Wiccans

Originally posted by HuntaXX
Nevermind then i thought wicca was just the new age witchcraft. as i said im my first post i dont know very much about it yet as ive been too interested in other subjects to study it

No problem, many people mix the terms Wicca and Witch/Witchcraft, specially with this new trend to make the occult pop

Originally posted by HuntaXX
as for gods well im not entirely certain this applies to all gods but from what ive read it sounds like most of them are a kind of thought form used as a focus point to channel enough energy together to perform spells that take alot of people to power so i was just wondering if theirs enough followers these days to power a certain wiccan spell used a long time ago that ive been curious about

Really there is no set answer for that. Nowdays Wicca is very diverse. Some use the God and Goddess as symbols to represent the universe/nature/etc.. Others may see their God(dess)s as actual supernatural beings.

The rest of your question is along the lines of how Magick works.. That's something that has thousands of theories, and at some point discussing them becomes a form of mental masturbation . Personally all that I care about is that it works for me.. in the end that's really all that matters.

Originally posted by w810i
I hope to regain what once was but was lost in a sea of confusion and disorientation.

A person? Relationship?

Originally posted by HuntaXX
Nevermind then i thought wicca was just the new age witchcraft. as i said im my first post i dont know very much about it yet as ive been too interested in other subjects to study it

That is correct. Wicca falls under Neo-Paganism and is seen as the modernized version of the ancient witchcraft. However. Gardner and his friends altered it so much that a lot of people say there are Thelemite connections over Witchcraft connections when you look at the set-up of Wicca.

Originally posted by malganis

Originally posted by w810i
I hope to regain what once was but was lost in a sea of confusion and disorientation.

A person? Relationship?

His car keys

[edit on 7-3-2007 by Enyalius]

Originally posted by Enyalius
However. Gardner and his friends altered it so much that a lot of people say there are Thelemite connections over Witchcraft connections when you look at the set-up of Wicca.

Yep if you look at Gardnerian Wicca's rituals you can see many places where he basically cut and pasted Crowley. (BTW Gardner was a member of the O.T.O.)

But today Gardnerian Wicca seems to be VERY unpopular, most of the Wiccans I know seem to be more eclectic in nature.

I wouldn't label myself Wiccan now, but I have been "involved" in the past along with what is also labelled Chaos Magic. Sorry, I'm not into labels at all, but have some years experience with the occult if you still need help.

Grey

I've been a Wiccan since the modern groups were founded in the early 1970's. If you have questions, U2U me.

I've seen a lot of posting about "what magic/majic is" and the theory behind it so far, but not too many posts regarding actual "Practical Magic" that the original poster seemed to be looking for, and probably most people who are beginning their delve into Wicca want.

Is it possible to treat Wicca/Magic as a way of simply achieving results, or do you have to approach it as a religion? The best way for a beginner I can think of would be a step-by-step approach that involves different exercises/practices, and not so much faith.

Can anyone provide such references (books, sites, etc.) For example, I would recommend www.spellsandmagic.com as a good comprehensive source for beginners.

[edit on 7-3-2007 by Yarcofin]

Originally posted by Yarcofin
I've seen a lot of posting about "what magic/majic is" and the theory behind it so far, but not too many posts regarding actual "Practical Magic" that the original poster seemed to be looking for, and probably most people who are beginning their delve into Wicca want.

Is it possible to treat Wicca/Magic as a way of simply achieving results, or do you have to approach it as a religion? The best way for a beginner I can think of would be a step-by-step approach that involves different exercises/practices, and not so much faith.

