It also affected Wiccans and others who obtain tattoos for religious reasons.
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Millions of Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Wiccans, and members of other faiths might be surprised to hear that.
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A coven of Wiccans may hold a collective reflection or prayer around the altar then share a meal.
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"It's not that Wiccans get arrested a lot so much as people become Wiccan in prison," she said.
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Wiccans celebrate the goddess as she turns from Mother to Crone, and Druids offer libations to Mea'n Fo'mhair, the Green Man.
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The Shift In recent days, I've gotten to know beekeepers in Rhode Island, dental hygienists in New Jersey and Wiccans in Tennessee.
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Personally, I've always found this internecine warfare hilarious, given that most of society views even Wiccans as inherently Satanic—and technically, they're correct.
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A final tableau of two modern Wiccans invites us to learn more about this "ancient religion" and speak to its peace-loving practitioners.
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There is a significant population of witches, or Wiccans, living here, along with numerous shops offering potions, healing crystals, tarot cards, and psychic readings.
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It is said to be trapped within the confines of a circle of stone built by Wiccans to protect the living from its unfettered evil.
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Groups like Unitarians, LGBTQ Black Christians and Wiccans are encouraging congregants to undergo ceremonies that would signify a reconciliation between their gender identities and faith.
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It is hard to tell whether neo-paganism is growing in size, given the movement's loose structure and the fact that some Wiccans keep their affiliation secret.
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For some that's likely the case, and many eclectic Wiccans do pick and choose which elements appeal to them from a broad spectrum of beliefs and cultures.
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They may want to try on Christianity, or Buddhism, or whatever — even Wiccans at the United States Air Force Academy have an area set aside for worship.
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VoodooIs mostly distinct from Hoodoo, often conflated with Vodou, and doesn't actually have anything to do with sticking pins into dolls, but that doesn't stop eclectic Wiccans from pretending.
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Probably. One of the biggest solstice celebrations in the world is still going on at Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England, annually, where druids, Wiccans and other pagans gather to mark the holiday.
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After finding spell books at her local Barnes and Noble, Allie would do them secretly in her bathroom, first practicing alone, but eventually finding other Wiccans to share stories with online.
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Even today, people may associate it with an archaic gathering of bitter, spell-casting women or a word that exclusively applies to Wiccans — but that's not quite true (more on that later).
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By this point, Buffy's queer legacy is legion, though the fascination of many within the LGBTQ community with the show has little to do with its groundbreaking storytelling or GLAAD-approved lesbian wiccans.
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Within nature-based faiths, this month's full moon is known as the Blessing Moon (most likely for the bountiful crops, plants, and flowers that early Pagans and Wiccans enjoyed around this time of year).
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With that in mind, and in honor of 2018's boom in witchy media, we asked four prominent authors who identify as either witches or Wiccans to share how they came to practice their faith.
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Since the publication of the first Harry Potter book, 20 years ago, the number of people identifying as witches has gone up, as has the number of Wiccans in both the United States and Great Britain.
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But when, this coming Monday, the moon blanches the sun's rays, don't expect to see all Wiccans or witches pointing sticks towards the sky, as some say the energy is too volatile to harness for most spells.
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Of course, not all who practice magick are Wiccans, so we'll offer this additional warning for believers: Make sure you've read up on your rituals and are confident about your intent before practicing any kind of magick.
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Some argue that an organization like the Council is a "necessary evil" to having one's faith represented widely, and since individual groups of Wiccans (or covens) usually create their own spiritual guidelines, the Council's principles often provide inspiration.
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For Allegra, that means dalliances with screenwriting, hat design, the perfume business and the idea of relinquishing it all for "being an amazing mom"; for other characters, it means dalliances with Wiccans or Landmark Forum or, more weightily, Buddhism.
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" Champion adds that "the fact that such finds often lead to them being ascribed to modern Wiccans, devil worshippers or hoaxers is a sign of just how mentally remote we are today from the commonplace beliefs of the medieval church.
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Should the plot snippets that Ms. Rowling lets slip — that Hagrid can't conjure the soul-like being known as a Patronus, that Hogwarts has Jewish students but not Wiccans, for instance — be considered part of the series, or something outside and apart?
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Doucette — which is her married name, not her legal name — is one of the "resistance witches," an at least 13,000-strong umbrella group of internet neo-pagans, Wiccans, solo practitioners who self-identify as "hedge witches," longtime magical practitioners in various traditions, and committed activists.
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"[The March equinox] is a highly significant moment in time in many different cultures and practices, including pagans, Wiccans, and astrologers, because it's very telling of the relationships between the Earth and the Sun at this time of the year," explains Narayana Montúfar, senior astrologer at Astrology.
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Samhain is usually celebrated by a group of Pagan practitioners or Wiccans (sometimes known as a coven) or by a solitary practitioner of these faiths — but this doesn't mean that you can't get in on some of these rituals if you're interested in thinking beyond your Halloween costume.
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" Theresa DeLucci on The Craft: "I was living in Brookfield, Connecticut at the time, and all of the weirdo goth kids kind of hung together, and yeah, after The Craft came out—I always thought it was kind of obnoxious, because then a bunch of my friends became, 'Oh, we're Wiccans.
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Perhaps it should come as no surprise that witchcraft is attracting people, particularly millennial women: Interest in spirituality tends to increase in periods of upheaval, said Helen Berger, a sociologist at Brandeis University and the author of "Solitary Pagans: Contemporary Witches, Wiccans, and Others Who Practice Alone," which came out in August.
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With the dwindling of the anti-globalization movement over the past decade, the 1999 World Trade Organization protests in Seattle can now look like easily mocked millennial optimism: turtles, teamsters, Wiccans, the "Free Mumia" crowd and beanie-wearing save-the-forests types finding common cause with the victims of corporate capital and glowing with the belief in a better world.
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Despite the success that pop culture witches have seen this year (from the reboot of Charmed to the reboot of Sabrina to every sage-burning crystal healer who comes across your Instagram feed), it seems like we, as a mainstream audience, only get to hear from real-life practicing witches and Wiccans when their faith is being misrepresented in the media.
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Alexandrian Wiccans and Gardnerian Wiccans arrived in Australia from England and the United States around the late 1960s.
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Alexandrian Wiccans and Gardnerian Wiccans arrived in Australia from England and the United States around the late 1960s. In the 2011 census, 32,083 Australians identified their religion as a Pagan religion including 8,413 people who identified their religion as Wicca or Witchcraft.
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Many Wiccans are generally welcoming of LGBTQ+ people. Wiccans tend to view sex in a positive light without guilt.Wicca for Beginners: Fundamentals of Philosophy & Practice, Thea Sabin - 2006 Some strands of Wicca go beyond welcoming gays and actively celebrate gay relationships.Women's spirituality, women's lives — p.
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Solitary neo-wiccans, who originated in the 1980s, do not include the wiccan laws in their doctrine.
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The pentagram is a symbol commonly used by Wiccans. Wiccans often understand the pentagram's five points as representing each of the five elements: earth, air, fire, water, and aether/spirit. It is also regarded as a symbol of the human, with the five points representing the head, arms, and legs.
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Many Wiccans believe in magic, a manipulative force exercised through the practice of witchcraft or sorcery. Many Wiccans agree with the definition of magic offered by ceremonial magicians, such as Aleister Crowley, who declared that magic was "the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with will", while another prominent ceremonial magician, MacGregor Mathers stated that it was "the science of the control of the secret forces of nature". Many Wiccans believe magic to be a law of nature, as yet misunderstood or disregarded by contemporary science, and as such they do not view it as being supernatural, but a part of what Leo Martello calls the "super powers that reside in the natural". Some Wiccans believe that magic is simply making full use of the five senses to achieve surprising results, whilst other Wiccans do not claim to know how magic works, merely believing that it does because they have observed it to be so.
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This allows many Wiccans to believe that mediums can contact the spirits of the deceased, a belief adopted from Spiritualism.
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In 2008, U.S. Today estimated 1 million Wiccans,USA Census: Self-Described Religious Identification of Adult Population: 1990 and 2001 a fast growth compared to the 100.000/200.000 estimated in late 1990s and early 2000s. The United States Census Bureau's American Community Survey found 342,000 Wiccans and 340,000 Pagans in the United States in 2008.
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The Summerland is the name given by Theosophists, Wiccans and some earth-based contemporary pagan religions to their conceptualization of an afterlife.
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In contemporary times there are those who study and practice rituals to invoke elementals. These include Wiccans, and followers of nature- based religions.
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Simpson noted that the only contemporary member of the Folklore Society who took Murray's ideas seriously was Gerald Gardner, who used them as the basis for Wicca. The witch-cult theory came to represent "the historical narrative around which Wicca built itself", with early Wiccans claiming to be members of Murray's hypothesized secret religion. Many Wiccans, particularly those of the early decades, believed that their religion was a continuation of the witch-cult. It was only during the 1980s and 1990s that some Wiccans began to see the idea of the Witch-Cult as a creation myth rather than as historical fact.
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Imbolc altar A large number of Wiccans do not exclusively follow any single tradition or even are initiated. These eclectic Wiccans each create their own syncretic spiritual paths by adopting and reinventing the beliefs and rituals of a variety of religious traditions connected to Wicca and broader Paganism. While the origins of modern Wiccan practice lie in covenantal activity of select few initiates in established lineages, eclectic Wiccans are more often than not solitary practitioners uninitiated in any tradition. A widening public appetite, especially in the United States, made traditional initiation unable to satisfy demand for involvement in Wicca.
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From her 1996 survey of British Wiccans, Pearson found that most Wiccans were aged between 25 and 45, with the average age being around 35. She noted that as the Wiccan community aged, so the proportion of older practitioners would increase. She found roughly equal proportions of men and women, and found that 62% were from Protestant backgrounds, which was consistent with the dominance of Protestantism in Britain at large. Pearson's survey also found that half of British Wiccans featured had a university education and that they tended to work in "healing professions" like medicine or counselling, education, computing, and administration.
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Like other Wiccans, Dianics may form covens, attend festivals, celebrate the eight major Wiccan holidays, and gather on Esbats. They use many of the same altar tools, rituals, and vocabulary as other Wiccans. Dianics may also gather in less formal Circles. The most noticeable difference between the two are that Dianic covens of Budapest lineage are composed entirely of women.
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By the mid-1980s, there were many versions of the Eko Eko chant used by Wiccans, some with alternate spellings for Azarak and Zomelak .
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Berger argued that whilst the beliefs and practices of Wiccans were "in part determined by social factors, such as class, race and gender", at the same time these Wiccans exerted a level of control and self- determination over their lives "both by the very act of becoming a Witch and through the self-conscious use of rituals to create a persona."Berger 1999. p. 8.
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Melissa Harrington, writing about sexuality and Wicca, noted the Goddess and God themselves, along with the Wheel of the Year that venerates them, are a "predominantly heterosexual model". Harrington also specifies how sexual activity is sacramental to Wiccans. Some asexual Wiccans/pagans have issues with this sexual veneration in regards to their personal beliefs. Furthermore, a central part of Wiccan liturgy involves the Great Rite;Farrar, Stewart.
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Due to negative connotations associated with witchcraft, many Wiccans continue the traditional practice of secrecy, concealing their faith for fear of persecution. Revealing oneself as Wiccan to family, friends, or colleagues is often termed "coming out of the broom- closet". Wiccans have also experienced difficulties in administering and receiving prison ministry, although not in the UK of recent times. In 1985, as a result of Dettmer v.
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Donald Lewis-Highcorrell () According to occult author/researcher John Coughlin, the Law posits "a literal reward or punishment tied to one's actions, particularly when it comes to working magic".Coughlin, John J. (2001) The Three-fold Law, on his website; updated edition published in his book Ethics and the Craft - The History, Evolution, and Practice of Wiccan Ethics (Waning Moon, 2015). The law is not a universal article of faith among Wiccans, and "there are many Wiccans, experienced and new alike, who view the Law of Return as an over-elaboration on the Wiccan Rede." Some Wiccans believe that it is a modern innovation based on Christian morality.Spiro, Guy (September 2001).
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The terms wizard and warlock are generally discouraged in the community. In Wicca, denominations are referred to as traditions, while non-Wiccans are often termed cowans.
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People who send their children to boarding schools seem to feel that I'm on their side. I'm not. Practicing Wiccans think I'm also a witch. I'm not.
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Several different variations of the tradition have existed. For instance, Lady Sheba (Jessie Bell) called her tradition "American Celtic Wicca". Gavin Frost and Yvonne Frost of the Church and School of Wicca called their tradition "Celtic Wicca" and followers of this tradition identify as Celtic Wiccans. Additionally, numerous Eclectic Wiccan groups and individuals incorporate what they believe to be Celtic features and self-identify as Celtic Wiccans or Celtic Neopagans.
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There are other non-scientific conceptions, but they are not widely used among Wiccans. To some Wiccans, the five points of the frequently worn pentagram symbolize, among other things, the four elements with spirit presiding at the top. The pentagram is the symbol most commonly associated with Wicca in modern times. It is often circumscribed -- depicted within a circle -- and is usually (though not exclusively) shown with a single point upward.
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Today, Wiccans are able to practice more openly and share their beliefs across multiple platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, etc. Being a religion that reveres nature, it seems most appropriate to practice in nature. Wiccan altars may be set up outside as well as indoors. Some Wiccans dedicate an entire room to their practice while others (especially those who share a living space) use a temporary altar.
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Pearson similarly noted that "popular and media perceptions of Wicca have often been misleading". In the United States, a number of legal decisions have improved and validated the status of Wiccans, especially Dettmer v. Landon in 1986. However, Wiccans have encountered opposition from some politicians and Christian organisations, including former president of the United States George W. Bush, who stated that he did not believe Wicca to be a religion.
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The relationships between the Goddess and the Horned God are mirrored by Wiccans in seasonal rituals. There is some variation between Wiccan groups as to which sabbat corresponds to which part of the cycle. Some Wiccans regard the Horned God as dying at Lammas, August 1; also known as Lughnasadh, which is the first harvest sabbat. Others may see him dying at Mabon, the autumn equinox, or the second harvest festival.
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Eclectic practitioners may follow their own individual ideas and ritual practices, while still drawing on one or more religious or philosophical paths. Eclectic approaches to Wicca often draw on Earth religion and ancient Egyptian, Greek, Saxon, Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, Asian, Jewish, and Polynesian traditions. In contrast to the British Traditional Wiccans, Reclaiming Wiccans, and various eclectic Wiccans, the sociologist Douglas Ezzy argued that there existed a "Popularized Witchcraft" that was "driven primarily by consumerist marketing and is represented by movies, television shows, commercial magazines, and consumer goods". Books and magazines in this vein were targeted largely at young girls and included spells for attracting or repelling boyfriends, money spells, and home protection spells.
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The first of these to be published was in Paul Huson's Mastering Witchcraft (1970), and unusually involved recitation of the Lord's Prayer backwards as a symbol of defiance against the historical Witch Hunt. Subsequent, more overtly pagan self-initiation rituals have since been published in books designed for solitary Wiccans by authors like Doreen Valiente, Scott Cunningham and Silver RavenWolf. Handfasting is another celebration held by Wiccans, and is the commonly used term for their weddings. Some Wiccans observe the practice of a trial marriage for a year and a day, which some traditions hold should be contracted on the Sabbat of Lughnasadh, as this was the traditional time for trial, "Telltown marriages" among the Irish.
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This practice seemingly derives from a line in Aradia, Charles Leland's supposed record of Italian witchcraft. Many Wiccans believe that performing rituals skyclad allows "power" to flow from the body in a manner unimpeded by clothes. Some also note that it removes signs of social rank and differentiation and thus encourages unity among the practitioners. Some Wiccans seek legitimacy for the practice by stating that various ancient societies performed their rituals while nude.
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Lammas or Lughnasadh () is the first of the three Wiccan harvest festivals, the other two being the autumnal equinox (or Mabon) and Samhain. Wiccans mark the holiday by baking a figure of the god in bread and eating it, to symbolise the sanctity and importance of the harvest. Celebrations vary, as not all Pagans are Wiccans. The Irish name LughnasadhStarhawk (1979, 1989) The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess.
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Wiccans use the names "Lughnasadh" or "Lammas" for the first of their autumn harvest festivals. It is one of the eight yearly "Sabbats" of their Wheel of the Year, following Midsummer and preceding Mabon. It is seen as one of the two most auspicious times for handfasting, the other being at Beltane. Some Wiccans mark the holiday by baking a figure of the "corn god" in bread, and then symbolically sacrificing and eating it.
