#theoreticalreflections

Taken from: Thea Sabin, ‘Wicca for Beginners’ (pp. 28-29).

Wiccans believe that psychic abilities exist, that they work, and that each of us is born with our own psychic gifts. If each of us is infused with the same divine force, and the earth and everything around us is too, we ought to be able to tap into that force to get information and do things beyond the realms of the five senses. Psychic ability might be interpreted as being in tune and developing a sensitivity to patterns and occurrences found within the universal energy.

I wouldn’t say I have a concrete belief in psychic powers, but the explanation provided - that psychic power means tapping into the knowledge ingrained within this grand universal energy - does seem fathomable to me. If we are full of such energy and the energy is all around us, and it exists outside of space and time and is truly universal, it seems to me that it would contain all possible knowledge and that there could be ways to access that knowledge. 

I have personal experiences which affirm some belief in psychic abilities. Firstly, I have experienced scenarios which I dreamt about previously - sometimes down to fine details. The most affirming of these experiences was when I recognized that I had dreamt being in a certain bathroom (which I had never been to previously) and in the dream, I had gone into a certain bathroom stall and found $20. With this in mind, I went to the same stall as I had seen in my dream and I found a $20 note in the exact place I had dreamt of finding it. Furthermore, a friend and I were stoned and we put our heads together and started ‘shharing thoughts’. I was verbally describing the image in her mind and she was saying “yes, how did you know?”. I thought she might have just been pretending, but when it was her turn to guess the image I was seeing in my mind, she was describing the exact image I was visualizing in fine detail. I also have tried my hand at past life regression and believe I have had some success.

Like many other talents, psychic abilities can be sharpened and honed through practice and belief. Actions such as meditation, ritual, divination and other psychic exercises can help us grow our psychic power. Wicca assists by encouraging belief in such abilities since one cannot practice until belief is established.

This is definitely an area I am interested in exploring and trying to practice. I have tried a couple of past life regression sessions which I believe have been successful. This is something I would like to keep working on. I am also interested in tarot/oracle cards and dream interpretation.

Taken from: Thea Sabin, ‘Wicca for Beginners’ (pp. 31-32).

Although most Wiccans will tell you they believe in reincarnation - the soul returning to the earth again in a new body or form after death - their views vary widely on what that means. Some simply believe that our souls are reborn into new bodies, and others think that our essence ‘recycles’ after our bodies die and becomes cosmic energy. Some even believe that we all share one soul, and that this soul experiences the many possibilities of life by inhabiting all of our bodies at the same time.

I do believe in reincarnation and I believe I have had past lives both on Earth and elsewhere in the universe. My concept of how reincarnation works, however, is much less developed. The three ways suggested in the above excerpt all seem like possibilities to me and sound like they could even operate together quite harmoniously, rather than choosing one. I’m also sure threre is an endless string of reincarnation theories, some which I will find plausible and others which won’t resonate with me.

This focus on reincarnation stems in part from a belief that the earth is divine. As we’ve seen, Wiccan practice is earth-focused, here-and-now focused. It’s natural, then, that Wiccans would believe that death is not the end of their existence, and they’re going to be back again in some form.

This claim didn’t really make any sense to me. I can’t see any logical link between thinking the Earth is divine and believing in reincarnation. Reincarnation, in my opinion, goes way beyond Earth. Earth is not significant on the universal scale and I believe reincarnation is universal, not limited to Earthly life.

Taken from: Thea Sabin, ‘Wicca for Beginners’ (pp. 27-28).

Wiccans believe that the earth is a manifestation of deity. It is a tangible piece of the divine, particularly of the Goddess, who gives birth to all things and receive them again in death. Everywhere on earth is sacred space. Wiccans believe that there's divine energy in every corner of earth, so they focus on attuning and working with earth energies. This means understanding the cycles of the seasons, participating in these cycles through ritual and contact with the earth, and living within the flow of the earth's natural power rather than working against it.

Firstly, I must state that I do not view the earth as particularly divine in the sense that I do not see it as more divine than anything unearthly. I do, however, feel it does makes sense to focus on working with the earth's energy as it is more tangible to us than anything unearthly. The changes we seek to make in magical practice are, I presume, intended for earthly contexts and our own personal energies are clearly very closely entwined with Earth since we are earthly beings. In saying this, I do not believe we are limited to the Earth or even obliged to work with earthly energy. I personally plan to explore the energies Earth and fay beyond.

Many Wiccans believe that a significant part of their spiritual path is taking care of the Earth, whether that is through everyday actions or larger efforts such as advocacy, policy, activism, etc. This idea stems from the premise of Earth being sacred and divine.

On an intellectual, political and moral basis, I am in support of caring for our planet. I am not sure if I personally feel it to be a grand spiritual or divine matter though. Existentially, I do not believe our planet is significant or particularly important on a universal scale (physically and spiritually) but I support environmentalism on premises such as doing our best to allow life to flourish, prevention of suffering, and so on. One way I might connect environmentalism to my spirituality is that I tend to feel more in touch with the universal energy when I am in natural settings, so protecting those natural settings could be significant for this spiritual connection. On the other hand, there is no reason I can think of that says I cannot connect to this same energy in man-made settings.

Taken from: Thea Sabin, ‘Wicca for Beginners’ (pp. 25-26)

Many Wiccans believe that there is a single great divine force, which they call “spirit” or “the divine”. It gives life to the universe, and it transcends gender, space and time. They also believe... that deity in its entirety is too large and abstract for humans to comprehend fully.

I am not sure that I believe in ‘divinity’ but I do feel that there is some form of universal force or energy which may be interpreted as ‘divine’. I see it as entirely natural - in fact, I think of it as the most fundamentally natural thing and that it pervades every aspect of the universe. In this sense, my belief and my interpretation of this statement are pantheistic in that they view everything as possessing or being linked to this ‘divine’, universal energy.

I see it as scientifically viable but also as scientifically unknowable in that we are not yet scientifically or intellectually developed enough to understand it (though it could be possible at a future time). But for the present moment, I too see this universal energy as incomprehensible to the human mind and so I share this fundamentally agnostic view. To be clear, this theory of universal energy is one I simply ‘feel’ to be possibly true; I make no claims of it as fact.

Wiccans believe that deity separates into aspects that humans can relate to. The first division is into male and female halves... The two main aspects of deity that Wiccans work with are simply called the God and the Goddess. They represent yang and yin, positive and negative, light and dark. Since they are two halves of the same whole, they are separate but never truly apart; they are connected by their polarity.

I am not sure of this approach. It might be that the only way we can begin to comprehend this universal force is by breaking it down into aspects familiar to us. While seeking to understand it through anthropomorphism seems reasonable to me, I do not necessarily see merit in making distinctions by gender or sex. I do feel some concern that this distinction may perpetuate traditional gender stereotypes. As an example, the Goddess seems to be heavily associated with fertility despite creation being dependent on the fertility of both a male and female. It is a topic of interest that I wish to research further before deciding whether I will incorporate it into my own practices’ or not.