by Sean Coleman

Created on: February 15, 2009

The term "Wicca" has become a word that is used to describe a certain kind of Paganism that does not take root in a specific ancient belief system, like Druidism or Asatru, and is practiced almost entirely on a small scale. Can Wicca, however, be considered a true religion?

The idea of Wicca as a religion survives almost solely because it acts as a way for teens, tired of Christianity and the role that God and their parents play in their lives, to escape and find "individuality." In reality, however, it fails to function as a religion; it has no organization. It can be used as a blanket term to describe a sort of Pagan spirituality, but it cannot be called a religion. There are no universal rules, no temple, and no leaders besides those like Silver Ravenwolf, who heads the Black Forest Circle and Seminary, the sort of organization that lives in the shadows. Each coven has its beliefs and practices, and rarely exceed a dozen members. There is no Vatican, no Mecca, and no Jerusalem to serve as a home for the faith.

For a faith to be considered a religion, it needs to bleed into parts of life other than spirituality alone. It should have specific ethics and rules, as Protestants hold importance in work ethic and Orthodox Jews refrain from eating pork. Society, at least in the eyes of the practitioner, needs to be affected by the religion, but culture is in no way touched by Wicca. In fact, generalizing anything as Wiccan is almost certainly a mistake; there is no evidence that shows a link between the way people live and the faith.
Nearly all colloquialisms and myths in the parts of the world where Wicca is practiced are Christian in origin. It only makes sense; the vast majority of the time those areas have been undergoing modern industrial changes, they've been Christian, and the regions are still dominated by Christianity; religion can't stay out of culture.

Trying to determine what is "Wiccan" is nearly impossible. The word was first used in the 1940s, and for several decades, was nearly invisible. There are innumerable different paths, and the only thing that is common to all of them is the "Rule of Three", which states that anything one does is reciprocated upon them threefold. Essentially, it is a restatement of the idea of Karma, which is present in one way or another in nearly non-Abrahamic faith; Abrahamic faiths themselves hold in mind the concept of things coming back to you.

Calling something Wiccan is as vague and poorly based as saying that people named Bob are likely to do a certain thing. It has made no changes in society, and attributing the causation anything to it is a mistake.

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