Wicca and The Circle of the Silver Vale
Anna C. Smith
Palomar College
Explanation of Wicca
Wicca, while quite young compared to most religions, is “…based on ancient Witchcraft…”(The Celtic Connection, wicca.com), and contains “…some old esoteric knowledge…” such as “…Eastern mysticism, Kabballah, and British legend…”(Wigington, 2014). According to an informant, Witchcraft is separate from Wicca in that it simply “involves using herbs, tonics, etc. to cast spells, without being involved in the religion [of Wiccam, and] Witches don't necessarily acknowledge the full moons and the Sabbots”. Witchcraft and Wicca do however, share at least one thing in common, in that they are both centered around taking care of the Earthly environment and being one with nature, or as my informant put it, “respecting and worshiping the Earth; maintaining and protecting it and your body.”
The most recent form of Wicca was formed in England in the 1950’s by a man named Gerald Gardner, who claimed that in 1939 “…he was initiated into a Coven of the Old Religion that met in the New Forest area of Hampshire”(Phillips, 2004). Since then, a great many various Wiccan groups have been formed, but almost all of them adhere to a few uniting ideals and beliefs (Wigington, 2014).
Wiccans believe in a deity that encapsulates both “…masculine and feminine energies in itself” (Epriestess, Rob S, Elyne, nick and 34 others) and practitioners worship either a generic god and goddess or specific ones based on their particular pantheon or what they feel a personal affinity with. Wiccans often explain this practice by saying, essentially, that the singular god and goddess go by many different names and have many different “faces”, just like the many faces of a diamond, or the three-in-one trinity of the Christian god. Regardless of which deities are worshipped, a general theme throughout all of Wicca is to honor and respect the planet Earth, because according to their belief, “The Divine is present in nature… everything from animals and plants to trees and rocks are elements of the sacred” (Wigington, 2014).
Most important in all of Wicca, and one of the most basic concepts of the religion, (Epriestess, et al), is what has been called the Wiccan rede; “An it harm none, do as ye will”. While Wiccans acknowledge the fact that no one can realistically keep from ever harming any living thing (Epriestess, et al), this statement instructs practitioners basically to never go out of their way to harm anyone or anything. This rule goes hand in hand with another important and general principal of the Wiccan religion; the threefold rule, which says that “[w]hatever you do comes back to you threefold” (Epriestess, et al). For example, if a Wiccan chooses to do harm to someone, they will receive three times the amount of harm in return, which in effect, causes the Wiccan rede to be a law of self-preservation as well as for the general well-being of all.
Wiccans also believe in a sort of afterlife that they refer to as “the Summerlands”. According to my informant, this is a “personal interpretation of heaven” and “just a rest-stop because most wiccans believe in reincarnation”. She gave the example that someone who she knew loved Japanese culture, especially Geishas, and the color red, so her version of the Summerlands would be filled with all of those sorts of things.
According to my informant, it is possible for one to be what is known as a “solitary practitioner” of Wicca. This involves immersing oneself in the religion as much as possible by reading books, talking to other practitioners, studying on the internet, etc., while not belonging to a coven. When a person does decide to join a coven they must spend a year and a day studying, optionally through a specialized course, and going through all of the full and new moons and Sabbots. My informant stated that “the final day is to think about if the religion is really for you”. She went on to say that some people join “completely green” never having practiced, while “some people have years of experience, but want to get the formal training”.
The Wiccan calendar, which starts with Samhain (commonly referred to as Halloween by mainstream society) on October 31st, which is also known as “the witches new year”, includes eight Sabbots, which are the Wiccan high holy days. Two other Sabbots; Yule and Ostara, have been both Christianized and secularized as Christmas and Easter, respectively. The remaining five Sabbots are Imbolc in February, Beltaine in May, Midsummer in June, Lughnasadh in August, and Mabon in September.
Background of The Circle of the Silver Vale
The main informant for this research project was a woman by the name of LaRay Gillison, who is an ordained minister and one of the leaders of her Wiccan coven; The Circle of the Silver Vale. She told me that she was raised since childhood as a witch and did not discover Wicca until she was an adult. According to her, “Wicca is the religion side of [Witchcraft]”, involving things like “shrines, altars, [and] daily devotions”. LaRay told me that when she was a young adult all of these religious aspects were “foreign” to her, which caused her vast knowledge and understanding of the Wiccan religion at the time when I interviewed her, to be that much more impressive to me.
