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From: nagasiva@yronwode.com (mordred)
Newsgroups: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.religion.wicca,alt.pagan
Subject: BAD-Howe: What are the basic beliefs of WICCA?
Date: 13 Apr 1995 13:58:32 -0700
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Reply-To: ba@mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu (B.A. Davis-Howe)
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[from alt.magick: ba@mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu (B.A. Davis-Howe)]

al065@lafn.org (LACC LAB Room AD321 - c/o ab463) writes:

>Please don't think that I am stupid, one of my favorite authors has been 
>using this religion in several of her latest books and I am curious about it.
>Having more information about something she believes in would help me 
>considerably. 

First, do not assume that an author necessarily believes in the ideas
shown in hir books.  Misty Lackey, for example, uses Wicca and magic in
books and is no form of practitioner whatsoever.

That said, I express the basic beliefs of Wicca as follows:

Nature; change; cycles; balance; wholeness.

Wicca looks to Nature for inspiration, not a person or a book.
The first thing one notices from Nature is that everything changes.
If one watches the changes, one notices that change occurs in cycles:
the sun rising and setting each day, the phases of the moon, and the 
season of the year.

If the earth only faced one side toward the sun, all life as we know it
would end.  Life requires the balance of light and dark.  (Not "good and
evil"--in Wicca light and dark are equally sacred.)

Our goal in Wicca is to internalise all the possiblities shown by the cycles,
to become whole persons.  This is, of course, an infinite goal.  It isn't the
achieving that Wicca is focused on, but the journey.

I hope that helps.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Enjoy the journey!
                       --Bran Davis-Howe (ba@mrcnext.cso.uiuc)

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