~ EUTM ~ Forum for Witchcraft & Wiccan Spirituality

[Lucy720]

Hiya
I gust wonted to see if there any people that dont practise wicca or only take part in some wicca practises or beliefs
And if you dont mine me asking why you dont you practise wicca or why do you only take part in these beliefs
Thank for reading
Lucy

[Victoria Mnemosyne]

HI there, I am a witch and a pagan, and while I started out as a Wiccan I no longer follow that path. This is for many reasons. One is that I enjoy being eclectic and borrowing from many other traditions, while Wicca has a distinct British/Celtic heritage. I do not worship The Moon Goddess or the Horned God. I worship various Gods and Goddesses from many pantheons. There are some key beliefs that I disagree with. Wiccans are against harming anyone through magic and many have a ban against influencing or manipulating people as well (interfering with someone's will). I disagree. I think that the morals regarding magical actions should be the same as the one's that I use in the mundane world. I am not a vindictive or cruel person. But if someone hurts me, I may strike back. I may get into a fight in the mundane world, or send a hex in the magical. I have no problem interfering with will to some degree (I will try to influence people to do what I think is right) and so I may do this through a spell. This does not mean I'm "evil" or some power-mad witch controlling people like puppets. I have morals, but they are less absolute. It's just a different path. My beliefs incorporate a LOT of shamanism as well, trance work, traveling to other realms.

It's hard to describe in a nutshell, but basically I am not Wiccan because I like the freedom to pick and choose from different beliefs.

[Lucy720]

Thx for you info
I too do no follow with the wiccan rede

[Truthseeker]

If a had to describe my beliefs I would be Christo-Pagan with elements of wicca (I follow the Rede). I am a pagan follower of the teachings of Jesus, a witch, an empath/clairsentient. So-- I guess I am a christo-pagan-christo-wiccan-empathic witch! LOL

[MoonlitOrchid]

I've been looking into Traditional Witchcraft and I'm interested. I'm just having a hard time finding a lot of information. I'll probably end up a Heinz 57 Witch : )

[Lucy720]

thx for the replys
there great thanks

[Ula]

I am not wiccan because I like being able to do what feels right not follow any rules. I am would at this point call myself a gnostic Christian, heathen and witch. I am starting to do some research into seidr and the Vanir gods/ goddess of Norse/Germanic pagans. I have changed what I find to fit several times over the last four to five years. I like being flexible.

[Peregrine1013]

I know this is an old post but I wanted to add something here just the same. There has been a noticeable increase in Wiccans at these boards. When I first joined here years ago, I don't think there were any or at least very, very few. There was even a long thread about it at one time, with almost all of the major participants at that time saying "Not Wiccan" for various reasons. I've never been into Wicca myself. As my alias implies, I prefer to run my own independent streak and I prefer to travel light, so to speak. Wicca just did not fit me well at all.

To be quite painfully honest, the majority of my encounters with Wiccans both online and in real life (pauses a moment) could have been better. I had been quasi-atheistic for a while but decided to go on a soul search once again, considering myself an agnostic and an open-minded "seeker" at the time. I felt very put off by them for various reasons. For their talk about doing no harm, I was on the receiving end of behavior that was nothing short of harassment or even hostility, depending on the individual. There was only one rare exception to that years ago, a fifteen year old girl new to the craft, but that was about it.

Honest, folks, I did not start anything with them and I even had other people witnessing it who wondered what was their problem and why they would act out like that at me. This was about ten years ago so maybe a lot has changed since then. Maybe they just became Wiccan for all the wrong reasons and I happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and saw bad example. I don't know, but whatever their reasons, my encounters with them were not so good. Everyone's entitled to their religions (within reason of course as with anything) but they often treated me like an enemy at the drop of a hat. I was able to get specifics from one of them once: she found out I was Virgo and did not like Virgoes. (!?!?!?!?!)

[sanoyikamama]

I'm non wiccan, atheist and practice witchcraft more along traditional lines, and have also had some very negative experiences with wiccans and those who claim they aren't wiccan but don't know witchcraft outside of it. I especially have had problems with wiccan elders and their high priests/priestesses. They don't seem to understand that I get that they've been practicing for 20 years, but so have I even though I may be half their age and that I do things in ways that have been passed down for generations, some hundreds of years and that there is no "right" way for doing things. Many wiccans need to learn that they are part of a religion that is less than a hundred years old and that involves witchcraft, it's NOT the soul definition of it.

[MoonlitOrchid]

Peregrine- you will find that type of behavior in all religions. I'm sorry you've had such a bad run of encounters. I don't have a problem with Wicca or Wiccans- it's just not for me. I do sometimes get the feeling that because I'm not Wiccan some assume I will harm people because I don't have the written Rede. I'm just a simple Cottage Witch. I like the Traditional craft and to blend folk magic and hoodoo. I'm not into rituals and special tools. I use what I have and commune with my gods in my own way. In the beginning I used to read and study and tried to be Wiccan. However, intuition and instinct just took over and those studies were put behind me. Everyone has their own path and each needs to be respected. I was shown in a vision early on to leave all 'paths' and to make my own. That is not to lessen any of the paths. My path is just my own.

