What is Wicca?

by Douglas Helvie and Anna Meadows

Wicca is the Spirit of our ancestral Deities reborn. In a time when our lives are laden with cell phones, fast food, and traffic jams, Wicca attempts to recapture an ancient, profound connection to Nature. The lives of our ancestors were encircled by the Sun, the Moon, the Seasons and the tides. And until this way of life was suppressed, they lived in cooperation with their environment. Life was far from perfect; but it honored Nature much more than has the culture of the past millennium.

The origins of Wicca lie with Dr. Gerald B. Gardner, a British civil servant who worked in Asia and studied local customs. In the early 1940s, he received initiation from the "New Forest Coven," a group who claimed to be the last surviving witches in England. They said their rites originated with the pre-Christian peoples of Great Britain. Gardner later published books on their practices, and also wrote a Book of Shadows (ceremonies) based on their rites, augmented by the Western mystery tradition and assisted by Doreen Valiente. (Scholars are still sorting out how Wicca developed.)

Today Wicca is part of a vast shift toward spirituality that celebrates the Earth, views the Divine as within a person as well as without, and does not rely upon an external revelation for its Truth. It is part of the Neopagan movement and "cousin" to reconstructionist religions and Native spirituality. What uniquely characterizes Wicca? First, Wicca reverences a Goddess and God equally. Most Wiccans view Creation as resulting from the loving interplay between Goddess and God. (Some Wiccans focus on the Goddess more than the God, because of years of worshipping a God only.) Wiccans do not worship Satan—there is no such deity in Wicca. Many call Dieties by their old names—Isis, Diana, Herne, Ra, etc. Second, a Wiccan has direct access to Deities; they are not mediated through a church official. Everyone initiated into Wicca is considered a Priest or Priestess.

Third, Wicca sums up its ethics in the Wiccan Rede: "an it harm none, do as ye will." It is fine to live as you see fit as long as you harm no one and accept responsibility for all you do, good or bad. Our Threefold Law of Return affirms karmic law: what you put out, good or bad, comes back to you threefold, in this or another lifetime. (Most Wiccans believe in reincarnation.)

Fourth, Wicca observes the cycles of Nature, the never-ending spiral of birth, growth, harvest, death, and rebirth. We honor this in our eight seasonal rites (Solstices, Equinoxes, and four others), in Moon cycles, and through Rites of Passage of our own lives.

People ask about "magic." Magic is the power we use to shape events in accordance with our will. Other spiritual systems invoke this power through prayer, affirmations, and visualizations. Wicca uses all those and more—chants, dancing, candles, and the sympathetic energies of root, stone, and herb—to augment our petitions. Needless to say, the Wiccan Rede and the Threefold Law guide our magic.

To sum up: at its core, Wicca is about the happiness and harmony that can be achieved through an individual connection to God and Goddess, and through living one's life in balance and harmony with Nature. Blessed Be!

Douglas Helvie and Anna Meadows are Priest and Priestess of the New Bern-based Eternal Harvest Church of Wicca, an independent church serving the spiritual needs of area Pagans and Wiccans. They can be reached at 252-637-2527 or i_amm@yahoo.com. Douglas Helvie ("Gaelan Firestorm") is a Third Degree Lord High Priest of Wicca. He has studied multiple pagan traditions for 15 years and is also a professional psychic and an initiated Runic Grandmaster. Anna Meadows is a First Degree Priestess of the Eternal Harvest Tradition of Wicca and has studied metaphysics for nine years. A votary of Isis, she holds a B.A. from Duke University and practices astrology and crystal healing.