Gain calmness, focus, through Wiccan way
Wicca, an ancient branch of learning, is mysterious, mystical and misunderstood. How many are aware that ‘Wicca’, originated from an old English word ‘wicce’ — meaning the craft of the wise? It was closely connected with the creed of the Mother Goddess and embraced the belief systems of the world.
The Goddess of Wicca was worshipped by different names in various cultures around the world. To name a few: She was Inanna-Ishtar in ancient Sumeria, Isis in Egypt, Diana in Greece and Durga and Kali in India.
The Wiccan Goddess was said to bring to her worshippers qualities of strength, endurance, intelligence and the ability to overcome the challenges of this world. But power begets enmity. Wiccan learning was twisted by a threatened section of society into the word ‘witchcraft’ and given negative connotations starting from around the 11th century in Europe when the ‘witch’ trials started.
By the 17th century these persecutions had killed nearly eight million women and some men. Joan of Arc was one such woman who was condemned as a witch and burnt to death. The urge to destroy free thinking individuals who would not bow to the system was a worldwide phenomenon and persists in our country till today. It is strange that in India the name of the Wiccan Goddess Diana has been distorted into ‘dayan’ and implies dark qualities in a woman.
The Wicca of old has almost become a gender war. The proud and wise Wiccan, that elegant figure in black, has been turned into a withered crone in man-made horror stories. It has been a war beset with baseless superstitions and motivated distortions.
Wicca, which was not only the way of the goddess but also a Pagan way of looking at life, gradually became reclusive and secret in a bid to preserve its secret knowledge.
The learning involved aligning oneself with nature. From that it drew its sustenance. It was a cerebral and aesthetic way of life — which spent its time in trying to understand the mysteries of the world.
Each Wiccan left his or her own findings and conclusions in a diary called The Book of Shadows.
What was the ultimate aim? The goal was to imbibe strength and knowledge and thereby to understand the secrets of life and the universe. It was a bid to develop discipline of both body and mind.
It was to know detachment while not renouncing the world. It was said in Wicca, that to withdraw from the world was easy, but to live in the midst of its battering and yet remain calm and focussed was where the magic lay. From that arose the power it bestowed on the worshipper. Wicca, more than 5,000 years ago was trying to develop a super-breed of human beings who would be able to understand and imbibe in themselves the qualities of the goddess they invoked.
Ipsita Roy Chakraverti
The writer is a well-known Wiccan who endorses the concept of ‘white magic’
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