Is anyone here a witch or Wiccan?

[Daughter of the Moon]

is ne1 here a witch or wiccan?

[edited to remove bad CSS/html code and de-SMS the title of the thread. Also moved from Misc to Chatter --kli]

[Agent M]

A what? What's a wiccan??? I wish I was a witch though...

*Agent~M*

"Thank you Jack" "Your welcome" "No not you, we named the monkey Jack" -Pirates of the Caribbean
"To youth and freedom!" A popular pirates toast.

[meteorite]

A Wiccan is a practicioner(sp?) of Wicca, a religion based on nature and avatars of nature among other things. There are many different flavors of Wicca, and I don't know all of them by a long shot! Yes, I am Wiccan (nominally) and please don't contact me to tell me I am going to hell or to try to convert me. I apologize for giving only the Readers' Digest condensed form of Wicca, but to try and do justice to all its forms would take up all of DD's bandwidth!
-----
p.s. I can't edit my last post because something seems to be misbehaving on the Forum. If anyone has specific questions, I can try to answer them, but please realize it will be from my own incomplete and self-centric knowledge. A Wiccan of a different tradition may have a different answer, not wrong necessarily, just different.

"Thus is Balance maintained." A Wizard of Earthsea
"Condensing fact from the vapor of nuance." Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash

[edited to consolidate, since edit does work, now. --kli]

[KsSk8er]

ohhh I am studying Wicca n witchcraft. My specialties are.... healing.... hold on. Do you have a witch name?? are you in a coven?? I am not particulary doing the religion in Wicca tho

~*KsSk8er*~
Owner of Moondust
Flying Tiger Racing queen of the World!! :grin&bounce
Dai Stiho

[meteorite]

I am not in a coven; I'm what's referred to as a "solitary", or witch who practices on his/her own without the support of other Wiccans. I've never been formally initiated or gone to any large celebrations like a Solstice, mainly because there aren't a lot of them where I live, and many Wiccans don't publicize their beliefs.

For most Wiccans, the religious belief part and the spell-casting part are inseparable. The belief system powers and informs the spells.
If you only go through the motions, you won't get results, or the results you get will NOT be what you want! One of my witchy friends calls a person who throws together a mess of ingredients and calls it a love potion without thinking through the intent and reasons for doing it in this particular way a "woo-woo witch". The danger to this is having something horribly backfire...

"Thus is Balance maintained." A Wizard of Earthsea
"Condensing fact from the vapor of nuance." Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash

[Kit2390]

I've latley been doing a lot of studying of the Wiccan religion. My gradfather is abot ready to kill me tho...lol...Question (and it's probably the dumbest question ever)
What is the Book of Shadows. I've seen it on the TV show Charmed, and it has been mintioned in many of my searches. What the heck is it???

Thanks a ton
~Kit2390

"But victory's certain. Never think otherwise. There is loss, and there is pain, and in your home frame of reference, they're real enough, not to be devalued. But today the energy's running out of things just a little more slowly...for those who trust their hearts a measure." Diane Duane, A_Wizard's_Dilemma

[meteorite]

A Book of Shadows is a combination recipe book and diary for a Witch, to put it in simple terms. Each Witch keeps her own Book of Shadows (henceforth referred to as a BoS, for brevity's sake) to record spells he/she's worked, what went right, what went wrong, things she's discovered, observations, scraps of writing or poetry to honor the God(s) and Goddess(es), and useful information of any type related to Wicca and Witchcraft. Each Witch creates his or her own BoS; sometimes you will get one as a gift from fellow witches in your coven (usually they'll give you a mostly blank book with some information or charms they feel you will find useful; you expand on it from there.)

"Thus is Balance maintained." A Wizard of Earthsea
"Condensing fact from the vapor of nuance." Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash

[Kit2390]

That's really cool! OK, one more really dumb question and I'm done. Witches can be a guy or girl correct. If so what's the difference between a witch and a wizard???

~thanx again

"But victory's certain. Never think otherwise. There is loss, and there is pain, and in your home frame of reference, they're real enough, not to be devalued. But today the energy's running out of things just a little more slowly...for those who trust their hearts a measure." Diane Duane, A_Wizard's_Dilemma

[GodMageMajere]

I would be practicing the looked-down-upon arts but for two things. 1. I'm astoundingly lazy, and 2. I have far less money than would be ideal. I do, however, own a copy of the Necronomicon.

