Attitude Of The Religion To The Witchcraft In America Essay

Attitude Of The Religion To The Witchcraft In America - Essay Example Their research strategy was multi-staged with the intended goal to find out who the members of Ravenwood are, what they believe and what they did as witches, and what this all meant to them being members of this group on a larger scale. Wicca has one important difference with most mainstream religions, it has a, â€Å"†¦woman-centered, goddess-worshipping, nature-affirming, participative, this-worldly-orientated religion.† (69) This is often the polar opposite of religions that picture God as the all-powerful Male and mankind as his representative on earth with the ability to use nature as he pleases. Their research bore this alternative attitude out among the witches of Ravenwood. While we see the typical God as separate from creation and man certainly quite separate from God, Wicca is the opposite. The set of images in Wicca are not the male, assertive, dominating ones, but rather the female, regenerative, creative ones of the goddess. Also, another important difference is how the goddess is represented in multiple personas. Whereas God is just God, the goddess can be seen, â€Å"†¦through many mythic threads through a range of guises as maid, mother, crone, as creator, nurturer, destroyer, as the daughter, wife,†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (72) and so on. Here instead of God being separate from nature, the goddess is a part of nature. She is found, â€Å"†¦ in the paths of the stars and the changes of the moon, in rabbit-tracks in the snow, in the ceaseless run and turn of the tides. The goddess is in the world, in nature, rather than separate from the world.† (73) Furthermore, instead of their only being a few selected ones, such as the priest, who can commune directly with God, in Wicca every initiate, every member is a priest or priestess who can commune directly with the goddess. There is no need for an intermediary here. The authors feel that the view of Witchcraft in the overall aspect of the sociology of Religion has too narrow a view placed upon it by researchers. Wicca creates a