Wicca is an Earth and fertility religion, a Neo-pagan denomination. Wiccans believe in the sanctity of all within nature, and that the Spirit, known as the God and Goddess are present within everything and ourselves. In the trees, rain, flowers, the sea, in each other and all of natures creatures. This means that they must treat all things of the Earth as aspects of the Divine. They attempt to honour and respect life in all its many manifestations both seen and unseen.
Wiccans learn from and revere the gift of nature from Divine creation by celebrating the cycles of the sun, moon and seasons. These are represented in the eight Wiccan Sabbats: Samhain, Yule, Imbolc, Eostre, Litha, Bealtaine, Mabon, and Lammas.
They search within themselves for the cycles that correspond to those of the natural world and try to live in harmony with the movement of this universal energy. They also revere the spirits of the elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water which combine to manifest all creation. From these four elements they obtain insight to the rhythms of nature and understand they are also the rhythms of their own lives.
Wicca is known as a ditheistic religion because it believes in the existance of two main entities: the God and Goddess, or Lord and Lady. The God is a dualistic solar god who is born at Yule, and dies at Samhain. During the waxing half of the year, he is the young Oak King, the green man of the forests. During the wanaing half, he is the Lord of the Underworld, presiding over death and teh darker aspects of life.
The Goddess is a Triple Moon goddess. Her three phases are Maiden, Mother and Crone, which are represented by the three main phases of the moon.
Wiccans have one major rule in their belief system which is part of the Wiccan Rede:
"An it harm none, do what ye will." Despite popular belief, this does not mean "as long as you don't hurt anyone, do what you like". In actual fact, if you look at Crowley's meaning of "do what ye will", it means to act upon your true Will's desire (what is needed spiritually, not what is wanted on a materialistic level), and in the Wiccan Rede this means that so long as no-one is harmed (including yourself) by your actions, one can achieve what you truely need.
The rule of harm none technically isn't a rule to harm none. The first indication is the title "Rede" - rede means advice, and advice isn't known for it's infalability
Apart from that, it says "an it harm none, do what ye will". That would mean "if it doesn't harm, it's permitted", it doesn't say "if it harms, it is forbidden".
There is a difference between those two statements:
"If it doesn't harm, it's permitted"
This indicates that an action which doesn't harm is ok to do, but it doesn't say that actions which do cause harm are not allowed.
"If it harms, it is forbidden"
This is directly saying that certain actions are forbidden to do, but this is not what the Rede says.
A basic interpretation of the Rede would be encouragment of harmless acts, but it washes its hands of anything harmful and leaves it up to the Wiccan to decide if they should do it or not. So basically, if it causes harm, it's your choice: you aren't bound by any rules that say you shouldn't do it.
Another belief that goes hand in hand with this rule is that whatever we do, whether it be magickal or mundane, will come back to them three times over. Therefore, if they do a good deed, they shall be rewarded justly. However, if they commit a harmful action then they believe that they shall also be harmed in some way as a result.
An important aspect of Wicca is it's open-mindedness and tolerance of others. For example, Wicca has no rules saying you can't be homosexual. You can be or believe whatever you wish without prejudice, it is your way of life and they believe they have no right to dictate it, so they also believe in inclusivism. This means that they believe all religions and spiritual paths are valid paths. Wiccans do not think theirs is the only way, so they let people decide what is right for them instead of trying to "recruit" followers.
Many would argue that to be an official Wiccan, you must be formally initiated by an existing coven in keeping with Gardner's original system. Any "solitary Wiccans" are usually considered "Seekers" as they have not been formally initiated and taught. The good, credible books published today only contain "outer court" information on Wicca (as is that which is written in this article). To learn the "inner court" secrets of Wicca, one must be initiated into a Wiccan coven. These inner court secrets are know as "Mysteries". Initiation is required so one can learn the techniques for discovering these Mysteries. After all, Wicca is called a mystery religion for a reason.
Paganism
Paganism is not a single religion, but an umbrella term for all those religions other than the Abrahamic faiths of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. A Pagan is a person who follows one of those "other" faiths. Many Witches, Wiccans, Reconstructionists, and other Neo-Pagans simply identify themselves as "Pagan" or "Neo-pagans" when talking with others who may not be familiar with the complexity of the different belief systems. This can make it sound like "Paganism" is a religion instead of a collection of religions. Neo-paganism should also not be confused with the "New Age" movement, as Pagans are almost exclusively involved in distinctive religions while New Age spirituality draws from many sources and esoteric spiritual techniques which are generally added as an extra layer on top of whatever religion one normally follows.
Extracts from:
The Witches Voice
The Coven of Witches
Spiral Nature
