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Witchcraft Past and Present
A Principled Group of People
When most people think of spells they think of witches: and when most
people think of witches they think of gnarled old crones casting evil
spells. For centuries, writers, and later filmmakers and television
producers, perpetuated this view, although to be fair there were movies
such as The Witches of Eastwick and television series such as Bewitched
and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch that showed witches in a more light-
hearted manner.
To improve the witch’s image, in 1974, the American Council of Witches
set out to remedy this. The Chairman of the Council, Carl Llewellyn
Weschcke, drafted thirteen principles of Wiccan belief to define Wicca
and to help non-believers to realize that those who followed its ways
were far from the wicked witches of the popular imagination.
These principles are:
1
. We practise rites to attune ourselves with the natural rhythm of life
forces marked by the phases of the moon and seasonal quarters and
cross-quarters.
2
. We recognize that our intelligence gives us a unique responsibility
toward our environment. We seek to live in harmony with nature, in
ecological balance, offering fulfilment to life and consciousness
within an evolutionary concept.
3. We acknowledge a depth of power far greater than is apparent to the
average person. Because it is far greater, it is sometimes called
‘supernatural’ but we see it as lying within that which is naturally
potential to all.
4
. We conceive of the Creative Power in the Universe as manifesting
through polarity – as masculine and feminine – and that this
Creative Power lives in all people and functions through the
interaction of the masculine and feminine. We value neither above
the other, knowing each to be supportive of the other. We value sex
as pleasure, as the symbol and embodiment of life, and as one of the
sources of energies used in magical practice and religious worship.
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7
. We recognize both outer worlds and inner, psychological worlds and
see in the interaction of these two dimensions the basis for
paranormal phenomena and magical exercises. We neglect neither
dimension for the other, seeing both as necessary for our fulfilment.
. We do not recognize any authoritarian hierarchy, but do honour
those who teach, respect those who share their greater knowledge
and wisdom, and acknowledge those who have courageously given of
themselves in leadership.
. We see religion, magic and wisdom-in-living as being united in the
way one views the world and lives within it – a worldview and
philosophy of life that we identify as the Wiccan Way.
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