What is WICCA

Witches aren't all spells, boils and broomsticks. Find out about Wicca here.

What is Wicca?
Wicca is a contemporary pagan religion with spiritual roots in the Celtic deities, symbols, and seasonal days of celebration. Modern day Wicca is peaceful, harmonious and a nature-based, balanced way of living and thinking.

What are the beliefs?
Wiccans live by the Wiccan Rede (philosophy) An it harm none, do what ye will . The philosophy is a declaration of the freedom to act, along with the necessity of taking responsibility from one's actions.
Wiccans also seek to cultivate a set of 8 virtues, these being:
# mirth
# reverence
# honour
# humility
# strength
# beauty
# power
# compassion.
The idea of karma and an afterlife is also a belief of Wicca, what we do in this lifetime will be revisited upon us in the next. Wicca beliefs honour the "Elements of Nature", Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Spirit and their associated directions -- North, East, South, West, Center.

Who do Wiccans worship?
Wicca acknowledges a supreme divine power from which the entire universe sprang. The deities of Wicca are embodiments of a life-force manifestation. The divine power is called The All and is a universal male and female energy, the God and Goddess. That polarity creates the cycle that underlies the movements of the stars and the changing seasons, the harmony of the natural world and the evolution within human lives.
Some Wiccans hold the Goddess to be pre-eminent, since she contains and conceives all. The God is the spark of life and inspiration within her, simultaneously her lover and her child. This is reflected in the traditional structure of the coven.

When and what do Wiccans celebrate?
The Wicca calendar contains 13 full moons (Esbats) and 8 Sabbats, or days of power, making 21 Wiccan ritual occasions. Sabbats mark the suns annual cycle and that of life and nature. The other thirteen festivals are Full Moon celebrations called Esbats when Wiccans gather together to honour the Goddess and God. . It is the most important holiday of the Wicca year is Samhain (pronounced sow-in), the Wicca New Year (or Halloween to the rest of us),where it is believed that the veil between the dead and the living is thinnest.

What rituals are practiced?
Wiccans hold ceremonies in their covens, to mark the Sabats, Esabats, dedications or for magickal workings and to unite with the Deities. Rituals have no set guidelines, but always involve the casting of the circle, invoking the elements, the cone/circle dance to raise power and to bring the collective energy of the group into focus. There is chanting, dancing and singing the Witches Rune. Cakes and wine are also eaten.

Do Wiccans cast spells?
Wicca magick has nothing to do with the "supernatural." Magick is simply the art of getting results by directing energy around the earth to a specific positive purpose such as healing. Wiccans invoke the Goddess and God to bless their magick with power.

Magick is a process in which Wiccans work in harmony with universal power (Divine power) as well as personal and Earth energies to improve their lives and lend energy to the Earth. Wiccans don't perform destructive, manipulative or exploitive magick.

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