The Wiccan Religion

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Today, Wicca has dropped the ordeals of pain and the use of hallucinogens in favor of chanting, meditation, concentration, visualizations, music, dance, invocation and ritual drama. With these spiritual tools the Wicca achieve a state of ritual consciousness similar to those attained by the most brutal shamanic ordeals.

Wicca teaches that nature includes a broad spectrum of mental and spiritual states of which most of us are ignorant. Effective Wiccan ritual enables us to slip into such states, allowing communication and communion with the Goddess and God. Unlike some religions, Wicca doesn't view Deity as distant.

The Goddess and God are both within ourselves and manifest in all nature. This is the universality: there is nothing that isn't of the Gods. It also teaches that the physical world is one of many realities.

The Wiccan ideal of mortality is simple: do what you want, as long as you harm none. This rule contains another unwritten condition: do nothing that will harm yourself. This is more than survival. It also ensures that you'll be in good condition to take on the tasks of preserving and bettering our world, for concern and love for our planet play major roles in Wicca.

Wicca is also a religion that utilizes magic. This is one of its most appealing and unique features. Religious magic? This isn't as strange as it might seem. Magic is the practice of moving natural energies to effect needed change. In Wicca, magic is used as a tool to sanctify ritual areas, to improve ourselves and the world in which we live. Many people confuse Wicca and magic as if the two words were interchangeable. Wicca is a religion that embraces magic. If you seek to only practice magic, Wicca probably isn't the answer for you.

Most Wiccans don't believe in predestination. Although we honor and revere the Goddess and God, we know that we're free souls with full control and responsibility of our lives. Once a Wiccan takes full responsibility for all that she or he has done and determines that future actions will be in accord with higher ideals and goals, magic will blossom and life will be a joy.