The Principles Of Wicca (Reprise)
I found this entry, and I wanted to re-share it with the world...
Too sleepy to review it. I shall when I'm in the mood...
Mood: Feisty
Music: Nightwish - Wanderlust
Card: Fairy Box
The world is strange, more than any of us can ever know.
Marty asked me once about Wicca, what it entails, what it means and about spells, because apparently, Shane threatened to curse him or something.
To answer your first question Marty, no, Wiccans don't dress in black necessarily, white would be more approrpiate actually... LOL I do dress in black because I like the dark :)
Another thing I have to point out here is: Most of what the catholic church and others call as "demons", are just the Gods of old, who were satanized and made look as "evil" by the "Holy" Roman empire, this to increase their power and their lands, and to force the pagans of all Europe to convert to their Christian-based beliefs. Sacred grounds and sanctuaries were violated and destroyed, their sacred rituals and beliefs crushed and transformed into Christian festivities (like Samhain/All hallow's eve) and their rich culture massacrated and eventually left to oblivion.
Wiccan, Vilky, Gaul and Keltoi cultures alike were full of wisdom and knowledge that should not have been lost. As a silent witness of this, stands the remains of Stonehenge in Salisbury, as well as many other relics of old troughout Europe.
The principles of Wicca tells us that this world is held together by unseen forces. Some of them we know well, some others we are just beginning to understand, and some others we don't have the slightest idea of. Among the seen principles, we can see the laws of nature according to science, like gravity, Newton's laws or the atomic sub-particles.
There is however a principle that works in more than just a physical plane for all of the scheme: Thermodynamics.
The flow and movement of energy is the one that creates, shapes and destroys everything in this universe. This energy can be like the kinds of energy we have come to know, like heat, light, calories, etc, or the one we just know about by different sources, but that haven't been quite discovered, much less studied yet, like phsychic energy (the energy of the mind: Freudian concept) or the flow of lifeforce trough the planet, and even Karma.
You see, everything in this world tends to a natural balance, a balance that is broken as soon as it is set, because the system is chaotic in nature and thus, the perfect order cannot exist for long. It is in this moment where nature gathers the energy of the enviorment to repair the holes in the tapestry of reality and restore the natural order of things, which will be broken no doubt in the next moment.
Order and chaos, even in balance and unbalance exists balance, paradogically. Why does nature do what it does? why does it repair the broken threads of the tapestry? Is it a mere automatic task? And if it was that the case, who made that primeval concept?
In Wicca, this universal conscience that keeps reordering the universe when it goes into a chaotic state is the will of all living things, a concept that relates to the same principle of balance that it tries to create. It's nature is dual, as to have the balancing elements to keep the balance going. Ancients called it the Male and female aspects of divinity, or if you prefer, the God and the Goddess.
The Goddess however is given a bit more mention and revering, for what they considered the Goddess, was that capability of "giving birth". Indeed, the ability to create and nurture all living things. Some relate this to the mother earth, in which life originates and from which all life shall return one day.
But the higher power is always trying to keep the balance well... balanced! (I hope I'm not being to repetitive here). Therefore, it will always repair the holes in the tapestry of reality using the energy of the surrounding enviorment.
That is the principle of Karma.
It is said that if you learn to live in harmony with the world, the world shall reward you with harmony, but if you do something that disrupts the balance into chaos, then nature will take back whatever you took to fix the problem. Therefore, everything that we do, comes back to us. This works on many more levels than mere physical instances.
Nature always takes the same amount of energy used for the breaking to repair it. So, EVERYTHING you do will return to you in the same amount that it was given, and also, depending on the amount of damage that was caused.
The reason there are so many problems in the world, is because humans have taken and taken from nature, from themselves and from those around them without paying back, and this will weight on the souls of those who haven't respected the rules of the universe, that is the reason Hinduism believes in Karma on a lifetime to lifetime basis, because if your limited life span is not enough for you to repay the damage, nature will see to follow you through ages until the repair is done.
Karma's a bitch huh :) and yet, it is the purest sense of justice there is in the universe.
Now let's go back to energy:
The world, the universe and everything in it is based on the same principles. None of them stops ever moving, everything advances and moves one way or another. You cannot stop atomic movements as well as you cannot stop the movement of the earth or the expansion of the universe. Some people speculate that at -273ºC all molecular movement is stopped (absolute zero), and yet, in this world such enterprise haven't been made, for anything you use to freeze anything else, will still posess that sub-atomic movement, making it impossible to stop the other thing's movements. You'd need something below the absolute zero (which means that had already stopped it's movement) to stop any other kind of atomic movement. But if you can't reach that absolute zero, how can you find something that's below absolute zero?
