Wicca and Teens

  • Thread starter Thread starter ginoparadela
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
AntiTheist said:
In reality, the scariest things about most occultists are their social lives and their fashion sense.

Come on, now. If you honestly think it’s “dangerous” for a bunch of kids to dress up like witches and prance around in a circle and pretend to cast spells, then it’s time to take a good, long, hard look at yourself and the weird stuff you yourself believe.
Click to expand...
True. But you always want to keep an eye out for the occasional dangerous cult, like the Manson Family or Heavan’s Gate. 99% of the time, it’s going to amount to a whole lot of nothing, but there’s always that one that you have to watch out for. Also, steer clear of the ones that charge money to join.
 
Noesis said:
A difference exists.

Wiccans do spells because they believe in a sort of New Age “energy” which permeates the universe, and which has no will, and upon which intent can be passed along. This is, in my opinion, an attempt to explain mysteries in terms which adhere to this vague sort of submission to a New Age perception of quantum mechanics.

Christians, and also, the religions which predated it in the Roman Empire, endeavoured not to control or manipulate, but to enter into agreements with gods. If I light a candle to a god, and I petition him for something, and I agree that I will do something else in return, then I am not attempting to control them, but to exist in harmony with them.

Such an act, in my view, came to exist in Catholicism as well, where there are set standards of ritual contracts with the god of monotheism, in an attempt to plead with him to affect a persons life in a certain way. (The most basic is this: I will believe in the Church, and all of its Dogmas, and I will worship you and adhere to your law, if you in turn will save me from eternal punishment.)

Magic, the attempt to willfully change conditions by merit of inherit power, were frowned upon by both modern Christians, and the ancient, Classical polytheists. To both, we might assign the act of magic as being viewed as a symptom of great and profound hubris and impiety, and there is the assumption that natural order will prevail against such an imbalance.
Click to expand...
For most of the serious practitioners of Wicca that I know, it is largely about asking the gods for intervention, though there is an element of self-determination. It seems that a lot of ideas within the New Age category have taken this idea, and removed the gods entirely, which has, in turn, gotten mixed in with some of the younger Wiccans. But I would certainly agree that a lot of New Agers’ ideas about exerting your own power over this “energy” is a lot of ****, especially when it gets into quantim mechanics. (The Abraham-Hicks philosophy and Ramtha’s School of Enlightenment are two prime examples of mind-over-matter explained with a lot of pseudo-science.) I do believe in the power of positive thinking, but what the hell does it have to do with how fast my molecules are vibrating?

Ironically, Wicca has come under a lot of criticism from the New Age community for not being about self-determination enough, which is why it’s becoming less trendy. For the teenagers of today, Wicca is five-minutes-ago, and The Secret is in.

Okay, but assuming someone casts a spell, in order to control the world around himself directly, without going through the gods. Is this very different from using technology? Technology is also using your own means to control the world around you. In fact, a lot of things which are now technological were probably considered magic at some point.
 
josephdaniel29 said:
I wasn’t using it only to refer to Wicca. I said anyone who subscribes to superstitions does so out of a desire to control their surroundings.

We don’t pray for those things hoping that God will give us something He wasn’t going to give us anyway. We pray to demonstrate love for others and to participate with our fellow Christians in the Divine Energies of God. In fact the most perfect prayer we can say is “Thy will be done.”

In Christ,
Joe
Click to expand...
I understand Christians WANT there to be a difference…but that is pretty much necessary since Christianity claims Wicca consorts with devils and demons…but for the Wiccan…man many Christians…I see no difference except to whom one is praying to and lighting candles to and chanting prayers to…A Christian asks God and the saints to “sell my house”…“get me a job”…“heal my cancer”…a Wiccan does the same thing…ritual and “liturgy” different…Gods are different…but asking the same thing…a material change to occur in the world one resides in.
 
Pray for those children. Thank goodness we don’t live in age were they would be burned at the stake. Give them an opportunity to make themselves right with God.
 
“wicca” is a tough term. Until I reached my early 30s, most of my world was filled with pagans, agnostics and atheists. Now, the pagans have mostly given that up, and fell in with the agnostics.
Nonetheless, I say ‘wicca’ is a tough term because it’s something of an umbrella term, much like ‘christian’. There’s wiccans who are pretty much just worshiping satan, all the way through to those who just really like picnicking in the woods. 🤷
So, it’s important to know WHAT KIND of pagan you’re dealing with. They scurry away from definitions typically, and they don’t need to be pigeon-holed but it IS critical to define some terms from the outset if you are going to have any meaningful dialogue.
 
