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Wiccan
Wicca (), also known as "The Craft", is a modern pagan, syncretic, Earth-centred religion. Considered a new religious movement by scholars of religion, the path evolved from Western esotericism, developed in England during the first half of the 20th century, and was introduced to the public in 1954 by Gerald Gardner, a retired British civil servant. Wicca draws upon ancient pagan and 20th-century Hermetic motifs for theological and ritual purposes. Doreen Valiente joined Gardner in the 1950s, further building Wicca's liturgical tradition of beliefs, principles, and practices, disseminated through published books as well as secret written and oral teachings passed along to initiates. Many variations of the religion have grown and evolved over time, associated with a number of diverse lineages, sects, and denominations, referred to as ''traditions'', each with its own organisational structure and level of centralisation. Given its broadly decentralised nature, disagre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eclectic Wicca
Wicca (), also known as "The Craft", is a modern pagan, syncretic, Earth-centred religion. Considered a new religious movement by scholars of religion, the path evolved from Western esotericism, developed in England during the first half of the 20th century, and was introduced to the public in 1954 by Gerald Gardner, a retired British civil servant. Wicca draws upon ancient pagan and 20th-century Hermetic motifs for theological and ritual purposes. Doreen Valiente joined Gardner in the 1950s, further building Wicca's liturgical tradition of beliefs, principles, and practices, disseminated through published books as well as secret written and oral teachings passed along to initiates. Many variations of the religion have grown and evolved over time, associated with a number of diverse lineages, sects, and denominations, referred to as ''traditions'', each with its own organisational structure and level of centralisation. Given its broadly decentralised nature, disa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Doreen Valiente
Doreen Edith Dominy Valiente (4 January 1922 – 1 September 1999) was an English Wiccan who was responsible for writing much of the early religious liturgy within the tradition of Gardnerian Wicca. An author and poet, she also published five books dealing with Wicca and related esoteric subjects. Born to a middle-class family in Surrey, Valiente began practising magic while a teenager. Working as a translator at Bletchley Park during the Second World War, she also married twice in this period. Developing her interest in occultism after the war, she began practising ceremonial magic with a friend while living in Bournemouth. Learning of Wicca, in 1953 she was initiated into the Gardnerian tradition by its founder, Gerald Gardner. Soon becoming the High Priestess of Gardner's Bricket Wood coven, she helped him to produce or adapt many important scriptural texts for Wicca, such as ''The Witches Rune'' and the '' Charge of the Goddess'', which were incorporated into the early G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Earth Religion
Earth-centered religion or nature worship is a system of religion based on the veneration of natural phenomena. It covers any religion that worships the earth, nature, or fertility deity, such as the various forms of goddess worship or matriarchal religion. Some find a connection between earth-worship and the Gaia hypothesis. Earth religions are also formulated to allow one to utilize the knowledge of preserving the earth. Origins Origin claims by earth religion sources According to Marija Gimbutas, pre-Indo-European societies lived in small-scale, family-based communities that practiced matrilineal succession and goddess-centered religion where creation comes from the woman. She is the Divine Mother who can give life and take it away. In Irish mythology she is Danu, in Slavic mythology she is Mat Zemlya, and in other cultures she is Pachamama, Ninsun, Terra Mater, Nüwa, Matres or Shakti. In the late 1800s, James Weir wrote an article describing the beginnings and aspec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Modern Paganism
Modern paganism, also known as contemporary paganism and neopaganism, spans a range of new religious movements variously influenced by the Paganism, beliefs of pre-modern peoples across Europe, North Africa, and the Near East. Despite some common similarities, contemporary pagan movements are diverse, sharing no single set of beliefs, practices, or religious texts. Religious studies, Scholars of religion may study the phenomenon as a movement divided into different religions, while others study neopaganism as a decentralized religion with an array of Religious denomination, denominations. Adherents rely on Christianization, pre-Christian, folkloric, and ethnographic sources to a variety of degrees; many of them follow a spirituality that they accept as entirely modern, while others claim to adhere to Prehistoric religion, prehistoric beliefs, or else, they attempt to revive indigenous religions as accurately as possible. List of modern pagan movements, Modern pagan movements are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horned God
The Horned God is one of the two primary deities found in Wicca and some related forms of Neopaganism. The term ''Horned God'' itself predates Wicca, and is an early 20th-century syncretism, syncretic term for a horned or antlered anthropomorphic god partly based on historical Horned deity, horned deities. The Horned God represents the god (Wicca), male part of the religion's Wiccan ditheism, duotheistic theological system, the Prince consort, consort of the female Triple goddess (Neopaganism), Triple goddess of the Moon or other Mother goddess. In common Wiccan belief, he is associated with nature, wilderness, sexuality, hunting, and the life cycle. Whilst depictions of the deity vary, he is always shown with either horn (anatomy), horns or antlers upon his head, often depicted as being Theriocephaly, theriocephalic (having a beast's head), in this way emphasizing "the union of the divine and the animal", the latter of which includes humanity. In traditional Wicca (British T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gerald Gardner
