Re: [buffywantswillow] OT: Hey you! Wiccan over there in the corner! Yeah, I got a question for you!

[sbooth@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

On Wed, 27 Sep 2000 20:55:41 GMT, you wrote:

>1) Does Wicca have any sort of hierarchy, even a highly localized one or is 
>it basically just everyone for themselves within the context of accepted 
>rites, rituals etc?

There are lots of different traditions in Wicca. Some have
hierarchies, many don't. The tradition I follow is much more
personal than many others, and far more personal than say
Christinaity. There aren't really any fixed hierarchies,
although generally those who are older and/or have been
practicing longer will be respected by the younger less
experienced people and looked to for guidence. Mainly you get
recognition and respect by showing your self to be worthy of
them.

In the tradition I follow there is no concept of a coven, the
word itself would never be used (except in jest maybe). Groups
tend to be people who know each other outside of Wicca who happen
to want to get together. They're as much social as religeous.

Some traditions have a strict hierarchy, in my experience (or
perhaps I'm a bit jaded and cynical) traditions with a strict
hierarchy tend to attract people who want to belong to something
with a strict hierarchy.

>2) does Wicca have set rites for certain events of spirtiual significance, 
>ie, marriage, death, birth etc? And if so who decides what these rites will 
>be?

There are various rituals, again it varies from tradition to
tradition.

In my tradition whilst the overall structure of a ritual will be
the same it will vary from occurance to occurance depending on
the people involved.

>3)Who are the Wiccan dieties?


The main one is the Mother/Goddess. Some traditions recognise
other dieties. The Horned God often appears but his role varies
from tradition to tradition, in my tradition he is a
personification of rebirth in others he is the consort of the
goddess.


Differnet traditions disagree on a lot of things, a good weay to
start and arguement is to put to Wiccans in a room together.

I hope that this helps.

Stephen
-- 
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