by Lynda Kohn

Created on: October 18, 2009   Last Updated: October 21, 2009

First one needs to know what exactly is a religion. According to the "Oxford American Dictionary and Thesaurus" definition it is a system of worship. Please note there is no mention of worshiping a deity. I am not implying Atheism is a faith. On the other hand there is no supreme being in Buddhism. It is not essential to be worshiping a single deity nor a male one. What is basic to any and all creeds are beliefs that constitute a way of holiness.

I am not Wiccan. I am not prostlyetizing Wicca nor am I condemning it. What I am doing is writing truthfully, as far as I know accurately about it. My information is mostly from a Wiccan woman friend who has been practising it for over twenty years. She is a solitary practioner as opposed to belonging to a Coven. A coven is the closest thing to a religious body in this faith. She is firmly convinced Wiccan is a religion. She believes it is because people who practice Wiccan worship the Goddess. She and others of the Wicca creed go about worshiping nature. While people of the Judeo-Christian religions worship as what is considered the creator, people of Wicca see themselves as worshipping nature itself. Sometimes nature is refered to as mother nature.

Perhaps nature is referred as mother nature because of the influence of Wicca. It was this faith who first personified nature as feminine. Wicca 's emphasis is on the feminine. By this I mean is not feminine referring to something ladylike, but qualities that refer to the characteristics of the female sex that constitutes what most, if not all feminists consider important.

Some people into Wicca follow worshipping the Consort. This is the closest equivalent of the male deity of western religions such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The consort is the companion of the Goddess. However the Goddess is considered far superior to the consort. Please note, and I can't emphasis this too much, the consort is NOT a devil, Satan or whatever synonym used. There is no such concept of a devil in the Wiccan religious belief system. In fact the devil is irrelevant . When certain Christian groups condemn Wiccans as devil worshippers they are as wrong as saying , believing that dandelions are a form of felines.

Sometimes Wiccan are refered to as witches. Personally I prefer either term. To me it makes little differrence if a person who practics wicca is considered a witch or Wiccan. I would say Wicca or witchcraft is most certainly a religion since there is definitely an element of worship in it.

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