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DISCLAIMER: This is a text file of an interview with a man who CLAIMS
to have once been of the Wiccan faith. Anything you read herein should
be read with the understanding that it comes from someone now outside of
the Craft and the System Operators do not necessarily support all of the
viewpoints expressed in this file.
We have put this file online in order to give Wiccans, in particular,
an idea of what others believe our world to be.
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QUESTIONS & ANSWERS ON WICCA: A CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE OF WITCHCRAFT
by Keith A. Morse
While many modern-day Wiccans try to present their religion in a way
acceptable to 20th century man, their traditions remain age-old. Tom
Sanguinet explained the background and basic beliefs of Wicca to us.
Sanguinet breaks down all religions into four basic ones: Christianity,
contemporary Judaism, Satanism and witchcraft. All occultism and Eastern
religions would be classified with witchcraft by him.
WHAT IS WICCA?
Wicca is the Celtic word for 'wise.' Wicca-craft means 'craft of the wise.'
WHAT IS THE WICCAN CONCEPT OF GOD?
They believe first of all in a triunal god. In other words, there's the god,
or the godhead, the omnipotent power of the universe.
They believe in the godhead as being all the good and all the bad - whole
circle. That's what the circle represents. It's unapproachable, neither male
nor female, it's uncomprehendible. It's there.
Directly beneath that you have what is termed "the lord and the lady." The
lord is not our Lord, but the lord of darkness. The lord of darkness rules
such things as war, planting, plowing, the male aspect.
The winter months, the cold months belong to this lord of darkness. The
summer months, the growing months, the productive months belong to what they
call the lady, or the goddess.
These are depicted by such figures as (the Egyptian deities) Isis and Osiris,
(the Greek deities) Diana and Apollo, and (the Canaanite deities) Astarte and
Baal.
Virtually every pagan religion that was goddess-oriented is the same. Satan
just keeps renaming the same lie. There's no new religion.
HOW DO WICCANS RELATE TO THE GODHEAD?
They say the godhead has no power on the earth, that it is up to the witches
to raise the power to produce what is done.
WHAT OTHER BASIC BELIEFS DO WICCANS ADHERE TO?
The most common basis for witchcraft is reincarnation. This you have in all
the Eastern religions, that tenet of "no responsibility in life because
karmatically we'll get it right some other time." So there's no moral
responsibility.
The other tenet is: 'As it harm none, so do as you will.' You don't really
set out to harm anyone, you set out to evolve them -- evolve their spirit.
WHAT DO WICCANS BELIEVE IS MAN'S ULTIMATE SPIRITUAL DESTINY?
It depends on which tradition you are. Some say you'll meld in with the
godhead. Some say that through a series of melding, many consciousnesses will
meld together and create another godhead, so you see an analogy with
Mormonism.
After you achieve a certain level of consciousness, you meld with others who
have achieved that level of consciousness and you go from being to
super-being.
You put three June bugs together and you get a German shepherd, you put three
German shepherds together and you get a man.
This is something where witches don't have a set dogma. They just reach up in
the air and grab one.
ARE WICCANS AND SATANISTS THE SAME THING?
There's not a connection really between witchcraft and Satanism. It's only
been in the neo-system of the occult that witchcraft and Satanism have taken
this melding.
Satanists have always worshiped the negative entities or deities -- the
temple of Seth in ancient Egypt, for example.
Witches don't fear God and they don't believe in Satan. They're duped and
they're really blinded.
WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE ARE ATTRACTED TO WICCA?
People who are looking for answers but not looking for a lot of
responsibility. It really appeals to big-business men because they can go on
slaughtering their opponents and feel like they are helping them to progress.
Whereas, as a Christian, you can't go out and just stomp all over your
competitor and have your business be blessed. I can't.
WHAT IS WICCA'S APPEAL?
Power; sex -- let's face it, sex is a big draw for the less- intellectual and
more world-minded neo-pagan type; rebellion -- there's a lot of people that
get into it thinking, "this is exactly opposite what I was raised in and I'm
gonna get back at my mother and father for raising me that way";
thrill-seeking -- the fear fetish; some of them get in seeking righteousness
or seeking God but without real direction.
HOW MANY WICCANS ARE THERE IN THE UNITED STATES?
There are about 300,000 of them in this country today.
WHY DON'T WE NOTICE THEM MORE?
They try to present themselves as very humble and very educated -- and they
are, most of them -- and they try to be low-key and low-profile most of the
time... That's why people say that they don't think there are too many of
them.
The only ones they really hear about are the kooks or some of the traditional
witches are coming out of the closets... and saying, "Hey look, these kooks
are not what it's about," and they're trying to make it acceptable now and to
move among the world -- and with the humanistic movement this is making it
easier and easier all the time.
HOW CAN A CHRISTIAN KNOW IF A PERSON IS A WICCAN?
The Bible gives us the ability to discern the spirits. All you've got to do
is talk to somebody and you can usually tell when you ask them how they're
going to get to heaven. And if they say by good works or by reincarnation,
you've got a pretty good idea that they are not scriptural.
A witch will never openly claim fellowship with Jesus Christ. The spirit
cannot do it.
HOW DO WICCANS VIEW CHRIST?
They all consider -- everyone that I ever talked to -- Him a prophet. Of
course, they consider Mohammed a prophet, too. The difference is Jesus was
100% right and Mohammed has never been right yet.
(Wiccans believe Jesus) was working toward progression too. He was as much
the Son of God as everyone else is.
HOW SHOULD CHRISTIANS WITNESS TO WICCANS?
Real strong. You have to take authority. You have to use a lot of scripture.
All you can do is plant a seed. You cannot expect to walk up to somebody
who's involved deeply in the occult, who's really dedicated in the occult,
and see results. Not on a onetime, one-on-one contact. You cannot expect it.
If you expect it, you're gonna be let down.
This is seed. You plant that seed, and like that mustard seed, you can drill
a hole in solid stone, and drop that mustard seed down in there, cover it up
with a little fertile soil and you can water it and that little mustard seed
will grow and split that rock wide open.
You tell them how they can find the Lord. You can tell them there's peace in
the Lord. You give them scripture like Deuteronomy 18, where witchcraft is
condemned, you give them Galatians 5:19-20 where the Bible speaks clearly
that witchcraft is condemnation, and that there is no condemnation in Christ
Jesus, and that they can be a new creature in Christ Jesus, then you turn it
over to the Lord.
You don't argue theology with them... These people are experts on theology,
just like the Mormons are experts on theology. But if you give them Jesus,
there is nothing they can say. Not one person in 32 years witnessed Jesus to
me.
SHOULD CHRISTIANS BE AFRAID THAT WITCHES WILL TRY
TO USE THEIR POWERS AGAINST THEM?
I love it when they do try that... Gavin Frost led a circle of 65 witches in
St. Louis last year at their Samhain seminar -- my wife Audrey and I went up
there -- and we sat right in the middle of that circle -- right dead in the
center of it -- Gavin Frost is doing everything he could to blow me away.
This Samhain, I won't be able to make it (to the seminar) because his spell
"worked" so well we got the baby we've been praying for. And I got a house
that the Lord gave that I didn't even really want. And I've got a job, a
ministry that I can't afford to leave. He blew me away so much that I'm so
blessed that I can't go anywhere.
I John 4:4 says: "You are from God, little children, and have overcome them;
because greater is He who is in you than is he who is in the world."
If a Christian is afraid to witness to a witch, then that Christian needs to
go back to the Bible.