Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Saturday, March 9, 2013

THE TENETS OF WICCAN BELIEF

"REINCARNATION:  The belief that the soul is reborn, after death, into the physical world. The "Afterlife" realm known as Summerland, is where the soul rests before being born again into the physical world. The soul will experience many lifetimes, evolving as a spiritual being. Each life experience will bring to us lessons that will prepare us for a future in a higher nonphysical dimension.

THE GOD AND THE GODDESS:  Wiccans believe in a God and a Goddess and being Nature's Religion it focuses on a balance of Masculine and Feminine. There is no aspect of the Devil in our religion. There is no belief in satan.

OCCULT DIMENSIONS: There are 7 high planes that comprise existence... they are:

1. Ultimate
2. Divine
3. Spiritual
4. Mental
5. Astral
6. Elemental
7. Physical

THREE FOLD LAW: "That which you do shall return to you three-fold" (three times as much).

MAGICK: The ability to make Change....The movement of Natural energies in accordance with personal will or desire.

TIMING on MAGICK:  Cycles of the moon....Full...The Goddess is the "Mother" aspect...Waning (last quarter) The Goddess is the "Crone" aspect ...New Moon....The Goddess is the "Enchantress" aspect....Waxing (first quarter) The Goddess is in the "Maiden" aspect.

THE WICCAN REDE: "An as it harm none, do what thou will".

RITUAL: Is both a means of worship and a method of communicating to Deities or spirits.

ELEMENTS: East, Air.....South, Fire.....West, Water.....North, Earth

WATCHERS: Also known as guardians are Humans who have reached incarnation to perfection. They protect the ritual circle, witness the rite being performed and guard the watchtowers in each of the element's four directions. They guard the access points to the astral plane.

WATCHTOWERS:  A portal marking each of the four corners of a ritual circle.

TOOLS: Chalice: Symbol of the womb of the Goddess. Represents the Elemental tool of Water. Sacred liquids are usually held in this tool.

Wand: Represents the Elemental tool of Fire or Air. Some of the uses are to charge objects, blessings and evoking the God and/or Goddess.

Athame: One of the four Elemental tools and is associated with all four Elements. Some traditions use the Athame for the element of Fire or Air. This is a ritual knife that is usually never used for cutting purposes. A sacred spiritual tool.

Bolline: knife used for cutting and harvesting herbs and carving in things like candles and many other types of ritual objects.

Cauldron: The womb symbol and symbol of the Goddess. It also symbolizes germination, transformation and transmutation.

Censor: Symbolizes the Element of Air. An incense burner.

Pentacle: Usually a round piece of stone, wood, metal or clay with a five-pointed star engraved onto it. It is associated with the Element of Earth. Used for charging objects and also for offerings to the four corners.

Pentagram: A five pointed star within a circle. The lines are usually interlaced. This represents the four Elemental Corners with Spirit at the top point. The circle represents sacred space and also of binding to keep evil away.

Altar:   is an area in which sacred objects, like those listed above are placed during a ceremony. Can be a round or retangular table, or large stones or boulders and/or tree stumps. This is placed in the center of the ritual circle. These are a few tools, but the one you use the most is your own heart...tools may help you in circle BUT you are the one who completes the magick.....the only tool truly needed is you and your devotion to the work at hand. Walk in with a pure heart, an open mind and the energy will be there; promise.

SABBATS:   A Wiccan Festival or celebration. Imbolg or Candlemas (Feb. 2), Spring Equinox or Lady's Day (Mar. 21), Bealtaine/Beltane or Roodmas (April 30), Midsummer or Summer Solstice (Jun 22), Lughnasadh or Lammas (July 31), Autumn Equinox or Mabon (Sept. 21), Samhain or Hallomas (Oct.31), Yule or Winter Solstice (Dec. 22).

ESBATS:  The thirteen full moon cycles in which we gather within the year. It is a time to gather and study, as well as doing ritual in covens. The Goddess is symbolized by Moon and is also considered to be a high energy time for magick.

DIVINATION:  The ability to discern what the future holds if all factors remain constant. Most common tools are: Rune stones, tarot cards, crystal visions, reading of signs and omens, psychometry.

COVENS: A group of people, usually 13, who come together to celebrate and practice Wicca. Usually any number more than 3 can create a coven with the same beliefs. Covens usually have a High Priest and a High Priestess that deal with concerns of the coven, training, counsel and mediator. In many Traditions of Wicca the High Priestess rules the coven. The High Priestess also represents The Great Goddess in Ritual. The High Priest handles many tasks for the High Priestess and represents the Horned God. There are usually 3 degrees of initiation. Normally a year and a day rule is used to reach the different degree levels.

SOLITARY PRACTIONER: One who practices without a coven. There maybe times when a solitary will do rites with others but no coven is formed.

