My Experience

Part of the ceremony at the spiral dance is to speak the name of the dead. Macha NightMare has had this honor for the last ten years. They collect the names by others submitting them via the Internet.

During the Samhain Sabbath ceremony after the circle has been purification and evoked by song, drum and dance. At this moment of time litanies are offered. They speak the names of the dead. As they say the beloved dead they are witnessed and honored.

Not only do they honor there dead, Macha NightMare adds names of people that influence society ( I wish I had a pencil to write down the names and learn more about the person) by looks through the obituary column and adds some of these names with fact.

When they present the names in the Samhain circle, Macha NightMare take a deep breath then says a few words of honor and invocation. They talk about why they want these souls present. She starts to name the dead not fast with carefulness and accurately. Not all of the names are simple to say. They stop at moments to hear if the names ring in the air. She moves around the circle singling out people as she says the name.

People often wail or cry quietly. Graces (priestess who welcome celebrants, tend to those in need or openly mourning, guide people in the spiral dance, keep aisles clear) throughout the space watch to help mourners with embracing arms, tissues, and sometimes ashes. As the list goes on, grieving builds. There are those that call out the names. They believe there Beloved Dead come among them for a last parting before the final crossing over. They believe they are with them that night.

Not only does this sermon happen they also welcome the new children to the group.

The other part of the sermon is all of the alters that are present

 

 

 

 

Water Alter

 

 

Alter to the beloved dead

Spiritual Couples in Wicca

Guidance in Wicca comes from our Ladies and Lords if there is to be more then just the basic principles of union that complete the cycles of life. For this purpose wiccan practitioners look to many Goddess and Gods for a personal connection. They find that the Goddess and God can be found in many forms and names. There are a few Wiccan that I have talked to that say that the Lady is not always associated with the Moon and the Lord not connected to the Sun. There are a few myths that have the sun being connected to the Goddess and the moon being connected to the Gods found in Pagan Lore.

Not only is there a difference in the image of the Goddess but also how she is represented. There is the idea of her being the mother of the universe all-pleasant and happy and joyful. However when you look at mother in nature you see them as defenders of their young they strive to protect them which tooth and claw, not the image we expect for someone that is siren. Where in a few myths we see the God as not always devoted to the Goddess and that he wonders (Look at Hera and Zeus ). If we look at mythology the Goddess and God are not perfect. This showing of them not as perfect allows us to look at our own fault and being excepting of others faults. Where in the case of the Goddess and God they have no one to look at we have there many examples to draw on.

Take Hera and Zeus. If you look at Hera outside of her relationship with Zeus and his indiscretions we would not understand her action to Titaness Leto, Cellisto and Alkmena. When adding Zeus to the pictures with his children not from Hera, we can understand Hera jealousy. This mythology gives us a warning to couples that are mismatched in there choice in partners, or when one is not open and honest with in there relationship with there partner.

Hera, is the Greek goddess the “Queen of Heaven”,  she had power before her marriage to Zeus, the king of the Olympian gods.  Hera ruled the heavens and the earth she was responsible for every aspect from the seasons and weather. She was honored for her capacity to nurture her name translates to "Great Lady". Our word galaxy comes from the Greek word gala meaning "mother's milk" . . . legend has it that the Milky Way was formed from the milk spurting from the breasts of the Greek goddess Hera, Queen of Heaven.  Where drops fell to earth, fields of lilies sprung forth. 

Not only is she worshipped in Greek mythology but also in Roman goddess Juno, and the month of June (Even today she influence lives that do not celebrate Wicca and that are Christian in that the most popular month for weddings is June). The month of June is names in her honor.

Hera beauty and particular her beautiful eyes links her to the sacred animal the cow (In India culture we see that they worship the cow and it is sacred)  and the peacock. The cow represents watchfulness over her subjects, where as the peacock represents luxury, beauty and immortality.

