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Overview
Wiccan Beliefs and Practices was written for the solitary witch or non-traditional small coven. Written by a Wiccan High Priest and retired aerospace engineer, Wiccan Beliefs & Practices includes crucial information not found in other introductory Wiccan books, including:
- Ethics of a Witch, including the Code of Chivalry
- How to write and develop your own spells and rituals
- The physically-challenged Witch
- Out of the broom closet: is it right for you?
- Know your rights: the legal protection of Wicca as a legitimate religion
Author Gary Cantrell speaks from personal experience with Wiccans of all ages and degrees of physical ability, bringing you an earnest examination of modern Wiccan beliefs and a practical guide to the Craft of the Wise.
In the following excerpt, the author explains why he chose to "come out of the broom closet."
I elected to reveal my practice of witchcraft publicly simply because I personally feel that the time for intentionally hiding ourselves has come to an end. We are practitioners of a kind, gentle, and peace-loving religion. We are not the bloodthirsty or depraved, orgiastic fanatics all too often portrayed by the entertainment and news media. The general public has been misled about witchcraft for over a thousand years, and now with our numbers reaching an all-time high, possibly in excess of one million people worldwide, we need to stand up and set that record straight.
We are out there by the hundreds upon hundreds of thousands. We are in the arts, the sciences, and the humanities. We are law enforcement officers, engineers, builders, doctors, and farmers. We are a legally recognized religion under the protection of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and our isolation from the rest of the religious community should and must come to an end. With the phenomenal growth of witchcraft since the 1970s and with the free and easy interchange of information afforded to us by things like the Internet, that time will come to pass and it will happen soon. It may be happening now.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781567181128 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Llewellyn Worldwide, LTD. |
| Publication date: | 05/08/2001 |
| Edition description: | 1 ED |
| Pages: | 336 |
| Sales rank: | 673,362 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.03(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d) |
About the Author
Wiccan Beliefs and Practices: With Rituals for Solitaries and Covens is Cantrell's second book, the first title being Out of the Broom Closet? In addition to authoring two books on the Craft, Cantrell had several articles on Wicca published in local newspapers as well as in Pagan publications and had been the featured guest on a Los Angeles area television talk show to discuss Out of the Broom Closet.
Gary Cantrell passed away on June 28th, 2002. He is survived by his wife, son and daughter, and three grandchildren.
Read an Excerpt
Chapter One
Definitions
Before starting down this rather detailed road of definitions, let me be perfectly clear and state that virtually any definition one can attach to the words witch, witchcraft, or Wicca is in many ways dependent on the person making that definition. My own experience has taught me that if you were to ask one dozen people who claim to be Wiccans exactly what that word means, you would probably get at least a half-dozen different answers, and each answer could probably be tied to some acceptable reference source.
This seeming discrepancy is not due to any attempt to mask the truth or to a lack of information among Wiccan practitioners, but is due in large part to the fact that our Craft is growing and diverging today at a phenomenal rate. Many of the newer Wiccan Paths, sometimes referred to as Neo-Wiccan, have evolved with their own definitions or interpretations of these basic words. Their definition of Wicca may not always coincide with that held by the older Anglo-centered, British Traditional forms of Wicca that originated in the United Kingdom.
There are many Traditions of the Old Religion and many Paths within each Tradition. They each differ sufficiently to make even some basic definitions somewhat open to the interpretation of the practitioner. The definitions I present in this chapter are essentially my own and are based on my research sources and my personal understanding of my chosen Tradition and Path, which is generally understood to be Eclectic-Celtic Wicca. These definitions may not reflect those ofother Wiccans who follow other Traditions. They may use reference sources that differ from mine and may therefore arrive at definitions that differ from what I present here. Nonetheless, I believe the definitions and explanations I provide offer as good a beginning as any.
