Kage-Nakamura

                                           Wicca
Wicca is one of two of the only religions given to the world by England. North America and Australia have seen the most amount of religious growth in relation to Wicca. It is proven by a census that the number of Wiccans/Witches exceed the number of that of its homeland. Based on a census in 2001, there is an estimated total of 408,000 Wiccan adults in America. The man most said to have found Wicca is Gerald Gardner along with a few other men. Many Wiccans claim to have a history of persecution, tracing back to the 1650-1660’s, or “The Burning Times”, where people were tried as Witches.
Today there are many jokes toward open Wiccans such as “She/He must be burned at the stake.” in reference to “The Burning Times.” Many Bible verses also refer to the killing of Witches that are used to put down Wiccans.
*"You shall not permit a sorceress to live." ~Exodus 22:18
*"So Saul died for his breach of faith. He broke faith with the lord in that he did not keep the command of the Lord, and so consulted a medium, seeking guidance. He did not seek guidance from the Lord. Therefore the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David, the son of Jesse." ~1 Chronicles 10:13-14
*"And they burned their sons and daughters as offerings and used divination and omens and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger." ~2 Kings 17:17
*"A man or a woman who is a medium, or a necromancer shall surely be put to death. They shall be stoned with stones; their blood shall be upon them." ~Leviticus 20:27
I have personally experienced each of these Bible verses used against a Wiccan, even though no Wiccan would harm another human being. This form of persecution is called bibliomancy. This is when the Bible if used for the purpose of foretelling the future, finding objects or people, or determining guilt by means of information from signs, omens, dreams and so forth. All the Wiccans I have met, follow the Wiccan Rede.
“Bide by the Wicca law ye must, in perfect love and perfect trust. Eight words the
Wiccan Rede fulfill, ‘An ye harm none, Do what ye will.’What ye send forth comes
back to the, so ever mind the law of three. Follow this with mind and heart. Merry ye meet, and merry ye part. ”
It is highly encouraged for a Witch to follow this, though there is argument that the Rede is only advise. The definition of Rede in the English dictionary is advice or counsel given by one person to another.
“‘Harm’ is defined as ‘physical or mental damage’ and to this we can add ‘psychic damage’ as well. To inflict harm on another is simply not a thing that a Witch would do. Aside from the obvious karmic repercussions, Witches have a deep and abiding knowledge of the workings of the Universe. ... We know that all that we do affects everything else in the Web of Life. ...We are known as ‘The Craft of the Wise’ because of our knowledge of energies and the natural and spiritual laws that govern the workings of the Universe. To work within these laws is wisdom, to work against them is chaos.” (Wren Walker. Chairperson - The Witches' Voice. May 20th, 1996).
In The Dark Side of Christian History, 1500’s-1600’s, The Burning Times occurred. During this time, people were tried as witches, and only the “afflicted” were spared. The “afflicted” were the ones who claimed to be possessed, and would cry out the names of the “witches” possessing them. 80-90 percent of those “witches” were women. Many sources claim that the witch-hunts were Powerful, mostly Christian men where the main cause of the events. They say that the main point of the witch-hunts where to keep women “in their place” and not act out of the woman’s role. Virtually no one was spared from the witch-hunts who were accused. Even if a “witch” could keep from confessing during long hours or even days of torture, they could still be persecuted as a witch. According to demonologists, witches or sorceresses who managed to eat a queen be before arrest could withstand the torture and trial without confession. Christians were so against Witches, because they believed Witches worked with the devil. This belief started from the English folklore of the Berkeley Witch. She was a wealthy woman who lived during the 11th century. She was liked by many and very rich. She live luxuriously. The secret to her success didn’t come out until she was near death. According to myth, she sold her soul to the Devil for her riches. She told this secret to her two youngest children, a monk and a nun, after the death of her oldest son and his entire family. She saw this, as well as the death of her pet crow, as a sign that her end was near. Her two children came to the conclusion that to break the pact with the devil, she must be wrapped in the skin of a stag, locked away in a stone coffin bound by three magic iron chains and set upright in the church. Psalms and masses were to be sung and said over the coffin for 40 days and nights. If the Devil did not bother the coffin, her body would be buried in the church’s graveyard. On the first two nights after her death, hordes of demons came and broke the chains. One each night. On the Third night, the Devil himself came and broke the third chain. He threw her still living corpse onto his horse of spikes, piercing her body causing her to scream in volumes heard far from them, and rode off with her. She got the label of Witch because she sold her soul to the devil. This “Witch” of completely different from the Witches of Wicca.
The Witches of Wicca do not worship or “make business” with the Devil. In the Wiccan religion, there are many Gods and Goddesses they can worship. The most common are the Horned God and Goddess, or The Divine. She adds contreity to the Horned God. There are three forms to the Goddess as she ages throughout the year. The Maiden, Mother and Cron. The Maiden is when the Goddess is a young, virgin girl. She promotes new youthful, ideas and enthusiasm. She is typically known around the waxing phase of the moon, when it grows from new to full.  The Mother is fertility, abundance and growth. She is represented by the full moon, and in spring and early summer, when the Earth is most green and fertile. As the Crone, the goddess is an old wise woman and close to death. she is the Waning moon, growing from full to new. By the end of this phase, she is dead and reborn as a maiden.
the Horned God is a popular deity dating back thousands of years to cave drawings. English occults assumed that these deities deserved to be worshiped, and that the Christian church was trying to prevent people from worshiping such figures by associating them with Satan. In the Wiccan religion, there is no Satan. The only “sin” is harm done to the Earth and all it’s inhabitants.






geraldgardner.com. History Of Wicca In England: 1939 to the Present Day, 2004. Web. 14. Feb. 2014.

jesus-is-savior.com. Wicca’s Untrue History, 2001. Web. 19 Feb. 2014.

Rosemary Ellen Guiley. The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft: Second Edition. New York: NY, 1999. Print.

religioustolerance.org. How Many Wiccans are there, 2001. Web. 19 Feb. 2014

stoa.usp.br. High Magick’s Aid. 1996. Web. 19 Feb. 2014.

 Official Divergent trailer released today. I am so excited!
 But I'm afraid the actors won't live up to their parts. Seeing them, they don't really look like how they where described in the book. 

   

I pre-ordered the third book of the Divergent series but I ran into an issue while reading it. Has anyone else gotten it and is reading it who can help me?