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Pearson suggested that Wiccans "identify with the witch because she is imagined as powerful - she can make people sleep for one hundred years, she can see the future, she can curse and kill as well as heal[…] and of course, she can turn people into frogs!" Identifying as a witch also enables Wiccans to link themselves with those persecuted in the witch trials of the Early Modern period, often referred to by Wiccans as "the Burning Times". Various practitioners have made the historically inaccurate claim that nine million people were executed as witches in the Early Modern period, thus drawing comparisons with the killing of six million Jews in the Holocaust and presenting themselves, as modern witches, as "persecuted minorities".
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For a long time, Wicca was seen as being simply a minor sect, or cult. However, with the rise of solitary practitioners describing themselves as Wiccans, the faith went from becoming simply a mystery cult to becoming a public religion. Groups were formed to represent the Wiccan community, such as the Covenant of the Goddess, which was founded in 1975. Wiccans began to appear on various British television documentaries, including The Heaven & Earth Show and Desperately Seeking Something.
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The cone of power is used in Wicca because it is believed that through work, Wiccans can raise energy from their bodies that can be directed towards their magical goals. This work is most commonly done through singing, dancing, chanting, and/or drumming. This energy is directed upwards towards their gods and their goals being achieved. Wiccans claim that the cone of power has been utilized to end wars, but can function on a smaller level as well.
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Since the late 20th century, Celtic neopagans and Wiccans have observed Beltane, or something based on it, as a religious holiday. Neopagans in the Southern Hemisphere celebrate Beltane on or around 1 November.
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The Rule of Three (also Three-fold Law or Law of Return) is a religious tenet held by some Wiccans, Neo-Pagans and occultists. It states that whatever energy a person puts out into the world, be it positive or negative, will be returned to that person three times. Some subscribe to a variant of this law in which return is not necessarily threefold. The Rule of Three is sometimes described as karma by Wiccans; however, this is not strictly accurate.
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Originating in Britain, Wicca then spread to North America, Australasia, continental Europe, and South Africa. The actual number of Wiccans worldwide is unknown, and it has been noted that it is more difficult to establish the numbers of members of Neopagan faiths than many other religions due to their disorganised structure. However, Adherents.com, an independent website which specialises in collecting estimates of world religions, cites over thirty sources with estimates of numbers of Wiccans (principally from the USA and the UK).
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See for instance Hutton 1999. pp. 142–148 and Magliocco 2002. Wiccans extended claims regarding the witch-cult in various ways, for instance by utilising the British folklore associating witches with prehistoric sites to assert that the witch-cult used to use such locations for religious rites, in doing so legitimising contemporary Wiccan use of them. By the 1990s, many Wiccans had come to recognise the inaccuracy of the witch-cult theory and had accepted it as a mythological origin story.
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Frontier Girls is an independent Scouting style program for girls, open to girls and volunteers of all faiths.Connor, Tracy. (July 28, 2013). Wiccans, earth-lovers, do-gooders: There's a 'scouting' group for your kid.
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Many Wiccans were angered at the word The as it appeared in the title, presupposing that it carried some form of authority within the Wiccan community. Its comments on race and sex also caused controversy.
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Berger 1999. pp. xiv-xv. Three of the Wiccans at the lecture invited Berger to "participate as a researcher" as they founded their own coven, the Circle of Light, and she attended their weekly meetings and festival celebrations for the next two years.Berger 1999. p. xv. At the first open Pagan ritual that she attended, Berger met Andras Corban Arthen, the founder of the EarthSpirit Community (ESC), a Pagan organization open to non-Wiccans which she joined after paying the annual membership fee of $30.
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Aphrodite is a major deity in Wicca, a contemporary nature-based syncretic Neopagan religion. Wiccans regard Aphrodite as one aspect of the Goddess and she is frequently invoked by name during enchantments dealing with love and romance. Wiccans regard Aphrodite as the ruler of human emotions, erotic spirituality, creativity, and art. As one of the twelve Olympians, Aphrodite is a major deity within Hellenismos (Hellenic Polytheistic Reconstructionism), a Neopagan religion which seeks to authentically revive and recreate the religion of ancient Greece in the modern world.
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The use of the inverted pentagram by the Church of Satan has contributed to the misidentification of Wiccans as Satanists. Wicca emerged in predominantly Christian England, and from its inception the religion encountered opposition from certain Christian groups as well as from the popular tabloids like the News of the World. Some Christians still believe that Wicca is a form of Satanism, despite important differences between these two religions. Detractors typically depict Wicca as a form of malevolent Satanism, a characterisation that Wiccans reject.
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Among the number of notable actions and campaigns taken by the group include protests against supposed swingers, LGBT people, abortion clinics, Muslims, Buddhists, Wiccans, Episcopalians, Methodists, Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholics, and a myriad of other groups.
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Faber, Mel D. (1993) Modern Witchcraft and Psychoanalysis. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. p.96. , . In modern traditions, some solitary Wiccans also perform the ritual, usually within a circle and performed under the light of a full Moon.
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She noted that there thus was "a certain homogeneity about the background" of British Wiccans. In the United Kingdom, census figures on religion were first collected in 2001; no detailed statistics were reported outside of the six main religions. For the 2011 census a more detailed breakdown of responses was reported with 56,620 people identifying themselves as Pagans, 11,766 as Wiccans and a further 1,276 describing their religion as "Witchcraft".Office for National Statistics, 11 December 2012, 2011 Census, Key Statistics for Local Authorities in England and Wales.
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Such a view was purported by the High Priestess Vivianne Crowley, herself a psychologist, who considered the Wiccan deities to be Jungian archetypes that existed within the subconscious that could be evoked in ritual. It was for this reason that she said that "The Goddess and God manifest to us in dream and vision." Wiccans often believe that the gods are not perfect and can be argued with. Many Wiccans also adopt a more explicitly polytheistic or animistic world-view of the universe as being replete with spirit-beings.
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Neo-pagans, Wiccans, and earth religion believers do not acknowledge the existence of a deity that conforms to the common Semitic sect religious concept of Satan. Satanism stems from Christianity, while earth religion stems from older religious concepts.
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Among those who practice magic are Wiccans, those who identify as Neopagan Witches, and practitioners of some forms of revivalist Neo-druidism, the rituals of which are at least partially based upon those of ceremonial magic and freemasonry.
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According to Starhawk, "religious discrimination against Pagans and Wiccans and indigenous religions is omnipresent in the U.S." Evidence exists that workplace discrimination is common from verbal ridicule to more systematic forms such as exclusion from work-related activities.
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A Wiccan altar decorated to mark the festival of Beltane (30 April/1 May) Belief in the afterlife varies among Wiccans and does not occupy a central place within the religion. As the historian Ronald Hutton remarked, "the instinctual position of most [Wiccans] ... seems to be that if one makes the most of the present life, in all respects, then the next life is more or less certainly going to benefit from the process, and so one may as well concentrate on the present". Although there are practitioners who do not believe in any form of afterlife, it is nevertheless a common belief among Wiccans that human beings have a spirit or soul that survives bodily death. Understandings of what this soul constitutes vary among different traditions, with Feri Wicca, for instance, having adopted a belief from Hawaiian religion that the human being has three souls.
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Murray's claims have now been widely rejected by respected historians. Nonetheless, her ideas have become the foundation myth for modern Wicca, a contemporary Neopagan religion. Belief in Murray's alleged witch-cult is still prevalent among Wiccans, but is gradually declining.
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Doyle White suggests that the early Wiccans adopted the term wicca as the basis for the name of their burgeoning faith because theirs was a new religious movement that took "iconography and inspiration" from the polytheistic cults of pre- Christian Britain.
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100Heselton, pp. 169–181 While the Mayhew sisters tried to depict occultism without offending anybody by not connecting Franklin or Waite to any known cult, many Wiccans sent angry letters and e-mails to Fox regarding the portrayal of their beliefs.
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Air Force dogtags with "Pagan" marking The Navy and Army do not track numbers for Wiccans and Pagans, but a 2007 Pentagon count showed over 1,500 self-identified Wiccans in the Air Force and 350 in the Marines. Pagan advocates in 2012 estimated the military's total pagan population at 10,000-20,000, noting that some adherents may not list their affiliation on official forms, and that in the past "no preference" or "other" were the only applicable labels available. The Los Angeles times noted in 2011 that only three of the Air Force Academy's 4,300 cadets identified as Pagans.
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Wicca is a neo-pagan religion focused on nature, guided by the philosophy of Wiccan Rede that advocates the tenets "Harm None, Do As Ye Will". Wiccans believe in a form of karmic return where one's deeds are returned, either in the current life or in another life, threefold or multiple times in order to teach one lessons (The Threefold Law). Reincarnation is therefore an accepted part of the Wiccan faith.Encyclopedia of Wicca and Witchcraft, Raven Grimassi Wiccans also believe that death and afterlife are important experiences for the soul to transform and prepare for future lifetimes.
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Although different Wiccans attribute different traits to the Horned God, he is most often associated with animals and the natural world, but also with the afterlife, and he is furthermore often viewed as an ideal role model for men. The Mother Goddess has been associated with life, fertility, and the springtime, and has been described as an ideal role model for women. Wicca's duotheism has been compared to the Taoist system of yin and yang. Other Wiccans have adopted the original Gardnerian God/Goddess duotheistic structure but have adopted deity forms other than that of the Horned God and Mother Goddess.
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Some spell it "magick", a variation coined by the influential occultist Aleister Crowley, though this spelling is more commonly associated with Crowley's religion of Thelema than with Wicca. During ritual practices, which are often staged in a sacred circle, Wiccans cast spells or "workings" intended to bring about real changes in the physical world. Common Wiccan spells include those used for healing, for protection, fertility, or to banish negative influences. Many early Wiccans, such as Alex Sanders, Sybil Leek and Alex Winfield, referred to their own magic as "white magic", which contrasted with "black magic", which they associated with evil and Satanism.
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Meanwhile, Willow is studying with Giles in Westbury, England. She studies magic and meditation with a coven of Wiccans that Giles knows. She is learning control, but feels frightened and distraught because she "killed people". Xander is working construction at Sunnydale High School.
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Handbook of Contemporary Paganism. Brill Publications. Retrieved 2019-03-07. As a group, the cone is formed by the Wiccans standing in a circle, sometimes holding hands, and focusing on a single point above the group and in the centre of the circle.
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The Magician from the Waite-Smith tarot, who is depicted using the same tools that modern Wiccans use. In the neopagan religion of Wicca, a range of magical tools are used in ritual practice.Valiente, Doreen. Witchcraft for Tomorrow (1993) London: Robert Hale.
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In some aspects of paganism, particularly amongst Wiccans, the black moon is considered to be a special time when any rituals, spells, or other workings are considered to be more powerful and effective. Others believe rituals or workings should not be conducted at these times.
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The practice of spodomancy continues to evolve even today. For example, modern Wiccans argue that the fire used by the spodomancer must be a sacred one.Tuitéan and Daniels, Essential Wicca, 2001, p. 425. Some spodomantic rituals require the use of a certain writing surface.
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For Celtic pagans, the festival is dedicated to the goddess Brigid, daughter of The Dagda and one of the Tuatha Dé Danann. Among Reclaiming tradition Witches, this is the traditional time for pledges and rededications for the coming year and for initiation among Dianic Wiccans.
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Still other Wiccans conceive of the Horned God dying on October 31, which Wiccans call Samhain, the ritual of which is focused on death. He is then reborn on Winter Solstice, December 21. Other important dates for the Horned God include Imbolc when, according to Valiente, he leads a wild hunt. In Gardnerian Wicca, the Dryghten prayer recited at the end of every ritual meeting contains the lines referring to the Horned God: According to Sabina Magliocco, Gerald Gardner says (in 1959's The Meaning of Witchcraft) that The Horned God is an Under-god, a mediator between an unknowable supreme deity and the people.
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For example, the Online Oxford English Dictionary (2007 revision) states that the words 'pentacle' and 'pentagram' (a five-point unicursal star) are essentially synonymous. There is a particular definition of 'pentacle' among many latter-day Wiccans: Namely, a 'pentacle' refers to a 'pentagram' circumscribed by a circle.
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Helen Berger, then an assistant professor at Boston University, first became involved in the study of the Pagan movement in October 1986, when she gave a series of public lectures on the subject of the historical witch trials of New England at the Boston Public Library. She devoted the final lecture to the subject of contemporary Pagan Witches, or Wiccans, who were living in the area, taking her information both from the information published in the works of Margot Adler, Starhawk and Marcello Truzzi, and also from a singular interview that she had carried out with a woman who was "peripherally associated" with Paganism. After the lecture, several audience members approached Berger to identify themselves as practicing Wiccans, and it was through them that she came into contact with the New England Pagan community. Three of the Wiccans at the lecture invited Berger to "participate as a researcher" as they founded their own coven, the Circle of Light, and she would go on to attend their weekly meetings and festival celebrations for the next two years.
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Unlike Wiccans, Hellenists are usually strictly polytheistic or pantheistic. Hellenists venerate Aphrodite primarily as the goddess of romantic love, but also as a goddess of sexuality, the sea, and war. Her many epithets include "Sea Born", "Killer of Men", "She upon the Graves", "Fair Sailing", and "Ally in War".
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New York, Harper and Row pp.191-2 (revised edition) is used in some traditions to designate this holiday. Wiccan celebrations of this holiday are neither generally based on Celtic culture nor centered on the Celtic deity Lugh. This name seems to have been a late adoption among Wiccans.
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Leaving the GLF following an internal schism, he became a founding member of the Gay Activist Alliance (GAA) and authored a regular column, "The Gay Witch", for its newspaper. In 1970 he founded the Witches International Craft Associates (WICA) as a networking organization for Wiccans, and under its auspices organized a "Witch In" that took place in Central Park at Halloween 1970, despite opposition from the New York City Parks Department. To campaign for the civil rights of Wiccans, he founded the Witches Anti-Defamation League, which was later renamed the Alternative Religions Education Network. In 1973, he visited England, there being initiated into Gardnerian Wicca by the Gardnerian High Priestess Patricia Crowther.
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However it is important to note that rituals are often improvised to suit individual or group needs and vary from coven to coven.Warwick, Lynda L. "Feminist Wicca: Paths to Empowerment." Women & Therapy 16.2-3 (1995): 121. Some Dianic Wiccans eschew manipulative spellwork and hexing because it goes against the Wiccan Rede.
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Based on her experience among British Traditional Wiccans in the UK, Pearson stated that the length of time between becoming a first-degree initiate and a second was "typically two to five years". Some practitioners nevertheless chose to remain as first-degree initiates rather than proceed to the higher degrees.
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In 1982, Gray met with the California-based Wiccans Dave and Ann Finnin, who were then visiting England to learn more about Cochrane. He gave them a ritual cord in his possession that had once belonged to Cochrane and put them in contact with Cochrane's fellow Clan member, Evan John Jones.
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Lady Gwynne, the New England Covens of Traditionalist Witches website. Retrieved 2008-04-07. The threefold rule is referenced often by the Wiccans of the Clan Mackenzie in the S.M. Stirling Emberverse novels. This rule was described by the Dutch metal band Nemesea, in the song "Threefold Law", from the album Mana.
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Wicca is a duotheistic faith created by Gerald Gardner that allows for polytheism. Wiccans specifically worship the Lord and Lady of the Isles (their names are oathbound). It is an orthopraxic mystery religion that requires initiation to the priesthood in order to consider oneself Wiccan. Wicca emphasizes duality and the cycle of nature.
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Writing in his later biography of Eddie Buczynski, the Pagan independent scholar Michael G. Lloyd noted that Adler's book was a marked departure from earlier books dealing with Pagan Witchcraft which continued to equate it with either historical Early Modern witchcraft or Satanism. In her 1999 study of American Wiccans, A Community of Witches, the sociologist Helen A. Berger noted that Drawing Down the Moon had been influential in getting many Wiccans to accept the non- existence of a historical Witch-Cult from which their religion descended.Berger 1999. pp. 21-22. Along with Starhawk's Dreaming the Dark (1982), Adler's book politicized practices of Paganism and witchcraft by emphasising their radical and feminist aspects, and as a result drew many radical feminists into their orbit.
