A Source of Knowledge
Did Wicca “create” any beliefs?
Question:Related posts:
- Is there anyone out here who is looking to learn more about wicca and other pagan beliefs?
I am fasinated with wicca and pagan beliefs but consider myself a christian, can you be more then one religion?
What is Wicca and Pagan? Who is your Higher Power? What beliefs are followed?
why are people so closed-minded to pagan beliefs like wicca, which focus on natural/earth based practices?
A few questions about the Wicca and pagan beliefs?
| This entry was posted by The Good Witch on June 2, 2010 at 5:55 am, and is filed under Questions About Wicca. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
about 3 months ago
well, honey, wicca IS another pagan religion. it was originally presented as a reconstruction of european folk religion, and is largely based on 19th century occultism and celtic mythology. i believe that the concept of deity in wicca is a new twist on celtic beliefs, but it generally aligns with what we know of celtic paganism. the wiccan rede was composed in the early days of the religion and the ritual format is culled from alchemy and ceremonial magic. as a specific religion with a specific ritual format and spiritual viewpoint, it is wholly new, but it has a very old pedigree.
i suspect that you don’t know anything about paganism if you think there can be a disconnect between wicca and indo-european paganism. wicca is a modern expression of the ancient religions.
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about 3 months ago
Wicca is a modern religion. It is influenced by many older ideas, but the arrangement is most definitely modern.
Then again, you can say that about many religions. Religions draw on traditions that came before them. Doesn’t make them the same as those older traditions.
You should become Wiccan if you believe in what Wicca teaches, and that shouldn’t be dependent on the age of its ideas. An idea either has value or it does not. Ideas so not ripen with age.
What do you count as old, anyway? Wicca borrows a lot from 19th century occultism. Is that old enough? Many of those beliefs are based on older beliefs. The maid/mother/crone arrangement is not fully developed until 1949 in a book called the white goddess. Does that suddenly invalidate Wicca?
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about 3 months ago
Wicca created the belief that it was the survival of some other Druid/Goddess/nature/medicine woman cult going back through Europe to pre-Christian times. As far as I know, no one believed that nonsense until Wicca said it. Now everybody claims that their religion goes back thousands of years. It’s an attempt at credibility.
Yes Wicca is a continuation of an earlier cult, but that’s called Thelema.
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about 3 months ago
There is nothing “new” in Wicca except the fusion of previous ideas. Some came from anthropologists (Meade, Graves etc.), some from Freemasonry, Golden Dawn, Crowley, Theosophy and other “High” magick and Hermetic groups. Some from Eastern philosophy, some from West Country folk tradition etc….. All good stuff, but brought together in one system for the 1st time.
What it is NOT is a survival or a re-constructionist religion. It IS however a very open belief, free from dogma and bigotry (well as much as any belief can be) and a path to greater self discovery. It certainly does NOT preclude a deeper study of historical Pagan beliefs and indeed, would be richer for the inclusion of more traditional practices.
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about 3 months ago
Well, the idea that all trained members are part of an initiated priesthood is, as far as I know, unique to Wicca. And our approach to the relationship between the God and Goddess of our religion, Whose living body is the universe, is also one that I’ve never encountered in another religion.
Wicca is a postmodern faith informed by modern ideas of sexual equality and tolerance. To me this is a strength which it would not have, or at least not to such a degree, if it were not a relatively new religion.
Frankly, if you don’t feel called to honor and serve our Gods then Wicca probably is NOT the right path for you.
ETA: If you want to know the real history of Wicca and where some of its ideas came from and which ideas are unique to it, I suggest you pick up a copy of “The Triumph of the Moon” by historian Ronald Hutton and read that before making your decision. At least then you’ll be making an INFORMED decision.
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about 3 months ago
To put it simply, modern-day Wiccan is an attempt to recreate the Old Religion that was a nature religion that predated christianity. The wiccan revival began in roughly the late ’30′s or in the 40′s. The original (pre christian) wiccan beliefs were a coherent system. If by “early” wiccans, you mean the beliefs that were included in the 20th century revival, then those are a mish-mash from various sources. I believe they sincerely tried to be as authentic as possible, but the source material was pretty sketchy.
One source I have seen in R&S that might help is:
http://wicca.timerift.net
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about 3 months ago
“I am studying Wicca to possibly become Wiccan but want to make sure Wicca is right for me and not another Pagan religion.”
Well, of course Wicca is a Pagan religion. What did you think it was? Also, all religions borrow beliefs from religions that came before them. That does not make them any less valid.
There is NOTHING new under the sun. If you are searching for a religion that has created its own beliefs, you will be searching for a very long time and in the end be disappointed. It does not exist.
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about 3 months ago
Wicca is pretty new. Gerald Gardner created it about 60 years ago, is all. So yes, it took some from some older pagan ways and then Mr. Gardner added his own ideas to it as well.
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about 3 months ago
Actually, Wicca was only developed in the 1950′s by a man names Gerald Gardner, in England.
He created Wicca based on bit and pieces of older and guessed at religons of ancient peoples in and around the UK. (i’m looking at raymond buckland’s book that teaches first degree wicca as i write this)
so basically.. yes, wicca created it’s beliefs… and No, because they were loosly based on older religions.
if you have more questions, feel free to email.
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about 3 months ago
I guess if I were Wicca, I wouldn’t believe I created my beliefs, but rather I discovered the truth.
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