Hare role in life is to protect a woman’s marriage, fertility, protect children and help find financial security. Hare is a complete woman in that she has a privet and public face.

Shiva and Parvati

Shiva is often seen as a destroyer however when united with Parvati in her incarnation as Shakti we see her as creation (the Great Rites). In another perspective of Parvati as Kali we see her as a savior of lives.

Their story as been repeated with many variations but the basics still hold in that mortals seek out Shiva and he is not around and Parvati steps into help.

 

Mortal seek to kill demons and they need help from the gods for every time they kill a demon there blood strikes the earth and demons are born. Defending the country folks people is normally left to Shiva with him gone it is left to Parvati. When hearing the problem she told the countrymen that she would unroll her tongue on the earth. She told the men to trick the demons on to her tongue and there kill them without fear of their blood hitting the earth. When the killing is done she bring her tongue back into her mouth destroys the diamonds. Thing are not as simple as them seam for the blood of the demons cause her to go into a killing rage transforming her to Kali.     

Wiccan relationship with Deity

Diana and Endymion by Walter Crane (1883)

Members of Wicca have personal relationship with the creator in its many forms. People call them “idol worshipers,” this statement only shows their ignorance of Wicca and their beliefs and ideology. There respect for the Goddesses and God’s come from the understanding and attraction to the story they represent and what they can teach the reader.

In each story of the Goddess we learn about relationship. Their story shows the student about earthly relationships. They teach us to form relationships on personality and respect not on the outer shall (Hare and Zues). If we only look at relationships for what we will gain us or because, of the outer shell the relationship is doomed. 

Dose television effect Wiccan Culture

Entertainment that contains Wiccan and Neo-Paganism arrives in popular culture in clusters. Society has left one of these clusters and we are about to enter another moment when Wicca will be introduced to society. With teen show we will see magic hear about the book of shadow and see it as two side of good verse evil. These show will not explore the deeper root of Wicca or talk about the religion, but show magic as this supernatural force that will destroy evil.

1991 is a notable year for Wicca and the media when Oliver Stone’s The Doors came out and is the first time where Wicca is present in motion picture and shown respectfully and accurately. This is the most importer part, previously we have seen Wiccan in motion picture but not shown accurately. 

Shows inclined towards the lurid, few Wiccans where flattered or pleased with The X-Files’ depiction of Wicca; where some practitioners remember considerable indignation and controversy over the “Sanguinarium” episode among the Pagan, however the, “Chinga” episode reveals an admirable understanding of the breadth of the Pagan/Neo-Pagan world.

1996 there is a “cluster” of shows that represent Wicca in modern culture and entertainment, not only episode “Sanguinarium,” but also we start to see Wicca in staring  in movie, The Craft.  Which was sensationalistic but not really accurate.

In the later 1990s, there are popular television series that are aimed at girls: Charmed and Buffy the Vampire-Slayer. Although it was more of a show about Witchcraft than Wicca, and Witchcraft in Charmed could resemble Wicca today; Buffy was the first television show that feature a “Wiccan” character. However, the characters on Buffy tended to spend their time fighting vampires, and the “Wicca” on the show often resembled traditional Supernatural Witchcraft (with Supernatural Powers), Wiccans often discount the “Wicca-ness” of Buffy.  Nonetheless, for a lot of Mundanes, Buffy remains their best understanding of Wicca to this date.

In January 2009 to present, there are more shows that contain “Wicca episodes” of varying quality. The most successful occurred on Nov 29, 2009, when the venerable, cherished, and long-running series The Simpsons aired “Rednecks and Broomsticks,” in which Lisa discovered Wicca. Though it was a cartoon, Wicca is shown in a sympathetic and realistic light.

Thirteen Principles of Wicca

 

• Wiccan practitioners use ritual and rites that connect them to the natural rhythm of life. There rituals coincide with the quarter and cross quarter phase of the moon.