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Although not accepted by all Wiccans, a belief in reincarnation is the dominant afterlife belief within Wicca, having been originally espoused by Gardner. Understandings of how the cycle of reincarnation operates differ among practitioners; the prominent Wiccan Raymond Buckland for instance insisted that human souls would only incarnate into human bodies, whereas other Wiccans believe that a human soul can incarnate into any life form. There is also a common Wiccan belief that any Witches will come to be reincarnated as future Witches, an idea originally expressed by Gardner. Gardner also articulated the view that the human soul rested for a period between bodily death and its incarnation, with this resting place commonly being referred to as "The Summerland" among the Wiccan community.
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In Wiccan religion, at the initiation (or dedication) ritual, initiates take a Wiccan Name (Craft Name). This name is not used in public, but only among other Wiccans in religious gatherings. Some Wiccan authors use their Wiccan name on their books, such as Silver RavenWolf. For a Wiccan, taking a Wiccan name symbolizes a rebirth.
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For instance, there is the case of the Budapest Dianics. Although these retained many Wiccan rituals and symbols, they only used female imagery and created a creation myth that eliminated the need for the male. While Wiccans also accept male members, the Dianics called themselves a "wimmin's religion" and, thus, rejected males from their ranks.
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Since the 1970s, larger, more informal, often publicly advertised camps and workshops began to take place. This less formal but more accessible form of Wicca proved successful. Eclectic Wicca is the most popular variety of Wicca in America and eclectics now significantly outnumber lineaged Wiccans. Eclectic Wicca is not necessarily the complete abandonment of tradition.
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Celtic Wicca is a modern tradition of Wicca that incorporates some elements of Celtic mythology. It employs the same basic theology, rituals and beliefs as most other forms of Wicca. Celtic Wiccans use the names of Celtic deities, mythological figures, and seasonal festivals within a Wiccan ritual structure and belief system, rather than a traditional or historically Celtic one.
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The cone of power is a method of raising energy in ritual magic, especially in Wicca. The cone of power is visualized as a cone of energy that encompasses the circumference of the circle of Wiccans and tapering off to a point above the group.Puckett, Robert (2008). Re-enchanting the World: a Weberian Analysis of Wiccan Charisma.
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The Wiccan afterlife is most commonly described as The Summerland. Here, souls rest, recuperate from life, and reflect on the experiences they had during their lives. After a period of rest, the souls are reincarnated, and the memory of their previous lives is erased. Many Wiccans see The Summerland as a place to reflect on their life actions.
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A világfa (world tree) erected in Gödöllő, Pest, Budapest metropolis. Neopaganism in Hungary (Hungarian: Újpogányság) is very diverse, with followers of the Hungarian Native Faith and of other religions, including Wiccans, Kemetics, Mithraics, Druids and Christopagans.Kolozsi 2012, p. 57 Szilárdi (2006) describes the movement as a postmodern combination of ethnocentric linguistic, national, religious and occasional political patterns of identity.
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Wiccan prayers can include meditation, rituals and incantations. Wiccans see prayers as a form of communication with the God and Goddess. Such communication may include prayers for esbat and sabbat celebrations, for dinner, for pre-dawn times or for one's own or others' safety, for healing or for the dead.The Wiccan Prayer Book: Daily, Mark Ventimiglia (2006).
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Special feasts were had, holy wells were visited, and it was a time for divination. Although many of its customs died out in the 20th century, it is still observed and in some places it has been revived as a cultural event. Since the latter 20th century, Celtic neopagans and Wiccans have observed Imbolc as a religious holiday.
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Dryghten, an Old English term for The Lord, is the term used by Patricia Crowther to refer to the universal pantheistic deity in Wicca. Gerald Gardner had initially called it, according to the cosmological argument, the Prime Mover, a term borrowed from Aristotle, but he claimed that the witches did not worship it, and considered it unknowable. It was referred to by Scott Cunningham by the term used in Neo-Platonism, "The One"; Many Wiccans whose practice involves study of the Kabbalah also regard the Gods and Goddesses they worship as being aspects or expressions of the ineffable supreme One. Some feminist Wiccans such as Starhawk use the term Star Goddess to describe the universal pantheistic deity that created the cosmos, and regard Her as a knowable Deity that can and should be worshipped.
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Many Wiccans also seek to cultivate a set of eight virtues mentioned in Doreen Valiente's Charge of the Goddess, these being mirth, reverence, honour, humility, strength, beauty, power, and compassion. In Valiente's poem, they are ordered in pairs of complementary opposites, reflecting a dualism that is common throughout Wiccan philosophy. Some lineaged Wiccans also observe a set of Wiccan Laws, commonly called the Craft Laws or Ardanes, 30 of which exist in the Gardnerian tradition and 161 of which are in the Alexandrian tradition. Valiente, one of Gardner's original High Priestesses, argued that the first thirty of these rules were most likely invented by Gerald Gardner himself in mock-archaic language as the by-product of inner conflict within his Bricket Wood coven – the others were later additions made by Alex Sanders during the 1960s.
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According to Gerald Gardner, who popularised Wicca in the twentieth century, the religion is a survival of a European witch-cult that was persecuted during the witch trials (sometimes called the Burning Times), and the strong element of secrecy that traditionally surrounds the religion was adopted as a reaction to that persecution. Since then, Margaret Murray's theory of an organised pan-European witch-cult has been discredited, and doubts raised about the age of Wicca; many Wiccans no longer claim this historical lineage. However, it is still common for Wiccans to feel solidarity with the victims of the witch trials and, being witches, to consider the witch-craze to have been a persecution against their faith. There has been confusion that Wicca is a form of Satanism, despite important differences between these religions.
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The second phrase is nearly impossible to follow. This shift occurred when trying to better adapt the phrase into modern English as well as to stress the "harmlessness" of Wiccans. The true nature of the rede simply implies that there is personal responsibility for your actions. You may do as you wish but there is a karma reaction from every action.
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The chalice, or goblet, is symbolic for the element of Water. Many Wiccans do not consider it to be a tool, but instead to be a symbol of the Goddess, particularly her womb. The chalice bears many similarities with the Holy Grail, except for its symbolism used in witchcraft. Rather than being the blood of Christ, it is symbolic of the Goddess' womb.
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Druids' ritual at Stonehenge. handfasting ceremony at Avebury in England. The Neo-pagan movement in the United Kingdom is primarily represented by Wicca and Witchcraft religions, Druidry, and Heathenry. According to the 2011 UK Census, there are roughly 53,172 people who identify as Pagan in England, and 3,448 in Wales, as well as 11,026 Wiccans in England and 740 in Wales.
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Elsewhere in Europe, the riddling of the ashes to learn of births and deaths was observed on Halloween or New Year's Eve.Zell-Ravenheart and Zell- Ravenheart, Creating Circles and Ceremonies: Rituals for All Seasons and Reasons, 2006, p. 241. Modern Wiccans advocate practicing spodomancy on Lammas or Lughnasadh (August 1).Franklin and Mason, Lammas: Celebrating Fruits of the First Harvest, 2001, p. 105.
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In response, Hutton authored The Triumph of the Moon, a historical study exploring Wicca's early development; on publication in 1999 the book exerted a strong impact on the British Pagan community, further eroding belief in the Murrayite theory among Wiccans. Conversely, other practitioners clung on to the theory, treating it as an important article of faith and rejecting post- Murrayite scholarship on European witchcraft. Several prominent practitioners continued to insist that Wicca was a religion with origins stretching back to the Palaeolithic, but others rejected the validity of historical scholarship and emphasised intuition and emotion as the arbiter of truth. A few "counter- revisionist" Wiccans – among them Donald H. Frew, Jani Farrell-Roberts, and Ben Whitmore – published critiques in which they attacked post-Murrayite scholarship on matters of detail, but none defended Murray's original hypothesis completely.
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According to Wiccan beliefs, poppets have been used to place curses on members of a community, for religious, or traditional purposes. Some of the earliest effigies were used by African, Native American and European cultures. The European poppet has its roots in early Germanic and Scandinavian tribes who used them for ceremonial purposes. Modern day Wiccans have adapted this practice for their own uses.
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It seems likely that Gardner told his three subsequent initiatory lines that the book should be copied word for word, and Wiccans descended from Eleanor Bone, Patricia Crowther and Monique Wilson have widely believed that the book was of ancient provenance. North American Gardnerians of the Long Island line allow covens to add rituals and teachings to the book, but nothing may be removed.
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The widespread adoption of Wicca in reference to Pagan Witchcraft would have brought benefits to its practitioners, who were widely maligned and faced persecution for their practice of witchcraft; an emotive term often associated with Satanism that had negative connotations in the Western imagination. Doyle White argued that the practitioners' presentation of themselves as Wiccans rather than witches removed some of the social stigma that they faced.
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This included initiated members that used rituals involving magical tools and secret books (Book of Shadows). These tools were predominately kept within a specific coven because they were so sacred. These were owned, and used by individual Wiccans, but could also be used collectively by the coven. However, there has been a tremendous shift in the way that the Wiccan religion is practiced today.
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Ellen Evert Hopman and Lawrence Bond (2001). Being a pagan: Druids, wiccans, and witches today. pp. 21–25. He was the eldest of six children, with four sisters and one brother. Kondratiev grew up in both New York City and Bourgogne, France, as he traveled back and forth between the home of his parents in New York City and his grandparent's home in the Saone Valley.
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A pentagram (sometimes known as a pentalpha, pentangle or star pentagon) is the shape of a five-pointed star polygon. Pentagrams were used symbolically in ancient Greece and Babylonia, and are used today as a symbol of faith by many Wiccans, akin to the use of the cross by Christians. The pentagram has magical associations. Many people who practice Neopagan faiths wear jewelry incorporating the symbol.
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There are many types of altars Wiccans may choose to use during ritual. Depending the rite they are performing, the material used for their altars may vary. Some say wood from an oak tree is best while others argue maple or teak are the only ones allowed. This is because in many circles, different types of wood are believed to carry certain magical qualities.
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Paganism is an umbrella term for a diversity of earth-centred spiritual traditions. pentacle is used by many Pagans, especially Wiccans, as a symbol of faith. The five points of the star inside the sacred circle of life represent the five elements of life: spirit above manifesting as earth, water, air and fire below. The eight-armed sun cross represents the Pagan Wheel of the Year.
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Wiccans believe that The Horned God, as Lord of Death, is their "comforter and consoler" after death and before reincarnation; and that he rules the Underworld or Summerland where the souls of the dead reside as they await rebirth. Some, such as Joanne Pearson, believe that this is based on the Mesopotamian myth of Inanna's descent into the underworld, though this has not been confirmed.
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The King's Men In 1959, the Bricket Wood coven of Gardnerian Wiccans met for a ritual at the King's Men, at which they hoped to reunite with the a group led by Doreen Valiente who had splintered from them several years before. Pagan studies scholar Ethan Doyle White suggested that this site was chosen because it was neutral ground not owned by either coven and because it had folkloric associations with the supernatural. Doyle White argued that the megalith's folkloric associations with witchcraft were a key reason why Wiccans chose to adopt the site as a place for ritual; he highlighted that Valiente had discussed these folk tales in her books Where Witchcraft Lives (1962) and An ABC of Witchcraft (1973). In 1975, the English ceremonial magician William G. Gray published a book entitled The Rollright Ritual which described his personal experiences with the site.
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The depiction of Lilith in Romanticism continues to be popular among Wiccans and in other modern Occultism. A few magical orders dedicated to the undercurrent of Lilith, featuring initiations specifically related to the arcana of the "first mother", exist. Two organisations that use initiations and magic associated with Lilith are the Ordo Antichristianus Illuminati and the Order of Phosphorus. Lilith appears as a succubus in Aleister Crowley's De Arte Magica.
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Movements such as the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and Earth Liberation Army (ELA) also take this form of action, although focusing on economic sabotage, rather than civil disobedience.SUV Armageddon Approaching? , Car Keys, 29 August 2003. Radical environmentalists can include earth liberationists as well as Eco-nationalism, anarcho-primitivists, animal liberationists, bioregionalists, green anarchists, deep ecologists, ecopsychologists and less often, ecofeminists, neo-Pagans, Wiccans, Third Positionists, anti-globalisation and anti-capitalist protesters.
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The battle begins, and the Slayers quickly make a move by sending a torpedo, salvaged from the submarine, into the midst of the enemy tanks, destroying many of them. Buffy realizes, however, that they have no chance of winning the battle without supernatural help. Oz appears from the battlefield carrying Bay, who has been injured. Buffy urgently asks Bay what happened to the magical powers that the Slayers and Wiccans surrendered.
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Wiccans and Neo-Druids celebrate Imbolc as one of the eight Sabbats in their Wheel of the Year, following Midwinter and preceding Ostara. In Wicca, Imbolc is commonly associated with the goddess Brigid and as such it is sometimes seen as a "women's holiday" with specific rites only for female members of a coven.Gallagher, Ann-Marie (2005). The Wicca Bible: The Definitive Guide to Magic and the Craft.
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According to feminist pagan Starhawk "religious discrimination against Pagans and Wiccans and indigenous religions is omnipresent in the U.S."Washington Post: Discrimination Against Pagans Controversies mostly surround religious rights in US prisons and the US military. Prison inmates' right to practice minority religions was asserted in 2004 by the Supreme Court in Cutter v. Wilkinson. Some neopagan groups, particularly Germanic ones, have themselves been accused of racial discrimination. See Nordic racial paganism.
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There are a few ways Wiccans are taught to increase the effectiveness of the cone of power ritual. The overall success of the magic is first dependent on the intention or goal of the people performing it. The best way to increase the overall effectiveness of the ritual is to work magic in a group. While you can perform this ritual by yourself, doing it in a group is seen to be more effective.
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He observed that in the country, Slavic Native Faith's adherents were "still relatively young", and saw an overlap with the community of historical re- enactors. In Poland, Slavic Native Faith outnumbers other Pagan religions, although both are represented in the Pagan Federation International's Polish branch. Anna-Marie Dostálová stated that the entire Pagan community in the Czech Republic—which includes Heathens, Wiccans, and Druids as well as Slavic Rodnovers—was of a "small size".
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Theological views within Wicca are diverse. The religion encompasses theists, atheists, and agnostics, with some viewing the religion's deities as entities with a literal existence and others viewing them as Jungian archetypes or symbols. Even among theistic Wiccans, there are divergent beliefs, and Wicca includes pantheists, monotheists, duotheists, and polytheists. Common to these divergent perspectives, however, is that Wicca's deities are viewed as forms of ancient, pre-Christian divinities by its practitioners.
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Wiccans use the name Beltane or Beltain for their May Day celebrations. It is one of the yearly Sabbats of the Wheel of the Year, following Ostara and preceding Midsummer. Unlike Celtic Reconstructionism, Wicca is syncretic and melds practices from many different cultures. In general, the Wiccan Beltane is more akin to the Germanic/English May Day festival, both in its significance (focusing on fertility) and its rituals (such as maypole dancing).
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Wexler examines how a smaller portion of the United States population identifies as Christian than in the past, and how the growing non-Christian religions are using the law to assert themselves and create a more diverse public square. Wexler travels the country to obtain first hand accounts of the religious disputes of the Summum in Salt Lake City, Wiccans in Wisconsin, Atheists in Greece, New York, and Muslims in North Carolina.
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Martello thought it unimportant that many Wiccans had lied about the origins of their beliefs, being quoted by Pagan journalist Margot Adler in her book Drawing Down the Moon as having stated > Let's assume that many people lied about their lineage. Let's further assume > that there are no covens on the current scene that have any historical > basis. The fact remains: they do exist now. And they can claim a spiritual > lineage going back thousands of years.
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Both resorts were closed in 1929, Christmas used his leftover land for building bungalows. During the 1930s the area became popular with naturists after Charles Macaskie set up the naturist camp Spielplatz on the outskirts of the village. Naturists bought up plots of land on the edge of the village and built their own communities, which at first didn't have electricity or running water. The village also began to attract Wiccans after Gerald Gardner set up Bricket Wood coven.
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Some Wiccans may use red, green, blue, yellow and white or purple candles to represent the elements. Using candles in magic based on Wiccan beliefs is known as "sympathetic magick" in that it is believed the candle represents the outcome the person is wanting. It is a "like attracts like" form of magical practice. For example, if a person is looking for a job or needs extra income a green candle (the color of American dollars) would be used.
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Ethan Doyle White argued that at the Rollright Stones, the tale of the countless stones exerted an influence on practitioners of the contemporary Pagan religion of Wicca in the mid-20th century. He highlighted that Wiccans such as Doreen Valiente were aware of the folklore of the site, and that it influenced them in choosing the prehistoric monument as a sacred site for their own magico-religious practices, which were taking place there by the late 1950s.
