Wicca for Beginners: A Guide to Wiccan Beliefs, Rituals, Magic, and Witchcraft: 2 (The Mystic Library)

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Some people may be under the impression that Wicca is “evil.” This is due to mistaken associations between Wicca and Satanism, which is a different religious affiliation altogether. But the answer is no: Wicca is not an “evil” religion, and there is no connection between Wicca and any sort of “devil worship.” In fact, most Wiccans actively avoid harming others; they seek out peace in their daily lives and are focused on coexisting as harmoniously as possible with the world around them. Wicca and magic Nature-Based Rituals: Craft rituals that involve natural elements, such as creating an outdoor altar, performing moon rituals under the night sky, or conducting water-based ceremonies near a river or lake. These rituals enhance the connection between the practitioner and the natural world. It can be as simple or complicated as you want it. You decide when you become Wiccan. You can commit to the craft itself, a deity, a new name and identity, a coven, all of those plus other things, or none of them. In Wicca, the beginning of each season is celebrated with holidays called Lesser Sabbats. In between each solstice and equinox there are “Cross Quarter days” or Greater Sabbats, which are also celebrated.

In truth, Wicca is extremely dynamic and ever-evolving, so it’s difficult to make very many statements about it that every single person identifying as a Wiccan will agree with. However, it’s probably safe to say that when looking at the night sky, or the view from the top of a mountain, or the glassy surface of a lake, most—if not all—Wiccans will feel very much in the presence of the divine. So then, what is Wicca? What does it mean to be a Wiccan? And what are the core religious beliefs? Life cycles: the Wiccan Goddess and God Again, it’s a personal journey, and where you decide the starting point is the only thing that should matter to you. Don’t worry what others think. The deities of Wicca are the Goddess and the God , who are the feminine and masculine essences of the all-encompassing life force responsible for all of creation, including the cycles of life and death on Earth. Wiccans believe that these deities are multi-fold; in that sense, it is a duotheistic religion, rather than traditionally monotheistic religions like Christianity.

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What is Wicca? The answer to this question can vary, depending on who you ask, but below you’ll find a general introduction to this fascinating spiritual path.

A cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface. The most important rules of your Wiccan Altar: Make it your own, know its meaning and experiment with it. Candle magic is an excellent starting point for anyone just beginning to explore spellwork. Simple, elegant and straightforward, basic candle spells can help you build and strengthen your “magical muscles.” Your magical request (also called the intention) is sent through the medium of the flame. As the candle burns, it disappears, leaving the material plane and joining the ethereal one, carrying with it the message of the intention. This physical example of transformation is particularly useful to beginning magicians, who can use it to help them visualize the manifestation process.Choose your goal or focus, develop an action plan on how you’re going to achieve what you want, and get down to making some magic happen. This is what all of your hard work has been for! We all come to witchcraft to find empowerment in our own lives and to take control of our circumstances. If you follow this learning plan and move step-by-step through the foundations of witchcraft, you will reach the point when you can claim your power faster than you could ever imagine. Your ritual can be anything you want it to be. I know being this broad maybe isn’t that helpful, but remember that everyone is very different and what worked for me might not be something you feel any connection to. Because of the inherent connection to nature, many Wiccans feel it can be really great to be outside to do this.

Wiccans and many other Pagans worship Nature and the cycles of constant change, personified as the most ancient and primal deities: the Triple Goddess and the Horned God. A key thing to remember is that simpler is almost always better. Making things by hand is almost always better than buying them. And intention rules over everything else. It is important to note that not necessarily those who practice a Neopagan religion are Wiccans. Wicca is just one of the pre-Christian religions that have surfaced. In Stonehenge, we find another example of a Neopagan religion where non-Christian festivals are held. Incense is an ancient ritual tool that draws on the aromatic powers of herbs, spices, oils, resins, and tree barks to create a sacred atmosphere and a state of mind conducive to communing with the spirit world. In addition to burning during formal Wiccan ritual, it’s often burned during spellwork, as the scented smoke can facilitate an ideal state of mind for working successful magic. Furthermore, most herbs, spices, barks, and roots have specific magical qualities, which can be matched with the purpose of the spellwork. Finally, we’ve reached the stage that most witches want to be at. This is the point where you really start diving deep into whatever it is that you want to focus on in your craft. Whether you have a goal like finding your soulmate, creating abundance in your life, attracting success, or whether you have an interest that you want to follow such as herbal magic, ceremonial magic, or learning about geomancy, this is where you can really start to narrow your focus and home in on what you’re ready to achieve.Witchcraft isn’t just fun and games; perks like hexes and love spells can come with a price. The infamous Salem witch trials may seem far in the past, but the persecution of witches (or those suspected of witchcraft) continues today. Despite the mainstream’s growing fascination, the past few years have also seen, for example, a whopping 900 percent rise in (at times lethal) child-abuse cases linked to suspicion of witchcraft and demonic possession in the U.K. There are, of course, methods of protection, like carrying an evil eye. The easiest one, however, is to simply not go around shouting about your newfound identity. Choose your path. Your next step is going to be learning about magical hygiene. These are the four magical skills that you absolutely must know to keep yourself safe and healthy in your craft. They are cleansing, warding, grounding, and banishing. Halloween is right around the corner, but that’s not the only reason witches seem to be everywhere as of late. Increasingly, they’ve been popping up all over the place, from pop culture—see: Luca Guadagnino’s remake of the horror film Suspiria, Netflix’s remake of Sabrina the Teenage Witch—to the runways of Fashion Week (Celine and Burberry were just two of the seemingly dozens of brands that served up witchy vibes this past season alone). There are, of course, deeper things at play: Witchcraft and covens have also proven to be a source of solace and solidarity for some in the #MeToo era, following an increasing association between witches and feminism. Rede” is a medieval English word meaning “advice”. This poem by an unknown author introduces various aspects of neopaganism and was popularized by Wiccan priestess Doreen Valiente. Read, read and then read some more! There are always more interesting things to read on your journey to becoming Wiccan. Maybe you want to watch youtube videos instead or have a face to face conversation with a fellow practitioner. The next step to becoming Wiccan by yourself