WICCA, WITCHCRAFT, WITCH
Image courtesy Jessica Galbreth
Browsing other wiccan websites and pagan websites, there seems to be a lot of debate on some of these terms. Here I'd like to add my 2 cents.
Wicca is a word for a witch (based on the etymology of the word from the 1996 American Heritage dictionary), wicce for witch and wicca for a sorcerer. But at the same time we believe that everyone has misinterpreted what wiccans, and witches are and were. To me wicca is a term for the religion that witches and wiccans follow. Witchcraft is the art of being a witch; which includes the practice of the religion, herbalism, divination, spell casting and the whole lot. Some of the terms not being thrown into the argument are magick, wizards, sorcerers, and sorceresses.
Magick is out there for everyone, Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, Wiccan, and everyone. If you choose to call it prayer, worshipping, spells, or magick it's all the same. If you follow the Christian Bible, your own Book of Shadows, or even the Necronomicon, you are all using the same abilities. All religions are one, the only difference is how you choose to practice it. All paths are a valid way to reach true enlightenment, some just take more of a detour.
If you choose to use a spell, or a philosophy out of a wiccan book or website or whatever, it doesn't make you a witch. Just as if you believe that Jesus Christ existed and that he was a prophet, doesn't make you a Christian. You must truly believe in the doctrine of the religion to call yourself that faith. The spells will work if you believe in them, and depending on what you are using they may work even if you don't. For instance if you believe a certain medicine will heal you it probably will even if it's a placebo, if you don't think it will work, your mind is working against the actual chemical reactions that are taking place but they will take place any way, and you can be healed.
Basically what I'm saying, is that wicca, neo- paganism, witchcraft all refer to the religion. Witch, and wiccan refer to the believers. You can use the spells but that doesn't make you a follower of that religion, any more than reading a Bible, or simply going to Church makes you a Christian. You have to believe in the path you are following. Magick and spells are for any and all faiths, you just have to believe that the spells will work.
As always these are my opinions, but I guess that's why you are here, you are interested in the religion, or just interested in others' beliefs. That is what you are getting. Normally within a coven you will get the same opinion from everyone, but each coven is different. You can ask any religious people about certain things in their beliefs and I'm sure, you will get different answers based on their denomination, and sometimes even within the same denomination. As always if you have any questions or comments, feel free to post them in the guest book, or email them to me, and I will make a new page just for those emails and I will answer them.
Mobius
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