The Real Meaning of Wicca

[Firebird]

Hi ya'll After quite a bit of research, this is what our group determined about 17 years ago....
The whole idea of Wicca got a little too fluffy feeling with all the SilverRavenWolf kinds of authors. (sorry... no offense to fans of hers) I believe the word has been misunderstood.
It's true that Wicca is likely primarily Celtic, but that's probably because the root of the word is OE (old English). It has been said the root of this word means "to bend", that may be partly true, ...because if you are alive... you are capable of bending. Gerald Gardener brought back an archaic word but I feel it may have been misrepresented.
The prefix of Wicca is wic, the archaic meaning of wic is qwik, that boils down to quick. Quick means ALIVE, ...if you have been cut to the quick, then you have been injured enough to spill life blood.
So then, Wicca would be the celebration of LIFE ...and/or... the reverence of LIFE.
We who would follow the cycle of the seasons, and use the energy and qualities of the cycle to further enrich and empower our lives, are honoring life. (and death and re-birth)
Blessings, Firebird

[Tylluan]

I love this Firebird. It speaks to me and is the way I follow, thank you for writing it.

[raynelae]

Yep,I love it. As Wiccans, we must celebrate Life. Though sometimes life can be tough, each day is a gift from the Lord and Lady

[Truthseeker]

I love this post. It is so free form all the 'you have to be this or that...'
You have summed up perfectly what being Wiccan means to me.
Thank you~~~Brightest Blessings to you~~

[-Dark-Moon-]

Nice explanation, FF. Love it. As always, experiential definitions of things are always more meaningful.

Thankyou.

[Becks]

*bump*

This is awesome, and needs to come up in the active threads.

[smogie_michele]

I only have one book of hers and I don't think I ever made it past a few pages just because I didn't feel like I could connect with her, but I feel like I get what you mean about how it becomes "fluffy." I've been known to have a lazy day off and binge watch youtube videos and you can see the people who genuinely want to share their way of life with you and the people who like that they are a) getting attention from it and b) they make a big to-do about spells and magic and such.

But, to be alive.... I think that is absolutely beautiful. Perhaps a simple mantra to get some positive energies going... to walk this path mean to be alive.

[mangosandy82]

You just gave Wicca a new meaning for me! Thank you! I love this!!!

[Lord_of_Nightmares]

Hi ya'll After quite a bit of research, this is what our group determined about 17 years ago....
The whole idea if Wicca got a little too fluffy with all the SilverRavenWolf kinds of authors. (sorry... no offense to fans of hers) I believe the word has been misunderstood.
Its true that Wicca is primarily Celtic, but that's probably because the root of the word is OE (old English). It has been said the root of this word means "to bend", that may be partly true, ...because if you are alive... you are capable of bending. Gerald Gardener brought back an archaic word but may have misrepresented it.
The prefix of Wicca is wic, the archaic meaning of wic is qwik, that boils down to quick. Quick means ALIVE, ...if you have been cut to the quick, then you have been injured enough to spill life blood.
So then, Wicca is the celebration of LIFE ...and/or... the reverence of LIFE.
We who would follow the cycle of the seasons, and use the energy and qualities of the cycle to further enrich and empower our lives, are honoring life. (and death and re-birth)
Blessings, Firebird

I found nothing verifying your claims about the eytmology of the word Wicca, qwik, nor wic. Could you list your source? Also, where is it stated that Wicca is primarily Celtic? Because Aradia is used as the name of the Goddess and she is from Italian folklore, possibly.

Here is a reliable source on the word Wicca.

Here is the other on the word quick, which is correct. But I am not seeing any direct relation to the word "Wicca".But it is from Proto-German. I checked out witch, too. While the words may sound the same, they may be homophones. (Words that sound the same but have different meanings.) If they were related the dictionary would probably have noted it. But it seems like their sources are completely different.

On the study of Wicca and from BTWs I have seen it be called a fertility religion, and a mystery one. You could say it honors life, but IDK. I feel there is more to it than that.

[Firebird]

The book we used is this, Oxford Dictionary 2 volume set.
http://www.amazon.com/Compact-Edition-O ... 019861117X
It comes with a magnifying glass. Wish I still had a copy, In references to wic in that book it came back to quick and it was spelled many different ways.... why doesn't come up in a search, I have no idea.
I have no source to back the idea Celts used this... it is conjecture, but they did travel as far as Italy.
The etmyology resource you provided on the word quick is good. Read through the many meanings and it makes sense.
You must also consider the way things were pronounced rarely even looked they way they were spelled. My family surname began kw but morphed to qu and was pronounced like cuva...say it real fast and don't really pronounce the a ! ..
It's hard to get a sense.
These are thoughts outside the box. To me cwice is wicca. It makes way more sense to me to practice and celebrate life than it does to bend. And we will grow like witchgrass

On the study of Wicca and from BTWs I have seen it be called a fertility religion, and a mystery one. You could say it honors life, but IDK. I feel there is more to it than that.

the tradition to which I ascribe would be considered this, and when we found the life connection,
it was the "more to it" we were looking for.

Bb, Firebird

[Lord_of_Nightmares]

Ah okay that is weird. I don't have the book but everything else did check out.

I def agree Wicca is life and a celebration of it.

Well, some old school peeps claimed Wicca was "Celtic", it really, in practice esp, does not resemble the Celts. It does have roots and inspiration in the Celts, but I wouldn't say it is Celtic reconstructionism or anything. (Cernunnos is a Celtic god.) Back in the day it was invented, some sciences were in their infancy and Margot Murray was taken seriously. Now we know she was wrong. So, Gardner was going by this and probably meant this.