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All One Wicca:Introduction
This has nothing to do with "New Age."
Footnote:The word "faith" is used here as opposed to Religion. A Faith is a non-specific religion
or religious Philosophy, like Christianity. Religions within the Christian Faith include Catholicism,
Fundamentalism, Protestantism, Vineyard Christianity and more.
...It has everything to do with religion.
The reason people justify the classification of things like this with such a masterpiece of
euphemism is simple: This religion, My religion, is uncommon enough to be passed over by most,
and common enough to scare the proverbial "Hell" out of those who fear any change (and have
such a thing to be scared out of.) We are everywhere, and if the idea of a non-Christian baby-
sitter or doctor frightens you, then be frightened.
The mythical "Agressive New Age" of fundamentalist fret, where militant lesbian vegans rule over
men enslaved as breeders or sorcerers plot massive role-playing games to get inside children's
minds, does not exist. It was made up to frighten people, but frightening is harming, and we do
not harm. We have no hidden agendas, no schemes, no secret societies, no passwords... our
"secrets" are open for all. We are normal citizens, your children, parents, neighbors, teachers
and friends, no more or less "evil" or "scheming" than anyone...maybe even a little nicer, a little
saner, a little more polite. I am sure there are a few misguided Wiccan souls out there with
delusions of grandeur or who are in serious need of "attitude adjustments," but personality and
insanity transcend religion, "there's one in every bunch." We are not stereotypes. Most of the
shared beliefs of Wiccans are here for you to see. That's it. No secrets. Obviously I haven't
included in depth detail about every ritual... that's insane, I couldn't create a disk or book large
enough to fill with everything about Wicca.
Like Judeo-Christianity and other world faiths, Wicca is a religion that is divided into sects. The
sects within
Judeo-Christianity
range from vastly differing broad groupings (i.e.: Jewish, Catholic,
Protestant) to the individual or small sects of various temples and churches (Wesleyan, Seventh-
Day Adventists, Southern Baptist, American Baptist, etc.) The sects of Wicca are called
"traditions"
(or "trads") and are equally as diverse. A tradition usually includes family and
personal beliefs, passed down through the years, or the beliefs and values of a group of people.
Most Wiccan traditions fall into one of three categories, although borrowing between trads is
fairly typical. These categories are Gardnerian based, Dianic based and the many Fam-Trads,
which are based on the practices of families which may go back hundreds of years.
Gardnerian traditions and those traditions which have sprung out of Gardnerian traditions are
based on the books of and practices detailed by Gerald Gardner, but the term "Gardnerian
Tradition" also applies to many Fam-Trads which pre-date Gardner and seem similar to those
practices described by him. Most modern "Gardnerians" actually practice an eclectic amalgam of
inflexible early twentieth-century Wiccan beliefs from Europe, incorporating various Fam-Trads in
their quest for the "Original" Wicca. The oldest proof of a pre-Gardnerian tradition mentioned in
this book, the Marchand Fam- Trad, dates (at least) to 1930, but has only considered itself
"Wiccan" since the seventies. This is typical of the older trads, many of which have changed to fit
a "Wiccan" mold in the past forty years.
Fam-Trads range from the well known to the obscure. Some are strict, like the Marchand trad
which has an epic poem that details both the history of the family and the rules of Ritual in
explicit detail. Some, like the Tomas Family Tradition, have no written rules and consist of the
teachings of one person's lifetime. The history and size of a trad doesn't matter in Wicca,
although it can feel nice to have a huge group of colleagues and a stack of books to refer to.
Some trads claim lineages thousands of years old and some are being created right now, but the
beauty of Wicca is that neither is more legitimate. For this reason, size, which can mean the
difference between "a cult" and "a real church" in Christianity, doesn't matter in Wicca. Some
traditions consist of only one or two individuals, and the largest have thousands. In Wicca, it is
the shared beliefs, not their age or the number of believers, that make a tradition.
Universal Eclectic Wicca, which this book is about, is a broad-based tradition, originally created to
bring together the followers of several different groups whose leaders had learned from the
same training circle. Although none of our covens were alike, we decided to write a "tradition"
encompassing all of our beliefs. This is the result of that work.
To the Skeptic, reading with the purpose of ridicule or damnation, I ask you to remember that
this is not some freak cult...this is our religion, respect it as you respect your own, for our beliefs
are as deeply held. I charge the Christian skeptic to read Matthew 7:1: "Judge not" and bide by
it.
To the traditionalist, the Wiccan who says, "No, It must be done this way," I say "Grow," our
similarities outweigh our differences. This may not be YOUR tradition. I never said it was.
