Who Am I?
Author: EarthPriestess
It seems that people in the Pagan world cannot accept that there are many traditions, yet not everyone belongs to one. I want to talk about my path, Eclecticism, and why I believe that Eclecticism is perfectly acceptable.
I have my own doubts and questions of faith and religion and yet now I don’t even know if I have a religion. I am spiritual however and that means the world to me. I don’t even know if I can call myself Wiccan.
People on the Internet have made me feel guilty by calling myself a Wiccan, as I do not follow the Gardenerian or Alexandrian traditions. I follow my completely unique way. I would resent following rules and set beliefs that another human has laid out for me and told me to believe, so when I learn about something I first decide for myself if I believe it.
Because I am currently sixteen, some older Wiccans or Witches can be cynical and say that I am ignorant or naïve or that I am eclectic because I don’t know what to believe.
I do know what to believe. It just so happens to not belong to any one tradition. Like all religions, all traditions have truth in them and so what is wrong in seeking what you believe to be true within each?
SABBATS: Some traditional witches and other traditions are critical of Wiccans, or witches who call themselves ‘eclectic’.
“In the Wiccan wheel of the year, why do you celebrate festivals from all sorts of cultures (Samhain being of Irish origin, and Ostara being German) ?”
My answer to this is: When I first read up about Wicca, I learnt to call the Sabbats by these names. I learnt about the background of the days and what they meant and represent and I believe in those days regardless of their name or origin.
The days themselves are days marked by nature and therefore I worship the day of nature rather than a man-made tradition. I celebrate in the way that I feel best befits it and not necessarily what other people have written to be “the Ritual of Beltane”. I will offer the Earth milk at Imbolc because it will encourage the new Spring life and stands for the milk that the baby animals will suckle.
GOD AND GODDESS: I can be considered eclectic in my choice of God and Goddess. I believe that there is a divine male and female force that ultimately forms into one. However in ritual work, I will call upon different Goddesses from different cultures because each Goddess is a spirit in her own right. If I need help in love, I will call beloved Aphrodite; when I am in need of bravery, I will call on Sekhmet.
Some think this disrespectful and messy saying that I am unable to choose any one culture.
Every Goddess and God is a spirit and in the sense of the Divine I too do not know all the answers. I believe in The God and The Goddess but I believe in as well all the many hundred Gods and Goddesses.
Also the Goddess is no more important than the God. Both are just as important in the act of love and reproduction and creation.
THE WICCAN REDE: “An ye harm none, do what ye will.” A “rede” means advice or guideline and so I uphold this advice and try not to hurt people in any way for a peaceful life, however I do not feel utter guilt on my spirit if I do hurt someone. If someone is hurting someone you love, can you honestly say that you would do nothing?
“Mind the Threefold Law you should, Three times bad and Three times good.” I do believe in karma or the threefold law regardless of whether or not “karma” is a Buddhist philosophy.
INITIATION: I do not believe that you need to be initiated into the craft to be Wiccan or a Witch. Nor do you have to belong to a coven; you can be a solitary witch. If you have been practicing and learning and worshipping the craft for say, twenty years, then how can you not be a witch simply because you haven’t been “formally initiated”? If you have shown your dedication to the Gods and nature, then you have already initiated in their eyes.
I now call myself an ‘Eclectic Witch’ as I have been criticized so much when I call myself Wiccan when I do not follow Gerald Gardner’s ways. Maybe I don’t even have a religion? Just spirituality? To me though, Wicca means “Craft of the Wise” or “Craft of the Witches” and so can I not call myself Wiccan with that definition?
All this nonsense about being a part of one tradition, one religion I think I wrong and unfair. Is there much point in dedicating to one tradition when within it there is a particular practice that you are required to do regardless of whether or not you believe it. How often to humans agree 100% on what another people believes and has said? Even Christians doubt certain aspects of what they are told to believe.
I say follow your own path.
If you believe 100% of what one tradition or religion believes then go for it! Practice away! You are not wrong in what you believe. But if you had the trouble that I had and couldn’t decide — as you agreed and disagreed with what every tradition said — then don’t fret. Be a part of your own. Every path is a path to truth; we all seek the same thing after all!
I felt really confused about who I was when all this trouble over traditions and paths came up. I had to question what it was I actually believed. I do not follow a belief system that is man made exactly, apart from made by myself I suppose. I follow a religion that is the oldest religion known to this Earth. Yet I practice it my way.
I am a Witch. I practice magic, herbs, spells, astronomy and divination; I live by nature. I worship nature and the Earth. I feel the spirit and pulse of life and I love and am one with the God and Goddess.
Who cares what my label is?
Footnotes:
http://www.spelwerx.com/wvtw.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmwoiIFNiV4 and feature=channel_page
Witches Of The Craft® 
Greetings to You, Earth Priestess !
I will keep to the assumption that you are really 16; some people do Post with the intent of having others comment on a subject.
What ever the case of your age, your Post is relevent always. With-out going into details, I, and many others have restled with these very same issues. You are in very good company. I am now in my 50’s, ( it took me til last year to even admit this!), and these same questions have come up many times over my life-time. But, the term Witch, (here is a tib-bit you probably have never heard, (Wica(e), Wicca(e)), is really pronounced Witch, ((“a” sounding as an lower case “u”, as up, and is masculine; the “e” sounding as a Long upper case E, as in see , and is femenine. (( I hope I have this correct)).
If you are young, you are very wise for your age, as are most self thinkers, as opposed to followers. I will advise you to re-read your own Post, and Understand. You are farther along on your Spiritual Path than you think.
Yes, Witch !
Shining Wolf
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