Post by STORMDANCER on Mar 27, 2015 16:56:38 GMT
In this article there are going to be some things that I will say that are uncharacteristic of me. I try my best to present to you information in a very biased way. Obviously I have my own opinions, obviously I know what works for me, but you’re not me. You shouldn’t try to be me or even try to emulate me. I am just trying to give you some information so that you can make your own decisions, which is how it should be. I also try and be very respectful about other people’s paths. Hear me out, hear what I have to say, judge it on your own. If you want to post a response or send a message, more power to you as you are allowed to express yourself and that’s the whole point of free speech.
A lot of people have come to me recently wanting to know my opinion and my insights. What about this? What about that? A lot of people are lost and they don’t know what path to follow. So what I want to do is to express to you what I have been expressing in my other articles as far as finding what works for you. Mixing and matching. Taking from a great variety of vastness that is out there, all these different paths. You can learn from anything. One of the things I said a long time ago (that’s right I am dorky enough to quote myself!!) is that 'a wise man can learn from a child, only a fool needs an ancient text', and that’s true, we can learn from everywhere. We can learn from nature, from animals and from the very essence of what man is. Sit out there and just watch people. Sit at a coffee shop and check people out, don’t be all creepy and obvious about it, but still observe, you can learn lessons in life from the way life is. That is the original teacher. For all of these shamanistic paths, all of the magical paths, these nature based paths, religion period, morals, ethics, laws, structure, it was all learned by observing and learning how the universe works and our place in it.
I am going to talk about Wicca and why I feel it would be best to open your eyes to what religions really are. Am I saying Wicca is horrible and its bad and you shouldn’t follow it? Absolutely not! So for those of you who were expecting me to say that, sorry. For those of you who practice Wicca and are already gritting your teeth and cracking your knuckles, it’s not what you think, I am just using it as an example. Hear me out once again although I may be going along some lines that you are not going to want to hear. I am going to give my opinion and my insight and I am going to give you from what I have learned, from what I have researched, from what I have practiced, from conversations I have had with other people. So here it is, take it how you want it.
Wicca: Wicca is not what people think. The reason I say that is a lot of people are turning to Wicca, or what they think is Wicca. They do this because they don’t know what to call themselves. You don’t have to turn to Wicca because everyone has heard of it. If you don’t know what Wicca is and you don’t know what a Wiccan is, you don’t have to, you can still learn from those books that you love so much, from those coffee shops, from friends, through conversations, forums, internet, and websites. You can take elements of something and still incorporate it without becoming this or converting to that. I am not going to tell you what I practice because it’s not relevant. I have studied many different paths and I have been doing it for over 27years now. I have studied, I have researched, and I have talked to other people. I have had formal training, informal training, instinctual, spiritual, all this kind of stuff and will still to this day say that I don’t know anything, and that is exactly the mind set you need. The mind-set of a child that is going to continuously be open, and continue to absorb lessons, wisdom. Nobody knows everything, and as soon as you think you know everything, that’s when you are no longer going to learn and you’re going to stop knowing everything. Things are constantly changing.
So where did the name Wicca come from? Wicca is something that was created and invented by Gerald Gardner. He got it from a group that called themselves ‘The Wica’. Wica is pronounced Witch-uh not wicca which is an Anglo Saxon word for their wise men. Wice was the female version of wise people. So it was like saying village elder, wise person, whatever the case may be. You have heard of the ‘craft of the wise’ same thing. That’s where it comes from. Anglo Saxon is just one method. The people of the Anglo Saxon times didn’t just translate over into Gerald Gardner’s wicca, they each had their own tradition. Each village, each family had their own path and method and only in the Anglo Saxon regions were they called ‘The Wica’. There were other ones, a lot of them, Celtic societies, Druid societies, Norse people, they called themselves Druid. That was also one of the terms that was used, it depends on the region. It depends on the path, the tribe, the society, and that’s the point, you just were. You didn’t have to have a specific title. You didn’t have to be called a shaman or a witch doctor, or a wiccan. You didn’t have to have a specific name you just were based upon what your region was. It was very much like the druids, the shamans and just the wise people of the village period.
