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Beginning Paganismþ000
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A series of classes for the beginning paganþ000
Prepared by Lady Gillian of the Grove of the Silver Lightþ000
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I do thank all who were responsibile for my training and some
of their excelent ideas and words remain in my teachings.þ000
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The Wiccan religion has it's roots in the basic beliefs from
several areas of the world from about 3000 years or longer ago.
The religion is a matriarchal based religion,and believes in both
a God as well as Goddess.þ000
While in the current form for about 50 years or so,as best as
most people can determine,the roots for the system of beliefs do
extend back thru the prechristian era.þ000
I tease most of my students that this is not a democracy but
instead is a benevolent dictatorship.And Yes... I am the dictator.þ000
In the Wiccan religion,The High Priestess is the final authority
on matters.The reason for this has to do with the nature of the
concept of universal energies.Man or male energy is seen as
active,force and female as receptive form.Therefore the female
takes the active male energy and transforms it into receptive or
creative form.Just as in real life,the female takes the seed from
man and creates new life.þ000
In the beginning of mans understanding,all new life came from
the woman,and while they were not aware of how it got there,they
knew that life did not come except thru woman. Today we do
understand how this new life was placed there,but even so,new life
comes from the woman.So we do strivce within the Wiccan religion
to place emphisis on balance and we do use a duality of male and
female.þ000
At one time,the pagan religions or dual diety religions were
the most prevenalt on the earth.During the coming of
Christianity,the Clergy of the pagan religions and the clergy of
the Christian religion in some areas,would fill in for each other
when necessary.A lot of the current Christian holidays and
celebrations were derived from the pagan holidays and
celebrations.þ000
The officials of the Christian religion felt and rightly
so,that it would be easier for the people to change over if the
celebrations were similar.Some of the old pagan power points for
worshiping were used by the Christians as well. Indeed,some of the
major churches and cathederals were built on these areas.þ000
In many of the older Chrictian churches,some of the Pagan
symabols are still seen and often they also had a seperate altar
room for the pagan people to worship at. These were frequently
called the horned altars for the horns that represented the Horned
God Or Pan or Curnnunos as he was called.þ000
This should not be confused with the Christian concept of the
devil or Satan.Infact,the sterotype of Satan is much different
than he was mentioned in the Old Testament ofthe bible and is
basically an archetypal creation of the Christians. The Wiccans
did not have such a figure as with the brlief in Karma and
reincarnation,there was no need for a "boogie man" to scare the
peopel into acceptible behavior.þ000
The atempt to transfer the Horned God into the form of Satan
was to try and root out the remaining influence of the pagan
religion.Many of these people also had land that the church
officials desired and it was also an effective way to remove what
they could then call undesirable persons and take their land and
posessiona. This was the beginning of the burning times when it
was estimated that 9,000,000 peopel were starved,hung,burned,drown
or otherwise killed by the religious persecution of the Christain
church. The Bubonic plage was also atributed to the pagans and did
more to further reduce the population as well as frighten the
people into the supposed protection of the Church.þ000
It was indeed a dark time for the human race as a whole.þ000
Most pagans today,or Wiccans as most of us are called
haveexperienced in some form a continuance of persecution and
misunderstanding.This is te reason that most of us keep quite
about our religion and why Wiccan groups are difficult to locate.þ000
The word wicca is said to derive from wicce,and older engligh
word meaning wise.So the followers of wicca are said to be witches
and practice wise craft or witch craft.Most of us call it just the
Craft.The word witch had been used in a very derrogatory manner
for a number of years as can be evidenced thru literature and
Hollywood productions. One of the few well known "good " witches
is that of Glenda in the Wizard of Oz. So we must endevor to
overcome all of this very bad P.R. and try and enlighten our
fellow man when possible so that we are removing the burden of
fear and misunderstanding from ourselves as well.þ000
This course is designed to cover all of the material that is
needed to be learned for first degree initiation into the craft or
for a simple pagan dedication. However,Initiation is also based on
the maturity of the person and their knowelege of self and how
they handle their self in other areas of life. A student cannot
just come to class on Sunday evenings and then be a drug dealer or
ax murderer the rest of the week. I also do not allow any of my
studnes to associate with known Satanist or black magic users.And
I do expect courtsey.If one can't attend class or a ritual,have
the courtesy to call an say so,rather than just not show up.We are
stressing responsibility here...for your own life.þ000
We do also operate as on energy exchange.I give my energy to
help and teach you,to counsel and advise when necessary and tho I
do not charge for lessons,I do ask that that energy is returned in
some form.As a normal person myself,I may need a favor some day
too. We do ask for donations when you have a bit of spare
change,to cover copying,candles,charcole,incense,our P.O.Box that
we maintain and such things.So if you can give,please do...if you
can't..that's ok too.You can do the dishes instead
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