Putting God back into schools.

[TDDA]

About Wiccan faith, I will explain.

Wiccan teaching is not even 100 years old and you got that very wrong with the Christian connection. Wiccan orientates strongly around Paganism. The age-old religion Christianity lent a lot from, to please the heathens converting to Christianity. You put up a Christmas tree? That's a Germanic pagan tradition. Happy Easter? The egg is a Pagan fertile symbol. I could go on for hours. Blowing out candles on a cake? That's a Pagan ritual or what the Wiccan's call, candle magic. Same is true for blowing dandelions into the wind and wishing something.

The Wiccan Rede is a two sided sword. What defines harm?

That's why I don't send positive energy unasked. I will ask for permission and wait for it. Why? Because me sending unasked positive energy interferes with someones path and can lead to harm, second degree. 

Like love potions or love magic. There is no more cruel thing than wishing to take someones free will away. Even the love spells that use awareness to make someone aware of you and let natural chances go from there, I see that highly critical and would never engage in such a thing. Then there will be those Wiccan's that interpret it completely different and be like "oh it means physical harm".

See how that works? I know Wiccans and honestly my experience with them led to me being highly suspicious of someone's intentions and reasoning. Wiccan, again, is closer to a centralized religion than Paganism ever could be. This should not be a rant about Wiccans but most I had conversations with, showed me they are just in for that it makes them something special.

I practice some forms of Paganism for a long time and at one point, wanted to join a Wiccan circle. I didn't disclose my history as I didn't thought it would be important. Guess what? I was denied entry to their coven because allegedly the spirit isn't in me. I heard that from a 21 year old, plastered with symbolisms she probably didn't fully understand yet. That and further observations on the internet, led me to the opinion that many, not all, Wiccan practicioners have no idea what they dabble with and interpret a BIT too much into what they read.

I mean, the amount of stuff that is made up on the fly that is nowhere to be found in the original teachings or even Paganism, but sold as "the deal" and "the final truth" makes me want to puke. For me it's intentional lying or make-believe imposed on others as the truth and teachings. Manipulating people, a direct violation of the Wiccan Rede itself.

I think we actually agree for the most part on Wicca, it IS less than a hundred years old, and is a manufactured religion made by Gerald Gardner. I've known some Wiccans as well, had a step daughter that was one. I call all of them "Barnes and Noble witches" because Barnes and Noble is a bookseller that she got all of her religious precepts from. Not a single one has a tradition going back more than 100 years. Yes indeed, they DO dabble in things and use symbols they have no understanding of, and only get their notions out of books written and sold to make money, so they contain any old BS that the writer can make up - "made up on the fly", just as you say.

On the other hand, I know some actual real-world witches, too, and they are nothing like Wiccans. They have traditions going back hundreds, maybe thousands, of years, handed down through families.

My step daughter used to carry on something awful about the 17th century persecution of witches, as if it had something to do with her Wiccan religion when it did not. she acted like it had some kind of direct impact on HER. In those days of the "witch hunts", they were afraid of the actual, old school witches, whose misunderstood ways were handed down for centuries among families. That persecution had nothing at all to do with modern Wiccans, which did not even exist at the time. Gerald Gardner was a long way in the future from even being a twinkle in his mother's eye.

Both the Biblical phrase "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" and the Wiccan Rede of "an' it harm not others, do as thou wilt" carry the connotation that one should be mindful of his actions impact on others before taking that action. In that way, they are similar, although not precisely the same.

No, I do not put up a Christmas tree, and never have since I left home. I do not celebrate Easter with eggs or rabbits. I don't even have birthday cakes, because at my age that many candles would be a fire hazard and might invite a visit from the ire Marshal!

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lol Barnes and Nobles witches, I get it. I also picked up the fuss Wiccans have with the witch hunt.. However I can relate to it a bit, not by heritage but there is a town near me, where the witch burning was daily business. Also hanging and burning at the same time. The place it happened, it's not visible anymore. But it's located on a hill and I am not saying it's because of some blood thing, I actually don't believe that, but I picked up the bad juju from that place, without knowing before. Of course when I heard about it, it was clear to me.

Here is one of those families although I can't vouch for anything that goes beyond my mother's Nonna when it comes to this. Not writing this to say I am special or on top, or that it gives me any extra legacy in my opinion. I still had to learn runes, several types and also old Germanic writing, that's how I try to extract the old knowledge from writings that are in my possession and sometimes, but seldom, I will find a treasure in a library. My brother had to learn it too btw, it's not exclusive to women / girls.

My daughter is going to learn them as soon as she can read and write the normal German language. However I never got anything taught by my mother about that. I've seen her practicing it, do blessings and how she behaved in the forest, but she never could teach me anything, I was too young when she died and didn't  fully understand the meaning of the texts I translated while learning the old letters and grammar, I had to teach myself the rest after she died but with a break in between. But I have inherited her books of shadows, with her thoughts in it that tell me I might be on a path that isn't too wrong.

I agree about the similarity in mindset between Christianity and Wiccan and in that sense you are right, I think it is inspired by Christianity (the Wiccan Rede being similar to the Christian idea about only doing things you want to experience yourself), not in the sense that Wiccan was entirely inspired by Christianity. It's hard to relate such a mindset to Paganism, because there was never a centralized idea of it. It's much more folkolore and woven into many things we do, say and see today, but so many do not know. I actually find that a bit saddening and would like the rest of the world to look into it, so not gatekeeping here at all.