The reason I say that wicca is not ancient and that it’s not witch craft is because that was the Anglo Saxons wise people. First and foremost the wise people the one they call the wica are not the same things as the wiccans today. The reason is that Gardner took all the folk stuff and some of his research on the Wica etc. He took all of this and made his own amalgamation of what worked for him. Then he introduced it to you. The old wise people of the Anglo Saxons did not have the same doctrines, teachings and specifics. Each village was different. Each family was different. Raymond Buckland even talks about them. He explains how the tribal people back in the shamanistic times would do rituals to do sympathetic magic to get in tune with the earths vibrations. I think positive, I get positive. I act positive and positive things will happen, so it’s trying to mimic and put these energies out there to bring about change, which is kind of essentially what magic is. The point I am trying to make is that back then it wasn’t set in stone it was a growing and changing. There was a reason why people like the druids passed wisdom by word of mouth, from teacher to student. It was a living, growing, changing art. It was a very generic and general term. You just were. Also with that thought, when you became a druid, a shaman, a witch or even in today’s society a ‘wiccan’ it was trained, it was taught and that student assimilated the teacher’s teachings into their own path. It was a growing living thing which is exactly how it should be. Do not be the bitch of somebody else’s path, find what works for you and I mean that sincerely and truthfully with all the depth of my heart. One of the great teachers of Buddhism once said ‘don’t listen to me I could be the world’s biggest liar, discover it for yourself’.
A lot of people want to be wiccan so they can have a religion and do magic but there are plenty of religions out there where it is okay to do magic with. In fact even Christianity does magic. Prayer is a form of magic because they are directing their energies through thought, praying to their deity or god, they do this usually in front of an altar with a staff and robes, if you have ever been to a catholic ceremony etc. In essence it’s magic. Magic is just a label, it’s just a term.
My path is 27yrs old because technically that’s because that’s when I started walking my path. I like to say mine is the one second path because it changes constantly. Every moment I am alive, every second I am reevaluating how I view the world and accepting new things that work and that feel right to me. I highly encourage you to do the same. You can take stuff from a multitude of faiths. Everyone has religious wise men and teachers. If you want to learn magic, learn magic, don’t get preconceived notions of what it is. It’s a natural energy force that works with the natural flow of life. You can’t do things against the natural flow. You are not going to make something magically appear from nowhere, but you can draw vibrations and energies towards yourself. Everything that you are, emotions and thoughts, these are all vibrations and they can be influenced through magic.
There are a lot of arguments about witchcraft and wicca and the difference and I posted that on my time line a few days ago if you want to read it after this. They are not the same thing. You will see elements of witchcraft in wicca. Wicca will talk about the five ritual tools and the five elements and a set way of using stuff, whereas with witchcraft all you need is yourself, your direction and your intent. Yes some of the ritual tools have been used in witchcraft, and a lot of the spell craft that is used by most wiccans, not all, is related to witchcraft but that doesn’t make it the same thing. If you are not formally trained in wicca you don’t have to be a wiccan. Be you. You can still read books, talk to other people, go to seminars, classes, whatever the case may be. Mix and match and make it your own. You don’t have to have a set path or a name for yourself. Embrace what feels right for you. Find and seek because I will tell you right now I don’t care if you are talking about witchcraft, druidry, Hinduism etc. I don’t care what path it is, how old it is or how new it is.. IT’S ALL BULLSHIT!! All of it!!! The only thing that is NOT bullshit is what you find is real in your heart. If you can connect with god, with goddess, the universe, the universal essence of all things. If you can find yourself, it doesn’t matter what you practice or believe. It doesn’t matter what that priest, priestess, that monk, that teacher, that scholar etc tells you because if you can’t find it for yourself it doesn’t mean shit! With that being said and with all these great and wonderful resources why limit yourself. Pick and choose. Be you! Don’t limit yourself, don’t limit yourself because the book said so or the book says this or the book says that. If you are uncomfortable with certain things maybe a teacher doesn’t feel right to you, find another and if the same thing consistently happens then maybe it’s just not right for you. The same thing goes with any path. You have to find what works for you and what you are in harmony with, that’s the whole point of spirituality.
For those of you out there who don’t know what to do or how to learn about magic or finding their own path the answers are everywhere. Look into psychic skills, look into Shinto, and look into Buddhism, Catholicism, look in the Qabalah, look into witchcraft, look into Shamanism. There is so much out there about how to direct your energy and become one with it. Yes depending where you are it may be hard so turn to books, the internet resources, ask me or ask others out there. There are plenty of resources out there for you. Meet people and talk to people, if it doesn’t feel right move on. You don’t have to take other peoples word for it. Having it written down in a book doesn’t make it right and someone claiming that it’s thousands of years old and passed down from teacher to teacher to teacher doesn’t make it right, and even if it was passed down like that, it doesn’t make it right. You have to find what harmonizes with your soul. What calls to you! A lot of the great teachers out there and a lot of the great traditions that use books have written them so that the reader can interpret them themselves. The student is encouraged to listen to the words and find their own meaning in them. That is beautiful in my eyes, but like I said this article is only my opinion. I have studied both and learned about both and there is much to be learned from many of the paths I have mentioned on here and I have studied them all in one way or another. For those of you who are obsessed with books, those books are just one person’s word. You might as well take my word for it or pick someone on the street and take their word for it. Just because they have a book, credentials or years of study does not make them right and doesn’t mean you should have to turn to them.
