What is the Wicca Religion?
The art (as it is called the Wiccan religion) is a religion of love and joy, is also a shamanic religion, it teaches the existence of parallel worlds and the possibility of contact with beings of other worlds, and unlike Christianity does not preach happiness only after death. |
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Due to the modern civilization, man have lost much of its connection to the earth, but this is not the case of the wiccans, even in this mechanized and sophisticated world, the wiccans keep their bond and devotion to Mother Nature, because they recognize its power and understand its soul (Bring Mundi).
Philosophy
The cornerstone of Witchcraft and its creed is:
1- We practice a ritual to put us in harmony with the natural rhythm of life forces marked by the phases of the Moon and the Seasons.
2- We are aware that our intelligence gives us a unique responsibility toward the environment. We look forward to live in harmony with nature, in ecological balance and respecting life inside an evolutionary concept.
3- We recognize a power greater than detected by the common person, so strong that seems supernatural, but we regard as something that can be accessed by all.
4- We believe in a creative power of the universe which expresses itself through the polarity- as male and female, and this same power resides in all the people and functions through the interaction of male and female. We value both equally, knowing that each is supporting the other. We value sex as pleasure, as the symbol and embodiment of life .
5- We recognize both outer worlds and inner, or psychological, sometimes known as the spiritual world, The Collective Unconscious, or interior plans, seeing the interaction between these two dimensions as the basis for paranormal phenomena and magical exercises. We pay equal attention to two dimensions, considering both necessary for our fulfillment.
6- We do not recognize any authoritarian hierarchy, but do honor those who teach, respect those who share their knowledge and wisdom and respect those who courageously given of themselves to be masters.
7- We believe that religion, the magic and wisdom unite us in our way to contemplate and live within the world and we have identified this philosophy and world view with the witchcraft and the wiccans paths.
8- Calling yourself a witch doesn't make you a witch, neither collecting of titles, degrees and initiations. A witch wish to control the vital forces within itself in order to live wisely, in harmony with nature and without harming nobody.
9- We affirm our belief in life, the progress of evolution and development of knowledge, which give meaning to the universe known by us and our role within it.
10- Our only quarrel with other religions is how they believe to be the only path, denying freedom to others and suppressing other religious beliefs and practices.
11- We don't worry about debates on the Art History, origins and legitimacy of different traditions, we are interested only for the present and future.
12- We don't accept the concept of absolute evil, neither worship any maligna entity. We don't seek power through the suffering of others.
13- We believe that we must seek within the Nature for our health and well-being.
Truths and lies
There is a huge difference between what is visible and what Wicca really is; but it is difficult to translate it into words or something visible and tangible. It is also understandable its banalization as a way to popularize and introduce those interested in this topic, even if sometimes it causes misunderstandings and brings negative consequences, because this is a way to learn. After all, we also learn from the mistakes.
Attempting to dissolve the mists that shroud the subject: Wicca is the name given to the old religion practiced by the Celtics, also known as Witchcraft or "Art".
As the origin is European, it is not related, except for some similarities, with practices of eastern peoples, African or Indian, even coexisting peacefully with them, because it respects the best that each nation has developed.
It is a religion, philosophy and lifestyle handed down by oral tradition. Although possessed writing, the Celts did not use writing to record or fix their procedures. They argued that writing would limited the development of this religion, that having a main line could be tainted by contingencies, values, concepts and interests of an epoch.
This lack of a written code made the occurrence of two things: a very positive evolution and today, because having grown up in family units developed without great pretensions of reaching the general public, while also maintaining its essence.
Another consequence has been that it creates and allocates concepts and practices that did not belong to Wicca, which is quite obvious to anyone who knows your heart, but the general public is imperceptible, incorporating practices of other traditions perhaps pretending to complete it, but it is complete.
It is difficult to accept as positive this anthology, as each tradition is the substratum of philosophical and spiritual culture, connects people to each their cores, or better, explaining, when we practice the traditions of our people reinforce the ties of cultural identity, ties to the spiritual levels and with our mentors. Eclecticism as a homogeneous culture that even below, to have acceptability, mutilates concepts and values of their traditions of origin turning them into mere practice for the achievement of goals and away from the spiritual content that was intended primarily, not promoting, thus or growth, or equilibrium, and not spirituality.
