Welcome to the Wiccan Training Pages. In this section, you will find several areas of interest to those who follow the Wiccan Path. Please look through these areas of training and see if any of them interest you. We will be updating these areas as appropriate. If you have any information you think would be appropriate for this section, please send them to amy@ulcseminary.org and make mention that you'd like to have it posted. We appreciate all input from our ministers.
We have also included additional FAQs below for your edification.
These are some additional FAQs about Wicca. These were contributed by Melisa Michaels.
Q: What is Wicca? A:Unfortunately there is no generally agreed-on
definition of Wicca, which is why we end up with practitioners
who believe "it's anything we want it to be." To oversimplify,
Wicca is a Pagan or NeoPagan earth-based religion, all branches
of which can be traced to the Gardnerian Tradition, founded in
the UK by a retired civil servant called Gerald
Gardner in the late 1940s. Like most Neo-Pagan
spiritualities, Wicca worships the sacred as immanent in nature,
drawing much of its inspiration from the non-Christian and
pre-Christian indigenous beliefs of Europe.
Q: What's Neo-Pagan? A: Neo-Pagan just means "New Pagan," derived from the
Latin paganus, meaning "country dweller" or "civilian." Some authorities feel paganus was applied to
non-Christians because the cities were Christianized first, so
most country-dwellers were non-believers. Others believe it was
because Christians saw themselves as soldiers of Christ, so all
non-believers were civilians. "Neo-Pagan" is used to show that
the religion in question is a reconstruction rather than having
survived whole cloth since
antiquity.
Please note that neither Pagan nor Neo-Pagan is a
negative term. Paganism is a legitimate spiritual perspective and
is frequently cited as one of the fastest-growing spiritual
orientations today.
The most commonly understood definition of "pagan" in the
U.S. today seems to be "non-Abrahamic," but most Eastern
Religions (which are not Abrahamic) are not considered Pagan.
Some define "Pagan" as "anyone who is not Christian, Muslim,
Jewish, Buddhist, or Hindu," which is better, but not by much; it
still defines Pagans by what they are not, rather than by what
they are. And not everyone who does not follow one of the five
major religions is Pagan.
A better definition might be to say that paganism is "an
affirmation of interactive and polymorphic sacred relationship by
the individual or community with the tangible, sentient and/or
nonempirical."1 Which is, admittedly, quite a
mouthful, but it is precise and inclusive, and I like
it.
Pagan or Neo-Pagan is the root, with Wicca a subset or
"denomination," as Lutheran is a subset or denomination of
Christianity. All Wiccans are Neo-Pagans, but not all Neo-Pagans
are Wiccans.
Q: Don't Pagans worship rocks and stuff? Are Wiccans nature
worshippers? A: No. Wiccans revere nature as a creation of the
gods and usually believe the gods to be immanent within it, but
Wiccan worship is always of the gods, not of trees or rocks.
Q: What gods do Wiccans worship? A: Most worship some form of the Great Goddess and Her
consort, the Horned God, who are seen as equals, complementary
rather than oppositional.
Q: Are Wiccans Goddess worshippers? A: Not exactly. Most Wiccans find the worship of the
Goddess without the God to be unbalanced and even hypocritical,
since it is generally in rebellion against another religion.
Wiccans worship both the Goddess and the God.
There is a Wiccan Tradition called the Dianic Tradition,
which as far as I know does worship the Goddess in preference to
but not to the exclusion of the God. I know very little about
this tradition, however. My understanding is that the Dianic Trad
addresses "women's mysteries," which is certainly a valid pursuit
even though it tends to attract the overwrought.
Q: Don't Wiccans worship Satan? A: The usual answer to this is that Wiccans don't believe
in Satan, and in fact they don't believe in the Christian
anti-God called Satan. However, "satan" means "adversary," and a
distressing number of thoughtless practitioners of Wicca seem
anxious to cast Christianity in the role of satan. They confront
and combat Christianity as fiercely as ever they claim Christians
have combated Wiccans or Witchcraft, and they are filled with
hatred and intolerance for
Christians.
