Wicca and paganism

I am a open and proud Wiccan. I have a coven that i meet with every monday.

this statement above is to clearly represent my set of opinions when it comes to the subject matter posted below


Throughout time. paganism has been the root of almost every main religion known to man. everything from baptism to burial rights have started out of some earth based religion.

my questions to my fellow syther's is why do people still fear Wicca and paganism and why do they discriminate accordingly

 

Because there are clauses in their religion made to make your religion seem evil. Also religions with smaller followings are seen as malicious cults.

s/o Argumentum ad populum

Basically your religion is no more real/fake than theirs.

 

People fear Wicca because the association that witchcraft is evil. Whether from actual verses in religious texts, or from the guiding of those who lead the institutions I am not sure. It is definitely something that is unique and I know very little about it and ignorance often breeds contempt.

Modern religions like to forgot how much of pagan religions they took & incorporated into their own. As you said, many rituals, dates (ex: Jesus's birthday & crucifixion), and from my understanding the celebration of Mary (don't hold me too that one).

From my understanding, when Christianity was being spread, "missionaries" would transfer ideologies of pagan religions of "barbaric" tribes into Christian ideologies. This provided a root for pagan religions to attach onto and also furthered the Christian religion into having all these rituals which were in reality just re-branding of pagan rituals.

 

Eh that's really a simplistic explanation for a cultural transition taking place over centuries. I mean, people seem to forget that the Alexandrian school of Christianity was writing in a way to persuade the Roman aristocracy in--hold on, let me get my source--210 AD (Clement of Alexandria's Exhortation to the Heathen), centuries after Christ "lived", that the Christians were not to be feared, were intelligent, and were adoptive of traditional beliefs--but from a monotheistic perspective. Clement literally alludes to and quotes the Iliad and the Odyssey, attempting to convey the grace of Christianity in reference to pagan beliefs. It wasn't a matter of trying to convert "barbarians", but of conveying elements of Christianity in a framework more accepting to the local populace.

For things like the similarities between Christmas and the Feast of Sol Invictus/Saturnalia, well, it was a gentle melding of traditional beliefs taken in a Christian context which created the parallels which many like to use to claim Christianity just stole holidays and traditions as a method of conversion. But you can't blame the Christians for associating the rebirth of Christ and the death of the proverbial light of humanity with the natural tendencies for agricultural communities to notice that, hey, the sun is out less and less and they don't know why, but suddenly at the solstice (the week of December 25 usually) the sun starts to come back and is "rebirthed."

But, yeah, in response to OP nobody really cares if you like to practise magic and believe certain stones contain powers or whatever. It's all bullshit but, like most religion, if it makes you feel better then who cares if you practise it. Doesn't hurt anyone.