A Christian. A Wiccan. Can I be both?

Discussion for and about Christian witches and pagans. How do you merge your two belief systems? Please be kind to Christian witches. I have come to believe that it is a very valid belief system.
Cursefall

A Christian. A Wiccan. Can I be both?

Post by Cursefall »

Merry meet!

I'm Augustus.

All my life... I have been raised a Roman Catholic. None of my family members were ever Wiccan. To be honest, I feel like Catholicism is the path I should take because it's... It's... CATHOLICISM! Although I try to look at the perspectives of other people. What if they feel just like me. They feel as if their religion is the central religion of everything. Like I said... I'm confused. I know there are many different kinds of religions out there. It's like all these religions are roads that will lead you to different paths. BUT my whole everything is telling me to do great things as a Wiccan and at the same time, respect "The Holy Trinity".

Faith. It's based on facts. All faiths have different facts. I crave for Christian knowledge and I crave for Wiccan knowledge.

Can the Christian and Wiccan road possibly merge?

(I will take all opinions with open-mindedness.)

Blessed be.
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Re: A Christian. A Wiccan. Can I be both?

Post by smogie_michele »

It is your path, only you can figure out what is right for you. My only advice would to be study as much as possible and see where it leads you.
Why not read through this subforum and see what works for others? It may help you form your opinion.
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Becks
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Re: A Christian. A Wiccan. Can I be both?

Post by Becks »

Prefaced with the "in my opinion" moniker.
*Becks is making finger quotes*

Do I think you can be a Catholic and practice magic at the same time? Yes. However it would officially be frowned on by the Church. But hey, Catholics use birth control all the time.

Can you be a Catholic and actively practicing the 'Wiccan Religion"? No.


My personal understanding is that following specifically the path of Wicca and the practice of following witchcraft are different. That is not a belief that everyone here shares. You should here the, out too. There are good points there. We have a good thread about that specific chat. It is also my opinion that Wiccans, as I know them, would not curse somebody with sickness. The Wiccan Rede discourages against that kind of thing. Anyways that's just my background and understanding, and I'm sure you will get another varied response.

So, like Imperious I say technically-nope.
Cursefall

Re: A Christian. A Wiccan. Can I be both?

Post by Cursefall »

Becks wrote:Prefaced with the "in my opinion" moniker.
*Becks is making finger quotes*

Do I think you can be a Catholic and practice magic at the same time? Yes. However it would officially be frowned on by the Church. But hey, Catholics use birth control all the time.

Can you be a Catholic and actively practicing the 'Wiccan Religion"? No.


My personal understanding is that following specifically the path of Wicca and the practice of following witchcraft are different. That is not a belief that everyone here shares. You should here the, out too. There are good points there. We have a good thread about that specific chat. It is also my opinion that Wiccans, as I know them, would not curse somebody with sickness. The Wiccan Rede discourages against that kind of thing. Anyways that's just my background and understanding, and I'm sure you will get another varied response.


So, like Imperious I say technically-nope.
Merry meet.

Thank you for sharing your view on my conflict.

I guess what I really appreciate in Wicca is the fact that magick is used.

To be honest, when I read about Wicca I focus more on the spells. I've read the Wiccan Rede:
"An' ye harm none, Do what ye will".
I think I've been clouding myself into thinking that it's okay for me to keep cursing people, and I've done it by making sure it's accepted by a community, group, religion, etc. When actually it's not. Wicca doesn't approve of hexes.
I don't think I crave for the entirety of Wicca, just the witchcraft.

Blessed be.
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Becks
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Re: A Christian. A Wiccan. Can I be both?

Post by Becks »

Nice to meet you too. :) I hope you will stick around and share and read. There's some amazing information around here.
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Re: A Christian. A Wiccan. Can I be both?

Post by Xiao Rong »

Yes. As a heads up, forum rules prohibit sharing instructions on how to enact curses or hexes (although discussing the ethics of cursing is okay).

As for the original question (although I know that you've already concluded otherwise) -- people who identify as Christian Wiccans do exist. There are some contradictions between Christianity and Wicca, as I'm sure you can tell by the other responses in this particular subforum, and some people are more comfortable with the contradictions than others.
~ Xiao Rong ~ 小蓉 ~ Little Lotus ~
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Re: A Christian. A Wiccan. Can I be both?

Post by Chalice »

Other traditions that use magick and allow you to be Catholic:

OBOD Druidry
Conjure/Hoodoo

No need to call yourself Wiccan.

You could also call yourself a Witch, and be all those things you think Catholic Wiccan is :)
Witchcraft & OBOD Druidry.
Cursefall

Re: A Christian. A Wiccan. Can I be both?

Post by Cursefall »

Chalice wrote:Other traditions that use magick and allow you to be Catholic:

OBOD Druidry
Conjure/Hoodoo

No need to call yourself Wiccan.

You could also call yourself a Witch, and be all those things you think Catholic Wiccan is :)
Xiao Rong wrote:Yes. As a heads up, forum rules prohibit sharing instructions on how to enact curses or hexes (although discussing the ethics of cursing is okay).