• They believe there intelligence gives them a deeper understanding of our environment. They seek harmony with nature, and that balance offers fulfillment of life and consciousness within.

• They acknowledge power greater then themselves. Because it is greater then them, they call it the “supernatural”. They see it as lying within that is the naturally potential of all. 

• They perceive creation or the power to create as a manifestation of feminine and masculine power that is in all people and function through us. They value neither the feminine or masculine above the other and that each part supports the other. They value sex as pleasure and a symbol that embodies life. Where it is also a source for energy for magic and religious worship. 

• They recognize both outer and inner world, or psychological sometimes known as the spiritual world, the collective unconscious. They see the inter-action as two dimensions that are based on paranormal phenomena. They neglect neither dimension seeing both as necessary for fulfillment.

• Wiccans do not recognize any hierarchy authoritarian. However they honor and respect those who decide to teach and share knowledge and wisdom. They cherish those that are courage and given themselves to leadership roles. 

• Practitioners see religion, magic and wisdom as living being united in the way they view the world and live with in it. This is a worldview and philosophy of life, which they identify as witchcraft or the Wiccan way. 

• Wiccans believe one can call them selves anything but it is actions and the control of themselves that makes life possible to live wisely without harm to others and in harmony with “Nature”. 

• Wiccan search to understand their role within the universe by doing so they believe they are affirming and fulfillment their continuation of evolution and development of consciousness and giving meaning to there surrounding.

• There only animosity towards Christianity, or other religion and philosophy of life, is that its institutions have claimed to be 'the only way' and have sought to deny freedom to others and to suppress other ways of religious practice and belief.

• American Witches, pensive threatened by debates on the history of the Craft, origins of various terms, the legitimacy of traditions.

• Wiccan do not believe in absolute evil, or worship any entity known as 'Satan' or 'the Devil' defined by the Christian tradition. They do not seek power through the suffering of others, nor accept that personal benefit can be derived only by denial to another.

• Finely they seek within nature that will contribute to health and well-being.

(Daschke and Ashcroft, eds 2005: 102)

Wicca as a religion

When most people think of religion they associate with local religious building, ministers preaching, a male deity and an extensive creed. These things are not really present with in Wicca. This makes most people believe that Wicca is not a religion. Even thought you can find aspect of these things within Wicca.

Wicca believe that all of nature is there church what better building can be made thin the naturally landscape that surround us every day. There are Priest and Priestess with in the religion. There is a male deity and there is a code, which we will look at later and extensive ideology.  

The District Court of Virginia declared in 1985 (Dettmer v Landon, 617 F Suup 592 [E. Dst. Va.]) that Wicca is "clearly a religion for First Amendment purposes....Members of the Church sincerely adhere to a fairly complex set of doctrines relating to the spiritual aspect of their lives, and in doing so they have 'ultimate concerns' in much the same way as followers of more accepted religions. Their ceremonies and leadership structure, their rather elaborate set of articulated doctrine, their belief in the concept of another world, and their broad concern for improving the quality of life for others gives them at least some facial similarity to other more widely recognized religions." ₁ This was a landmark case.

"I don't think witchcraft is a religion. I would hope the military officials would take a second look at the decision they made." G.W. Bush (R), as Governor of Texas. Interviewed on ABC's Good Morning America, 1999-JUN-24. He disapproved of Wiccan soldiers being given the same religious rights as others in the military.

However on April 27th, 2007 government and military reorganized Wicca as an organized religion. 
 

