how to start the religion

[Blankbackyard]

so i really do kinda belive in the gods and godesses of wicca, and i think i really do want to take up the religion, but i really don
't know how.
i've tried reading ' the complete idiots guild to wicca and witchcraft', but i really don't know where to begin.
i dont know any real wiccans, so i can't get help from that, and if i tell me mother [who doesnt care what my religion is all at] she will say it's just a phase or somthign like that
so i can't find a coven, if one would accept me. and also it says liek all these diffrent forms of wicca and it also list's all the god and godess'es and im really just so much confused. and i really dont know how to make myself wiccan or pratice it]

 

[Cariaith]

First of all you "need" to choose the form of Wicca you are going to practice, since that basically decides what you can and can't do. Furthermore you can study up about herbs and stones(I'm giving a class about stones myself atm, so if you want to join in, your welcome) Then you can read up about candle magic and basic spells and rituals, which you cant try to practice yet(because you didnt have your ceremony yet). Then if you are really sure you want all this, you can do your Wiccaning, which is a ritual to the goddess in which you present yourself to her,and fully become a Wiccan. Then you can actually start trying basic spells and rituals. Hope to have informed you enough. ~Blessed be~  

[Rainbow Holocaust]

I'm almost the same way you are.
I cannot actually call myself a true Wiccan at this point in time, but it's kindof something that comes to you through studying.
You see how everything fits, and the path gets easier to follow.
As a general rule, I've been told several times that to consider yourself a real Wiccan, you have to have studied for the aforementioned year. There's a lot of knowing involved, I guess.

I also don't know any real Wiccans in the area... How old are you anyway? Age does play a big role in the resources available to you, sadly, especially with unaccepting parents.  

[Rowan MacGregor]

There are many many online resources, including this forum, to help you on your way. As Cariaith said, a basic study of the different forms of Neopaganism might be helpful to start- Wicca, witchcraft, the reconstructionist forms (celtic recon, asatru etc...), etc... This will help you understand where your beliefs fit in.

Wicca is a religion, a specific set of beliefs and practices and is form of Witchcraft. It is a is duotheistic religion meaning its adherents believe in an archetypal God and Goddess and that all other Gods and Goddess are facets of these archetypes. Wiccans believe that everything is divine, being part of one whole divine being. This means it is also pantheistic. Then there are the various types of Wicca- eclectic, traditional, Gardnerian, Cabot, Alexandrian, Dianic, Faery, Hereditary... Other common features of Wicca are the triple Goddess, the wiccan rede, fertility worship, earth worship and animism.

Witchcraft is not generally viewed as a religion. It's a system of practice, often including spell casting and divination, that may be used in conjunction with other systems of belief or by itself. There are no central dogmas in witchcraft, though practitioners generally adhere to the Hermetic Principles (principle of mentalism, correspondence, vibration, polarity, rhythm, gender and cause and effect).

This is a Wicca/Witchcraft guild, so I won't say much about reconstructionism. Basically, recons are polytheistic. They believe that each God and Goddess is unique and not part a single divine entity. They generally do not use tools outside their cultures, so you wouldn't see a Celtic Recon using runes for example.

Some resources that I would recomend are:

Witchvox.com
Mysticwicks.com
Sacred-texts.com - many free online books about wicca, paganism, ancient mythology and so forth
ReligiousTolerance.org is a great place to get a basic handle on Wicca and Witchcraft. It's also a great place to send concerned or confused friends and family.
This Wikipedia article on Wicca is an impartial and well informed overview.
ModernWicca.com is a good as well.


For information about Reconstruction, the CR FAQ is a great starting point. The KILLYOUANDEATYOU section is a great guide to keeping local spirits in mind when performing ritual and can apply to any pagan- Wiccan or Recon.


Anyway, as far as print resources, I highly recomend Christopher Penczak's Temple series: The Inner Temple of Witchcraft, The Outer Temple of Witchcraft, The Temple of Shamanic Witchcraft, The Temple of High Witchcraft

Other good books are Starhawk's Spiral Dance and Ann Moura's Green Witchcraft series. Also anything by Scott Cunningham is great. He is credited with starting the "Neowicca" movement and brining the tradition out of covens and into the hands of solitaries. All of these books are very common and might be found at your library. I know we have Inner Temple and Spiral Dance at my library and we live in the middle of nowhere in the buckle of the bible belt.