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In The Southern Vampire Mysteries canon, a witch practices magic rituals, drawing from a power most people never tap into that can be focused for various effects through the use of rituals and spells. A Wiccan, on the other hand, practices a pagan religion that follows the ways of the Mother. Practitioners can be both Wiccan and a witch, or more one or the other. Witches and Wiccans first appear in the fourth book, Dead to the World.
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Liddell claimed that Pickingill reformed the established English witch-cult by introducing new concepts from French and Danish witchcraft and from Classical sources, and that in doing so, Pickingill created the structure from which Gardnerian Wicca emerged in the 1950s. Prominent Wiccans Doreen Valiente and Lois Bourne have expressed criticism of his claims, which have also been rejected as spurious by such historians and scholars of religion as Maple, Hutton, Owen Davies, and Aidan A. Kelly.
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This particular interview by Inni Baruch first appeared in PagaNet News(PNN), in the Imbolg 2001 Victor Anderson issue (Volume VIII, Issue I). It was later reprinted in the Winter 2001 issue of Connections Journal, a magazine published by Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans (CUUPS) According to Raven Grimassi, some Wiccans believe that the chant is an invocation of the forces of the four elements.Raven Grimassi, "Eko Eko Azarak", in Encyclopedia of Wicca and Witchcraft (Llewellyn, 2001; ).
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Indeed, many U.S. covens are far smaller, though the membership may be augmented by unaffiliated Wiccans at "open" rituals. Pearson noted that covens typically contained between five and ten initiates. They generally avoid mass recruitment due to the feasibility of finding spaces large enough to bring together greater numbers for rituals and because larger numbers inhibit the sense of intimacy and trust that covens utilise. Some covens are short-lived but others have survived for many years.
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From this, they developed a median estimate of 800,000 members. As of 2016, Doyle White suggested that there were "hundreds of thousands of practising Wiccans around the globe". In 1998, the Wiccan high priestess and academic psychologist Vivianne Crowley suggested that Wicca had been less successful in propagating in countries whose populations were primarily Roman Catholic. She suggested that this might be because Wicca's emphasis on a female divinity was more novel to people raised in Protestant-dominant backgrounds.
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On April 23, 2007, the VA added the pentacle to the list of emblems allowed in national cemeteries and on VA-issued headstones, markers, and plaques. The group organizes and sponsors an annual festival called "Merry Meet", held in conjunction with the annual business meeting. Representatives from all the member Covens congregate and decide on relevant issues affecting the organization, and Wiccans in general. The business meeting is called the "Grand Council", and is run in a consensus format.
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Wiccan celebrations encompass both the cycles of the Moon, known as Esbats and commonly associated with the Goddess (female deity), and the cycles of the Sun, seasonally based festivals known as Sabbats and commonly associated with the Horned God (male deity). An unattributed statement known as the Wiccan Rede is a popular expression of Wiccan morality, although it is not universally accepted by Wiccans. Wicca often involves the ritual practice of magic, though it is not always necessary.
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In The Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft and Wicca, Rosemary Ellen Guiley described it as the "world's largest collection of paraphernalia and artifacts related to folk magic, witchcraft, Wicca and ritual magic". The museum functions as an information resource centre for media and the public. An independent organisation, the Friends of the Museum of Witchcraft, operates to raise funds through which to purchase further items for the collection. It also acts as a meeting place for Wiccans and other Pagans.
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Helen Berger, then a lecturer in sociology at the West Chester University of Pennsylvania, had initially become involved in the study of the Pagan movement in preparation for a series of public lectures that she gave at the Boston Public Library in October 1986. Based on the subject of the historical witch trials that took place in New England during the early modern period, she devoted the final lecture in the series to an examination of the contemporary Pagan Witches, or Wiccans, then living in the area. Having yet to perform the sociological investigation that would culminate in A Community of Witches, Berger gained her information for this lecture from the information published in the works of Margot Adler, Starhawk and Marcello Truzzi, and also from a singular interview that she had carried out with a woman who was "peripherally associated" with Paganism. After the lecture, several audience members approached Berger to identify themselves as practicing Wiccans, and it was through them that she came into contact with the New England Pagan community.
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At the first open Pagan ritual that she attended, Berger met Andras Corban Arthen, the founder of the EarthSpirit Community (ESC), a Pagan organization open to non-Wiccans which she joined after paying the annual membership fee of $30. Attending many of the ESC's open rituals and festivals, she was introduced to a "diverse group" of Wiccans and other Pagans, developing up a contact base in the community. Berger and Arthen subsequently embarked on a project entitled "The Pagan Census" in an attempt to gain sociological data from the Pagan community across the US. Receiving funding from the Faculty Development Fund at West Chester University, Berger was aided in this project by over 15 students who helped her to code and enter data for the survey. Together, Berger and Arthen wrote and distributed their survey through Wiccan and Pagan organizations across the country, as well as in journals, on the internet and at festivals, with the duo receiving over 2,000 responses, providing Berger with one of her main sources of information.
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Various analogies have been devised to explain the concept of the five elements; for instance, the Wiccan Ann-Marie Gallagher used that of a tree, which is composed of earth (with the soil and plant matter), water (sap and moisture), fire (through photosynthesis) and air (the creation of oxygen from carbon dioxide), all of which are believed to be united through spirit. Traditionally in the Gardnerian Craft, each element has been associated with a cardinal point of the compass; air with east, fire with south, water with west, earth with north, and the spirit with centre. However, some Wiccans, such as Frederic Lamond, have claimed that the set cardinal points are only those applicable to the geography of southern England, where Wicca evolved, and that Wiccans should determine which directions best suit each element in their region. For instance, those living on the east coast of North America should invoke water in the east and not the west because the colossal body of water, the Atlantic ocean, is to their east.
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Although the idea of earth religion has been around for thousands of years, it did not fully show up in popular culture until the early 1990s. The X-Files was one of the first nationally broadcast television programs to air witchcraft and Wicca (types of earth religion) content. On average, Wiccans - those who practice Wicca - were more or less pleased with the way the show had portrayed their ideals and beliefs. However, they still found it to be a little "sensationalistic".
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Celtic Wicca is a modern tradition of Wicca that incorporates some elements of Celtic mythology.Raeburn, Jane, Celtic Wicca: Ancient Wisdom for the 21st Century (2001), Hutton, Ronald (2001) The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. It employs the same basic theology, rituals and beliefs as most other forms of Wicca. Celtic Wiccans use the names of Celtic deities, mythological figures, and seasonal festivals within a Wiccan ritual structure and belief system, rather than a historically Celtic one.
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In 1919, the Yoga teacher Blanche DeVries opened a Yoga Gymnosophy Institute in New York that combined Oriental Dance and Yoga. The English Gymnosophical Society was founded in 1922 and became The New Gymnosophy Society in 1926. One of the first members was Gerald Gardner, who in 1945 established the 'Five Acres Club', ostensibly as a nudist club, but as a front for Wiccans, as this was illegal in England until 1951. The Societe Internationale de Gymnosophie was founded in 1926 in France.
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There sometimes exists two Books of Shadows kept by more traditional Wiccans, one being a coven book of core rituals and practises which remains unchanged and from which new initiates copy, and the second, intended for personal use, which differs from witch to witch and contains magical material collected by the initiate, such as astrology, herbal lore, and information regarding divination.Sanders, Maxine. "A Talk by Maxine Sanders" part 1, Witchcraft and Wicca Issue 3, p. 4. London: Children of Artemis.
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The Gardnerian Wiccan Melissa Seims suggested that the iconography of the Ooser was an influence on the design of the Head of Atho, a statue of the Wiccan Horned God created by Raymond Howard in mid-20th century England. Wiccans in the Minnesota area of the United States make use of a head with stag antlers that they term the Minnesota Ooser. Representing the religion's Horned God, it is kept on an altar and brought out for use in Sabbat rituals.
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The first English naturists adopted the name Gymnosophy as a thinly disguised euphemism for their pastime. The English Gymnosophical Society was formed in 1922 and became the New Gymnosophy Society in 1926; they purchased land at 'Bricketts Wood' to become Britain's first nudist colony. One of the first members was Gerald Gardner, who in 1945 established the 'Five Acres Club' nearby, ostensibly as a nudist club, but as a front for Wiccans, as witchcraft was illegal in England until 1951.
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On the basis of her experience, Pearson concurred that this was broadly true. Wicca has been described as a non-proselytizing religion. In 1998, Pearson noted that there were very few individuals who had grown up as Wiccans although increasing numbers of Wiccan adults were themselves, parents, . Many Wiccan parents did not refer to their children as also being Wiccan, believing it important that the latter are allowed to make their own choices about their religious identity when they are old enough.
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Due to negative connotations associated with witchcraft, many Wiccans continue the traditional practice of secrecy, concealing their faith for fear of persecution. Revealing oneself as a Wiccan to family, friends or colleagues is often termed "coming out of the broom-closet". Attitudes to Christianity vary within the Wiccan movement, stretching from outright rejection to a willingness to work alongside Christians in interfaith endeavours. The religious studies scholar Graham Harvey noted that "the popular and prevalent media image [of Wicca] is mostly inaccurate".
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Different sects of Wiccans read "none" differently. "None" can apply to only the self, or it may include animals and/or plants, and so forth. In essence, the Rede can be fully understood as meaning that one should always follow their true will instead of trying to obtain simple wants and to ensure that following one's will does not harm anyone or anything. In this light, the Rede can be seen as encouraging a Wiccan to take personal responsibility for their actions.
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Whilst these were heavily criticised by many Wiccans (Margot Adler called The Craft "the worst movie ever made!"), they did encourage many teenagers and young adults to investigate more about the religion. Most covens and Neopagan groups refused to allow under 18s into their ranks, and so many teenagers turned to books to find out more. In turn, several books were published to cater for them, including Silver RavenWolf's Teen Witch: Wicca for a New Generation and Scott Cunningham's Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner.
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Margot Adler (pictured in 2004) published an early sociological study of Paganism in the United States. In 1979, the American sociologist, journalist and Wiccan Margot Adler published Drawing Down the Moon, a sociological study of the Pagan movement across the United States, covering Wiccans, Druids, Goddess Worshipers, Heathens and Radical Faeries. In 1999, the American sociologist Helen A. Berger of West Chester University published A Community of Witches, a sociological study of the Wiccan and Pagan movement in the north-eastern United States.Berger 1999.
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" In her appraisal of the series, The Mystery of Harry Potter: A Catholic Family Guide, author Nancy Carpentier Brown writes: Kept at: OSV.com > After burying the remains of Mad-Eye Moody, Harry "marked the spot by > gouging a small cross in the bark with his wand." Now, if they were true > Wiccans, wouldn’t he have gouged a pentagram? When Harry finally has the > chance to face Voldemort (Tom Riddle) and possibly kill him, Harry pauses > and offers Voldemort a chance, saying, "Show some remorse.
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The Covenant of the Goddess is one of the oldest and largest cross-traditional groups among Wiccans and neopagans. In the early 1990s, they created the Over the Moon and the Hart and Crescent programs for youth and the Distinguished Youth Service Award for adults. The Covenant of the Goddess approached the BSA for recognition of these programs. The BSA declined and later adopted the policy requiring that a religious group must first charter at least 25 BSA units before its religious awards program may be recognized.
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Pagan's Night Out, or PNO, is a regularly scheduled social get-together, usually monthly, held in hundreds of Pagan and Neopagan communities around the world. It began in Houston, Texas in 1992 as a way for users of the Brewers' Witch BBS to meet face to face, Pagan's Night Out has become a worldwide phenomena. Held in bars, pubs, coffee shops, cafes, restaurants and meeting halls, PNO is a social event for Wiccans, Asatruar, Thelemites, Druids, Setians and the hundreds of other Neopagan sects and sub-divisions.
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35) In support of his theory, Kelly explains that "the paper trail stops in 1946. We have no serious historical evidence for the existence of any Gardnerian coven before then." (p. 32) Academic writers on religion have tended to treat Kelly's conclusions as factual and unbiased, but not surprisingly, Inventing Witchcraft and the earlier edition of Kelly's work, Crafting the Art of Magic, became a source of controversy among Wiccans, especially in Gardnerian Wicca covens, who trace the origin of their traditions to Gerald Gardner.
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MacGregor Mathers, S. Liddell (ed.) The Key of Solomon (Clavicula Salomonis) Revised by Peterson, Joseph H. (1999, 2004, 2005). The proper use of the tool was started by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, in the early 20th century, for the use of banishing rituals. The tool was later adopted by Wiccans, Thelemites and Satanists. The athame is also mentioned in the writings of Gerald Gardner in the 1950s, who claimed to have been initiated into a surviving tradition of Witchcraft, the New Forest Coven.
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The lunar Triple Goddess symbol Some, but not all, participants in the Goddess movement self-identify as witches, Wiccans or Wiccens. Other participants of the Goddess movement call themselves goddessians Goddessians while others identify as the more generic "pagans". Some witches, especially Dianics, attempt to trace the historical origins of their beliefs to Neolithic pre-Christian cultures, seeing Wiccanism as a distillation of a religion found at the beginning of most, if not all, cultures. They regard wise women and midwives as the first witches.
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In the Charmed comics, specifically Issue #3, Innocents Lost, Paige develops a new power in the form of a reinforced force field made up of orbs. Paige displays the ability to encase others inside of her force fields, without being within them herself, when she uses her new power to contain the explosion caused by the resurrected Source's destruction in the tenth issue of the comic series, Three Little Wiccans. In this same issue, Paige also uses her force field power offensively to push back demons.
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Herman was tolerant of quite a lot, but would rein in adult activities if he expected youth to be present. His come all approach overwhelmed him in his Manhattan location, and with Eddie seldom around, Herman was preyed upon. He never requested money for the lectures or use of his ritual room, and sometimes complained that the Wiccans were there a lot but spent very little money, though the satanists had cash. Even so, he provided a platform for alternative religions as long as he could.
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The Clan includes several other Duns that were built as the population expanded, as well as the walled city of Sutterdown, which is based on the town of Brownsville. Clan Mackenzie's weapon of choice is the longbow, but in hand-to-hand fighting they use the gladius and buckler. The Clan practices religious freedom, but there are few non- Wiccans in the population, mostly due to mass conversions after the Change. The heraldic symbol of the clan is a crescent moon above silver elk horns on green.
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There is no consistent rule or view on Halloween amongst those who describe themselves as Neopagans or Wiccans. Some Neopagans do not observe Halloween, but instead observe Samhain on 1 November, some neopagans do enjoy Halloween festivities, stating that one can observe both "the solemnity of Samhain in addition to the fun of Halloween". Some neopagans are opposed to the celebration of Hallowe'en, stating that it "trivializes Samhain",Should Pagans Celebrate Halloween? (Wicasta Lovelace), Pagan Centric and "avoid Halloween, because of the interruptions from trick or treaters".
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In the 1990s and 2000s, Wicca began to become ingrained in popular culture. Aspects of Wicca were incorporated into the New Age movement, and many Wiccans took on New Age beliefs and practices. Wicca was also taken up by popular entertainment; in 1996, the American film The Craft was released about four witches who are corrupted by their power. The same year the television series Sabrina the Teenage Witch appeared, which was followed the following year by Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and in 1998 by the series Charmed and the film Practical Magic.
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In the present, Dawn, Xander and the forest creatures prepare to battle against the demons that invaded the castle. As the fight starts, they are outnumbered until Xander's team of slayers appear with a group of Wiccans, who use magic to make the creatures corporeal, and easier to kill. Meanwhile, Twilight watches as Warren and Amy argue over the failed attack on the castle as Twilight turns to a new ally: Riley. Riley reveals that Buffy secretly met up with him in New York and requested that he act as her inside man against Twilight.
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Charge of the Star Goddess --StarhawkCharge of the Star Goddess --"Book of the Goddess" (Co-edited by Julie Ann Rhoads and Ann Forfreedom in 1979-80): Contrary to the popular notion that the term "Star Goddess" comes from the Charge of the Goddess, a text sacred to many Wiccans, it actually originates from the Anderson Feri Tradition of (non-Wiccan) Witchcraft- of which Starhawk was an initiate. Within the Feri tradition the "Star Goddess" is the androgynous point of all creation - from which all things (including the dual God and Goddess) emanate.
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According to current Gardnerian Wiccans, the exact names of the Goddess and God of traditional Wicca remain an initiatory secret, and they are not given in Gardner's books about witchcraft.Philip Heselton, Wiccan Roots However, the collection of Toronto Papers of Gardner's writings has been investigated by American scholars such as Aidan Kelly, leading to the suggestion that their names are Cernunnos and Aradia. These are the names used in the prototype Book of Shadows known as Ye Bok of Ye Arte Magical.Hutton, R. The Triumph of the Moon.
