A Bats ramble

Welcome everyone. Someone on Facebook asked me some questions about Paganism. I gave them the basics and gave them a couple of websites and even got them a contact information for their area. As for my blog, I have posted things sporadically and most of it has been on a whim.

So I did some thinking and decided to start with some basics first. That might help people that are just looking around. I know that there are differences between Witches, Pagans, Wiccans, New age, and all the other names and it can be confusing to the newbies. But it is also just as confusing to the rest of us too. I have read so many fights on just defining the word Witch but I really don't want to go to deep into what the differences because you are going to get so many different answers from other people.

 

From my point of view (which can be different opinion for others), Pagans is like Christianity. It covers a collective of non Christian beliefs. Wiccans is a pacifist religion that believes in "harm to none" and you have Wiccans that use Witchcraft and some that don't. You have different traditions from Ancient Gods and Goddess from around the world. These include Druidism, Kemitism (Egypt) , Norse and many other traditions. You also have just plain Witches that some perform Witchcraft and some do not. Then you have all the covens that are out there that are considered to be separate in some areas.  As the Christianity forced all Pagans into hiding, we lost much of our history and writings. As no one has created a time machine we cannot say for definite about the true culture of Paganism. All we have are teachings that were passed down and Witch to Witch, which may not have all the truths behind it. We must rely on our faith and what we do know.

 

You have to remember that Paganism is older than Christianity and it was the rise of Christianity that started the downfall of knowledge. In WWII, Hitler raised the German army but giving them someone to hate, someone to be blamed for all their hardships. That is why Hitler choose the Jewish people because they were untied and shared their wealth with each other. Hitler need the money and need the "big bad" to sell to the German people. It worked and Hitler almost took over the world. Christianity did the same thing thousands of years before Hitler. In order for Christianity to hold their status they had to make the Pagans the "big bad." That is why the devil has horns, it was depicted from the Pagan Horned God.  

 

Long story short, Christian leaders learned that they had power and they wanted to keep it so anyone that went against them had to be a Witch and a servant of the Devil. So centuries of this hate turned in to a millennia which lead to another millennia and another. So after so much time has passed lots of information was lost. Christians destroyed ancient text that could hurt their new position. Another problem that happened is the Christian stealing our symbols and stories. In order to try to convert Pagans to Christianity, they took several of our God and Goddess figures and turned them into Christian saints. They also took our celebrations and changed the date but kept the symbolism. That is why we have the Easter Bunny during the resurrection of Christ.

 

So my short version is taking longer than expected but, anyways, Christians outlawed Paganism and any form of Magick. The Pagan community puts a "k" on Magic to make it different from the other magic. Back to the story, Pagans had to hid from the public which caused the loss of knowledge. "My conspiracy theorists friend" once told me that he believed that Pagan and Witch was a title from education like professor and doctor. It has merits as most magick from the past has a lot of science of today. That is why Pagans and Witches were feared as they knew how to heal people. As this is a mans world and has been since the beginning, a woman who was intelligent had to be evil because women were not allowed to think.

 

So you can see the problems that we have had to face over the centuries and still face today. We have won our right to vote but there are still those that still want us as property and enslaved. Over the last 200 years things have been changing and today most of the Witchcraft laws have been banned. There have been several people that have given Paganism and Witchcraft a boost out of the closet. Margaret Murray, Gerald Gardner, Aleister Crowley, Charles Leland, Starhawk, and many others.

 

Now when you are looking up Paganism, Wicca and Witchcraft, you have to remember that there are people that are positive and people that are negative. Some people pretend to be Pagan just to spread lies. You really must decide for yourself on what you want to believe. That is the curse of being a non-organized religion. Organized religions of strict rules and the leaders decide what you should believe in. Paganism gives you the power to decide for yourself. If you are in a coven then you a set of beliefs but they do not stop you from learning about other ways. If you are solitary then it is all about how you feel about what you are doing. The downside is everyone has their own opinion. But again we still have the free will to make our own decisions but you need to do a lot more homework than organized religion. That is the price for freedom.

 

You also have to remember that history is written by the winners, so it is not always the truth. Like I said we do not have a time machine so we are not positive if there was human scarifies, but in todays Witchcraft their is no human scarifies. We do scarifies but they are not in taking a life but giving something up. If a spell states you need to sacrifice something, they do not mean a necklace that you never wear but something that you have that you need to decide to give up for the spell. Sometimes it is a personal scarifies or a way you look at something.

 

In conclusion Paganism is the umbrella term and under that you have Wiccans, Witches, Druids, and all the ancient traditions and so much more. Witch is difficult because you don't need to perform Witchcraft to be a Witch. There are many non magickal Witches. They celebrate the holidays and even perform rituals for the full moon but not all of them perform spells. Then you have just plain old Pagans. They do not call themselves Witches and some of the cast spells but some don't. Now New agers are considered to be people that use divination tools but they do not practice the religion.  Pagans live their religion, especially Wiccans as they must do no harm always. They do not harm in thought and deed, which is really hard not to have negative thoughts about people.

 

As for Satanism is just as confusing as Satanism that worship the Devil are Christian as the Devil is a Christian god. Pagans do not believe in Satan the Devil. There are other Satanic groups that are actually more on the line of atheist. The other Satanic group believes that Satan is an idea not a person, and some of them do spells and some don't. But that is even more confusing and complex that I really don't want to go into right now.

 

Confused yet? I know that I am, so will leave it up to you to do your own research. Now remember that you should never ask someone about someone else beliefs. Never ask a Christian what Jew or Muslims believe. You always go to the source and ask your questions. Next you have to remember that we have no laws to prevent anyone in writing the truth or lie. The web is a nice place to start but remember that everything on the internet or books are someone's opinion. Don't just take the someone's word for it. Check out different websites and ask lots of people about things. Ask your questions and if they can't answer them, ask them who can. Never be afraid of asking.

 

My plan is to post some basic information. I will try to post at least once a week but my life can be hectic. Being the head of the household and a grandmas is a lot of work. So I will not make any guaranties. So to start out I will leave you with some simple quote that should start you out.

 

 

The Wiccan Rede (short)

Bide the Wiccan Law Ye must
In Perfect Love and Perfect Trust
Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfill
In it harm none, do what Ye will
What Ye sends forth comes back to thee
So ever mind the Rule of Three
Follow this with mind and Heart
And Merry Ye Meet,
and Merry Ye Part!