As for the original question (although I know that you've already concluded otherwise) -- people who identify as Christian Wiccans do exist. There are some contradictions between Christianity and Wicca, as I'm sure you can tell by the other responses in this particular subforum, and some people are more comfortable with the contradictions than others.
Merry meet!

Thank you for your insights!
I'm more informed in the path I'm struggling to take. I need to vividly educate myself with this more. Of course, I'll also need to have support from others.

I feel like I'm going to take this wholeheartedly and incorporate Christianity with the given examples of Chalice. No path is easy to take. I know I'll get there.

Blessed be.
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Re: A Christian. A Wiccan. Can I be both?

Post by Seraphin »

You can't if you are going to practice magick within the archaic Christian bounds.

It's been said that a Christian is one who adheres to the teachings of Christ, accepts Christ as one's personal savior and recognizes Him to be the Messiah. That's actually the definition of being a Christian so if you identify yourself as one, you can't do witchcraft since magick and the craft are detestable in Christianity.

But you can still be a follower of Christ and believe in the Bible and at the same time practice magick outside Christian religion. I believe that one can be a follower of Jesus Christ without much regard at all to the Bible. If we look at the history of the Bible, after all, it must be understood that this history if full of human intervention, thus erroneous -- how much of the original meaning of the Bible has been lost to mistranslation and misinterpretation?

Other syncretist paths where you could practice magick and apply or use your Catholic/Christian understandings are:

Gnosticism
Christian Kabbalah
Voodoo/Santeria
Seraphin

If you have any questions, please feel free to PM me.
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Re: A Christian. A Wiccan. Can I be both?

Post by Silversong »

I believe it is possible to be a Witch and to acknowledge the Christian God. My mother does that, actually, more or less. I am less partial to the Christian God, but I will put in my thoughts on the matter.

As far as the Craft side is concerned, a Witch in my view of things can honor just about any god and/or goddess (not counting beings parallel to the Christian Devil, of course, which a lot of us don't even believe in, much less acknowledge). The Craft doesn't care whether you worship Zeus, Bastet, or Vishnu, so why should it care if you worship the Christian God? It is the Christian side of things that begins to cause controversy. The Church has long since persecuted Witches, throughout history, basically since it was brought into existence. Let's face it, it was once the case that the Church persecuted everyone who didn't follow their belief system (it still is the case, for some). Many Witches came to have a strong dislike of Christianity for it. Some Witches still harbor that dislike. Some don't. Either way, it's the main reason a lot of Witches are still in the broom closet.

The verse that's always pulled up in this instance arguing against that belief, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live," (Exodus 22:18) has been argued to have been mistranslated. Way back when, if you take the original version of the Bible in the original language and translate it literally, it has been said that it actually translates to "Thou shalt not suffer a poisoner to live." Whether or not that's accurate is up for debate, of course. (I forget where I read that; it was in a book somewhere.) But it does open up possibilities.

I believe that it is possible to be a Christian Witch. I also believe it probably requires slight modifications of the Christian faith to be compatible. It really depends on how you define "Witch".
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Re: A Christian. A Wiccan. Can I be both?

Post by Becks »

I understand what you ar saying Silversong. People can practice "witchcraft" and follow a path that also involves the "Christ Consciousness" at the same time. However, the title of the thread related to being "Wiccan" and following the path of Christ specifically. A few of us (not all of us) define Wiccan as it was founded...based in its roots and not as people have adapted the language (to be all encompassing) today. Therefore, would answer it as no.

I just happen to make a distinction.
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Re: A Christian. A Wiccan. Can I be both?

Post by Chalice »

Further on this: Gerald Gardner certainly thought so!

In fact, he was both!

:flyingwitch:
Witchcraft & OBOD Druidry.
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Becks
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Re: A Christian. A Wiccan. Can I be both?

Post by Becks »

Lol! That's funny! I thought he was Wiccan! :lol:
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Re: A Christian. A Wiccan. Can I be both?

Post by Jenny Crow »

Could you please tell us where you got that information from, Chalice, about Gardner being both Wiccan and a Christian?
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Re: A Christian. A Wiccan. Can I be both?

Post by Chalice »

Jenny Crow wrote:Could you please tell us where you got that information from, Chalice, about Gardner being both Wiccan and a Christian?

"...I can see no real reason why one cannot be a good enough though unorthodox Christian and a
witch at the same time. It seems to me easier than being a Christian and a Communist..." - Gerald Gardner "Witchcraft Today".

"...Furthering his interest in esoteric Christianity, in August 1946 Gardner was ordained as a priest in the Ancient British Church, a fellowship open to anyone who considered themselves a monotheist. There is no evidence that Gardner ever took an active part in any of the Church's rituals.[143] Gardner also took an interest in Druidry, joining the Ancient Druid Order (ADO) and attending its annual Midsummer rituals at Stonehenge...." - Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Gardner_(Wiccan)
Witchcraft & OBOD Druidry.
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