Crystal Visions Celtic Wicca 101: 2014-05-18

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

What is Wicca today?

There is much disagreement and controversy revolving around WHAT Wicca is today. Pagans I meet are telling me, "Well, I am Pagan, but I am not too crazy about those Wiccans." We seem to be viewed as the stuck-up older sisters and brothers of today's "new" Pagans. The entire problem seems to center around the idea of hierarchy.

I was first initiated into a very egalitarian Starhawk-oriented coven. This was long before the "Reclaiming Tradition" was ever named. Then I was initiated into a so-called Gardnerian coven of what I still feel is a dubious nature. They said they were Gardnerian. I'm not too sure they weren't Alexandrian or a mish-mash of both and none of it too solid. The High Priestess disappeared and I never heard from her again after my Second Degree Initiation. I found that I liked the first coven--wide-open, liberal left as they come, insistently sexual and skyclad as they were--a lot better than the stuck-up Gardnerian group with their $100 dress-up robes.

I can hear you thinking., "What's this she's saying? I thought she operated her own group according to the degree system? Huh? How does this make sense?" Well, sometimes I am a mass of contradictions. Common sense is a path of moderation between too extremes. Everything in moderation, even moderation.

One of the biggest problem we have in Wicca today is that we are tied to our traditions instead of enhanced and enlightened by them. We are afraid to change, but if we don't change, we will wither and die like any other organism in a static state. Growth means change and evolution. But how fast do we change? What do we change? Why? How? These are the questions that many do not take the time to ask themselves. "This is the way we have always done it," is the lament you hear when the dedicants ask, "Why?" Is that a good enough reason? What do YOU think?l

I have found myself staying away from the Pagan community at times. All of the bickering, disagreement and back-biting has led me to wonder about our entire path from time to time. Of course, I mostly seem to have these problems with Pagans who aren't all that crazy about Wiccans. I sometimes wonder if we even belong in the same category with the other Pagans. We're not better, just different, in so many ways. What has been your experience with the greater Pagan community if you define yourself as mostly Wiccan in your orientation? What are the differences as you see them?

PLEASE post comments here. I hope to generate a good discussion of the differences between the Wiccan path and other Pagan paths after you read this introduction into this topic.

Getting Started: Welcome to Crystal Visions Celtic Wicca

The first two posts in this blog/class will address the questions who and what. "Who is Lady Branwenn WhiteRaven?" and "What is Crystal Visions Celtic Wicca?" The next few posts will deal with when, where, why, and how. "The Charge of the Goddess" will also offer subtle answers to some of these questions. As I teach, I will seek to combine all of the three main elements of CVCW together into a (we hope) coherent whole.

These elements are the THREE main sources that I combine to create Crystal Visions Celtic Wicca:

Basic Neo-Pagan Wiccan History and Thought
Celticism from all of the countries included in the idea of Pan Celticism and the mythology of several western European Pagan traditions
Joseph Campbell, Carl Jung, and other authors, philosophers and psychologists

Each lesson will combine one part of each into a finished product. I WANT you, the student/reader, to spell-check me, grammar-check me and content-check me. COMMENTS are welcome! I want to hear what you have to say about this "Great Work." (See Aleister Crowley for more information on the idea of the "great Work." )

The Charge of the Crone

Hear the words of the Grandmother of Time:
She who has been known as
Hecate, Erishkagel, Cerridwen, Kali-Ma, Anna, Perenna, Spider Woman,and many other names-
some feared, and some loved,but none ever ignored.

She it is who brings wisdom and the awareness of eternity.
She has been the Maiden, and remembers that joy.
She has been the Mother, and recalls that pleasure.
But age has changed her,and taught her the mysteries
of the Wheel that is ever turning,
the Wheel that is life, death, and rebirth.

She is the whirling tornado, the erupting volcano,
the rising tidal wave, the trembling of the earth's crust.
With age comes an understanding of the past,
and a glimpse of the future.

For, in the turning of the Wheel,
the past is the future,and the future is the past.
She is the Learned One, the Teacher,
the Bringer of Inevitable Change.
She is the Dark of the Moon, the Hidden One,
the invisible unknown that lies ahead.

But do not fear her for she is not malicious,
and her touch, however harsh, is love.
Only in ignorance is she scorned and reviled.
Those who do not know her,
parody her as the ugly old woman whose powers
were said to blight crops and sour the milk in the cow.

It is fear that turns her age into abomination,
her wrinkles into hideous deformity,
and her voice into an evil and manipulative cackle.
For those who sought power over the earth were afraid to face her wisdom and her unalterable truth.

But in the old days,
we sat at her feet to learn the most ancient lore.
From her came the knowledge of the healing herbs,
and the chants and songs that shaped our lives.
She sat in honour at our councils, our marketplaces,
in our homes.

She governed our governing, and interpreted our laws.
She gave focus to our changing seasons.
She was our teacher, our oracle, our promise of rebirth.
Come, honour her as of old, listen now to the words
of the Wise One, the ancient Seer, the Crone!

by Gypsy

The Charge of the Goddess

Now listen to the words of the Great Mother, who was of old also called among men Artemis, Astarte, Athene, Dione, Melusine, Aphrodite, Cerridwen, Dana, Arianrhod, Isis, Bride, and by many other names.

Whenever ye have need of any thing, once in the month, and better it be when the moon is full, then shall ye assemble in some secret place, and adore the spirit of me, who am Queen of all witchery.

There shall ye assemble, ye who are fain to learn all sorcery, yet have not won its deepest secrets; to these will I teach things that are as yet unknown.

And ye shall be free from slavery; and as a sign that ye be really free, ye shall be naked in your rites; and ye shall dance, sing, feast, make music and love, all in my praise. For mine is the ecstasy of the spirit, and mine also is joy on earth; for my law is love unto all beings.

Keep pure your highest ideal; strive ever towards it, let naught stop you or turn you aside; for mine is the secret door which opens upon the land of youth, and mine is the cup of wine of life, and the cauldron of Cerridwen, which is the Holy Grail of immortality.

I am the gracious Goddess, who gives the gift of joy unto the heart of man. Upon earth, I give the knowledge of the spirit eternal; and beyond death, I give peace, freedom and reunion with those who have gone before.

Nor do I demand sacrifice; for behold, I am the Mother of all living, and my love is poured out upon the earth.

Hear ye the words of the Star Goddess; she in the dust of whose feet are the hosts of heaven, whose body encircles the universe.

I who am the beauty of the green earth and the white moon upon the mysteries of the waters, I call upon your soul to arise and come to me.

For I am the soul of nature that gives life to the universe. From me all things proceed and unto me they must return...