Question about wicca

[Richard81]

I've been an atheist since mid July and i've just started to look into other religions and spiritual groups, just to see what else is out their, since I no longer have to worry about pissing off the christian god. Anyway, i've been doing some research on wicca and it sounds like it would be fun to practice, maybe try out a bit. I was wondering if I could practice wiccan tradition, even though I don't personally believe in any deitys or anything supernatural. I was also wondering if someone could post some of the rules of wicca on here for me.

[Divine Insight]

Hi Richard,

There are many different views on Wicca. And many are quite controversial even within Wiccan circles (no pun intended). I can only offer you my own personal thoughts on this. I am a "Solitary Wiccan". I neither belong to a coven nor do I recognize the "authority" of any coven.

I don't support "organized religion" of any kind, and that include organized Wicca. So my views are indeed coming from a very personalized perspective. I do not speak for "Wicca" nor do I necessarily agree with anyone who might claim to.

I've been an atheist since mid July and i've just started to look into other religions and spiritual groups, just to see what else is out their, since I no longer have to worry about pissing off the christian god.

I've never been an atheist exactly. But I do had once been a Christian and I moved from there to Buddhism, Taoism, and finally to "Wicca" (my personal solitary version of it), and I continue to embrace all three of these spiritual philosophies/paradigms.

Anyway, i've been doing some research on wicca and it sounds like it would be fun to practice, maybe try out a bit.

It's not only fun, but it can be absolute bliss. I tool was attracted to Wicca because it is a very romantic and beautiful paradigm. For me it would be very difficult to fine a more beautiful "religion" if you want to call it a "religion". I really don't even think of it as a religion. I just see it as a very beautiful collection of ideas and practices that loan themselves very well for communing with nature and the mystical aspect (or spiritual essence) of reality.

I was wondering if I could practice wiccan tradition, even though I don't personally believe in any deitys or anything supernatural.

You'd have to define for me what you mean by "supernatural".

I've been a scientist my entire life. I've studies all of the sciences with my focus being on physics. Right before I retired I even taught college physics for a few years. In all of that time one thing I've come to realize is that as much as we know about reality though science the one thing we can be absolutely certain of is that we don't know anywhere near "everything".

Thus, not knowing everything there is to know about reality how can we know what constitutes "super" natural?

Therefore I see no reason to even pretend that I could rule out something that I can't even pin down or define in a meaningful way.

That's my thoughts on the so-called "supernatural".

As far as believing in "deities", I would personally say that this is not required. However, it is required that you are open to the concept of communing with psychic archetypes in your imagination. This is paramount, because without this there really isn't much point in Wicca (at least from my perspective).

However this step can be realized via a very secular approach of imagining these psychic archetypes to be a means through which you commune with your own subconscious mind.

For me (and as I've said this is my view of Wicca), you must be open to communing with something beyond your normal waking consciousness. This is paramount, because without this Wicca would be dead and devoid of meaning (at least for me)

You can think of these psychic archetypes as deities, spirits, munchkins, fairies, or even just your very own imagination. From an atheistic point of view you can think of it as communing with your "higher self" which you can think of as simply being your very own subconscious mind.

So in that sense, it can indeed work from a very practical secular mindset.

But you definitely need to imagine psychic archetypes that you can commune with, if even only in very subtle ways. You don't necessarily need to sit down and have a full blown conversation with a spirit in English. But clearly that would be cool if it happens for you convincingly wouldn't it?

Wicca is about taking psychic journeys. The most popular form of the psychic journey in Wicca is referred to as "casting a circle". I won't go into that here, but you need to be able to do this "imaginary thing" and have it be very real to you in your mind. Visually and everything within your psyche.

The best advice I ever got was to approach it as a young child approaches having a tea party with imaginary friends. You must create and provide these psychic thought forms if you expect them to come to life.

Kind of like "The Field of Dreams". If you build it, they will come.

But you must first build it.

I was also wondering if someone could post some of the rules of wicca on here for me.

There are no rules in Wicca. Wicca isn't about teaching moral values. Wicca is about communing with divine consciousness (or your own subconscious if you prefer).

It's assumed that you're already a mature responsible and righteous person when you come to Wicca. After all, why would an immature irresponsible unrighteous person be interested in seeking harmony with a divine consciousness?

So it's a given that you're already seeking the divine and you're prepared to commune and come into harmony with the divine. So you should be well-past any need for anyone to teach you any moral values or giving you rules that you must obey like as if you are an immature little child.

The only thing Wicca does offer is the Wiccan Rede. It basically says, "Do as you will but harm none". It's just a gentle reminder to not forget your basic moral values or betray them.

We can all use reminders from time to time.

~~~~

So anyway, I hope that answers some of your questions. Like I say "Wicca", just like all other spiritual philosophies or religions, is going to have followers who do not even remotely agree with one another. Wicca is no exception to this. So the view I've offered is solely my own. Other people may have dramatically different views of what "Wicca" means to them.

Oh, by the way, I would also recommend Christopher Penczak's "Temple of Witchcraft" series of books. He speaks to more than just Wicca in these books, but he covers Wicca completely as well as always holding to the Wiccan Rede of harming none. He constantly speaks of the "Godddess and God" but like I say, for you these can be seen as simply the "Yin and Yang" (or Feminine and Masculine) aspect of human reality. We all have a yin and yang quality. You can think of the "Goddess and God" as being references to your own subconscious. You don't need to think of these as being external "supernatural" personified beings. But is it important that you imagine that you are "communing" with something, even if it's your very own subconscious secular mind.

Hope this helped and wasn't too confusing.

By the way, if you do look into Penczak's books, realize that he may often refer to these deities as if they are actual personified beings. But that doesn't mean that you need to view them in that way. Sometimes you need to take what some authors say with a grain of salt. Thinking in terms of a purely secular subconscious is just fine. But you've got to have something to commune with, otherwise, there's no point to it.

[Richard81]

Thank you, Divine Insight, very helpful.
I believe the reason I am drawn to wicca is because I have a great appreciation for nature and it seems to be a religion worshipping nature. I also like the rituals they have, it seems a lot more fun than the boring christian bible stuff I used to do. I will definitely be giving wicca a try, and i'll probably like it, based on what i've learned so far. I've heard that some wiccans use the gods and goddesses as symbols, symbolizing natural elements... or something, rather than actual gods or goddesses, so thats probably what i'll do. By supernatural,
I meant magick. I find myself unable to believe that any wiccans are actually casting spells or anything like that.

[sleepyhead]

Hello Richard,

I'm not a wiccan. My understanding is that at least many if not all believe in reincarnation. If you do decide to believe in reincarnation I'd like to extend a personal invite to join my user group "leaning toward reincarnation"

[Richard81]

Hello Richard,

I'm not a wiccan. My understanding is that at least many if not all believe in reincarnation. If you do decide to believe in reincarnation I'd like to extend a personal invite to join my user group "leaning toward reincarnation"

Sorry, but I don't believe in reincarnation, unless by reincarnation you mean that my atoms and energy might one day make up another living thing after I am dead.