See the lovely paradox? :)
Anyway... my point with this is that the universe is in constant change, in constant energetical movement, and thus, it is always evolving, advancing, expanding. This movement cannot be stopped, this evolution cannot be witheld and thus, those who don't love with the world, are doomed to get stuck in their own time and get outdated by those who dared keep moving.
Only those whose spirit can understand this, be one with everything and find harmony, will be able to move on to a higher plane of existance, wether the ones that don't are doomed to reincarnate in this one until their souls comprehend this and are great enough to move on.
Now, let's go to the planes, shall we? :)
Earlier I talked about this world being held (and moved) by unseen forces, strange to us. The fact that we can't see them, doesn't mean they aren't there. Just as we can't see the wind and know it is there and not see heat and know it's there, there are also other planes of existence beside the one we're standing in, and we don't know it is there! We deny it because we can't see it, but... what if?
Well, that is the very concept of those planes. It is said in ancient arabic and babylonian folklore that fire is an alien entity to this world. It breathes (needs oxygen), it feeds (needs something combustible), it can reproduce (a fire can expand if it has the chance to), and some other things. Belief is that there are beings inside a flame (some call them genies, other salamanders, etc) that belong to a different plane of existence than the one we are in, and that the only way they can manifest in this one is trough the ember.
There's an infinite number of other planes (Einstein called them "dimensions", so you know I'm not high on something ;D) that can reside in the same place we're sanding, but perhaps not in *OUR* material reality. There are an infinite number of beings inside these planes, perhaps that wait for their "souls" to ascend to this level of existance, or perhaps that have already moved on to a higher one. Some of these beings have been able to manifest in some ways on our own plane, if you want, you can call these ethereal beings "Angels" or "spirits" or "ghosts" or whateva :P It could even be possible that the higher souls could try and "help" other people with miracles or stuff, while the lesser souls would play pranks on them (for instance, taking the identity of a deceased family member for those who play with the Oui-Ja board and such).
Have you noticed I haven't touched the "spells" issue in this matter? :)
I'll go to that next.
Following the principles of energy flows and ethereal planes and beings, one could be able to manipulate then the tapestry of reality, by manipulating the flow of energy and asking for the ethereal beings' aid. Also, by helping himself with knowledge of herbs or properties of mineral or animal pieces, that person could indeed "transform" the surroundings or affect the immediate reality.
However, I myself wouldn't advice this :)
The theory of chaos tells us that every little happening in the tapestry, affects all the other threads in one way or another, no matter how small this one is.
The butterfly effect (which by the way, I recommend you to go see the movie, it hasn't come down here yet), states the next thing: "A butterfly flaps it's wings in the Amazon forest, while in Florida it rains instead of being sunny". This means that the butterfly's flapping could have had an effect on it's direct surrounding, that could have had an effect on the next enviorment, that could have had another effect in the whole scheme of things. This is way too complicated and it has a lot of theoretical and numeric mumbo jumbo, and since I am no quantum phiscycist I shall not state it here :P (but you can go ask Stephen Hawking if you feel curious). So, as you see, EVERYTHING happens for a reason, but also, EVERYTHING that happens shall have an effect, present and future.
If you try to do "Magick" to reshape the face of your own reality, be warned that you are playing with the entire universe. Everything you do shall have an effect, and if the effect in nature is disruptive on the balance, nature shall seek to take from you the elements to fix the chaotic state. Therefore the famous thricefold effect :) (I don't know the rhyme but in essence it says that everything you do using Magick shall be returned thricefold, altho I think this is an understatement, because you are disrupting not only the balance of the own reality, but playing with several others as well).
Wicca also teach us about eternity, just as the world is always in movement and change, everything in the universe is given in cycles: Birth, growth and death. However, let us keep in mind that every cycle's end is just the way for a new beginning to start. For a cougar to live, another being has to die so he can feed. "Life is eternal in it's essence, yet ephemeral in it's forms".
To end this entry, I will add that wiccans use the five-pointed star as their main sign, because it represents the five elements (fire, water, earth, wood and stone) and the union of man and his virtues with the world. Some use the pentacle instead (the star surrounded by a circle), myself included as a reminder of our place in the world and the dynamism of the universe as a symbol of eternity in complete cycles.
The teachings of Wicca, tells us that we have to learn to live in peace and harmony with ourselves, with the world, with those around us and with nature. It tells us that we have to learn how to love ourselves and one another, and always learn how to forgive other's mistakes, never to take justice in our own hand, for sooner or later, for better or worse, the Goddess and Karma shall see that such offenses are punished.
If you look at it, it is a philosophy of life that's quite like Zen Buddhism or Christian beliefs. Actually, kind of a mixture of both...
I'm so proud of that :)
But yeah, every religious system in the world has more or less the same basis... thing is, the greed of men has always made him stray from it and stain the good name of every religion.
I think these are the most important principles regarding the whys and hows of the philosophy of Wicca :) if I am missing something I'm sure Matty will help me enlighten you some more ^_^ lol!!!!
Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it :)
Too sleepy to review it. I shall when I'm in the mood...
Mood: Feisty
Music: Nightwish - Wanderlust
Card: Fairy Box
The world is strange, more than any of us can ever know.
Marty asked me once about Wicca, what it entails, what it means and about spells, because apparently, Shane threatened to curse him or something.
To answer your first question Marty, no, Wiccans don't dress in black necessarily, white would be more approrpiate actually... LOL I do dress in black because I like the dark :)
Another thing I have to point out here is: Most of what the catholic church and others call as "demons", are just the Gods of old, who were satanized and made look as "evil" by the "Holy" Roman empire, this to increase their power and their lands, and to force the pagans of all Europe to convert to their Christian-based beliefs. Sacred grounds and sanctuaries were violated and destroyed, their sacred rituals and beliefs crushed and transformed into Christian festivities (like Samhain/All hallow's eve) and their rich culture massacrated and eventually left to oblivion.
Wiccan, Vilky, Gaul and Keltoi cultures alike were full of wisdom and knowledge that should not have been lost. As a silent witness of this, stands the remains of Stonehenge in Salisbury, as well as many other relics of old troughout Europe.
The principles of Wicca tells us that this world is held together by unseen forces. Some of them we know well, some others we are just beginning to understand, and some others we don't have the slightest idea of. Among the seen principles, we can see the laws of nature according to science, like gravity, Newton's laws or the atomic sub-particles.
There is however a principle that works in more than just a physical plane for all of the scheme: Thermodynamics.
The flow and movement of energy is the one that creates, shapes and destroys everything in this universe. This energy can be like the kinds of energy we have come to know, like heat, light, calories, etc, or the one we just know about by different sources, but that haven't been quite discovered, much less studied yet, like phsychic energy (the energy of the mind: Freudian concept) or the flow of lifeforce trough the planet, and even Karma.
You see, everything in this world tends to a natural balance, a balance that is broken as soon as it is set, because the system is chaotic in nature and thus, the perfect order cannot exist for long. It is in this moment where nature gathers the energy of the enviorment to repair the holes in the tapestry of reality and restore the natural order of things, which will be broken no doubt in the next moment.
Order and chaos, even in balance and unbalance exists balance, paradogically. Why does nature do what it does? why does it repair the broken threads of the tapestry? Is it a mere automatic task? And if it was that the case, who made that primeval concept?
In Wicca, this universal conscience that keeps reordering the universe when it goes into a chaotic state is the will of all living things, a concept that relates to the same principle of balance that it tries to create. It's nature is dual, as to have the balancing elements to keep the balance going. Ancients called it the Male and female aspects of divinity, or if you prefer, the God and the Goddess.
The Goddess however is given a bit more mention and revering, for what they considered the Goddess, was that capability of "giving birth". Indeed, the ability to create and nurture all living things. Some relate this to the mother earth, in which life originates and from which all life shall return one day.
But the higher power is always trying to keep the balance well... balanced! (I hope I'm not being to repetitive here). Therefore, it will always repair the holes in the tapestry of reality using the energy of the surrounding enviorment.
That is the principle of Karma.
It is said that if you learn to live in harmony with the world, the world shall reward you with harmony, but if you do something that disrupts the balance into chaos, then nature will take back whatever you took to fix the problem. Therefore, everything that we do, comes back to us. This works on many more levels than mere physical instances.
Nature always takes the same amount of energy used for the breaking to repair it. So, EVERYTHING you do will return to you in the same amount that it was given, and also, depending on the amount of damage that was caused.
The reason there are so many problems in the world, is because humans have taken and taken from nature, from themselves and from those around them without paying back, and this will weight on the souls of those who haven't respected the rules of the universe, that is the reason Hinduism believes in Karma on a lifetime to lifetime basis, because if your limited life span is not enough for you to repay the damage, nature will see to follow you through ages until the repair is done.
Karma's a bitch huh :) and yet, it is the purest sense of justice there is in the universe.
Now let's go back to energy:
The world, the universe and everything in it is based on the same principles. None of them stops ever moving, everything advances and moves one way or another. You cannot stop atomic movements as well as you cannot stop the movement of the earth or the expansion of the universe. Some people speculate that at -273ºC all molecular movement is stopped (absolute zero), and yet, in this world such enterprise haven't been made, for anything you use to freeze anything else, will still posess that sub-atomic movement, making it impossible to stop the other thing's movements. You'd need something below the absolute zero (which means that had already stopped it's movement) to stop any other kind of atomic movement. But if you can't reach that absolute zero, how can you find something that's below absolute zero?
See the lovely paradox? :)
Anyway... my point with this is that the universe is in constant change, in constant energetical movement, and thus, it is always evolving, advancing, expanding. This movement cannot be stopped, this evolution cannot be witheld and thus, those who don't love with the world, are doomed to get stuck in their own time and get outdated by those who dared keep moving.