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The chalybeate spring in St. Ann's Well Gardens might have been known for many years. The City Parks web site notes that the chalybeate spring in St. Ann's Well Gardens is the endpoint of a ley line.Ley line hunting in the British Islands is a popular pastime among New Age enthusiasts, mystics, pagans, wiccans and others of that ilk. St. Ann's Well Gardens was part of the Wick Estate in the Middle Ages, which was a strip of land that extended inland to the edge of Preston manor.
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"Rednecks and Broomsticks" is the seventh episode in the twenty-first season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 29, 2009. In the episode, Lisa befriends three teenaged Wiccans after getting lost in the woods during a game of hide-and-seek, and must clear her new friends' names when they are accused of cursing the townspeople with their supposed witchcraft. Meanwhile, Homer befriends Cletus after learning that he and his friends make their own moonshine.
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Gardnerian Wiccans organise into covens, that traditionally, though not always, are limited to thirteen members. Covens are led by a High Priestess and the High Priest of her choice, and celebrate both a Goddess and a God. Gardnerian Wicca and other forms of British Traditional Wicca operate as an initiatory mystery cult; membership is gained only through initiation by a Wiccan High Priestess or High Priest. Any valid line of initiatory descent can be traced all the way back to Gerald Gardner, and through him back to the New Forest coven.
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Madeline Montalban (born Madeline Sylvia Royals; 8 January 1910 – 11 January 1982) was an English astrologer and ceremonial magician. She co-founded the esoteric organisation known as the Order of the Morning Star (OMS), through which she propagated her own form of Luciferianism. Born in Blackpool, Lancashire, Montalban moved to London in the early 1930s, immersing herself in the city's esoteric subculture, and influenced by Hermeticism she taught herself ceremonial magic. She associated with significant occultists, including Thelemites like Aleister Crowley and Kenneth Grant, and Wiccans like Gerald Gardner and Alex Sanders.
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The rede clearly states to do no harm but what constitutes as harm and what level of self-interest is acceptable is negotiable. Many Wiccans reverse the phrase into "Do what ye will an it harm none," meaning "Do what you want if it doesn't harm anyone." The difference may not seem significant but it is. The first implies that it is good to do no harm but does not say that it is necessarily unethical to do so, the second implies that all forms of harm are unethical.
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Elie Sheva, according to her own testimony an "elected leader of AmHA" reportedly founded an American branch of the group, known as the Primitive Hebrew Assembly.Interview with Elie in Being a Pagan: Druids, Wiccans, and Witches Today, by Ellen Evert Hopman and Lawrence Bond (2001), p. 105. Beit Asherah ("House of Asherah") was one of the first Jewish neopagan groups, founded in the early 1990s by Stephanie Fox, Steven Posch, and Magenta Griffiths. Magenta Griffiths is High Priestess of the Beit Asherah coven, and a former board member of the Covenant of the Goddess.
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Wiccan traditions hold a wide range of differing beliefs about sexual orientation and gender identity. However, Wicca is regarded by many practitioners as a fertility religion. Starhawk wrote in her 1982 book Dreaming the Dark, "Sexuality was a sacrament in the Old Religion; it was (and is) viewed as a powerful force through which the healing, fructifying love of the immanent Goddess was directly known, and could be drawn down to nourish the world, _to quicken fertility_ in human beings and in nature". Most Wiccans worship the Goddess and God.
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Islam is the most common of these, now accounting for around 5% of the population in England. Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism are next in number, adding up to 2.8% combined, introduced from India and South East Asia. A small minority of the population practise ancient Pagan religions. Neopaganism in the United Kingdom is primarily represented by Wicca and Witchcraft religions, Druidry, and Heathenry. According to the 2011 UK Census, there are roughly 53,172 people who identify as Pagan in England, and 3,448 in Wales, including 11,026 Wiccans in England and 740 in Wales.
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Much like Isis, she is held to be the summation of all other goddesses, who represent her different names and aspects across the different cultures. The Goddess is often portrayed with strong lunar symbolism, drawing on various deities such as Diana, Hecate and Isis, and is often depicted as the Maiden, Mother and Crone triad popularized by Robert Graves (see Triple Goddess below). Many depictions of her also draw strongly on Celtic goddesses. Some Wiccans believe there are many goddesses, and in some forms of Wicca, notably Dianic Wicca, the Goddess alone is worshipped.
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This is referred to as "breaking the circle". It is generally advised that practitioners do not leave the circle unless absolutely necessary. In order to leave a circle and keep it intact, Wiccans believe a door must be cut in the energy of the circle, normally on the East side. Whatever was used to cast the circle is used to cut the doorway, such as a sword, staff or knife (athame), a doorway is "cut" in the circle, at which point anything may pass through without harming the circle.
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This causes Captain Marvel and Human Torch to retaliate against the plans to annihilate Earth causing Captain Glory, Mur-G'nn, and Super-Skrull to defend him as Mur-G'nn teleports them away. Captain Marvel and Human Torch end up in an apartment which turns out to be Wiccans. At Avengers Mountain, Tony Stark is working on another Iron Man armor as Mister Fantastic informs him about the Pyre which they plan to use on the Sun. In Wakanda, Black Panther is leading his allies and the Wakandan army in fighting the Cotati.
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The Rede is similar to a consequentialist formulation of the Golden Rule, a belief that is found in nearly every religion. Not all traditional Wiccans follow the Rede; some Gardnerians (a sect under Wicca) espouse the Charge of the Goddess as a guide for morality. Its line "Keep pure your highest ideal, strive ever towards it; let naught stop you or turn you aside, for mine is the secret door which opens upon the door of youth" is used as a maxim for ethical dilemmas.Valiente, Doreen. c.1953.
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Wicca has been characterised as a life-affirming religion. Practitioners typically present themselves as "a positive force against the powers of destruction which threaten the world". There exists no dogmatic moral or ethical code followed universally by Wiccans of all traditions, however a majority follow a code known as the Wiccan Rede, which states "an it harm none, do what ye will". This is usually interpreted as a declaration of the freedom to act, along with the necessity of taking responsibility for what follows from one's actions and minimising harm to oneself and others.
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One of Wicca's best known liturgical texts is "The Charge of the Goddess". The most commonly used version used by Wiccans today is the rescension of Doreen Valiente, who developed it from Gardner's version. Gardner's wording of the original "Charge" added extracts from Aleister Crowley's work, including The Book of the Law, (especially from Ch 1, spoken by Nuit, the Star Goddess) thus linking modern Wicca irrevocably to the principles of Thelema. Valiente rewrote Gardner's version in verse, keeping the material derived from Aradia, but removing the material from Crowley.
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Neopagans honoring the dead as part of a Samhain ritual Samhain () is considered by Wiccans to be one of the four Greater Sabbats. Samhain is considered by some as a time to celebrate the lives of those who have passed on, and it often involves paying respect to ancestors, family members, elders of the faith, friends, pets, and other loved ones who have died. Aligned with the contemporary observance of Halloween and Day of the Dead. In some rituals the spirits of the departed are invited to attend the festivities.
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It first operated in Missouri, then in North Carolina, and is now centred in West Virginia. The Frosts stepped down as active leaders of the Church in 1980, but continued to be active as clergy and as heads of the School of Wicca. The Church itself as well as several of their publications have repeatedly been criticised for their rituals which many perceive as inappropriate conduct towards children, resulting in numerous public outcries by initiated Wiccans emphasising that apart from using the name, the Frosts' rituals have little in common with Wiccan rituals and lore.
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She solves this problem by killing her 'dealer' from earlier in the season and draining him of his magic. When she is confronted by Buffy they begin to fight, only to be stopped by Giles who has borrowed magic from a coven of wiccans. Willow successfully drains him of this borrowed magic, fulfilling his plan and causing her to feel all the pain of everyone in the world. She tries to ease the pain by destroying the world, finally stopped by Xander’s passionate confession of platonic familial love for her.
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Lady Rhea, who is openly lesbian,supported the Minoan Brotherhood with Lord Gwyddion (aka Edmund Buczynski), and later co-founded the Minoan Sisterhood with Lady Miw. On the Magickal Realms website, Rhea states that she is "of the Gardnerian and Welsh Tradition but considers herself and all of her children as Edwardians from her High Priest and teacher Edmund Buczynski (Lord Gwyddion)." Her children—that is, Wiccans who have studied under her and been initiated into the craft—include Lexa Roséan. In 2004, Lady Rhea published her book The Enchanted Candle, based on the hand-carved, embellished candles she has made for years.
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They worship a stricter interpretation of Satan: that of the Satan featured in the Christian Bible.Archived Cathedral of the Black Goat 'Views' Page This is not, however, shared by a majority of theistic Satanists. Wiccans may consider most Satanism to be reverse Christianity, and the head of the atheistic Church of Satan, Peter H. Gilmore, considers "devil worship" to be a Christian heresy, that is, a divergent form of Christianity. The diversity of individual beliefs within theistic Satanism, while being a cause for intense debates within the religion, is also often seen as a reflection of Satan, who encourages individualism.
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Most Wiccans believe a poppet is a symbolic representation of a person, and spells and other actions are performed on the poppet to transfer whatever might be affecting the targeted individual out of their body in something like a healing ritual. The Kongolese nkisi statuettes, and the bocio figurines used in Vodun traditions of Benin and Togo, are traditional effigy-like dolls of West and Central Africa believed by their practitioners to be "spirit embodying" forces that can also "heal or protect". Voodoo dolls are fairly modern novelty items. Their concept is thought to be based on European poppet dolls.
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In November 1972, Martello lectured at the first Friends of the Craft conference, held at New York's First Unitarian Church. In April 1973, he moved to England for six months, where he was initiated and trained in the three degrees of Gardnerian Wicca by the Sheffield coven run by Patricia Crowther and her husband Arnold Crowther. He continued to encourage acceptance of homosexuality within the Pagan and Witchcraft community, authoring an article titled "The Gay Pagan" for Green Egg magazine. He expressed the view that homophobic Wiccans were "sexually insecure" and that they viewed the religion simply as "a ritual means of fornication".
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For some Wiccans, this idea also involves elements of animism, and plants, rivers, rocks (and, importantly, ritual tools) are seen as spiritual beings, facets of a single life. A key belief in Wicca is that the gods are able to manifest in personal form, either through dreams, as physical manifestations, or through the bodies of Priestesses and Priests. The latter kind of manifestation is the purpose of the ritual of Drawing down the Moon (or Drawing down the Sun), whereby the Goddess is called to descend into the body of the Priestess (or the God into the Priest) to effect divine possession.
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The inverse pentagram, with two points up, is associated with the Horned God (the two upper points being his horns), and is a symbol of the second degree initiation rite of traditional Wicca. The inverted pentagram is also used by Satanists; and for this reason, some Wiccans have alternatively been known to associate the inverted pentagram with evil.Crowley, Vivianne Wicca: The Old Religion in the New World. In geometry, the pentagram is an elegant expression of the golden ratio phi which is popularly connected with ideal beauty and was considered by the Pythagoreans to express truths about the hidden nature of existence.
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In some Neopagan religions, a "Celtic calendar" loosely based on that of Medieval Ireland is observed for purposes of ritual. Adherents of Reconstructionist traditions may celebrate the four Gaelic festivals of Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane and Lughnasadh. Some eclectic Neopagans, such as Wiccans, combine the Gaelic fire festivals with solstices and equinox celebrations derived from non-Celtic cultures to produce the Wiccan modern Wheel of the Year. Some eclectic Neopagans are also influenced by Robert Graves' "Celtic Tree Calendar", which has no foundation in historical calendars or actual ancient Celtic Astrology, instead being derived from Graves' vision of The Song of Amergin.
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The pentagram within a circle, a symbol of faith used by many Wiccans, sometimes called a pentacle. Wiccan morality is largely expressed in the Wiccan Rede: 'An' it harm none, do what ye will' - old-fashioned language for 'as long as you aren't harming anyone, do as you wish'. While this could be interpreted to mean "do no harm at all," it is usually interpreted as a declaration of the freedom to act, along with the necessity of thinking through and taking responsibility for the consequences of one's actions.Harrow, Judy (1985) "Exegesis on the Rede" in Harvest vol.
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303 Opinions differ on whether the form taken by the return of harmful actions might include bad reputation, revenge by others, negative emotional states, an uneasy conscience, poor luck, malign magical influences, something resembling the Hindu concept of karma, or some combination of some or all of these, and also on to what extent the number three should be interpreted poetically rather than literally. Many Wiccans also seek to cultivate a set of eight virtues mentioned in Doreen Valiente's Charge of the Goddess,Farrar, Janet & Stewart, Eight Sabbats for Witches. these being mirth, reverence, honour, humility, strength, beauty, power and compassion.
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Official VA gravestone of a Wiccan servicemember Wiccans and Pagans in the United States military have, since the close of the 20th century, experienced a gradual increase in official recognition. The Wiccan pentacle is now an approved emblem for gravestones under the Veterans Administration, achieved in 2007 following legal action regarding the grave of Wiccan soldier Patrick Stewart. In 2011, the United States Air Force Academy dedicated an $80,000 "outdoor worship center" for "Earth-based religions" such as Paganism and traditional Native American religions. As of 2015, there is no provision for official recognition of Wiccan or Pagan chaplains.
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The two oldest sects of Wicca- Gardnerian Wicca and Alexandrian Wicca, include "the wiccan laws" that Gerald Gardner wrote. Those laws state that wiccan souls are privileged with reincarnation, but that the souls of wiccans who break the wiccan laws, "even under torture", would be cursed by the goddess, never be reborn on earth, and "remain where they belong, in the Hell of the Christians."Gerald Gardner, The Gardnerian Book of ShadowsAlex Sanders, The Alexandrian Book of Shadows Later wiccan sects do not necessarily include Gerald Gardner's wiccan laws. The influential wiccan author Raymond Buckland wrote that the wiccan laws are unimportant.
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Janet Farrar (born Janet Owen on 24 June 1950) is a British teacher and author of books on Wicca and Neopaganism. Along with her two husbands, Stewart Farrar and Gavin Bone, she has published "some of the most influential books on modern Witchcraft to date". According to George Knowles, "some seventy five percent of Wiccans both in the Republic and Northern Ireland can trace their roots back to the Farrars." Farrar has been one of the most public faces of Wicca, having appeared as a model for book covers and illustrations in several of the best-read books on the subject.
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Buffy and her companions begin preparations for the imminent military assault by Twilight's forces. Xander and Dawn give the Slayers a crash course in the use of firearms, grenades, mines, and radar. Willow is distraught, no longer able to hide her despair over having sacrificed her powers, and at the fact that she is apparently destined to become evil in the future and be killed by Buffy. Buffy herself declines to use a gun, and tells Giles that she has an idea... to create special visual effects that may deceive Twilight's forces into thinking the Slayers and Wiccans still have their powers.
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Pendderwen contributed to the development of what came to be known as the Feri tradition, with some members of the lineage viewing him as its co-founder. Pendderwen noted that he had first met the family when, aged thirteen, he got into a fight with Victor Elon, although the two later became friends. Pendderwen was particularly influenced by Welsh mythology, and on a visit to Britain he spent time with the Alexandrian Wiccans Alex Sanders and Stewart Farrar, subsequently introducing various Alexandrian elements into Feri Wicca. In the early 1970s, the Andersons established a new coven with Pendderwen and his initiate, Alison Harlow.
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The Murrayite witch-cult theory also provided the basis for the ideas espoused in Witchcraft and the Gay Counterculture, a 1978 book written by the American gay liberation activist Arthur Evans. Members of the Wiccan community gradually became aware of academia's rejection of the witch-cult theory. Accordingly, belief in its literal truth declined during the 1980s and 1990s, with many Wiccans instead coming to view it as a myth that conveyed metaphorical or symbolic truths. Others insisted that the historical origins of the religion did not matter and that instead Wicca was legitimated by the spiritual experiences it gave to its participants.
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Lineaged Wicca is organised into covens of initiated priests and priestesses. Covens are autonomous and are generally headed by a High Priest and a High Priestess working in partnership, being a couple who have each been through their first, second, and third degrees of initiation. Occasionally the leaders of a coven are only second-degree initiates, in which case they come under the rule of the parent coven. Initiation and training of new priesthood is most often performed within a coven environment, but this is not a necessity, and a few initiated Wiccans are unaffiliated with any coven.
