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Solitary Practitioner
A solitary witch is one who chooses to practice their spiritual faith in the privacy of their home or other designated space, without the need to participate in a group such as that of a Wiccan coven; although it's not uncommon for solitaries to participate in some communal activities (e.g. Sabbats). Many solitary practitioners are Neo-pagans, who adhere to a diverse group of pagan religions that include various forms of Wicca, Traditional Reconstructionism and Traditional British Witchcraft, among others. About half of all pagans are self-ascribed solitary practitioners. While formal training is not a necessary component of solitary practice as it is in more organized groups, it is nevertheless a supported recommendation and practitioners can find myriad workshops, seminars and classes, in their local communities and online, that help to provide a more well-rounded approach to their spiritual practice. In most cases books are the primary means of education of the solitary prac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coven
A coven () is a group or gathering of Witchcraft, witches. The word "coven" (from Anglo-Norman language, Anglo-Norman ''covent, cuvent'', from Old French ''covent'', from Latin ''conventum'' = convention) remained largely unused in English language, English until 1921 when Margaret Murray promoted the witch-cult hypothesis, idea that all witches across Europe met in groups of thirteen which they called "covens".Murray, Margaret (1921). ''The Witch Cult in Western Europe: A Study in Anthropology''. Modern paganism In Wicca and other similar forms of modern pagan witchcraft, such as Stregheria and Feri Tradition, Feri, a coven is a gathering or community of witches, like an affinity group, engagement group, or small covenant group. It is composed of a group of practitioners who gather together for rituals such as Drawing down the Moon (ritual), Drawing Down the Moon, or celebrating the Wheel of the Year, Sabbats. The place at which they generally meet is called a covenstead. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wheel Of The Year
The Wheel of the Year is an annual cycle of seasonal festivals, observed by a range of Modern paganism, modern pagans, marking the year's chief solar events (solstices and equinoxes) and the midpoints between them. Modern pagan observances are based to varying degrees on folk traditions, regardless of the historical practices of world civilizations. Modern Paganism in the United Kingdom, British neopagans popularized the Wheel of the Year in the mid-20th century, combining the four solar events ("quarter days") marked by many European peoples, with the four midpoint festivals ("cross-quarter days") celebrated by Insular Celts, Insular Celtic peoples. Different paths of modern Paganism may vary regarding the precise timing of each observance, based on such distinctions as the lunar phase and Hemispheres of Earth, geographic hemisphere. Some Wiccans use the term sabbat () to refer to each festival, represented as a spoke in the Wheel. Origins Seasonal festival activities of pag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paganism (contemporary Religions)
Modern paganism, also known as contemporary paganism and neopaganism, spans a range of new religious movements variously influenced by the 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. 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 denominations. Adherents rely on 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 beliefs, or else, they attempt to revive indigenous religions as accurately as possible. Modern pagan movements are frequently described on a spectrum ranging from reconstructive, which seeks to revive historical pagan religions; to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wicca
Wicca (), also known as "The Craft", is a Modern paganism, modern pagan, syncretic, Earth religion, Earth-centred religion. Considered a new religious movement by Religious studies, scholars of religion, the path evolved from Western esotericism, developed in England during the first half of the 20th century, and was Witchcraft Today, introduced to the public in 1954 by Gerald Gardner, a retired British civil servant. Wicca draws upon paganism, ancient pagan and Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, 20th-century Hermetic motif (folkloristics), motifs for theology, 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 Initiation, initiates. Many variations of the religion have grown and evolved over time, associated with a number of diverse lineages, sects, and Religious den ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reconstructionist Paganism
Polytheistic reconstructionism (or simply reconstructionism) is an approach to modern paganism first emerging in the late 1960s to early 1970s, which gathered momentum starting in the 1990s. Reconstructionism attempts to re-establish genuine polytheistic religions in the modern world through a rediscovery of the rituals, practices and contextual worldviews of pre-Christian pagan religions. This method stands in contrast with other neopagan syncretic movements like Wicca, and ecstatic/esoteric movements like Germanic mysticism or Theosophy. While the emphasis on historical accuracy may imply historical reenactment, the difference between these two movements can be summarized as one of intent. Historical reenactment seeks historical accuracy as a goal in and of itself. On the other hand, a reconstructionist neopagan views historical accuracy as a means to the end of establishing a harmonious relationship between a belief-community and the gods. In short, the guiding principles ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Witchcraft