This symbol has been on our money almost as long as we have been a country and it is a Wicca symbol

 

History and Revitalization movement

Wicca history is a rich and complex tapestry to understand where it stands today one must understand its past. Wicca is over half century old and can be traced back to the writer, Gerald Gardner, who was born in 1884 a British national. He published a book Witchcraft Today (1954). Gardner is described as avid antiquarian or amateur archeologist and folklorist who had an interest in the occult, stated Ronald Hutton (Hutton 1999: 205). Hutton bases his theory of Gardner’s movement to “neo-pagan” traditions to his retirement in England countryside in the 40’s where he combined folk traditions with anthropology theories of Margaret Murray1 and formal practices of ceremonial magic (ibid.210) in Witchcraft Today (1954). Gardner states that he was initiated into a traditional Coven, which pre-sided Christian beliefs (Gardner 2004 [1954]: 26). Margot Adler writes in her book Drawing Down the Moon (1981), that Gardner’s coven was located in England and knows as New Forest Coven and was led by  “Old Dorothy” (Adler 1981 [1979]: 61). If this is true very little evidence steel exist today of this coven. Students of Gardner’s doubt that this coven ever existed, “The veracity of Gardner’s claims to have found secret, organized, traditional covens is doubted today, even by most of his [followers],” writes Linda Jencson, a cultural anthropologist (Jencson 1989: 3). Even with this knowledge his theory and beliefs inspire people all over the world to practice Wiccan. (Gardner 1954; Buckland 2002; Farrar and Farrar 1984). Gerald Gardner and Barner-Berry “founded what is now known [by practitioners] as the Gardnerian tradition, considered by many to be the dominant tradition in contemporary Wicca”. Gardner’s thoughts and ideas are the foundations of what most modern Wicca rituals are based on.

 

 

 

Gerald Gardner, his England Countryside home 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wicca has distinguishing itself from Western religion in a few different ways: they worship multiple gods in divine couples that very widely. They have eight seasonal holidays called Sabbaths. Wiccan groups have a complex ideology of birth, death, and rebirth of the Horned God, “consort” of the Eternal Goddess. There are two ways that Wiccans practitioners practice their beliefs, first is part of a coven, second being a solitarie practice which is most common according to Berger (Berger et al. 2003: 4). 

The feminism movement plays a part in how fast Wicca has increased in popularity. Where previously men hold spiritual leadership in a community now women are creating a new social order based on equality or reverence for women. Writer, Jean Heriot, shares her opinion that “practitioners of feminist spirituality … women will eventually be able to change the patriarchal social order to an egalitarian one in which connections among individuals, the social and physical world,”(Adams and Salamone, eds. 2000: 116). This movement reflects a revitalization movement. Where it is an organized, effort by members to change a society construct and create a more satisfying culture. We can read examples of the four principles of a revitalization movement in The Spiraldance (Starhawk 1979).

Abstract

This semester we have discussed initiation rituals and how they are perceive by others. We have looked at how they are practiced and shared with in their culture and surrounding cultures. While discussed the symbolism that is use to express an idea and how people use symbol to gain power and create movements and change in their own lives and environment. For our final project we are to explore a religion we are not formulary with and using the skills we have learned in class give an analyze of that religion. I have chosen Wicca, or “Neo-Pagan,” religion to explore. Helen Berger in Voices from the Pagan Census (2003), states “is an umbrella term covering sects of a new religious movement, the largest and most important form of which is…Wicca” (Berger et al. 2003: 1). This Blog examines the relationship between rituals and religion by analyzing the material and culture that is part of Wicca. 

Attention is paid on gender when viewing a ceremony from the objects used, to who use them and how they are used during a ceremony. Wiccans find divinity by their two most important Gods: The Goddess, and God (or consort) and there supplementary deities that are found through out other religions. Practitioners may associate with one set of gods: Greek, Roman, Celtic or deities found in other culture, or the practitioner may be eclectic in that they draw from all culture.  What is sought between the Goddess and the God is a union that represents fertility this right is elaborate ritual called the Great Rite. The High Priestess and Priest represent the feminine and masculine aspects of the Goddess and Consort as they manipulating specific objects, which they believed to be strongly gendered orientated. There are those that are Wiccan that believe the “rituals reflect, construct, and reinforce the Wiccan precept of a gender-balanced cosmos through

the interaction of these primary ritual actors and the gendered objects they manipulate.”