Let me give you a little secret hint here: Where do you think all of these religions, faiths and spiritual practices came from? They came from people like you. Seekers who decided to take it upon themselves to truly look at the universe and find a way to interact with it. Why can’t you? Why do you need to turn to these other paths? If you find one that fits you and works and is just right, do it, follow that path. Learn that path from someone, but make it your own! If none of them call out to you, don’t turn to a path instead pick and choose your teachings and make up your own path because let me tell you something about religion and faith, every single one of them from Catholicism, to wicca, to Hinduism, to all of them period, the shamanistic practices and shamanistic tribes, they are all created, invented and made up by man. They are man’s interpretation of the world and the universe around them and the entire point is to reach the divine.
I think of it like a mountain. We are all trying to get to the top of that mountain so that we can understand the world that we live in. The tip of the mountain is the divine. The divine is the universe and the sky beyond but the thing is as we walk up that mountain we take different paths and the closer we get to the top we lose the individual path and start to harmonize with those who also seek their own individual path, and the closer you get the more you realise that they are similar. Once you get to the tip of the mountain you know that you will never touch the divine, you will never touch the sky, and as you look down on the world around you, you see it through new eyes. That is the essence of religion. That is the essence of spirituality and magic. That is what you should seek it for. If you are seeking magic or wicca or anything simply for an escape or to rebel, that’s not a good reason in my opinion. If you are looking for magic because your life is terrible, magic is not going to correct things! Magic works with the flow of nature. You’re not going to go outside and snap your fingers and make the wind blow, but if you concentrate it will blow. Ask yourself why? Why do you want to do what you are doing with magic, why do you want to taking away from others? The secret of magic is working with the flow of the earth and the elements its being in harmony with things. That’s what makes it so important. Think about it this way what’s harder, to throw a ball straight up into the air or throw it straight down at the earth? Let the pull of the natural forces go with you, don’t go against them because it’s not going to be the same. If you go against the forces of nature it’s not going to happen, go with them and miracles will occur.
So this is my opinion and there are plenty of other paths out there. Don’t go with any preconceived notions, don’t take anyone’s word for it, not even mine. Find yourself, find your path, find what’s right and keep seeking. It is not hopeless you can find what it is you seek. This is my opinion, it is not etched in stone but hopefully you have learned something.
A lot of people have come to me recently wanting to know my opinion and my insights. What about this? What about that? A lot of people are lost and they don’t know what path to follow. So what I want to do is to express to you what I have been expressing in my other articles as far as finding what works for you. Mixing and matching. Taking from a great variety of vastness that is out there, all these different paths. You can learn from anything. One of the things I said a long time ago (that’s right I am dorky enough to quote myself!!) is that 'a wise man can learn from a child, only a fool needs an ancient text', and that’s true, we can learn from everywhere. We can learn from nature, from animals and from the very essence of what man is. Sit out there and just watch people. Sit at a coffee shop and check people out, don’t be all creepy and obvious about it, but still observe, you can learn lessons in life from the way life is. That is the original teacher. For all of these shamanistic paths, all of the magical paths, these nature based paths, religion period, morals, ethics, laws, structure, it was all learned by observing and learning how the universe works and our place in it.
I am going to talk about Wicca and why I feel it would be best to open your eyes to what religions really are. Am I saying Wicca is horrible and its bad and you shouldn’t follow it? Absolutely not! So for those of you who were expecting me to say that, sorry. For those of you who practice Wicca and are already gritting your teeth and cracking your knuckles, it’s not what you think, I am just using it as an example. Hear me out once again although I may be going along some lines that you are not going to want to hear. I am going to give my opinion and my insight and I am going to give you from what I have learned, from what I have researched, from what I have practiced, from conversations I have had with other people. So here it is, take it how you want it.
Wicca: Wicca is not what people think. The reason I say that is a lot of people are turning to Wicca, or what they think is Wicca. They do this because they don’t know what to call themselves. You don’t have to turn to Wicca because everyone has heard of it. If you don’t know what Wicca is and you don’t know what a Wiccan is, you don’t have to, you can still learn from those books that you love so much, from those coffee shops, from friends, through conversations, forums, internet, and websites. You can take elements of something and still incorporate it without becoming this or converting to that. I am not going to tell you what I practice because it’s not relevant. I have studied many different paths and I have been doing it for over 27years now. I have studied, I have researched, and I have talked to other people. I have had formal training, informal training, instinctual, spiritual, all this kind of stuff and will still to this day say that I don’t know anything, and that is exactly the mind set you need. The mind-set of a child that is going to continuously be open, and continue to absorb lessons, wisdom. Nobody knows everything, and as soon as you think you know everything, that’s when you are no longer going to learn and you’re going to stop knowing everything. Things are constantly changing.
