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Witchcraft in Modern Times.


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Originally posted by Dragon

However - wikk or wikka or whatever - are all celtic words and witches were around long before the celtic trads took a hold anywhere in Britain so the use of the term wicca for witch is basically incorrect. If you wish to be pedantic about it then you should call witches ug and none witches ug.

 

Dragon, please. The prefix wikk- is Old English, a language which didn't start until long after the Romans had done their best to stamp out the local Pagan religions. References to witches can be found in almost every recorded civilisation but they're called 'witches' because that's what modern scholars call them, not what the inhabitants of those cultures called them. The Greeks had their Sybil's, the North American Tribes had their Shaman, the Celts had their Priests and Priestesses, the Druids had their Merlin and so on. The word witch and the word Wicca used to be interchangable but as I admitted in my first reply, you're right to be offended by that comparison now because of the modern usage of the words. What a word means and what people commonly believe it means aren't always the same.

 

I admit I was throwing out a little pedantry, but I did have the good sense to do the research first, hence the link. The theory I describe is paraphrased from The Encyclopediea Of Witches And Witchcraft. Even scholars can't agree on the true etymology of the words.

 

Originally posted by Moon Maiden

Paganism does not include Nordic faiths, the followers of the old nordic gods are referred to as Heathens.

 

Also whilst wicca and witchcraft may come from the same root word they do not currently mean the same thing. As Dragon pointed out Wicca is a religion where as witchcraft...is amazingly a craft. A bit more complicated than your average embroidery work but a craft all the same.

 

Hi Moon Maiden. You don't have to apologise my dear; I'm always happy to be corrected. However, I was completely in agreement with you on this. I said as much in my first reply...

 

Ironically, he (if you're not a he, I apologise Dragon) is correct to be offended according to modern usage of the words.

 

I've already expounded on the difference between actual and perceived meaning, so forgive me for not doing so again.

 

With regards to Nordic Paganism, there are references to such a thing in history, and the Eddas is considered to be Norse Pagan myth. The Vikings of historical dramas weren't Pagans, true, but the people who came before them were.

 

The term 'heathen', as applied by the church, refers to anybody who does not acknowledge the God of Judaism, Christianity or Islam, so in a way you're right. However, another meaning of the word is someone considered irreligious. Once again it comes down to actual and perceived meaning.

 

Sorry. If I seem pedantic, it's because this is one of the subjects I've been studying and researching for the best part of twenty-five years, though I'd be the first to admit that I'm not an expert. My intention wasn't to attack or offend, merely to edify and educate.

 

But enough. I have other words to write tonight.

 

Be well all.

 

Byron's Shadow

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Originally posted by byronshadow

 

With regards to Nordic Paganism, there are references to such a thing in history, and the Eddas is considered to be Norse Pagan myth. The Vikings of historical dramas weren't Pagans, true, but the people who came before them were.

 

The term 'heathen', as applied by the church, refers to anybody who does not acknowledge the God of Judaism, Christianity or Islam, so in a way you're right. However, another meaning of the word is someone considered irreligious. Once again it comes down to actual and perceived meaning.

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Wassail Byron...I understand why you have included Nordic belief systems in your summary of paganism.

I was actually talking about this thread with another 'heathen' yesterday and how the earliest inhabitants of Britain would have been Heathen/Pagan in the sense that they would have recognised and given offering to non christian gods thus going back to the churches interpretations of the words.

 

I think perhaps the movement to be referred to as Heathen by the followers of Norse and Anglo Saxon deity is due more to the huge misconception that everyone who says they are pagan is automatically wiccan...which just isn't the case. I think also there is a bigger desire to seperate especially being that the Danish government now officially recognise Asatru ( a path within heathenry) as a religion and has legal rights to perform rituals specific to the faith in that country. the following article may help aswell Call Us Heathen . However this movement is not due to "neo-heathenism" which from the numerous heathens I have met both on and offline just doesn't exist, but because of Neo-paganism.

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