|
And Wicca Essay Number 3 Goes Up | |
Posted Sep 2, 2008 - 13:30:28
|
|
 So, today I posted my third essay to the Wicca and Paganism section on TRHOnline.com. This particular article I call Covens, Circles and Solitaries, and it is meant to compare and contrast group worship with solitary practice.
There are a lot of things that a person has to weigh when making a choice in how they practice Wicca, so I try my best to look at it from a neutral standpoint. Contrary to what some might think, on this particular topic I actually don't have a lot of negative bias towards any option. My one rule with anything in life is that I want to avoid the "crazies," and they populate every religion -- and in Wicca they exist both in groups and as solitaires... so there's little to be done other than run away when you encounter them.
And don't look back.
Honestly, when I'm writing these essays, sometimes I debate which term I should be using for what. Should I refer to a Solitary Practitioner as a "Solitaire" from time to time? Should I have said "Solitaires" then in the title? Should I be using "Witch," "Wicca," or "Witchcraft" at any particular point? Are my pants on backwards?
All of these are daunting issues. Frankly, there are so many different and conflicting opinions in NeoPaganism today as to what term should be used for what person or thing that it makes it nigh impossible for things to come out straight sometimes. In the end, I just sort of decided "I've been a Wiccan for a decade, and am just as much an authority about what to call something as most of the other people writing stuff about Wicca on the internet!" and just wrote what I wanted.
One of the future essays I think I'm going to write is one that discusses the growth and resurgence of what I like to call "Fundamentalist Wicca" (where I use the word Fundamentalist with all the negative connotations most Wiccans use it with). Let me tell you, if you ever want to meet a semantic fascist, find yourself one of those people.
They'll drive you insane.
These are the same people who insist that Wicca is a direct, unbroken movement from paleolithic times, and that the eclectic solitaries that make up most of modern Wicca aren't really "Wiccan" because they didn't have a fiction great-grandmother teaching them.
Yeah... I'm going to get some hate mail for that one.
I'm still a little sore from this last weekend's Bloody Murder game. My legs are honestly fine, but my back is just killing me. I think this is nature's way of reminding me I turn 28 in a week. Crysta has started classes again, and we're entering Fall... one of my favorite times of year.
I can't wait for the leaves to start changing colors. This town is just gorgeous when that happens.
- Traegorn
|
