I will be honest. I DONT LIKE WICCA. Not as much as I can’t stand mainstream religions like Christianity, but that’s the thing. Wicca is like Christianity. Replace God, the bible, and the prophets with Pagan gods, myths, and heroes. But keep the same way of thinking, same morals, and potentially the same prejudices but watered down. There. That to me is Wicca.
At best, I think Wicca could be this great beginning religion so people new to magick don’t need to transfer right over to the big stuff and can gradually but comfortably make the transition. But that’s not the case.
Wicca pretends its this ancient shamanistic religion, referring to its self as getting its roots from the “Old Ways.” It’s not. Wicca is a modern standardized religion. Wicca being rooted in “The Old Ways” is like saying modern day vampire novels, like Twilight, are rooted in the ancient legends of vampires. But no. They’ve copied and pasted the vampire into modern day romantic fantasy, leaving behind the whole purpose of the vampire. That’s what Wicca is to me; the copy and paste of myths and magic into modernized religion, leaving behind the whole value of these myths altogether.
I remember going to a Witchcraft store for the first time years ago. The woman who ran it gave me a poorly made booklet to take home and read. What did it say? “We are all here on this earth to live in praise and worship for the goddess.” It certainly sounded like Christianity, except replacing a vague nameless god for a vague nameless goddess. I then saw a price tag. It said $20. She gave me for free something akin to a college pamphlet on sexual harassment that would’ve otherwise costed me $20. And it blatantly said "We exist to serve some deity. Unfortunately, it wasn’t like I knew of any other place to go for supplies. Years later, I found out from someone working for this woman that she drinks, like literally comes in drunk, and is blatantly racist. But she’s a high priestess.
I’ve tried out various Wiccan groups, and they weren’t very friendly when they find out you support something they find controversial. This would usually be something belief wise like supporting Satanism, following darker gods like Hades or Loki, to practicing darker magick. However, some were also rather homophobic or racist, or even extreme feminist. But, mostly they were just naive and very traditional.
What I’ve realized is that Pagan mythologies tend to vary differently from the bible. It’s not the classic story of good vs evil. It’s something a lot more complex. In the bible, God (the light) creates the heavens and angels. Then “Lucifer/Satan” (the darkness) rebels due to pride and falls from grace. Then humanity is created and both good and evil compete to decide man’s path. The base concept in the bible is that Light creates the world and darkness (which came from light) comes around to corrupt it.
Various Pagan creation myths differ. Some state that the chief god is the creator. Others have a more “interesting” idea. In Norse mythology, Fire and Ice gathered in the void of space to create Ymir who creates the Jotun. Burri marries a giantess and has Bor. Bor marries a giantess and has Odin and his two brothers. They slay Ymir and make the world from his corpse.
In Greek mythology, Sky and earth make love and birth three races, the hundred handed ones, the cyclopes, and Titans. The sky imprisons all except for the titans in Tartarus. The earth gives Chronos, leader of the titans, a scythe and tells him to wound his father and release his brothers. Chronos does and rules the earth. He then puts his brothers back in Tartarus and consumes his 5 children, Hades, Hestia, Posiedon, Hera, and Demeter. Rhea gives birth to Zeus in secret. Zeus, as a young man releases his siblings and the hundred handed ones and cyclopses and wages war on Chronos.
Celtic mythology doesn’t necessarily have a surviving creation myth, but one that states Ireland has been inhabited by many different races. The Tuatha De Danaan, gods of Ireland, were actually other dimensional beings sent to conquer the island. They took it from the Firbolg with the help of the Fomorians and elected a half fomorian prince, Bres, as their king. Bres was cruel so he was dethroned. That started a war between the two factions, ending with King Balor being slain by Lugh, who was himself half tuatha and half fomorian. Then the mileseans took the island and the Tuatha De Danaan fled into the earth. They were then worshiped. At least this was the myth I read.
What I’ve noticed is that in all three mythologies, the antagonists of the gods came before the gods themselves. Along side that, they were considered giants. Giants to us are large humanoids the size of buildings. However, I believe the word giant may mean elemental or primordial being.
In all three mythologies, the idea that giants came before gods suggests the concept of primordial natural giving way to orderly civilization. This is in opposition of the Abrahamic concept of perverted righteousness. This relates to the conflict of Divine Command Theory vs Social Contract Theory. The idea of “God makes the rules” vs “All of civilization is a contract within its people.”
In the three mythologies listed above, they state chaos (Darkness) came first and order (Light) came after. This would state that the universe is balanced between two forces. One maintains order. The other brings about change. Change I believe is made up of destruction and creation. Both go hand in hand. The act of creation disrupts the current system, forcing the system to either adapt or be replaced. Though creation then requires to be stabilized, assigning form and function. This is why the system exists. Without order, chaos would be unstable and nothing would be allowed to exist. Without chaos, all things would be stagnant and would never evolve. And if you do not evolve, you decay. I feel as if this also relates to the Right and Left Hand Paths. One maintains order. The other brings change.
The relationship between the gods and giants is far different from the extreme relationship between God and Satan. In fact, they are not two different races but two different families. In one form or another, the gods came from the giants or intermingled with them. Not every giant is considered evil.
Wicca still functions on the extreme beliefs of ultimate good fighting ultimate evil. Spiritually, for those claiming to worship Pagan gods, this feels incorrect to me.
Along side that, there’s a moral issue in how magick is to be used, but I’ll discuss that in a later post.
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