PERSONAL POWER: Energy zones in the body... Also known as Chakras.
The Crown of the head, the meeting place. human and divine consciousness.
The third eye. Located in the center of forehead. The sum of all five senses is amplified.
Throat area. Infulence of tones and vibrations that effect energy patterns.
Heart area. Feeling energy patterns such as how we feel towards others and toward places and situations.

Solar plexus.. which the soul derives nourishment from etheric energy.
Just below the Navel and is known as the personal power center.
Genital area... associated with energy in a pure form; raw energy.

WITCHCRAFT:  A pagan practice of magick and personal power that can be incorporated into a pagan religion. The Craft of the Witch.

WICCA:  There are two basic types. Neo wicca is the new form of the Wicca religion. Most look at the time period from Gerald Gardner on forward. Elder Wicca are the old ways of the religion (Pre-christian practices and beliefs and looked upon as pre-Gardnerian). Many who follow these elder ways do not describe themselves as a Wiccan due to the modern reconstuction of the relgion and will refer to themselves as a pagan instead. There are many sects within Wicca.  For example, Pecti-Wita, Celtic, Gardnerian, Alexandrian to name a few. Wicca is a recognised religion in the United States.

POLYTHEISM: The belief that all of the various deities are separate and distinct individuals.

PANTHEISM: The belief in a single deity exhibiting aspects_ a composite or sum of the self-aware universe.

MONOTHEISM: Holds that there is only one deity with a singular aspect & usually places the universe as a product of that deity rather than a part of it.

ARADIA:    A Holy woman that lived in the 14th Century in Italy. She taught Whiccraft and is considered to be an Avatar. Her teachings have been passed down through family lines which are incorporated in the Holy Strega.

STREGHERIA:   Italian Witchcraft and is one of the oldest forms of documented Witchcraft in Europe. The Word "Stregheria" means religion of Witches. "Stregoneria is the Italian word for sorcery or magickal practices of Witches as opposed to their religion." (quote from Raven Grimassi's Encyclopedia of Wicca and Witchcraft.) Many forms of this religion differs from region to region in Italy. Many forms are Etruscan, medieval magick with Italic Paganism, Rural Forms, mostly in southern Italy and Sicilian Witchcraft.

AVATAR:   One who has evolved beyond the need of human exsistance and who returns and teaches the ways of liberation from this physical plane."

Source
http://scotcat40.tripod.com/elderwicca.html

the Delphi - Delphi Oracle - Delphic Oracle - Priestess of Delphi - the Oracle of Delphi

"Apollo spoke through his oracle: the sibyl or priestess of the oracle at Delphi was known as the Pythia;"

"Delphi was the site of the Delphic oracle, the most important oracle in the classical Greek world, and a major site for the worship of the god Apollo after he slew Python, a dragon who lived there and protected the navel of the Earth. Python (derived from the verb pythein, "to rot") is claimed by some to be the original name of the site in recognition of Python which Apollo defeated.[2] The Homeric Hymn to Delphic Apollo recalled that the ancient name of this site had been Krisa.[3]"

Source and More Information
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphi





Pythia

"The Pythia (pronounced /ˈpɪθiə/ or /ˈpθiə/, Greek: Πυθία [pyːˈtʰi.a]), commonly known as the Oracle of Delphi, was the priestess at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, located on the slopes of Mount Parnassus, beneath the Castalian Spring. The Pythia was widely credited for her prophecies inspired by Apollo. The Delphic oracle was established in the 8th century BC,[1] although it may have been present in some form in Late Mycenaean times,[2] from 1,400 BC and was abandoned, and there is evidence that Apollo took over the shrine from an earlier dedication to Gaia.[3] The last recorded response was given during 393 A.D., when the emperor Theodosius I ordered pagan temples to cease operation.
During this period the Delphic Oracle was the most prestigious and authoritative oracle among the Greeks. The oracle is one of the best-documented religious institutions of the classical Greeks. Authors who mention the oracle include AeschylusAristotleClement of AlexandriaDiodorusDiogenesEuripidesHerodotusJulianJustinLivyLucanOvidPausaniasPindarPlatoPlutarchSophocles,StraboThucydides, and Xenophon."

Source and More Information
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythia

Types of Spiritual Healing


"An endless reservoir of healing is available from the spirit side of life for the use of individuals of the Earth Plane. Various methods can be used to tap into this power:

HEALING WITH SPIRIT INTERVENTION

Absent Healing

Absent Healing is a curative power sent to someone at a distance. The healer fLrst cleanses their mind of doubt, the seed from which failure grows. Knowing that healing is a reality aids the healing in allowing healing power to flow through easily. The word impossible disappears from their vocabulary, and true love for the one in need is expressed. Positive prayer creates a bond with Infinite Intelligence and healing spirit entities. Without this help, the healer is powerless to relieve the recipient's condition. The NSAC Prayer for Spiritual Healing is more than mere words. It first appeals to the Unseen Healing Force to cleanse the Healer's mind and body, then asks that it heal others. Finally, it affirms our trust in the Infinite's power and love. Prayer is a mighty force. When linked with energy from the spirit realms, it expands to embrace the positive, eliminates the negative, and helps perfect health to manifest.

