T O P I C R E V I E W
Cate
Member # 3634
posted 06-08-2001 11:39 PM
I know we have had a post on Wicca before but I was wanting to find out more about it. I just started having a interest in Wicca and thinking about the religion. I went out and brought some great books and I have searched a litte bit on the internet. Well to get to the point, I was wanting to ask some of the people here who are Wiccan a few questions. 1) What attracted you to the Wicca Religion? 2) What made you decide to pratice Wicca? 3) Any advice for me about Wicca and how learn about becoming Wiccan on my own?Thanks!!
------------------ Cate! Scarleteen Mentor
Rizzo
Member # 802
posted 06-09-2001 02:45 PM
Hi Cate, I'm not Wiccan, but I used to consider myself sort of Wiccan/Pagan. To tell you the truth, I was attracted to the religion because the Wiccans I knew were all so cool. It also appealed because I was into fantasy books and such. It seemed like a way to link myself to the past, and of course, who wouldn't want to be magical? Eventually though, I decided that I didn't actually believe in the God and Goddess. And that could be a problem!As for where to begin, I'd suggest "Wicca: A guide for the Solitary Practitioner," by Scott Cunningham. I found it quite informative.
towel42
Member # 3118
posted 06-09-2001 02:56 PM
Hey, Rizzo, we must be kindred spirits. I called myself Wiccan for the longest time, but I really couldn't believe in the Goddess and the God. I do believe in a higher power, don't get me wrong, but I think its sooo beyond our comprehension that labeling it with genders and what have you is rather pointless.However, I think Wicca is a beautiful religion, and I still believe in it's fundamentals..."Do what thou wilt, so long as it harms none" and "Always remember the rule of three, whatever you do comes back to thee" (aka KARMA!!!).
I still think, in a sense, magick can work...I've just seen it work too many times to utterly stop believing in it. And not just stuff that can be brushed off as an illusion, or that it only happened because someone believed strongly enough. I won't go into details, but there is something going on there that Wiccans, and anyone practicing Witchcraft, are doing correctly.
I'd definitley read the Cunningham book Rizzo mentioned, as well as (and I know the titles are corny, but they're good books) "Teen Witch" and "To Ride a Silver Broomstick" by Silver RavenWolf.
The lovely thing about Wicca is that it's unorganized; you can mold it to fit your own situation, personal beliefs, and whatever else. Don't listen to people who tell you that you, say, *have* to join a Coven, or *have* to practice magick in a certain way. There are so many different forms of Witchcraft out there, and you've got a lifetime to explore them.
------------------ ...an angel who didn't so much fall as saunter vaguely downwards...
"Ni! Ni! Niii!" -Monty Python & the Holy Grail
"Ennui is insufficient reason to commit suicide." "Things seemed much less complicated...before we kept computers." -Neil Gaiman
starrykiss
Member # 3948
posted 06-09-2001 04:32 PM
I can see your point about the god and goddess thing. I like the Wicca culture but I don't want to but my faith with in god on the line. Does any one else have this problem?
------------------ starrykiss*
Rizzo
Member # 802
posted 06-09-2001 08:50 PM
Actually, there are quite a few folks who identify as "Christian Wiccans". Check this out: http://www.wicca.drak.net/christian/ http://www.christianwicca.com/ But indeed, many people see the term as an oxymoron.
[This message has been edited by Rizzo (edited 06-09-2001).]
PoetgirlNY
Member # 168
posted 06-10-2001 12:26 AM
First off, I must say, I absolutely abhor "Teen Witch." It makes wicca into a fad that makes people cool and different in a trendy way. Ick. So anyway, I'm wiccan. I've been studying/practicing for four years. I originally became interested in it because of the movie, "The Craft" which is NOT a realistic view of wicca. But it got me to go to a pagan store and meet cool people who explained the actual premises of the religion. I determined that the reality of wicca really worked for me. I would really recommend "Spiral Dance" by Starhawk. It's entirely too late for me to explain what it entails, and it's also too late for me to be writing anything or thinking in general. So I'll add more tomorrow. Goodnight. Yes, I get weird at night as I realize that most of you will not be about to go to bed when you read this.
