WICCA

Albert Bergquist (alb@SORMAN.SE) Jean-Loup Sabatier (sabatier@SAINT-ETIENNE.ATE.SLB.COM) Finnsson (finnsson@COMMUNIQUE.SE) Scott Maxwell (turgon@NIDLINK.COM)

Witch is a generic term for someone affiliated with the dark forces which is what the priests of that time accused everyone not Christian for. The Wiccan religion is older than Christianity, although todays organization of course is younger than the word witch. When I read witch I started thinking about the witch-hunt and those (some 99.9%) innocently accused and felt the need to defend them. Still it feels like Satanist or something similar would be more appropriate (unless you call female believer 'witch')

This is untrue. Ever heard of a water witch?

Can't say I have. I was thinking of the use of the word 'witch'. When someone is called witch it's usually meant as a bad thing. At least with my knowledge of English I've never heard of any good meaning of the word. Wiccans are of course not evil (not more than any other religion) and it's too bad that they call themselves 'witches', as it easily leads to the belief that they are the same as the other meaning of the word (evil and so on) ...

Wicca claims a tradition that goes back 50,000+ years. Similarly Christianity (through Judaism) claims a tradition to before the universe existed. By claiming an older tradition does not make it so. Wicca was created somewhere in the late 19th century, Christianity started in the 1st Century. Wicca as it is known and loved today is 100 years old. It did not develop in a vacuum any more than any other religion, but it is still 100 years old.

I have been researching in the subject and Wicca is the same as the "mother-religion" or Animims. I can't tell you if Wicca was the only but it was one. It has only been "hunted" for some 1000 years. But you can see remnants of this religion in even the Greek mythology (Gaia).

A good friend of mine has a couple of books about Wicca. I have to look deeper into this. Since Wicca is a nature-believing religion they can claim tradition to all such religions (which would be quite pathetic). It's like if Christianity would claim traditions from all monotheistic religions (especially Judaism) and say they're some 4000 years.

By the way, aren't the Lictors great at making us quibble about some religion? Especially a Gaian one! (but sometimes it's fun) No wonder we're still imprisoned ...

I usually define a witch (in most RPG) as someone who made a (personal) pact with a supernatural being, thus doing this being some kind of service in exchange for some granted powers and supernatural abilities...

It's not a cult, not a collective worshiping. It's rather like an agreement, a contract; and it's more individual than collective. (so, it's not always an Evil power... But applying it to Kult, you'll have troubles to find a power which is not tainted in some respect...)

In my opinion, witches could be in service of a Nepharite, a Lictor, or even a Death Angel, and maybe sometimes working for an Awakened...

Often, I guess, witches are unaware of the True nature of their master, thinking of Him as Satan, or someone else, when they're in fact manipulated by 'something' they actually never heard of...