Books to avoid- anything by Douglas Monroe (21 Lessons of Merlin), D.J. Conway and Silver Ravenwolf. There's a general consensus among the pagan population that these books are inaccurate at best.

Take care and feel free to PM me!
Rowan

edited to add more resources  

[Milendil]

If your serious about joining the religion you should read everything by Gerald B. Gardner. I mean, he was the founder, so there is no better authority than him. Avoid Silver Ravenfluff and Wiki.  

[Sanguina Cruenta]

If you're wondering how to "start", as in, begin practising the religion, you should probably do a bit more research first. But you can start meditating, on things like nature or particular deities, as you are studying.  

[too2sweet]

NOTE: I did not write this...the link below is to the original article.
Wicca 101 / FAQ - How does one become Wiccan?

Recently I was asked the following question:

Quote:

I feel an attraction to Wicca, and the God and Goddess, and I really want to go ahead and become Wiccan. But I just don't really know how? I've asked every Wiccan I've came across, and they've either been a Hard-Gard and said I had to be initiated, or a fluff bunny, who I know I can't believe. How do I become Wiccan?

I find this question, in many slight variations, constantly being asked today. Sometimes it's by total Fluff Bunnies looking to get in on what they see as the newest fad, but it's also a question often asked by the truly interested. In many cases it may be an issue of missing the forest for the trees: one becomes so focused on being a part of something that truly calls to them they perhaps lose sight of why it called in the first place.

First, I need to be absolutely clear on a point. Wicca is a religion. It is not a club or an organization. There are no membership cards and no dues (unless you work with a group, in which case you'll probably be expected to help cover the cost of materials). There is no pope or council determining who is a Wiccan and who is not. Each of us, whether we are a Hard-Gard ("If it ain't Gardnerian, it ain't Wicca"), or an academically minded Eclectic, can argue until we're blue in the face as to the proper definition of Wicca, how we choose to use the word and who we consider to be included within the term, but we can't for a moment stop you from believing whatever it is you believe. We don't have possession of our gods. We can't say "No, she's my goddess. You can't worship her," although we might object that certain approaches are incorrect, poorly founded or contrary to the nature of the goddess in question.

So the first counter-question would be: when you are looking to become Wiccan, are you looking for a belief, or are you looking for a title ("Wiccan") and a membership? Or have you perhaps confused the two just a bit and started to believe that the belief somehow is communicated with a title? This is not an offhanded question. If you want to pursue religion - any religion - you need to understand your own goals and desires. Otherwise, you'll never realize them.

Wicca is not a spectator religion. While there is structure to what we do (the details of which are part of what defines Wicca as its own entity), it is not a rigid system of rules and requirements. Western society expects everything to come in neat little packages with easy-to-follow instructions, right down to our religion, and that's not what Wicca delivers. Wicca is esoteric: it is a path for finding truth rather than having truth dictated to us. There's a terrible number of people who have been led to believe that Wicca should say "perform the tree meditation twice a day, pray to the full moon, and leave an food offering outside your door every night and you will know the god and goddess (in 30 days guaranteed or your money back)." No honest Wiccan can (or will) offer that.

So while I cannot hand out a handy how-to guide, I can offer some general recommendations to those interested in following a Wiccan path. Ironically, I'll even break it down into an orderly list.

1...Answer the following questions:

Why are you interested in Wicca?
............This requires two things. First, a working definition of Wicca. If you think you want to be Wiccan but can only define Wicca as "anything you want it to be," apparently you don't want to be Wiccan anymore than you want to be a poodle or a cheesehead. Second, you need some understanding of your own beliefs. If you have no beliefs then Wicca, in your mind, is no closer to the truth than Christianity, Hinduism, or Scientology. Try to be specific. "It makes sense," doesn't offer any clarity. What about it makes sense? And avoid negatives such as "I don't believe in Jesus." Not believing in Jesus makes you a non-Christian. It does not make you a Wiccan.