[Caledonian]

"I do, however, own a copy of the Necronomicon."

Which doesn't mean a great deal, as it's entirely a fictional creation -- and quite a few of the versions out there are just gibberish.

To be wise, learn foolishness. To be strong, learn weakness. To know joy, learn sorrow.

[readingqueen]

like godmage i have looked into it but haven't done it. but for diff. reasons. 1. my whole family is catholic and they r forcing me to go through conformation; hence, no wiccan allowed. 2. I have nooo idea of ANY covens ANYWHERE in vermont! and i don't think i'm cut out for the solitary thing. 3. like godmage, money. or lack of, really. it's all really very frustrating, becuase i love what wicca represents, and i wish i could be a part of it. eerrggg

"It was my turn to save you, that's all. Now I want a few weeks off..."

it's not dying for a friend that's hard...no, what's hard is finding a friend worth dying for.

[meteorite]

I can understand not wanting to go against the wishes of your family, esp. if they are staunchly Catholic. There are a lot of witches out there who have yet to "come out of the broom closet", as it were.

Money, OTOH, shouldn't have a lot to do with your choice of religion, unless you wind up in one of those cults that expects/requires you to give all your worldly wealth to the Divine Perfect Goombah or whatever One of the interesting things about Wicca is that anything you genuinely need seems to show up just as you need it. You don't need to spend a lot of money on essential oils or candles or spell fixins if you don't want to or don't have the money. Intent is an important part of it, just as you can be devoutly Christian without attending a big fancy church, etc.

New England, thanks to the influence of the events at Salem and a history of paganism, is actually a hotbed of Wicca and other pagan beliefs. You can't throw a rock without having it thud into the middle of a Circle there I wouldn't be surprised if, if/when you decide to study Wicca in earnest, you find a 'teacher' mysteriously shows up in your life.

"Thus is Balance maintained." A Wizard of Earthsea
"Condensing fact from the vapor of nuance." Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash

[This message was edited by meteorite on 25 October 2003 at 16:20.]

[This message was edited by meteorite on 25 October 2003 at 16:26.]

[db_pr]

This is all very interesting but how do you became a wiccan meteorite? Hey I just had a thought, Is Reiki related to this or similar?

"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve." -Bilbo Baggins (The Fellowship of the Ring: J.R.R. Tolkien)
"Not all who wander are lost"- J.R.R. Tolkien
"Thanks, you don't look so hot yourself." - (Yogi Berra)after being told he looked cool

[Aurora]

OKay...

To answer Kit2390's question, what is the difference between a Witch and a Wizard... I actually don't know. But I can tell you the difference between a Witch and a warlock.

A warlock is a Witch that has been, so to speak, cast out. The word essentially means betrayer, or something along those lines... Check me if I'm correct, meteorite.

I myself am devoutedly agnostic. I do not see the existence of a god proven, and so as such, do not choose to base my life upon one. Some of my friends are Witches, I think. One at leasy, she's Pagan.

I've looked into Paganism before, it's quite interesting. I'm not interested in being a Pagan myself, but I'm interested in their beliefs. It's very interesting stuff, much of it seems to be sort of self-based, one explores their beliefs themselves, don't they? You aren't TOLD what to believe- you sort of have to find that yourself, am I correct?

Kitsune Rei~In love and hating it~

[meteorite]

Aurora, your etymology for 'warlock' is substantially correct -- it derives from Old English/Norse/Saxon 'waer loga', which does mean 'oathbreaker' or more strongly, 'traitor'. I personally don't know which tradition, if any, uses it to refer specifically to a Witch which has 'broken faith' with his/her coven, but that may just show my ignorance.

Db_, there are a variety of ways someone can become a Witch, from personal choice and self-dedication, all the way up through formal training and initiation in a coven, with a High Priest and Priestess, and all the bells and whistles. Reiki is actually a different field of study which deals with manipulation of the body for healing purposes. A Witch may practice Reiki, and someone who does Reiki may follow Wicca, but the two aren't mutually inclusive. One person may raise lovely roses, and another one may be an excellent artist, but one doesn't always indicate the other.

"Thus is Balance maintained." A Wizard of Earthsea
"Condensing fact from the vapor of nuance." Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash