Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Wicca (English: / ˈ w ɪ k ə /), also known as "The Craft", [1] is a modern pagan, syncretic, earth-centered religion.Considered a new religious movement by scholars of religion, the path evolved from Western esotericism, developed in England during the first half of the 20th century, and was introduced to the public in 1954 by Gerald Gardner, a retired British civil servant.
In the tradition of Seax-Wica, the spear is used as a ritual tool symbolizing the god Woden, who, in Seax-Wicca tradition, is viewed as an emanation of God in place of the Horned God. According to Norse mythology, the god Odin who is the Norse equivalent to the Anglo-Saxon Woden carried the spear Gungnir. For the purpose of comparison it is ...
The athame is the most important ritual tool in Wicca, and like other ritual tools it is generally purified and consecrated to the gods before being used for ritual and magical purposes. There are various ways of accomplishing ritual purification and consecration, depending on the specific tradition of Wicca being followed, and also whether the ...
The painted tablets were placed on the walls of the temple during some rituals to symbolize the four quarters. A favorite ritual in the Golden Dawn was the Opening by Watchtower. This is a preliminary ritual to purify space and call upon the guardians of the four quarters, which is the origin of casting the magic circle in Wicca.
Magic (personified as the god heka) was an integral part of religion and culture which is known to us through a substantial corpus of texts which are products of the Egyptian tradition. [10] While the category magic has been contentious for modern Egyptology, there is clear support for its applicability from ancient terminology. [ 11 ]
Wiccan views of divinity are generally theistic, and revolve around a Goddess and a Horned God, thereby being generally dualistic.In traditional Wicca, as expressed in the writings of Gerald Gardner and Doreen Valiente, the emphasis is on the theme of divine gender polarity, and the God and Goddess are regarded as equal and opposite divine cosmic forces.
The great rite is a Wiccan ritual involving symbolic sexual intercourse with the purpose of drawing energy from the powerful connection between a male and female. Both receive more power. [1] It is an uncommon ritual in a full coven, as it is used when the coven is in need of powerful spiritual intervention. [2]
The religious studies scholar Hugh Urban noted that Fortune was "one of the key links" between early twentieth-century ceremonial magic and the developing Pagan religion of Wicca. [43] Similarly, the Wiccan high priestess Vivianne Crowley characterised Fortune as a "proto-Pagan". [48]