So where did the name Wicca come from? Wicca is something that was created and invented by Gerald Gardner. He got it from a group that called themselves ‘The Wica’. Wica is pronounced Witch-uh not wicca which is an Anglo Saxon word for their wise men. Wice was the female version of wise people. So it was like saying village elder, wise person, whatever the case may be. You have heard of the ‘craft of the wise’ same thing. That’s where it comes from. Anglo Saxon is just one method. The people of the Anglo Saxon times didn’t just translate over into Gerald Gardner’s wicca, they each had their own tradition. Each village, each family had their own path and method and only in the Anglo Saxon regions were they called ‘The Wica’. There were other ones, a lot of them, Celtic societies, Druid societies, Norse people, they called themselves Druid. That was also one of the terms that was used, it depends on the region. It depends on the path, the tribe, the society, and that’s the point, you just were. You didn’t have to have a specific title. You didn’t have to be called a shaman or a witch doctor, or a wiccan. You didn’t have to have a specific name you just were based upon what your region was. It was very much like the druids, the shamans and just the wise people of the village period.
The reason I say that wicca is not ancient and that it’s not witch craft is because that was the Anglo Saxons wise people. First and foremost the wise people the one they call the wica are not the same things as the wiccans today. The reason is that Gardner took all the folk stuff and some of his research on the Wica etc. He took all of this and made his own amalgamation of what worked for him. Then he introduced it to you. The old wise people of the Anglo Saxons did not have the same doctrines, teachings and specifics. Each village was different. Each family was different. Raymond Buckland even talks about them. He explains how the tribal people back in the shamanistic times would do rituals to do sympathetic magic to get in tune with the earths vibrations. I think positive, I get positive. I act positive and positive things will happen, so it’s trying to mimic and put these energies out there to bring about change, which is kind of essentially what magic is. The point I am trying to make is that back then it wasn’t set in stone it was a growing and changing. There was a reason why people like the druids passed wisdom by word of mouth, from teacher to student. It was a living, growing, changing art. It was a very generic and general term. You just were. Also with that thought, when you became a druid, a shaman, a witch or even in today’s society a ‘wiccan’ it was trained, it was taught and that student assimilated the teacher’s teachings into their own path. It was a growing living thing which is exactly how it should be. Do not be the bitch of somebody else’s path, find what works for you and I mean that sincerely and truthfully with all the depth of my heart. One of the great teachers of Buddhism once said ‘don’t listen to me I could be the world’s biggest liar, discover it for yourself’.
A lot of people want to be wiccan so they can have a religion and do magic but there are plenty of religions out there where it is okay to do magic with. In fact even Christianity does magic. Prayer is a form of magic because they are directing their energies through thought, praying to their deity or god, they do this usually in front of an altar with a staff and robes, if you have ever been to a catholic ceremony etc. In essence it’s magic. Magic is just a label, it’s just a term.
My path is 27yrs old because technically that’s because that’s when I started walking my path. I like to say mine is the one second path because it changes constantly. Every moment I am alive, every second I am reevaluating how I view the world and accepting new things that work and that feel right to me. I highly encourage you to do the same. You can take stuff from a multitude of faiths. Everyone has religious wise men and teachers. If you want to learn magic, learn magic, don’t get preconceived notions of what it is. It’s a natural energy force that works with the natural flow of life. You can’t do things against the natural flow. You are not going to make something magically appear from nowhere, but you can draw vibrations and energies towards yourself. Everything that you are, emotions and thoughts, these are all vibrations and they can be influenced through magic.
