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WiccaisaPRECHRISTIAN religion
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Messages: 1 - 4 (59 total)
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prometheuspan
3/7/2001 2:49 PM
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1 out of 59 |
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seems that this myth has gotten out of hand. While it is true that
Wicca expereinced a rebirth only a short while ago, that rebirth was so to speak, coming out of the broom closet. Gardner got things at least 75% right, and with modern scholarship, the information is now fully out there.
Wicca is a prechristian European Religion and it was killed off by Christian invaders... mostly Catholics.
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Wicca is not pre-Christian it is post-Christian. It was originally developed in England
circa 1950’s, though it has taken off and changed in many directions since then. It was
developed using what it’s founders knew at the time about pre-Christian European
religious practices and history. The Wiccan community in which I participate hon
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Thats only half true. Adding modern anthropology clues, and some actual surviving
fam-trad information, Wicca can claim a half history at least as old as Judaism,
probably far older.
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frisian, There are fam-trads that can legitamately claim heritage all the way back
to the fringes of human history. They are NOT mainstream Wicca, they hid out for the
first 100 years as the stories of witch burnings were kept quite alive. Secrecy was very
important to these people and they kept their secrets well.
Further, Druidry, for one, is remarkably similar to Wicca in many ways.
I don't know where you are getting your info, but Agrarian base Shamanistic societies
rather closely resembling Wicca were in fact the dominant religion in all of Europe
before Christianity came in.
If you want to go one step further, Huna in Hawaii, Voodoo of the original African
variety, and the native americans all practice an arte so similar that they can
participate and contribute to each others rituals with only minor adaptions...
sometimes as I have witnessed personally, off the cuff and off the fly, impromptu, and
seamlessly.
It seems that lately the number one invalidation of Wicca is that it lacks historical
context. That just isn't true. The matrifocal societies of Europe were there for
thousnads of years prior to christianity and only ceased because of Christianity.
Anything contrary to that is holocaust denial and I will argue most vehemently.
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JasonKelly
3/7/2001 2:56 PM
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2 out of 59 |
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Prometheuspan,
I would find your statements more compelling if you provided any kind of reference for them.
You might want to clear up what exactly you mean by Wicca, as well. If the word "Wicca" means, to you, "whatever it was they did in Europe before Christianity", your statement makes more sense. If you mean "the faith system as described by Gardner, Valiente, the Farrars, et al", I think that you might encounter some resistance to your claim.
Jason
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Calico
3/7/2001 3:02 PM
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3 out of 59 |
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Well then it seems that we have fallen into the trap of semantics. When I say “Wicca” I am specifically referring to the religious system developed by Gerald Gardner and all its later offshoots and refinements. To try and call independent pre-existing practices and religions “Wicca” retroactively is a form of appropriation.
Yes there are many practices around the world that bear some resemblance to Wicca but that is a matter of convergent evolution (so to speak). You don’t call a bat a bird just because they both fly.
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prometheuspan
3/7/2001 3:03 PM
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4 out of 59 |
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Quick reality check.
"Wicca" proper only dates back to the 1950s. Paganism and essentially Wicca, but not by that name, date back much further. Its a semantics thing.
I consider Gardner to be only one of three main contributing factors to modern Wicca. Some people see him as the only one. The other two are fam trads and modern anthropology.
And I don't do references. I am pan.
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