Based solely on my personal observations, LaRay seemed to be mainly of European descent and possibly in her late forties or early fifties. She lives in the San Diego area with her African American wife, their youngest daughter who recently gave birth, and their two roommates; a middle-aged heterosexual married couple who are members of The Circle of the Silver Vale. Also living in the home, and treated as members of the family, are five dogs; one Dalmatian and four small dogs including Chihuahuas. LaRay adopted two of the small dogs from an older relative who recently passed away, because the owner of the late relative’s home was not willing to care for the dogs properly in LaRay’s opinion, and she was not at all willing to let them suffer.
Prior to founding the coven, LaRay had been (and still is) involved in what she calls a “Goddess Circle”. This is a small group of women who get together at her house on a monthly basis and study and perform a ritual based on one of the many different goddesses that various Wiccans acknowledge in their practices. According to LaRay, she started the coven with two of the members of this original group.
LaRay considers Gaia, who is thought to be a goddess who created the Earth, to be her “main or matron mother” and “talk[s] to her about everything from hurting [her] thumb to having financial issues or trouble with [her] kids”. Her life indeed seemed to be quite centered around Gaia, as she said that she also “gives her offerings and talks to her first thing in the morning and all the time wherever [she is]”. LaRay even went on to say that others have told her that when she talks about Gaia “too much” it feels as if there is a very large presence in the room, or as if “the room gets crowded”.
The Coven from the Members’ Point of View
LaRay described five specific members of the coven to me: Two males and three females. She said that “all of the members have individual personalities, and all are considered family”. According to her, one of the male members is “the joker of the group”, who constantly keeps everyone laughing, and the other male member she fondly refers to as the “zen master”, being that he is a former Buddhist, and according to LaRay, “hugging him makes you feel ultra-relaxed”. She described one of the female members as the “stern, commander/mother hen” who “tells it like it is”. Again, based solely on my personal observations, it was my impression that this member was LaRay’s female roommate, as I witnessed her one day keeping LaRay accountable for things like eating enough and taking a nap, in order to have enough energy for that evening’s Goddess Circle. LaRay described the other two female members as someone who “does not care [and] loves the world” and a “seamstress [and] fixer”, respectively.
I spoke briefly with two of these female members. LaRay’s roommate shared with me that she believes herself to be what she calls “an empath”; that is, she experiences others’ emotions along with them, and sometimes sees pictures in her mind that she believes to be representative of their thoughts. This same woman stated that all of the members of The Circle of the Silver Vale “radiate love, joy and positive energy”. The other female member who I spoke to told me that all of the members are “broken” in some way, in that they all have “an issue they are dealing with”. She went on to say that all of the members are “open-minded, respectful and accepting”, though they are “not perfect” and there are sometimes “personality conflicts” between them.
I soon understood what had been meant by the coven member who said that everyone in the coven was “broken” in some way when individual members began to share some personal stories. One member shared that she was a recovering narcotics abuser and current member of Narcotics Anonymous, and another shared some horrifying details about how she was brutally abused by her own parents when she was just a teenager. LaRay herself shared that she was dealing with some serious physical health issues.
LaRay also shared with me some details on how her personal life, in my own words, seems to be very centered on her religious beliefs and her practice of Witchcraft. She explained that in her day to day life she tries to make as little waste as possible; for example she never buys or uses things like paper plates or plastic beverage containers. LaRay has an online business selling organic bath and body and other household products that she makes herself from scratch. She described this not simply as a way to support herself financially but as her “way of giving back to the Earth.” In addition, LaRay practices something called Reiki energy healing and what she referred to as “massage healing.”
I spoke briefly to LaRay and two other coven members about how their religious beliefs and/or practice of Witchcraft had affected the way in which they had raised or currently were raising their children, if at all. LaRay told me that she and her wife “hid their religion from the children until they were grown” because they thought that “having lesbian and bi-racial parents was enough for the kids to deal with already.” She added that they had pretty much let their kids choose things like what they wanted to watch and listen to when they were growing up as long as it involved nothing “harmful”, such as drugs, alcohol, or R-rated movies. Another member of the coven who follows some of the traditional practices of her culture, said that her religious beliefs did not affect the way that she raised her children at all, and said something along the lines of “as long as they don’t burn me at the stake, I don’t care.” She added that the only personal belief of hers that affects her children is that she requires her sons to go through “rites of passage” such as getting, if my memory serves me correctly, their first piercing and tattoo at specific ages during their teen years. The third and final member who I asked about child rearing said that she did not begin practicing Wicca or Witchcraft until her children were already adults.
