Meabh23
February 7th, 2006, 03:24 PM
What Wicca means to me:
I could start off by using the very valid well polished (or 'worn,' if you are being cynical) cliches of balance, harmony, and empowerment. But since these are more than adequately addressed and explained by many wonderful Wiccan elders and teachers, I'll leave that to them.
I want to try to give some of you an idea of what it means to me personally in the hope that you may be inspired to reflect on what Wicca, or whatever your own chosen path, means to you. It is also a chance for us to get to know each other a little better.
It is strange for me to explain that I am not of a western heritage as far as ethnic roots are concerned. Even so, I am a product of western education and society as much as many of you who are fully western in ancestry. I was raised in a mixed up family of mostly Himalayan ancestry resettled in the west that has its origins in occupied-Tibet and independent Nepal. (We have mostly Tibetans and Sherpas, some other Asians and Pacific Islanders, and even a few Europeans sprinkled in.) Thus I don't have any real ancestral connection to the European religions whether Pagan or Christian.
My parents tried out various versions of Christianity (missionaries got to them in the 'camps'), but couldn't really get over the differences and so eventually returned to the traditional religion of Buddhism after I was grown-up. My close aunt and uncle, who lived in my childhood home with us, never successfully converted either, though they did learn somehow to become alcoholics. I myself never took the Christian elements my close elders had failed to absorb seriously, as you can imagine. So I sort of went wandering when I was younger.
I first came into contact with Wiccans during my younger "seeking" phase and I have cherished this religion ever since. So what does it mean to me?
It is a collection of teachings that is valuable because they state flat out that I am also of the same stuff that the "divine" is made of. Wicca to me is a set of methods I have used to develop myself and will continue to do so. These methods give me access to the possibility that I can again and again gain a profound understanding that will keep transforming me. Wicca is my connection to this reality beyond myself which also includes myself. I usually enjoy this connection. Not to some postulated fantasy realm of heavenly bliss after I die, but of ecstasy and bliss in this very life, right now. There is no other time to feel this divine ecstasy. For me, the ritual invocation of the God and the Goddess is for that purpose. Live life more fully. Celebrate it. Take all of your pains, sorrows, wants, and hopes and fully celebrate them. You can truly let go of something when you have celebrated it, given it its due.
"I am that which is attained at the end of desire." This is what really resonated with me, due to the Buddhist background of many of my relatives and so on. They always go on about getting out from suffering by ending desire. I would be lying if I said that much of that Buddhist background had no influence of bearing on the way I see the world.
I know this perspective may seem different from what you experience, but it shouldn't be a surprise. I am a different person from you. It is only natural that our perspectives may at first seem strange to one another. That's why we have language, so we can share these differences and hope to understand one another.
Wicca is very participatory. At least in the coven I am with. We have a wonderful elder teacher, but she encourages us to make her unnecessary. We each have the capacity to learn and gain understanding. With training, we can electrify ourselves and those around us as we cast our circle. So at some point each one of us has to stop depending on the high priestess and take up the role ourselves. Not as some extension of our egoistic need to be validated and recognized, but as a fully functional member of this religion. We often assume that the high priestess is a set role with certain medals and awards. But that is a limited view. At some point you will have to take on a similar role, not before your time, but pretty damned close to it (as many of you out there may know).
This is the sort of thing that rings true with me. I am certain that other religions have similar ideas expressed in various theological and doctrinal packages. I am certain that if I had ran into one of them and found this spirit, then I would have become a member of such and such other religion. Circumstances were kind because I was able to meet people who brought me to Wicca. I chose for myself to enter and participate. I haven't regretted it yet, even on the days when I had serious doubts.
It has been a rocking adventure, not all excitement and bliss, as you must realize. An adventure all the same. I have had to get over myself and my limiting thought habits in order to gain some insight about possibilities I had never imagined before. I have learned to befriend not only the elements in an abstract way, but also the very multifaceted expression of those in the various living creatures all around me. This also goes for other humans. The thrill of the moon's light at its fullness still shatters my complacency and daily forgetfulness as much as it did when I first experienced ritual under a full moon.
I have since explored some other western cultural groups and what people have written or said about their non-Christian beliefs. This shouldn't surprise you either, since I am Pagan and live in the west. I was enamored of Celtic cultures for a while and it added to my Wiccan practice but I realized that Wicca is as foreign to Celtic people as would be my family's traditional religion. So, while I still enjoy my memories from mixing it up with Celts in Ireland and other places you may find boring, I have gotten over much of whatever it was that lead me to seek something in an "exotic" culture. I also realized one day while taking the 1 or 9 train to visit a friend in New York that the everyday ordinary people around me in the subway were just as unknown and exotic as any other culture or person from "far away." I say that is because of mystery or divinity. You can call it what you wish and I truly hope it makes you as awed as that breakthrough made me feel.
That awe hasn't gone away. It is getting more potent. It sneaks up on me from time to time and then "wham!" Maybe one day I will make my coven's 'old lady' happy and learn how to finally make her unnecessary and she can then retire off to the mountains somewhere. But I realize that even when that day comes, she has shared with me an inestimable gift. I will always have a place of reverence in my heart for all that she has shown me and given to me. She was the first face of the Goddess that I ever recognized in a person, even after I knew what to look for.
In Wicca I learned first hand that we are not so separate from the divine in a general sense, nor are we as separate as we think from the individual Goddesses and Gods we may choose to call on. This to me is the central facet of the religion. This understanding is what I hang all my other experiences up on. This understanding is how I measure whether my rituals have passed the muster.
Okay, enough of my own personal ideas. Sorry to take up so much of your reading time.
