| Whether it is being lovingly described by its adherents, | | | | gluing together rocks, and who is believed to reside in |
| tallied as a social movement by impartial statisticians, or | | | | a "Heaven"located somewhere "outside"the physical |
| even decried as "Satanic" by Christian apologists, | | | | universe He created. How much more supernatural |
| Wicca is almost universally (alongside its many modern | | | | can you get? Every aspect of this belief violates the |
| neo-pagan cousins) labeled an "Earth Religion."Wicca is | | | | evidence to be found in real, physical Nature as to |
| most certainly, in practice, a religion closely aligned with | | | | how things are and came to be - beginning, and very |
| the Living Earth and Her seasonal changes, which lie at | | | | much to the point here, with the supposition of an |
| the root of our most important celebrations, the | | | | un-observable "outside"to the physical universe. Wicca, |
| Sabbats. But to call Wicca an "Earth Religion"and stop | | | | being a natural (as opposed to supernatural) religion, |
| there is to seek the whole of Wicca's thealogical | | | | posits no such "outside,"or any deity inhabiting such an |
| foundation in, and to limit the scope of its meaning and | | | | unlikely space. |
| applicability to, the details of human existence on this | | | | Nor does Wicca posit any such wildly supernatural |
| one tiny planet floating like an anonymous raindrop in | | | | notions as male-only deity or, really (though many |
| the vast ocean of stars, quasars, nebulae and galaxies | | | | Wiccan authors use the term - in my opinion, quite |
| we now know the universe to be. | | | | thoughtlessly), a Created universe or an implied |
| Our ancient ancestors did not share our modern | | | | building-block Creator of any kind. Referring to the |
| understanding of cosmology, as evidenced by the | | | | physical/natural world as Creation immediately centers |
| tendency of pretty much every pre-science religion on | | | | the discussion in a masculine, Judeo-Christian context, |
| Earth, pagan or otherwise, to locate this one tiny planet | | | | and I feel all Wiccans everywhere should stop using |
| at the center of physical reality (where it surely | | | | this term at once. |
| appears to be to earthbound humans observing the | | | | The central deity of the Wiccan religion is the Great |
| circular movements of stars in the night sky), rather | | | | Goddess, and we see concrete evidence for Her |
| than where we now objectively know it to reside - on | | | | reality and presence in every living particle of the real |
| the insignificant edge of a minor galaxy nowhere near | | | | natural world. If there is not one single living thing on the |
| the center of anything. | | | | Earth, from amoebas to human beings to the whole |
| Any religion that hopes to maintain its relevance in the | | | | spectrum of life between them, that can be observed |
| age of quantum physics and the Hubbell Space | | | | being "created"by anybody out of the "bricks"of "dead |
| Telescope must be able to offer meaningful spiritual | | | | matter"(and there's really not - think about it!), then why |
| insight into the real grandeur of our universe, on the | | | | should we assume that an opposite rule applies to |
| smallest and largest scales, as it is revealed by | | | | anything else in the universe - let alone to everything |
| modern science, as well as the Earth's place in that | | | | else, as is posited by those Middle Eastern religions? |
| grand universe, and Humanity's role - not only in the life | | | | Everything alive, here on Earth, is born of a woman, of |
| of the Earth, but also in that of the real physical | | | | a female creature of its own species. In Wicca, we |
| Heavens the Earth inhabits, and of everything existing | | | | see everything that is - from the sub-atomic particles |
| between Heaven and Earth as well. Such a religion | | | | that make up atoms, to the molecules atoms come |
| must be flexible enough to incorporate new | | | | together to form, to all matter and energy (and the |
| discoveries about Humanity, the Earth and the universe | | | | water and rocks and gases and plants and people and |
| into its beliefs without surrendering its credibility, to | | | | suns and galaxies that arise from their eternal, cosmic |
| welcome new scientific discoveries as puzzle pieces | | | | dance) - as alive and conscious, varying only in degree. |
| to be fit into a continuing revelation of an infinite spiritual | | | | For Wiccans, the physical universe is not a dead thing |
| truth. | | | | constructed for Man's pleasure or control by some |
| I believe that Wicca is the one religion on Earth most | | | | distant male god. It is Her body, the real, physical, |
| uniquely equipped to face this challenge of modernity, | | | | sensually vibrant, lush and beautiful body of the Great |
| for, in spite of even well-intentioned misrepresentations, | | | | Goddess, the Mother of All, and everything we believe |
| Wicca is not now, nor has it ever been, solely an | | | | as Wiccans flows from this understanding. We exist |
| "Earth Religion." Wicca is a religion that is centered in | | | | within Her and participate in the intimate processes of |
| and reveres Nature - whether that Nature be | | | | Her being, alongside every other living thing in the |
| expressed in the teeming life and wind and water of | | | | universe that, like us, and following the observable |
| our planet's biosphere, in the nuclear processes that | | | | pattern to be found in real Nature (as opposed to |
| energize our sun, or in the swirling push and pull of | | | | some unlikely, imagined "super-nature"), was never |
| gravity that spins our (and every other) galaxy into | | | | created at all, but that is rather continually born within |
| being. | | | | Her, and who is composed, just like us, of the real |
| Wicca acknowledges that there is only one Nature, | | | | physical substance of Her body. |
| and it is everywhere. There is not anything, anywhere - | | | | To view the reality of the Great Goddess of Wicca |
| not in galaxies rushing at breakneck speed through the | | | | for ourselves, we need look no further than our own |
| depths of space, not in the Earthly water cycle that | | | | bodies, our own planet, our own universe. Our |
| brings Alaska's glaciers raining down on China's | | | | Goddess is not some distant, invisible, disembodied |
| croplands, not in the invisible bustle of bosons zinging | | | | spirit, nor is she "supernatural"in any way, shape or |
| this very moment through my computer's | | | | form. Our Goddess is Nature, in all its manifestations. |
| micro-processor, or anyplace in between - that can be | | | | From the inconceivable whole of the vast, living |
| rightly labeled un-natural, outside of Nature, whose | | | | universe to that universe's tiniest constituent particle, |
| processes are determined by any force other than | | | | She is physically, spiritually, energetically and personally |
| Nature's sovereign power. | | | | everywhere. All the time. The Great Goddess of |
| Wicca is not a supernatural religion like Christianity, | | | | Wicca is All That Is, past, present and future, here on |
| Islam or Judaism, although it is often condemned as | | | | Earth, in every distant corner of the physical cosmos, |
| supernatural by these very institutions. These major | | | | and in all the seen and unseen spaces in between. |
| Middle Eastern religions all posit a God who exists | | | | There is nothing you can look to that is not Her, that is |
| outside of the physical universe, a male "Creator"deity | | | | not born of Her, that does not bear the imprint of Her |
| who is said to have fashioned the universe from dead | | | | essence, or that fails to play its assigned role in Her life. |
| matter just as a stonemason "creates"a solid wall by | | | | |