The "Whats" on Wicca! : Some common questions and responses on the Wiccan Faith.

Light and Love.

So, you have decided that you might be interested in becoming a Wiccan. But if you come from a country like myself, where Wicca isn't exactly an established religion, you might be left wondering: what IS Wicca all about in the first place? If you are anything like the run-of-the-mill Malaysian, your first introduction to Wicca (more likely the concept of Wicca) would be from television shows such as Charmed, or Sabrina the Teenage Witch, or True Blood (a friend of mine remarked, quite funnily, that she thought that my life must be like those witches in True Blood) and while I would not invalidate the experience of Wiccans who do identify with those programs in one way or another, I must say that my own personal experience with Wicca has taught me the average Wiccan's experience is probably anything but like what is portrayed on popular television shows. The following are a list of very common questions I often get in relation to my Wiccan faith and these are some of my typical responses.

• Are you a white witch, or a dark witch? 
  I personally believe that the distinction between a "white" and "dark" practitioner is not so easily drawn. Like every human being on the planet, a Wiccan or a witch, is first a human being with faults and vices of their own. This does not necessarily impact on their craft, however, as despite possessing any number of skeletons in her closet, a witch can always make the conscious decision to only do good, and invoke only positive energies in her rituals and castings. Many Wiccans, including myself, avoiding bad magic because we observe various tenets of our religion that prohibit us from doing so. The Wiccan Rede (which is roughly interpreted as a universal code of conduct for all Wiccans) states that by the will of our Goddess, Wiccans should not cause harm by their actions or spellwork alike. Most, if not all Wiccans believe that any energy that we bring into this world, either by our thoughts, intentions, or spellcraft has a way of coming back to us via some form of Karmic retribution, three times more potent that it was when we sent it out into the world. This is known as the Law of Threefold, or the Rule of Three.
  
  
• In those television programs, witches are able to do amazing things like summon balls of fire, or combat demons with blasts of energy. Are you telling me this is what you can do?
  I often get asked this question with just a tinge of sarcasm or skepticism behind it, and while many, if not all Wiccans believe in the existence of spiritual beings and some form of contact with the spirit world, as well as the presence of magic, the reality of what we do is quite different from that. The existence and the practice of magic, or witchcraft, is an integral part of Wiccan beliefs and you will find that though our rituals, spellwork, and instruments may differ from coven to coven or sect to sect, that some form of it will be present nonetheless. Magic for most Wiccans, however, is not so much about summoning balls of fire from the sky but rather, about harnessing the inherent energies of Nature and of the Universe to affect change in the world around us. You must understand also that the common person often approaches magic as something that is beyond-nature (unnatural/supernatural) but for the average Wiccan, magic is something that is completely natural and a part of the world around us.  Of course, different Wiccans might lay claim to different abilities (such as the ability to teleport, or conjure fire etc.), but without invalidating their experiences, the reality of the situation is that this is quite simply not the case for most of us.
  
  
• So how would a Wiccan or a witch go about working magic?
  There is power in intention and words and with practice, Wiccans can draw upon the energies of the world around them to amplify this to various effect. Many Wiccans also love using various tools and instruments to help us harness or focus that energy. Some of the more common of tools include wands, athames (ceremonial daggers), various plants and herbs (both fresh and dried contain latent energy), crystals, candles, and the like. Magic can also be harnessed by invoking our deities (The Goddess and God) to lend us their strength or to manifest our intentions. Invoking or calling upon the Goddess is something that is very common in Wiccan spellcraft and is often done for anything as simple as a basic protection spell, to something more complicated like a complex healing ritual. In some ways, spellcraft to a Wiccan is not unlike what prayer is to a Christian.
  
  

  

  Candles, sigils, and crystals are some common tools for spellcraft.

  
  
• And... does it work?
  With some practice and devotion, Wiccans believe that we can do some pretty miraculous things through magic.
  
  
• So why haven't more people joined the Wiccan religion?
  Wicca is not for everyone. Often, most of the people I personally know who joined the religion and left cited reasons for leaving such as their spells were not working for them.  What they may have failed to realize is that Wicca is not just about spell casting and potion making, but a way of life. It is a religion and requires the same amount of dedication and faith as any other religion. A large part of what Wicca is is the veneration of the Goddess and her energies that is manifest in the Natural world. As such I would say that for me to be Wiccan is therefore essentially to be in one way or another an environmentally conscious individual. Some people are just not able to attain the sort of connection to their environment and their surroundings that is required to effectively fuel their spellwork and may therefore leave the religion when they realized it could not give them what they wanted. Often, the explanation is a lot more simple than that: some people are just not ready to accept magic into their lives (perhaps they would feel silly being part of a coven, or waving a wand around to channel the energies of the earth). For whatever their reasons may be, Wicca is just not for everyone.
  
