Craft of the Wise

"In earliest times, the practice of Wicca was referred to as “The Craft of the Wise”. This was due to those who walked the path was said to have walked in unison with nature, had a profound understanding of herbs and medicines, offered advice in various genres, were considered to be respected and appreciated members of society as a kind of shamanic healer and even leaders. Those who walked this path were all too aware that humanity wasn’t superior to that of nature and the creatures that inhabit it, but, instead, understood that humanity is one part of nature, one cog in the unseen and seen aspects which then unite to complete it. It was these people who knew that we must treat the world and everything in it in a kindly manner, giving and taking in equal balance.

However, in modern times, there has been a gigantic shift in this balance – where man has taken far more than what he gives back. As such, the world is showing its displeasure through ecological disasters and perhaps our ultimate extinction simply due to a love of power and material wealth.  For the last millennia, the viewpoint of the Witch (or anyone walking this path or lifestyle) has been inaccurately portrayed as an evil heathen and living a corrupt, unrighteous lifestyle...

During the 5th to 18th centuries, the Christian church developed these stories, these negative stereotypes of those who followed the ancient, nature based religions in order to convert them to Christianity. By transforming a simple Wiccan believer into a terribly wicked character and changing the ancient gods into heathen devils and demons, Christian missionaries were able to scare people into converting. In addition to this, scientific medical began to be a very prosperous position in society. The men who practiced medicine had little to no real knowledge of how a woman’s body worked, or anything to do about her monthly cycles. As such, the Witch Hunters who worked for the Church were given credence to their assertions. The new male physicians stood to gain prestige and wealth because the female healers lost their income to them. 

Unluckily, these misconceptions, suspicions and falsehoods have been carried on and have largely stayed until today. As such, many of those who follow the path of Wicca have used the name Wicca instead of the term/name Witchcraft due to its history; it is not nice to be persecuted and harassed for a belief or lifestyle which has been largely ascribed in recent years through negative publicity through entertainment and Hollywood just so that they could turn a profit...

Despite what you may initially think, Wicca is an extremely calm, harmonious and well-balanced lifestyle which encourages living in harmony with the divine and everything that exists.  Wicca is a faith system which promotes living in harmony with the world and appreciating it for what it is; taking in the sunrise or appreciating the beauty and inspiration from the setting sun, or from how the light plays in the forest, the moon as it shines in the night sky, or how the meadow looks as though it is ablaze when the first rays of the sun hits it in the morning. Wicca is the appreciation for the dewdrops on spider webs, the way the gentle breeze caresses your skin on a warm day. It is the blaze of color on the trees when the leaves change due to the turning of the seasons, and the way the snow looks so soft in wintertime. Wicca is the light, the dark and the shadows between. It is nature, the songs that birds sing throughout the day. Wicca understands that you are in the presence of Mother Nature and realizing your role in her family.

When you are in Mother Nature’s house you are not susceptible to the ego of human technology when it touches your spirit. To be Wiccan means to be a healer, to teach others, to search for the divine, to be a giver and to protect everything. Should you tread this path then you walk it with reverence, light and honesty.  Wicca is a faith and a lifestyle which is founded on the renewal of pre-Christian customs and beliefs which originate in modern day Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England, France and Germany. Unfortunately, the majority of the information surrounding how these ancient cultures lived and worshipped have been obliterated due to the systematic efforts of the medieval Christian church that saw the local traditional beliefs as a threat."