Wicca: Then and Now
Hi everyone. It’s been a while that I haven’t written on my blog and I am thinking of really good topics to discuss. It’s been a lot of years since I have started practicing Wicca, and during those years I have seen the evolution of the practice.
Practicing the Craft in the early 2000’s, I have seen how I have seen how practitioners approach the practice differently. There were only a few witches practicing in the country and the community was really so tight and we see the support for each. The first interaction that I have with fellow practitioners was in the chat room of MIRC- #kulam. This chat room was composed of practitioners from different parts of the Philippines and most of us were starting in our journey. During this time we spent a lot of time researching about Wicca, and we constantly talk to each other sharing information and discoveries about the craft. When MIRC was at a decline, we move to Yahoo chat and Yahoo! Groups During this time we created organisations based on the location that were in to support people physically. We also have gatherings scheduled during either the full moon or the Sabbats to celebrate each other’s journey.
As the religion of Wicca grow in the Philippines we see a lot of groups sprouting like mushrooms after a rainy day and most of them already have a lot of claims, saying that they descended from a long line of witches and warlocks. Fast forward to the present day.
In the recent years, we see a lot of practitioners in the country and you can type the word witch on Facebook and you’ll be seeing pages upon pages of online groups and online covens. Seeing this many practitioners online makes me happy, knowing that a lot of people became very interested in the study of the Craft. However, talking to a lot of these people made me realize a lot of facts regarding the difference between the practice of witchcraft from the early 2000’s versus the practice today. Here are 5 differences is that I noticed (there's a lot more, but let's settle with five).
- Witches before spends time to really study the craft and mastering it. You see a lot of witches browsing through the catalogs of libraries just to look for books related to the Craft. With information readily available to practitioners today, we see practitioners become so lazy. Some wouldn't even know information essential to the religion they practice and when asked, click their cellphones and visit Wikipedia. Sometimes the information that they got online are not really complete and they won’t even bother to cross-reference it with a different material. With the availability of the information online some witches prefer to just study it and not even go through constant experimentation and trial and error when it comes to spell casting.
- The Craft needs crafting, which means a witch is expected to be knowledgeable when it comes to creating satchels, poppets, herbal remedies, ointments and other materials needed for the spell. Witches nowadays rely more on buying things online even though it’s a relatively easy thing to do. In the advent of online shopping, witches are sometimes not even familiar with materials that they need in the rituals. Some online witches sell ready-made “spell kits” and ship it to their customers.
- Witches in the early 2000’s discovered the practice they go along. They spent time and effort to master the Craft that they’re studying. They do experimentation, with a lot of trial and error to make sure that their spells and potions come out correct. Witches nowadays are sometimes too lazy to check on the spells they got online. They will just try it out, do the spell base on the book, and quit witchcraft if it doesn’t work (or transfer to a different magickal system).
- We still see witches from the early 2000’s that are still practicing. That means these people created a very strong foundation in their study of the Craft. Now we see “Witches” on Facebook and after a month or two they would already post about Jesus (and condemn witchcraft). I don’t blame them if they go back to their previous religious practice, I just want to understand the reason that they were curious about witchcraft in the first place.
- Witchcraft is supposed to be a hands on practice. That means which should make their hands dirty by doing things, harvesting herbs, crafting their own wands. Witchcraft isn’t supposed to be a desk practice. Reading books is just a small part of the Craft.
Practitioners from the early 2000’s are not perfect and we made a lot of mistakes as we discover the Craft. There were times that we have to defend our faith from a lot of people who questions us. Most of the time we need also to practice witchcraft in secret and under the cover of darkness just to do our rituals. The faith in the Gods made us believe that what we’re doing is the right thing. We continue on, struggle to discover the inner mysteries of Wicca.
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