Druidry, Wicca, and Paganism
What it is, what it isn't, and its role in my life
I will start by first explaining what Pagans are not. We are not evil. We are not Satanists. We do not do "Black Magick", or hurt people in any way. We do not belong to some outlandish cult. In fact, most of us work independently of any group.
Now to move on to what we are. We are good people, in most cases extremely average. The average Pagan has quite a high IQ, and many think that it is our more questioning and analytical minds which lead most of us to Paganism and other 'alternative' religions. While there are many different diverse Pagan religions, there are common themes, ethics, and ideas shared among most Pagans. One is the belief in Karma. Karma is the cosmic force that gives you what you deserve for the actions you commit. If you do good things, good things will most likely happen to you, and if you do things to hurt people, it'll screw you over in the end.
Another common belief is in Reincarnation, the idea that we are continually reborn each lifetime. The exact details of what is believed varies slightly from tradition to tradition, but the basic idea permeates most Pagan faiths. The main idea that permeates every Pagan religion is the belief that the natural world and all living beings are divine.
MY PRACTICES
My personal practices come from various sources, as I am rather well read (and conceited). They are primarily Celtic and Norse, with strong leanings toward Warrior traditions. I've also spent a fair ammount of time studying Native American Shamanism, Feng Shui, Taoism, Greek Mysticism, the Kabalah, and Dragon Magick, just to name a few. To be exact, I am a Neo-Pagan Druid, and a member of Ar nDraiocht Fein, the largest neo-pagan Druid organization in the United States. I am also a member of Ocean's Tide Protogrove, ADF, which myself and some friends began in the Fall of 2005. I belong to every ADF Guild (training groups, such as the Warriors, Bards, Healers, etc.) except for the Dance Guild, because I have no interest in that. I am the 2005 Wellspring Warrior Games Champion, which is a great honor and means I get to wear a wonderful torc until the next Wellspring. I've also put a lot of information about the Neo-Pagan religion called Wicca on this page, even though I don't follow it, because it is a widely known religion and I did practice it for many years. Also, there is a fair amount of mis-information out there about it, even amongst its own followers.
MY NAME
I'm often asked what my name, Zalon Draconis, means. First of all, it is my chosen name. Many of us Pagans adopt a secondary name, one that allows us to feel a bit more like the person we want to be. Mine is one I invented. The name Zalon was the name of a character of mine from a role-playing game I played when I was younger. The character was powerful, noble, and strong. Of course, these are traits I would like to embody. I soon later added the Draconis because of my fondness for dragons. The word Draconis is Latin for "of the dragon". I've always felt they were wise, magickal, powerful creatures, and I've always felt drawn to them.
About ADF
(Taken from the ADF website)
The Irish words, pronounced "arn ree-ocht fane", mean "Our Own Druidism", and that's just what ADF is - a completely independent tradition of Neopagan Druidism. Like our sisters and brothers in the other Neopagan movements, we're polytheistic Nature worshipers, attempting to revive the best aspects of the Paleopagan faiths of our ancestors within a modern scientific, artistic, ecological, and wholistic context. Like our predecessors and namesakes the Druids, we're people who believe in excellence - physically, intellectually, artistically, and spiritually.
We're researching and expanding sound modern scholarship about the ancient Celts and other Indo-European peoples, in order to reconstruct what the Old Religions of Europe really were. We're working on the development of genuine artistic skills in composition and presentation. We're designing and performing competent magical and religious ceremonies to change ourselves and the world we live in. We're adapting the polytheologies and customs of both the Indo-European Paleopagans and the Neopagan traditions that have been created over the last fifty years. We're creating a nonsexist, nonracist, organic, and open religion to practice as a way of life and to hand on to our grandchildren. We're integrating ecological awareness, alternative healing arts, and psychic development into our daily activities. Together, we're sparking the next major phase in the evolution of Neopaganism and planting seeds for generations to come.
Why Wiccans Suck(A decent site, though a little extreme. It's great for correcting the misinformed pagans amongst us, although he basically says that to be considered Wiccan you should do exactly what Gardner's writings say, e.i. fundementalist Wiccan.)
A Brief History of Wicca
This is basically how it all started. For all of you fluffs out there, this information is indeed correct, and you'd know that if you had ever checked some history or read a book that wasn't by Silver Ravenwolf.
In the 1930's, an extremely well educated anthropolgist/egyptologist named Margaret Murray published a book called "The Witch-Cult in Western Europe". In this book, she stated that witchcraft wasn't merely just an excuse used by Western societies to kill people they didn't like, nor was it a psychologically induced illusion. It was, she stated, the surviving of a pre-Christian fertility religion, and that all the sightings of the "Devil" that had been recorded by such witches were in fact the leaders of individual covens of witches, who, at great meetings, would wear horns or antlers.
Murray's theories were extremely controversial, and for the most part they are now considered to be debunked. She later also wrote a book called "The God of the Witches", which went into greater depth explaining the fertility deity(s) that the witches worshipped.
Then, in the late 1940's and early 1950's, soon after the last of the laws prohibitting witchcraft in Brittain had been repealed (which were really just laws to prevent fortune tellers from scamming people), an English man named Gerald Gardner started publishing books stating that Murray's theories had indeed been correct about witches, and that he was one of them. He called the religion Wicca or Wica, which he claimed is an Old English word for "wise" and is the word that witch evolved from (the term use for "wise one" in Old English is, in fact, wys-ard). It should be noted that Gerald Gardner had previously been a member of both the Ancient Order of Druids and Ordo Templi Orientis, and was rumored to have even been offered leadership of the OTO in England after Aleister Crowley died.
Gardner's story about being initiated into an ancient coven had turned out to be a fallacy. His "ancient book of shadows that had been passed down for many generations" was discovered to be written completely in his handwriting. Not only that, but it was quite obvious that the rituals which he had described were heavily influenced by the Kabalah, a Hebrew mystical system, and a big focus of study for the OTO.
Many people wrote to Gardner saying that they and their family had been doing similar things, only with slight variations, for generations. It turned out that the only remnants of the pre-Christian religion that had survived were little bits of lore and folk magick that had been saved and passed down through families. Many of these people ended up studying Wicca, and adding their lore and experience into the mix.
Still, Gardner's writings inspired many, and Wicca lived on and evolved into something much more similar to ancient pagan practices. In the 1970's, in a pagan magazine called Green Egg, the first appearance of the Wiccan Rede was made. It was basically an attempt at displaying the good philosophy of Wiccans. Many authors, however, started putting it, or shortened versions of it, into their books, and claiming it to be and ancient rule passed down thousands of years. These writers, obviously, still chose to believe Gardner's stories.
Today, Wicca is an extremely different religion from the time when an educated Englishman tried to re-create a pre-Christian fertility religion. It has grown leaps and bounds, and absorbed bits and pieces from traditions all over the world. Its adherants come from every walk of life, every profession and race. It is coming closer and closer to the wise people that Gardner was suggesting at.