Gerald Brosseau Gardner (13 June 1884 – 12 February 1964), also known by the craft name Scire, was an English Wiccan, author, and amateur anthropology, anthropologist and archaeology, archaeologist. He was instrumental in bringing the Modern paganism, modern pagan religion of Wicca to public attention, writing some of its definitive religious texts and founding the tradition of Gardnerian Wicca. Born into an upper-middle-class family in Blundellsands, Lancashire, Gardner spent much of his childhood abroad in Madeira. In 1900, he moved to colonial Sri Lanka, Ceylon. In 1911, he relocated to British Malaya, Malaya, where he worked as a civil servant. Independently, he developed an interest in the native peoples, writing papers, and even a book about their magical practices. After his retirement in 1936, he travelled to Cyprus and penned the novel ''A Goddess Arrives'' before returning to England. Settling down near the New Forest, he joined an occult group, the Rosicrucian Or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Divinity
Divinity (from Latin ) refers to the quality, presence, or nature of that which is divine—a term that, before the rise of monotheism, evoked a broad and dynamic field of sacred power. In the ancient world, divinity was not limited to a single deity or abstract ideal but was recognized in multiple forms: as a radiant attribute possessed by gods, as a vital force pervading nature, and even as a quality glimpsed in extraordinary humans, laws, or acts. The Latin and its Greek counterparts (, ) conveyed something both immanent and awe-inspiring: a presence that could be felt in thunder, justice, ecstasy, fate, or beauty. Among the Greeks and Romans, divinity was not confined to a rigid theological system. Gods, heroes, and even emperors might be described as partaking in divinity, just as natural forces or virtue could be seen as expressions of divine essence. Philosophers such as Plato and the Stoics used the term to refer to the soul of the cosmos or the rational order ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Duotheism
Dualism or dualistic cosmology is the moral or belief that two fundamental concepts exist, which often oppose each other. It is an umbrella term that covers a diversity of views from various religions, including both traditional religions and scriptural religions. Moral dualism is the belief of the great complement of, or conflict between, the benevolent and the malevolent. It simply implies that there are two moral opposites at work, independent of any interpretation of what might be "moral" and independent of how these may be represented. Moral opposites might, for example, exist in a worldview that has one god, more than one god, or none. By contrast, duotheism, bitheism or ditheism implies (at least) two gods. While bitheism implies harmony, ditheism implies rivalry and opposition, such as between good and evil, or light and dark, or summer and winter. For example, a ditheistic system could be one in which one god is a creator and the other a destroyer. In theology, dualism c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paganism
Paganism (, later 'civilian') is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Christianity, Judaism, and Samaritanism. In the time of the Roman Empire, individuals fell into the pagan class either because they were increasingly rural and provincial relative to the Christian population, or because they were not '' milites Christi'' (soldiers of Christ).J. J. O'Donnell (1977)''Paganus'': Evolution and Use, ''Classical Folia'', 31: 163–69. Alternative terms used in Christian texts were '' hellene'', '' gentile'', and '' heathen''. Ritual sacrifice was an integral part of ancient Greco-Roman religion and was regarded as an indication of whether a person was pagan or Christian. Paganism has broadly connoted the "religion of the peasantry". During and after the Middle Ages, the term ''paganism'' was applied to any non-Christian religion, and the term presumed a belief in fal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It shares Anglo-Scottish border, a land border with Scotland to the north and England–Wales border, another land border with Wales to the west, and is otherwise surrounded by the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south, the Celtic Sea to the south-west, and the Irish Sea to the west. Continental Europe lies to the south-east, and Ireland to the west. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census, the population was 56,490,048. London is both List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, the largest city and the Capital city, capital. The area now called England was first inhabited by modern humans during the Upper Paleolithic. It takes its name from the Angles (tribe), Angles, a Germanic peoples, Germanic tribe who settled du ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Witchcraft Today
''Witchcraft Today'' is a non-fiction book written by Gerald Gardner. Published in 1954, ''Witchcraft Today'' recounts Gardner's thoughts on the history and practices of the theoretical witch-cult, and his claim to have met practising witches in 1930s England. It is based on the discredited Witch-cult hypothesis which argued that persecuted witches had actually been followers of a surviving pagan religion. It also deals with his theory that the Knights Templar had practised the religion, and that the belief in faeries in ancient, mediaeval and early modern Europe is due to a secretive pygmy race that lived alongside humans. ''Witchcraft Today'' is one of the foundational texts for the religion of Wicca, along with Gardner's second book on the subject, 1959's '' The Meaning of Witchcraft''. Gerald Gardner in the foreword to Witchcraft Today: Whilst by the time of writing, Gardner had been initiated into the religion, and had formed his own coven, he did not state this in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