I want to be very clear at the start of this book that the comments, thoughts, and opinions you will read here regarding Wiccan theology, rituals, and such are mine as I understand them based on my own experience and learning. They reflect my interpretations of how I live and practice Wicca from the perspective of my own Tradition and Path and from my own sources of information. I am by no means touting the material in this book as being something that speaks for all Wiccans. I have no intention of making that claim, nor, I believe, should any other author. When I use the words we or our in this book, I am simply referring to Wiccans in general. The use of these words is not meant to imply that a statement under discussion is accepted exactly as I have written it by all who practice Wicca. There is indeed no "one and only way" to work the Craft and worship our deities. We all have some differing understanding or interpretation of many aspects of the Old Religion, and each one of these interpretations is, by definition, the correct one for those who embrace it.
In any event, I encourage you to read what I present and use that information as a starting point in developing your own understanding of the Craft. Read as many sources as you can, do as much research as you can, and do not regard any one source as presenting the pure and unimpeachable truth over all others.
Wicca and Paganism
What does the word Wicca really mean, and where did it come from? Wicca is only one of many religions of the world that can be grouped under the umbrella of Paganism. So before we can define Wicca, we must first define the word Pagan. Pagan comes from the Latin word pagani or paganus, which translates into "hearth or home dweller," generally meaning a country person. In the days of the Roman Republic, the word pagani was somewhat derogatory in its application since those so addressed were considered "country cousins" and were usually thought of as being somewhat inferior to their more worldly, city-dwelling counterparts. With the expansion of Christianity, the word Pagan was redefined as one who worshipped the old gods and goddesses and did not seriously worship the new Christian god. In the early years of the Christian movement, being a Pagan had not yet taken on the ominous overtones of heathen or heretic that later lead to the persecutions and horrors of the Dark Ages, that period in history generally referred to as the Inquisition or the Burning Times.
The current definition of the word Pagan from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language is "a practitioner of any of the non-Christian, non-Muslim, or non-Jewish religions, typically holding a polytheist or pantheist doctrine, philosophy, or creed." A Pagan is thus anyone who follows a religion other than the Christian, Muslim, or Jewish religions. This obviously includes such diverse religions as the Hindu, Taoist, Confucian, Buddhist, Pacific Islander, American Indian, and, of course, all the nature-oriented or Earth-worshipping god and goddess religions. According to information culled from both The 1993 Encyclopedia Britannica and the The 1998 Cambridge Fact Finder, the total of these so-defined Pagan religions accounts for approximately 50 percent of all the religious adherents in the world, which is, needless to say, a significant number of individuals.
Figure 1 gives a general graphic representation of how Paganism, the Traditions of Wicca, and some of the various Paths within Wicca can be visualized from the standpoint of my own perspective and learning. Others may not agree with my arrangement of some of the figure components, disagreeing on how I have represented or depicted the relationships between some of the Traditions or Paths. I appreciate and understand this disagreement, since few of us will see these concepts in exactly the same way.
In any case, this figure is only meant to give some visual form to the concepts of Tradition and Path, and is obviously not meant to depict each and every form of Pagan Tradition or Wiccan Path. There are far too many of these to include in one simple graphic, and only a select few of the major Traditions and Paths are represented. Please note that the arrangement of figure 1 is alphabetical; there is no superiority implied by the order of appearance or by the absence of other major Pagan Traditions or Wiccan Paths.
That brings us back to the original question—what does Wicca mean? There are those who, with justification, may say that anyone who invokes a deity and addresses that deity through magick in order to bring about change is practicing witchcraft and is therefore a witch. Given that definition of witchcraft, one could assume the title of witch if magick were practiced by invoking a deity associated with virtually any theology, and no one could tell you that you were not practicing witchcraft as you understood it.
There are also those within Wicca who may not totally recognize your claim to be a witchcraft practitioner since that claim may fall outside of what their Tradition or Path may define or recognize as the practice of witchcraft. This may sound like splitting hairs, but I think it has some validity in that the title of witch and the understanding of what witchcraft is can be related directly to how one interprets the origin of those words. That is not to say that a person initiated as a witch under a theology outside of Wicca has no validity as a witch—far from it. I am only saying that the validity of one's claim to be a witchcraft practitioner may not necessarily be recognized by all those who practice under other Traditions or Paths of Wicca. This analysis, however, is probably more germane and firmly anchored to the teachings associated with the previously mentioned British Traditionals, such as the Gardnerian and Alexandrian Traditions, and much less so in the newer and generally more eclectic Craft Traditions that have evolved outside of that influence.
