What Wicca is all about

WITCHCRAFT -- A Brief Introduction

Witchcraft (Wicca) is a joyous, life-loving Nature religion, a Pagan faith with roots in ancient prehistory. There are many practices and traditions, but also major areas of agreement which define the Wiccan religion. These generally include the following:

Wicca is a pantheistic religion; we see Deity as immanent and manifest in all of Nature, including ourselves, and we honor Nature and all living beings as sacred.
We personify Deity as a Goddess and/or a Horned God, usually both. We see polarity in all Nature: cold/hot, dark/light, etc. We view this polarity as female/male, and we honor sex as sacred; it is an ecstatic, unifying and life-giving creative force of Nature.

The Goddess is Mother Nature, Source of all life; She is the verdant Earth, the deep blue sea, the starry sky. Her special symbol is the glowing Moon; its changing phases of waxing, full, and waning represent the Goddess in Her aspects of Maiden, Mother and Crone.
The Horned God is Her Son and Consort, the fertilizing life-force of all that lives, dies and is reborn of the Mother Goddess. He wears horns as a link to the crescent moon, and because He represents the animal spirit -- strong, wild and free. His symbol is the blazing sun, whose cycles are the changing seasons.
We are polytheistic in that we regard many diverse Pagan deities as aspects of the Goddess and Horned God. We do not worship Satan, Jehovah or other Judeo-Christian deities.

Nature flows in cycles, ever changing, and ever returning; we celebrate Her cycles with song, dance, feasting and ritual. Esbats are rituals to honor the new moon or full moon; Sabbats, observed eight times a year, mark the changing of the seasons.
We practice magic by attuning ourselves to natural forces and learning to focus and direct natural energies. The "supernatural" is not a Wiccan concept; Nature is everything.
Both women and men may be Witches. We worship alone ("solitary") or in small autonomous groups known as covens. Though many covens may follow a given tradition of Wicca, there is no officially recognized authority to control the practice of our religion.
While we welcome new Witches to our faith, we do not proselytize or convert others to our ways. Each person must choose her own path, and ours is not the only "right" one.
We promote personal growth, learning and responsibility, including the development of our natural psychic and intuitive abilities. Growth of consciousness and fulfillment of our divine spiritual potential lends purpose, meaning and joy to life, and puts us in harmony with the evolutionary flow of our unfolding universe.
We support individual freedom, provided that one harms no one. We do not try to control other people. We encourage inner power for everyone, not power over others.
We acknowledge the "three-fold law" of karma, which states that whatever energies we send out into the world, positive or negative, will eventually return to us even stronger. Therefore, we strive to be loving and life-affirming in our actions.
Most of us accept reincarnation as a cycle of continued learning and growth, but we do not dwell on past lives. Death is a natural part of the life cycle; we do not dread it.
Wicca is a "religion for living on Earth," not one focused on death, judgement and afterlife. We hold our lives here and now, on this Earth, to be sacred; a life lived fully and joyously is a sacrament in itself.
We use magic and ritual to attain mystical states of awareness. We regard our deep selves, our subconcious minds and powerful emotions, as sources of insight, inspiration and strength, our connection to the mysterious and Divine within us. We don't suppress these aspects, as our culture often teaches; instead, we connect with them and liberate ourselves from any artificial barriers which separate us from our true selves and from each other.
Nature is holistic and interconnected; we strive to live in balance with all other beings on Earth, to protect and heal the planet and each other, as best we can.