The Book of Wicca

By David Kennedy

Some people will call Wicca a Religion or a cult. But in reality it is neither. I would like to think of Wicca as a family on the journey together to find the true Love and light.

The Book of Wicca is a roadmap onto your inner being on a lifelong quest of living that Love and Light.

We have everything you need to know to start your Wiccan journey or to assist you on a journey that is already begun. We will journey with you from the early history of Wicca up to the practices of magick in today's world.

We not only guide you in the historical information of this amazing life we also give you the tools and knowledge to venture out into today's world of Wicca.

By the end of the book you will have a solid sense for the basics of Wicca and Witchcraft, and the knowledge and tools to take your own journey through Love and Light.

• Language: English
• Publisher: David Kennedy
• Release date: Sep 12, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386617242

Book preview

Our History and Origins

Living in Ireland in the 1980’s I have seen many Celtic clans and have come to the understanding of the true Wiccan belief.

And I will stress the word TRUE because today we see so many people that are forming clans and covens out of rebellion of the modern day world rather than the true journey of Love and Light.

Priestess Apollina said it best in her lecture in 1993, People today are creating a false form of Wicca by blending the idea of the Goth subculture, Satanism and anti-government groups. That is not what Wicca is about. And unfortunately these are the images that the world is seeing and labeling us as.

Priestess Apollina said this over twenty years ago and sadly today that statement is still true.

Our image was blemished by Aleister Crowley (1875-1947), a man who was involved in the occult. He claimed to have channeled a book called the book of the law.  It focused on a new era of spirituality governed by the Egyptian God Horus.  From this work, Crowley established the first group of modern witches.

It wasn't until recently that Wicca took formation as a loosely based system, mainly from the works of Gerald Gardner who formed the Wiccan tradition known as Gardnerian Wicca.  Through Gardner the idea of the God and goddess were solidified and Wicca became a religious movement.

Wicca is now growing: scholars have estimated that Wicca is the second-fastest-growing religion in the United States (after Islam).

We need to better understand the true meaning of Wicca and what we truly believe.

Unfortunately there is no exhaustive or authoritative source that traces Wicca back through ancient times. Wicca is mainly a 20th century manifestation of ancient nature worship systems based out of northern Europe that existed thousands of years ago.

Wicca is a religion rooted in the mists of Neolithic history... it is basically a fertility and agrarian society. It is a religion of nature worship and the subsequent interaction with nature that is dissented from that practice by the Celtic clans of Western Europe and the indigenous peoples of the British Isles, the builders of such monuments as Stonehenge.

Wicca originated among the Celts and other peoples who lived in the area now known as Great Britain. Wiccans celebrate the Earth and believe all living things have a spirit. They espouse pantheism and claim to see the divine in everyone. Most celebrate monthly rituals, or esbats, centered on the lunar cycles, and eight annual Wiccan holy days, or sabbats, centered on the solar cycles, solstices and equinoxes.

These pagan oriented nature worship systems filtered down through history in countless ways, but were mainly practiced in secret (and still are today). The secrecy was especially necessary during the European dominance of the Roman Catholic Church.

Basically, these pagan traditions developed out of agrarian societies where the environment had a profound effect upon survival. Those who studied the seasons and the stars sought to predict and understand the influences of the environment upon crops, cattle, rain, etc. and in so doing also desired to be able to influence these factors. It was from the desire to understand and control nature that gave rise to the various pagan and earth based worship systems.  Therefore, we can see when we study ancient European pagan writings, that there are countless deities.

Additionally, an important aspect of nature worship deals with the woman. It is the woman who was able to give birth to continue the race.  In cultures where offspring were needed to work the land, to hunt, and to care for the elderly, women were, of course, vitally necessary.  Therefore, the female became, in some cultures, mystically endowed with special powers and this mystical endowment was transferred into the various theological pagan worship systems.

At first, there were a great number of cultures located all over the ancient European landscape. Since Europe is a large area and since weather patterns, terrain, water supplies, temperature variations, animal types, etc., varied in those areas, the development of nature worship (Druids, Celts,) also took on aspects that reflected those variables. Therefore, the ancient systems could be polytheistic, monotheistic, feminine focused, masculine focused, ritualistic, calendar based, hunter based, etc.

Because of the multifaceted and buried background, the nature based worship systems were not codified and there is no official pagan tradition.  Nevertheless, today's Wicca is based upon these ancient and pagan roots.

The Burning Times is roughly from the year 1000 to around the 1700s, where countless numbers of witches were killed through the misapplication of biblical texts. Perhaps the most commonly cited biblical verse supporting the killing of witches is found in Exodus 22:18, You shall not allow a sorceress to live. 

The Roman Catholic Church which was in power in the Middle Ages in Europe was often very oppressive.  Wiccans today often identify themselves with the time of the witch burnings and judge Christianity based upon the atrocities committed by the Roman Catholic Church.  Unfortunately, many Wiccans did not realize that the Roman Catholic Church also persecuted Christians, torturing many of them for not submitting to the authority and rule of Roman Catholicism.  In Christianity, particularly in the Protestant Reformation, we refer to this time as the Inquisition which was begun by Pope Innocent VIII in 1484.  The point is that the Roman Catholic Church does not represent Christianity, and its atrocities committed upon both pagans and Christians is not the true representation of Christianity.