Can anyone provide such references (books, sites, etc.) For example, www.spellsandmagic.com

Wicca IS a religion

On books, about Wicca or even witchcraft I don't know, though for "true" Wicca a good reading would be Gardner, but for other systems I would recommend authors like Crowley, Dion Fortune, W.E. Butler, and my favorite, Eliphas Levi (specially Dogma and Ritual)... yeah, I'm kinda ceremonial, but I prefer learning from people and not books, most of what I know/use I learned by myself or from my father

www.sacred-texts.com... --- grimoires
www.grantmorrison.com... --- nice and 'easy'
Decided I don't want a forum link in here
www.chaosmatrix.org... --- chaos magic

[edit on 7-3-2007 by Raziel89]

TANSTAAFL

Looks like the OP has gone to U2U, but that won't stop me from throwing in my two bits.

There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.

The OP wants to change something or there would be no point in asking for help from a Wiccan in such cryptic terms.

Whether Wicca, more ancient forms of "The Craft" or any spiritual system, one thing is worth bearing in mind:

Nothing is free.

The more you seek to control the lives of others, the more you lose control over your own life.

It's easy to think witchcraft, prayer or other spiritual practices give something for nothing, but that's a sucker's game.

There's always a price.

What's more, if you don't know what the price is up front, it's a fair bet it will be a lot higher than you expect.

So please: be careful with this stuff.

Just sayin'.

I just wanted to add, if you want to learn about Wicca, avoid books by people with names like "Ravenwood Silvermoon" and other such rubbish.

Cunningham's "Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner" and Buckner's Guide to Witchcraft (which I can't seem to find a link to) are two good authors to start with, though where you go from there is anyone's guess. Some people like Valiente, but I found her views a tad too unbalanced.

Anyone know the Buckner Guide I'm referring to? AKA the "Big Blue Book of Witchcraft" so to speak? Maybe it wasn't Buckner...

However, if you're really looking for something deep, insightful, and above all, OLD, you need to go back a lot further. Check out the Book of Lambspring and the 12 Keys of Basil Valentine. Granted, these are alchemical texts, but they are fascinating and related.

(edit: corrected to "two" not "three")

[edit on 3/7/2007 by thelibra]

Originally posted by Majic
The OP wants to change something or there would be no point in asking for help from a Wiccan in such cryptic terms.

They always do, my friend. For what it's worth, I agree 100%.

But we all keep on trying to educate along the way, and occasionally someone listens and learns. The rest...meh.

Originally posted by thelibra
I
Anyone know the Buckner Guide I'm referring to? AKA the "Big Blue Book of Witchcraft" so to speak? Maybe it wasn't Buckner...

Raymond Buckland Buckland's Complete Book Of Witchcraft

[edit on 3/7/2007 by Cug]

Vivianne Crowley - Wicca: The Old Religion in the New Millennium - Heavy on Carl Jung and some errors, but the original version (The Old Religion in the New Age) was one of the first books I read on Witchcraft. I enjoyed it anyway.

Raymond Buckland - Witchcraft from the Inside - Good all round starter, more theory than practice iirc.

Ronald Hutton - Triumph of the Moon - Very dry, but excellent scholarly history of Witchcraft.

Marian Greene - A Witch Alone - As the title suggests, for solitary practice. Excellent and well respected work.

I would also say to be careful of books written by people with names like Golden Twinkletoes. Generally, (in my experience) they tend to be absolute drivel.

HTH,
Grey

my advice ? call ac/dc..."dirty deeds done dirt cheap"

or maybe talk to this person and work it out like adults ?

Originally posted by Cug
Raymond Buckland Buckland's Complete Book Of Witchcraft

Thanks Cug!

The fact I've got the thing on my shelf and couldn't remember the name is rather embarassing and felt that, as pennance I should really take a good solid look at the books that helped shaped my religious beliefs. Each time one does, I put it in my bookshelf.

It was kinda fun to go back and look at what really altered my views from the hard-core fundamentalist Christian upbringing I had then to the particular beliefs I have now. Wicca was a large part of that for me because it was my first real introduction to what I'd call a balanced religion.

I mean you go from this state of being raised in Jesus Camps (yeah, I went to Christian Summer Camp back then) and thinking that women are the source of all the evil in the world, that there is only God, God's will, and anything outside His Will is Evil, and by the way we are the only ones who know what He wants...

