GLOSSARY
WICCA -Wicca is a nature-based Pagan religion focused on the worship of the Mother Goddess and Her consort and the observance of the cycles of Nature and the Universe. Wicca is highly eclectic, drawing from many sources both in its origin and in contemporary practice. Wicca also acknowledges and seeks to develop the higher powers of the soul, through the practice of magic.
CORRELLIAN WICCA -Correllianism is highly philosophical and syncretic in its views, believing that Deity comes to the individual from within, and that religion exists to help that process, not to replace it. Correllianism believes that all of the indigenous, or “Pagan”, religions of the world are equally worthy and share fundamental concepts which are universal in nature, while manifesting external differences appropriate to their respective cultural origins, and that Pagan religions must stand together and acknowledge each others worth. In previous years Correllian Wicca was called Nativist Wicca, and it is still formally termed Correllian Nativist Wicca.
TRIPLE GODDESS -The three forms of the Triple Goddess reflect the three phases of the Moon. Maiden (Waxing Moon), Mother (Full Moon), and Crone (Waning Moon). The Triple Goddess is the form of the Mother Goddess most often found in Wicca and underlying most Wiccan thought. Her symbol is the Moon, and She is also represented by the Earth itself (often spoken of as Her body), by the sea, or by the whole of the Universe. Her spirit suffuses all things.
THE GOD -Consort of the Goddess, the God is represented by the Sun, and is Lord of the cycles of life. He is seen as the God of vegetation and of the forests, but also as Lord of animals. He is represented as dying and being reborn each year in cycle with the seasons.
POLARITIES -The concept of Polarity is the idea that the Universe is held in balance by the interaction of two equal but opposite forces. These are variously described as Darkness and Light, Spirit and Matter, Yin and Yang, Goddess and God. Everything which exists is made up of both these qualities to varying degrees.
DO AS YOU WILL, BUT HARM NONE -The Wiccan Rede, considered the oldest and most sacred Wiccan “Law.” Many Traditions have “Laws” or rules of their own, but the Wiccan Rede is the only one that most all Traditions agree on. All Traditions do not however agree on the exact meaning of the word “harm.”
WICCAN TRADITIONS -“Tradition” in the Wiccan religion is the term used to describe an individual denomination, as distinct from others. There are many Wiccan Traditions including the Gardnerian Tradition, the Alexandrian Tradition, the Seax-Wicca Tradition, the North Wind Tradition, the Blackstone Tradition, the Lothlorien Tradition, to name just a few of the larger ones. There are also many small Traditions. All are equally worthy and all, in theory at least, respect each other equally. As membership in any Wiccan Tradition is wholly voluntary, it is never appropriate for members of one Tradition to “pass judgment” upon the practices of another Tradition, except in regard to whether a given practice is the right for oneself as an individual.
SYNCRETIC -Syncretism is the likening of disparate ideas in the belief that they express a common truth. In religion syncretism is the idea that the different religions of the world all reflect the same basic truths, in differing ways –and that these differences are essentially external rather than integral to the true meaning of religion. Syncretism is a dominant aspect of historic and contemporary Pagan religions. The hallmark of syncretism is the likening of Deities from one area to Deities from another. Thus at the dawn of human history the Egyptians likened the southern Amon to the northern Ra, seeing them as the same Deity. Similarly the Egyptians likened Ptah, Seker, and Osiris, seeing them as one –a practice which extended throughout Egyptian religion. Much later the Romans likened the Celtic Cernunnos and Secullos, the Germanic Odin, and their own Mercury –seeing them all as one Deity. The highest expression of syncretism in the ancient world was the worship of the Goddess Isis, which in later periods taught that all Deities were expressions of the same Divine power, expressed as polarities –but this was by no means an exclusively Isiac view. The short-lived Priest Emperor Elagabalus created the most concrete example of syncretism in the form of his Elagabalium, a Temple raised to all Gods as One.
IMPERIUM -”Imperium” refers to those things which are under one’s direct power or which fall in one’s natural sphere of influence. Thus the imperium of an Astrologer includes subjects related to the stars and their influences, while the imperium of an herbalist would have to do with the medicinal and magical uses of plants. The term is of particular importance to offices which one might hold, where it makes reference to one’s sphere of authority.