Explore the often misunderstood path of Wicca with "Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner." We look into and discuss the spiritual practice of Wicca, shedding light on its principles and rituals. Join us as we unveil the truths behind this nature-centered faith, often shrouded in mystery and misconceptions.
We'll explore the content and impact of Scott Cunningham's seminal book, "Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner." Our exploration takes us through the history of Wicca, its core beliefs, and its practices, highlighting the beauty and ethical foundations of this spiritual path.
We address common myths, such as the misinterpretations during the Satanic Panic, and explore Wicca's principles of karma and connection with nature.
We emphasize Wicca's celebration of life, its focus on personal responsibility, and the power of belief in shaping one's spiritual journey. We also discuss the similarities between Wicca and other spiritual and religious practices, underscoring the universal themes of love, light, and the interconnectedness of all things.
This in-depth discussion not only educates but also inspires a deeper understanding and respect for Wicca as a valid and meaningful spiritual path.
For more enriching discussions and a supportive community, visit our website: https://Kishar.org
Explore the often misunderstood path of Wicca with "Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner." We look into and discuss the spiritual practice of Wicca, shedding light on its principles and rituals. Join us as we unveil the truths behind this nature-centered faith, often shrouded in mystery and misconceptions.
We'll explore the content and impact of Scott Cunningham's seminal book, "Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner." Our exploration takes us through the history of Wicca, its core beliefs, and its practices, highlighting the beauty and ethical foundations of this spiritual path.
We address common myths, such as the misinterpretations during the Satanic Panic, and explore Wicca's principles of karma and connection with nature.
We emphasize Wicca's celebration of life, its focus on personal responsibility, and the power of belief in shaping one's spiritual journey. We also discuss the similarities between Wicca and other spiritual and religious practices, underscoring the universal themes of love, light, and the interconnectedness of all things.
This in-depth discussion not only educates but also inspires a deeper understanding and respect for Wicca as a valid and meaningful spiritual path.
For more enriching discussions and a supportive community, visit our website: https://Kishar.org
So far in this channel. We've talked about the Eastern faiths Christianity, Judaism, modern spirituality, self-help, various philosophies and a whole lot more. Let's take a look at the Pagans. Paganism is underrated as a beautiful and valid spiritual path for us. I'm asked fairly often how one might get started on the Wiccan path, and every time I get asked that, I recommend this book. It's Wicca. A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner by Scott Cunningham. Before I read this, I was fairly ignorant on the subject of Wiccans, and now I think I probably still am, but I have a far better perspective on it and I progressed in my knowledge on it, so it's definitely worth a read. It's a great resource for you. Wicca and associated Pagan beliefs aren't a monolith. The movement as a whole isn't unified in any kind of organized way. That's this dogmatic system of governance. It's really much more kind of wild than that. It's probably one of the best things about it as far as a lot of people are concerned. And so what exactly Wicca are as far as classification may be debatable by members of the faith. And Cunningham sees Wicca as a shamanistic pagan religion, and his explanation of it is really convincing. It's important to understand the modern history of the movement. This book was written in 1988 at a time when being a Wicca wasn't easy by any stretch of the imagination. The Satanic panic was in full swing in 1980s, America. I don't know if you're familiar with that concept, but if you've seen Stranger Things, some of the things that happened on that TV show are kind of like what happens with the Satanic Panic. it was fueled by uninformed hate by evangelical Christians and fundamentalist Catholics, amongst others around the United States. And years later, we would see almost all of the quote unquote, facts that led up to the satanic panic in our country as being invalid and we would know that we weren't in the grips of some pagan crisis and that it was urban legends, and a lot of it was completely manufactured on purpose in order to kind of manipulate people in a certain way. So try to understand. It wasn't easy for someone to freely practice this spiritual philosophy leading up to. And during this time the internet didn't exist, and essentially the only way to become a Wicca was to find a group of them in the local area like a coven. And be initiated. Cunningham showed how one person can change the world. He wanted to change how people saw Wiccans. He very much wanted to increase the