I’ll start by answering my own question:

I was introduced to Wicca when I was a teenager. I had been raised as a Christian, and this religion will always play a role in my life. My father is religious, though doesn’t like to appear this way. My mother is more spiritual, and has dabbled in magick to bad consequences. I first came to the Path through a book I read that made sense to me, though it was friends I had becoming Wiccan and Pagan that cemented my faith. These friends were all supported by their families in their choices, where mine still don’t fully know.

These factors have influenced me to appoint where I understand Wicca to be a religion that recognises the inherent duality in everyone and everything, from which comes the gender balanced deity (or deities depending on how anthropomorphic you choose to make your faith). The Great Mother who raises us, loves us and helps us emotionally through life, is present in the Earth and the Moon. The Father who drives and motivates us, influences our physical direction through life is present in the Sky, Universe and Sun. By appreciating and acknowledging these things, we appreciate and acknowledge our Mother and Father. As we do our birth parents, we seek love and praise from our Great Mother and Father by loving, praising and pleasing them. A way of doing this is to use magick in ritual, calling and sending energies to change the world around us.

It is unfortunate that the word witchcraft comes attached with so much stigma that I still cannot avoid. I am still somewhat discomforted by the idea of witchcraft as I understand this concept to refer more to creating physical change in the earth and influencing outside of ourselves as opposed to changing things about ourselves that will change our perspectives and gradually change our position in the world, thereby changing the world that way. I do not consider myself a witch, because my devotion to Wicca is derived from the relationship with deity and the communication as opposed to the spellcrafting, though I am a tarot reader. Paganism is to me, as Amethyst has said, the attachment of deity to the physical, the tangible and worshipping deity through worshipping the physical symbols of that deity.

Reincarnation is another thing my Christian upbringing is causing me to have trouble comprehending. I have come to believe now that I believe every spirit is brought to this Earth to learn a specific lesson. Once we have learned this lesson, or have passed the point where we have missed our given opportunity to learn it, we die. Once we have learned all the lessons over our spiritual soul timeline then we can stay with the Goddess in the Avalon (or the Summerland, Heaven, Hades etc), until then though we must return to the Earth as humans. Additionally, I do not believe time plays a role in reincarnation. Time is a manmade way of bringing linearity and order to a simple series of events that occur as the Goddess wills. Therefore, after my time in this life is over, I can be reincarnated back in the 1950s or 1600s, wherever and whenever it is best for me to learn that lesson my soul must on the way to completion.

Ok, so I’m big on the sharing, but I am generally interested in everyone’s understanding and beliefs, even arguments with my opinions. We are all made differently, so will have different ideas. What does everyone think?

I am also a firm believer in reincarnation. A couple of years ago my meditation teacher took me on a few journeys which enlightened me on my past lives. There had been many and I felt a profound understanding why many people had commented on me being an old soul or comments such as "She's been here before" which before these meditations scared me. I reached the realisation that there is reincarnation which before that had not really occured to me. I belief that the higher soul is on a journey through many lifetimes, learning a multitude of lessons and gathering knowledge until reaching a state of what I call in my meditations a "knowing"; it is a state where there is no further need of body or any goods, just a merging of one to all that is.

