Wicca

I've got a couple friends who have an interest in this subject and while I don't know a whole lot about it, I'm generally aware of certain aspects of the spiritual school of thought. Wicca, as far as I know, is a kind of religion within the realms of paganism. It's been called "witchcraft" but I think those who practice it don't really like that term, given it's obvious negative connotations. When talking about negative connotations, this is a spiritual practice that has them in spades and I know that's due to centuries of demonization by mainstream society. The Salem witch trials often come to mind when discussing this subject but the unfortunate truth is that persecution of wiccans goes back way before those infamous days. During my time in England, one of the classes I took as a part of my study abroad course concerned witches and all of the literature I was required to read concerning the subject and it's history was quite fascinating. As it turns out, witches weren't always feared and hated, that was largely a product of the rise of Christianity and more prominently, puritanism. Before all of that, witches, medicine men, witchdoctors, or any number of terms for them, were widely respected in their communities for the services that they provided. They were doctors of sorts and the herbal treatments they practiced helped a lot of people. The really cool thing is that they still help people to this day in the form of modern medicine. Even though they were considered "magic" in those days, we now know that many of the "potions" they dabbled in, actually had medicinal value and that hasn't changed. Much of what revolves around Wicca culture often overlaps with all things "new age" and therefore they usually have a "woo woo" association, but the fact is a lot of those herbal remedies are useful. I remember when I was growing up my mother had a store and next door was a pagan shop. I often enjoyed going next door and looking at all of the shelves of jars filled with all sorts of interesting substances. The women who ran the shop, "Cleo's" is what I believed it was called, were always very friendly. Nothing like the archetypal cackling wicked witch of the west that many think of the moment they hear the word. One day when in their shop I mentioned that I had trouble sleeping and the owner immediately scurried into the back room and came back with a big bag of lavender incense. She gave it to me, free of charge and told me it would help with my insomnia, which it absolutely did. I later learned that the scent of lavender actually has a calming effect that helps people sleep. It wasn't any sort of magic, but it was very useful. Now it should be mentioned that many who practice such things do associate it with spirituality and while I don't practice such things, I do respect peoples religious beliefs. The reason I respect peoples religious beliefs, at least for the most part, is that I acknowledge that there are things about the world that I don't understand and probably never will. I understand that religion attempts to answer the questions that science can't and throughout history, paganism is no different. I remember in my time overseas, I ended up in a place in England called Pendle. It's not a well known county in the whole of England, but it's pretty infamous for a particularly bad incident of persecution. In a way it's kind of like the Salem of Britain, or rather it could be said that Salem is the Pendle of America since the incident in England took place long before the notorious New England witch trials. It's melancholy to say the least, to think about how a young woman was put in chains based on hearsay. Her very dignity and humanity were desecrated and for what? Because she acted a bit strangely. Cases like this are far from unique to Britain and the United States, they have happened throughout the world and even happen to this day. In the olden days, it could be argued that these tragic persecutions happened because people didn't know any better, but what excuse can we use today? Do we not know better? Have we learned from the mistakes of the past, or are we continuing to repeat them? I remember reading a story, not long ago, about a little boy in a remote village that was abandoned and left for dead because people believed he was "cursed" for some reason or another. This happened very recently so it can't be said that we've become so advanced as a society that we've shed such practices. Getting back to the subject of Wicca, again I don't know a whole lot about it, but I do know that it's gotten a bad rap for bad reasons. It's a natural human instinct to be suspicious of or even fear things that you don't understand, but I believe that's one of our lesser instincts that needs to be combatted in most instances. Just because something is strange, doesn't necessarily mean it's malicious. For example; I for one, think black cats are lovely, despite the fact that they're considered bad luck.