To all, I challenge you with our Affirmation of Acknowledgment... Wiccan, Christian,
Jew...whatever. Now is the time to love all mankind in peace.
Chapter One:Achieving the First Circle
Eclectic
defines eclectic as "selecting or selected from various sources." Universal Eclectic Wicca (UEW) is
based on not one or two sources but an infinite number of sources... any source its students find
useful. Much as the "Witch-Cult" grew and changed with the addition and subtraction of various
people throughout the British Isles, our modern Wicca, fueled by the rapid changes of the
communication age, grows and changes with the people we meet through networking and a free
press.
Could Gardner, or a more recent author, have predicted the ritual on Gallows Hill in Salem,
Massachusetts in 1992, where Pagans of every creed and color marched to honor those
persecuted in the name of religion? Could the shamans of the Hunted Years have predicted the
thousands of non-native seekers abandoning their "European ways" to become one with the
spirits of the land? Could any of us predicted the vast Pagan community of the Internet?
In order to understand the changes in Wicca, we must make the realization that no one was born
without the ability to contribute to humankind, that each life, no matter how insignificant, creates
some small change. A humankind without change is an ugly thought, indeed. An old bardic law
reads "Ever changing, ever learning, ever growing," and that is our modern Wicca. We live in a
beautiful time, for all its strife and hardship, and the pace of change is always growing. As
children, my grandparents had no television, my mother (despite her dependency on it now) had
no computer... I cannot comprehend my life without either. Who knows what my son will have at
my age?
The changing nature of the world calls for flexibility, not just cultural flexibility, but spiritual
flexibility. Religion that is static ceases to be religion and becomes something frightening, so we
must be constantly vigilant in our preservation of our open- mindedness. Fear of change is the
greatest cause of persecution in our history, especially the history of North America, the cradle of
modern Eclectic Wicca.
From the Zapatistas to the Inuit, the makeup of this entire continent is a list of the oppressed.
Many of the first settlers were escaping persecution when they came here and dished it out to
the indigenous people by the shovelful. Many found their religion focusing not on their god(s),
but on their persecutors, and to this day, entire sects of religions talk of nothing but "Not letting
'em get to us," and spend hours weekly trying to prevent change. The most frustrating aspect of
this "fear of change" is that it is more consuming within the groups who face the least
persecution, the world of the professional white male, and his affluent suburban Christian
community. Contact with harsh world of the underprivileged seems to give those persecuted
daily better things to do than worry about conspiracies or form militias. Those currently
persecuted can only look at those who have fallen and try to be stronger, focusing, not on the
past, but on the future and the change it promises.
When no longer persecuted, Churches must change or face becoming focused on the past. If
they fail to change, walls of fear and misunderstanding can rise up, cutting the Church and its
members off from reality and allowing insane, corrupt or downright evil leaders to run their lives.
From Jim Jones to the Televangelists that bilk senior citizens out of everything they own, it is a
scenario that replays itself every few years. Careers, lives, even souls are destroyed in moments
while we just shake our heads and mourn more "freaks" who have followed a leader we don't
understand.
"It is an "Us" and "Them" and anyone who isn't with the church is against it," a former
fundamentalist told me of her experience, shortly after leaving such a church. "We're no longer a
church, but a set of issues...if you're not anti-gay, anti-choice and anti- woman, you are not
welcome." This same person noted a frightening trend: "Not once were the teachings of Christ
not attached to the church's political agenda. We were buffeted with tales of the past, and how
everything is corrupted." "That wasn't a church," she added, "That was a conspiracy cult."
1
The perceived persecution, at worst, can become real persecution. There is a metaphysical "law"
which says "Belief creates Reality." Nowhere does it come into effect more visibly than when the
cycle of persecutor and persecuted becomes continuous. Take the example of David Koresh's
Branch Davidians: Thinking themselves persecuted they began to prepare for a "war." Their
preparations led to their persecution, and then their war happened. The force of belief is very
powerful.
To prevent becoming another conspiracy cult, Wicca (or any religion) must be eclectic, and take
from all of its members. The myth of the Manna of the Athamé provides a parable for our
eclecticism, and perhaps was one of our ancestor's way of telling us this.
