In learning about and practicing Wicca, do we focus so much on ’doing’ Wicca that we forget about also  ‘being’ Wiccan and knowing why we’re doing what we do? As part of my commitment to study different religions, I’ve been studying Druidry and a thought struck me about one of the differences between Druidry and Wicca. At the risk of upsetting someone’s apple cart, I’m going to suggest that as Wiccans, we often focus on quite heavily on ‘doing’ Wicca but sometimes forget to just ‘be’ Wiccan. Let me explore that point for you.

In Wicca, we often focus very heavily on our practice and indeed when learning Wicca, a fundamental of that training is to ‘do’ Wicca as well as to ‘know about’ Wicca. This is fine and I certainly agree that in order to be trained appropriately, there absolutely has to be a balance between the ‘doing’ and the ‘knowing about’ or theory. You can’t fully understand ritual for instance unless you conduct and participate in ritual. It’s a bit like learning how to drive. It’s not all theory and so you can’t drive a car just by reading how to drive a car, you actually have to drive the car.

But do we get so wrapped in ‘doing’ Wicca, conducting rituals, celebrating the festivals through the wheel of the year, doing Esbats and so on that we begin to see Wicca as just a set of practices rather than a religion? Do we get so hooked up on ‘doing’ it all that we forget about simply ‘being’ Wiccan?

If Wicca is a religion, then by its very definition, it should also be a way of life, a philosophy for the way we conduct ourselves every day and night of the year. In other words, a way of ‘being’. A religion is of course a system for honouring its deity(s) and that is the practices o the ‘doing’ but religion is also a definition of who you are through its philosophical approach to life.”I am Wiccan” shouldn’t just mean I conduct a few rituals and think that’s Ok. That’s not ‘being’ Wiccan. If I were ‘being’ a Wiccan, every day of my life would be in service to, in honour of and reverence to my Gods and Goddesses. With our hands on our hearts, can we say that we live our lives that way every day?

Druidry by comparison doesn’t always define itself as a religion. Instead it defines itself simply as a philosophy and as a way of living. One can be a Druid and have fairly fluid views on what constitutes deity and while it’s fair to say that Druidic tenets engage with deity, the definition of deity is much more up to the individual. Thus it’s far more loose than Wicca and isn’t defined by a set of practices locked to festivals dates. One can follow Druidry without slavishly adhering to patterns of ritual. So one can ‘be’ a Druid simply by living life with an everyday behaviour set that reflects the Druidic philosophy. Druidry is thus more relative to the ‘why’ of life rather than the ‘how’.

Having noticed this difference, I really did begin to question if we sometimes practice Wicca because that’s the way we were taught or because that’s what the books or religion supposedly demands of us rather than live our lives ‘being’ Wiccan. Wicca has to be more than just a religion. It has to be the philosophy that shapes my life and behaviour every day, in every way. I don’t want to just ‘do’ Wicca, I need to ‘be’ Wiccan. Wicca isn’t just a bunch of Sabbats and Esbats and a defined system of honouring the divine. It should also be my guidelines for who I choose to be, every day, all the time. So I leave you with two questions. Do you really understand why you do the Wiccan things you do? And secondly, are you ‘doing’ Wicca or ‘being’ Wiccan?

Smiles and blessings, Amethyst

Reproduced from http://www.oakandmistletoe.com.au/useful-articles/being-wiccan-instead-doing-wicca