Contact Healing

With contact healing the actual physical contact assists the healer transfer curative energy to the recipient. The healer's hand or hands are placed upon the recipient's head, shoulders, or both; thus becomes a conduit through which this energy flows. The spiritual healer may be acting as a transformer of the spiritual energy to make it more readily absorbed by the recipient.

Many contact healers place one hand upon the recipient's forehead and another upon the back of the neck. Contact with the head and shoulders is sufficient for the purpose of healing. Touching the recipient any other place on their body is unnecessary, and charges of unprofessional conduct can result from doing so.

Spirit Healing

With spirit healing, spirit doctors work directly upon the recipient to correct, or relieve conditions. With this type of healing the spirit entity, or entities, do not require the use of a healer in a physical body, but are able to work directly upon the etheric, or spirit body of the person in need.



HEALING WITHOUT SPIRIT INTERVENTION

There are other means of bringing about healing without the intervention of spirit doctors or the Infinite.

Magnetic Healing

A superabundance of magnetic energy within the physical being of some persons helps to facilitate the ready transference of the extra healing energy to others. Yet, however easily this power flows from the magnetic healer, it can also be depleted if too many healings are given in succession.

Healing

Suggestive healing is positive thoughts implanted in the mind to serve as a catalyst to promote healing. The finite mind of a person is part of Infinite Spirit and may take positive or negative directions and affirmations have an important role in this method. Affirmations such as: "Every day in every way, I am getting better and better" find a place here since the Law of Like Attracts Like is also at work since like thoughts in turn create like conditions.

Absent, spiritual, spirit, magnetic, and suggestive healing are the most common healing practices found in the Spiritualist church.

The results of Spiritual Healing are produced in several ways:

By spiritual influences working through the body of the medium to transmit curative energies to the diseased parts of the recipient's body.
By spiritual influences enlightening the mind of the medium so that the cause, nature and seat of the disease in the recipient is made known to the medium.
Through the application of absent healing treatments whereby spiritual beings combine their own healing energies with the energies of the medium and cause them to be absorbed by the system of the recipient."

Source of Post
http://www.nsac.org/healing.php

Spiritualist Church

"A Spiritualist church is a church affiliated with the informal Spiritualist movement which began in the United States of America in the 1840s. Spiritualist churches are now found around the world, but are most common in English-speaking countries, while in Latin America, where a form of Spiritualism called Spiritism is more popular, meetings are held in Spiritist centres, most of which are non-profit organizations rather than ecclesiastical bodies."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritualist_church

Spiritualism


1. Spiritualism is the science, philosophy and religion of continuous life based on the demonstrated fact of communication, by means of mediumship, with those is in the spirit world.

2. A Spiritualist is a person who believes, as the basis of his or her chosen religion, in communication between this and the Spirit World by mediumship, and endeavors to mold his or her character and conduct in accordance with the highest teachings derived from such communion.

3. A Medium is one who is sensitive to vibrations from the Spirit World and who through intelligence, education, and openness to that world, is able to convey messages to those on the Earth plane.

4. A Spiritualist Healer is one who, either through his or her inherent powers or through Mediumship is able to impart vital curative force to pathologic conditions.

5. The Phenomena of Spiritualism consist of Prophecy, Clairvoyance, Laying on of the Hands, Clairaudience, Gift of Tongues, Healings, Visions, Trance, Apports,  Revelation. Levitation, Raps, Automatic Handwriting and Paintings, Spirit Photography, Materialization, Psychometric, Voice and other manifestation proving the physical and Spiritual Senses and faculties of Man

Spiritualism is a Philosophy; it studies the laws of nature both on the seen and unseen sides of life and bases its conclusions upon present observed facts. It accepts statements of observed facts of past ages and conclusions drawn there from, which sustained by reason and results of observed facts of the present day.

Spiritualism is a Religion; it strives to understand and comply with physical mental and spiritual laws of nature “which are the laws of God.”

Spiritualism is a Science; Modern Spiritualism attempts to "examine all theories according to known principles of examination and classifications as found in all scientific endeavors. With each new, proven idea in science, we find the ordered existence of life". Spiritualists generally respect mainstream science and do their best to use science to gather support for the "Spirit Hypothesis". This theory postulates that there is spirit agency manifesting all around us. It is further understood that this spirit agency is intelligent and communicative with humans on the earth plane because these spirits were once where we are now.

Independent Spiritualist Church - Spiritual Church