How to Become a Witch by Amber K. (large ebook reader txt) 📗

usually crafted in silver, is revered and worn by many Pagan folk, especially Witches.

The Universe According to Wicca

Common Beliefs

Witches live in a complex, beautiful, and multilayered universe—a very big universe. Not only is it billions of years old, with a hundred billion galaxies or more, but it has levels of reality superimposed and co-existing—different worlds, planes, or parallel universes. These other worlds have names such as the astral plane or the shamanic Underworld. Each has its own rules and its own inhabitants: elementals; discarnate humans; faery folk; guides, allies, and guardians; animal spirits; plant devas; and others who are even less familiar. Many Witches visit these places and meet the entities who dwell there. (We will explore this more in chapter 10.)

If this seems like pure imagination or fantasy to you because you haven’t seen it, then we would ask: when was the last time you saw a quark, or gamma radiation, or, for that matter, love or justice? Just because you cannot sense something with your standard senses doesn’t mean it’s not real.

We also model the universe as formed of five basic elements: earth, air, fire, water, and spirit. Everything we know can be categorized as one of the first four, and spirit pervades them all. (We will explore this more in chapter 3.)

Everything is energy in different forms or flavors, and everything is connected to everything else. Magick works by manipulating this energy to change things.

As we’ve seen, Wiccans tend to see the universe as entirely sacred—even the bad parts are there for us to learn from, so that we can avoid repeated pitfalls in our own spiritual growth.

Where did it all come from? Witches don’t care very much about creation myths; we care more about how the world works now. So in that respect, we have no quarrel with the scientific view that the universe is billions of years old and humans only developed into our modern form a few thousand years ago. The innumerable creation myths found around the world are all equally inventive attempts to understand something fundamentally beyond our comprehension. Central to all these stories is the basic truth of magick: that an idea, with will behind it and focused energy to make it happen, can create anything. That’s how the universe was created, and that’s how Witches do magick today.

Witchcraft, or Wicca, has no single sacred text, no Bible or Koran, but there is one text that most Witches cherish, called the “Charge of the Goddess.” The Charge has become the closest thing to “gospel” that Witches have. A version first appeared in Charles Leland’s book The Gospel of Aradia, which explored the history of Strega, or Italian Witchcraft. Gardnerian priestess Doreen Valiente expanded it, and Starhawk has published a modernized version. We have blended all three and added a few touches of our own, resulting in this version:

The Charge of the Goddess[2]

Listen to the words of the Great Mother, who of old was called Danu, Freya, Gaia, Inanna, Isis, Quan Yin, Pachamama, Tara, and by many other names:

Though I am known by a thousand names, the whole round world honors me. I am the Queen of Heaven and Earth, Mistress of the World Ocean, and Ruler of the Realms Beyond Death, and I say to you:

Whenever you have need of anything, and at least once each month, and best it be under the open sky when the moon is full, you shall gather and adore the spirit of me, the Queen of all the Wise. You shall be free from slavery, and as a sign that you are truly free you may be naked in your rites. Let my worship be in the heart that rejoices: sing, feast, dance, make music and love, all in my presence, for all acts of love and pleasure are my rituals and my gift of joy on earth. Nor do I demand any sacrifice, for I am the mother of all the living; my law is love unto all beings, and my love is poured out upon the earth.

My body encircles the universe: I am the beauty of the living earth, the radiant moon among the stars, the mystery of the waters, and the divine fire within your heart. I am the soul of nature who gives life to the universe, and I call to you, for thou art goddess and thou art god. Unleash the coiled splendor within you, spread wide your wings, and come unto me. Let there be beauty and strength, power and compassion, honor and humility, laughter and reverence within you. Keep pure your highest ideals, and harm none. Seek your true will; strive ever to fulfill it, let nothing stop you or turn you aside. And you who would learn all magick, yet have not won its deepest secrets, to you will I teach all things as yet unknown. To you I will teach the great mystery: what you seek you must find within yourself, for you will never find it without.

I am a gracious goddess, the cup of the wine of life, the cauldron of woman’s womb; and mine is the holy gift of rebirth. In life, I give the delight of my constant presence and knowledge of the spirit eternal. And beyond death, I give peace and freedom and reunion with your beloved who have gone before. From me all things are born and to me they must return; for I have been with you from the beginning, and I am that which is attained at the end of desire.

names:

egyptian Isis celtic Danu norse Freya

chinese Quan Yin south american Pachamama

middle eastern Inanna greek Gaia druid Tara

Most key Wiccan ideals are there: how to worship, how to live, the promise of life after death, freedom, the equality of all people, the sacredness of all expressions of love and pleasure, the joy of this life, the love of the Goddess and the God, and more.

What are the other principles of Witchcraft? The Council of American