"There is so much hatred in the Wiccan world!
Listen to a Wiccan ranting about the injustices that the
[Christ]ian laws have caused — listen to them recite,
gleefully, all of the contradictions they can find in the Bible
— listen to them blame the [Christ]ian God for all of the
Holy Wars — then step back, take a good look," and you'll
see why Christians think Wiccans have been misled by the
Devil.2
This is not the Wiccan way. Wicca is not about opposing
Christianity. Wicca has nothing to do with Christianity.
Christianity is a valid path for many, and as such it should be
respected. Wicca is strong enough to stand on its own, having no
need to tear down Christianity to sustain itself. Most Wiccans
pride themselves on religious tolerance. That tolerance must
include Christianity and Christians, or it is not tolerance at
all.
Q: But what about the Burning Times? Nine million Wiccans were
killed by Christians! A: The "Burning Times" is a name given by Gerald Gardner
to the great European witch hunts of the early modern period,
seen by many Neo-Pagans as a crucial step in Christianity's
theoretical crushing of the Pagan religions, driving them
underground. Victims of these hunts are perceived as martyr
witches by some Wiccans today, "with the lessons of intolerance,
misogyny and religious terror clearly noted." 3
Unfortunately such Wiccans don't seem to recognize that
by blaming today's Christians for the excesses of the Christian
past, they are guilty of exactly the same ugly intolerance.
Worse, by insisting that Christians killed Wiccans or Witches (or
at least Pagans) in their witch hunts, they betray their own
gullible superstition, similar to the gullible superstition of
the Christians who killed their own in the name of their
God.
"The witch-trials didn't begin until more than a
millennia [sic] after the founding of Christianity. If the Church
found these supposed pagans to be such a threat, they sure took
their time in dealing with
them."4
The "nine million" number for the victims of the witch
hunts originated with Matilda Gage, a suffragist, early feminist,
and advocate for civil rights, whose enthusiasm outpaced her
research.5 "While millions of people might have been
affected, the best estimates of recent historians range from
50,000 to 200,000 dead.... The earlier estimates ... were grossly
exaggerated; no respectable historian supports them anymore.
Modern figures concerning the number of executed witches are
based on a much closer examination of the surviving historical
records, combined with reasonable guesswork and statistical
analysis for those areas and periods lacking clear
sources."6 The tragedy is no less if a "mere" 50,000
died, nor does it matter whether they were
Witches.
Most were not. Certainly they weren't Wiccans; Wicca was
founded in the 1940s. It didn't exist at the time of the Witch
hunts, so the victims can't have been Wiccans. In fact, no witch
was ever executed for worshiping a pagan deity.7 The
majority (if not all) of those killed in the witch hunts were
Christian. It is true that most were women, not due to Christian
misogyny, but only because it was thought that women were more
likely to be Witches than men were.
Q: I've heard Wicca called the "Old Religion." Now you say it
was founded in the forties. Which is true? A: Wicca was founded in the 1940s. The founder first
called it "Wica," then later changed it to "Wicca" to match the
Old English "wicce," meaning witch, and "wicca," meaning
sorcerer. There may well have been witches before Gardner, but
not Wiccans, and even though some Wiccans have considerable
difficulty grasping the concept, the two are not the
same.
This confusion over the age of Wicca was begun by Gerald
Gardner, but even he admitted that the parts of Wicca he claimed
were ancient were also fragmented, so he had to fill in the
blanks. He attributed his Book of Shadows to an ancient,
clandestine Wicca coven run by "Old Dorothy," into which he
claimed to have been initiated. However, modern researchers have
concluded that it was composed by Gardner. The text shows
influences from English and Celtic Folk-lore, the Enochian system
of John Dee, Thelema, the Golden Dawn, Stregaria, Tantric Yoga,
the KJV Bible, and even Kipling. 8
Even taking Gardner at his word, it is evidence of only
one pre-Gardnerian "Wiccan" coven. Despite plenty of evidence of
other secret occult groups such as the Knights Templar, there is
no evidence whatsoever of any other pre-Gardnerian Wiccan
covens.
