Wicca as of today - By Anamika Jain

It was quite late into the night and I was flying my aircraft in a bad mood. I was missing India like never before. The stars were twinkling, a bright tainted crimson shade as blood from my wounds dribbled into my eyes leaving me all the more depressed.(Its a different story, so will write about it in a seperate article) Flying amidst low flying clouds, they looked like angels marching by but alas I was still upset and offbeat and then I saw the beautiful full bright moon romancing the night sky and playing havoc with my emotional state.

Being a Jain I have always altered my eating habits with the phases of moon. Yes the moon does play around with your emotional state and it gets worse when you end up eating veggies and fruits with high water content. During my case study period when I was studying psychology I did notice normal people being affected by full moon and more cases of depression would trickle in around that phase of moon. With all such melancholic thoughts making way into my mind’s alley, I thought to myself, enough of flying for the night. Let me now land safely before I become acutely depressed and crash my aircraft. Just when I landed I got a call from my friend about whom I had written in my previous article, yes the witch. Listening to the familiar voice in an alien foreign land my emotions and tears knew no bounds. I spoke to her dime by dozen and she told me lot of things about the moon and Wicca religion. I did remember I had to write more on the topic as I had promised in my last article. Let me reach out for my pen oops the key pad and with you I begin my journey in the pathos of evolution of modern day Wicca.

Wicca as today is more of a neo-pagan religion found by Gerald Gardner in the 1950s. Yes I did claim in my previous article that history of witchcraft is as old as mankind itself but there are a lot of broken lines in the history of its evolution so I would now write more about Wicca in its modern-neo state. Wicca is a syncretistic religion that has integrated multifarious course including Hinduism, Jainism, Islam, Christianity, Gnosticism, Buddhism, Christianity, Kabbalah, Freemasonary, Theosophy, Celtic-druidic rituals, Aleister crowley's ordo templi orientis, Hermeticism and many more. That’s why I say today's Wicca is a modern reconstruction of ancient day witchcraft spirituality. As far as the specific rituals go,no two Wiccans will believe or practice alike.

There is no centralized orthodoxy in Wicca and followers of the religion often pride themselves on the flexibility of Wicca which enables them to incorporate elements from many different sources. Generally speaking, most Wiccans recognize a duality of divinity - the God and Goddess - and many pay homage to various historic pantheons such as Greek, Celtic, Norse, or Egyptian deities. Most also recognize the divinity in nature.

Likewise, most adhere to an ethical code termed the Wiccan Rede: An ye harm none, do as ye will. In layman's terms, the Rede states that Wiccans enjoy freedom to act as long as they accept personal responsibility for said actions. Comparing the Rede to Crowley's Book of Laws which states "Do What Thy Will Shall Be The Whole Of The Law. Love Is The Law, Love Under Will..." the synthesis that is the hallmark of Wicca becomes evident.

Many Wiccans also believe in the Threefold Law of Return and the concepts of reincarnation and karma, showing some of the Buddhist-Hindu influences. Many faiths reckon it to be some demonic Satan loving religion. Hollywood/Bollywood depict it some bizarre supernatural powerful spell casting thing and neither of those are the truth. Wicca can be considered a monotheistic, duo theistic, polytheistic, or atheistic religion which is truly nature-based religion.

Wicca, as established by Gerald Gardner in the 1940s, contained a few Gaelic constituents, along with constituents from diverse cultures. Gaelic Wicca can be seen as emphasizing such Celtic constituents as there are to be found in Gardnerian Wicca while reducing the non-Celtic elements. Christian Wicca combines Christian and Wiccan beliefs. Common elements grafted from Wicca include reincarnation and fertility. However, the main point of the divinity of Jehovah, Christ, and the Holy Spirit are preserved from Christianity, often with a revived stress on the latter two. The combination of two religions, each traditionally considered at odds with the other, is habitually reprehended by those who are members of only one.

The Church and School of Wicca was founded by Gavin Frost and Yvonne Frost in 1968. This school is quite known for its correspondence courses on the Frosts' anagoges of Wicca. Its founders' played a heavy role in gaining national recognition of Witchcraft as a religion in 1972 in US and winning an appeals court case in 1985 stating that Wicca, as a religion equal to any other. Both these cases brought The Church and School of Wicca into federal limelight. Wiccans believe that there are female/male aspects to the One or All and without the union and balance of these two aspects, nothing can exist.

The resplendent moon, it is worshiped and revered by all who follow Pagan course. Its beauty and spells are dynamic, and hence fascinating to watch. A full moon is also known as the time that Witches celebrate esbats. Esbats are rituals performed to celebrate and honor the moon, as well as the various deities associated with her. Full moon is considered to be a day of bad omens cause as I explained earlier. It gives you mood swings and makes you quite weak emotionally, so is the best time or the worst time to get influenced by others.

Wiccans follow moon's phases on a daily basis. The moon resides in each sign of the zodiac for about two and a half days. As it passes through each sign, they believe that the moon affects us in different ways, curiously linked to each sign and their characteristics. For example, they find that people are headstrong during an Aries moon, emotional during a Pisces moon, picky and perfectionist on a Virgo moon, active and conversational during a Gemini moon, etc.

Also, the new moon is a time for renewal spells: starting new projects, planting seeds and starting over. As the moon gets closer to full, it is considered "waxing." This is a good time to build momentum, gather information, or work spells to increase love, wealth and good luck.

During the full moon, it is a strong and intense energy time so one should be cautious and should meditate. As the moon goes from full to crescent, it's called a "waning" moon. This is a good time to finish existing projects, take time to relax or tie up loose ends. The moon can also be useful to "recharge" oneself, especially during a full moon. Like all religions even Wicca believes in white magic and that’s what wiccans perform in ritualistic manner.

Author Info: Anamika is a trainee pilot currently undergoing her training in New Zealand. She takes deep interest in a diversified range of issues and this article is a testimony of her inclination towards one of the more complex theories of the middle ages.

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