The Coven from Outsiders’ Perspectives
When I asked LaRay what type of reactions she had gotten in the past from people outside of the pagan community when they learned that she was involved in Wicca and Witchcraft, she told me this:
“If you have negative energy in yourself about what you do, or you try to hide it, people will have a tendency to pick at it.”
She said that she used to get negative reactions, but that that did not really happen anymore. I asked another member this same question and she said that she did not share her beliefs with non-pagans, so no one really knew that she was a member of a Wiccan coven.
I asked a few people who are close to me and not practitioners of Wicca or Witchcraft to comment on some of the data I had gathered about these practices, LaRay’s personal practice, and her descriptions of the other coven members. My 28 year old sister who relatively recently came out as a lesbian, leans towards the democratic side of the political spectrum, and said that she does not “subscribe to one religion, but, [is] very open spiritually,” had some quite positive things to say. The same went for her girlfriend who recently turned 30, “do[es] not follow a specific political party, [but] despise[s] injustice and inequality,” and stated that she does “not believe in a specific “god” yet believe[s] there is a universal force/energy that governs all.” Both women described LaRay as sounding “open-minded,” and my sister expressed that she also seems friendly and that she appreciated “how [LaRay] never pressured her children to conform to her way of thinking.” My sister’s girlfriend had this to add about LaRay:
“An extremely… devoted woman. Someone who is educated in other religions yet finds a “calling” to Wicca. Cares about the earth and giving back to humanity. Expresses freedom and individuality.”
The final person I received comments from was my boyfriend’s mother; a woman of about 60 years of age, and a long time established Republican and follower of evangelical protestant Christianity, who had less favorable but not completely negative things to say. About the coven members she said, “nice mix of personalities, similar to any club or organization.” When she read LaRay’s comments saying that “Christians see devils as having horns, clef feet, and a tail… Christians or other outsiders see the majority of the [pagan] gods who have horns (to show bravery, etc.) or Poseidon with his pitchfork and think they are satanic,” my boyfriend’s
mother’s response was to disagree and say that “Christians’ do not believe this.” Her summarizing comments on all of the data that I shared with her were this:
“Sounds like a Christian knock-off; female dominated instead of male dominated. Created an atmosphere where they would be accepted, not condemned.”
I personally had the privilege of observing and joining in Wiccan religious ceremonies on two separate occasions throughout the course of my research, and my own impressions were generally very positive. Specifically, I attended one meeting of LaRay’s goddess circle, and the second half of the coven’s Ostara festival, as I unfortunately got there late. I found some aspects of both events to be somewhat similar to certain practices I was familiar with from being raised as an evangelical protestant Christian, such as prayer, the giving of an offering, and the taking of communion. Something that seemed more unique and also appealing to me during the goddess circle, was the use of candles and a miniature cauldron to burn slips of paper on which we had written descriptions of certain problems we were dealing with in our lives. When I attended the Ostara festival, I really enjoyed the diversity in the group of people who consisted of various forms of pagans. Several members were wearing robes that depicted different cultures or eras throughout history. Something unique to me about that experience was that I was required to be “cut in and out” of the circle of people, which meant that one of the senior members had to draw a sort of doorway in the air in front of me and symbolically “open” it before I could join or exit the circle.
Conclusion
All in all, the process of my research and of writing this paper was a very enjoyable, educational, and somewhat life changing experience for me. Wicca and paganism in general seem to be practices based on open-mindedness and acceptance, which I appreciate and respect greatly. It was a pleasure to interact with members of The Circle of the Silver Vale as well, as they were all very warm, friendly and helpful people in my experience. I have nothing negative to say about any of my research findings for this project, and with that I conclude this paper.
References
Celtic Connection, The. What is Wicca.
In Wicca and Witchcraft Information Index
Retrieved from wicca.com/celtic/wicca/wicca.htm
Wigington, P. (© 2014). Basic Principles and Concepts of Wicca. About.com,
Religion & Spirituality, Paganism/Wicca. Retrieved from
paganwiccan.about.com/od/wiccaandpaganismbasics/p/Wiccan_Basics.htm
Phillips, J. (2004). History of Wicca In England: 1939 to the Present Day. G.B. Gardner.
Retrieved from www.geraldgardner.com/
Epriestess, S.R., E., N. & 34 others. (Accessed 2014) How to Become a Wiccan. In wikiHow
(Wicca) Retrieved from www.wikihow.com/Become-a-Wiccan#Contacting_the_God_and_Goddess
Spiritsong. (Accessed 2014, April 24). Wiccan Sabbots (Holidays).
[Weblog]. Retrieved from www.angelfire.com/in4/forever_with_friends/sabbots.htm