I hang around Yahoo!answers a lot providing answers. Of late, we've
been getting a slew of weird Wicca questions, and none of the regulars
can figure out where they are coming from. I'm wondering if a reader
might be able to help.
We're getting a lot of references about the
goddess Nyx and Wicca. The suggen popularity of Nyx comes from a book
called House of Night. I've not read it, but in all the reviews of it, I
can't find a single reference to Wicca. Does this book even mention
Wicca? And if not, what in this book keeps getting equated with Wicca?
Also
seeing a lot of questions asking "What's my Wiccan element?" There's
no such thing. Wiccans commonly work with the concept of elements, but
people aren't associated with a single one. Quite the opposite, a
balance of forces is a goal. Where is this coming from? I think part
of it is coming from avatar: the Last Airbender (occasionally we get
questions about "bending,"), but questions now specifically ask about
being a "Wiccan element." Any clues?
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Hi, I can answer the House of Night question if it's not already answered. I've read a few of the House of Night books and I really enjoy them. To me it's like reading a Harry Potter book except everyone at the school is a vampire, not a wizard. Some vampires though are blessed with a special gift by the their Goddess, Nyx. For example, control of an element, seeing the future or never missing a target with a bow and arrow, no matter where or what the target is. They also perform rituals in the book, most commonly casting a circle and drinking wine infused with blood. Sometimes the leader does a dance to some music while another recites a poem. Although they worship Nyx they also mention her consort and protector Erebus. All this is most likely why people have questions, it sounds like what most people think of as Wicca.
And I think your spot on about the bender question. Anyone who missed out on Avatar the Last Airbender is watching the Legend of Korra and find it really cool.
Hope I helped!
About the element thing, I don't think you can adscribe it to any single source but to the pervading belief than anything "magical" or pagan automagically means that something is "wican".
What is happening, then, is that since lots of sobrenatural novels have pagan protagonists who have "powers" corresponding to one (or more) of the elements (making a play on affinity to an element), people are for the same thing in real life, thence "wicca elements".
Which may or may not have something to do with the return to fame of "The Fantastic Four" ;-)
I have a book called "Practical Solitary Magic" by Nancy B. Watson that has an "elemental temperament" quiz in the back, but I've seen a few "what's your element?" pop quizzes circulating online. You can find a ton of them by googling it. They are mostly aimed at teens or people that are interested in but don't know much about astrology (i.e. I'm a Scorpio, so my element is water.) And yeah, all this stuff naturally gets associated with "Wicca," which has turned into the new catch-all term among the masses for anything magical or metaphysical. This is my guess, anyway.
I have three friends who have said they're a "earth" witch, or a "air" witch. I asked them what that meant, and they said that each of them seem to have an affinity for working spells having to do with one certain element. One has more talent (so to speak) with earth-type spells, and one for air-type spells (such as having more success with doing a spell for rain). Nothing I have read so far seems to back this up. It doesn't bother me though. I'm an admitted newbie, finding her own solitary way (2 years in) and I've got a lot of learning to do. I just listened, never found anything to back that up, and thought, "that's cool for them, but I have no reason to try and find something like that. I have other things to do."
As far as I'm aware of, they never really mention Wicca in The House of Night books except once, and I'm not sure which book that was in. It's been awhile since I read them but I remember smiling like a retard when I read them mentioning Wicca. I think a lot of it stems from, as Shannon Hoffmann said, the casting of the circle and, if I'm not mistaken, the calling of the elements. It stays very true to the proper casting of a circle, which was greatly interesting.
All of these questions seem to stem from what's popular now. House of Night has a lot of Pagan themes within the story line including, but not limited to, Goddess worship, ritual outline, and spell work, along with Cherokee spiritualism. Another theme in the series is elemental affinities. Four supporting main characters have an affinity to a specific element, with the head main character having and affinity to all four elements as well as Spirit.
There are a lot of popular fictional books aimed for teens out there these days that use Pagan themes and practices for their story line, such as the Speak series. I'm sure these series are the reason all these weird questions keep popping up.
I think maybe people may be confusing these books with what IS...they are not true stories correct? As for the element...we have our own element in our sun and moon signs, for example I am a Scorpio Sun/Cancer Moon...both Water signs. This may be what they are asking of. The Wiccan uses all the elements most commonly spirit included as where spirit is not included in the star signs.
There are so many varieties of Wiccae and so many misunderstandings to the facts. It is that Wiccae is ever changing for the individual and that there should not be judgement placed...LIVE AND LET LIVE.
BLESSED BE )O(
Gwendalynnno
I nominated your blog, should you wish to participate. I think its a nice way to show off blogs that we enjoy/admire: http://realmofagreenwitch.blogspot.com/2013/03/most-versatile-blog-award.html
And you know, this is sort of strange but there seems to have been a rift in the Wiccan world, because I think these mistakes, or even these generalizations get made because Wicca is still without any specific definition; even to the abhorrance to its followers, I figured out, realizing I use a bit of Wiccan symbolism, that the problem is, these people ask these questions because there isn't anything explaining otherwise. After some consideration, the entire world of Paganism, and Wicca in particular, has a long, long way to go, but we will get there one day, where there will be a separation of silly from sincere, where some associations with the fantasy world will be let go for the sake of being taken seriously, where an actual sense of Sacred will be there, where people will stop posting spells, rituals, and circle-casting how-tos all over the internet, because Sacred is still being built up towards, and sadly, other religions, even if different on an individual scale, on the whole, want rid of our kind, at least in my view. However, I think that Wicca will have a new generation, the ones that will put out non-silly intro books, where a real, serious look at the philosophies will be presented, ones that give us any sort of identity. Maybe one day those of us that don't really like to assert ourselves, or aren't in the public light about what we do, will have a voice, and I am thankful I found your site those years ago because yours is still the most no nonsense view of any of the websites I've seen, and I miss the forum you had. If you ever take down Wicca: For The Rest of Us, I hope they'll know you've been a huge help to us that have read your site but aren't public figures.
Actually, for example, this is something I've considered sharing my views on, and I figure the only place to share it would be here. I don't understand the saying Blessed Be; I have discovered by my own misgivings that it is a word combination used in the Bible by Job, in submission to a Lord that ruined his life, and praised their lord in return, with that saying included. This is why I do not say Blessed Be, because that, too me, is too much of a biblical link to bring into one's spiritual practices; it is like getting spied on and that is unacceptable. But that's a personal choice, but it is standards like these, just the removal of that, that would be a step in the direction required so that we can develop, Paganism as a whole in whatever its subsets, (if one defines it that way anyway), for the sake of the Magic(k) we use. But, in the end, thank you so much for what you do; I hope Wicca: For The Rest Of Us stays up forever and ever and ever so that it'll click for others like it did for me.
Thank ya, and I wish you the best in finding a publisher for your book.