There are a lot of arguments about witchcraft and wicca and the difference and I posted that on my time line a few days ago if you want to read it after this. They are not the same thing. You will see elements of witchcraft in wicca. Wicca will talk about the five ritual tools and the five elements and a set way of using stuff, whereas with witchcraft all you need is yourself, your direction and your intent. Yes some of the ritual tools have been used in witchcraft, and a lot of the spell craft that is used by most wiccans, not all, is related to witchcraft but that doesn’t make it the same thing. If you are not formally trained in wicca you don’t have to be a wiccan. Be you. You can still read books, talk to other people, go to seminars, classes, whatever the case may be. Mix and match and make it your own. You don’t have to have a set path or a name for yourself. Embrace what feels right for you. Find and seek because I will tell you right now I don’t care if you are talking about witchcraft, druidry, Hinduism etc. I don’t care what path it is, how old it is or how new it is.. IT’S ALL BULLSHIT!! All of it!!! The only thing that is NOT bullshit is what you find is real in your heart. If you can connect with god, with goddess, the universe, the universal essence of all things. If you can find yourself, it doesn’t matter what you practice or believe. It doesn’t matter what that priest, priestess, that monk, that teacher, that scholar etc tells you because if you can’t find it for yourself it doesn’t mean shit! With that being said and with all these great and wonderful resources why limit yourself. Pick and choose. Be you! Don’t limit yourself, don’t limit yourself because the book said so or the book says this or the book says that. If you are uncomfortable with certain things maybe a teacher doesn’t feel right to you, find another and if the same thing consistently happens then maybe it’s just not right for you. The same thing goes with any path. You have to find what works for you and what you are in harmony with, that’s the whole point of spirituality.
For those of you out there who don’t know what to do or how to learn about magic or finding their own path the answers are everywhere. Look into psychic skills, look into Shinto, and look into Buddhism, Catholicism, look in the Qabalah, look into witchcraft, look into Shamanism. There is so much out there about how to direct your energy and become one with it. Yes depending where you are it may be hard so turn to books, the internet resources, ask me or ask others out there. There are plenty of resources out there for you. Meet people and talk to people, if it doesn’t feel right move on. You don’t have to take other peoples word for it. Having it written down in a book doesn’t make it right and someone claiming that it’s thousands of years old and passed down from teacher to teacher to teacher doesn’t make it right, and even if it was passed down like that, it doesn’t make it right. You have to find what harmonizes with your soul. What calls to you! A lot of the great teachers out there and a lot of the great traditions that use books have written them so that the reader can interpret them themselves. The student is encouraged to listen to the words and find their own meaning in them. That is beautiful in my eyes, but like I said this article is only my opinion. I have studied both and learned about both and there is much to be learned from many of the paths I have mentioned on here and I have studied them all in one way or another. For those of you who are obsessed with books, those books are just one person’s word. You might as well take my word for it or pick someone on the street and take their word for it. Just because they have a book, credentials or years of study does not make them right and doesn’t mean you should have to turn to them.
Let me give you a little secret hint here: Where do you think all of these religions, faiths and spiritual practices came from? They came from people like you. Seekers who decided to take it upon themselves to truly look at the universe and find a way to interact with it. Why can’t you? Why do you need to turn to these other paths? If you find one that fits you and works and is just right, do it, follow that path. Learn that path from someone, but make it your own! If none of them call out to you, don’t turn to a path instead pick and choose your teachings and make up your own path because let me tell you something about religion and faith, every single one of them from Catholicism, to wicca, to Hinduism, to all of them period, the shamanistic practices and shamanistic tribes, they are all created, invented and made up by man. They are man’s interpretation of the world and the universe around them and the entire point is to reach the divine.
I think of it like a mountain. We are all trying to get to the top of that mountain so that we can understand the world that we live in. The tip of the mountain is the divine. The divine is the universe and the sky beyond but the thing is as we walk up that mountain we take different paths and the closer we get to the top we lose the individual path and start to harmonize with those who also seek their own individual path, and the closer you get the more you realise that they are similar. Once you get to the tip of the mountain you know that you will never touch the divine, you will never touch the sky, and as you look down on the world around you, you see it through new eyes. That is the essence of religion. That is the essence of spirituality and magic. That is what you should seek it for. If you are seeking magic or wicca or anything simply for an escape or to rebel, that’s not a good reason in my opinion. If you are looking for magic because your life is terrible, magic is not going to correct things! Magic works with the flow of nature. You’re not going to go outside and snap your fingers and make the wind blow, but if you concentrate it will blow. Ask yourself why? Why do you want to do what you are doing with magic, why do you want to taking away from others? The secret of magic is working with the flow of the earth and the elements its being in harmony with things. That’s what makes it so important. Think about it this way what’s harder, to throw a ball straight up into the air or throw it straight down at the earth? Let the pull of the natural forces go with you, don’t go against them because it’s not going to be the same. If you go against the forces of nature it’s not going to happen, go with them and miracles will occur.
So this is my opinion and there are plenty of other paths out there. Don’t go with any preconceived notions, don’t take anyone’s word for it, not even mine. Find yourself, find your path, find what’s right and keep seeking. It is not hopeless you can find what it is you seek. This is my opinion, it is not etched in stone but hopefully you have learned something.
