Laypersons Guide to Wicca

Note: As with all religious paths the differences and the nuances of the path can be extensive. This resource is intended for an average belief which can be found in many books on the craft.

The practice of Wicca is a natural, and personal, religion which recognises no prophets or hierarchy between the practitioner/coven and the divine source. This, therefore, does not place any power in any one individual, which characterises a path as a cult.

In coven situations individuals are seen as separate entities with the leaders of the coven being seen as equals, not of a higher echelon, but being recognised for their leadership, diplomatic, and teaching skills.

Witchcraft, in most denominations, do not have a discriminatory element in respect to the sex of the members or, indeed, the sexual orientation of a person. This makes the religion quite "liberated" relative to many mainstream religions, which embrace the values of the past but appear not to adapt to the changing social attitudes and needs of the citizens, now and into the future.

We [meaning all humanity] have the ability to think, learn and manipulate the environment to our own needs and desires, and are capable for cooperation with other members of our species to bring about a desired conclusion, far beyond the scale of other organisms on this planet.

This, then, gives us the unique obligation to control our natural impulses (which is the ability of utilising the tools around us) to not damage the environment. Witches endeavour to live in harmony with nature, as much as possible, so that the ecology of any given system is not destroyed by our actions, whether known or unknown.

The beauty of witchcraft is in its flexibility. It has no one book, or dogma, in which one must believe in, without question, and the religions direction is not controlled by just the privileged few which may not be fully informed of the ramifications of their actions.

Practitioners in the craft are always questioning their own beliefs, based on information collected, general social attitudes, meditation, research and a variety of other techniques.

It is believed that if a part of personal belief can't stand up to scrutiny then the belief must be modified or discarded, this is mostly with common concepts. Example, of which, would the theory of evolution. Wiccans, when presented with new evidence, would test it out and if it passed the rigorous challenge would be adopted as fact.

These constant revisions is what makes the craft so dynamic, and hard to categorise. The craft is like a living organism, it will not be restrained into a nice neat package.

There are Core Principles, which has been agreed by many witches throughout the world. This helps people like politicians and other interested parties to discover what their core ethics are, even if there are no definitive texts (such as the bible) in order to characterise the group as a whole.

An average visitor will have an idea of what a "typical" witch does, and this will be discussed in a logical manner.