Oddly, some Wiccans seem to feel that only old religions
are valid, so against all logic, they insist that Wicca has been
around since the dawn of time. They point to writers such as the
late Dr. Margaret Murray to back their claims. Unfortunately the
idea that Wicca or Witchcraft has survived intact for the 25,000
years that Dr. Murray claimed is preposterous, to put it kindly.
We have only our interpretation of cave paintings to go on and
cannot know what rituals cave dwellers performed, if any, much
less what they believed. Dr. Murray's account was dismissed by
scholars decades ago, largely because of her complete lack of
supporting evidence.
Some of Wicca's sources do pre-date Christianity.
However, few serious Wiccans believe that their religion is a
direct, continuous descendent of an earlier religion. Instead,
they see it as a vibrant modern reconstruction.
Q: I've heard that "Book of Shadows" thing mentioned before.
What is that? A: Each Wicca coven or solitary practitioner may
have a Book of Shadows. It is a collection of myths, rituals,
prayers, or whatever information the coven or Solitary wants to
preserve. To see what they are like, you can read the original Gardnerian Book of Shadows on the
Web.
Q: "Witch" is an ancient word, and so is "Wicca." Doesn't
that prove Wicca or at least Witchcraft is an ancient
religion? A: "Christ" is an ancient word, too. Does that prove
Christianity predates Jesus?
Incidentally Witchcraft is not a religion. There are
religious Witches, of course, but the Craft itself is simply the
practice of magic.
Q: Shouldn't that be spelled "magick"? A: No, it really should not. Aleister
Crowley is responsible for popularizing that archaic "k." The
most common explanation for it is that it helps to differentiate
between real magic and stage magic. This is specious. Regardless
of spelling, nearly anyone of even average intelligence will be
readily able to discern the difference between Pagan beliefs and
David Copperfield. The real likelihood is that Crowley added the
"k" to make his gematria fit.
Of course if you like to add the "k" because you think it
looks kewl, by all means continue to do so. Like the witchypoo
names some Wiccans adopt, there's no real harm in it, though some
practitioners do find it a trifle embarrassing to have their
religion associated with such antics.9 The school of
thought here is that Wicca will not be taken seriously as long as
its most visible practitioners behave in sophomoric ways, but I
think that's a lost cause on the Internet, and that in any case
being a source of amusement is safer than being feared.
Q: I keep hearing the term "fluffbunny Wiccan." What's
that? A: The fluffbunny Wiccan is one who is attracted to
Wicca and has read a book, probably one published by Llewellyn
Publications, and decided on that basis that they are Wiccan. The
fluffbunny refuses to learn more, or to think for themself, or to
consider the possibility that they or their fave author could
ever be wrong (hello-o: anyone can be wrong, including thee and
me).
Their grasp of history is usually atrocious. They will
claim that Wicca is an ancient religion, that with the advent of
Christianity Wiccans had to go into hiding and that's why there's
no evidence of them prior to Gardner, and even that Wiccan sacred
texts had to be burned during the "Burning Times" to keep people
alive (Wicca is not a revealed religion. There are no sacred
texts and never were). Some will mention the witches burned in
Salem (there were no witches burned in Salem. Fourteen women and
five men were hanged and one man was pressed to death. None was
Wiccan or a witch).10
Most if not all fluffbunny Wiccans are Wiccan for show.
They are generally out to shock, often their parents, but
sometimes anybody at all. They dress to shock or alarm, complete
with pounds of "religious" jewelry and sometimes temporary
tattoos. Some tell of possessing a secret ancient Book of
Shadows dating back to times when only the Christian clergy and
perhaps the nobility could read and write, but none will ever
produce such a book in demonstration. They have only a
rudimentary grasp of even the most basic Wiccan principles; I
have seen reference to "obeying" (not believing in) the
"three-fold law of karma."
