Non-religious Witchcraft

[faery_temptress]

I began my studies like most with Wicca but am now finding my own path and have been doing lots of research. At the beginning with only the teachings of Wicca I thought a God&orGoddess was the main ingredient but now find that there are alot of practicing witches that do not acknowledge diety at all.

I just wondered who doesn't acknowledge diety and what path you follow. I'd also be interested to hear how the sabbats are celebrated without diety involved in ritual and what sabbats are celebrated.

Thank you.

[madness]

I don't have any deities in my life - not to say that they don't exist, I just have never experienced them. The best paths to describe me would be kitchen/green/hedge witch and/or Spiritual Naturalist. I don't follow any specific formula for my work.

I celebrate all of the solar holidays (Sabbats - I don't usually use that word). I don't do any ritual at all, so there's no need for God/Goddesses there. I simply celebrate the changing of the seasons. It usually involves a big feast with all day cooking with my family and specific things on each day (balancing eggs on the equinoxes, staying up to see the sun rise on the Winter Solstice, divination games on the Winter cross quarter day, etc).

[Astara Seague]

I dont "worship" any one deity ..I "worship" Nature itself

which technicly is the God and the Goddess or the Lord and Lady if you go with what many paths go by the God the sky the Goddess the earth or the God is the Sun and the Goddess the moon the idea is basicly the same

and each sabbat represents alot of things but mostly based on earth cycles {season changes / harvest times}

now when I do certain spells or rituals I will call upon which ever Dieties can help me most in what I am trying to do

[Rudas Starblaze]

I don't have any deities in my life - not to say that they don't exist

QTF :thumbsup:

my self, i dont even care enough about sabbats, maybe beltain as its mid year and samhain as its new years (not dec 31st/jan 1st mind you!), the rest i dont even bother with. but then again, it wasnt until somehwere between 2001 and 2003 that i even found out people were attempting to associate witchcraft with religion and i honestly thought it was a joke at first.

[Windsmith]

I see a big difference between "non-religious Witchcraft" and "non-deistic Witchcraft." I'm a Naturalistic Pantheist; I've checked out as far as gods and goddesses go, but I'm fairly religious. My house has several altars. I have a daily spiritual practice of meditation and observation. I celebrate the Sabbats and Esbats as ways of honoring the changing of the seaons, the relationships between Earth, Sun, and Moon, and the place of humankind in the greater Cosmic order.

There are also non-religious Witches, who don't faff about at all with Sabbats or Esbats or the like. They just get in, do their blessing or cursing or love magic or weather magic or whatever and get the heck outta there.

[madness]

There are also non-religious Witches, who don't faff about at all with Sabbats or Esbats or the like. They just get in, do their blessing or cursing or love magic or weather magic or whatever and get the heck outta there.

I consider myself non-religious. You're right, being non-religious is more than just non-deist. However, I DO celebrate solar holidays. They mark the turning of the seasons. I just don't see how that's religious. Spiritual maybe, but even atheist can appreciate the fact that the seasons change and have a celebration.

[Skye]

To me, Wicca is a religion and witchcraft is not . Deities aside, if you are worshipping anything, you are practicing a religion. Witchcraft, as I know it, is not about worship. It is about living with, and manipulating the worlds around you. There may be spirits and guides, but you would not bow to them. As for the holidays, it would depend on where you live as to how you may acknowledge them, and that is only if you chose to.

[Deerwoman]

I've met many non-Wiccan witches who consider their craft "non-religious". However I've found the majority of these to be animists of one form or another, which I do define as religious and spiritual - just lacking in major deities and pantheons. Instead spirits are worked with.

Other "non-religious" types are more on the ceremonial side of magic and use archetypes, spirits, and demons. Their practices still require some sort of belief or spiritualism/spirituality.


There may be spirits and guides, but you would not bow to them.
This depends on the practitioner. Studies of Cunning Folk with spirit guides and Shamans and their spirits guides show that it differed from practitioner to practitioner how the spirits were appealed to. Some were commanded and controlled, others were appealed to and coerced with promises of gifts or sacrifices, others were asked as a favour for a friend on equal footing.


I see a big difference between "non-religious Witchcraft" and "non-deistic Witchcraft."
Hear hear! It's like trying to find the difference between religion and spirituality - where do you draw the lines and separate definitions?

[Nuadu]

To me, Wicca is a religion and witchcraft is not .

I would agree with that. I would expand it a little and say paganism is religion and witchcraft is a skill. In ireland there are forms of energywork that are religious in nature both because they involve impliments at cultural sites here associated with pagan deities or rituals and are associated with Irish Catholic saints.

There is another form of energywork here from the family traditions that does not involve deities and the practicioners I am aware of are christian in their grandparents generation, aethiest in their parents and pagan in our generation.

This is an example of non religious witchcraft from our part of the world. There are articles that include effective spellcasting and sympathetic magic aswell as things that belong specifically to irish paganism.
http://homepage.eircom.net/~liossa/home/contents.htm

[herbal_legends]

Witchcraft, as I know it, is not about worship. It is about living with, and manipulating the worlds around you. There may be spirits and guides, but you would not bow to them.


I agree.
Also as far as the Sabbats....I don't celebrate them according to Wiccan myths but I do acknowledge the changing of the seasons/nature during these times.