Publisher said:
I understand Christians WANT there to be a difference…but that is pretty much necessary since Christianity claims Wicca consorts with devils and demons…but for the Wiccan…man many Christians…I see no difference except to whom one is praying to and lighting candles to and chanting prayers to…A Christian asks God and the saints to “sell my house”…“get me a job”…“heal my cancer”…a Wiccan does the same thing…ritual and “liturgy” different…Gods are different…but asking the same thing…a material change to occur in the world one resides in.
Click to expand...
Then you simply don’t understand the nature and purpose of Christian prayer my friend. As I’ve already explained once, we don’t pray hoping to affect a change. Our prayer does not change God’s mind and prompt Him to give us something He wasn’t going to give us anyway.

Then why do we pray? We pray to grow in communion with God and with each other. We intercede not hoping to change God’s mind but rather to express our firm faith that if His will is done it is for our ultimate good.

Yours in Christ
Joe
 
Christians have only One God who is the Holy Trinity. Mary, the Saints and Angels are not gods and are not worshipped by Catholic Christians. Your theology and knowledge of world religions is false.
 
Does anyone have any guesses as to why Wicca is predominately women (mostly younger women, actually)
Maybe that’s only my experience. 🤷
The boys go atheist/agnostic, the girls form covens. Any ideas? I honestly don’t have any, it was just an odd thing I noticed.
 
I think also the best weapon is prayer. Also ask the Blessed Mother for her prays, They are very powerful.

I think also that is why it is so important to teach Children about God from the moment of birth. So they have a foundation build on Rock like the bible teaches.

I also think to discuss this with your children when they are at the age to understand what wicca actually is. When I was a child I never was around anything like this.

Once I went to get my cards read, just for fun, but was told by my Aunt that I was sinning against God. I thought yeah right.

But then my Dad found out and said Yes that is a sin. I was like how? He said I was breaking a commandment of God by putting a false God before Christ. That did it for me, went to confession and never went back.

I think letting Children know that its breaking a commandment is a good thing to tell them too.
 
Publisher said:
I am close friends to a family who is Wicca. The parents are now in their late 40’s to early 50’s…they have three teenage children all involved as a family.

The most sinister activities I have witnessed concerning Wicca has been by “Christians” who see the devil under every rock and Satan slithering around every tree.

These good friends do not believe in the Christian devil…they do not worship him…that is a Christian belief that not all Christians hold. Satanism IS a “Christian sect”…it’s mythology is based on Christian beliefs, doctrine and the Bible plus the “Christian flavor” of the darker side of the Western Esoteric Tradition.

Modern Neo-paganism has nothing to do with “Christian” belief…

One of the funniest things my friend told me about their interaction with Christians was when he was trying to explain the resurrection to his young son…“After three days Jesus came back alive.”…“Cool!!!” exclaimed his son…“Jesus is a zombie!”…the dad went on to exclaim that such statements would be offensive to Christians…“Jesus is not a “zombie” as we understand the word. He came back alive and joined his God.”

Wicca has a totally different mythology than Christians…the two are totally separate.

The Wiccan teens I know are great students in the top of their class percentile. They are respectful…albeit a little “goth” for my taste.

Wicca is no more harmful to teens than Christianity.
Click to expand...
Yeah right and the devils favorite color is grey.

But I do agree with you on one thing wicca is completely different from Christianity. We as Christians believe in Jesus Christ and worship only him. Wicca is false gods and is unacceptable for a Christian.

Anyone who does not believe the devil is everywhere are very sadly mistaken.
 
Publisher said:
I’m not sure I would use the word “superstition” in regard to Wicca’s belief in spells to change their situation…since Christians pray that God will do the same thing…Wiccan spells are really “liturgical prayers” to conform their minds to the will of the Gods and thereby bring about change first and foremost within themselves.

For a Wiccan to do a spell to get a new job and a Christian to light a candle and petition a favored saint to secure a job…not too much difference IMO.
Click to expand...
There is a huge difference. For a Christian to light a candle we are doing exactly what you said going to the light Jesus Christ.

