Olivia Strittmatter - Wicca

 Blog Post 9 - Topic of My Choosing 3

Week 9

For this blog post I’m going to be writing my second post about the topic of my choosing, which is: comparing how different religions interact with nature and the ecology that surrounds that followers of each religion. The religion that I’m writing about this week is Wicca, which is a form of neo-paganism that is very environmentally focused.

I think it’s particularly interesting how modern neo-paganism differs from ancient paganism. I wrote a blog post about the general ancient pagan religion(s) in a previous blog post, and I will compare and contrast that religion with this one.

Wicca is a modern pagan religion that originated in the 1950s in England. There is a couple core beliefs that are general to the entire religion, but everyone has their own way to practice. The two major deities are the Triple Goddess and the Horned God, but practitioners often follow a specific pantheon with other deities that are important to them. Wiccans celebrate eight major holidays throughout the year: Yule, Imbolc, Ostara, Beltane, Litha, Lughnassad, Mabon, and Samhain. One of the major rules of Wicca is “an it harm none, do what ye will” meaning that if what you do/think/say doesn’t harm anyone or anything then go ahead and do/think/say it; this is very heavily tied to morality and environmentalism (don’t damage the ecosystem because you want something from it). The other major rule is the Rule of Three (the Golden Rule) which states that everything returns three times. Most Wiccans follow the Wiccan Rede, which is a poem of sorts that describes the morality that a Wiccan should have and uphold, and this is where “an it harm none, do what ye will” comes from.

Modern neo-pagan religions such as Wicca are fairly similar to ancient Paganism. There are a few key differences though, and one major one that I noticed was that the Ancient Greek/Roman pagans performed animal sacrifices to the gods, Wiccans do not do that because of the Wiccan Rede (and sacrifices harm the animal). Instead of animal sacrifices Wiccans offer other things as sacrifices/offerings such as bread, fruit, vegetables, crystals, pinecones, seashells, etc. Another major difference is that ancient pagans (typically) only followed one pantheon., while lots of modern pagans follow gods and goddesses of multiple pantheons, as well as modern Wiccans following a Goddess and God that are typically unspecified but represent the feminine and masculine aspects of existence. A similarity that I noticed between ancient paganism and Wicca is the environmental aspects. Both have a deep respect for nature and the natural processes. I think that the Ancient pagans were more upset about upsetting their deities and causing massive issues for their community, while Wiccans are more concerned with potential personal problems that come from the Rule of Three. I think that the Wiccans are similar to the Jains where they don’t want to harm any of the living or nonliving things in the environment, but not to the same extent; Wiccans tend to be vegan or vegetarian but still cook their own food. 

If you want to read more I recommend the Complete Idiot's Guide to Wicca and Witchcraft

Also, Wicca by Scott Cunningham

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Wicca 

http://www.umsl.edu/~naumannj/Geography%20PowerPoint%20Slides/major%20religions/other%20religions/Wicca%20Beliefs%20and%20Practices.pdf