This week I have been guest blogging over at A Pagan Sojourn (and have cross-posted my entries here). There were three of us guest bloggers, each tasked with writing about three different issues from our own faith's particular point of view. First was nature, then the afterlife, and finally, describe the essence of your faith in 300 words or less. As the Wiccan/Pagan of the bunch, this was a daunting task indeed, given how much ground there was to cover. But it was a fun and enlightening experience.

I decided the bulk of my final post - describing Wicca as if to someone who didn't know anything about it - would be old hat for most of my Blogickal readers. But there was one section that I thought worth posting here because it points to some specific ideas that are important to me:

Wiccans are women and men of every profession, cultural background and religious upbringing. For many, Wicca is the only religion they've found that encourages love for the Earth and its inhabitants (human, animal, vegetable and mineral) and that promotes the practice of magick to transform their lives into positive experiences. Women, especially, are drawn to it because of its acceptance of the feminine aspect of divinity - the Goddess. For Wiccans, theirs is the only religion that allows a truly intimate link with deity.

My personal experience of Wicca as a spiritual path puts me firmly in this category. I enjoy the connection to nature and spirit as one and the same. Wicca requires me to taking responsibility for the outcome of my actions, including my spiritual ones, and allows me to direct my personal will while discovering a higher purpose for myself - a divine Will. Along with the freedom it gives me to adopt a spiritual path of my own choosing, I appreciate Wicca's returned emphasis on Goddess worship. It represents something of a feminist liberation after feeling the after-effects of the Judeo-Christian suppression of the feminine divine and the second-class status women have been handed by more dominant religious institutions. It is important for me to be able to identify with a religion that tells me that I have power and am divine. I also count myself among certain Wiccans who are reclaiming the word witch, who are not ashamed to admit that what we are practicing is witchcraft. Although I sometimes enjoy the ceremony of a high ritual, my day-to-day approach to the craft is more about finding a personal connection to deity and to living my life in a way that is in harmony with nature, with the spirit of the world around me, and that celebrates and acknowledges my place within the web that connects us all.

Thanks and blessings to Sojourner for having me, and to Mike and Bjorngrimner, my fellow guest bloggers, for their kind comments and support. It was fun!

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 11:02 PM