Advice on being wiccan

[Goddess Aidos]

i have been a wiccan for a few years, but i have not been up to date with it, i have not made a commitment in it, and i do understand the main thing, that i have been called to by some outside force, and i feel as though it has called me here for a reason. I'm not sure why, but for the past few years, i've had a calling to join as a believer in pegan/ wiccan. So please help me to grow and mature as one.

Blessed Be!!  

[khlouiie-nicole]

I'm not the type who makes commitments either but I still am A wiccan (been one since I was 10) But
~All I do is go to pagan pride day
~Pray. I pray and thank our goddess/mother
~Practice wicca witchcraft (Witchcraft has nothing to do with wicca, unless your using wiccan witchraft)  

[Violet Song jat Shariff]

BrItTaNy MaRiE cRoPp

i have been a wiccan for a few years, but i have not been up to date with it, i have not made a commitment in it, and i do understand the main thing, that i have been called to by some outside force, and i feel as though it has called me here for a reason. I'm not sure why, but for the past few years, i've had a calling to join as a believer in pegan/ wiccan. So please help me to grow and mature as one.

Blessed Be!!

Erm, if you're Wiccan and still participating in your initiating coven, then I'm not quite sure what you mean by you haven't made a commitment to it.
You should seek help in growing and maturing as a Wiccan from your HPS as we aren't going to be familiar with the training you have received.

devilerina101

I'm not the type who makes commitments either but I still am A wiccan (been one since I was 10) But
~All I do is go to pagan pride day
~Pray. I pray and thank our goddess/mother
~Practice wicca witchcraft (Witchcraft has nothing to do with wicca, unless your using wiccan witchraft)

You were initiated into a fertility-based faith when you were 10? I'm so sorry sad Were the perpetrators apprehended? That's a shitty thing to do to a kid.
Perhaps you meant "witch" not "Wiccan"?
I'm kind of confused by your saying "Witchcraft has nothing to do with Wicca." Yes, Wicca employs a great deal of witchcraft, but witchcraft exists on its own outside of Wicca as well. I think a decent number of witches tend to incorporate outer-court material from Wicca in their practice though, FWIW.  

[Sanguina Cruenta]

BrItTaNy MaRiE cRoPp

i have been a wiccan for a few years, but i have not been up to date with it, i have not made a commitment in it, and i do understand the main thing, that i have been called to by some outside force, and i feel as though it has called me here for a reason. I'm not sure why, but for the past few years, i've had a calling to join as a believer in pegan/ wiccan. So please help me to grow and mature as one.

It's important to understand the difference between being a Pagan and being a Wiccan. While you may well be a Pagan, Wicca is a specific religion and it's not easy to be one. You have to study hard and gain initiation into a coven that traces its initiation back to Gerald Gardner. In other words, you can't be a Wiccan unless you've already made a big commitment to it.

You may well be called by an outside force - but the first step is to work out what is calling you, let alone where they're calling you wink That place may or may not be Wicca, but it could be many years before you get there.

In general, read much, and don't rush.  

[Sanguina Cruenta]

devilerina101

I'm not the type who makes commitments either but I still am A wiccan (been one since I was 10)

I am certain that you practise your religion with dedication and have done since ten. However, unless you were in a very unfortunate situation, that religion cannot be Wicca. Wicca is an initiatory faith - you really do need to be initiated into a coven in order to practise. No coven would do this to a ten year old, partially because there are sexual elements of the initiation ritual that are inappropriate, and partially because Wicca is a priesthood and a burden that a ten year old is not emotionally and spiritually mature enough to conceive of, let alone bear.

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~Practice wicca witchcraft (Witchcraft has nothing to do with wicca, unless your using wiccan witchraft)

I'm kind of confused by this statement, I must admit. How are we defining "wiccan witchcraft" here? In what sense does witchcraft generally have nothing to do with Wicca?  

[Iiza Pagan Beech]

I'm not a Wiccan--their moral structure is too strict for me. But I do know that there are plenty of accepting Wiccans out there for anyone who wanted to be Wiccan.

http://www.cuew.org/

Do not let anyone tell you that you can't be something you're pretty sure you are.

Also, my advice would be to read everything you get your hands on--and question everything you read. Do you truly believe this? Is this reaffirming your beliefs? Does it make sense? If not, then what would instead? DO NOT TAKE SOMEONE'S WORD FOR IT JUST BECAUSE THEY HAVE MORE "AUTHORITY" THAN YOU.

And when I say "read everything you can get your hands on," I mean other pagan-y stuff, too. Not just Wicca.

Happy Hunting!  

[Sanguina Cruenta]

Iiza Pagan Beech

Do not let anyone tell you that you can't be something you're pretty sure you are.