Love and Light

Hello, Hotaru! I don't know if I'll be able to answer your questions elegantly, succinctly, or completely, but I'll give it a try. PARAGRAPH BREAK How I came to Wicca: I once experienced a very beautiful vision which showed me a bigger picture of existence than I had ever imagined. It was my first spiritual experience and it made me a believer in Something, but I didn't know what to call it. So that I could feel comfortable with what had happened and possibly explore those realms further, I went looking for a belief system or philosophy or religion that didn't say that I needed to be exorcised of evil spirits or put on psychiatric medication to control those "delusions", but that accepted and embraced experiences of non-ordinary reality. I immediately thought of Wicca, as something I had been curious about having met a few Wiccans, but didn't know much about. I went to a local New Age bookstore and found a book on Wicca that made a great deal of sense to me, and consider that I am probably Wiccan but hold back on calling myself that officially in case there is anything fundamental to the faith that I've missed in my self-directed study. PARAGRAPH BREAK In that vision which now powers my understanding of Life, the Universe, and Everything, was a sense that we will keep on repeating the same mistakes in our lifetimes until we learn from them; and likely come back to learn again if we don't learn before we die. I came to the understanding that the "time" that I had been obsessed with in daily life (tick-tock, tick-tock) is a very limited understanding, applicable only here on earth, to those who care about clocking in and out of jobs. Time, on that other plane, is-not. All things exist simultaneously. All possibilities exist at once. So now I consider that reincarnation makes a great deal of sense, rounds out the picture of why we are here. I guess we could reincarnate "backward" in time, and spawn parallel universes of possibility with the decisions that we make--how can you change history otherwise?--but that concept just messes with my poor linear-thinking brain. I prefer to think of reincarnating "forward" in time, it's enough for me! :) PARAGRAPH BREAK I still don't know why we are here and how we relate to the Big Something that is bigger than all the gods we have names for. The Big Something is an uninvolved, all-accepting observer which nonetheless infiltrates everything that is. It's like conscious energy, and we are fragments of it. I tend to think of the gods as our efforts to understand that bigger non-understandable Something which encompasses the opposing sets of energetic forces that keep the engines of life-as-we-know-it firing, and embraces all the deities that we make for ourselves. I think that our named deities are simultaneously of our own invention and real and powerful.  A deity is approachable; a deity will be involved in our lives; and a deity will represent one half of a pair of opposites or another:  but what one learns under a deity's tutelage is often learned as a paradox, which is a step to overcoming the idea of irreconcilable opposites.  To receive understanding from a deity is mind-blowing, because it comes to one's conscious awareness through unknown channels. Deities may be expressions of our human collective unconscious (which I suspect does exist though I can't prove it), and represent human wisdom and shared experience with other people we've never met or been alive at the same time as, temporally speaking. It may be that we are channeling the wisdom of the greater conscious energy into our minds.  Like I think I understand Butterfly Spirit saying, I think that we exist in another dimension at the same time as we are living in this everyday awareness. PARAGRAPH BREAK As a physical person I love and honour this planet, but at the same time, it's as though it's a backdrop to a spiritual drama, and everything we see and cherish is just energy taking form, encoded with instructions on how to continue to take form--all an illusion made by Something which is conscious energy. PARAGRAPH BREAK I know I'm reaching here, but I am on the path in order to understand. I didn't say that I'd mastered everything! I'm going to shut up now before I put my feet any further into my mouth.

Ok, my turn! Lol! So, I want to express my ideas on reincarnation. I was very intrigued by your idea that we could go back in time in our future lives. What an interesting thought! I'm going to think on that one a bit. I can tell you without doubt that I beieve in reincarnation because I talked about one of my past lives in detail when I was just three years old. My mom said it kinda freaked her out but she listened and tried to understand. Apparently I would get very frustrated with her when she could not "remember" when I was a boy and went to high school. :) I told her about my life in California (I have never been). I talked about and named my sisters and mother. I played football and I went to high school. I have a feeling that I returned quickly. Maybe the detail I had was due to the fact that I was not gone for very long. I also have always had an interest in Ireland. Even from when I was a young girl I was mesmerized by anything Irish and I always felt like I belonged there. I have visualization of my self as a young woman in Ireland, more of a peasent than royalty. I feel I was single with no children and I must have died young. I also feel like I have been with my daughter before in a past life.

In general I think we get to choose when to come back. We keep coming back until our purpose is fulfilled. Once that purpose is fulfilled we graduate to a higher plane of existance. I love to think about things like what if we not only come back but what if we come back to a different planet? For instance there could be thousands of planets just like earth out in space and we could all go to the same place in death but end up on one of thousands of planets when we come back. How crazy would that be?!