------------------ Limes Are Sublime
JunkiePanda
Member # 4006
posted 06-10-2001 12:37 AM
all of my experiences having to do with wicca were pretty crap. lots of fake people who claimed to practice and believe and just putting on a mask of mystery....only to seem foolish. i think if you are truly in tune with it and understand it there is not a better religion out there.
Shadowhawk
Member # 3425
posted 06-23-2001 11:23 AM
I'm not a practicing Wiccan yet, but I've been studying it off and on for several years. I can't even explain what drew me to it, I was just drawn to it. My very unique friend Nicole is probably partially responsible, as she was the first Wiccan I knew. As a result, I started looking into Wicca and found it to be interesting and a lot of its ideas fit with my own.Christianity just seems too dogmatic to me at times, whereas pagan religions tend not to be. There's also a lot more freedom -- if any particular brand of paganism isn't for you, you can always be an eclectic witch and worship how you want. The whole connection with nature thing's good, too.
As for learning, there are two web sites I can recommend: About.com's Pagan/Wiccan site and The Witches' Voice . Both have tons of info, and the latter can put you in touch with other witches in your area.
As for books, avoid Silver Ravenwolf's "Teen Witch" like the plague. Scott Cunningham's stuff is good. There's also "21st Century Wicca" by Jennifer Hunter, which came highly recommended to me (but I don't have it yet, so I can't comment on how good it is). There's another book I read, which was one man's story of how he got into Wicca and his experiences, but I can't recall the title. If you want to know, I can go see what the library's fining me for (since that book was returned overdue. ).
towel42
Member # 3118
posted 06-23-2001 12:49 PM
Why's everyone down on Silver RavenWolf? Yes, the titles are hokey, the covers are even worse, but I think she provides some good information. I mean, she's open-minded, talks about a lot of the fundamentals in a way that's easy for people who are just starting to learn about Wicca to digest. She even writes a letter to over-bearing parents who think that Wicca is Satanic, y'know. Certainly she shouldn't be ones only source of information, but she makes a lot of valid points.I agree that her little "Teen Witch Kit" is terrible. Y'know, the one that comes with an altar cloth and some other witchy knick-knacks. You should go searching for magickal tools, looking for ones that speak to you on some level, not just buy a bunch of 'em in a box. That's silly.
But really, what is it about her books that everyone hates so much? (Besides the cover and the titles, I hate those, too. But don't judge a book by its cover, literally in this case!)
------------------ ...an angel who didn't so much fall as saunter vaguely downwards...
"Ni! Ni! Niii!" -Monty Python & the Holy Grail
"Ennui is insufficient reason to commit suicide." "Things seemed much less complicated...before we kept computers." -Neil Gaiman
Cate
Member # 3634
posted 06-23-2001 01:17 PM
I bought 'Teen Witch' by Silver Ravenwolf and I thought it was a good book. It was the first book I read since I have became intrested in Wicca. I have been trying to get the books by Scott Cunningham but whenever I go to the bookstore they don't have it! ------------------ Cate! Scarleteen Mentor
exit seraphim
Member # 2566
posted 06-23-2001 01:48 PM
I think the whole point of Silver Ravenwolf's Teen Witch was to give a view of Wicca to Teens that wanted to check it b/c it had become somewhat of a trend post-Craft. She did for a certain group of people, so they would understand. granted, thw wording did seem a little demeaning as it's kinda played down, but for those kids who thought of it as a fad, it was a good informative book. For those who were truly interested, they probably knew how to get other resources to include in their library.-justine
towel42
Member # 3118
posted 06-24-2001 01:30 PM
Yeah...I can see what you're saying about the whole "fad" thing. I think I must've missed out on that, because I didn't even see The Craft until I'd been into Wicca for at least a year. I was drawn to Wicca simply 'cuz it struck a chord with me when I read my first book about it.And although her text is a little played-down, I still stick by my opinion that its informative but packaged in a thin layer of sugar that is unfortunately sometimes necessary in this day and age.
