Wiccanism as a religion [Merged]

Originally posted by Quark_666
Book of rules? Nope. List of guidelines? Nope. Judgment day? Leader? Founder? Mission statement? Important holidays? Nope. I don't see any structure.

Only met one wiccan, but she hated structure.

religious structure =

Book of rules - no
List of guidelines - no
Judgment day - 😂 no, I have no idea where you got this one.
Leader - no
Founder - no
Mission statement - no, what is this a club?
Important holidays - maybe, but most likely no. I know Christians who are Christian only for and on Christmas.
I don't see any structure. Nor do you understand what religious structure means.

Look up ritual, and try to get beyond the superficial, and you will then see religious structure.

Originally posted by One Free Man
The only reason is because it sounds cool to be able to be a Witch/Wizard.

That is not the ONLY reason, however, it is a reason.

Originally posted by One Free Man
The only reason is because it sounds cool to be able to be a Witch/Wizard.

If they want to be wizards they should just play D&D, comes with much cooler powers.

but thats nerdy, not emo.

Originally posted by Ordo
but thats nerdy, not emo.

Then play something from World of Darkness. Nerdy and emo!

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
Then play something from World of Darkness. Nerdy and emo!

Hey! My vampires are never emo.

🙁

Anyways... on topic.

I've found that casual Wiccans (rebellious teenage girls that use the word womyn instead of woman) tend to confuse it with typical neo-paganism. Now I've met some hardcore (if that word can really applies) neo pagans and they are nothing like casual Wiccans. I knew this one guy back in high school that would take nordic runes out during class and f*cking pray to Odin.

Turns out the dude just needed a therapist!

Originally posted by Shakyamunison
religious structure =

Book of rules - no
List of guidelines - no
Judgment day - 😂 no, I have no idea where you got this one.
Leader - no
Founder - no
Mission statement - no, what is this a club?
Important holidays - maybe, but most likely no. I know Christians who are Christian only for and on Christmas.
I don't see any structure. Nor do you understand what religious structure means.

Look up ritual, and try to get beyond the superficial, and you will then see religious structure.

Wicca has many of these... unless I misread....

Originally posted by inimalist
Wicca has many of these... unless I misread....

We were talking about what qualifies as religious structure.

Originally posted by Shakyamunison
In general, your last assessment is mostly correct for teenagers. However, there are people who need a religious structure in their life. I am one of these type people, and you may not be one of these people. That doesn't make anyone right of wrong, better or worse. If a person needs a religious structure in their life, but Christianity or other main stream religions are not agreeable to the person, then Wicca or Neopaganism maybe an acceptable alternative. I myself pick Buddhism just because I like it better. That is the point; what do you like?

Kudos to Shaky for giving me possibly the only decent example of a reason for religious belief that I have seen in my life.

Yeah, Shaky likes to do that. LOL

As for a true Wiccan, they are peaceful and their beliefs are of a nature belief just as many others like Native American beliefs, i.e. Earth religions.

im pagan and have simuar things to wicca. awesome 🙂

I feel that it is not because they are just going into worshiping gods and are pegan althrough according to my sister and brother inlaw who are Wiccan that is not what they call themselves.

They are pretty much the same in one way they both worship the devil reather it is in one of those nature gods or whatever it goes down to the same point the devil!

Hippies need to justify the weird sh*t they believe, and they don't have freaky rules for goth rituals in Eastern religions, so they come up with stuff like this. Since witchcraft should have tangible affects on reality (or otherwise it's just playing make believe by waving your arms around and saying stuff aimlessly) it's one of the easier belief structures to debunk using an empirical approach.

Imo.

ermm

Originally posted by One Free Man
The only reason is because it sounds cool to be able to be a Witch/Wizard.

Originally posted by Digi
Hippies need to justify the weird sh*t they believe, and they don't have freaky rules for goth rituals in Eastern religions, so they come up with stuff like this. Since witchcraft should have tangible affects on reality (or otherwise it's just playing make believe by waving your arms around and saying stuff aimlessly) it's one of the easier belief structures to debunk using an empirical approach.

Imo.

ermm

All neo-pagans I know view the rituals as simbolically and socially relevant, not as actual magic, much like the majority of current christians dont believe in the bible as literal truth.

What exactly would weird hippie beliefs be?

Originally posted by King Kandy
Everyone I've met who's one of these assures me the two are distinct concepts, but nonetheless I tend to lump them both in the same category in my brain. So far my opinions haven't been too high, as it's adherents seem to have double the pretentiousness of most organized religions, and nobody could explain to me why any rational person should believe in them... but maybe i'm just seeing it wrong.

Is there any value to either of these or is it just one more stupid way for teens with attitude to show how anti-christian and rebellious they are?

Neo-pagan is an umbrella term for people praticing religions that rooted or inspired by cults that were partially were completelly destroyed by the spread of christianity. Most commonly used to refer to european pre-christian traditions.

Pagan reconstructionism is a movement that seeks to restore ancestral folk religions, usually ones that were supressed by christianity. Most such religions are animistic, pantheistic or polytheistic. Sometimes these religious cultures or at least parts of them have survived in isolated areas or sincrethized with christianity or others. Most times they were totally wiped out and now people are trying to revive them through historical records.

Wicca is a very young religion that is a sinthesis of lots of miscelaneous pagan myths. It's more cosmopolitan, isn't trying to revive any one dead cult and has no emphasis on the ethnic aspect of pre-christian religion that some, but not all, of the reconstructionist movements have.

As for teenage angst and looking cool, this makes up a portion of their covenants, but I don't think it's that significant. Besides, just because it is atractive to rebellious or younger people, this doesn't mean these teenagers are superficial about it, let alone that the religion is superficial.

Originally posted by ADarksideJedi
They are pretty much the same in one way they both worship the devil reather it is in one of those nature gods or whatever it goes down to the same point the devil!

Wicca is a nature based religion.

They believe in the Goddess and the Horned God. These are not idols whom are worshiped. The names Goddess and God represent the feminine and masculine energies in the universe.

Common symbol for the Goddess

Common symbol for the God

Wiccans live by moral guidelines.
* "An' it harm none, do what thou wilt"
* Mind the Three-fold Laws you should three times bad and three times good
(Both lines taken from the Wiccan Rede)

Simply: If it doesn't harm anyone/thing, live how you want.
And, If you do good, you'll get it back x3 and viseversea.

Some if they choose too, do practice Magick. Mind you, not the Harry potter type of Magic. (Oh how I wish!) They go about this many ways. Usually invoking the engeries around them with Rites and Rituals.

Now some people who do not understand Wicca may think "OMG their doing black magic!!!" But, sorry to disappoint you, they are not. In doing so or attempting would bring upon the Three Fold Law and those whom practice Wicca, truly see that as LAW. Sure theres always going to be wrong do-ers, but Wicca sees it as, they'll bring about their own downfall from doing so.

I personally claim no religion. But, Wicca is one of my favorites.