Wicca

Bide ye the Wiccan Law ye must,
In perfect love and perfect trust.
Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfill:
An  Harm Ye None, Do As Ye Will.

What ye send forth comes back to thee
So ever mind the rule of three.
Follow this with mind and heart,
Merry ye meet, and merry ye part.

Blessed Be!!!

Ok before we start I'll just admit that this isn't all my own work! I've been pretty busy lately, so I've taken part in some 'constructive plagiarism' (sounds so much nicer than 'copying' doesn't it?). Anyway, its all a bit of a jumble of stuff I've picked up, stuff I thought up myself, and a whole lot else. See what you think =)

About Wicca

Even though Wicca is a part of the 'New Age' movement, it's roots lie far back in history. Goddess worship is the oldest religion in the world, as old as the world itself. It was around long before Judaism and Christianity came on the scene. Now, going into a new millennium, many are starting to re-embrace the old ways. Many never stopped. Wicca has been passed down from generation to generation for centuries, although it was not always called Wicca. Many today either claim to be hereditary witches or can remember things their grandmothers did that were distinctly Wiccan in nature. Now Wicca is starting to get more attention by the general public. It is still, however, extremely misunderstood.

Wicca is a beautiful religion, dedicated to the Earth and the Goddess. Wiccans, also known as witches, worship both a Goddess and a God. They are the two halves of Divinity, the yin and yang if you will, but the Goddess is more commonly focused on in Wicca. I personally believe that this breaking down of the divinity into a God and Goddess is not strictly accurate, for they are one - the Divinity is a whole. However breaking down the Divinity into genders is an acceptable way of relating to the Divinity - it is much easier to worship a God or Goddess than it is to worship a nameless shapeless 'thing'

Wiccans practice magick: the subtle manipulation of the energies surrounding us to produce desired effects in the material world. In english, that means if you do the right things you can change the world around you!  

Wiccans also practice various methods of divination. A few of these are discussed and partly explained here.

Wiccans strive to strengthen our relationship with the Divinity and to better know the Earth around us. There are Mysteries everywhere, and if we open our eyes and observe nature, there is much to learn.

Wiccans are everywhere. Your next-door neighbour could very well be a witch! But Wiccans aren't the stereotypical witches of the movies. Wiccans don't worship Satan or sacrifice children (or anything, for that matter). We don't practice 'black' magic to gloriously destroy our enemies with. We just love nature and try to preserve what the Mother has given us.

Ours is a religion of ritual, and we honour several days of power. These are the Esbats and Sabbats. Esbats are, technically, any day there is a ritual that isn't a Sabbat. They are normally the nights of the full moon, and sometimes also the dark moon. They can be meetings of a coven, or a solitary ritual. The Sabbats are ancient days of power. They tell us the story of the Goddess and God. There is truly power left within them.

Wiccans live by one rule, called the Wiccan Rede - An Harm Ye None, Do as Ye Will. This is stated in a variety of ways, but they all boil down to one thing: Harm None. Wiccans don't practice 'black' or evil magic, it violates the rede. We believe in something called the threefold law. This basically states that anything you do comes back to you three times the strength you sent it out.

The Pentagram

And finally... The Wicca FAQ - find out some answers to those questions you had about Wicca