now you can choose to leave the coven, and practice solo. If you have not learned what a Wiccan coven teaches it is not possible to be a Wiccan, there are many things taught in a Wiccan coven that you cannot learn from a book, because it is forbidden for this knowledge to be taught, or discussed anywhere but in the coven. There are some people who will tell you otherwise, but it just simply cannot be done, and when people try and say they are Wiccan without even studying in a coven at all it is very offensive to a person who has put the time and dedication into their training."

Is this a common belief amongst Wiccans? I have met many, many people who consider themselves a solitary Wiccan. Are they really misrepresenting themselves? What do you think?

The quote is apparently from a self-proclaimed initiated Wiccan.

Answer 1

No, you don't have to be in a coven or formal group to be a Wiccan, or a Druid, or a Thelemite, or a Magician, or to practice any other Pagan or Occult path. There are many solitary practitioners out there, and I think at this point the majority of Wiccans are solitaries. So, you can be a Wiccan, or anything else in this spiritual/religious subculture, without initiation or formal training. I have no problem with this.

However, if you want to lead a coven and/or call yourself a priest -- just my opinion, now -- I think you should have some more formal training. Priesthood is different than just practicing on your own. You've got other people that you're responsible for, that you are there to help and to teach. If you're going to put yourself into that role, then you should know what you're doing first. Leadership isn't for everyone.

Titles are another thing. To me, Lord and Lady, Frater and Soror, imply initiation. To use these titles without earning them cheapens their meaning. Out of respect for those who have gone through formal training, please don't use titles you didn't earn. It's like calling yourself a Doctor when you never went to medical school.

The importance of initiation is also hotly debated in the Pagan community. As an initiate myself, let me say this -- initiation is not necessary at all. It is not needed for your spiritual development. But it helps. I feel I couldn't have gotten to where I am without it. Going through the transformative experience of the degrees has helped me to grow as a magician, and as a person. It is also good to have teachers, people to learn from, a disciplined practice, and friends who are into what you're into, a spiritual community.

Some people get really snobby about their training. And some people are really insistent that solitary is the only way to go. I have seen initiates who had it together, and initiates who didn't. I've seen solitaries who were really deep and serious about their practice, and solitaries who were total space-cadets. It's all individual. For me, personally, I have found initiation and formal training to be a positive and useful experience. Not everyone wants or needs that. I do feel that, sometimes, those who are critical of covens and initiation are throwing the baby out with the bathwater. But again, your magick will work just fine without being crowned Witch Queen by your local coven.

Answer 2

It depends who you ask. Wicca started as an initiatory religion, and the founder mde it clear that it was something only to be taght within covens. You also weren't supposed to teach the specifics of Wiccan beliefs to outsiders. However, the definition of what was and was not off limits appears to also be in debate, as a variety of Traditionalists starting writing books about their practices while also feeling they were not violating any oaths. (Others feel VERY strongly that these people DID violate oaths.)

So, through a variety of methods, information did become public. NOT all of it, although one can't really publically quantify was hasn't become public without, well, making it public. A bunch of other beliefs started to get fused with the more traditional beliefs, which is why you'll find great numbers of Eclectic Wiccans who insist that all gods are one god and all goddesses are one goddess and may even insist that all Wiccans believe this, when in fact most Traditionalists (and some Eclectics) don't accept that view at all.

As such, some Traditionalists still hold that you can only be properly Wiccan if you are formally brought into the community (i.e. are initiated) and some feel your practices aren't even similar enough to Wicca to be called Wicca unless you were trained in a coven. Finally, initiation in a Traditional coven is considered a integral part of training. it's not just a ceremony: there is a spiritual experience generally evoked by the ritual. It's understood that you learn core elements of Wiccan practice through the experience of initiation.

I happen to disagree with them, but I certainly understand where they are coming from. And every person here who answers that they've never even HEARD of such a rule in Wicca illustrates the ignorance that many Eclectics have of the history of their own religion....which may explain why the situation cheeses off the Traditionalists so much.