accessibility of Wicca as a practice to the individual person, and he wanted to democratize the process of becoming a practitioner. He kind of saw that it wasn't just the people that had some type of bias against the Wiccans or witches out there as the problem. He definitely saw that, but he also saw that there was a problem in kind of these cliques that happened within covens and these people that practice Wicca, they had ideas about how people should or shouldn't be initiated into the order. And so there were those on the outside that were problems, but there were also those on the inside that wanted to guard and gatekeeper and protect who could practice the the faith. And he wanted to demystify Wiccans and he wanted to correct some of the fallacies around the faith. In a quick note, when you hear me use the word faith, I don't mean it in some dogmatic religious way. I say it in the sense of our own spiritual practice in belief. it wasn't just collective ignorance about Wiggins, but also willful ignorance. In many cases. People didn't want to understand it. It also came with literally centuries of falsehoods and misinformation, and I don't think Disney helped either As I read through this, I became educated on this beautiful faith. For me, it has similarities to some Native American faiths and beliefs as far as the bond of love and nature go. One of the first things to understand about Wiccan is that it isn't a faith of darkness. It's about love and light and the beauty and power all around us here on Earth. in fact, they are very much in the camp of do no harm, not ever, not to yourself or anyone or anything else. They believe that whatever you do, light or dark, it's going to come back on you three fold and four. For us, that's really the idea of karma, and that's expressed through all kinds of religions. We see it in Hinduism and Buddhism and the Dao, and we see in Christianity, even if you go back to the Old Testament
and a verse like Hosea 8:
7, where they say, you know, for they have sown the wind and they say you reap the whirlwind. And that seems like it's this wrath of God type thing, and you can kind of take it that way. But that verse also says, You reap what you. So that can be both good and bad. So this idea of karma exists throughout most spiritual constructs, philosophies and religions around the world. And karma is a very powerful motivator to to do good in the world. If you put love out, you get love back. That's a very powerful concept. And if we give loving kindness that we see the universe, return it to us in kind, Cunningham says. We can't blame fate every second of each day. We're creating our futures, shaping the course of our lives. One so Wicca takes full responsibility for all that she or he has done in this life and past ones, and determines that future actions will be in accord with higher ideals and goals. Magic will blossom and life will be a joy. And that's just a wonderful quote. You know, we're creating our reality as we move forward. What we're putting out, we're going to receive back. It's this rich, beautiful thing we can practice seems to overlap significantly with Hinduism and other Eastern faiths. Reincarnation is part of this where I see that overlap. You see the power of breathing exercises and there's significant crossover there. There's meditation and the fact that focus is this important thing and Wiccan practices focusing on something is deeply important. And we see that in the eastern faiths all the time. Visualization is also used prominently and the power of energy around us that can be harnessed and seen is practice not just in eastern faiths, but in religions all around the world. And we see that in metaphysical and philosophical constructs that we study all the time. When you think about harnessing that that energy around us and there's this theme that reality is altered by intention and this feels like a view shared again by multiple religions and philosophies from around the world. I see so much beauty in the oneness of everything as practiced in Wicca. And that oneness is the same thing that I see when I study various religions and spiritual philosophies around the world. We're all saying very similar things. Probably. Mostly we're seeing the same thing. Before we move on, please subscribe by hitting the watermark in the lower right hand corner. And if you think this video might help any friends or family, please share with them. The power lies within you. Cunningham stresses It isn't about what you use or how you do it. It's whatever ultimately works for you. So if you believe it, if you feel it, and if it moves you and you see this sense of power, it's real and that's divine. And I think that's the non-gate controlled nature of this faith really appeals to me that the power of the universe and the peace and truth of the divine is controlled by no other human other than yourself. The individual in this speaks to the power inside each of us. If you strip away the trappings of dogma and all this human manmade junk in other practices around the world, this is what you get. It all comes down to you, he says here. Your goal, however, should perhaps be the ability to constantly tune