Wicca Essays - Wicca, Modern Paganism, Contemporary Witchcraft

Wicca Religion The many mysteries and complexities of the religion of Wicca originate from the Celts, the druids of Britain and the mysteries of the Cauldron of Cerridwen of Cerridwen and teachings of the transformation hidden in the story of Taliesin. The oldest know European Wiccan practices actually originate form the ancient regions in and around Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and Italy. In most any case this culture predates the Celtic tradition by at least a thousand years. In the Celtic lands the druids taught what they called " Mystery tradition", which was a blend of indigenous belief and foreign influences. Many people today believe that the druid cult was the surviving remnant of an earlier Indo-European priesthood, where the practices originate, Old European is a region encompassing Italy and Greece and also reaching into Czechoslovakia, southern Poland and the western Ukraine. These places are considered to be where the foundation of the ancient Wiccan mysteries were created. The history of the believers in this religion when in the middle of the first century BC the Celts were caught between the expansion of the Roman Empire along the Rhine and Danube and the Germanic invaders form the south. By the end of the century the Celts had lost their command on the continent and were later held by the Romans who moved on to invade and Britain, eventually their culture was transformed by centuries of roman occupation and the Roman Catholic Church. The ancient pagan traditions were driven into an underground society where they survived within the old religion of Wicca. The history of the old religion goes back as far as the hunter-gathers emergence into an agricultural community. The root of Wicca as an religion date back as far as the Ice Age, when the human were painting and carving pictures on cave walls. When the hunter-gather, forest-dwelling humans began to emerge into an agriculture society they brought with them the "Ancient Deity" forms of the wilderness. The Stag-Horned God of the forest was transformed into the Goat-God of the pasture. The God of the forest then becomes the God of the harvest. The early ancestors of Wiccans' worshipped the great Goddess, who is personified as the mysteries of women. As the Great Goddess, she reflected the mysterious and powerful nature of women to bleed for days without growing weak and to give birth to another human being. Not only was this power a mystery to early men, it was also a mystery to women themselves. Out of the need to understand these abilities, the women isolated themselves from men and formed female societies. When the word "Wicca" first became known to the public, it was used to refer to the old pre-Christian European religion. The meaning today has changed to fit the view of the Neo-Pagan and New Age concepts. In reality Wicca is a nature religion concentrating on the energies that flowed over the earth. Legend tells us that great Gods who watched over their followers during the daily course of food gathering and preparation and delivered them safely from the fall of humankind. 1484, was the persecution stage of the witches which turned into an uncontrollable epidemic. In the first year 41 people were killed and burned in Como, Italy. In 1510, 140 witches were burned at Brescia and 300 more at Como, Italy 3 years later. At Valcanoia 70 people were burned and the inquisitor claimed to have another 5,000 under suspension Germany saw over 6,000 executions and northern figure about 50,000. In England, 1951, the last of the laws against witchcraft were repealed by parliament, soon after a revival of the cult arose in the Great British. During the 1950's and 60's Wicca grew and expanded parts of Europe and into the United States and Australia. Many Wiccan and Neo-Pagans magazines were established, there for creating a network for the Pagan community. Two of the earliest most successful periodicals were "Green Egg" and Circle Network News " which are still important publications today. "The Wiccan Pagan Press Alliance (WPPA)" now servers as a network and support system for writers and magazines in the Pagan community. The basic teachings of the old Wiccan ways are based on the ways of nature and humankind's understanding of spirituality as revealed in the sense of a healthy community. The philosophy teaches common courtesy and respect for others so that the essence of our spirituality can be discovered. All different forms of life are respected, and everything is of equal importance. The only difference is things are on different levels of evolution,