Many people feel that, technically, the word witch should be applied only to those practitioners of Paganism who follow one of the many Traditions of the Wiccan religion. The reason for this seems to be rooted in the derivation of the word witch. Some dictionaries and encyclopedias vary when defining its root source, with some listing it as a word of Germanic origin and others claiming it to be from Old English.
The 1999 World Book Encyclopedia defines Wicca as "the practice of witchcraft where-in most witches call their religion Wicca, from the Anglo-Saxon word meaning wisdom or wise, which is the root of such words as witch and Wizard." The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines the word witch as "from the Middle English wicche, from Old English wicce (feminine) and wicca (masculine) meaning wizard or sorcerer, a believer or follower of Wicca, a Wiccan." The 1999 World Book Encyclopedia defines the word witch as being "from the Old English word wicca, which is derived from the Germanic root wic, meaning to bend or to turn. By using magic, a witch is believed to have the ability to change or bend events. The word can be applied to a man or a woman." The word witch thus seems to be able to claim a derivation from Wicca, meaning a practitioner of the Wiccan religion, a wise one, or one who can influence and change events. The words witch and Wiccan would thus appear to be interrelated, at least according to these reference sources.
Does this mean that only Wiccans are witches? Not necessarily, since we have already said that, in a broad sense, a witch is one who has the ability to influence events through magick and that this ability is not limited to Wiccans. That thought can probably be summarized with the statement that not all Pagans are witches, not all witches are Wiccans, but all Wiccans are witches. There are many differing Traditions of the Pagan religion involving rituals with magickal workings, and they may be performing witchcraft, but the practitioners of Wicca would seem to be witches and to be practicing witchcraft in the most literal sense of the word.
One can further bolster the argument relating the words witch and Wiccan by saying that the practice of Wicca brings with it an acceptance of all the ramifications inherent in magickal workings aimed at bringing about change. By that I mean that we who practice Wicca assume all the responsibilities and consequences of our actions commensurate with the Wiccan Law, also sometimes called the Wiccan Ethic. We understand this Law or Ethic and apply it to our daily lives. We fully appreciate the meaning of the Wiccan Rede and the Threefold Law, and we try our best to uphold the Old Code of Wiccan Chivalry. These concepts form the basis of the ethics of the Old Religion, which will be discussed in the next chapter.
There are other Pagan Traditions that practice magick to bring about change, but in some cases these Traditions may not embrace a recognition of the concept of "harm none" that is at the root of the Wiccan Law. In so doing, they may be working magick and effecting change, but may possibly be doing so in a form that is not acceptable to Wiccans, although they are in reality still practicing witchcraft. By making this statement, please remember that I am in no way implying that these other Pagan Traditions are in some way inferior to Wicca or that Wicca is the only way to practice Paganism or even witchcraft. All Pagan Traditions, or any religious traditions for that matter, are valid for their followers. If a spiritual path or path of enlightenment is appropriate to the practitioner, then it most certainly is proper and valid for those who practice it.
As always, one of the prime ingredients of adherence in any religious doctrine must be the spiritual and emotional awakening that comes from within the practitioner. This thought is exemplified by one line from The Charge of the Goddess, which states, "For if that which you seek, you find not within yourself, you will never find it without." Thus, if that awakening occurs within you, then the Path is a viable one, regardless of what others may think or assume about the "validity" of that Path. This is also true for the Solitary practitioner of Wicca, because all the teacher-student training and Coven initiations in the world will not make one iota of difference if the initiate is not fully and totally in tune with the Old Religion on a spiritual level. That is a decision the God and Goddess will make when They are good and ready to make it and, believe me, They will let you know when the time is right. It is not something novices can arbitrarily decide on their own, and it is not something that is automatically conferred simply due to the public rite of a Coven initiation.
Truly becoming a witch, be it done as a Solitary or in Coven, is a deeply moving and profound mental, spiritual, emotional, and sometimes even physical experience. It is an awareness of your connection to the God and Goddess, an awareness or maybe even a reawakening of your eons-old link through your ancestors to that wonderful and all-encompassing thing we call Nature. The feelings and emotions that will surge through you when you experience that awakening are impossible to describe with the written word. They will alter your heart and raise your soul. They will leave an everlasting mark on all who experience that awakening with an impact on your very psyche that is almost physical, and your life will be forever changed. Once you truly acknowledge and accept your rightful title of witch, regardless of how it is conferred, you will never again be the same.