Hello again,

I really like your outlook on wicca as a religion and the practice of witchcraft. I agree it is not wise to cause disturbances for personal gain.  I do however practice witchcraft to increase my own energies and environment in respects that I ask for things for myself, my family and loved friends. Energy must be used and it is supposed to be recycled.  I think of this like when I have so much built up energy I have to dance it off or sing it off for example. If we don't use the energies in the universe it might explode like i do sometimes!!! (hehe). I would really like to think that my witchcraft NEVER harms anyone, I just recycle the already recycled energies in the air.  I especially don't like it when I read stories about love spells and manipulative spells because that is a selfish personal gain at another persons expense. My spells and magick workings have nothing to do with manipulations but rather the imagination to put something to use to achieve my goals. I just look and ask for opportunities. Lazyness is not in my nature and I believe we must all physically work for what we want, we can't just sit around casting spells all day wishing we had whatever it is we want. But I can ask for my guides and call upon different angels/spirits to present opportunities to me clearer or lead me to them so I can work through it and get to the other side where i need to be. I hope I am on the right track with this conversation !!!!  So getting back to wicca as a religion, I think it is important we are wiccae if we practice witchcraft so we do remember the rules of 'harm none' and the law of return. If we sit in the oven we are going to cook, that's a simple rule, just like the wiccan rules are simple to me. Overall I am a witch because I used to practice witchcraft before I even realised I was doing it, I am pagan because I've always believed in the laws of the earth and of the universe and all of the Gods before I really knew I wanted the religion of wiccae in my life.  Good Post and thanks very much for the thoughts xoxo  

I have to jump in too! I was raised in a Christian household but pretty loosey goosey. Not to strict or structured, just there.  I always felt like there was something "more" out there. Christianity is just too rigid, too monotheistic & just didn't fit my view of the world. To me and as Amethyst says in her book, Wicca is the religion & witchcraft is how we do it. I absolutely beleive in reincarnation & think that we move to the Summerland to rest until something pulls at us to move out into the world again.There does seem to be a lot of incorrect information out there about what a pagan or a witch is. My well-read friends know what wicca is and the othere have a vague idea of what it is. So far, I have not personally met anyone who thinks Wicca involves devil or satan worship but certainly those folks are out there.

one witch's opinion ;>D marion

One more thing....

This is how I've always thought of eternity:

In Eternity, there is no "time", because ALL Time exists at once.

In Eternity, there is no "Change", because ALL Change, ALL Possibility, and ALL Choice, exists at once.

Maybe we are all living all of our lives, and all of our incarnations (and reincarnations) all at once, at this moment?

Maybe every "sliding doors" choice we make causes a shift from one soul-path-possibility to another?

Maybe we keep reincarnating until we have consciously experienced every single one of our soul-path-possibilities, in completion?

Maybe I'd better go now before my brain implodes?

BB )0(

Rivertiger

testing - why i got an n/a instead of my sign off?  hmmm still there in preview?

That's an interesting thought, RiverTiger--we're living our various incarnations simultaneously, because of course, there is no linear time in soul-land.  Maybe that's how we somehow come to "know" things we have no reason to know; it's our alternate-life selves communicating with us.  But hmmmm...wouldn't it be strange if you met another of your simultaneous incarnations!

MM RiverTiger. I love your avatar. It is lovely.

marion

MM Gwennie,

It's really funny, but I was actually thinking that same thing myself as well after I wrote my last post. What if every person I see in another incarnation of myself, and I'm another incarnation of every other person?

What if we all get to reincarnate as each other, so we all get to experience everyone else's point of view?

And then, add in all those soul-path-possibilities and "sliding doors-type" choices......

And then, if you add in all the plants, the animals, the insects.......

[Cue brain-ache]

BB )o(

Rivertiger

Isn't that called a "doppelgangar"? ;)

definitely agree with you there butterfly spirit. I don't know if I said it earlier but I've sometime seen an aura of the earth, almost like a thin veil of cloud or fog sitting over everything. I understand this not just to be an aura but also a veil between the planes that is made up of energies we use to call.

THe saying is that regardless of when or by whom or what, "the earth was made, it will be remade". I love that you pointed that out, reminded me that energies are here for our use, why buy a barbeque if you're a vegetarian? (I know u can cook other things on a barbie but u get my point). After all, accepting ourselves as Wiccan is pretty much accepting ourselves as conduits for the Will of the All and the Hand of the Goddess

Thankyou for putting that in persepctive, Peace

B

I agree.  Words carry different connotations for different people and it is often the word itself that causes disagreement not the meanings we are trying to express when using them.  Have you ever read any books by Rudolf Steiner?  He started Anthroposophy and said that he wished he could change the name of it everyday so people could never say 'Oh Anthroposophy is this, this and this.'  He wanted it to be a living thing not boxed in by the connotations of a word.  He also wrote some interesting stuff on reincarnation as a means for evolution of the spirit.