What if you're mistaken in what you think that thing is that you're pretty sure you are?

What I mean is, what if you're pretty sure that what you are matches something, but your understanding of that thing is misinformed? Can someone not inform you properly so that you understand that what you are and this thing are not the same?  

[Yanueh]

Iiza Pagan Beech

Do not let anyone tell you that you can't be something you're pretty sure you are.

That's actually bad advice. gonk Wicca has some pretty precise rules for qualifying as an actual Wiccan, and no matter how many 13-year-olds stand up, declare themselves Wiccan, and call anyone who disagrees a big fat pootyhead, it won't change the fact that actual Wicca requires a bit more than reading a few books (or even a gazillion books) on the subject. Ditto for the pseudo-Wiccan authors out there who write books saying you don't need to be initiated into a lineaged coven. Wicca is a mystery religion, meaning that some of its core beliefs aren't available to non-initiates. Without the mysteries, it's not Wicca. It might be a very fulfilling path inspired by Wicca's outer court teachings, but it's not actual Wicca.  

[Morgandria]

Iiza Pagan Beech

I'm not a Wiccan--their moral structure is too strict for me. But I do know that there are plenty of accepting Wiccans out there for anyone who wanted to be Wiccan.

http://www.cuew.org/

Do not let anyone tell you that you can't be something you're pretty sure you are.

Also, my advice would be to read everything you get your hands on--and question everything you read. Do you truly believe this? Is this reaffirming your beliefs? Does it make sense? If not, then what would instead? DO NOT TAKE SOMEONE'S WORD FOR IT JUST BECAUSE THEY HAVE MORE "AUTHORITY" THAN YOU.

And when I say "read everything you can get your hands on," I mean other pagan-y stuff, too. Not just Wicca.

Happy Hunting!

CUEW is not lineaged Wicca. One of its' founders is well known online for being somewhat history and fact-challenged - as well as belligerently so.

CUEW's assertion that Wicca is based on belief further points to its' lack of lineage and knowledge about Wicca.

Your assertion that people ignore 'authority' based on their beliefs or feelings is...well, stupid. People should choose to accept or reject claimed authority based on factual accuracy and legitimacy. That's what authority should be based upon in this instance.

If you don't like something - that's fine. But it doesn't make that something wrong, just because you don't feel it's true, or it doesn't make you feel good. If facts bear you out, that's fine. But we don't get to decide that facts are invalid when they're inconvenient.

As has been pointed out around the various areas of the boards here several times - Wicca has qualifications for practice, that have to be earned by an individual from their peers. Because it's based on practice, and it's a practice taught by other, trained and qualified individuals - you can't get it from books or the internet - you can't just up and decide you believe what Wiccans believe, and thus are one.

Unless, of course, I can decide I believe in modern medicine, or law, or astrophysics, and that makes me a doctor, or a lawyer, or an astrophysicist.  

[Orchidsandfractals]

Well, are you sure it's the Wiccan Goddess/God calling you to worship her/him? If you are sure, start talking to other Wiccans for advice, and maybe start going to a coven meeting, only outer court stuff till you're 18, and if you still feel it is her/him, then join a coven. And then you are a Wiccan.A God/Goddess can appear to anyone at any age. Gods have many different aspects.

There are many other pagan Goddesses(Or Gods) who appear in dreams or who can "call you" to worship her(Or him)! Hera has appeared to me in dreams, and I worship her. Think about what else goes along with your calling. Try some meditation to figure out who exactly is calling you. I thought it was Athena who was calling me, but it was Hera. Meditation can do wonders.Hera is normally seen as a marriage Goddess, but can also be a Goddess of all women and of Virgins. Pagan is a lump all term for all non Abrahamic religions, and by some standards, the Far Eastern religions such as Buddhism or Hinduism. So, if you are Wiccan, then of course you are pagan! I'm Hellenimos(Worshiping Hera, a Greek Goddess!) in religion, so of course I'm pagan. If you're not sure which branch of paganism you follow, then Pagan is the best term. It's like Christian. You can be a Catholic, you can be a Mormon. If you don't know which you follow, you're a Christian, but not a Catholic. You may later become a Catholic if you feel called to such. Now, Wicca has some rules that Catholics don't have, such as requiring a specific initiation as opposed to just a baptism in Catholicism(Which I would presume could be done by any church, Catholic or not). You're probably not a Gardenian Wiccan or Alexandrian if you haven't been initiated.

Try to figure out exactly which Goddess/God is calling you to pray.If it's the dualistic one and two, you may just be a soft polytheist. Try to think if it's a specific one. If not, you can say you worship the God and Goddess, the male and female aspect of both. I don't know any particular pagan religions other than Wicca that have this idea, but I don't know a ton about paganism, despite being kinda raised as such.

