labels?

[Silverm00n]

So what do you call yourself? Let's talk "labels." Do you refer to yourself as a witch, wiccan, pagan, or undecided...?

I'm an eclectic witch with shamanic & wiccan influence, for now. :)

[DarkFairy]

This is weird! I was thinking of this exact topic last night but didn't get it on the site. I was wondering what was the difference really? Ok so pagans are considered to just be nature worshippers basically and calling on the elements. Witches/Wiccans to me are the same thing. I just can't see the difference. Personally I use all the terms depending on who I am talking to I guess. Saying "I am a Witch" to someone wwho isn't too enlightened can be bad. Saying "I am Wiccan" or "Pagan" seems to lessen the blow for some reason. I don't know maybe I am wrong for doing this because I really consider myself to be a Witch. aneclectic one at that. I incorporate Egyptian symbols and deities. Yet I also have a connection with Celtic symbols as well.

[Silverm00n]

Even though it may not seem like it, there are differences, some could even get offended if called a wiccan. To me it's no big deal as I'm an eclectic too so I encorporate whatever suits me into my practice. However lets get down to some definitions. The following are from wikipedia:

Wicca is a Neopagan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neopaganism) religion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion) and a religious movement (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_religious_movement) found in many different countries. It was first publicised in 1954 by a British (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom) civil servant named Gerald Gardner (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Gardner)[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicca#_note-WitchcraftToday) after the British Witchcraft Act (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witchcraft_Act) was repealed. He claimed that the religion, of which he was an initiate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initiation), was a modern survival of an old witch (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witchcraft) cult, which had existed in secret for hundreds of years, originating in the pre-Christian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity) Paganism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paganism) of Europe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe). Wicca is thus sometimes referred to as the Old Religion. The veracity of Gardner's claims cannot be independently proven, and it is thought that Wiccan theology began to be compiled no earlier than the 1920s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1920). Various related Wiccan traditions (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditions) have since evolved, or been adapted from, the form established by Gardner, which came to be called Gardnerian Wicca (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gardnerian_Wicca). These other traditions of Wicca each have distinctive beliefs, rituals, and practices. Many traditions of Wicca remain secretive and require that members be initiated. There is also a movement of Eclectic or Solitary Wiccans who do not believe that any doctrine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctrine) or traditional initiation is necessary in order to practice Wicca.


Paganism (from Latin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin) paganus, meaning "a country dweller" or "civilian") is a term which, from a western perspective, has come to connote a broad set of spiritual (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritualism) or religious (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion) beliefs and practices of natural or polytheistic religions. The term can be defined broadly, to encompass many or most of the faith traditions outside the Abrahamic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abrahamic) monotheistic group of Judaism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judaism), Christianity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity), and Islam (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam). "Pagan" is the usual translation of the Islamic term mushrik (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mushrik), which refers to 'one who worships something other than The God of Abraham (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham)'. Ethnologists (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnologists) avoid the term "paganism," with its uncertain and varied meanings, in referring to traditional or historic faiths, preferring more precise categories such as shamanism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamanism), polytheism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytheism) or animism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animism). The term is also used to describe earth-based Native American (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_peoples_of_the_Americas) religions and mythologies, though few Native Americans call themselves or their cultures "pagan". Historically, the term "pagan" has usually had pejorative (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pejorative) connotations among westerners, comparable to heathen, infidel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infidel) and kafir (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kafir) (كافر) in Islam. In modern times, though, the words "pagan" or "paganism" have become widely and openly used by some practioners of certain spiritual paths outside the Abrahamic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abrahamic_religion) and Dharmic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharmic_religions) religious mainstream to describe their beliefs, practices, and organized movements.


In a nutshell, some say that Gerald Gardner was the founder of wicca, others say he was a founder of a religion that evolved and branched into other religions after his time, such as Alexandrian and Seax, etc. Also wicca has some ethics that do not apply to paganism, such as the 3 fold law and the crede. ~HTH

[pinkgirl02]

Since I'm just learning about all of this, I can't really call myself anything but "undecided". I haven't actually practiced anything as I'm still learning so I don't feel right calling myself Wiccan or a Witch.