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Using the word "Witchcraft" in this context can result in confusion both with other, non- religious forms of witchcraft as well as other religions—such as Satanism and Luciferianism—whose practitioners also sometimes describe themselves as "Witches". Another term sometimes used as a synonym for "Wicca" is "Pagan Witchcraft", although there are also other forms of modern Paganism—such as types of Heathenry—which also practice magic and thus could be described as "Pagan Witchcraft". From the 1990s onward, various Wiccans began describing themselves as "Traditional Witches", although this term was also employed by practitioners of other magico-religious traditions like Luciferianism.
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Differing sects of modern Paganism also vary regarding the precise timing of each celebration, based on distinctions such as lunar phase and geographic hemisphere. Observing the cycle of the seasons has been important to many people, both ancient and modern. Contemporary Pagan festivals that rely on the Wheel are based to varying degrees on folk traditions, regardless of actual historical pagan practices. Among Wiccans, each festival is also referred to as a sabbat (), based on Gerald Gardner's claim that the term was passed down from the Middle Ages, when the terminology for Jewish Shabbat was commingled with that of other heretical celebrations.
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Pendderwen contributed to the development of what came to be known as the Feri tradition, with some members of the lineage viewing him as its co-founder. Pendderwen noted that he had first met the family when, aged thirteen, he got into a fight with Victor Elon, although the two later became friends. Pendderwen was particularly influenced by Welsh mythology, and on a visit to Britain he spent time with the Alexandrian Wiccans Alex Sanders and Stewart Farrar, subsequently introducing various Alexandrian elements into Feri Wicca. In the early 1970s, the Andersons established a new coven with Pendderwen and his initiate, Alison Harlow.
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Doreen Valiente writes that the Horned God also carries the souls of the dead to the underworld. Wiccans generally, as well as some other neopagans, tend to conceive of the universe as polarized into gender opposites of male and female energies. In traditional Wicca, the Horned God and the Goddess are seen as equal and opposite in gender polarity. However, in some of the newer traditions of Wicca, and especially those influenced by feminist ideology, there is more emphasis on the Goddess, and consequently the symbolism of the Horned God is less developed than that of the Goddess.
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Margaret Murray's theory of the historical origins of the Horned God has been used by Wiccans to create a myth of historical origins for their religion. There is no verifiable evidence to support claims that the religion originates earlier than the mid-20th century. Modern scholarship has disproved Margaret Murray's theory, however various horned gods and mother goddesses were indeed worshipped in the British Isles during the ancient and early Medieval periods. The "father of Wicca", Gerald Gardner, who adopted Margaret Murray's thesis, claimed Wicca was a modern survival of an ancient pan-European pagan religion.
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Retrieved 2007-02-26. It is also worth noting that "Rede" means advice, as such it is not so much a law that must be followed as advice that it is recommended one follows - not following it would be considered folly more than rule-breaking, though for a group that calls itself "Wise" it follows that such folly would be strongly avoided. A common belief amongst Wiccans is that no magic, even of a beneficent nature, should be performed on any other person without that person's direct informed consent. This stems from the understanding that it would interfere with that person's free will and thus constitute "harm".
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For this reason, Gardnerian Wicca is usually considered to be the earliest created tradition of Wicca, from which most subsequent Wiccan traditions are derived. From the supposed New Forest coven, Gardner formed his own Bricket Wood coven, and in turn initiated many Witches, including a series of High Priestesses, founding further covens and continuing the initiation of more Wiccans into the tradition. In the UK, Europe and most Commonwealth countries someone self- defined as Wiccan is usually understood to be claiming initiatory descent from Gardner, either through Gardnerian Wicca, or through a derived branch such as Alexandrian Wicca or Algard Wicca. Elsewhere, these original lineaged traditions are termed "British Traditional Wicca".
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Followers of earth religion have suffered major opprobrium over the years for allegedly being Satanists. Some religious adherents can be prone to viewing religions other than their religion as being wrong sometimes because they perceive those religions as characteristic of their concept of Satan worship. To wit, Witchcraft, a common practice of Wiccans, is sometimes misinterpreted as Satan worship by members of these groups, as well as less-informed persons who may not be specifically religious but who may reside within the sphere-of-influence of pagan-critical religious adherents. From the Wiccan perspective, however, earth religion and Wicca lie outside of the phenomenological world that encompasses Satanism.
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Valiente offers another explanation for the negative reaction of some neopagans; that the identification of Lucifer as the God of the witches in Aradia was "too strong meat" for Wiccans who were used to the gentler, romantic paganism of Gerald Gardner and were especially quick to reject any relationship between witchcraft and Satanism.Valiente, Doreen, quoted in Clifton, p. 61. Clifton writes that Aradia was especially influential for leaders of the Wiccan religious movement in the 1950s and 1960s, but that the book no longer appears on the "reading lists" given by members to newcomers, nor is it extensively cited in more recent Neopagan books.Clifton, pp. 71–72.
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In particular, the informant championed Liddell's claims that Crowley had been an initiate of one of Pickingill's covens. By the time of her 1989 book The Rebirth of Witchcraft, Valiente was more sceptical of Liddell's claims, noting that any supporting evidence was "still sadly lacking". Lois Bourne (pictured in 2010) is one of the prominent Wiccans to have criticised Liddell's claims. Another of Gardner's High Priestesses, Lois Bourne, asserted that she was "as sure as I can be" that Gardner had nothing to do with any witches from Canewdon and that if they existed in the first place, then they must have belonged to a tradition distinct from Gardnerian Wicca.
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The library on the ground floor (one of only a few rooms completed within the house) was used as the guest bedroom in which Jonathan Harker (Rafe Spall) was murdered and Abraham Van Helsing (David Suchet) attacked by Dracula. Woodchester Park, including the mansion, was the setting for much of the action in the 2012 novel Caballito by Robin Baker. Under the fictional name of Inchfield Park the valley is occupied by a commune made up of Animists and Wiccans and becomes the scene of a suspected murder. The mansion is shown (with some temporary adjustments) as Gordonstoun in the second series of The Crown.
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These four magical tools correspond to four "weapons" of significance in Celtic myth—the sword, the spear, the shield, and the cauldron (and/or grail). The same four ritual tools also appear in the magical practices of the western hermetic tradition, derived from The Golden Dawn, who pioneered the modern occult tradition and new age spirituality; and they appear in tarot decks as the four card suits: swords, cups, wands, and pentacles. The athame is an elemental tool, while the sword is often a tool representing power, used to keep Spirits in check during goetic Evocation. Wiccans sometimes use the sword as a substitute for the athame.
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Diana (or Artemis, by her Greek name) as a protector of women and wild nature Dianic Wiccans of the Budapest lineage worship the Goddess, who they see as containing all goddesses, from all cultures; she is seen as the source of all living things and containing all that is within her. Dianic covens practice magic in the form of mediation and visualization in addition to spell work. They focus especially on healing themselves from the wounds of the patriarchy while affirming their own womanhood. Rituals can include reenacting religious and spiritual lore from a female-centered standpoint, celebrating the female body, and mourning society's abuses of women.
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In the late 1950s, Howard lived with his first wife in Ricketts Wood Cottages in Charlwood, Surrey. This was located near to Dumbledene, the country house of Charles Cardell, a stage conjuror and psychologist for whom Howard worked as a handyman. Cardell and 'Mary Cardell' — a woman whom he erroneously claimed was his sister — ran a company called Dumblecott Magick Productions through which they sold magical potions and related paraphernalia. They were known to prominent British Wiccans like Gerald Gardner and Doreen Valiente, and they had placed an advertisement in the esoteric magazine Light encouraging fellow practitioners of the "Craft of the Wiccens" to contact them.
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In 1978 she offered a book of poetry to Hale, although they declined to publish it, believing that there would not be sufficient market for such a publication. In 1982 she then submitted a book of short stories, The Witch Ball, to Hale, but again they declined to publish it. In 1978, Valiente struck up a friendship with the Alexandrian Wiccans Stewart Farrar and Janet Farrar, who were then living in Ireland. With the Farrars, she agreed to publish the original contents of the Gardnerian Book of Shadows, in order to combat the garbled variants that had been released by Cardell and Lady Sheba.
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In some covens a "dedication" ceremony may be performed during this period, some time before the initiation proper, allowing the person to attend certain rituals on a probationary basis. Some solitary Wiccans also choose to study for a year and a day before their self-dedication to the religion. Various high priestesses and high priests have reported being "put on a pedestal" by new initiates, only to have those students later "kick away" the pedestal as they develop their own knowledge and experience of Wicca. Within a coven, different members may be respected for having particular knowledge of specific areas, such as the Qabalah, astrology, or the Tarot.
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The historian Wouter Hanegraaff noted that the Wiccan view of witchcraft was "an outgrowth of Romantic (semi)scholarship". He noted that Gardner, like previous writers, viewed the witch as a "positive antitype which derives much of its symbolic force from its implicit criticism of dominant Judaeo-Christian and Enlightenment values". Hanegraaff noted that Wiccans dismissed various elements traditionally associated with witchcraft—namely infanticide, cannibalism, Satanism, and sexual orgies—by claiming that these were either misunderstandings or fictions invented by the Early Modern witch hunters. Pearson noted that Wicca "provides a framework in which the image of oneself as a witch can be explored and brought into a modern context".
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The sequence of high priestess and queens traced back to Gerald Gardner is known as a lineage, and every orthodox Gardnerian High Priestess has a set of "lineage papers" proving the authenticity of her status. Handfasting ceremony at Avebury in England, Beltane 2005 This three- tier degree system following initiation is largely unique to BTW, and traditions heavily based upon it. The Cochranian tradition, which is not BTW, but based upon the teachings of Robert Cochrane, does not have the three degrees of initiation, merely having the stages of novice and initiate. Some solitary Wiccans also perform self-initiation rituals, to dedicate themselves to becoming a Wiccan.
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In February 1964 Sybil Leek announced the formation of the Witchcraft Research Association, with herself as its first president. The historian Ronald Hutton suggested that its creation had been influenced by two recent events: the death of prominent Wiccan Gerald Gardner and a lecture tour by the historian Russell Hope Robbins in which Robbins had publicly criticised the Witch-cult hypothesis promoted by Margaret Murray. Leek's reputation was however damaged by press hostility and a strained relationship with other Wiccans, resulting in her resignation as President of the WRA in July and her emigration to the United States. The Presidency was taken up by Doreen Valiente.
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Banerjee, Neela, "Religion and Its Role Are in Dispute at the Service Academies", New York Times, 25 June 2008 In 2010 the academy set up an outdoor worship area for cadets following Wicca, Neo-Druidism, or other earth- based religions to practice their faiths.Associated Press, "Colorado: Academy Accommodates Wiccans", New York Times, 2 February 2010.Correll, DeeDee, "Cross Found At Air Force Pagan Center", Los Angeles Times, 3 February 2010, p. 8. A survey conducted that same year found that 41 percent of academy cadets who identified themselves as non-Christian reported they were subjected to unwanted religious proselytizing at least once or twice last year at the school.
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Blue Star remains a predominantly initiatory coven- based tradition in the model of the Gardnerian or Alexandrian traditions, but a number of "solitary" practitioners exist, typically with a form of long- distance relationship with an established group. There is no self-initiation in Blue Star. Blue Star practitioners are known primarily for their emphasis on community service as a means to celebrate the gods and protect the interests of the contemporary Pagan community. Other hallmarks include the use of music in their ritual and liturgy (arguably unusual amongst traditional Wiccans), the importance placed upon a ritual feast, the use of a septegram as a symbol rather than a pentagram, and initiatory tattooing.
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Martello defended the growing rise of feminists in Wicca during the 1970s, criticizing what he deemed to be the continual repression of women within the Pagan movement. He also espoused the view that any Pagan who was involved in the U.S. government or military was a hypocrite. He was critical of Wiccans who espoused a division between white magic and black magic, commenting that it had racial overtones and that many of those advocating such a view were racist. Although aware that historians had criticized the witch-cult hypothesis of Margaret Murray, Martello stood by her claims, believing that the cult had been passed through oral tradition and thus evaded appearing in the textual sources studied by historians.
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In the second chapter, "The Magical Self", Berger examines the ways in which Wiccans in the U.S. understand themselves, looking at sociological ideas about self-identity and utilising them in her analysis of Wiccan rituals that deal with the transformation of the self. She moves on to look at concepts of gender in the Wiccan community, both for men and women and among homosexuals.Berger 1999. pp. 26-46. The third chapter, entitled "The Coven: Perfect Love, Perfect Trust", provides an explanation of the coven system within Wicca, and the ways in which friendships are built and collapse amongst coven members, and the extent to which covens imitate family structures.Berger 1999. pp. 47-64.
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Some Heathens celebrate the eight festivals found in the Wheel of the Year, a tradition that they share with Wiccans and other contemporary Pagan groups. Others celebrate only six of these festivals, as represented by a six-spoked Wheel of the Year. The use of such festivals is criticized by other practitioners, who highlight that this system is of modern, mid-20th century origin and does not link with the original religious celebrations of the pre-Christian Germanic world. Heathen festivals can be held on the same day each year, however are often celebrated by Heathen communities on the nearest available weekend, so that those practitioners who work during the week can attend.
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It assumes that those who are not in Christ are on good terms with > God—a lie, according to the Bible. Lamer warned Christians that they should "Get ready for Mormons, Muslims, New Age shamans, and, with the rise of Wicca, even Wiccans leading congressmen in prayer on the floor of the House." He therefore called for a reconsideration in evangelical policy regarding their support of legislative chaplains: > We could recognize that under the new covenant, civil government doesn't > have authority over spiritual matters, and that legislatures shouldn't have > chaplains. (For centuries some evangelicals, such as Baptists, made this > argument.) We also could recognize that civil religion, by affirming > unbelievers in their unbelief, hinders the spread of the gospel.
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174–187 or as a symbol of one of the specific Celtic triple goddesses, for example the battle goddess, The Morrígan. The symbol is also sometimes used by Wiccans and some New Agers to symbolise the Triple Goddess, or as a protective symbol.. The symbol is used as the logo for the 1998–2006 TV series Charmed and its 2018 reboot series. In the TV series The Walking Dead (2010), Michonne's katana features a triquetra, chosen for its meaning as a "triple goddess symbol". In the German Netflix series Dark (2017), it symbolizes the caves closed time loops with each loop being 33 years apart, with the past affecting the future and the future influencing the past.
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The Summerland is the name given by Theosophists, Spiritualists, Wiccans, and some earth-based contemporary pagan religions to their conceptualization of existence on a plane in an afterlife. Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) inspired Andrew Jackson Davis (1826–1910), in his major work The Great Harmonia to say that Summerland is the pinnacle of spiritual achievement in the afterlife; that is, it is the highest level, or sphere, of the afterlife we can hope to enter. The common portrayal of the Summerland is as a place of rest for souls after or between their earthly incarnations. Some believe spirits will stay in the Summerland for an eternal afterlife, though others believe after an amount of time some spirits will reincarnate.
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In the United Kingdom, census figures do not allow an accurate breakdown of traditions within the Pagan heading, as a campaign by the Pagan Federation before the 2001 Census encouraged Wiccans, Heathens, Druids and others all to use the same write-in term 'Pagan' in order to maximise the numbers reported. For the first time, respondents were able to write in an affiliation not covered by the checklist of common religions, and a total of 42,262 people from England, Scotland and Wales declared themselves to be Pagans by this method. These figures were not immediately analysed by the Office for National Statistics, but were released after an application by the Pagan Federation of Scotland.
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Mabon-Fall Equinox 2015 Altar by the Salt Lake Pagan Society of Salt Lake City, UT. Displayed are seasonal decorations, altar tools, elemental candles, flowers, deity statues, cookies and juice offerings, and a nude Gods painting of Thor, the Green Man, and Cernunnos dancing around a Mabon Fire. Wicca is the largest form of modern Paganism, as well as the best-known and most extensively studied. Religious studies scholar Graham Harvey noted that the poem "Charge of the Goddess" remains central to the liturgy of most Wiccan groups. Originally written by Wiccan High Priestess Doreen Valiente in the mid-1950s, the poem allows Wiccans to gain wisdom and experience deity in "the ordinary things in life".