------------------ ...an angel who didn't so much fall as saunter vaguely downwards...
"Ni! Ni! Niii!" -Monty Python & the Holy Grail
"Ennui is insufficient reason to commit suicide." "Things seemed much less complicated...before we kept computers." -Neil Gaiman
Cate
Member # 3634
posted 06-26-2001 12:54 AM
I figure I am missing something since I have not seen the movie 'The Craft' but I have read other books like scott cunningham, and i do find them a tad more informative------------------ Cate! Scarleteen Mentor
Dead Dog
Member # 1672
posted 06-26-2001 03:06 PM
scott cunningham resources are great.silver ravenwolf herself is a good resource, but "teen witch" is an absolute abhorrence. there are blatant, out-and-out lies contained therein, not to even mention all the myriad occasions on which she treats her readers like naive, uneducated six-year-olds. she offers them bulls***t that she would never even dream of offering up to her adult readers.
the *best* thing to keep in mind when researching any religious practice such as wicca: take everything with a grain of salt, .
find books by different people from different perspectives. patronize local occult shops - if you are lucky enough to have one locally - and talk to the people there, workers and other shoppers. in general, people are very friendly, open, and helpful (religion always tends to be one of those subjects where people will be delighted to share their opinions with you).
the real key, especially when we're talking about wicca, is to find what works for you. one of the biggest attractions to wicca, for most people, is the very fact that there is no "right way" to practice wicca. outside of a few basic groundrules and a loosely formed doctrine of faith, it's very open-ended, leaving you the freedom to find your own path without taking anyone else's orders on fulfilling your spiritual needs.
with that in mind, realize that reading books and such is good as a source of knowledge, but you don't necessarily have to base your practices on what you read. keep an open mind to what others say. determine which aspects of their system appeal to you and which do not. ignore anyone who tells you that you "must" believe this certain thing or that you "must" perform rituals a certain way or anything along those lines. do only what feels right to you.
if we wanted our thoughts dictated to us, we'd go back to second grade.
izziel1923
Member # 4271
posted 06-26-2001 09:47 PM
As an eclectic wiccan and studing preistess I just wanted to say, that there are as many sects of Wicca as are sects of christianity. I was attrached to Wicca b/c it felt natural, my bloodline also decends from the druids and native americans, so I'm very natural for it. Silver Ravenwolf is a very good autor for starting witches, but the books are geared to the 13-15 age range, she does stress the importance of the Wiccan Reed and being responsable in her books. But you have to understand that books are only a guide in your personal spiritual journey, your calling to the Goddess is not the same as mine or anyone else's, Wicca is a religion that is presonal, not everybody belives the same thing in the same sect. My teacher is a Dianic Wiccan preistess who belives only in the Great Goddess, not the God and Goddess. My sujestion for more info it to find a local priestess and talk to them, mind you thou that even though a priestess/priest says that they follow the way of the light, it's not always true, I got lucky. And never give anyone any personal matter(blood, hair, fingernail clippings, etc.). if anyone wants to talk about it furter you can e-mail me at izziel1923@juno.com
------------------ ~*~Sarah~*~ Take my hand and we can fly higher than the stars.
towel42
Member # 3118
posted 06-26-2001 10:58 PM
quote: Originally posted by Dead Dog:silver ravenwolf herself is a good resource, but "teen witch" is an absolute abhorrence. there are blatant, out-and-out lies contained therein, not to even mention all the myriad occasions on which she treats her readers like naive, uneducated six-year-olds. she offers them bulls***t that she would never even dream of offering up to her adult readers.
