A wise Wiccan once said, ‘for a ritual to be effective, the ritual much speak to you.’
There is not, and can never be, a ‘pure’ or ‘true’ form of Wicca. There are no central governments, no physical leaders, and no prophets or messengers. There are groups and organizations that do exists. But no one main branch, as we would say. If I am wrong, so be it, but these words come mainly out of a book that I considered a good source to start from. Wicca is a type of religon that is loosely organized from Pagan religion centering toward reverence for the creative forces of nature. And Wiccans usually worship a God or Goddess. Wiccans have a acceptance of magic and mysterious nature and also have many spiritual roots. Unlike most Western religions, ‘Wicca doesn’t claim to be the one true way. Wicca is a joyous religion coming from our kinship with nature. It is a merging with the Goddess and Gods, the universal energies which create all in existence. It is a personal, positive celebration of life.’ At present, Wicca is a religion that has many variations.
Shamanism has been said to the the first religion. Shamans were the medicine people, the power wielders, male and female. They wrought magic and spoke to the spirits of nature. To get to the state of magical excellence, they would put themselves in alternate states of consciousness in which they would commune with the forces of nature. To reach this state they would use certain ‘tools’ such as: fasts, thirsts, self-infliction of pain, ingestion of hallucinogenic substances, concentration, ecstasy, and so on. Once these skills were mastered, this allowed them to gain awareness of other non-physical worlds. Once in this state of awareness, Shamans were able to talk with spirits and deities, plants and animals. This opening up a new way of learning. Shamans did not do this for public view, this was very personal. Anyways, a step backwards; Shamans used other ‘tools’ in trying to find their state of consciousness such as, drums, pipes, rattles, mirrors, music, chant, and dance. Also many nature tools were used such as the water, dirt, firelight, and wind. Wiccans could spiritually descend from these rites.
And to get to the point, Wiccas use many of the same techniques as Shamans used to reach their own state of consciousness. But today Wiccans do not use much of the pain method and the use of hallucinogenic substances. But they still use chants, meditation, concentration, music, dance, invocation and, ecstasy.
‘Wicca teaches that nature includes a broad spectrum of mental and spiritual states of which most of us are ignorant.’ And that the Goddess and God are both within ourselves and manifest in all nature. Both the Goddess and God are equal, warm, loving, and are not distant or reside in Heaven, but are throughout the universe and are within each personal soul. Wicca also teaches that this world is just one of many, and has many realities.
