| Long rant, hope it helps. -
04-12-01
Unfortunately, that is the basis of Wicca. It's supposed to be an extremely open system... Basically, the exact prescints were lost or never written down. Wicca as a religion, is naturist paganism. They believe in 'deity', as two entities: God and the Goddess. The Goddess is the most important of the two in almost exactly the same way that an egg is more important than the sperm. The Goddess is the whole world and everything in it, and the God is the catalyst that allows it to renew itself, a facilitator. Despite what they may say, any Wiccan that disproves these facts is effectively a Pagan (but that isn't a problem since Wiccanism is, by nature, willing to compromise). They believe in a code of conduct known as the Rede, which emphasized doing good in a form of non aggression command: "An harm ye not, Do what ye will" Meaning that, provided it will harm nothing (including self and, often, living matter other than humanity), you are allowed to do whatever you want. This is far more restricting than it sounds due to the familiar 'freedom of act' argument (Your freedom stretches only until it clashes with mine, with however many billion people on earth, total freedom is very restrictive). The second part of the Rede is known as the 'Threefold law' and effectively counts as an inscentive to do good: The basis is that Anything you do comes back to haunt you multiplied by three, since this is good or bad things, it is clearly in your advantage to do good.
As a form of prayer, the wiccan people cast cantrips, or "spells" to achieve special effects. In theurgic terms, this differs from prayer in that it is a direct request instead of an indirect one (Prayer asks for an effect, Magicks take it). Unfortunately, Wiccan magick is largely based on willpower and belief, meaning that most neonates are left conjuring smells for the rest of their lives (You have to emphatically know that the cantrip will work).
The biggest problem, by far, is that the wiccan religion holds very little structure. Since it is by nature a loner's faith, only small convents survive and these have no administrative power. The result is a large tendency to developing cult religions, veering from the core idea (such as northern faiths and the likes). There are a lot of very different people out there who (arguably legitimately) call themselves Wiccans. I suspect that the original Wiccans revered Life energy rather than a deity of kind.
Hope that helped a bit Dark Messiah. So long...
p.s. They hold a variation on the christian Mass reffered to as a Circle cast. I won't explains the specifics, but the idea is flawed due to a need for multiple participants. I suspect that the circles used to be kept for powerful cantrips requiring an alliance of powers. Since Wicca is a lone faith, it is more than likely that it developed along an apprentice system (elder teaches replacement, then dies to leave her/his place to the neonate). It is unclear whether Wicca was open to male followers (since the female energies held more power, it is not inconceivable that it was not), but it largely is these days. Refferences to 'Warlocks' in the scriptures could just as likely be speaking of early theurgists. A warlock is (usually) not accepted to be the term for a male witch. Technically, Wicce and wicca are the proper terms (wicce being the masculine).
[Edited by Broken Halo on 04-12-01 at 10:48 PM]
"-You are mortal: it is the mortal way. You attend the funeral, you bid the dead farewell.
You grieve. Then you continue with your life.
And at times the fact of her absence will hit you like a blow to the chest, and you will weep. But this will happen less and less as time goes on.
She is dead.
You are alive.
So live."
- Dream to his son Orpheus, in Brief Lives | 
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