Wicca makes no claims to be "the only way"; indeed, no religion can really make this claim, because all spiritual traditions or paths are meaningful and valid to their practitioners. Unfortunately, there are many religious or spiritual paths that do not share this concept and honestly believe they have the only meaningful or right avenue of religious pursuit. This type of myopic thinking can usually be found in the more fundamentalist or militant factions of most religions. It usually manifests eventually in such things as inquisitions, holy wars, or other attempts to impose the will of the (usually) minority fundamentalists on the rest of the adherents. Fortunately, Wicca does not make this claim; in fact, we refute it and fully support the concept that any religious path is by definition acceptable to the followers of that path.
Some Wiccans now recognize the many differing aspects of the Old Religion, even to the point of making the somewhat inflammatory statement that Wicca as we know it today has evolved far beyond the concepts described by Gardner and how it is practiced by Gardnerian or Alexandrian witches.
British Traditional Witch and High Priestess Raven Scott breaks from the more traditional school of thought and makes the analysis that common usage has somewhat changed the way we now see and understand Wicca and what it means to be Wiccan. Scott states, "Part of this change has been brought about by the very thing we actually desired to see, our formal recognition as an organized and accepted religion under the laws of the United States."
Scott also accepts the fact that not all Wiccans may know the Mysteries and cherished beliefs of the British Traditionalists. She comments that "those newcomers to Wicca are discovering their own Mysteries to make either their own Traditions in their own way, or they are working the Craft as Solitaries and in so doing they have evolved multiple versions of Wicca." I personally feel, as does Scott, that both versions of Wicca have a place in our Pagan society because both of them, the traditional and the new, enable us to connect with our ancestors and to find that divinity we seek. In the long run, isn't that what really matters?
Many of us have found something that speaks to the deepest and most emotional parts of our very inner selves, something that speaks to us across the gulf of thousands of years. What speaks to us was not called Wicca those thousands of years ago. There were no Gardnerians or Alexandrians at the building of Stonehenge, there was only the Craft of the Wise and it was simply there, as part of the everyday lives of our ancestors. That is the concept of the Old Religion that many of us embrace today. We choose to call our practice of that religion Wicca, and we choose to call ourselves witches.
I think that most practitioners of today's Craft realize that these new approaches have abandoned any deep or hidden content and instead embrace a totally open and visible path. I think we also understand that learning the ins and outs of the deeper meanings of our religion was never meant to be something that could be done quickly by just reading a few books. We can probably all agree here that a deeper understanding of the Craft does indeed require a program of dedication—it is not something that can be learned easily. On the other hand, the newer open or visible paths do lend themselves to a quick course of study. While they must, by definition, mask the deeper meanings of our religion, they still enable one to get a foothold as either a Solitary or as a member of a nontraditional Coven.
Summarizing these thoughts, we can probably make the assumption that the Craft of the Wise was originally formed around those deeper and hidden concepts; it was never intended to be a religion for an extended population. There was usually only one witch or healer in any given village who truly knew the Mysteries, and little thought was probably given to providing interpretations of the belief system beyond that necessary for communal rituals.
The result of this transition from the hidden to the open in the twentieth century is the fact that many seekers of Wicca have learned the religion essentially through books. Unfortunately, because of this, many of the deeper concepts may have been misunderstood or misinterpreted; thus, the Mysteries have been changed from that which was understood by the Traditionalists to that which is understood by the newcomers.
What we have postulated essentially recognizes the emergence of a different form of Wicca, a Wicca that is open, fluid, evolving, and dynamic. This new concept of Wicca sometimes causes serious concerns among traditionalist practitioners because it seems to strike at what they see as the very heart of Wicca; and we must realize that their viewpoint, as narrow as it may seem to some newcomers, does indeed have merit.