Obviously, these are not erudite people, but they are
frightfully earnest, and in truth fluffbunny may for many be a
legitimate stage on the way to an education, if they get past the
initial refusal to learn and desire to
impress.
A "whitelighter" or "whitelight bunny" is a special sort of bunny
who recognizes the divine in all things good and fluffy, but not
in things unpleasant or unappealing. For a whitelighter, Wicca is
a gentle, happy, and ultimately very clean religion. This may be
a permanent affliction.
Often fluffbunnies sport embarrassing names and
aristocratic titles ("Lady Pixie Moondrip," "Lord Wolfsbane
Starstumble") and claim to use "white" or "good" magic as opposed
to "black" or "evil" magic. (Magic is magic, neither good nor
ill, though it can be used for either. It has no color.) They
have usually learned peculiar "truths" from their Llewellyn books
such as that proper Witch attire is black cloaks and huge
pentacles, Wicca is all sweetness and light, visualization and
chanting over colorful candles is how one works "magick" (or
other peculiar spellings of magic), and the Goddess and the God
want only what's good for us.
Q: But the Wiccan deities are gentle and loving and want only
what's good for us, right? A: There is much about the God and the Goddess that is
gentle, loving, beautiful, and bountiful. However, there is
balance in the world. The God and the Goddess are equally the
sunlit skies and the raging storm, the refreshing breeze and the
devastating hurricane, the sweet spring rain and the killing
flood. They are birth and death, health and sickness, joy and
grief, because all these things are part of the natural cycle of
life, and the cycle of life is what Wicca is all about. It is a
deep and complex spiritual path, not a sunny walk in the garden
with butterflies. (Though on a good day it certainly can be a sunny walk in the garden with butterflies.)
Q: Aren't Wiccans just Witches? Like in Harry Potter? A: Harry Potter is
fiction.
Wicca is a religion.
Witchcraft is a craft.
There are Witches who are Wiccans, and many Wiccans
practice the Craft, but no matter how few Wiccans understand it,
the two terms or not interchangeable. (Most Wiccans are Witches,
but not all — and not all Witches are Wiccan.) And Harry
Potter is still fiction.
Q: Is there a set Wiccan liturgy or liturgical
calendar? A: Most Wiccans observe eight holiday "sabbats" in
the "wheel of the year." The names of these vary from trad[ition]
to trad, but they fall on the solstices, the equinoxes, and the
four "cross-quarter days" (on or about the first of February,
May, August and November). Many Wiccans also observe "esbats," rituals for worship in accordance with a given moon phase (such
as the night of the full moon).
Q: What is basic Wiccan Theology? A: As with everything else, there is much diversity
and some contention, but certain myths and associations seem
common to many Wiccan traditions, such as the Wheel of the Year
and the story it tells of the Goddess and the God and their
ever-changing, ever-repeating relationship from courtship through
death and rebirth. Wiccans on the whole are very appreciative of
cycles: the cycle of the year, of days and moons and seasons, of
life and death and rebirth.
Many Wiccans also believe in the immanence of
Deity/Divinity within the natural world, ourselves, and the cycle
of the seasons. This places value on the Earth and this world,
and engages the believer in "green" activities and community
service as a matter of
religion.
Incidentally some feminist Wiccans use the word
"thealogy" instead of "theology," because "thea" is Greek for
"goddess," so "thealogy" emphasizes the feminine aspect. I find
this as pointless as all the absurd spellings of magic. Theology
does not mean "the study of the nature of male God," it means the
study of the nature of Deity. No sex specified.
Q: What do Wiccans believe? A: While there is much variation, certain core
beliefs are common to most
Wiccans:
Belief in the God and the Goddess, the Law of Return
(sometimes called the Three-Fold Law), the Wiccan Rede, and
Magic. Most would also recognize the Circle, the Book of Shadows,
the Pentagram, the Elements, the Wheel of the Year, and certain
working tools such as the Athame, the Cauldron, etc.
In general Wiccans share a sense of personal connection
to the divine life source, which is open to contact through
"psychic power," mysticism, or "natural magic."
