Eclectism
In Wicca
All Wicca is Eclectic, a word
which Webster’s New World Dictionary defines as meaning,
"Selected or selecting from various sources." Some
"Trads" claim not to be eclectic at all, citing
unbroken lineages and untainted family traditions ("Fam-Trads")
dating back to the Stone Age, but I doubt anyone (except the
members of said Trads, themselves, of course) takes such claims
very seriously anymore. That is not to say one should not
take the individuals involved in such Trads seriously, or
that the Wicca they practice is somehow lessor than the Wicca
outlined in these pages. As author Kaatryn MacMorgan , Priestess
of the Church of Universal Eclectic Wicca, phrased it in the
title of her top-notch book on the subject, we are, indeed,
All One Wicca.
The real question of eclecticism
in Wicca is less one of if, than it is of when. "Non-eclectic"
Trad practitioners surely hold as fast as they can to the
exact structure, rules, rituals and beliefs handed down to
them by their nearest known ancestors – but what about
their ancestors? And theirs, and theirs...? Somewhere down
the line, somebody, somewhere, gathered a disparate body of
knowledge together, worked it into a coherent system of belief,
and began the "Tradition" of initiating new members
into that system. That person, the one who initially "rediscovered
and reconstructed" (or flat-out “constructed")
the Tradition, who decided what information from family, village,
cultural, mythological or other source materials available
would be accepted and passed on (or reject for being too "out
there," or for contradicting the compiling individual’s
personal beliefs or morals), and who filled in the gaps in
that material with bits and pieces of the "unproven but
reasonable" beliefs or writings of others was doing exactly
what the average Wiccan Solitary practitioner does every day
right here and now in the 21st Century – building a
living tradition out of the best fragmentary source materials
available, and beginning the arduous task of refining it all
into a workable system through trial and error experience.
Now that's eclectic! It doesn't matter whether the act of
"selecting from various sources" occurred in 1660,
1960 or 2660, it's still eclectic, there's just no escape
from that reality.
All Wicca must be eclectic
because it is a religion that is by nature both Gnostic and
scientific – it is never enough for a Wiccan to accept
statements about the nature of reality "on faith,"
and stop there, as is the rule in many non-Wiccan religions.
The Wiccan practitioner, before accepting any belief, practice,
code of conduct etc., must personally experience those concepts
to hold true or be of value in reality. What does not work,
what does not prove to be true in experience, must rightly
be jettisoned, and a new theory taken on to replace the one
disproved, itself to be put to the same rigorous test. This
style of eclecticism – which bears a striking resemblence
to the scientific method, and is, in fact, western physical
science's true spiritual counterpart – and the constant
personal change and growth it engenders, is indicative of
Wicca and any other truly living religious tradition. By this
definition, I would go so far as to say that any religion
which is not eclectic, whose beliefs are "set in stone"
by encasement in unchangeable/unchallengeable books of revelation
(the "Holy Books" that define and confine so many
of our present world religions), are dead things, mere caricatures
of the living religions they might have been had their followers
been more experimentally courageous.
True eclectisism is neither
a belief system in its own right nor a sign of failure or
refusal to commit to any one socially-sanctioned version of
"religious truth." Conscious eclecticism, when securely
coupled with intentionally-developed intelligence, intuition
and will, transcends belief altogether, becoming a reliable
hands-on method for sampling, testing and verifying reality,
in both its visible and its unseen dimensions.
The task of every Wiccan is
to evolve past the limitations imposed by mere "belief,"
toward real, personal union with the Great Cosmic Goddess.
A playful attitude of conscious eclectisim in relation to
all beliefs is a primary tool by which we are enabled to accomplish
this great work.
Authors Details: - Esra Free Web
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From 'WICCA 404: Advanced Goddess Thealogy' |
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