Wicca vs Satanism
The Big Lie

There are lots (and bad) information on the suposed relation between satanism and Wicca. In this page I'll try to make a brief account of some of the points that are commonly used to try to prove it, and also give reasons for why this is not true.

First, and basic to all the further development of my point, is this: all pagan religions have their roots in practices that predate christianity by centuries, and developed out of the area of influence of both christianity and judaism, which evolved primarily in the Middle East Area.

Second, satanism as a cult was developed as an antithesis of christianity, an antinomic judeo-christian heresy, where Satan is recognized as superior to Yahve/Jehova. It has several differnt versions, from the Satanists of the Church of Satan, followers of the teachings of LaVey and almost nihilists -and atheists-, to the "Devil Worshippers", or the people that form the Temple of Seth, or the Luciferians. There were attempts in the previous centuries to develop something similar, true, and there are documents that talk about "black masses" in France near the time of the Revolution, but this has little if anything in common with contemporary "satanism". But by definition, Satanism can't predate christianity, and even then, the developing of all the mythology about Satan. See, to be a satanist you need to start by acknowledging the judeo-christian God.

Satanism is, as their followers explain, a religion that glorifies ego, without any further moral barriers other than their own will. Let's note that for christianity, Satan's main sin was pride (to consider himself equal to his creator). They use the inverted pentagram (five pointed star) as the representation of Satan's head with it's horns, ears and beard, or also the inverted christian cross. The Pentagran is a symbol widely used in ocultism. On it's upside, it symbolizes the spirit imposing over matter... this can be well seen if we inscribe a human figure inside. Upside down, this supremacy of the spirit is lost and the senses rule, being this another symbolism satanists use. Among Wiccan, we use the Pentacle, being it a five pointed star inscribed inside a circle. It symbolized the five elements of nature: fire, air, water and earth, with the fifth element -that is, spirit- located on the upper point.

I'll check now some points that lead to confusion. I must make myself clear in that all these points were taken from other pages, plainly fundamentalists, that I won't bother to link to, for two main reasons. One is to prevent giving any space on my page to any such show of hostility and intolerance, the other is to avoid giving them any kind of publicity, not even negative one.

Lie Nro. 1: The Wiccan Rede is Satanic
The main excuse those who state this give, is a suposed version of the Rede that states "Do what thou wilt" and equal this to the lack of acknowledgement of a sacred, higher law. They also relate it with Aleister Crowley, who was called "the more perverse man of his time". This is not only not true, but also maliciously distorted. The cited bit belongs to Crowley, yes, but is taken out of context, and has little to do with what some fundamentalist groups want it to say. You can find a version of the Rede in this pages, and anyone who cares enough to read it can say it's far from the afirmation of the ego which is "Do what thou wilt" without any adition. A shorter version of the Rede is "Ain it harm no one, do what thou wilt" and some add "Except in thine own defence it be". This sets a moral stop quite important, which doesn't exist in the suposed version given by the fundamentalists. This is plainly, to descontextualize a sentence and chop it, devoiding it of it's original meaning.

Lie Nro. 2: The witches (wicca) perform human sacrifices
The truth is there are accounts, taken mainly from Julius Cesar's "Gaelic Wars" describing human sacrifices done by the Druids. Inmediately stating that those sacrifices were only done when in times of great need or calamities, being the victims voluntaries and/or criminals. And even this is doubted by some schollars, considering it an ancient version of war propaganda trying to show the enemy as evil. This is a discontinued practice, not valid today at all. Anyone performing a human sacrifice nowadays is not wicca, nor satanist: is a criminal, and whom you can only relate to Wicca in the same way you can relate Charles Manson or Dave Koresh to the main body of christianity. Let's tell the truth then: wiccan neither kidnap people to sacrifice, nor eat raw children as many seem to think. ;).

Lie Nr. 3: Halloween is the biggest feast among satan worshiper witches and druids, and use it to sacrifice innocent children
Samhain in the northern hemisphere is the origin of today's Halloween, and is also the Wiccan New Year. It's a feast to pay respects to the dead, and honour their memories by celebrations, very similar to the mexican "Dia de los Muertos", celebrated on a close date. For a start, it's been centuries since the druids made their last ritual human sacrifice, if they ever did. Second, druids are obviously not satan worshipers. It's possible that Satanists hold feasts on this day, but their main feast day to a Satanist is the day of his birthday.

Lie Nr. 4: Wicca is a religion that was only created a century or so ago, then it's just another one of Satan's lies to take more souls.
Gardnerian tradition among Wiccan was established during the '60s, following the abolition of the laws against witchcraft, allowing wiccan praticioners to show openly without fearing jail or death. Many of the other traditions were handled among the families for centuries and in the dark, fearing torture or oprobium would come on them if they admited themselves as witches. Other branches of paganism, like shammanism or the Asatru religion have survived without much problem with the law, and predate christianity for centuries. And in any case, the practices in which we based our celebration are ancient indeed, as any anthropologist could testify.
Note: there is a book promoted on some sites promising to tell "All of Satan's deceivings in Wicca". This book, according to the information given on it, was writen by someone who claims to have been ordered High Priest of a coven around six months after being admited into it. As I explain in "Studying", to be initiated you're usually asked for a year and a day in service taken from the moment you bid so, to give the future wicca time enough to meditate and be really sure of his wishes, and also to build the trust on the newly come. And even then, you need years of learning before someone anoints you as High Priest/ess. It's plain to see the origins of this book are more than dubious, and nothing someone really informed can take seriously, yet in the wrong hands it could well be an erroneuos source of information.

Pagans tend to take all this acusations as yet another source for a good chuckle, as most of them show a knowledge of Wicca and Satanism very close to a B Movie, and not even the cult ones. We tend to laugh at them, true, as long as it doesn't spread and starts affecting us on our daily life and turn into a source of discrimination.
Whoever says any of the things stated above, is either ignorant or malicious. Still, it's nothing that surprising... after all, this ignorant attitude was the one that condemmed thousands of innocents to the stake. Something many seem to miss and try to revive with all their "alerts" and discriminative or plainly difamatory attitudes.

This is the reason why I decided to remark the grossest mistakes, looking forwards to giving battle to the ignorance manifested in the acusations made, and with the secret wish that bringing the truth into light helps for a better convivence between both religions.

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