Answer 3

The quote is full of crap. Sounds like some *rsehole hard-gard (aka the "fundamentalist" Wiccan- though not all Gardnerians are like this) rant. We don't believe that stuff. You don't have to be in a coven. Most of us aren't. There is little if any "forbidden" info in Wicca; everything in Wicca is fully available to the public.

edit: I suppose you're right, prairiecrow. I happened to be talking about Wicca in general. I know there might be small secrets within a coven regarding something or another, but overall these are coven secrets and not really Wiccan secrets.

Answer 4

Eclectic Wicca does not require initiation into a coven. Traditional Wicca does. If you work solitary and later decided to join a particular tradition, you will have to go through their dedication/initiation/elevation processes. Just because you call yourself a Wiccan or Priestess or whatever, does not mean the tradition you join will recognize that until you meet their requirements.

Answer 5

No, that is not true. That died out with only a witch can make a witch. Some traditions do not like the idea of solitary Wiccans, but that will only upset them because we are here to stay and in very huge numbers.

I would love to be a member of a coven but the city I live in is deep in the bible belt and Baptist persecute pagans so they are underground. If they were readily available as Christians are, then maybe that statement could hold water, but as it is it can't.

Raymond Buckland addresses this in his book Wicca for One. He makes a very strong case for the solitary practioner. He asks questions like who inituated the first witch and that the lone solitary witch has a history dating further back then coven witches.
BB

Answer 6

Gotta love Wikipedia (or in this case Wiccapedia):

Various related Wiccan traditions have since evolved or been adapted from the form established by Gardner, which came to be called Gardnerian Wicca. These other traditions of Wicca each have distinctive beliefs, rituals, and practices. Many traditions of Wicca remain secretive and require that members be initiated. There is also a movement of Eclectic Wiccans who do not believe that any doctrine or traditional initiation is necessary in order to practice Wicca.

I know many solitary wiccans who haven't been initiated into a coven.

Answer 7

It is probably true for some wiccans. Remember, paganism, as well as Wicca as a type of paganism, can be similar to other spiritual paths. For example, you can say you are Christian, but are you Catholic, Methodist, Independent, Presbyterian, Mormon, JW, and on and on. There are solitary Wiccans, there are Wiccans who practice in covens. There are people who study Wicca, but don't abide by all of the 'rules and regulations'. I heard someone recently refer to Wicca as the "catholocism of Pagans" because there are a lot of rules and boundaries and rituals, as there are in the Catholic church.
So, what you type is true for someone. But you could type almost anything in the R&S category, and it would probably be true for someone, or even a group of someones.
"May All That Is Bless You One and Bless You All" - Sonny Landreth

Answer 8

That quote is grossly inaccurate, arrogant, presumptuous. Whoever made that quote was really going out of their way to flatter themselves and to display their obvious lack of information. Many (actually, most) Wiccans and Witches are solitary, self-taught, and self-initiated, and are as entitled to the title of Wiccan or Witch as a coven member who was initiated by a priestess. Raymond Buckland explains all this in his book 'The Complete Book of Witchcraft.' If you are so inclined, pick it up.

That quote likely came from a Gardnerian Wiccan, who do not believe in solitary practice, self-teaching, and self-initiation, and most of them think they are the be-all and end-all to all things Wicca. They most definitely are not. They just think they're elite because Gardnerian is the first tradition of Wicca--not to mention the most flawed--hence, the creation of several logical Traditions. The Gardnerians think they have to be lineaged from Gerald Gardner, but not all of them are. In fact, logically, most of them can't be, especially since GG initiated very few people, and if the coven is outside the UK.

Answer 9

That's hardly the case. There are particular forms of Wicca that may hold to that, but that doesn't apply to every single Wiccan out there. Some are solitary, some practice in covens, and some do both.

Answer 10

Christianity uses the same tactic to maintain the importance of "the church."

Whoever made that statement was probably taught that by the coven he/she was part of. The truth is there are as many different types of "wicca" as there are christian denominations and the beliefs are just as varied.

A practitioner must not know everything... just be willing to learn. The power of nature and the love of the goddess and her consort cannot be controlled by any coven. Wisdom, knowledge, and power is not controlled by the priesthood, but by the powers that impart them.