{"id":8699,"date":"2013-08-01T01:10:01","date_gmt":"2013-08-01T06:10:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paganpages.org\/content\/?p=9002"},"modified":"2013-07-31T14:52:59","modified_gmt":"2013-07-31T19:52:59","slug":"musings-of-a-massachusetts-witch-43","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/2013\/08\/01\/musings-of-a-massachusetts-witch-43\/","title":{"rendered":"Musings of a Massachusetts Witch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is Wicca a Valid Religion?<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Many individuals perceive Wicca as a religious system that allows those of us, who identify as Wiccan, to follow a path that \u201ccaters to our desires\u201d instead of \u201cfollowing God\u2019s Commandments\u201d and because of this they consider Wicca to be our own invention and not a valid religion. Well, honestly, while others may perceive the religion of Wicca, my religion, in this way \u2013 I do not. Wicca is<\/em> a valid religion.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Wiccans view our planet Earth as a living being. She is Gaia, our Mother and all life (animal, planet, mineral) that flows from her is sacred. No one life is more important or more valued than another. This belief guides our daily interactions not only with the land we reside on but also with each other, as we are all children of Mother Gaia, making each of us brothers and sisters. We also have the guidance of: The Wiccan Rede, The Law of Return, The Witches\u2019 Pyramid and The Eight Virtues, to direct us along our unique paths. We are encouraged to take personal responsibility for our words, behaviors and actions regardless of whether the outcome was as intended or not. We are never<\/em> encouraged to shift blame to outside forces or entities such as Satan. You will never hear me say, \u201cThe Devil made me do it<\/em>\u201d nor will the words, \u201cI was tempted by Satan<\/em>\u201d escape my lips. I am fully aware that I always have choices. I always have control. And I am always empowered. Wicca allows each of us to understand and be aware that our life is what we create it to be. We are not controlled by anyone or anything. We are not victims. These belief and realizations are the foundation of my magicks.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Every religion has a starting point. There was a time when Christianity didn\u2019t exist. In fact wasn\u2019t Jesus Christ a Jew following the traditional Jewish customs? The birth of a religion begins with someone experiencing a personal gnosis and sharing it with another who shares it with others; over time a religion is created. Does that make the new religion any less valid than one that was already established at that time? I\u2019m sure for some individuals, it does. But for those who believe the new ideas of that religion and for those who feel the presence of God in them \u2013 it does not. At what point does the new religion become a valid religion? Who decides? At what point did Christianity become valid? And at what point did the pagan religions loose their validity? Why would one religion invalidate the religions that were practiced in the lands at the time Christianity appeared? Is it just because someone, perhaps a leader in that religion, declared it so? Who gave that individual the authority? \u201cGod\u201d, you say? What if I did not worship or follow your god? Does that automatically make my religion invalid?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is my belief that all religions, spiritual truths, ideas, concepts and paths originate with deity and it is that Divine Source, which holds the authority to validate or invalidate a particular religion. For an individual, a physical human being, to imply that they alone<\/em> hold that power to judge whether a religion is valid or not for anyone other than his or her self, simply illustrates to me that he or she doesn\u2019t comprehend the nature of Deity and ultimately with their limited judgment of any religion or spiritual path, disrespects not only that form of spirituality but also Deity itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is Wicca a Valid Religion?   Many individuals perceive Wicca as a religious system that allows those of us, who identify as Wiccan, to follow a path that \u201ccaters to our desires\u201d instead of \u201cfollowing God\u2019s Commandments\u201d and because of this they consider Wicca to be our own invention and not a valid religion. Well, honestly, while others may perceive the religion of Wicca, my religion, in this way \u2013 I do not. Wicca is a valid religion.   Wiccans view our planet Earth as a living being. She is Gaia, our Mother and all life (animal, planet, mineral) that flows from her is sacred. No one life is more important or more valued than another. This belief guides our daily interactions not only with the land we reside on but also with each other, as we are all children of Mother Gaia, making each of us brothers and sisters. We also have the guidance of: The Wiccan Rede, The Law of Return, The Witches\u2019 Pyramid and The Eight Virtues, to direct us along our unique paths. We are encouraged to take personal responsibility for our words, behaviors and actions regardless of whether the outcome was as intended or not. We are never encouraged to shift blame to outside forces or entities such as Satan. You will never hear me say, \u201cThe Devil made me do it\u201d nor will the words, \u201cI was tempted by Satan\u201d escape my lips. I am fully aware that I always have choices. I always have control. And I am always empowered. Wicca allows each of us to understand and be aware that our life is what we create it to be. We are not controlled by anyone or anything. We are not victims. These belief and realizations are the foundation of my magicks.   Every religion has a starting point. There was a time when Christianity didn\u2019t exist. In fact wasn\u2019t Jesus Christ a Jew following the traditional Jewish customs? The birth of a religion begins with someone experiencing a personal gnosis and sharing it with another who shares it with others; over time a religion is created. Does that make the new religion any less valid than one that was already established at that time? I\u2019m sure for some individuals, it does. But for those who believe the new ideas of that religion and for those who feel the presence of God in them \u2013 it does not. At what point does the new religion become a valid religion? Who decides? At what point did Christianity become valid? And at what point did the pagan religions loose their validity? Why would one religion invalidate the religions that were practiced in the lands at the time Christianity appeared? Is it just because someone, perhaps a leader in that religion, declared it so? Who gave that individual the authority? \u201cGod\u201d, you say? What if I did not worship or follow your god? Does that automatically make my religion invalid?   It is my belief that all religions, spiritual truths, ideas, concepts and paths originate with deity and it is that Divine Source, which holds the authority to validate or invalidate a particular religion. For an individual, a physical human being, to imply that they alone hold that power to judge whether a religion is valid or not for anyone other than his or her self, simply illustrates to me that he or she doesn\u2019t comprehend the nature of Deity and ultimately with their limited judgment of any religion or spiritual path, disrespects not only that form of spirituality but also Deity itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8699\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}