Wicca is very welcoming of women, but Wiccans are not exclusively
female. Male Wiccans and Witches are called Wiccans and Witches,
not Warlocks.
There are no universal Wiccan proscriptions regarding
food, sex, burial, or military service.
Wiccans, as a rule, discourage proselytization.
Q: Do Wiccans believe in Jesus? A: Wiccans do not believe in Jesus as Savior since they do
not believe that anyone is in need of saving in the Christian
sense. The material world is not evil, sex is not shameful, and
human actions are not judged by a god with the intent to
categorize us for an afterlife, nor are we held accountable for
the actions of our ancestors (as in belief in Original Sin).
Q: Can I be a Christian Wiccan? A: The Christian God claims ownership of the One True Way.
To worship Him on another path in conjunction with the Goddess
(as is the practice of Wicca) is not to worship Him but to
disrespect Him and His teaching. While it is perfectly acceptable
to choose the god(s) most suited to you, it is inadvisable to
incorporate any monotheistic god into a polytheistic practice.
Q: How can Wiccans be ethical or even well-behaved if they
don't follow God's laws and obey the Ten Commandments? A: Most non-Christians find this common query offensive.
The notion that Christians have a corner on ethics and morality,
and that no one can attain either without being pushed to it by
the Christian God, is arrogant as well as ignorant. It suggests
that Buddhists, Taoists, Confucians, Hindus, and all others who
do not follow the Judeo-Christian God are unethical, immoral, and
ill-behaved, which I think anyone of intelligence, given a
moment's reflection, will surely realize is false. There are
many, many non-Christians who behave well in all respects without
knowledge of or concern for the Christian God's laws and
Commandments.
However, in this case the intent of the question is to
know how to regard Wiccan ethics and behavior, and although there
is no legalistic codification of behavior for Wiccans, the Rede
and the Law of Returns (or the Three-Fold Law) are usually given
in response to this query.
For more information, see The Evolution of Wiccan Ethics.
Q: What are the Wiccan Rede and the Law of Returns or the
Three-Fold Law? A: The Rede is a long poem attributed to Adriana Porter,
but most people who mention it mean only the last eight words,
which are most commonly quoted, "An it harm none, do as ye will."
While this sounds, superficially, like carte blanche, the common
practice of shortening it to "Harm none" gives some indication of
how stringently it is generally interpreted. "None" is taken to
include the doer, and "harm" is interpreted to include
interference, impairment, or other disservice as well as direct
physical, emotional, or psychic
harm.
The Law of Return is the belief that any action will
return like action in this life. This is not karma, not
retribution in a future life. The return is in this life, here
and now. Some believe the return is three-fold, hence the "Three-Fold Law." The Law is often repeated in a rhyme such as,
"Heed and beware the Rule of Three: / Three times thy acts return
to thee / This lesson thou must learn and mind / What ye put out
returns in kind." Or more succinctly: "Any thought or deed you
do, three-fold will return to
you."
Some Wiccans regard the Law of Return as bunk and
nonsense, a silly refashioning of Indian karma, while others
believe in it implicitly. I say if it helps remind people to
behave decently, there's no harm in it, at least in the simple
"return" form, though I admit the threefold version is tough to
swallow.
Q: If you're a Wiccan or Witch, why aren't you wearing that
Satanic pentagram symbol they all wear?
A: I think you mean pentacle. The pentagram is a
five-pointed star. The pentacle is that star in a circle.
Wiccans, some Christians, and others use it, usually positioned
with one point up. Satanists and some rock bands use it with one
point down, sometimes for the shock value (as with an inverted
cross) and sometimes because it means something quite different
to them in that position.
However, just as not all Christians wear crosses, not all
Wiccans and Witches wear pentacles. Even if they are wearing
pentacles, in all likelihood you will not know it, since the
pentacle is a protective amulet that is kept hidden to preserve
its power.
Q: What are the main branches or traditions of Wicca?
