And now for reason "I-Lost-Count" that I left Wicca and won't be going back into it...
I was just reading an ebook that I got from someone on OccultCorpus, and the following quote really hit home.
"In some magickal philosophies, magi are trained to never perform magick unless a real and needed result is desired. They are often taught to never use their magick on simple whims just to see if their magick works. This limitation often leads to poorly trained magi,as they are rarely able to practice what it is that they have learned. When the time comes to try to manifest something, they are often "rusty" or undereducated in certain magickal areas. When they try to put their skills to work, they often meet with poor results."*
That's something that I learned early on in my involement with Wicca. I believe I initially read it in Scott Cunningham's "Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner". It was something like, "Only use magick when you need it". Of course, restrictive spiritual paths always have to have caps on things which are at least mentally liberating...like magic.
That's one thing that drove me out of Wicca. First it was "Don't do magic unless you really NEED to", and then it was "Don't do magic for this, this, and that", then it was "Don't do magick to deal with physically harmful people". Then there was "Don't do magick unless it's to help someone else". That one was really damaging and paralyzing because if I don't do magic for myself, I won't really ever do magick period, and that's the way it's always been. Besides, people have rarely asked me for magical help. And ya can't forget "Don't do magick for someone else without their permission". And experience has shown me that at least half the people you outright offer magical assistance to will, at best, give their permission grudgingly...which to me is like no permission at all. And at least for me, coming out and offering someone magical help gets awkward and embarrassing, not to mention all the verbal acrobatics involved with phrasing it to match what they would accept.
And of course, let's remember that in Wicca, "Don't do teh bad magickkssz to harm other people!!!" And of course, in Wicca (where groups of Wiccans should be called Arguments instead of Covens), some people speculate that you harm living things no matter where you are and no matter what you're doing. It's not a far stretch to apply that to magick. The usual hypothetical example given is the good ol' Job Spell that will probably rob someone of the job both you and he/she applied for in order for you to have it. And of course, you getting the job instead of someone else is TOTALLY unfair, right? Right.
In the show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the character of Tara is hesitant to use magic for anything, especially in season 6. Sometimes when I watch her in that season, it feels like I'm watching Wicca itself! It's really sad, too, because in Wicca the basic principle of "Use magic wisely" has been taken and perverted into "Don't do magic". It really pisses me off because Wicca has gone the route of almost every religion. It takes good advice and turns it into a bunch of 'Don'ts" that strangle a lot of the benefit the religion used to have. And it keeps doing this until it gives way to insanity.
To me, analogs can be drawn between Wicca's increasingly "magic-negative" stance, it's growing numbers of converts, and the increased mixing and paralleling with non-Pagan religions like Christianity. The baggage brought into any young religion from the stifling institution it was born amidst eventually poisons it so much that the young religion grows up to become poison and a weapon itself. In my opinion, this is happening with Wicca. Wisdom is giving way to Control and restriction.
NOTE: For my Wiccan friends, I apologize for bashing your religion. Before getting angry, remember that I myself am a former Wiccan who spent about nine years practicing it and believing in it. I feel entitled to criticizing Wicca as a religion in the same way that former Christians feel entitled to criticize Christianity.
And also keep in mind that I'm not always this intensely critical of Wicca. What's written here comes from my own experiences, which are only mine. ;)
___________
*Cunningham, David. Creating Magickal Entities. Perrysburg, OH: Egregore Publishing, 2003, 18.
"In some magickal philosophies, magi are trained to never perform magick unless a real and needed result is desired. They are often taught to never use their magick on simple whims just to see if their magick works. This limitation often leads to poorly trained magi,as they are rarely able to practice what it is that they have learned. When the time comes to try to manifest something, they are often "rusty" or undereducated in certain magickal areas. When they try to put their skills to work, they often meet with poor results."*
That's something that I learned early on in my involement with Wicca. I believe I initially read it in Scott Cunningham's "Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner". It was something like, "Only use magick when you need it". Of course, restrictive spiritual paths always have to have caps on things which are at least mentally liberating...like magic.
That's one thing that drove me out of Wicca. First it was "Don't do magic unless you really NEED to", and then it was "Don't do magic for this, this, and that", then it was "Don't do magick to deal with physically harmful people". Then there was "Don't do magick unless it's to help someone else". That one was really damaging and paralyzing because if I don't do magic for myself, I won't really ever do magick period, and that's the way it's always been. Besides, people have rarely asked me for magical help. And ya can't forget "Don't do magick for someone else without their permission". And experience has shown me that at least half the people you outright offer magical assistance to will, at best, give their permission grudgingly...which to me is like no permission at all. And at least for me, coming out and offering someone magical help gets awkward and embarrassing, not to mention all the verbal acrobatics involved with phrasing it to match what they would accept.
And of course, let's remember that in Wicca, "Don't do teh bad magickkssz to harm other people!!!" And of course, in Wicca (where groups of Wiccans should be called Arguments instead of Covens), some people speculate that you harm living things no matter where you are and no matter what you're doing. It's not a far stretch to apply that to magick. The usual hypothetical example given is the good ol' Job Spell that will probably rob someone of the job both you and he/she applied for in order for you to have it. And of course, you getting the job instead of someone else is TOTALLY unfair, right? Right.
In the show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the character of Tara is hesitant to use magic for anything, especially in season 6. Sometimes when I watch her in that season, it feels like I'm watching Wicca itself! It's really sad, too, because in Wicca the basic principle of "Use magic wisely" has been taken and perverted into "Don't do magic". It really pisses me off because Wicca has gone the route of almost every religion. It takes good advice and turns it into a bunch of 'Don'ts" that strangle a lot of the benefit the religion used to have. And it keeps doing this until it gives way to insanity.
To me, analogs can be drawn between Wicca's increasingly "magic-negative" stance, it's growing numbers of converts, and the increased mixing and paralleling with non-Pagan religions like Christianity. The baggage brought into any young religion from the stifling institution it was born amidst eventually poisons it so much that the young religion grows up to become poison and a weapon itself. In my opinion, this is happening with Wicca. Wisdom is giving way to Control and restriction.
NOTE: For my Wiccan friends, I apologize for bashing your religion. Before getting angry, remember that I myself am a former Wiccan who spent about nine years practicing it and believing in it. I feel entitled to criticizing Wicca as a religion in the same way that former Christians feel entitled to criticize Christianity.
And also keep in mind that I'm not always this intensely critical of Wicca. What's written here comes from my own experiences, which are only mine. ;)
___________
*Cunningham, David. Creating Magickal Entities. Perrysburg, OH: Egregore Publishing, 2003, 18.