1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
|
Random importaint stuff:
Children are raised wiccan but it's made essencial that it's optional
History:
Gerald Gardner:
Publisized wicca in book "Witchcraft Today", 1954
Created the Garderian tradidion of wikka from
Created "Books of Shadows" - not a sacred text, but contains a lot of stuff gerald liked.
Doreen Valiente ("Mother of Wicca"):
Was in Gerald Garder's coven
Outlined traditional core beliefs, principles, and practices before Gerald publisized it, in 1940's and 1950's
Beleifs:
Wicca beleives in two gods, Tripple Goddess and Horned god
Tripple Goddess and Horned god stand for many things, which can be represented by lower level dieties
> Because of this they are often refered to as the "Great * god[ness]", great refering to containing other dieties
> Many interpretations on these gods. Some refer to them as a devine figure, others more an imporsonal force
> Commonality between traditions is that Wiccan dieties are viewed as forms of ancient, pre-christian divinities
Tripple Goddess:
Animals, natural world, afterlife, role model for men
Hornded God:
Life, fertility, described as ideal role model for women
Broader Wiccan beleifs can range from
monisim (all from one source),
panthesm (reality is the embodyment of god)
Godness Monothesism (a movement worshiping godnesses due to male dominated religon)
Monotheism:
> Gardner says above the two gods are "Supreme Deity/Prime Mover", entity too complex for humans to understand
That god created two "Under Gods", but are otherwise not involved in our world
> God is pantheistic, or part of the universe
Polytheisim:
> all gods are one god, all godesses are one godess
> Other stuff I shouldn't get into because this is taking too long
Pentagram: earth, air, fire, water, and aether/spirit
After life doesn't play centreal peice in religon
Reincarnation is common beleif
Many beleive in magic, not all
Spells often cast in a circle, and create physical changes such as healing, fertality, bandishing negativity
Early wiccans refered as their magic to white magic, to help seperate themselves from satanisim ("dark" magic)
People speculate wichcraft was a positive antitype, critising againsed christain fear of women with power/whiches
> They deny commonly associated negative stereotypes
Five elements:
> Spirit, air, water, earth, fire
> geolocational
Wheel of the year, usually 8 sabbats
> All traditions have these 4:
* candlemass
* May Eve
* Lammas
* Halloween
> Rites of passage:
> "all practitioners are considered to be priests and priestesses"
Practices:
> Many partake in them without beleif, as the rituals themselves induce a religous experience more then "dry" practices
Values:
no centerallized dogmatic moral or ethical code, however, they beleive this:
> Wiccan Rede: "an it harm done, do what ye will"; you can do whatever with responsability.
Common beleifs:
> Law of Threefold return: What ever actions one takes, they get it back 3x stronger, or equal on mind body spirit.
> 8 virtues: mirth, reverence, honour, humility, strength, beauty, power, and compassion. Comes from Doreen Valientine
> Traditionally they were heteroexclusive (is that a word?), but sence then they've moved on and people are openly gay/bi
> Jonne Pearson claimed wicans don't claim their gods have all answers and live rationally, gods help obtain completeness
Tradition branches:
Wicca is devided into branches of diffrent beleifs and orginizational structures, these branches are called traditions
Some main ones:
> Gardnerian, Alexandrian and Algard make up British Traditional Wicca, based on Gerald's teachings
> Traces back through super duper long proxy to Zsuzsanna Budapest, prefer "Witches" more then "wiccan"
Covens of 13 (about). Require initiation after a year-day.
Covens have no hiarchy structure
Eclentric Wiccca's don't follow common traditional beleifs, make their own stuff
Misconceptions/controversy:
Is it a religon?
Evangelical Christains tried to make sure it wasn't legally classified as a religon
"Wicca has both influenced/been influenced by other Pagan religions, making clear-cut distinctions difficult for religious studies scholars"
"Dettmer v. Landon" classifieed it as a religon, which was started for ritual objects in prisons
In 2007 pentagram was allowed for headstones of deceiced in millitary
Paragraph ideas:
History
Misconceptions
Controversy
Diffrent branches of wiccan
Values of wiccan
Beleifs of wiccan
.....essay structure.....
Introduction
Explain the basics of what the Wiccan religion is
Founding history
Explain begining with Gerald and Doreen, with the initial coven
Orginizional structure
Covens, traditions, no hiarchy
Go into seperate traditions?
Beleifs
Dual gods
Interpetations of those gods
Gods don't have all the answers
5 elements, symbolisim
Values
No dogmatic code
"An it harm done, do what ye will" (Wiccan Rede)
8 virtues
Threefold return
Practices
4 celibrations of year
Initiation into covens
Controversy
Debated weather or not it's a religon
2007 gravestones
Prison, Dettmer v. Landon
People relating it to satanisim
"coming out of the broom closet"
Conclusioin
????
|