The Manna of the Athamé
2
...From the smoke of the fire a woman's form arose, the image at once of the sacred mother and
The Christians' sacred virgin of Christ. The nine daggers, one broken, danced afore her like a
circlet of silver. To each of us, eight in all, the daggers flew, and we felt that they were ours. The
Woman raised our brother's broken dagger and we saw it reformed with a beam of moonlight
made hard . She then bade us pass the daggers thrice around, hilt first, so all touched hilt and
blade. The third time, I saw the sigils of my Sisters and myself upon the blades, hanging for a
moment as if traced in quicksilver and then melting, fading into the blade. " The great sword
lives in each of you now, and you in it, a part, as are all who touch the holy instrument, a part of
it, as are all who have touched them, and them, and so forth." She spoke, each word hanging
briefly in the air like a fractured rainbow. "Let none touch, even see the Blade that are not
worthy, be they of The Faith or Christian, for destruction comes to those who do not use caution
in their choice of compatriots. Yet seek, if you may, the honorable and true, that your blade, and
theirs bear the marks of their goodness." "Ware those who seek to become a part without
inquiry," she charged us, "lest you allow them to taint life and faith and dishonor Your brother,
and those of his blood, or the blood of those slain that you may carry such tools. For that which
you are colors that which you touch, and the actions of one are the constant to those who know
not all."
In this story, there is a sort of psychic residue left by each person who touches the blade, much
as a person's residue in Wicca relates to us all.. The Goddess figure in the story warns us to be
selective in who we trust, that if the public meets only one of a group, it is that person who the
group is judged by. Certainly the works of Scott Cunningham, Gerina Dunwich, and the like do
Wicca a great honor when used as examples, but negative examples exist.
Many people believe that Modern Wicca, in its earliest incarnation, was created in its entirety by
Aleister Crowley. Even Gardner, in the aforementioned work, acknowledges that possibility, while
proposing the idea that Crowley learned from Witchcraft.
3
No good interpretation of the works
of Crowley is complete without at least an overview of the writings of the founders of early
Modern Wicca. Similarly, an understanding of early twentieth century Wiccan authors is only
reached by understanding the paradigm created by Crowley and his contemporaries.
Unfortunately, an uninformed overview of Crowley can create wild ideas in those searching for a
way to condemn Wicca. Certainly his philosophical fingerprint was apparent on the blade of
Wicca when an Northern New York Christian Activist referred to Wiccans as "Followers of the
dark Magician Crowley who claimed to be Satan himself."
Caution, therefore, is the guideword in our Eclecticism, what we include reflects what we are.
This does not negate it's importance! A religion comprised of someone else's rules falls into
inevitable decline. We must be inclusive and warm, just as the ancient peoples who practiced the
foundations of Modern Wicca were. Like them, we must welcome and process new ideas while
maintaining the old.
Eclecticism in Wicca is not, as some traditionalists have claimed, a loss of our ancestral history as
Wiccans, but a celebration of the History we are making now as humans. By embracing
Eclecticism, we are merely doing what was done before.... improving. The earliest Witches did it,
the Witta, Shaman and Druid. In a natural religion, eclecticism and evolution are unavoidable. It
is not our way to fight nature.
Chapter One:Achieving the First Circle, continued
Part Two:Universal
As I walked into a class he was teaching, a friend and metaphysical scholar had written the
following in a bold hand across a wall of blackboards in a run down high school. The students,
waiting for a question and answer session on Wicca, read:
CONTEMPLATE THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS:
1. Matter exists in every galaxy, it is universal.
2. Air is a need we all share, it is universal.
3. That screwdriver works on all screws it is universal.
Three meanings, one word. This isn't that uncommon in the English language. Universal means
ever-present, everywhere, throughout the universe. It also means the Entirety, everything that
was, is or will be. It also means usable by and for everything.
Wicca conforms to all of these definitions. It is ever-present, if we could travel to any location, at
any point in time, Wicca, that is, the laws and beliefs that comprise Wicca, would still be in
effect. Obviously the ethics would differ from situation to situation, but the basic religion would
stay the same. Wicca is not limited by one's location.
At the same time, Wicca encompasses The All, and The All is encompassed in Wicca. Unlike
many faiths, we do not believe the soul has a part of divinity that is separate from our body and
mind. While philosophers like Plato taught that the divinity manifested by the unity of the various
parts of the Psyche/Soul was a state to be achieved
2
, we teach that total integration is there
from the start, giving us unlimited power, control of our own destiny and the Will to do anything,
best described in the catchphrase from Robert Heinlein's
"Stranger in a strange land."'c
oined by
The Church of All Worlds :
"THOU ART GOD"
3
We are God(dess.) This does not mean we are not human, or better, only that divinity, with all
its meanings, is within us, a part of us. In Wicca, this is sometimes called Manifest Divinity, and
means that everything is divine. Each moment in life is viewed spiritually, so each ordinary thing
becomes a lesson, with work, the littlest things have huge revelations, as shown in this tidbit
from The Green:
4
THE DONUT
Inspiration comes from strange places, in this case, a donut.
