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Wicca - What It Is Not
by Fire_Opal

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Wicca is not a "cult." A cult presupposes blind faith in a central figure whose every word is regarded as ultimate truth, and the utter conviction that no other way or philosophy will lead to this truth. You would be very hard pressed to find a Wiccan anywhere who would blindly follow anyone else. Wiccans are historically very independent people who seek truth from within through rituals, meditation, magic, studying and communing with nature. Wiccans respect the right of everyone to worship in their own way. We do not feel that Wicca is the only way -- only that it is our way.

Wicca is not synonymous with Satan worship. The very concept of a supreme evil spirit is alien to Wicca. In fact, most Wiccans do not even believe in Satan. The devil is a Judeo-Christian construct and as such, it has nothing to do with Wicca. The notion that witches worship Satan was propounded by the Roman Catholic Church as it made their way across Europe, in an effort to suppress the native earth-based religions prevalent at the time. They succeeded to the extent that they drove the practitioners of these religions underground where much of their knowledge and traditions were lost. Through the work of the Golden Dawn, as well as anthropological and archeological research, many of these traditions have been rediscovered and incorporated into Neo-Paganism, an umbrella term for most modern earth-based and shamanistic religions.

Wicca does not include flying on brooms. Mostly, witches drive cars or ride bikes. There are many rituals which include brooms, however, and these may be the source of the flying-broomstick stories. In parts of Europe, some people run across their fields astride a broom to coax the grain to grow. They may also jump over a broom handle asking the grain to grow as high as their highest leap. It is also common for a ceremonial broom to be used to sweep away negative forces from any area one wishes to cleanse.

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