[Indigo_Pheonix]

Im not wiccan either. I do not practice any rituals or even know a wiccan. However I have read alot of books on Wicca and find some use and inpiration from it. I like how the spells are more like affirmations. I like that they use a lot of herbs and aromatherapy, and meditation. Its open to interpretation, and you can practice alone.

[Peregrine1013]

Peregrine- you will find that type of behavior in all religions. I'm sorry you've had such a bad run of encounters. I don't have a problem with Wicca or Wiccans- it's just not for me. I do sometimes get the feeling that because I'm not Wiccan some assume I will harm people because I don't have the written Rede. I'm just a simple Cottage Witch. I like the Traditional craft and to blend folk magic and hoodoo. I'm not into rituals and special tools. I use what I have and commune with my gods in my own way. In the beginning I used to read and study and tried to be Wiccan. However, intuition and instinct just took over and those studies were put behind me. Everyone has their own path and each needs to be respected. I was shown in a vision early on to leave all 'paths' and to make my own. That is not to lessen any of the paths. My path is just my own.

Heh. That all happened about 10 to 12 years ago just as I was trying to explore again after an atheism phase (or more like agnostic or "quasi-atheistic"). As dumb luck would have it, all that bizarre drama happened within a short time, for about a year or so, both online and in real life. I should have mentioned that I did not "reject" Wicca because of their bad examples. I just did not choose it because it did not "fit." There is a YouTuber who goes by "WiccanTexan." I take it she might have seen the sort of behavior I mention,because she addresses it in one of her videos. So I know that sometimes other Wiccans are speaking up about it, perhaps in part to protect their own reputations the same way I see Christians at times expressing their woes about bad examples other Christians display (like Westboro Baptist Church to mention an extreme example).

If I had made a choice based on admirable behavior, most likely I would have been either a Deist or a Taoist, back when I was seeking again. I "cherry-picked" a lot of teachings from both camps, things that I could understand and use, then went my merry way. To try to fully encompass either as my path just... did not "fit me" and I drifted back off into my solitary quasi-agnostic whateveryouwannacallit way again until 2006. Talk about feeling like a lost orphan. Somewhere along the way, I came to the conclusion that many paths have some truth to them and the rest is just unnecessary excess baggage; and I prefer to travel light.

[Lucy720]

Thanks for posting
I just love it when i go off a web form for abit and come back a few weeks later and find loads more post on one on my questions.

[firebirdflys]

Hi there, I felt I need to chime in here, and typed a lovely essay last night that disappeared when I tried to submit it,...Shizer! Anyway, here it is (again), in slightly shorter form!...
The whole idea if Wicca got a little too fluffy with all the SilverRavenWolf kinds of authors. I believe the word has been misunderstood. Its true that Wicca is primarily Celtic, but that's probably because the root of the word is OE (old english). It has been said the root of this word means "to bend", that may be partly true, because if you are alive you are capable of bending. Gerald brought back an archaic word but may have misrepresented it. The prefix of Wicca is wic, the archaic meaning of wic is qwik, that boils down to quick. Quick means ALIVE, if you have been cut to the quick, then you have been injured enough to spill life blood. So then, Wicca is the celebration of LIFE and/or the reverence of LIFE. We who would follow the cycle of the seasons, and use the energy and qualities of the cycle to further enrich and empower our lives, are honoring life.
As for following the Wiccan Rede...that's a topic for a whole other thread,...but in short, if you drive a car (or ride in one) you are harming a multitude of things, and I'm pretty sure we all do this. So we are all screwed.
Be good to yourself, be good to your fellow human (and all living things) that's all... Blessings, FirebirdFlys

[melinda]

I don't practise wicca. AT all. Not even a little. I tried, and I found the study of it pretty interesting if quite a bit as stiff a carcan as the catholic roots I was trying to get away from, but wicca doesn't sit with me. I have nothing against them, and I agree that their religion is...fine.
But I just...I felt incredibly stupid when I tried to practise wicca. I was like...wow, that is NOT gonna work. It just...wasn't right for me.
I guess in the end roots tend to win out.

My faith is...really complicated to explain. The roots are still mostly catholic, though more of a Caribbean catholic way, with some...pyaye, some...call it Voodoo, more than a bit of druidic faith, and taoist alchemistry thrown in.
The whole thing bears explanation I guess, my mother is from French Guyana, which is where pyaye comes from, it's a small small country next to Brazil that was colonised by France, my dad's from Britanny which is where the forest of Broceliande where Merlin is supposed to rest is, ergo the druid faith, and my step-mom is from China. So...yeah, oddly enough, it's all family faith.