When I was ready
to begin my spiritual journey anew, I started fresh. I opened myself to everything,
not just different denominations of Christianity. In reading, I stumbled
upon something called Wicca, an Earth-based nature religion that proclaims
itself to be the practice of modern day witchcraft.
Wicca is the fastest growing religion today. Followers of Wicca worship a
God as well as a Goddess. Its practitioners revere the Earth as an extension of the
Goddess herself and aspire to live in harmony with nature. Wiccans believe in
reincarnation, but not as the Hindus believe. Wiccans believe that humans come
back as humans.
Wiccans believe in magic. Chanting and meditation are used to achieve an
alternate state of consciousness to better commune with the Goddess and the
God. Spells are used in much the same way a prayer is, with one great difference:
whereas a prayer is most often a linguistic appeal to a higher power to grant a
request, in a spell the practitioner uses visualization to direct unseen energy to
achieve the desired effect.
There are eight holidays that make up what is called the Wheel of the Year,
and many customs from such holidays as Halloween, Christmas and Easter
actually come from the pagan holidays of Samhain, Yule and Ostara. These
holidays are often based on ancient harvest or fertility festivals celebrated in
Britain, when the people lived close to the land. Apart from the Wheel of the
Year are esbats, which are rituals that celebrate the different phases of the moon.
It was in learning about this Earth-based nature religion that I realized what
had been missing to me: anything feminine and positive. As a woman, I felt left
out of male-dominated Christianity, although I didn’t realize it at the time. I
simply didn’t feel completely satisfied, never understanding why.