To ask a Saint to pray for us is alot different then to cast a spell. We know that the only power we have comes from one Person Jesus Christ. And we also know the power of prayer. Asking someone to pray for you, and lighting a candle is not casting a spell.:rolleyes:
 
rwillenborg said:
Does anyone have any guesses as to why Wicca is predominately women (mostly younger women, actually)
Maybe that’s only my experience. 🤷
The boys go atheist/agnostic, the girls form covens. Any ideas? I honestly don’t have any, it was just an odd thing I noticed.
Click to expand...
Well, the Dianic covens were promoting feminism back in the 1920’s, so there’s a historic connection there. And the Gardenarians focused on equality of the sexes in the 1950’s, so I’m sure women found that idea appealing.

I think it’s possible that men are more genetically programmed to be pragmatic, which may explain the atheists/agnostics.
 
In my experience, Wicca, and most forms of related pagan paths, run about 2/3 female and 1/3 male. Dianic groups of course are all female and some magickal orders such as OTO and similar ceremonial magick groups and chaos magick, tend to be more male dominated.
 
Ahimsa said:
Dianic covens in the '20s? You’re kidding, right?
Click to expand...
Dianic Wicca started in the 1970s, but drew from earlier Dianic covens which were in existence in the early twentieth century, when the occult was rather popular with high society. Wicca, which wasn’t started until around 1950, was based largely on existing occult organizations, such as The Rosicutian Society, The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Thelema, The Cretona Fellowship, and of course, feminist covens (popular largely due to the women’s sufferage movements) which were at the time Dianic. So there were Dianic covens, just not Dianic Wiccan covens, but they are related.

Of course, I don’t have any research material in front of me, so all this is from memory.
 
Whatever the timeline, the reasons for the gender disparity in Wicca and related paths is pretty obvious. They are religions which the divine feminine, the Goddess, is equal to her male counterpart, and in fact pre-eminent, first among equals. In traditional coven structures, women hold the real leadership role and can gain the kind of standing in the wider community as clergy on par with Catholic bishops.

It’s also a draw for young women who have had negative experiences or perceptions about Christianity, including Catholicism but also many evangelical traditions. Whether those negative experiences are reflective of the true nature of those faiths is neither here nor there. My old journalism profs and public relations types always said “perception is reality.” As a male Wiccan who has been at it a few years and met a lot of people, I can tell you that even many Dianics are misunderstood. Most of them don’t hate men and are not as skewed toward female divinity as they might seem. Many do attend mixed-gender community rituals but want their own space where they can work with the feminine mysteries of life and death on a much deeper level. A growing number of men on these paths are also creating similar experiences for their own. I think it can be a very healthy thing.

I think much of what has gone wrong with our world today is the result of the de-valuing of female divinity and consciousness and the cultivation of a very limited and twisted sense of what masuclinity is about. If we’re to survive each other’s company and not turn the planet into a living hell, we need to find ways to redress that balance. Wicca has it’s solutions in that regard. Other faiths, including Catholicism, no doubt has different, but hopefully real solutions as well.
 
kenofken said:
I think much of what has gone wrong with our world today is the result of the de-valuing of female divinity and consciousness and the cultivation of a very limited and twisted sense of what masuclinity is about.
Click to expand...
This is a rather strong statement. Would you be kind enough to explain this point a little bit more clearly?

When I think of things which I might describe as being serious, worldwide problems, I fail to see how their source could be traced to the sort of thing which you have described. I’m curious to read an expansion of your ideas.
 
AS a teen myself, the teens I know who get into Paganism/Wiccanism mostly get into it because it “fits” them the best. The emphasis on their choice of religion is based on comfort, not Truth.
 
Marc_Anthony said:
AS a teen myself, the teens I know who get into Paganism/Wiccanism mostly get into it because it “fits” them the best. The emphasis on their choice of religion is based on comfort, not Truth.
Click to expand...
I have to tell you this has been my experience as well. Anytime I hear people rejecting Christianity it’s because it’s not comfortable and doesn’t allow them to do whatever they want. Some people are like spoiled children who hate rules and punishments.

There are some people who have legitimate concerns and objections to the Church but at the root of most objections is a childish temper tantrum.

That said, anyone I know who has been Wiccan has been a ‘let’s take bits of every religion that I like, get rid of the parts I don’t like, and form a mish-mash religion that doesn’t offend my sensibilities’ kind of person. And sometimes they don’t believe in God or gods at all. :confused: I will never understand someone who can honestly profess to be Christian-Wiccan, or Buddhist-Christian… or Buddhist-Wiccan-Christian… (I’ve met all of these and more).
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top