What does your path mean to you?
I could start off by using the very valid well polished (or 'worn,' if you are being cynical) cliches of balance, harmony, and empowerment. But since these are more than adequately addressed and explained by many wonderful Wiccan elders and teachers, I'll leave that to them.
I want to try to give some of you an idea of what it means to me personally in the hope that you may be inspired to reflect on what Wicca, or whatever your own chosen path, means to you. It is also a chance for us to get to know each other a little better.
It is strange for me to explain that I am not of a western heritage as far as ethnic roots are concerned. Even so, I am a product of western education and society as much as many of you who are fully western in ancestry. I was raised in a mixed up family of mostly Himalayan ancestry resettled in the west that has its origins in occupied-Tibet and independent Nepal. (We have mostly Tibetans and Sherpas, some other Asians and Pacific Islanders, and even a few Europeans sprinkled in.) Thus I don't have any real ancestral connection to the European religions whether Pagan or Christian.
My parents tried out various versions of Christianity (missionaries got to them in the 'camps'), but couldn't really get over the differences and so eventually returned to the traditional religion of Buddhism after I was grown-up. My close aunt and uncle, who lived in my childhood home with us, never successfully converted either, though they did learn somehow to become alcoholics. I myself never took the Christian elements my close elders had failed to absorb seriously, as you can imagine. So I sort of went wandering when I was younger.
I first came into contact with Wiccans during my younger "seeking" phase and I have cherished this religion ever since. So what does it mean to me?
It is a collection of teachings that is valuable because they state flat out that I am also of the same stuff that the "divine" is made of. Wicca to me is a set of methods I have used to develop myself and will continue to do so. These methods give me access to the possibility that I can again and again gain a profound understanding that will keep transforming me. Wicca is my connection to this reality beyond myself which also includes myself. I usually enjoy this connection. Not to some postulated fantasy realm of heavenly bliss after I die, but of ecstasy and bliss in this very life, right now. There is no other time to feel this divine ecstasy. For me, the ritual invocation of the God and the Goddess is for that purpose. Live life more fully. Celebrate it. Take all of your pains, sorrows, wants, and hopes and fully celebrate them. You can truly let go of something when you have celebrated it, given it its due.
"I am that which is attained at the end of desire." This is what really resonated with me, due to the Buddhist background of many of my relatives and so on. They always go on about getting out from suffering by ending desire. I would be lying if I said that much of that Buddhist background had no influence of bearing on the way I see the world.
I know this perspective may seem different from what you experience, but it shouldn't be a surprise. I am a different person from you. It is only natural that our perspectives may at first seem strange to one another. That's why we have language, so we can share these differences and hope to understand one another.
Wicca is very participatory. At least in the coven I am with. We have a wonderful elder teacher, but she encourages us to make her unnecessary. We each have the capacity to learn and gain understanding. With training, we can electrify ourselves and those around us as we cast our circle. So at some point each one of us has to stop depending on the high priestess and take up the role ourselves. Not as some extension of our egoistic need to be validated and recognized, but as a fully functional member of this religion. We often assume that the high priestess is a set role with certain medals and awards. But that is a limited view. At some point you will have to take on a similar role, not before your time, but pretty damned close to it (as many of you out there may know).
This is the sort of thing that rings true with me. I am certain that other religions have similar ideas expressed in various theological and doctrinal packages. I am certain that if I had ran into one of them and found this spirit, then I would have become a member of such and such other religion. Circumstances were kind because I was able to meet people who brought me to Wicca. I chose for myself to enter and participate. I haven't regretted it yet, even on the days when I had serious doubts.
It has been a rocking adventure, not all excitement and bliss, as you must realize. An adventure all the same. I have had to get over myself and my limiting thought habits in order to gain some insight about possibilities I had never imagined before. I have learned to befriend not only the elements in an abstract way, but also the very multifaceted expression of those in the various living creatures all around me. This also goes for other humans. The thrill of the moon's light at its fullness still shatters my complacency and daily forgetfulness as much as it did when I first experienced ritual under a full moon.
I have since explored some other western cultural groups and what people have written or said about their non-Christian beliefs. This shouldn't surprise you either, since I am Pagan and live in the west. I was enamored of Celtic cultures for a while and it added to my Wiccan practice but I realized that Wicca is as foreign to Celtic people as would be my family's traditional religion. So, while I still enjoy my memories from mixing it up with Celts in Ireland and other places you may find boring, I have gotten over much of whatever it was that lead me to seek something in an "exotic" culture. I also realized one day while taking the 1 or 9 train to visit a friend in New York that the everyday ordinary people around me in the subway were just as unknown and exotic as any other culture or person from "far away." I say that is because of mystery or divinity. You can call it what you wish and I truly hope it makes you as awed as that breakthrough made me feel.
That awe hasn't gone away. It is getting more potent. It sneaks up on me from time to time and then "wham!" Maybe one day I will make my coven's 'old lady' happy and learn how to finally make her unnecessary and she can then retire off to the mountains somewhere. But I realize that even when that day comes, she has shared with me an inestimable gift. I will always have a place of reverence in my heart for all that she has shown me and given to me. She was the first face of the Goddess that I ever recognized in a person, even after I knew what to look for.
In Wicca I learned first hand that we are not so separate from the divine in a general sense, nor are we as separate as we think from the individual Goddesses and Gods we may choose to call on. This to me is the central facet of the religion. This understanding is what I hang all my other experiences up on. This understanding is how I measure whether my rituals have passed the muster.
Okay, enough of my own personal ideas. Sorry to take up so much of your reading time.
What does your path mean to you?