  I would also like to add as an important side note, that Wiccans do not proselytize. We do not preach and we do not recruit. People find us by various means (often, after they have gotten hooked on to witch related shows) and join us on their own free will. I do not like to think of Wicca as an "exclusive" religion (although there are some sects that are) so I believe that interest in the faith is generally met with goodwill. If they leave in a similar manner and with no ill feelings, their departure will be similarly regarded.
  
  
• You mentioned earlier a Goddess and a God in Wicca. Who are they? Do they have names?
  Well, the Goddess and God are the principal deities in Wicca. We do not necessarily name our deities, often referring to them simply as Goddess, or God, but there are some sects that do. Some individual practitioners may also choose to stylize their interpretation of the Goddess or the God after deities from other faiths and mythologies that appeal to them particularly. For instance, I have chosen to venerate the Goddess through the image of Hecate which is how I imagine her. Some Covens may have their own names for the Goddess and the God and may choose to keep them secret from all but those who are initiated.  

The Goddess Hecate

• So let me get this straight, is Wicca something strict with hundreds of  rules you have to follow and all that? 
  I wouldn't say that there aren't any rules in Wicca (although personally I would love to call them guidelines instead) because though we do not have a Bible or any such religious text to govern our actions (Wicca as an official religion is a relatively new one), we do have a basic set of tenets laid down in the Wiccan Rede, that all practitioners of the religion are encouraged strongly to follow. Some of the main rules or guidelines that apply to all Wiccans are:...
  
  "An it harm none, do what thou wilt" - harm none with one's actions
  "Mind the threefold law ye should, three times bad and three times good" - be responsible for one's actions.
  Nature must be honored and respected as the Divine is manifest in everything from plants and animals to rocks and rivers.
  Divinity is present in all of us. Every Wiccan is capable of calling on the Goddess and performing rituals and ceremonies. Exclusivity is not limited to our priest[ess]hood...
  
  ...among others. The full rede, or variants of it, can be easily found online.
  
  Depending on which sect of Wicca one is practicing, or whether or not one belongs to a coven, some Wiccans also love to borrow aspects of other religions (typically the nature based faiths) that they may find are compatible or harmonious with their own way of living and worshiping the Divine. Generally speaking (and this is not the rule) Covens have more restrictions than individual practitioners.
  
  

The list is by no means a complete compilation of every single question I get about my faith (well meaning, or otherwise) but consists of some of the more common and easily answered ones. If you came upon this post because you are interested in Wicca, merry meet! If you need clarification don't be afraid to ask. I don't pretend to be an expert on the faith despite having practiced in for over 10 years now but I have collected, along the way, many resources that I would be glad to share. If you are a fellow Wiccan, or practitioner of one of the pagan faiths, did you think I missed anything out? What are some of the questions you have been asked in relation to your religion, as well as your response, that you would love to share? As always I would love to hear from all of you.

Blessed be.
)O(

Things that go Bump in the Night.

Goddess Blessings

I'm sure we've all had those moments in life when we see a person as we are walking, a shadow or a figure perhaps, decide to take a second look because something just didn't feel right only to find that there is no one there after all. Maybe it was just a movement out of the corner of your eye, or perhaps the hair-raising feeling that you are being watched, or perhaps the sensation of uneasiness of having someone, or something breathe down the nape of your neck. Now, they could all be just a figment of our imagination, the fanciful musings of the paranoid or perhaps self-diagnosed schizophrenic, or - if you are one to believe in such things - they could perhaps be something, or rather things, or a more supernatural origin. 

Now, before I bring you all into the specifics of what I have come to understand about spiritual entities, I cannot stress strongly enough on how I usually try to avoid the term "supernatural". To me, to be "supernatural" is to be something that is more than, or in other words beyond natural, which would in turn suggest to many people that these beings are things which are "extraordinary" or perhaps not of this world. And while there are any number of spiritual beings out there which (though they may occasionally wander in ours) generally reside in foreign existential planes, most spiritual phenomena can in fact be pinpointed (or rather, rationalized, if we wish to avoid so definitive a term)  to more immediate sources. Indeed, as with most things metaphysical, the reality of the situation is in fact much more complicated than that! But for the purposes of dissemination of knowledge (not to mention facilitate the light-reading process for my readers) I will attempt to limit myself to two of the more basic explanations that will be offered in two parts.

Spiritual Consciousness and Psychic Imprints

The first explanation I can offer for quite a number of spiritual encounters people report are that of spiritual or psychic imprints. In this writer's humble opinion, to be psychic in some ways, is to be especially in tune to the vibrations that are constantly being emitted by various objects. The concept of vibration is not one that is foreign to the field of science. Indeed, I am not much of a scientist myself (my knowledge only extends as far as my passion for insects and the natural world) but I know enough to state with some level of certainly that all things are made out of molecules and that these microscopic structures constantly vibrate at varying frequencies. Light, for example, vibrates at different wavelengths and color simply refers to the various wavelengths that are picked up by the human eye. 

