More than one way to float a boat........

I encountered a website that was most refreshing in how it promoted Wicca by dismissing many of the beliefs promulgated by it's followers. Just as some of the most unlikely and ludicrous things are declared by Judea-Christians and Muslims, so is the pagan arm of the "gotta believe in something" crowd infected with rote propaganda that has little basis in historical fact. There is so much about Wicca that makes it very attractive to someone looking for common sense in a search for meaning, but like ANY religion, if it can't stand up to close scrutiny, it has no more value than any other crackpot philosophy. Thus it is no blasphemy to wish to know WHY you believe what you choose to believe, rather than to take whatever is presented to you at face value. I think you Catholics out there taking birth control get my ghist.

Most of us are quite familiar with the David Copperfield and Harry Houdini flavor of magic, and thank Bob that most of us know, regardless of what our eyes tell us, that it is nothing more than manipulation of observation. However, we still have this romantic notion of wizards flicking a wand at something and turning it into stone or an amphibian, or some ugly old witch mixing up a potion that will make any handsome prince fall in love with a woman, no matter how challenging to the eye she might be. So does this logical dismissal mean that there truly is no such thing as magic? If atheistic sensibilities declare that there is no invisible man in the sky that answers prayers, does this make a prayer a silly exercise in desperation? Not if you understand the power of belief, or intent.

Coincidence is a fact of life, a twist of fate that provides for opportune occurrences that have a positive or negative effect on a moment. You wish your parents would just DIE in a fit of rebellion and next thing you know the cops are on the phone informing you an accident just occurred. You are haunted for the rest of your life thinking you might have been directly responsible for that tragedy. But, what if you were? What if the will can be so strong and demanding that some law of physics comes into play that influences minute by minute events in such a way that a desired outcome can result that otherwise might not have? It has always been said that if you want something bad enough, just about anything is possible. This desire for a particular outcome might merely be arrived at due to your own diligence, but force of will was certainly involved in the process, for it is also well known that half-hearted attempts at anything can severely impede their happening. So, in an age where most reasoning human beings know that science dictates what can and cannot happen, what we have here is the possibility that there is a branch of physics that has always operated behind the scenes, causing seemingly miraculous things to occur when in fact they occurred because the force of will, channeled thru some process we have yet to be able to observe and quantify, made them occur, intentionally or not.

Prayer is the magic of Judeo-christianity. There may be no great, omnipotent God that answers these prayers, but that does not mean that those prayers are powerless because of it. Behind prayer is desire.....intent......an exercise of will. You want something to happen. You beseich some entity you deem powerful enough to make this happen. Your desire, powered by this belief, mistaken or otherwise, sets in motion forces you aren't even aware of, and something happens. Perhaps what you asked for was going to happen anyway. But perhaps your desire that it happen strengthens the chances that it does, and your prayers are "answered". Maybe the more "devout" one is, the more likely that their desire is exercised, all the while attributed to a higher power. When prayers are not answered, at least to our satisfaction, then it is easy to ease one's dissapointment by thinking it simply wasn't meant to be. It is also entirely possible, and probably likely, that what you asked for simply was beyond manipulation by ANY means, as the laws that govern the universe so dictate.

Magik is the prayer of Wicca. Wiccans do not ascribe to a singular omnipotent being, but to deities that represent the essence of life's power throughout the universe, or to this world. This divinity is within us, the earth we live on, and all the life that exists upon it. We ask of ourselves as much as we call upon something outside of ourselves for favor and intervention when we need coincidence to occur in our favor. Thus, we exercise our will, our intent, and thru ceremony or whatever vehicle we choose to utilize, we set in motion those powers that make things happen, rather than being prisoners of random fate. To declare that prayer is any less valid than our spell-casting is arrogant at best. They effect change in their fashion, we do the same in ours. And as is with prayer, no amount of spell casting by any witch of any ability will circumvent those laws of physics which simply can't be bypassed.

Wicca suffers from the same silliness and insanity as any religion. People seeking meaning in life will shop around for whatever smoke and mirrors make their lives appear more meaningful. However, if one is to avoid the fate of the righteous, it behooves them to approach any practice of worship or ceremony with a VERY large grain of salt, and continually remind themselves that to outright dismiss the validity of any one path towards enlightenment does not automatically ensure that their own path will arrive at a destination more comforting than any others.

So, if you are a Wiccan, and encounter a Christian, allow that person to exercise their belief system without condemnation, until such time that their practice of those beliefs are undermined by hypocrisy, such as disrespecting you as a person because they are convinced you are unredeamable for some reason or another. And while you do this, remember, you're own behaviors will either strengthen their disrespect for you, or cause them to question it and possibly change their outlook.

If you believe in one God Almighty, creator of heaven and Earth, and encounter a Wiccan, please understand that they do not believe in the evils you think they must be saved from in order to find redemption, thus are mostly immune to your well-intentioned desire to lead them to God. Yet, they will respect you, even as a Christian, or any other believer, for they believe you have as much right to share the path to whatever destination awaits us all as anybody.