Keep in mind, I'm not trying to contradict you. Its just that its been two, maybe three years since I read her book, and I've learned a lot since then. I probably missed it at the time, but what exactly does she lie about?
BTW, I totally agreed with the rest of your post.
------------------ ...an angel who didn't so much fall as saunter vaguely downwards...
"Ni! Ni! Niii!" -Monty Python & the Holy Grail
"Ennui is insufficient reason to commit suicide." "Things seemed much less complicated...before we kept computers." -Neil Gaiman
Shadowhawk
Member # 3425
posted 06-27-2001 12:50 AM
quote: Originally posted by Dead Dog: silver ravenwolf herself is a good resource, but "teen witch" is an absolute abhorrence. there are blatant, out-and-out lies contained therein...You mean like when she supposedly stresses "don't interfere with free will" and then goes on to give you all sorts of spells to interfere with someone's free will? Ahh, that's a classic.
Teen Witch needs to be rounded up and burned. Some of her other stuff doesn't appear as bad, but since all of her books are currently checked out from the library, I can't speak too surely about that.
On a side note, the title of the book I couldn't remember: Apprentice to Power : A Wiccan Odyssey to Spiritual Awakening . Author is... Timothy Roderick.
Dead Dog
Member # 1672
posted 06-27-2001 10:35 AM
Shadowhawk, that is a *perfect* example of what i meant when i said she lied!when the reed states that "an it harm none...," it is absurd to give the sorts of advice she gives in teen witch .
go back and look at the "spells" she offers to her readers. i found most of these pathetic excuses for magickal workings to be insulting, degrading, and totally contradictory to wicca at its very core.
i have stayed far away from that book since i first read it right after it came out, so i do not have a copy on hand to give specific examples of my accusation. however, i'd be happy to check a copy out of the library and list some specific page numbers if anyone cares that much.
right off the top of my head, i do seem to recall that there was a spell for turning someone (a teacher, maybe?) into a frog...? if i imagined that one, then i'm sorry, but i'm almost certain that was in there. and i would certainly consider transmutating another human being to be contradictory to "an it harm none, do what ye will."
consider, especially, that she focused this book very specifically at junior high- and high school-age readers. kids at that age really don't need to have their role models - and i do believe that ravenwolf could be considered a role model of sorts for adolescents who study wicca - suggesting to them that they get revenge on people by turning them into frogs. it's just absurd and insulting. no wonder so many people have so many misconceptions about us and look down on us, when one of the most "popular" wicca books they will pick up in any bookstore will tell them about how we supposedly turn people into frogs.
like i said, if anyone wants me to expand in more detail on my accusations against the book, feel free to email me (musingkitten23@yahoo.com) and we can discuss it more in-depth, because i am really interested in discussing such things with people, and because i feel really strongly about preventing people from being led astray by so-called "guides" such as teen witch .
thanks. i hope i didn't step on too many toes in there. i just have strong feelings against the teachings in this book. ;-)
------------------ make no mistake: i am the queen of the dorks. http://dead-dog.diaryland.com
towel42
Member # 3118
posted 06-27-2001 11:09 AM
Frogs? Yikes. I must've missed that one, LoL! I know I'd remember that. I never did look too closely over her spells, tho, the only one from there I ever tried to use was this "owie fix" thing for small cuts. I still like "To Ride a Silver Broomstick", at any rate. Next time I'm at a bookstore, I'm flipping through Teen Witch and looking for transmorgification. I don't own a copy, I'd borrowed the book from a friend, once upon a time.
------------------ ...an angel who didn't so much fall as saunter vaguely downwards...