A: The most well-known traditions are Gardnerian,
Alexandrian, Dianic, and Seax Wicca. There are many
more.11
Q: What is a coven? How can I join one? A: The coven is the basic "congregation" for some Wiccans,
but it tends to be a very formal, selective, and closed group and
may be difficult to find. Most Wiccans who are looking for a
coven to join start with Pagan gatherings, public rituals,
classes, or environmental causes where some of the "tree-hugger"
attendees may be Wiccan. Sometimes you can find an open group or
"circle" by such means or through a local new age or occult book
store. Websites where ULC ministers gather may provide online
meeting places for ordained pagans, or you may find Pagans,
Wiccans, or perhaps even a coven in your area through
Witchvox.com.
Not all Wiccans join covens. Many are solitary
practitioners by choice or necessity. Solitary practice is a
valid tradition.
Q: The Bible says "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to
live...?" A: Yup. Like so many oddities in the Bible, this may be a
mistranslation in the King James version. It's possible the word
was "chasaph," which I'm told is Hebrew for poisoner. Thou
shalt not suffer a poisoner to live. In general, neither Witches
nor Wiccans do much poisoning, and it doesn't seem Christian to
want to eradicate them just for their beliefs.
However, research shows the word may have been "kashaph," which means "sorceress," in which case I guess
if you're Christian you're supposed to commit murder whenever you
think you've got a sorceress cornered. This does surprise me.
What I know of the Christ doesn't suggest He advocated anyone's
slaughter, but perhaps His Father did. I admit I am not
well-versed in Christianity.
Q: How can I learn more about Wicca? A:Beware of paying anyone to teach you. Traditional Wicca does not cost money. Wiccans believe it is wrong to charge money for the teaching of
Wicca. It is acceptable to charge for course materials if any,
but a traditional Wiccan will not charge a fee to teach
Wicca.
Not all Pagans maintain this ethical stance. The Wiccan claim is
that the knowledge is not the teacher's to sell (it should be
free to all who are worthy to receive it), and apparently it is
unseemly for a Wiccan to charge for his/her time, at least where
his/her religion is concerned. Some Neo-Pagans feel their time is
worth something, and moreover that the student will place greater
value on the lesson that is paid for, so they do charge for
lessons they provide. It is possible that one could learn quite a
lot about Wicca from such a Neo-Pagan, but obviously there might
be a limit to a non-Wiccan's knowledge of secret Wiccan
specifics.
Unfortunately it is also possible that one will receive no
education beyond what one could have got from the Web for free,
or from books for less money that the cost of the course. In
particular it is best to beware of credentials, certificates, or
degrees offered for Wiccan studies online, as these pieces of
paper will very likely not be recognized in the traditional Wicca
community.
However, besides the wealth of information available free on the
Web (google "wicca" or "Gardnerian" for starters), there are many
good books on the subject available through your local library,
occult or new age bookstore, or online. Here is a short list of works to get you
started. But beware: any form of Neo-Paganism has homework.
Wiccans are seekers. If Wicca is your path, you will fall victim
to the hunger for knowledge, and you may find yourself haunting
your library and bookstores, seeking for more.
1. Definition offered on the Nature Religions list as part of the
process distinguishing paganism and nature religion and the
question of whether one includes the other. —Michael York, Pagan Theology
2. Why Wiccans Suck, a site meant to make you
think seriously about Wicca, and maybe learn an unpopular truth
or two. There is no need to take all that is said here as
absolute truth, but it would be a good idea to study it all, till
you know which parts you really think are wrong, and which are
merely painful.
3. Usenet alt.religion.wicca FAQ Starts right
out confusing Witchcraft with Wicca. Accepts poor history for the
sake of religious tolerance, which I consider a mistake. It is
not hard to know reasonably accurate history, and all arguments
worth making can be better supported by the truth than by false
history.
5. "OUR STRUGGLE IS FOR ALL LIFE": THE THEOSOPHIST/UNITARIAN
FEMINIST PIONEER MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE (1826-1898 CE) Passages From
Her Magnum Opus Woman, Church and State (1893): From
Chapter Five, "Witchcraft"
WICCAN TRAINING PAGES