Templum Ignis Aeternum

Witchcraft, or WICCA, is a religion.  Wicca is not primarily about magic, though it does use it.  Wicca is about your place in the Universe and your evolution as a spiritual being.  Wicca is about moving forward on your personal spiritual journey - about learning, growing, and becoming the most you can be.

  Wicca is a religion.  Wicca is a way of understanding and interacting with Deity and the Universe.  It is a life-affirming path of growth and expansion.

  Wicca is based on reverence for Nature and Her cycles, respect for the Earth and all Her creatures.  Wicca reveres the natural forces of the Universe and sees them reflected in the world around us, and in every person and thing. 

  Wicca has great reverence for Deity, Who for us has both a Mother and a Father aspect.    Wiccans approach Deity through many names and forms, both masculine and feminine, drawn from all over the world and from every age.  We often compare Deity to a diamond with many facets; each name or image for Deity is like one facet on the diamond.  Each facet may be considered separately and all are beautiful in themselves, but all are aspects of the single stone.

  Wicca believes that Deity comes to each person in the way that is best understood by that person, and that this is different for different people.  Wicca believes that the relationship between a person and Deity is highly individual, personal, and subjective.  Not everyone will have the same understanding of Deity, because not everyone is in the same place, or able to understand from the same level or perspective.  Because of this no one has a right to judge another persons relationship with Deity, because each person is different.

  This is why we respect all the names and forms that have been used to honor Deity through the centuries -Deity needs them all in order to come to all people in the way they can best understand.

  The most common way for Wiccans to approach Deity is in the form of the TRIPLE GODDESS, Whose three forms are Maiden, Mother, and Crone, and Whose symbol is the Moon. Her consort is THE GOD, Who rules the cycles of the solar year and is called among other things Lord of the Dance.  His symbol is the Sun.  They are viewed as POLARITIES, opposing but complimentary powers, like the Eastern concept of Yin and Yang. 

  Wicca has a very strong moral base.  By moralities we mean treating each other in an honorable and loving manner.  Wicca has only one law which all traditions agree on; DO AS YOU WILL, BUT HARM NONE.  In other words how you dress and who you sleep with is not our business -those issues are not what we mean by “morality.”  But a moral person doesn't hurt other people, and this is the criteria for all moral action;
Am I harming anyone? If you are, you are acting wrongly.

  Wicca is a Pagan, or Native, religion.  The word Pagan means from the countryside and reflects the fact that Pagans follow indigenous, native religions rather than the Book religions.  Pagan religions are built up over millennia as a result of people's observations and experiences - they are living, growing religions which can and do change when change is needed.  Pagan religions revere the natural forces and cycles of life, and it is from observation and interaction with these that their beliefs developed.

  Wicca is wholly unrelated to the Book religions; Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Satanism.  The Book religions are all descended from the supposedly historical bargain between Abraham and Jehovah, which is recorded in their Bible.  The Book religions all share common elements;  belief in a final Day of Judgment, in a jealous and vengeful God, in the basic sinfulness of humanity (called Original Sin), the superiority of the male sex, and the idea of Hell; a place of eternal torture.  Most of all the Book religions believe in the infallibility of their Book, the Bible (and its related books the Talmud, the Quran, the Satanic Bible).  Though these books were written by humans, the Book religions claim they were written by God - this is the hallmark of the Book religions.  Absolutely NONE of these ideas are shared by Wicca.  The Book religions have a totally separate origin from the Pagan religions, and a very different history.