The purpose of this theme, this anthology spiritual, the American philosopher Ken Wilber called this process of selective adoption of certain values and concepts of a philosophy of action outside of context, "Boomeritis" for him this phenomenon came with the postwar generation (Baby Boomers), which aims to understand Eastern values, have adopted practices such as Buddhist meditation seeking enlightenment and transcendence that the religions of the West is not promoted, only ignoring the fact that these practices comes from a context of values and customs of a people that are impractical in the Western world, practical way out of context creates a false veneer of consciousness and evolution without loose internal nodes.
So that Wicca is a Western tradition is a source more easily assimilated by Westerners.
Not that this means it is greater, or better. Wicca is not a mass religion, your way is for individual seekers who are willing to develop awareness, identity and connection to the soul.
The Art is often associated with spells, rituals for getting something, as if this is the only purpose. This a misrepresentation about the fact that we use materials and the help of elemental force as plants, stones, fire, etc.. at the rituals, we developed the ability to access the consciousness present in everything we interact with and may also ask for assistance.
The practice of magic is a result of long years of training for the development of consciousness, awareness of parallel universes and the creation of what we call magical personality, a sense of identity that supplants the larger common. Thus, the mere implementation of spells described in books or spells are not magic operations. You must be able to execute them, in fact, when you are enabled, you don't need to execute them.
The development of perception enables us to deal with experiences of poverty, or "between worlds" (moments or periods of transition as phases of the moon, the seasons and rooms, called among other festivals including personal transitions, stages of growth etc.. ). This perception brings with it the ability to assess with reverence for the power contained in these moments as portals.
The development of consciousness is somewhat similar, because through awareness we access these portals. The consciousness is not forged without effort, you can't skip steps, you can't access a particular portal, with the exception of a rite, if you didn't developed the consciousness to assimilate it. Or what can happen is that you have distorted impressions, tainted by ignorance and difficulty in interpreting them, not bringing either growth or development, on the contrary, can cause mental imbalance, such as hallucinations, fears, etc.., common results in inexperienced practitioners who want top flight without the necessary competence.
Personality magic is the result of a process of self-transcendence and is assumed to occur initiation when it receives a new name with which is to appear before the spiritual plane that takes as the starting path. The initiation is not conferred by the more experienced witch, it is confirmed in a rite where the beginner seals his commitment, but after the authorization of the spiritual plane.
The magical training includes not only theoretical knowledge, spiritual development, self-awareness, develop psychic abilities, but also a practice of integral development that involves issues as diverse as cooking, sexuality, medicine and magic of plants , herbs, crystals, among other exercises. We believe that evolution takes place only if all aspects evolve, it develop the mind without developing the emotional, or mental and spiritual imbalance and dissociate the individual from nature and pace and nature of the development should occur in many aspects, one reaches another level when all the parts of himself reached this level.
Altered states used in witchcraft should be achieved naturally, otherwise there is no development of consciousness, but unconsciousness.
Wicca is also mistaked with cultural movements and fashions adopted by young people. From one side come the new generations of incarnations where this practice was widespread, but born in the context of today's young people can mix things that do not match the lifestyle of Wiccans.
As an example is the use of black clothing, symbol of introspection and recollection. It is neither a wizard uniform, or a way to be recognized as such.
The same can happen with the amulets and the pentagram, although of great beauty, they are not mere ornaments.
What are the Wiccans values? The natural lifestyle, wich is vital. We believe that the formation of the current values become the feeding artificial, as relationships and roles.
As with essentially the male and female roles violated homogeneity of the essence under the aegis of a seemingly noble cause, equal rights and duties, lost the notion that before had to recognize inequalities. As in the case of Buddhism Boomeritis Westerners were too unaccustomed to respect women's rights, and could not make the recovery process of these rights wisely, resulting in profound confusion in relationships.
As Wiccans we seek the male and female primary translated into our gods, but we recognize that there were achievements in the feminist movement, including his own re-emergence of Wicca, as the image of the witch, not the old ugly and bad, but the mature woman, owner of and other wise very good match with the role that feminists wanted to have, the tv show The Witch in the sixties is a confirmation of this fact.
Later in the hippie movement other Wiccan value came to light, sexual liberation, with consequent brought a greater freedom in dresscode and deal with the body.
