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by Anonymous on October 17th, 2004

Anonymous

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Is there a difference between Wicca and the occult?

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  • by Merry Walker on October 19th, 2004

    Merry Walker

    Wicca is a specific religion, recognized by such entities as the United States Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Defense, while "occult" is just a general term.

    As a word, "occult" simply means "hidden" or "concealed from view" and is sometimes used that way. (For instance, a doctor may order a test to determine if there is occult blood in a stool sample.) But somehow the word has come to refer to supernatural events or beings or even just "new age" practices in general. (This is perhaps because for so many generations such knowledge and practices were kept hidden to protect practitioners from persecution.)

    The specific religion Wicca is often defined as being a neo-pagan earth-centered religion. It is based more or less on a combination of ancient Celtic goddess worship and the more recent teachings of various authors and groups. There are a number of different churches and groups that lay claim to being Wiccan, but as with other denominations, there can be quite a range in what each organization believes and practices.

    Comments

    • pretty much occult=taboo=fun to explore and study about

      dddkitty

      by dddkitty on April 4th, 2005

    • Awesome answer!

      AntigoneRising

      by AntigoneRising on December 9th, 2005

    • Merry, your answer is correct except for one thing. Wicca is not remotely based on anything Celtic. The Celts had no concept of "Goddess", they had multiple male and female deities. The Celts were polytheists and Wiccans are duotheists. The Celts had an entirely different cosmology consisting of three levels: air, land, and sea. Wiccan cosmology is based on four directions. Celts did not use a directional cosmology. The Celts did not "call down" deities, Wiccans do. Celts did not draw circles, Wiccans do. Bottom line, absolutely nothing about Wicca was derived from the ancient Celts. Wicca is a compilation of Masonic and Golden Dawn/OTO ritual dating back no farther than the 19th century, the English Woodcraft Movement, and the Romantic Movement. It's entirely Anglo-Saxon in origin with not a drop of Celtic influence. Everything Celtic is now trendy and the Wiccans are trying to cash in by slapping a veneer of phony Celticism over a religion that has nothing to do with the Celts.

      Anonymous

      by Anonymous on September 15th, 2009

    • Anon, I agree with everything you have here except for the Triple Goddess (not the Wiccan one) of the Celts. I believe they are/were called the Morrigan. I may be wrong but if not that would give them a concept of "Goddess".

      hedge-rider

      by hedge-rider on September 18th, 2009

    • hedge-rider: The Celts did not have a Triple Goddess in the Wiccan sense, that is: one goddess with three aspects. All Celtic deities are separate individual deities.

      Anonymous

      by Anonymous on January 23rd, 2010

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