...and you then are introduced with the idea that maybe God isn't quite so petty as people make it all out be. You get introduced to the concept that there is a male and female counterpart for nearly everything imaginable, so why not God and Goddess? And if God's beyond gender, why would It even care about such things? And then someone else perhaps gives you the idea that God might not even be an individual, but a collective, or even one's own self-connection to everything else.

Sure, if you sum it up in one brief paragraph, it sounds kind of silly, and I still haven't even touched on what I personally believe anymore. But along the way, Wicca instilled, at it's core, some very positive values I still carry with me to this day, even if I'm no longer a wiccan.

Where was I going with this?

Ah. Ummm... these are a few of the other books on my shelf that I really thought introduced at least one or more compelling new ideas to me.

"Motel Nirvana" by Melanie McGrath - For anyone trying to figure out what they believe in, this is a great journal by a woman who went through the same thing. It was a good source of laughter, understanding, and even a wakeup call or two, during times when I needed them most. It took me years to get around to finishing it completely, but each time I needed it, the book was there.

"The Bhagavad Gita" - A fascinating religion that us Westerner's are not often exposed to. I couldn't begin to do it justice "briefly" describing it, so I'd just recommend reading it and drawing your own conclusions.

"Godwin's Cabalistic Encyclopedia" by David Godwin - A very handy quick-reference guide to hundreds of pages of obscure names. Also goes into the Cabalastic belief system, but it was more useful to me as a reference guide.

"The Jewish Book of Why" by Alfred J. KolatchThough part of my family is Jewish, I was not raised that way and really lacked any knowledge about Judaism other than what I'd been told in brief conversations. This book answered a lot of my questions, and gave me new ones to ask.

"The Flight of the Feathered Serpent" by Peter Balin - Not to be mistaken for another book of the same name about Judas Iscariot, the one on my shelf is a deep introspective about the meaning of Quetzalqoatl within meso-American cultures. If I'm not mistaken, this book is what lead to the whole "World Will End in 2012" stuff, but I could be wrong on that.

"Grimm's Fairy Tales" Grosset & Dunlap - Not the definitive one, but the older the better on the Grimm's books. Try to get as early a print as possible, before objectionable books were more heavily edited. If someone has a better version to recommend, I'd love to know about it. This didn't so much as shape my religion, as give me a better understanding of how and why religions tell their stories the way they do.

There's more, of course, I could probably rattle on all day about books, but these were the ones that immediately leapt to mind as being a few of the most influential to my changing my beliefs that can still technically be referred to as "religious books".

[edit on 3/7/2007 by thelibra]

anyways now that I have woken up. The idea was to cast a spell in hopes of bringing back a time in my life that was happy that has been lost. I found a book that had a spell(s) in it for just such a thing.

Hmm, clinging to past happiness has never been good for me so I won't go there, but heed Majic's words well, he speaks the truth in that if you are unaware of the lein you place over your head, you may not think it's such a fair trade.

Do you practice any other "new age" ideals (Meditation, Remote vieweing, etc. ) or is this an interest that was obtained by a desire?

I haven't studied Wiccan beliefs or even the system much for that matter, but I have nothing against it either.

As I stated early on I grew up as a christian an always held tight to that beleif until recently. I've always had an interest in different subjects but never have practiced any of these things just read about them more or less. It was sheer desperation that led me to this. I have not done anything because I do not know enough about this. I have the material to do it just havent.

I would like to go bring back a time in my life that was happy too. Infact sometimes I just sit and close my eyes and hope and hope and hope that someone, God or whatever, will bring me "home" anyways.. I think spells and things all really have to do with your will power...energies.Kind of like tapping into a part of your brain other people don't use. Is this spell you want to do like to actually go back in time or what? Could you be more specific? I am not what I would call a Wiccan, but I do a lot of meditation and spiritual thinking, so i may be able to help.