Not just any donut, but a plain donut....lonely, boring, brown, tasteless, perfectly normal and
sitting there in a box that started out with nine, three cinnamon, three sugared, and three plain.
For two weeks, this donut sat alone in a box at my lover's parent's house, unwanted and
unattended. When it disappeared, box and all, I was too embarrassed to ask where it had gone,
so I didn't, just let it lay, and thought on it. You know, I felt sorry for that donut, deprived of a
sweet coating, it dried out, aged, and was thrown away, just because it wasn't special.
That donut was like humankind, like too many people who brush up against the cinnamons,
sugared and chocolate glazed to get a sparkle of difference, a dusting of significance, or, worse
yet, they gaze up at heaven waiting for some celestial custard filling, or Raspberry Cream, or
Dutch Apple Mousse to make them different, special, IMPORTANT.
You know, there is a beauty in a plain donut.
There is no distinction made between the spiritual and the physical...Everything is divine, a
lesson. Everything is Wicca.
The universality of Wicca also means that Wicca can be used by all and anything can be used in
Wicca. As long as the Five Points of Wiccan Belief are there, and the other basic beliefs are met,
any religion can be called "Wiccan," there is Wiccan Druidry, Wiccan Judaism, even Wiccan
Christianity.
The laws of Wicca are relevant to ALL religion (even Satanism is reined in by Wiccan laws, and I
can show you former Satanists with the Karmic debt to prove it.) This is because the laws of
Wicca are not merely Wiccan but, Universal, like the laws of physics or Magick.
Those laws that are metaphorical, such as the law of return or Karmic law, when proven by
physics such as "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction", or laws of physics
with extraordinary proofs, are said to be metaphysical. Metaphysical laws, while often
discounted, can be proven, with experimentation, as surely as can gravity.
Universality also means that we are all, Dianic, Gardnerian, Eclectic or what- have-you, practicing
the same thing, Wicca...All One Wicca. This does not mean that each tradition is unimportant,
only that all traditions are equally as important, whether comprised of one, or one hundred
coveners.
Rather than divide our members into Solitary and Coven Practitioners, in Universal Eclectic Wicca,
we have what are called "Circles." These circles represent two things: How much you know
about Wicca and How much time and effort you put into your religion, the community, and your
"learning quest." (The learning you have already done probably places you within a circle, but
small projects are asked of students wishing to switch into Universal Eclectic Wicca. These are
usually papers, or debates, or in- depth conversations to determine how much you know.) The
variances in your beliefs and the next Wiccan's are vitally important so don't...do not, try to think
like the next guy. Begin to let your philosophies wander, if you create something that isn't
Wiccan, oh well, our loss. Being "Wiccan" is not the goal here, being yourself is.
All religion is created by humankind, regardless of its inspiration. Your religion is your religion,
and mine is mine. We may use the same words, rituals, etc., but unless every way you think is
the same as mine, our religions are individual. All religion is limited to one practitioner, even if
we call the practitioners of similar religions by the same name, Kat MacMorgan's personal Wicca
is not Tamryn's Wicca, or Lady Diana's Wicca, or John Q. Pagan's Wicca, it is the religious belief
within her soul, much of which cannot be expressed in words. This fierce individuality is reflected
strongest by our deity concepts, our worship of Gaea, or Diana, or Apollo. Although we may even
call a God or Goddess by the same name, how can I know exactly what (s)he looks like to you?
The faces of the gods are shown differently to each person, and the same name, and even the
same image is different from one person to another. This is what I like to call a "What is blue?"
dilemma. We know that blue is the color of something, but how do we know that my brain
doesn't see blue things as a color you'd call red? How do you explain blue to a blind
person...YOU don't, you just know it is blue. Perception is never identical, although the level of
perception may be. My "god" may be female, or blond, or dark skinned, or called "Jayne Dough,"
but it's my inner god, and my inner religion, and it doesn't need to mean anything to you.
A few may feel strongly that the Gods have only one name, and one face, and as a priestess, but
mostly as a Metaphysicist I believe that's true. However, human beings are limited in their ability
to perceive things by the dimensions they exist within. We can only comprehend those things
with length, width, depth and time and our linear temporal existence (meaning that we move
only one way in time in these bodies, forward, without the ability to go backwards or circumsect)
limits what we know of time. Thus, beings of more than these four dimensions would be
impossible to grasp in their terms, and our own inadequacies would be filled by our imaginations,
creating our personal names and faces of God(s).
The gods are no more upset by our inability to perceive their Entirety than one is by a blind
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