For the record, my great great grandmother, a staunch Jew would refer to God as "God Goddess" or if she was feeling really fancy, "The God and the Goddess that are the source of everything Holy, and who protect the wee ones who dwell below the hills and the Fey for whom we ask to bless the milk, who are one and in each of us, and who are powerful over all, including the demons, the banshees, the devil and the blessed wild people who dwell in Heaven and bless us with death, whom we celebrate at Funerals, and who God-Goddess alone has power over."(Her phrasing varied a lot. That's what my mother said she said, my grandmother phrased it a little bit differently, but the key point was that she viewed the Gods as a male and a woman, but the same. She tended to work the Fey and the Leprechauns in as much as possible as it was considered very bad luck to ignore them.). She was very much Jewish in the mid-late 1800s. She also was an early early Feminist(In the sense she worked when she had no need to and thought arranged marriages were bad, among other early feminist ideas, but this was the very beginning of the movement.), and didn't think it was right for God to be male only. She was not a pagan in any sense of the word. She may have known slightly more about paganism than many in her era, I don't know. Her daughter did wear an Ankh every day,(For "fashion"), so who knows. She was not a pagan though, and probably only knew of female Goddesses from her Latin classes in college and high school. She may have made up the idea herself though, I don't know! She was not a pagan, she was not the last of a dying pagan breed, she was a Scottish Jew. She may have blended some pre Christian beliefs such as the blessed Fey who survived Christianity(Which, well, the Fey were the forest/local Gods, in paganism. The hall under the hills is similar to the idea of many of the Norse/Celtic heavens.However, it was not pagans who left milk out for the Good Fey(Good and such is traditionally put before fey or little people to indicate that they are good, to avoid offending them, for they are not seen as bad by most. Most Celtic lore says that they are good, maybe stealing a baby or so, but replacing it with a far better one. My family thinks they bring death, but we also had an extreme number of miscarriages and genetic related deaths for children, so...), but Christians who held on to pre Christian beliefs, who may not have been 100% Christian for many centuries. Conversions take a while. 50 years is not long enough to get rid of paganism. 200-300 years is reasonably long, but Crypto Jews have been found among the Spanish American communities who survived the Crusades and the Inquisition, with many Jewish customs, and people being raised in a non Temple based Jewish faith. My own family had a similar situation in Scotland. We remained Jewish and many traditions for about 800-1000 years after we officially converted.Heck, Rabbis recognized that fact and did not require us to go thru the full conversion process if one of us wants to go to Temple or marry a Jew. So, I'm not going to deny that it's possible there were pagans around in her era who survived, just that they were VERY rare, unorganized, and dying out quickly. I know personally my ancestors were not true pagans for quite a long time, but Jewish with probably some pagan flavor.But as for the Pictish Gods and when they died out, that's a debate for another time and place. The Picts are a special case in the sense we can't translate our language and all that remains are some large carved stones. Same deal with all paganism. Pagan traditions certainly survived, and I can't be certain of how much of my ancestors interesting parts of Judaism(IE, not standard.) are colored by pagan bits, and how much are Dark Ages Jewish traditions. But she was by no means worshiping a Pagan God/Goddess. So, hopefully by making it very clear she is not pagan, it is quite possible to believe in the ditheistic/gender nature of the Gods without being a Wiccan!

Also, you can do witchcraft without having a particular God/Goddess to follow. You can do it as a Christian for goodness's sake!  

[Sanguina Cruenta]

Orchidsandfractals

I'm Hellenimos(Worshiping Hera, a Greek Goddess!) in religion, so of course I'm pagan.

Worshipping a Greek god doesn't make your religion Hellenismos. Hellenismos is a reconstructionist religion. It is very involved, from what I know from talking to Nuri. It's a bit soon to call yourself a follower of Hellenismos a week after deciding you worship a Greek deity! You need to do a heap of research before you get to that point!

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(Which, well, the Fey were the forest/local Gods, in paganism.

Incorrect.

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Most Celtic lore says that they are good, maybe stealing a baby or so, but replacing it with a far better one.

They replace them either with a faerie child, which would be a blight on the family, or a child made from wood who sickened and died. How is that "far better" than the one the mother had carried for nine months? the flesh of father and mother?

I'd like to see which Celtic lore claims this, as it had changed a hell of a lot by the middle ages!

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The Picts are a special case in the sense we can't translate our language and all that remains are some large carved stones. Same deal with all paganism.

....What? I must have misread this. Are you implying all Pagan languages cannot be translated?