I've been hanging out on Yahoo!Answers for a few years now answering questions. In the beginning, I answered practically every question I came across about Wicca. Over time, however, I've grown decidedly jaded. I understand that there are a lot of misinformed and uninformed people out there, and in some cases I appreciate them seeking answers, but there's a lot of stuff that just make me want to bang my head into my desk.
One of my biggest pet peeves is the number of questions about how to do rituals "correctly." I'm not talking esoteric meanings here. I'm talking about "I want to do a ritual for Samhain but I only have blue candles. Will it still work with blue candles?" I have to restrain myself from replying somewhere along the lines of "Well, you could, but the temporal energies are likely to backfire, obliterating your coven," or "No, the Goddess abhors blue in October. She thinks it makes her look fat."
These questions come from a mentality that is, to me, quite contrary to Wicca and bred by our fast-food society: I want spirituality. Publish a quick guide with easy to follow step for me to gain understanding of the universe. Please avoid big words. Thanks.
if people who ask these questions would sit back and think for even a minute about what they are actually asking, it should sound ludicrous. Can you imagine someone asking if a Catholic Mass would still "work" if they changed the colors of the candles?
We have all of these marketers emphasizing crystal wands and fancy athames and blessed candles, and newcomers fall hook line and sinker for them. Heaven forbid our faith require thought and patience and energy and trial-and-error. That would be practically unAmerican.
Wicca by the Book
11/01/2009 11:57:00 PM | beginner tips, rant, She's not with me..., Wicca | 3 comments »
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Great Post. Stumbled into it. I will be following.
I think the important thing to remember here is to be true to your own beliefs. I never follow set rituals, I celebrate in my own way. I do make an effort to ritualize some workings, but it is never the same twice.
From my experience, ritual is only necessary because people believe it is. It is more for phsychological validation than the magic itself.
LOL! makes the Goddess look fat--I would love to see the look on someone's face if you had actually written that response.
Love your website, came across it the other day and spent the last couple days reading much of your myth-blasting. I agree with what I see as your overall point of view, that waaaay too many folks are just blindly following, not seeking, and certainly not taking any of it seriously. Not to be disrespectful, but I see it as coming from one religion (you know the one) that demands blind faith, and not knowing how to proceed in one that, in my opinion, is by definition a religion for seekers.
I call it the difference between religion and superstition-and it exsists in those mainstream religions as well.
Go to witchpope.blogspot.com
to read the Wiccan Pope's Bible lesson