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Modern Hellen ritual in Greece The 2001 UK Census figures did not allow an accurate breakdown of traditions within the Pagan heading, as a campaign by the Pagan Federation before the census encouraged Wiccans, Heathens, Druids and others all to use the same write-in term 'Pagan' in order to maximise the numbers reported. The 2011 census however made it possible to describe oneself as Pagan-Wiccan, Pagan-Druid and so on. The figures for England and Wales showed 80,153 describing themselves as Pagan (or some subgroup thereof.) The largest subgroup was Wicca, with 11,766 adherents.Office for National Statistics, 11 December 2012, 2011 Census, Key Statistics for Local Authorities in England and Wales. Accessed 12 December 2012.
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Valiente involved herself in a regional branch of the National Front (National Front demonstration pictured) Living in Brighton, Valiente took up employment in a branch of the Boots pharmacist. In 1971 she appeared on the BBC documentary, Power of the Witch, which was devoted to Wicca and also featured the prominent Wiccan Alex Sanders. That same year, she was involved in the founding of the Pagan Front, a British pressure group that campaigned for the religious rights of Wiccans and other Pagans. In November 1970 she developed a full moon inauguration ritual for local branches of the Front to use and on May Day 1971 she chaired its first national meeting, held at Chiswick, West London.
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With this mindset, a Wiccan may regard the Germanic Ēostre, Hindu Kali, and Catholic Virgin Mary each as manifestations of one supreme Goddess and likewise, the Celtic Cernunnos, the ancient Greek Dionysus and the Judeo-Christian Yahweh as aspects of a single, archetypal god. A more strictly polytheistic approach holds the various goddesses and gods to be separate and distinct entities in their own right. The Wiccan writers Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone have postulated that Wicca is becoming more polytheistic as it matures, tending to embrace a more traditionally pagan worldview. Some Wiccans conceive of deities not as literal personalities but as metaphorical archetypes or thoughtforms, thereby technically allowing them to be atheists.
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Pam suggests Alcide's werewolf pack, her area vampires and some local Wiccans unite to fight off the witch coven. They do so and with Sookie's assistance, brutally attack the witches' main gathering place, wiping out everyone present but Hallow, whom Pam captures and forces to lift Eric's amnesia. Sookie returns home dismayed at the loss of her relationship with the memory-free Eric, and finally retrieves Jason with Sam's help in Hotshot, a local were-panther community. In Hotshot, Felton Norris, romantically interested in Jason's one-time fling Crystal, also a werepanther, had contained Jason and purposefully bit him to change him into a werepanther, so that Crystal would lose her interest in Jason.
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The author is more critical of Charmed's use of the book compared to real-world wiccans but adds, as Buckland did, that it is still a fantasy show. While not specifically mentioning the Charmed Book of Shadows by name, The Craft: A Witch’s Book of Shadows, by Dorothy Morrison, appears to have been highly influenced by the series and features the same triquetra symbol on its cover as does the Halliwells' Book of Shadows. Criticism has also been garnered for Charmeds Book of Shadows. Author Peg Aoli, a noted Wiccan and media critic at The Witches Voice, has been critical of mixing real world Wiccan ritual items, such as athames and the Book of Shadows, with Charmed’s "Hollywood" witchcraft.
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4 "Revival and diversification texts", pp. 170 – 185, "Paul Huson: Preliminary Preparations" In 1971 Lady Sheba (Jessie Wicker Bell, 1920–2002), the Kentucky-born self-styled "Queen of the American Witches", published what she claimed was her family's centuries-old grimoire, but which in fact contained material substantially plagiarised from the Gardnerian Book of Shadows, and also included poetry by Doreen Valiente that was, and is, still under copyright. Doreen Valiente also published information on the subject of pagan Witchcraft, such as the 1973 book An ABC of Witchcraft, which contained a self-initiation ritual for solitary practitioners. Following this, other Wiccans decided that it would be better to simply reveal the Wiccan mysteries to the public in their true form.
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Trying to find her way back, she encounters three girls who are Wiccans, practicing their full moon Esbat. Lisa is initially skeptical of their ability to cast spells, but becomes interested after she happens to mention in the witches' Circle that she wishes she did not have to hand in her unfinished art project, and her wish comes true when Miss Hoover is taken ill with a stomach virus. The girls ask Lisa to join their coven and she accepts, but on the night of Lisa's induction, Chief Wiggum turns up after being tipped off by Ned Flanders and arrests the three girls on suspicion of witchcraft. Outside the courtroom, the girls say a chant, asking their goddess to 'show their persecutors that they are blind'.
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Some Wiccans believe there are many goddesses, and in some forms of Wicca, notably Dianic Wicca, the Goddess alone is worshipped, and the God plays very little part in their worship and ritual. Goddesses or demi-goddesses appear in sets of three in a number of ancient European pagan mythologies; these include the Greek Erinyes (Furies) and Moirai (Fates); the Norse Norns; Brighid and her two sisters, also called Brighid, from Irish or Celtic mythology. Robert Graves popularised the triad of "Maiden" (or "Virgin"), "Mother" and "Crone", and while this idea did not rest on sound scholarship, his poetic inspiration has gained a tenacious hold. Considerable variation in the precise conceptions of these figures exists, as typically occurs in Neopaganism and indeed in pagan religions in general.
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An academic anthology edited by Dave Evans and Dave Green was later published in its honour, entitled Ten Years of Triumph of the Moon (2009). The book received a mixed reception from the Pagan community itself. Many welcomed it, praising it as an authoritative account of Wiccan history, but others were more critical, arguing that Hutton had prematurely rejected the idea that Wicca was the continuation of an ancient, pre-Christian tradition. Several Wiccans taking the latter view openly published their criticisms, with the Wiccan Jani Farrell-Roberts taking part in a published debate with Hutton in the British Pagan magazine The Cauldron (2003), whilst the New Zealander Ben Whitmore published a short book casting a critical eye on Hutton's work, entitled Trials of the Moon (2010).
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Later, in British Columbia, the coven incorporated many of the rituals of Starhawk as published in The Spiral Dance.The Spiral Dance, 1979 In 1993, Gary Botting, who by then had become established as a criminal lawyer in Victoria, BC, represented Starhawk and dozens of other Wiccans charged with criminal contempt of court following the Clayoquot protests against logging in the Clayoquot Sound on Vancouver Island. Subsequently, the Bottings, Favarger, and Favarger's partner and high priest Erik Lindblad successfully campaigned the Province of British Columbia to recognize Wiccan weddings.Douglas Todd, "University of Victoria chaplain marks solstice with pagan rituals," Vancouver Sun, 16 December 2010 By 1995 Coven Celeste had become one of the mainstay covens of Temple of the Lady in Victoria, BC.
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Neopagan Hellenist altar dedicated to Athena and Apollo One of Sigmund Freud's most treasured possessions was a small, bronze sculpture of Athena, which sat on his desk. Freud once described Athena as "a woman who is unapproachable and repels all sexual desires - since she displays the terrifying genitals of the Mother." Feminist views on Athena are sharply divided; some feminists regard her as a symbol of female empowerment, while others regard her as "the ultimate patriarchal sell out... who uses her powers to promote and advance men rather than others of her sex." In contemporary Wicca, Athena is venerated as an aspect of the Goddess and some Wiccans believe that she may bestow the "Owl Gift" ("the ability to write and communicate clearly") upon her worshippers.
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In the early 1960s, he established his own correspondence course, the Coven of Atho, through which he provided instruction on his own variant of Wicca, which drew upon that of Cardell and other sources. By the latter part of that decade he was running an antiques shop in Field Dalling, Norfolk, where he stored a wooden carving of the Wiccan Horned God, known as the "Head of Atho". He attracted press attention for the Head, informing both journalists and other Wiccans that it had been passed down to him by pre-existing Witches, although his son later revealed it to be a forgery created by Howard himself. In April 1967 the head was stolen, perhaps by Cardell, and never recovered.
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Murray was very interested in ascribing naturalistic or religious ceremonial explanations to some of the more fantastic descriptions found in witch trial testimony. For example, many of the confessions included the idea that Satan was personally present at coven meetings. Murray interpreted this as a witch priest wearing horns and animal skins, and a pair of forked boots to represent his authority or rank; most mainstream folklorists, on the other hand, have argued that the entire scenario was always fictitious and does not require a naturalistic explanation, but Gardner enthusiastically adopted many of Murray's explanations into his own tradition. The witch-cult theory represented "the historical narrative around which Wicca built itself", with the early Wiccans claiming to be the survivors of this ancient pagan religion.
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For this reason, they are sometimes referred to as the "Great Goddess" and the "Great Horned God", with the adjective "great" connoting a deity that contains many other deities within their own nature. Some Wiccans refer to the goddess deity as the "Lady" and the god deity as the "Lord"; in this context, when "lord" and "lady" are used as adjectives, it is another way of referring to them as a divine figure. These two deities are sometimes viewed as facets of a greater pantheistic divinity, which is regarded as an impersonal force or process rather than a personal deity. While duotheism or bitheism is traditional in Wicca, broader Wiccan beliefs range from polytheism to pantheism or monism, even to Goddess monotheism.
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Other traditions wear robes with cords tied around the waist or even normal street clothes. In certain traditions, ritualised sex magic is performed in the form of the Great Rite, whereby a High Priest and High Priestess invoke the God and Goddess to possess them before performing sexual intercourse to raise magical energy for use in spellwork. In nearly all cases it is instead performed "in token", thereby merely symbolically, using the athame to symbolise the penis and the chalice to symbolise the womb. For some Wiccans, the ritual space is a "space of resistance, in which the sexual morals of Christianity and patriarchy can be subverted", and for this reason they have adopted techniques from the BDSM subculture into their rituals.
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Attending many of the ESC's open rituals and festivals, she was introduced to a "diverse group" of Wiccans and other Pagans, and developed a contact base in the community. Berger and Arthen subsequently embarked on a project entitled "The Pagan Census" in an attempt to gain sociological data from the Pagan community across the U.S. Receiving funding from the Faculty Development Fund at West Chester University, Berger was aided in this project by over 15 students who helped her to code and enter data for the survey. Together, Berger and Arthen wrote and distributed their survey through Wiccan and Pagan organizations across the country, as well as in journals, on the internet and at festivals. The duo received over 2000 responses, providing Berger with one of her main sources of information.
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He later reads from the novel before a book- signing. Patterson and Cannell both disagree with the decision to kill off Storm, with Cannell commenting that he could have retired or crippled Storm instead, so that he could revisit the character if he changed his mind. His other books include Death of a Prom Queen, Flowers For Your Grave, Hell Hath No Fury, A Skull at Springtime, At Dusk We Die, When It Comes to Slaughter, and A Rose for Everafter. By his own admission, his early works—Death of a Prom Queen, Flowers For Your Grave, and Hell Hath No Fury—are of poor quality; he points to Hell Hath No Fury in particular, with its plotline of "angry Wiccans out for blood" as being a low point in his career.
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On behalf of Greenpeace USA, Wasserman addressed 350,000 concert-goers at the Woodstock 1994 Festival. He has been a frequent speaker at both the Starwood Festival and the WinterStar Symposium (a Starwood interview is documented in the book People of the Earth by Ellen Evert Hopman).Bond, Lawrence & Ellen Evert Hopman (1996) People of the Earth: The New Pagans Speak Out (reissued as Being a Pagan: Druids, Wiccans & Witches Today in 2002 Destiny Books ) Harvey Wasserman Interview According to records from the Greater Talent Network (NY), he has addressed several score campus audiences since 1982 on issues of energy, the environment, politics and history. Wasserman has been an adjunct instructor of history at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, and is currently on staff in Ohio at Columbus State Community College and Capital University.
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Starwood is attended by people of all ages. Followers of diverse beliefs attend Starwood, including Wiccans, neo-druids, chaos magicians, Ásatrúar, ceremonial magicians, Buddhists, and those representing a variety of New Age spiritualities. According to the event organizers, the festival is designed for members of all spiritual paths to share their customs and beliefs. Some specific groups whose members regularly appear at and attend Starwood include the Church of All Worlds (CAW),Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves: Contemporary Pagans and the Search for Community by Sarah Pike (2001) University of California Press the Church of the SubGenius,Invented Religions: Faith, Fiction, Imagination by Carole M. Cusack, Pg. 106 (2010) Ashgate Pub Co the Neo-Druidic group Ar nDraiocht Fein (ADF),Ar nDraiocht Fein Website and various Neopagan Covens and organizations.
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Each of them face various conflicts on her path, both external and internal. Kate is torn between fitting in and embracing the Wiccan path; Annie tries to reconcile her scientific, rational thinking with her new-found intuitive, emotional faith, as well as coming to terms with her parents' deaths years before; the headstrong and independent Cooper has trouble adjusting to both the unpredictability of magic and the novelty of intense friendship. The series takes place over a period of roughly one year and two months, during which Kate, Annie, and Cooper undergo the traditional year-and-a-day of Wiccan study before being initiated into a coven. Isobel Bird wrote the series to do what many non-fiction books about Wicca fail to do: show how Wiccans experience their religion.
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The rejection of specific exhortations and prohibitions of conduct such as those given in the Judeo-Christian Ten Commandments and emphasis on the consequences of one's actions makes the Rede's character somewhat different from major religious texts such as the Bible or the Qur'an. The Rede is only a guideline which the individual must interpret to fit each particular situation and unlike most religions, which actions "do harm" (and which do not) are not discussed in the Rede. What exactly does and does not do harm is therefore open to personal interpretation. The concept of ethical reciprocity is not explicitly stated, but most Wiccans interpret the Rede to imply the Golden Rule in the belief that the spirit of the Rede is to actively do good for one's fellow humans as well as for oneself.
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In the 1970s, Dianic Wiccan groups developed which were devoted to a singular, monotheistic Goddess; this approach was often criticised by members of British Traditional Wiccan groups, who lambasted such Goddess monotheism as an inverted imitation of Christian theology. As in other forms of Wicca, some Goddess monotheists have expressed the view that the Goddess is not an entity with a literal existence, but rather a Jungian archetype. As well as pantheism and duotheism, many Wiccans accept the concept of polytheism, thereby believing that there are many different deities. Some accept the view espoused by the occultist Dion Fortune that "all gods are one god, and all goddesses are one goddess" – that is that the gods and goddesses of all cultures are, respectively, aspects of one supernal God and Goddess.
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Subsequently becoming acquainted with members of the New England Pagan community, she undertook fieldwork in both a local Wiccan coven, the Circle of Light, and a wider Pagan organisation, the EarthSpirit Community (ESC). In total, Berger underwent 11 years of fieldwork among the Pagan community. Along with ESC founder Andras Corban Arthen, Berger also undertook a "Pagan Census" survey of the U.S. in the mid-1990s to obtain more data on the country's Pagan community. A Community of Witches is based on interviews with more than a hundred practicing Wiccans and Pagans, study of the pre-existing literature on the subject and a national survey of the Pagan community in the U.S. In her work, Berger interprets Wicca as a religion of late modernity, as opposed to postmodernity, and subsequently examines it using the theories of sociologists Anthony Giddens and James A. Beckford.
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Writing in 2006, the journalist Margot Adler expressed the view that while WITCH was considered to be "a fringe phenomenon" in the women's movement at the time of its existence, by the early twenty-first century its sentiments would be embraced by a larger proportion of feminists, if still a minority within the feminist community. W.I.T.C.H. were a political rather than a religious or spiritual group, however several scholars of Pagan studies have considered them to be partial precursors to the Dianic Wiccans, members of a feminist-oriented form of Modern Paganism which developed in the United States during the 1970s. According to Adler, WITCH's key assumptions about the nature of witchcraft and its connection to women's liberation continued as the "wellspring" of Dianic Wicca and other forms of feminist-oriented Paganism. Referring to Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell, W.I.T.C.H., e.g.
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Wicca is also a form of Western esotericism, and more specifically a part of the esoteric current known as occultism. Academics like Wouter Hanegraaff and Tanya Luhrmann have categorised Wicca as part of the New Age, although other academics, and many Wiccans themselves, dispute this categorisation. Although recognised as a religion by academics, some evangelical Christians have attempted to deny it legal recognition as such, while some Wiccan practitioners themselves eschew the term "religion" – associating the latter purely with organised religion – instead favouring "spirituality" or "way of life". Although Wicca as a religion is distinct from other forms of contemporary Paganism, there has been much "cross-fertilization" between these different Pagan faiths; accordingly, Wicca has both influenced and been influenced by other Pagan religions, thus making clear-cut distinctions between them more difficult for religious studies scholars to make.
