Reflection #2

When I was researching Wicca, I didn’t realize that there were different kinds of Wiccan practices. I guess I’m used to being a Catholic so much where no matter what church you go to, the mass is held in the same order, with the same or similar songs and everything is traditionally repeated. But with Wicca, each witch is supposed to practice in their own fashion. So some may tie in Buddhism, the feminist philosophy of Cixous or Irigaray into their Wiccan practices. I was paging through one of my sources, History of Witchcraft, when I turned to page 168 and found a group of eight people running around a circle completely naked. It was very unexpected so I read the caption next to it: “Alex Sanders leading a ritual dance at the sabbat, which is often performed ‘skyclad’-naked- in order to reduce inhibitions that might impede the flow of magical power.” After I was taken by surprise with that photo, I started paying more attention to the photos in the book. I was surprised to see even more ritual practices that were each unique. For example, sometimes Wiccans may dress up like the Horned God and the Moon Goddess with a veil on the woman with a crown overtop that has a moon and the pentacle on it. The man wore a mask that had two horns and almost looked like it branched out like a triceratops, but the “branching out” part appeared to be leaves. There is another practice that apparently comes in different degrees because a picture was described as “The First Degree Initiation of Janet Farrar in a ritual conducted by Alex and Maxine Sanders” and it included “biding and blindfolding [as] a part of the death and rebirth symbolism embodied in the ceremony of initiation.” After finding out that there are different ways to practice Wicca, I’m trying to decide how specific I should make my paper on it. Should I describe each of the more commonly known and popular rituals or should I just state that each witch practices Wicca in their own way?