wicca and paganism

viota

im a former catholic and let me say this this religion is so claustrophobic and oppressive and boring !! im now a wiccan so any wicccans out there feel free to talk

Karoma

Good for you. (Biscuit's in the post)
There is a pagan forum where you, and others, are "free to talk".

larryone

...and here was me hoping it was going to be a vaguely interesting question relating to christiaity's views on paganism...

BrianCalgary

viota wrote:

im a former catholic and let me say this this religion is so claustrophobic and oppressive and boring !! im now a wiccan so any wicccans out there feel free to talk

Have you ever attended a Christian church that is not Catholic? The church I attend is anything but oppressive and boring. I'm sure we could recommend one that is close to you.

Nevyn

Hi viota, I see by your profile that your not yet 18 and this would exclude you from being Wiccan as no coven will initiate a minor;
but this would not exculde you from being intrested and learning about wicca and living you life in accordance with the tenets of wicca and marking the festivals of the year.

There is a paganism forum on boards with handy links and a place to discuss and get to know people.

ArdRi79

That means to be a wiccan you have to join a coven?

is wicca being acknowleged as a purely Oral Tradition here Thaed?

Nevyn

To be Wiccan you have to be initiated into one of the lineaged traditions that can trace it's self back to the covens of the new forest.

joseph dawton

Good luck with that.

You can work solo if you want and self-initiate, however I would suggest you read some books and/or do an introductory course. In Dublin Barbara Lee runs a 10 week course (details for her on www.witchvox.com) there are others around the country.

If you still think it's what you want to do at the end of that you can look into joining a coven. I would also recommend you read 'Witchcraft Today' by Gerald Gardner, 'Wicca' by Vivien Crowley or 'Inner Magic' by Anne Marie Gallagher as a good starting point covering the basics.

It's very important not to try and run before you can walk!

http://www.electricpublications.com

Talliesin

joseph dawton wrote:

You can work solo if you want and self-initiate

Whether you'd then count as a "Wiccan" or not depends on how you define the term.

Personally I think when non-Wiccan Pagan Witches call themselves Wiccan it insults both the Wicca and themselves (by implying that being a Pagan Witch isn't good enough in itself, so they have to take the name of a particular type of Pagan Witchcraft to inflate their appearance).

However it seems to be a lost semantic battle

ArdRi79

Its not lost, the neo-wicca and trad wicca divide is well marked

there are just too many neo-hippies-who-will-never-have-a-clue out there to save any good name wicca had.

I would just tell everyone who asks that wicca is an oral trad and not to waste their time trying to learn "Love spells" from a "book"

Talliesin

ArdRi79 wrote:

Its not lost, the neo-wicca and trad wicca divide is well marked

The fact that you used "neo-Wicca" and "Trad Wicca" in itself shows that the semantic battle over the word "Wicca" is lost.

Neo-Wicca isn't really Neo- because you Neo- indicates a movement that people have come to revisit without having roots in, which is of course impossible in an initiatory tradition. Really these traditions are either post-Wicca, which is to say that they would not exist as they do without the historical fact of what was made public about Wicca since the 1950s, or else simply not Wicca at all (though in fairness, such people aren't inclined to call themselves Wicca, though their publishers often are - publishers often title non-fiction books, and "*insert adjective here* Wicca" is a proven formula.

Nevyn

There are many things and skills that can be learned from a great many books even if that is 'wow, what a lot of claptrap' and 'that would never work' these are part the lessons on the journey.

There was a time when there were no books at all about Wicca and it was kept hidden and secret.
Now there are some books and they are kept hidden by all the fluffy how to books.

joseph dawton

As is so often the case, people take are seduced by the short and easy road. It takes time and effort to find the gems hidden amongst the cow dung especially when it comes to matters of spirituality. Perhaps it is better that way, let the fools be content with foolish things until they eventually realise that you only get back what you put in and that knowledge of any real value is hard won.

http://www.electricpublications.com

the real ramon

speaking of books, can anyone recommend a good book focussing on the spiritual aspect of Paganism that can be found in a Dublin bookshop. I'd be especially interested in something along the lines of meditation.

larryone

Go to yellow brick road on the quays... it's between the Halfpenny bridge and O'Connell bridge, on Bachelors Walk. The shop mostly sells beads and crystals, but there are also loads of really good books in there. Well worth checking out.

joseph dawton

By Oak, ash and thorn by DJ Conway might be of use.

Not so sure about Wiccan books for meditations but you might trawl the net for some, I remember finding a few in the past.

http://www.electricpublications.com

NeilJ

Lora O'Brien's book Irish Witchcraft from an Irish witch was quite good I felt. Whilst it does talk a bit about ritual work for the most part the book discusses the perspective of the author in relation to a very native styled practise of witchcraft as oppossed to the more generic ethnically muddled form of witchcraft you find more commonly discussed. I know for a fact that Yellow Brick Road sell that one, or you can get a signed copy if you buy it from her site http://www.irishwitchcraft.com/

Neil

the real ramon

thanks for the help people:)

viota

it is my opinion that to every individual wiccan they practise their own form of wicca which is the case with me

Talliesin

I'm not sure if this last post by viota is trolling or not (indeed, the differences between how "Wicca" is defined inside and outside of the initiatory mystery traditions that first used the term "Wicca" or "Wica" in modern times is worth talking about), however it's come to my attention that the original post was deliberate trolling of the Christianity forum in reaction to her having been banned from yet another forum. Accordingly she's banned from the religion / spirituality category for the time being (let's make this ecumenical - will hell freeze over before the goddess stops making red apples? she'll be unbanned after whichever happens first).

I'd consider sitebanning her, but at the rate she's going every mod will have banned her from their own forums soon enough anyway.

Nevyn

viota wrote:

it is my opinion that to every individual wiccan they practise their own form of wicca which is the case with me

Well wicca and following and trying to live you life in according to wiccan practices at first can seem to be a very all in mix and match of 'stuff' with the
tent 'an it harm none do what you will' allowing for a lot of things.

But the more you read and learn the more you narrow the focus to see that
the God and Godess and the practices of the wiccan path are very spefic and
what is and what is not wiccan practice and what is just personal devotion and withcraft becomes apparent.