The Wicca I identify with is the practice of the Old Religion that recognizes the old gods and goddesses who have been with us for literally hundreds of thousands of years, only the names have changed. It is the Wicca that understands the balance in nature that gives us life, death, and rebirth, and it calls to me from the deepest parts of my very being. That is my version of Wicca. True, it may not be exactly the same Wicca as practiced by the traditionalists, but it is what calls to me. It is how I understand and worship the Old Ones, by embracing the divinity we call Nature in all her glorious manifestations.
(Continues...)
Table of Contents
ContentsList of Tables and Figures . . . xiv
About the Author . . . xv
Preface . . . xvii
Chapter 1. Definitions . . . 1
Wicca and Paganism
What Does Wicca Really Embody?
A Wiccan Philosophy
Chapter Summary
Chapter 2. The Ethics of Wicca . . . 39
The Wiccan Rede
The Rule of Three
The Wiccan Code of Chivalry
The Inviolate Circle
The Right and Wrong of Our Craft
Chapter Summary
Chapter 3. Getting Started . . . 57
The Mirror Book and the Book of Shadows
Tools and Instruments
Clothing and Adornments
Preparation for Rituals and Rites
Chapter Summary
Chapter 4. Mysteries and Rituals . . . 85
The Wiccan Mysteries
Sabbat Rituals
Esbat Rituals
Grounding
Chapter Summary
Chapter 5. Other Rites . . . 133
The Consecration Rite
The Dedication or Initiation Rite
The Cake and Ale Rite
Consecration of Tools
Raising Power
Drawing Down the Moon
The Great Rite
Handfasting
The Crone Rite
Passage to Summerland
Meditation
Chapter Summary
Chapter 6. Spellcraft and Magick . . . 159
What Is Spellcraft?
Performing Magick
Herbs
Chapter Summary
Chapter 7. Divination . . . 185
The Pendulum
The Scrying Mirror
The Runes
Chapter 8. The Physically Challenged Witch . . . 199
Acute Hearing Loss
Severe Back Problems
Immobile and Dependent
Chapter Summary
Chapter 9. The Humorous Side . . . 211
A Stranger Knocks
A Unique Invocation to the Spirit of Water
Candles and Small Spaces
A Critter Enters the Circle
Some Short Anecdotes
Chapter Summary
Chapter 10. Out of the Broom Closet . . . 223
Wicca Is a Duly Constituted and Recognized Religion
Opposition
Why I Chose to Come Out of the Broom Closet
How to Do It
Chapter Summary
Appendix A Classic Wiccan Texts . . . 253
The Wiccan Rede (version 1)
The Wiccan Rede (version 2)
The Charge of the Goddess
The Charge of the God
Appendix B General Deity and Quarters Invocations . . . 259
The Call to the Goddess
The Call to the God
Basic Ritual Invocations to the God and Goddess Invocations to the Quarters
Appendix C A Brief Dictionary of Pagan Gods and Goddesses . . . 269
Appendix D Shops and Sources . . . 277
Pagan Shops
Periodical Publications
Classical and Medieval Arms and Attire
Edged Weapons and Accessories
Bibliography . . . 281
Websites
Books of General and Historical Interest
Books on Wicca and Witchcraft
Glossary . . . 297
Index . . . 305
Tables and Figures
Table 1. Descriptions of Several Paths of Wicca . . . 33
Table 2. Candles . . . 82
Table 3. Incense . . . 83
Table 4. Full Moon Dates Through 2004 . . . 128
Table 5. Dark Moon Dates Through 2004 . . . 129
Table 6. Lunar Correspondence Table . . . 130
Figure 1. A Representation of Pagan Traditions and Paths . . . 5
Figure 2. The Wheel of the Year . . . 25
Figure 3. A Divinity Concept . . . 28
Figure 4. Placement of Altar Objects . . . 64
Figure 5. The Pentagram and Its Meanings . . . 69
Figure 6. Layout of the Sacred Circle . . . 75
Figure 7. An Example of the Ogham Alphabet . . . 191
Figure 8. The First Four Runes of the Elder Futhark Runic Alphabet . . . 193
Figure 9. Rune Configuration for The Candle . . . 195Figure 10. Rune Configuration for Thor's Trinity . . . 196