Only those whose spirit can understand this, be one with everything and find harmony, will be able to move on to a higher plane of existance, wether the ones that don't are doomed to reincarnate in this one until their souls comprehend this and are great enough to move on.
Now, let's go to the planes, shall we? :)
Earlier I talked about this world being held (and moved) by unseen forces, strange to us. The fact that we can't see them, doesn't mean they aren't there. Just as we can't see the wind and know it is there and not see heat and know it's there, there are also other planes of existence beside the one we're standing in, and we don't know it is there! We deny it because we can't see it, but... what if?
Well, that is the very concept of those planes. It is said in ancient arabic and babylonian folklore that fire is an alien entity to this world. It breathes (needs oxygen), it feeds (needs something combustible), it can reproduce (a fire can expand if it has the chance to), and some other things. Belief is that there are beings inside a flame (some call them genies, other salamanders, etc) that belong to a different plane of existence than the one we are in, and that the only way they can manifest in this one is trough the ember.
There's an infinite number of other planes (Einstein called them "dimensions", so you know I'm not high on something ;D) that can reside in the same place we're sanding, but perhaps not in *OUR* material reality. There are an infinite number of beings inside these planes, perhaps that wait for their "souls" to ascend to this level of existance, or perhaps that have already moved on to a higher one. Some of these beings have been able to manifest in some ways on our own plane, if you want, you can call these ethereal beings "Angels" or "spirits" or "ghosts" or whateva :P It could even be possible that the higher souls could try and "help" other people with miracles or stuff, while the lesser souls would play pranks on them (for instance, taking the identity of a deceased family member for those who play with the Oui-Ja board and such).
Have you noticed I haven't touched the "spells" issue in this matter? :)
I'll go to that next.
Following the principles of energy flows and ethereal planes and beings, one could be able to manipulate then the tapestry of reality, by manipulating the flow of energy and asking for the ethereal beings' aid. Also, by helping himself with knowledge of herbs or properties of mineral or animal pieces, that person could indeed "transform" the surroundings or affect the immediate reality.
However, I myself wouldn't advice this :)
The theory of chaos tells us that every little happening in the tapestry, affects all the other threads in one way or another, no matter how small this one is.
The butterfly effect (which by the way, I recommend you to go see the movie, it hasn't come down here yet), states the next thing: "A butterfly flaps it's wings in the Amazon forest, while in Florida it rains instead of being sunny". This means that the butterfly's flapping could have had an effect on it's direct surrounding, that could have had an effect on the next enviorment, that could have had another effect in the whole scheme of things. This is way too complicated and it has a lot of theoretical and numeric mumbo jumbo, and since I am no quantum phiscycist I shall not state it here :P (but you can go ask Stephen Hawking if you feel curious). So, as you see, EVERYTHING happens for a reason, but also, EVERYTHING that happens shall have an effect, present and future.
If you try to do "Magick" to reshape the face of your own reality, be warned that you are playing with the entire universe. Everything you do shall have an effect, and if the effect in nature is disruptive on the balance, nature shall seek to take from you the elements to fix the chaotic state. Therefore the famous thricefold effect :) (I don't know the rhyme but in essence it says that everything you do using Magick shall be returned thricefold, altho I think this is an understatement, because you are disrupting not only the balance of the own reality, but playing with several others as well).
Wicca also teach us about eternity, just as the world is always in movement and change, everything in the universe is given in cycles: Birth, growth and death. However, let us keep in mind that every cycle's end is just the way for a new beginning to start. For a cougar to live, another being has to die so he can feed. "Life is eternal in it's essence, yet ephemeral in it's forms".
To end this entry, I will add that wiccans use the five-pointed star as their main sign, because it represents the five elements (fire, water, earth, wood and stone) and the union of man and his virtues with the world. Some use the pentacle instead (the star surrounded by a circle), myself included as a reminder of our place in the world and the dynamism of the universe as a symbol of eternity in complete cycles.
The teachings of Wicca, tells us that we have to learn to live in peace and harmony with ourselves, with the world, with those around us and with nature. It tells us that we have to learn how to love ourselves and one another, and always learn how to forgive other's mistakes, never to take justice in our own hand, for sooner or later, for better or worse, the Goddess and Karma shall see that such offenses are punished.
If you look at it, it is a philosophy of life that's quite like Zen Buddhism or Christian beliefs. Actually, kind of a mixture of both...
I'm so proud of that :)
But yeah, every religious system in the world has more or less the same basis... thing is, the greed of men has always made him stray from it and stain the good name of every religion.
I think these are the most important principles regarding the whys and hows of the philosophy of Wicca :) if I am missing something I'm sure Matty will help me enlighten you some more ^_^ lol!!!!
Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it :)