Witchcraft is the use of Magic (supernatural), magic by a person called a witch. Traditionally, "witchcraft" means the use of magic to inflict supernatural harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and widespread meaning. According to ''Encyclopedia Britannica'', "Witchcraft thus defined exists more in the imagination", but it "has constituted for many cultures a viable explanation of evil in the world". The belief in witches has been found throughout history in a great number of societies worldwide. Most of these societies have used Apotropaic magic, protective magic or counter-magic against witchcraft, and have shunned, banished, imprisoned, physically punished or killed alleged witches. Anthropologists use the term "witchcraft" for similar beliefs about harmful occult practices in different cultures, and these societies often use the term when speaking in English. Belief in witchcraft as malevolent magic is attested from #Ancient Mesopotamian religion ... [...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] |
Raymond Buckland
Raymond Buckland (31 August 1934 – 27 September 2017), whose craft name was Robat, was an English writer on the subject of Wicca and the occult, and a significant figure in the history of Wicca, of which he was a high priest in both the Gardnerian and Seax-Wica traditions. According to his written works, primarily ''Witchcraft from the Inside'', published in 1971, he was the first person in the United States to openly admit to being a practitioner of Wicca, and he introduced the lineage of Gardnerian Wicca to the United States in 1964, after having been initiated by Gerald Gardner's then-high priestess Monique Wilson in Britain the previous year. He later formed his own tradition dubbed Seax-Wica which focuses on the symbolism of Anglo-Saxon paganism. Biography Britain: 1934–1962 Buckland was born in London on 31 August 1934, to Eileen and Stanley Buckland. Buckland was of mixed ethnicity; his mother was English, and his father was Romanichal ( "English Gypsy"). He ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Initiation
Initiation is a rite of passage marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components. In an extended sense, it can also signify a transformation in which the initiate is 'reborn' into a new role. Examples of initiation ceremonies might include Christian baptism or confirmation, Jewish bar or bat mitzvah, acceptance into a fraternal organization, secret society or religious order, or graduation from school or recruit training. A person taking the initiation ceremony in traditional rites, such as those depicted in these pictures, is called an ''initiate''. Characteristics William Ian Miller notes the role of ritual humiliation in comic ordering and testing. Mircea Eliade discussed initiation as a principal religious act by classical or traditional societies. He defined initiation as "a basic change in existential condition", which liberates man from profane time and histor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Silver RavenWolf
Silver RavenWolf (born September 11, 1956) is an American writer on New Age magic, witchcraft and Wicca. Career RavenWolf received her Third Degree Initiation from a member of the Serpent Stone family, a pagan congregation. While studying under a British Traditional Witch who claimed to have ties to the International Red Garters in Britain, Silver also became connected with a family lineaged witch who was the last in his line of the tradition. It was this mentorship that prompted the beginning of the Black Forest Circle and Seminary in the 1990s. , The Black Forest Circle and Seminary is an organization that contains hundreds of covens spanning the United States and Canada. Until the 2010s, she appeared as a lecturer and workshop facilitator at events in the Neo-Pagan community. She was active in Wiccan anti-discrimination issues. She was also a Powwower, having adopted the Pennsylvania Dutch practice in a neo-Pagan context. RavenWolf is the author of over 17 books on Wicca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scott Cunningham
Scott Douglas Cunningham (June 27, 1956 – March 28, 1993) was an American writer. Cunningham is the author of several books on Wicca and various other alternative religious subjects. His work ''Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner'', is one of the most successful books on Wicca ever published; he was a friend of notable occultists and Wiccans such as Raymond Buckland, and was a member of the Serpent Stone Family, and received his Third Degree Initiation as a member of that coven. Early life Scott Cunningham was born at the William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan, USA, the second son of prolific author Chester Grant "Chet" Cunningham and Rose Marie Wilhoit Cunningham. The family moved to San Diego, California in the fall of 1959 due to Rose Marie's health problems. The doctors in Royal Oak declared the mild climate in San Diego ideal for her. Outside of many trips to Hawaii, Cunningham lived in San Diego all his life. Cunningham had one older brother, Greg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rae Beth
The cunning folk were professional or semi-professional practitioners of magic (supernatural), magic in Europe from the Middle Ages, medieval period through the early 20th century. In Britain they were known by a variety of names in different regions of the country, including wise men and wise women, pellars, wizards, dyn hysbys, and sometimes white witches. These people practised folk and low magic – although often combined with elements of "high" or ceremonial magic – which they learned through the study of grimoires. Primarily using incantation, spells and charms as a part of their profession, they were most commonly employed to use their magic to combat malevolent witchcraft, to locate criminals, missing persons or stolen property, for fortune telling, for healing, for treasure hunting and to influence people to fall in love. Belonging "to the world of popular belief and custom", the cunning folk's magic has been defined as being "concerned not with the mysteries of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