Similarly, if you can bring yourself to follow such a concept, psychically gifted individuals are perhaps those who are able to naturally perceive these vibrations with what must be the most powerful and yet vastly untapped human sensory organ of all; the brain. Except, instead of picking up on the vibrations of physical objects, they pick up the emanations of other, less tangible things. Mental signals for instance, or spiritual ones. 

Consequently, to be psychic is to be able to perceive and decipher the mental and/or spiritual vibrations of nearby objects and process them in the brain as images or information. People with extreme levels of empathy for example, who are especially attuned to the thoughts and emotions of others, can pick up spiritual or psychic imprints left behind by a living being just by passing, or by touching an item. As such, it can perhaps be argued that objects can, and do, over time become imbued with the psychic imprints of humans. 

Of course then one might argue that every single item in the world must have been touched by at least one person a million times over and as such would therefore have millions upon millions of these so called "imprints" on them. This is not necessarily untrue. But let us think a moment about psychic vibrations and the vibrations of light. Light, in its natural state, vibrates around us all the time. In this form it is invisible. We know it is there but we cannot actually "see" or perceive it. Only when it refracts in certain ways do we perceive light as color, as the various reds and blues and greens that illuminate our world. Quite like that, too, only an item that was "lived" in by its owner would possess an imprint that is distinct and recognizable enough to be picked up by the psychic. 

In that sense, a pen treasured by a businessman as the first gift he obtained from his wife, or the wedding dress worn by a young woman on the day she against all odds legally wed her lesbian lover, would possess a notably more distinct "feel" to it than, say... the public payphone at the corner of the street!  This is because when people touch objects, they leave behind a little of what is called the soul's fingerprint. If one looks at the consciousness of the human mind as a part of the human soul (a metaphysical discussion of a different threat that I might entertain in a separate post) it is perhaps then not so difficult to see how, just like the corporeal body leaves behind fingerprints, that the soul leaves behind a trace of itself with every physical contact. 

Unlike the corporeal body though, which almost invariably always leaves behind traces of its presence, the spiritual self, being ethereal in nature, needs a strong fuel behind it in order to achieve a similar effect and this is mostly achieved in the form of energy that was possibly generated through strong or powerful emotions. In that sense, I suppose if someone were particularly angry while talking on a public phone, the empath who picked up the phone but a moment later might be able to channel those very same thoughts and emotions. Consequently, the amount of emotional attachment that is given to the object, or the sorts of emotions that were generated while operating it would no doubt increase the strength and duration of the psychic manifestation that is perceived through the medium.  (if you are not yet too skeptical at this point, I might stretch my luck even further by asking you to watch those Discovery channel films on psychic detectives to perhaps get a clearer understanding on what I've said thus far)

But let us not digress too far from the original topic and let's just take the concept of the psychic imprint and look at it on a different scale. Think, instead of a pen or payphone, of a house. A house that someone has lived in for a long period of time. Now, houses are very important things for people. They are our sanctuaries, our safe havens and our fortresses. They are the physical walls to the ontological security every individual needs. And yet sometimes, houses can be prisons too. They can be places which cage instead of shelter. As such, you will probably understand that people generally have very strong emotions about houses. Now think again, for a moment, of a person whose emotional bond to his or her house is unnaturally, or perhaps supernaturally, strong and significant. This need not necessarily be an affectionate tie, indeed it could even be one of bitterness or resentment.

Consequently, if a person can leave behind a significant psychic imprint by holding onto a sentimental object, a pen, or a soft toy for example, think about how much stronger that imprint might have been for the person who has lived his or her entire life in a particular place, constantly leaving behind psychic energies as he or she goes through the same routines over and over again. These psychic vibrations then build up over time within the boundaries of the house, fueled by the strong emotions of the individual who resides within. As a result, they often linger even long after the individual is dead and gone. Indeed, this would seem to be one explanation as to why many spiritual encounters or even "sightings" happen in places like hospitals, orphanages or abandoned homes (often accompanied by sordid stories from the building's long forgotten past).  

To the psychically sensitive, the psychic vibrations trapped within act as a sort of spiritual photocopier and it  functions almost to the point where it becomes pretty much possible to witness the person(s) going through their daily routines or whatever it is that gave off such strong emotions as to fuel the psychic imprint in the first place, almost as though he or she were still in the house and alive. To the less psychically aware (and I do believe that we are all to varying degrees capable of this), glimpses of the individual's past may appear instead. Figures out of the corner of the eye as discussed are a common phenomena and may in fact be manifestations of the deceased's psychic imprints that are being picked up in bits and pieces, sort of like trying to listen to a radio show with the radio dial set in-between stations. They  come up as incoherent puzzles that the brain can only project as vague, translucent images and/or random flashes of unexplained emotions and feelings, such as that uneasiness or of being watched.  