Why do you believe what you believe?
............This question stumps an astounding number of people. Society has practically conditioned us to accept "I read it in a book," as an acceptable answer. Books have authors. Authors are human. Humans are imperfect. Just because something is in a book doesn't make it right. Not being able to provide a good answer doesn't necessarily mean Wicca is not for you. It does, however, at least illustrate where you need to be immediately focusing your attention. Blind belief is unhealthy.

Why do you do what you do?
............Ritual without meaning is pointless. The ritual itself does nothing. The world will not end if we stop performing our rituals. There should be purpose to everything we do. If you cast a circle because "that's what Wiccans do at the start of a ritual," you're only going through the motions without accomplishing anything. There's a reason we cast circles as well as everything else we do.

2...Read, read, read. Read more. Understand why authors say the things they do and decide whether you agree with them. There will be contradictions. You will need to seek your own answers on those matters. Just because two authors give two different ways to cast circles doesn't necessarily mean one of them is wrong. Rituals are often published because they are useful for many people. That doesn't guarantee a particular ritual is effective for you, although you should endeavor to discover why it works for other people before discounting it.

3...Here's some things for you not to do:

............Don't rush. Wicca isn't going anywhere, and there is no race for enlightenment.

............Don't turn Wicca into a collectible game. Working tools are important and hold great symbolism and meaning...but only if you understand the symbolism and meaning. So many books devote so much time to tools and other accouterments that Wiccans are frequently left with the impression that better tools make one a better Wiccan. They don't.

............Don't accept anything blindly. If something doesn't make sense, research it. There's a lot of very silly ideas out there, half of which should be discernible by common sense. (No, I can't throw a refrigerator with my mind. Thanks for asking. No, my rituals were not handed down by illiterate cavemen either.) Questioning is good.

............Don't try breaking Wicca down into neat and tidy rules. It's counterproductive. You're supposed to be broadening your understandings, not petrifying them into immovable laws.

............Don't try to "look" Wiccan. Wiccans don't have a look, nor do they need it. The moment you try for the "look," you've relegated Wicca to a fashion statement.

............Don't try to act Wiccan either, for the same reasons.

4...Study minimally for a year and a day - not because the universe will disqualify your Wiccanness (and no, that's not really a word) but because we're talking about embracing a new religion, a new paradigm, a new understanding of the world. You're also eventually going to be pledging yourself to deities, and it's just rude to not go into that seriously. If you need more time, take it. (I studied four or five years before dedicating, and in retrospect that was still too soon for me.)

5...Build a relationship with your deities. For many, this involves a lot of patience. After all, you don't gain a new best-friend overnight. It involves time and effort and an honest rapport. Don't feel you need a name for them immediately either. You are attempting to identify those who have called you. You may identify them by qualities before you can by name. You are not choosing a deity from the god store. Whatever you do, avoid those websites and books that list 200 deities and give a one-sentence description of each. "Catherine Noble Beyer: writer of websites" is an incredibly poor summation of me. Why should we view "Athena: goddess of war of wisdom" as any more helpful? Gods aren't objects. They're beings.

6...Talk to people. Ask questions. The Internet, while being a source of a lot of really bad info, is also a source of answers if you look in the right places. There are a variety of forums and mailing lists out there that contain really helpful and informed people. Seek them out. Be aware that most places will have both good and bad contributors, but spending a little time with them should give you a pretty good picture of who to listen to and who to ignore.

Once you have decided that it's time to formalize your relationship, solitaries generally perform a self-dedication ritual. The purpose is a formal declaration of your devotion to your gods. How you do this is up to you. Some people use elaborate ceremonies while others do little more than cast a circle and meditate. Plenty of sample ceremonies can be found on the web if you're curious as to what other people have done. Above all, however, you must remember that anything you gain here comes from the content and purpose of the ritual, not the ritual itself. If you don't mean what you say or understand what you're doing, then you're just wasting your time with a ceremony.