Any Wiccans here?

[someuser]

Roly mo (Rowanmist),

I dont think there is anything such thing as a black witch 'Wiccan' correct? While I understand some Pagans do practice 'black magick' Wiccans abide to the oath 'An it hurt none, do as ye will' and in the karma concept of whatever one does (positive or negative) it will come back 3-fold. Or is that just naive and do some 'bonifided' Wiccans practice 'dark magick'?

I think a lot of enviromental and animal right's groups would consist of a healthy memberbase of Wiccans and other earth based Pagans. I'm a contributing member to PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and I wonder how many 'witches' are in that little group


Anyhow I would be quite interested in any info/insight you would like to share with me about Wicca. Recommended books, magazines, personal insight of your experiences, and anything thing else you might feel comfortable sharing. To get my email address take my screen name someuser and add @aol.com

[mrdevious]

Hi someuser. What I meant to ask, is what traditions and practices that involve nature are incorporated into Wicca. Like ceremonies, spiritual use of entheogens, communication with nature, animal worship, vegetarianism/veganism, sacramental offerings, nature-based dieties... all those types of things. Thanks for responding

[roly mo]

Hi to all

I will dig out all my books and post the titles, author and ISBN numbers. I will try and add a small comment on each and every book.

Like I said before I am going to a few events over the coming weeks and I will obtain details of any mags and where to get them.

I will also sort through my favourite websites for Pagan/Wiccan info which (pardon the pun) I have found helpful and will list the websites.

Im glad I havent been stoned (er wrong words) for saying Im a practising witch and I thank you all for your interesting comments.

Blessed be

Mo = short for Maureen

[MastaChronic]

im not tryin to make a connection to wiccans and "evil" majick, i wouldnt really consider it evil, more like destructive, since there is evil is just a term applied to things. but im just sayin, wiccans and any kind of majick are kind of in the same category, only reason i mentioned it

[Babr]

"When one defines oneself as Pagan, it means she or he follows an earth or nature religion, one that sees the divine manifest in all creation. The cycles of nature are our holy days, the earth is our temple, its plants and creatures our partners and teachers. We worship a deity that is both male and female, a mother Goddess and father God, who together created all that is, was, or will be. We respect life, cherish the free will of sentient beings, and accept the sacredness of all creation." Edain McCoy

Basically and simplistically that sums up our belief system.

My own journey began when I first questioned my spiritual beliefs and path as I was sitting in church, listening to a Sunday sermon. I had searched everywhere for the answers. What was this all about, what was missing from my belief system. Why was I so empty and so miserable? For years I had sat there every Sunday in a room listening to a speach from a man, a mortal man, listening to words that made no sense to me. I repeated words that were memorized, not from the heart, mind you, but from years of sitting and listening to the litany over and over again, and it made no sense to me. It left me empty and angry. So I left the church.

As I grew older, I lost all of my faith. It happened in small bits and pieces. I saw a world filled with hate, man against man, violence, crime, pollution. Destruction. And I grew bitter at a God that seemed never to be listening to me, after I had spent years listening to him, and I was getting resentful. My spiritual life lost meaning.

I lost a child, when I was much older. a very much wanted child, and the words of comfort that were handed to me were, "It's God's will, it's what he wanted." What had I done that was so bad that he would do this to me? Well that basically turned me against all I had ever known. This way of being, that I'm supposed to follow, made no sense to me. So I shut down spiritually.

Then one day I happened to read a poem it was on a poster, Called "The Beginning" by Pentad, I had found it, or it had found me

"When the moon is white against the winter sky...
and the Lady's face shines down, you feel no shame.

The sins are gone . . . they were never really there.

You'll hear the voice that has always called your name.
You'll dance, you'll sing, to a song that always been...

But you'll never ever, ever be the same."

"No shame"! What? The "sins" were never really there. I had done nothing bad in my life to deserve the repurcussions of an angry God.

At last, I recognized and could release what I had felt and known and lived
in conflict with all my life, the source of my incredible emptiness. My mind had never fully realized what my heart had always known, it had never occurred to me that a person could actually live outside of, beyond, above, the dogma of Christianity . . . that we *are* free, and good, and we don't need the Christ figure or the Christian God to make us so, we never did, and never will.

It was like an explosion in slow motion, the old conditioning went, finally, to the winds. I felt it, as all that old conditioning just lifted.

For me, those lines I read surpassed everything I had experienced thus far, they completely removed the last of my pain, my emptiness substituting in its place, a happiness and a thing called "peace" which I had *not* ever felt before, not as a child, not as a teenager, not as a woman.

So I read, and learned and finally found others like myself. Today, I still look, seek, learn and grow. And I have never once regretted the path I started the day I saw those words, they were what was in my mind and in my heart all along. So I read more on the way of Wicca, and I grew and I realized that I was finally, and blessedly, home.

[JMRinFLA]

I have been a Pagan for most of my adult life. Although raised a Catholic I never really believed in a supreme being and the whole good vs. evil scenario it espoused was simply too contrived to be real. I studied Gardnerian Wicca briefly and wanted to join a coven because I valued the sense of community it gave me and I found joy in being with those who shared my beliefs. Unfortunately, there is, among many Wiccans, a distaste for our favorite weed and this led me to decide against joining.

[Euphoric]

MY FAVORITE WICCA LINK

http://www.ladyoftheearth.com/

[Cage]

I have a few books on witchcraft, but only one on a wiccan tradition. It's by Raymond Buckland. He started the seax-wiccan tradition, but I can't say I liked the book much, so I won't even mention the title, haha!

A good book on witchcraft is "Witchcraft Theory and Pratice" by: Ly De Angeles. I'd recomend this book to anyone interested in witchcraft. (Great book!)

If it's the magic/k that intrigues you, then I'd recomend anything by Franz Bardon, but He's more into hermetics...Intersting stuff, though. I paid over $50.00 for his "Initiation into Hermetics" several years ago, and found you must be much more dedicated then I was.

Then there's a guy named Israel Regardie of the 'Hermetic Order of The Golden Dawn'. He was Alliester Crowleys secretary for many years, I think? Again, good stuff, only quite a bit more complicated than the other stuff I read.

I think wicca is a great path, though, as I dig nature, but if you want magic/k then check out the authors I suggested.

On a side note, I'm not into magic/k, I had a fleeting curiosity when younger, and simply devoured a few books on the subject. I have more, but the one's I mentioned were the ones I liked best.

Much Love,

Oh, I almost forgot...Quabalah is quite essential if you want to practice magic/k. A good book on it would be: "Quabalah A Magical Primer" by: John Bonner. It will get you started on a long and complicated road.

:thumbsup:

[RyanTheCaveman]

Ah yes i'm a wiccan.
good to know theres others on this site

[BabySnookums]

yep