in on the hidden world around us and the reality of the Goddess and God, even in the midst of the most grounding, debasing bodies of the human experience. So that's perspective. That's our perspective. It all comes down to how we see it, how we interact with it, and not anybody else. Another way to say it is you are the magic. There might not be anything more important that I could tell you about this today. Spells and Magic are addressed in this book. Cunningham points out that most religions display some form of magic in their current faith, or at least in their history. He points out that miracles are an example of this. He discusses Christian prayer as a clear manifestation of magic, or whatever you want to call it. The definition doesn't really matter so much as the intention, and then the result of the act in a way Wicca are beautiful, and how they freely express everyone's access to the divine and the ability to commune with, with the deity or that divine thing beyond us, and then interact with it in a deep way, using this natural energy all around us. The magic isn't some supernatural thing I say often on this channel. Magic is perfectly natural. There's great power here. Just as much as I believe in the great power of prayer or meditation or anything else, it might be nature. We all walked out of the cave together. We saw fire, we harnessed it. We revered our shaman or the animal or the mountain or the thunder. All these things that we we saw magic in. We walked out of Africa and around the planet together. At one time, we all believed in the same thing or something really close to it. And so what I'm doing here in my current studies and talking to you is looking at how can we bring this stuff back together as one because it's love. And Wicca is very much a study of love, Cunningham says here Wicca is a joyous religion springing from our kinship with nature. It is a merging with the goddesses and gods, the universal energies that created all existence. It is a personal, positive celebration of life, a celebration of life. It's a celebration of your life. That's how you should, I think, see this. You can look at it however you want, but it is a celebration. It is this very positive thing. This book prepares you to become a Wiccan. It lays out practices for you that you could do daily to put yourself more in tune with nature in the universe and ultimately more in tune with yourself. You'll learn about the Wiccan shrine and altars, how to create a bath sachet, for ritual cleansing. I personally practice Wiccan bathing meditation as a ritual for peace and calm. It's this really cool and amazing thing and super relaxing. He gets into Wicca color schemes and ritual jewelry. You'll learn about the important times of the year along with important symbols and runes, and you'll even learn about spells and how to create them. It describes how you can create rituals to help foster this connection with the universe. And all rituals are are these practices that link us from this concrete existence that we experience every day over this spiritual bridge that is this journey to What's beyond that reality is that connection. We all have this sense of, you may have since day when you're watching a meaningful movie or TV show, you may have heard it in a song, maybe you saw it in your love for someone else or even love for yourself. It could be seen in the sunset. You might find it out in the forest or on a mountain. But we've all seen that bridge that takes us to the other side. It's what being Wiccan is all about being more connected and having greater sight in all of our senses. Even those senses we even know that we had. Remember that as you delve into this, it's about belief. Belief is what unlocks that magic within you and so now you have a map to that magic, and I really hope that you'll use it. I want to dedicate this video to Scott Cunningham. I'd like to make a special note on the author here. As I was reading, I was struck by his warmth and earnest nature. One can sense he really cared about this faith in such a deep and meaningful way, and he truly wanted to share this with the world. He was in his early thirties when he wrote this landmark book. He overcame lymphoma and he survived it, which I think is a tremendous story in and of itself. And then not too many years later, he would succumb to a rare fungal meningitis and he passed away. And based on everything in this book and based on his belief system, he'll be just fine. He believed Wicca are meant to make the world a better place. And he did just that in this life. And I know he rests well. Having done what he did, he was and still is somewhere out there. This bright soul. I hope you enjoyed this discussion. I'd like to know what your thoughts are on the Wiccan faith. Do you have any experiences with it, any personal stories that you can share? How might you use it and practice it moving ahead for a peaceful and open minded community where people can share their journeys, be themselves and have conversations just like this, please visit Kishar.org, please like this video if you want us to keep making content just like this and until next time, I wish you peace on your journey.