The Indigo, or third eye chakra which governs the psychic abilities of clairvoyance and imagination.

Anyway, this is perhaps the most sympathetic view on spiritual manifestation and encounters. Indeed,  I will not peg this as a total discredit of ghost sightings and feelings of unease in reportedly "haunted" areas, but it is one explanation that may be easier to swallow for the more skeptical; one that stems from the amazing and untapped potential of the human mind. If you enjoyed this post on spirituality and mysticism, do write to me to let me know. I love hearing from you guys!!!

Blessed be.
)O(.

Contemplations of Wiccan Spellcasting, Neo Paganism, and Environmentalism.

Blessings sisters and brothers.

And when the Earth was in dire need, when man had turned upon the Mother and destroyed the very Spirit that birthed us all, it flew down from the sun: a bird of rainbow colors. And from the light reflected upon its wings, the earth trembled and shook, and all manner of life began toburst forth. At the end of it all, the world was once again: Paradise. "Paradise bird myth"

So I have recently begun to do the literature review for my PhD (The anthropology of ecology and environmentalism) and I must say that I have begun to unearth all sorts of wonderful tit-bits of information regarding religion, spirituality and the ecological/environmental movement. Did you know, for instance, that there is a fundamental difference between the two terms; "environmentalism" and "ecology"? The former suggests a retrospective look at the world we live in. A "repairing" (for lack of a better word) of the damage we've already inflicted upon Mother Earth. The latter, on the other hand is essentially more radical in nature, and believes that societal norms and values (namely the restrictive duality of the contemporary world) need necessarily be overturned in order for environmental (or rather, ecological) changes to be permanent. It is concerned, in other words, with shifting the predominantly capitalist world-view to a more natural shade of green. Bloch (1998) discusses in his musing of the matter that the Alternative Spirituality movement (Wiccans, neo-Pagan, etc.) of fairly recent times may be seen to be a subversive social movement that is gradually moving along that direction.

The summary of his otherwise fairly lengthy (and, I'm afraid quite dismissive at times) analysis is that unlike "traditional" or "organized" religions, whose theories and ideologies of cosmology (who we are as a people, where be belong, and where we come from) is juxtaposed upon the   metaphorical and literally unreachable sky/heavens, the cosmology of many alternative spiritualites is positioned right here, among the mundane practices of the earth. The heaven vs. earth dichotomy that structures the living world as a material resource, to be used in support of the ephemeral life of the individual (a supposed recurrent theme across many forms of organized/structured spiritualities) purportedly no longer exists across the spectrum of Alternative Spiritualities. Indeed, by pointing out that the "common laws" of specific religious groups which binds its supplicants as a social category unto itself do not hold sway with alternative spiritualites, Bloch (1998) also demonstrated the ways in which the alternative spiritual movement is structured not by fixed rituals and traditions (in the way that one can be Neo-Pagan and practice Wiccan spell casting, or Nature Spiritualist and practice Kaballa, but still find a sense of spiritual camaraderie with each other)  but a pervasive and "universal" ideology regarding these people's connections to the land. The metaphysical cosmology of existence with alternative spiritualites, therefore is not focused upon the heavens and the spiritual hereafter, but rather grounded in the many mundane things that happen on earth and the sustainability of of the Planet (personified through Its "spiritual consciousness" known as Gaia). "Mundane" actions like recycling, growing trees, and show respect for all living creatures, is therefore given an added dimension of significance via spirituality. It is theorized, therefore that many individuals of alternative spiritualities therefore exhibit a more fundamental dedication to the environment (though it is arguable that this is definitely an oversimplified generalization on Bloch's part).

Which leads me to question; is my own fundamental dedication to the environment an inherent component of my own Neo-Pagan/Wiccan Spiritualism? Or is this all just a coincidence? To be honest although I do see some truth in Bloch's words, I also do think that it really all depends on the general disposition of the individual to the environment in the first place. Frankly, I have always been dedicated to environmental preservation and the conservation of endangered species. Indeed, what my entrance into the Neo-Pagan spiritual realm some 12-13 years ago did was  not so much give me an entirely new and enlightened view of my environmentalism, but rather, consolidated that "practical" aspect of my life, into the spiritual. Looking at some of my fellow practitioners, I can similarly attest that many, if not all of us, hold a deep reverence to the environment and are therefore often involved in one way or another with environmentalism, conservation, or the green (vegan/vegetarian)/health food movement. Is there any truth in this? As a Wiccan or Pagan practitioner, what do you think? Is the environment and nature an integral part of who you are as a person? And to what extent does your reverence for Nature go above and beyond your own spiritual customs?

Love and Light
)O(