Thanks to archaeological discoveries, we now have basis to believe that the origins of our belief system can be traced even further back to the Paleolithic peoples who worshipped a Hunter God and a Fertility Goddess.   With the discovery of these cave paintings, estimated to be around 30,000 years old, depicting a man with the head of a stag, and a pregnant woman standing in a circle with eleven other people, it can reasonably be assumed that Witchcraft is one of the oldest belief systems known in the world today.   These archetypes are clearly recognized by Wiccan as our view of the Goddess and God aspect of the supreme creative force and predate Christianity by roughly 28,000 years making it a mere toddler in the spectrum of time as we know it. 

Witchcraft in ancient history was known as The Craft of the Wise because most who followed the path were in tune with the forces of nature, had a knowledge of Herbs and medicines, gave council and were valuable parts of the village and community as Shamanic healers and leaders. They understood that mankind is not superior to nature, the earth and its creatures but instead we are simply one of the many parts, both seen and unseen that combines to make the whole. As Chief Seattle said; We do not own the earth, we are part of it. These wise people understood that what we take or use, we must return in kind to maintain balance and equilibrium. Clearly, modern man with all his applied learning and technology has forgotten this. Subsequently, we currently face ecological disaster and eventual extinction because of our hunger for power and a few pieces of gold.

For the past several hundred years, the image of the Witch has been mistakenly associated with evil, heathenism, and unrighteousness. In my humble opinion, these misconceptions have their origin in a couple of different places.

To begin, the medieval church of the 15th through 18th centuries created these myths to convert the followers of the old nature based religions to the churches way of thinking. By making the Witch into a diabolical character and turning the old religious deities into devils and demons, the missionaries were able to attach fear to these beliefs which aided in the conversion process.  Secondly, as medical science began to surface, the men who were engaged in these initial studies had a very poor understanding of female physiology, especially in the area of a woman’s monthly cycles.

The unknowns in this area played very well with the early churches agenda lending credence to the Witch Hunters claims and authority.

The fledgling medical professions also stood to benefit greatly from this because it took the power of the women healers away giving it to the male physicians transferring the respect and power to them.

Unfortunately these misinformed fears and superstitions have carried forward through the centuries and remain to this day.

This is why many who follow these nature oriented beliefs have adopted the name of Wicca over its true name of Witchcraft to escape the persecution, harassment and misinformation associated with the name of Witchcraft and Witch not to mention the bad publicity the press and Hollywood has given us simply to generate a profit.

What Witchcraft is:

Witchcraft is a spiritual system that fosters the free thought and will of the individual, encourages learning and an understanding of the earth and nature thereby affirming the divinity in all living things.   Most importantly however, it teaches responsibility.   We accept responsibility for our actions and deeds as clearly a result of the choices we make.   We do not blame an exterior entity or being for our shortcomings, weaknesses or mistakes.   If we mess up or do something that brings harm to another, we have no one but ourselves to blame and we must face the consequences resulting from those actions.   No ifs, ands or buts and no whining...

We acknowledge the cycles of nature, the lunar phases and the seasons to celebrate our spirituality and to worship the divine.   It is a belief system that allows the Witch to work with, not in supplication to deities with the intent of living in harmony and achieving balance with all things.

The spells that we do involve healing, love, harmony, wisdom and creativity.   The potions that we stir might be a headache remedy, a cold tonic, or an herbal flea bath for our pets.   We strive to gain knowledge of and use the natural remedies placed on this earth by the divine for our benefit instead of using synthetic drugs unless absolutely necessary.

Wiccan believe that the spirit of the One, Goddess and God exist in all things.   In the trees, rain, flowers, the sea, in each other and all of nature’s creatures.   This means that we must treat all things of the Earth as aspects of the divine.   We attempt to honor and respect life in all its many manifestations both seen and unseen.

Wiccan learns from and reveres the gift of nature from divine creation by celebrating the cycles of the sun, moon and seasons.   We search within ourselves for the cycles that correspond to those of the natural world and try to live in harmony with the movement of this universal energy.   Our teachers are the trees, rivers, lakes, meadows, mountains and animals as well as others who have walked this path before us.   This belief creates a reverence and respect for the environment, and all life upon the Earth.

We also revere the spirits of the elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water which combine to manifest all creation.   From these four elements we obtain insight to the rhythms of nature and understand they are also the rhythms of our own lives.

Because Witches have been persecuted for so many centuries, we believe in religious freedom first!   We do not look at our path as the only way to achieve spirituality, but as one path among many to the same end.   We are not a missionary religion out to convert new members to think the same as we do.   We are willing to share our experience and knowledge with those who seek our wisdom and perspective however.   We believe that anyone who is meant for this path will find it through their own search as the Goddess speaks to each of us in her time and way.   Wiccan practice tolerance and acceptance toward all other religions as long as those faiths do not persecute others or violate the tenant of Harm None.

What Witchcraft is not:

Witchcraft or Wicca is not a cult.   We do not proclaim ourselves to be spokespersons for the divine or try to get others to follow us as their leaders.

We do not worship Satan or consort with Demons.   Satan is a Christian creation and they can keep him.   We do not need a paranoid creation of supreme evil and eternal damnation to scare us into doing the right thing and helping others.   We choose to do