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In researching ceremonial magic orders and other esoteric groups active in the London area during the 1980s, Luhrmann found that within them, Fortune's novels were treated as "fictionalized ideals" and that they were recommended to newcomers as the best way to understand magic. The Pagan studies scholar Joanne Pearson added that Fortune's books, and in particular the novels The Sea Priestess and Moon Magic, were owned by many Wiccans and other Pagans. The religious studies scholar Graham Harvey compared The Sea Priestess to the Wiccan Gerald Gardner's 1949 novel High Magic's Aid, stating that while neither were "great literature", they "evoke Paganism better than later more didactic works". Fortune's priestesses were an influence on the characters of Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon, and her ideas were adopted as the basis for the Aquarian Order of the Restoration, a ceremonial magic group led by Bradley.
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While not all Wiccans subscribe to this monistic idea of an impersonal, ultimate divinity, many do; and there are various philosophical constructions of how this ultimate divinity relates to the physical world of Nature. Unlike religions that place a divine creator outside of Nature, Wicca is generally pantheistic, seeing Nature as divine in itself. (The traditional Charge of the Goddess—the most widely shared piece of liturgy within the religion—refers to the Goddess as "the Soul of Nature" from whom all things come, and to which all things return. This theme is also expressed in the symbology of the magic cauldron as the womb of the Goddess, from which all creation emerges, and in which it is all dissolved before reemerging again.) Wicca emphasises the immanence of divinity within Nature, seeing the natural world as comprised both of spiritual substance as well as matter and physical energy.
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Wiccan churches and other Neopagan institutions are becoming more common in the US. However, estimates of their numbers vary widely. The 2014 Pew Research Center's Religious Landscapes Survey included a subset of the New Age Spiritual Movement called "Pagan or Wiccan," reflecting that 3/4 of individuals identifying as New Age also identified as Pagan or Wiccan and placing Wiccans and Pagans at 0.3% of the total U.S. population or approximately 956,000 people of just over 1,275,000 individuals in the New Age movement. Most of the 1990s studies put the number of US Neopagans between 200,000 and 1 million (0.1% to 0.5% of the total population). A 2008 Pew Forum survey put "New Age" religious believers, including Neopagans, at about 1.2 million. According to David Waldron (2005), roughly 10 million Wiccan-related books were sold in 2000 (up from 4.5 million in 1990), as reported by the American Booksellers Association.
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After being initiated into Alexandrian Wicca by Maxine Sanders in 1970, he subsequently published one of the earliest books to describe this newly burgeoning religion, What Witches Do (1971). Within only a few months of being initiated, he had risen to the position of High Priest and founded his own coven in south London, with Janet Farrar, whom he would later handfast and then legally marry, as his High Priestess. In 1976 the couple moved to Ireland, where they went about founding new covens and initiating new people into Wicca - according to George Knowles, "some seventy five percent of Wiccans both in the Republic and North of Ireland can trace their roots back to the Farrar's [sic]". This claim is repeated in With Janet, he also set about writing books about the subject, most notably Eight Sabbats for Witches (1981) and The Witches' Way (1984).
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Ryall continued her claim, asserting that the religion's local followers worshiped the Great Goddess, who was often known as "the Green Lady" and who it was believed slept during the winter months, along with a Horned God, whom they referred to as "Old Horny".Ryall 1993. p. 05. Ryall claimed that the Wiccans met in secretive covens and performed the Drawing Down the Moon rite as a part of their faith, as well as celebrating five Sabbats annually, which were termed Lady Day (25 March), Beltane (30 April), the Summer Solstice (21 June), Samhain (31 October) and the Winter Solstice (21 December). Describing the group's practices, she claimed that they wore robes, which were "mainly brown or black, although for festivals they were usually green" and that they used a cup, a knife, a wand and a dish of salt as their ritual tools.
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In discussing Asatro - a form of Heathenry based in Denmark - Matthew Amster notes that it did not fit clearly within such a framework, because while seeking a reconstructionist form of historical accuracy, Asatro nevertheless strongly eschewed the emphasis on ethnicity that is common to other reconstructionist groups. While Wicca is identified as an eclectic form of Paganism, Strmiska also notes that some Wiccans have moved in a more reconstructionist direction by focusing on a particular ethnic and cultural link, thus developing such variants as Norse Wicca and Celtic Wicca. Concern has also been expressed regarding the utility of the term "reconstructionism" when dealing with Paganisms in Central and Eastern Europe, because in many of the languages of these regions, equivalents of the term "reconstructionism" - such as the Czech Historická rekonstrukce and Lithuanian Istorinė rekonstrukcija - are already used to define the secular hobby of historical re-enactment.
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It seems that several groups around the country, in such places as Norfolk, Cheshire and the New Forest had set themselves up as continuing in the tradition of Murray's Witch- Cult, albeit with influences coming from disparate sources such as ceremonial magic, folk magic, Freemasonry, Theosophy, Romanticism, Druidry, classical mythology, and Asian religions. According to Gerald Gardner's account in Witchcraft Today and The Meaning of Witchcraft, Wicca is the survival of a European witch-cult that was persecuted during the witch trials. Theories of an organised pan-European witch-cult, as well as mass trials thereof, have been largely discredited, but it is still common for Wiccans to claim solidarity with witch trial victims. The notion of the survival of Wiccan traditions and rituals from ancient sources is contested by most recent researchers, who suggest that Wicca is a 20th-century creation which combines elements of freemasonry and 19th-century occultism.
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It is not known who precisely invented the term "Wicca" in reference to the religion, although one possibility is that it might have been Gardner's rival Charles Cardell, who was referring to it as the "Craft of the Wiccens" by 1958. The first recorded use of the word "Wicca" appears in 1962, and it had been popularised to the extent that several British practitioners founded a newsletter called The Wiccan in 1968. Wiccan event in Minnesota, with practitioners carrying a pentacle, 2006 Although pronounced differently, the Modern English term "Wicca" is derived from the Old English wicca and wicce , the masculine and feminine term for witch, respectively, that was used in Anglo-Saxon England. By adopting it for modern usage, Wiccans were both symbolically cementing their presumed connection to the ancient, pre-Christian past, and adopting a self-designation that would be less controversial than "Witchcraft".
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The "Cernunnos" type antlered figure on the Gundestrup Cauldron In traditional and mainstream Wicca, the Horned God is viewed as the divine male principality, being both equal and opposite to the Goddess. The Wiccan god himself can be represented in many forms, including as the Sun God, the Sacrificed God and the Vegetation God, although the Horned God is the most popular representation. The pioneers of the various Wiccan or Witchcraft traditions, such as Gerald Gardner, Doreen Valiente and Robert Cochrane, all claimed that their religion was a continuation of the pagan religion of the Witch-Cult following historians who had purported the Witch-Cult's existence, such as Jules Michelet and Margaret Murray. For Wiccans, the Horned God is "the personification of the life force energy in animals and the wild""Starhawk" in News-Week On-faith Some basic definitions 2006 and is associated with the wilderness, virility and the hunt.
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The coven was later taken over by a couple known only as Theos and Phoenix, who enlarged the Book of Shadows, adding further degrees of initiation which were required before members could found their own covens. Interest outstripped the ability of the mostly British-based covens to train and propagate members; the beliefs of the religion spread faster by the printed word or word of mouth than the initiatory system was prepared to handle.Accounts of would-be Wiccans who compiled rituals out of published sources together with their own imaginative reconstructions, without formal initiations, appear in Hans Holzer's The New Pagans (Doubleday, New York: 1973) Also in the 1960s, non-Gardnerian forms of Witchcraft (which are sometimes viewed as Wicca, or sometimes as "Traditional Witchcraft") made their way to the USA. The American Joseph Bearwalker Wilson corresponded with the English Robert Cochrane prior to Cochrane's ritual suicide in 1966, and from this he founded the 1734 Tradition.
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She is also the (self-appointed) chairwoman of the Witch Trials committee and has written a book about "Magick"; the "k" is to distinguish what she considers the True Craft from the everyday stuff Granny Weatherwax and other witches do—this in turn is a comedic reference on Pratchett's part to the use of ostentatious variant spellings of the word "magic" (ranging from Aleister Crowley's to some Wiccans'). She also appears in "The Sea and Little Fishes", A Hat Full of Sky and Wintersmith. According to The Shepherd's Crown, she has since taken on a new pupil after Annagramma, continuing-on her flawed approach to witchcraft. When she learns of Granny Weatherwax's passing, rather than feeling any grief, her first thoughts are to attaining Granny's 'first among equals' status (not yet knowing that Granny had already named Tiffany Aching as her successor), and about what she could now do with Granny's cottage to make it over anew.
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However this gives only a rough guide to the size of the Wiccan- related economy and he comments that the added complexity of determining the boundary between Wiccan or Neopagan products and New Age products makes determining the size of the movement from this rather problematic. More conservative estimates included Helen Berger and Craig Hawkins in Exploring the World of Wicca, who guessed from 150,000 to 200,000. Melton, J. Gordon, Jerome Clark and Aidan A. Kelly in New Age Almanac (1991, p. 340) estimated a total of about 300,000 people associated with the "overall movement" of Wicca, with "tens of thousands" of members active in between 1,000 and 5,000 covens. Conservative estimates in 1993 arrived at about 50,000 Wiccans in the US (Religious Requirements & Practices of Certain Selected Groups: A Handbook for Chaplains, 1993) while Wiccan high estimates claimed several million (Phyllis Curott, The Book of Shadows: A Modern Woman's Journey into the Wisdom of Witchcraft and the Magic of the Goddess).
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The goddess Isis, holding a sistrum and oinochoe. The opening paragraph names a collection of goddesses, some derived from Greek or Roman mythology, others from Celtic or Arthurian legends, affirming a belief that these various figures represent a single Great Mother: :Listen to the words of the Great Mother; she who of old was also called among men Artemis, Astarte, Athene, Dione, Melusine, Aphrodite, Cerridwen, Dana, Arianrhod, Isis, Bride, and by many other names. This theme echoes the ancient Roman belief that the Goddess Isis was known by ten thousand names and also that the Goddess still worshipped today by Wiccans and other neopagans is known under many guises but is in fact one universal divinity. The second paragraph is largely derived and paraphrased from the words that Aradia, the messianic daughter of Diana, speaks to her followers in Charles Godfrey Leland's 1899 book Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches (London: David Nutt; various reprints).
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Charles W. Bell, "A Witch Explains Her Craft", New York Daily News, October 31, 1998, p. 21>Michael Kilian, "Bewitching Hour: Late ‘90s See a Revival in Goddess Worship", Chicago Tribune, Nov. 12, 1998, p. 10BMary Rourke, "She’s Got That Old Time Religion: Witchcraft; A Premonition Led a Lawyer to Find Her Calling as a High Priestess of Witchcraft", Los Angeles Times, Sept. 3, 1998, p. E1Robert Walters, “Feds Fail to Police the Unions”, Waycross Journal-Herald (GA), Nov. 11, 1980, p.3 Additionally, she has been an outspoken advocate for the religious liberties of Wiccans and other religious minorities.”A Newfound Religious Freedom at the City Clerk’s Office” New York Magazine May 27, 1985 p. 14James R. Lewis “Witchcraft Today: An Encyclopedia of Wiccan and Neopagan Traditions”, ABC CLIO, (Santa Barbara, CA), 1999, p. 66Laura Williams, “The Fair Witch Project: High Priestess Out to Clean Up Frightful Image”, New York Post, Oct. 31, 1999, p.
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Rhiannon Ryall is the pseudonym of an English-born Australian Wiccan who achieved notoriety for her controversial claims regarding the existence of a group of Wiccans living in England's West Country during the 1940s. These claims were first publicised in 1993 when the English company Capall Bann published Ryall's West Country Wicca: A Journal of the Old Religion, in which she made the claims that when growing up along the borders between the English counties of Devon and Somerset, she was initiated into a local Wiccan tradition that many of the people in the surrounding villages were members of. Claiming that they were "pre-Gardnerian", she asserted that her family had not been Wiccan, and as such she was not a hereditary witch, but that aged sixteen, she, like many other boys and girls who were the same age, were taken to the female "Elders of the village" who taught them about the Craft.Ryall 1993. p. 01-02.
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Gardner stated that beyond Wicca's two deities was the "Supreme Deity" or "Prime Mover", an entity that was too complex for humans to understand. This belief has been endorsed by other prominent practitioners, who have referred to it as "the Cosmic Logos", "Supreme Cosmic Power", or "Godhead". Gardner envisioned this Supreme Deity as a deist entity who had created the "Under-Gods", among them the God and Goddess, but who was not otherwise involved in the world; alternately, other Wiccans have interpreted such an entity as a pantheistic being, of whom the God and Goddess are facets. Sculpture of the Horned God of Wicca found in the Museum of Witchcraft in Boscastle, Cornwall Although Gardner criticised monotheism, citing the Problem of Evil, explicitly monotheistic forms of Wicca developed in the 1960s, when the U.S.-based Church of Wicca developed a theology rooted in the worship of what they described as "one deity, without gender".
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In 2007 the United States Department of Veterans Affairs after years of dispute added the Pentagram to the list of emblems of belief that can be included on government-issued markers, headstones, and plaques honoring deceased veterans. In Canada, Dr. Heather Botting ("Lady Aurora") and Dr. Gary Botting ("Pan"), the original high priestess and high priest of Coven Celeste and founding elders of the Aquarian Tabernacle Church, successfully campaigned the British Columbian government and the federal government in 1995 to allow them to perform recognised Wiccan weddings, to become prison and hospital chaplains, and (in the case of Heather Botting) to become the first officially recognized Wiccan chaplain in a public university. The oath-based system of many Wiccan traditions makes it difficult for "outsider" scholars to study them. For instance, after the anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann revealed information about what she learned as an initiate of a Wiccan coven in her academic study, various Wiccans were upset, believing that she had broken the oaths of secrecy taken at initiation.
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Many Wiccans also embrace the idea of the spiritual transcendence of divinity, and see this transcendence as compatible with the idea of immanence. In such a view, divinity and dimensions of spiritual existence (sometimes called "the astral planes") can exist outside the physical world, as well as extending into the material, and/or rising out of the material, intimately interwoven into the fabric of material existence in such a way that the spiritual affects the physical, and vice versa. (The conception of Nature as a vast, interconnected web of existence that is woven by the Goddess is very common within Wicca; an idea often connected with the Triple Goddess as personified by the Three Fates who weave the Web of Wyrd.) This combination of transcendence and immanence allows for the intermingling and the interaction of the unmanifest spiritual nature of the universe with the manifest physical universe; the physical reflects the spiritual, and vice versa. (An idea expressed in the occult maxim "As Above, So Below" which is also used within Wicca.) Given the usual interpretation of Wicca as a pantheistic and duotheistic/polytheistic religion, the monotheistic belief in a single "supreme deity" does not generally apply.
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In response to the criticism that the books promote Wicca, a number of Wiccans and other commenters have argued that the critics' definition of Wicca tends to lump together many and various spiritualist practices that actually have little in common. They have also highlighted the differences between magic within Wicca, which is invocational and derives from the divine powers, and that depicted by the Harry Potter books, which is a purely mechanical application of spells without invoking any deities. A Wiccan review of Harry Potter: Witchcraft Repackaged pointed out that "communing with the dead and spirit world, sorcery, curses, occult symbology, black magic [and] demon possession"—all cited by the book as evidence of Harry Potter promoting Wicca—are not part of Wiccan belief. Divinatory practices such as scrying and astrology, although occasionally employed by characters in the books are neither unique nor central to the Wiccan religion and are treated in the novels in a condescending, tongue-in-cheek manner; the school divination teacher is, according to writer Christine Schoeffer, "a misty, dreamy, dewy charlatan," who is ridiculed by the students and staff alike.
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Beyond the emphasis on public ministry, the Odyssean tradition is characterized by the following: it is an Eclectic tradition in its origins that has a strong British Traditional Wicca style to its forms of organization and initiation; although it emulates British Traditional the tradition's approach to ritual is more flexible and may often be less structured than many British Traditional Wiccans would be comfortable with; the tradition rejects the concepts of Neopagan monism and Neopagan monotheism; the tradition does accept the base- line Wiccan concept of Neopagan duotheism but does encourage students and seekers alike to choose to affiliate with a particular Pagan pantheon and encourages the devotion to a deity (or group of deities) . The Odyssean training system is remarked upon as being notably rigorous, which can be observed in the Wiccan Church of Canada weekly classes. These classes comprise the basic body of knowledge considered necessary by Odysseans, and can span upwards of 150 hours of class time or more. Completion of these classes (which includes the student completing the homework exercises assigned) is often considered a minimum requirement by Initiates before they accept a person as a new student.
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