"Ni! Ni! Niii!" -Monty Python & the Holy Grail
"Ennui is insufficient reason to commit suicide." "Things seemed much less complicated...before we kept computers." -Neil Gaiman
PoetgirlNY
Member # 168
posted 06-27-2001 01:25 PM
I think Teen Witch has something about making the person you have a crush on like you . . . interfering with free will much? And there's some stuff about how to just magically get good grades, and also something about protecting your locker. That's just so weird and gimmicky towards school aged people.------------------ *Limes Are Sublime*
Dead Dog
Member # 1672
posted 06-29-2001 01:53 PM
quote: I think Teen Witch has something about making the person you have a crush on like you . . . interfering with free will much? And there's some stuff about how to just magically get good grades, and also something about protecting your locker. That's just so weird and gimmicky towards school aged people.i concur wholeheartedly. any person-specific love spell is considered, by most followers of the reed, to be a bad idea.
as for good grades through magick... well, i *maybe* could believe that in a purely psychological sense (like, doing the spell increases your confidence that you are going to magically get better grades, and so you unconciously do better in class), but i won't even lead us into that subject, because that gets into the questions of what is magick and how does magick work - and those are totally individual opinions. i don't want to judge or offend anyone else's opinions in that area!
and gimmicky? oh, yeah. you betcha.
as for her other books, i have nothing bad to say about them. back when i was still studying other people's methods of practicing, i had a copy of "to ride a silver broomstick," and it had some things in it that i *personally* didn't agree with, but on a whole it was a very good reference book, as are several of her others. "teen witch" is the only one i really protest.
------------------ make no mistake: i am the queen of the dorks. http://dead-dog.diaryland.com
towel42
Member # 3118
posted 07-02-2001 09:07 PM
quote: Originally posted by PoetgirlNY:I think Teen Witch has something about making the person you have a crush on like you . . . interfering with free will much? And there's some stuff about how to just magically get good grades, and also something about protecting your locker. That's just so weird and gimmicky towards school aged people.
Well, if there's one thing I remember from "Teen Witch", it was that it did -not- have a spell to make your crush like you in it. As a matter of fact, I specifically remember that she kept talking about how incredibly wrong it would be for someone to do that.
I agree that her stuff tends to be gimmicky. The good grades stuff was mostly about...y'know, self-empowerment and working up discipline and what have you. Don't ask me about the locker thing, I honestly don't remember that.
Mostly, I think "Teen Witch" is a good book if you completely cut out the spells section at the end. She gives a good run-down of the religion for someone who may have never heard of it before (or worse yet, heard that its Satanic, yada yada yada), even if it is a tad condescending.
But whatevah, to each his/her own.
------------------ ...an angel who didn't so much fall as saunter vaguely downwards...
"Ni! Ni! Niii!" -Monty Python & the Holy Grail
"Ennui is insufficient reason to commit suicide." "Things seemed much less complicated...before we kept computers." -Neil Gaiman
cupcake
Member # 4356
posted 07-02-2001 09:21 PM
www.wiccan-refuge.com tells you pretty well everything you need to know.
cupcake
Member # 4356
posted 07-02-2001 09:23 PM
btw, 1) It was less restrictive than other religions, and it most closely matched what i believed in already 2) again, it is the closest to my beliefs that i already held 3) learn as much as you can. read read read,check out all the resources you can.
Celtic Daisy
Member # 2971
posted 07-02-2002 04:02 PM
1) What attracted you to the Wicca Religion? The natural ways of it, nature and all, that there's more then one god or goddess, it just made sense to me.2) What made you decide to pratice Wicca? Like i said, it just made sense. I was very interested and decided this is the religion for me.
3) Any advice for me about Wicca and how learn about becoming Wiccan on my own? Research. Read. Ask questions. Get lots of books, get lots of opinions from different people to form your perspective.
(I realize this is quite an old topic, and i don't know if this user is still around, but oh well.)
------------------ 'You've got the eyes of ten women. Not in a jar! I wasn't accusing you. I just mean your eyes are really nice'-coupling
Erin Jane ~Scarleteen Advocate~
OoMEoO
Member # 6026
posted 07-24-2002 03:58 PM
I thought of becoming Wiccan once upon a time...i read a bunch of books on it and thought it was *SO AWESOME*. it just didn;t work out tho. BLESSED BE!!!