In the eighties, the search for alternative forms of healing and the appearance of the environmental movement, who resurrected the idea that nature and we were part of a large living organism Gaia (James Lovelock's concept), we had to fight for life, a movement that mobilized individuals in all nations and pressured governments to change the focus of resource exploitation, witchcraft has always considered an Earth Goddess and always considered the living colleagues.
The idea more and more comprehensive on the sacredness of the planet was also treated by Rupert Sheldrake on Revival of Nature, which introduced the concept of morphic fields (soul) of plants and places, something like a consciousness that transmitted information to conspecifics, and encouraged that more than preserving or see the places we return to perform pilgrimage and perform rituals at places known as sacred, center of force (threshold between worlds), so that our reverential attitude add even more power to these places, concept that justifies any witches effort to the celebrations held in the open nature, thanking and blessing the fertility of the earth.
In Europe these sacred places, the nemetons sacred springs and where the Druids held their rituals led to the construction of churches, despite maintaining his power. For witchcraft untouched nature is itself a temple, and the vault of heaven as a limit, the idea of practical magic places in them is that the earth energy and mood is higher, a factor that would work with the desired intention, similar to that the east is called Feng Shui.
But not only the forests of oak had the force of nature, but man also in his body, specifically in the sexual area, precisely because of its creative function. So then we come to one of the most controversial Wiccans theme, because while other philosophies consider sex and matter itself as inferior to the spirit, the Wiccans consider it embodied the spirit and without a healthy sexuality is no comprehensive development and more, this integrated sexuality includes all the guidelines. It would be controversial to empower women and nature face the patriarchal philosophy, but the idea of a sacred sexuality, and the body as a temple, with rituals involving sex, values were too bold and still suffer prejudice for it.
To the witches something only is superior if it can embrace or transcend what is inferior, not ruling out a body if we have everything in it is natural and expected to be one factor that contributes to our evolution.
Another controversial value in witchcraft is the possibility of direct contact with the gods because it is a shamanic religion and priestly assumption is that its practitioners to develop in order to get in touch with the spiritual, not a believer, or lay people who get guidance through the priest. This communication can be accomplished through shamanic dreams and further complemented by oracles, omens and astrological observation.
It may seem like superstition to rational minds and skeptical, but for someone with expanded awareness can "read" the will of God in everything, that life is in perfect communication with who knows how to listen. That's why many witches were considered as prophets.
Another important value is to respect the beliefs and philosophies differ from ours, we do not convert anyone, everyone must follow what their understanding considers best, but do not mix the traditions that take us away from our spiritual family.
Witchcraft has never been "anti" something, there is a lot of internal work to take care to be of concern to oppose something.
If anything, we are dedicated to write and clarify using the means available to remove the mist that centuries of persecution and that the practitioners involved misinformed added, recovering the spiritual treasure of the West of marginality, because sooner or later people will like to find it it to satiated his thirst for the spirit.
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The Call
Witchcraft is the way of travelers, seekers of ancient responding to a domestic call.
This call is manifested in different ways. It can be through a deep and inexplicable interest in history or mythology, an intense need for religious and spiritual beliefs that the more accessible can not meet, or a strong attraction to books and films that address.
But perhaps the most common way to bring people to the Old Religion is the attempt to understand the fear. The fear of not quite know what, a mixture of interest, prejudice, and curiosity that you can not erase, though cumbersome, remains a strong temptation in which it fears to fall. This fear can manifest as allergies to perfume, fear of knives or fire. It may sound strange that a call comes through fear, but if we remember the persecution that for centuries the followers of the Old Religion has suffered perhaps the presence of fear becomes more understandable.
There is also another type of call that we appoint as karmic. If in other lives the spiritual work that was being done was interrupted for some reason and remained incomplete, it returns the completion of charging. It is as if the issue was being worked persistently to return until the knowledge needed to be reached.
There also calls that happen from unexpected events such as dreams or the reunion with soulmates or feelings of déjà vu.
But whatever the path through which the call is manifested, its main characteristic is that when we welcome the soul becomes quiet and is flooded by the feeling that we are finally have returned to home.
Training in witchcraft is for whom? For those who are being called.
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bruxaria, xamanismo, magia, wicca, bruxas, sonhos, tarot, taróloga, mapa astral
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