Wiccan Covens

Lineaged Wicca is organized into covens of initiated priests and priestesses. Covens are autonomous, and are generally headed by a High Priest and a High Priestess working in partnership, being a couple who have each been through their first, second and third degrees of initiation. Occasionally the leaders of a coven are only second-degree initiates, in which case they come under the rule of the parent coven. Initiation and training of new priesthood is most often performed within a coven environment, but this is not a necessity, and a few initiated Wiccans are unaffiliated with any coven.

A commonly quoted Wiccan tradition holds that the ideal number of members for a coven is thirteen, though this is not held as a hard-and-fast rule. Indeed, many U.S. covens are far smaller, though the membership may be augmented by unaffiliated Wiccans at "open" rituals. When covens grow beyond their ideal number of members, they often split (or "hive") into multiple covens, yet remain connected as a group. A grouping of multiple covens is known as a grove in many traditions.

Initiation into a coven is traditionally preceded by a waiting period of at least a year and a day. A course of study may be set during this period. In some covens a "dedication" ceremony may be performed during this period, some time before the initiation proper, allowing the person to attend certain rituals on a probationary basis. Some solitary Wiccans also choose to study for a year and a day before their self-dedication to the religion.

Wiccan Calendar

Samhain aka Halloween:

• Northern Hemisphere- October 31
• Southern Hemisphere- 30 April, or May 1
• Death and the Ancestors

Yuletide:

• Northern Hemisphere- 21 or 22 December 
• Southern Hemisphere- 21 June
• Winter Solstice and rebirth of the Sun

Imbolc aka Candlemas:

• Northern Hemisphere- 1 or 2 February
• Southern Hemisphere- 1 August
• First signs of Spring

Ostara:

• Northern Hemisphere- 21 or 22 March
• Southern Hemisphere- 21 or 22 September
• Spring Equinox and the beginning of Spring

Beltaine or May Eve or May Day:

• Northern Hemisphere- 30 April or 1 May
• Southern Hemisphere- 1 November
• Full flowering of Spring/Fairy Folk

Litha:

• Northern Hemisphere- 21 or 22 June
• Southern Hemisphere- 21 December
• Summer Solstice

Lugnasadh aka Lammas:

• Northern Hemisphere- 1 or 2 August
• Southern Hemisphere- 1 February 
• Harvest of grain

Mabon aka Modron:

• Northern Hemisphere- 21 or 22 September
• Southern Hemisphere- 21 March
• Autumn Equinox/ Harvest of fruit

Wiccan Practices

There are many rituals within Wicca that are used when celebrating the Sabbats, worshipping the deities and working magic. Often these take place on a full moon, or in some cases a new moon, which is known as an Esbat. In typical rites, the coven or solitary assembles inside a ritually cast and purified magic circle. Casting the circle may involve the invocation of the "Guardians" of the cardinal points, alongside their respective classical elements; air, fire, water and earth. Once the circle is cast, a seasonal ritual may be performed, prayers to the God and Goddess are said, and spells are sometimes worked. These rites often include a special set of magical tools. These usually include a knife called an athame, a wand, a pentacle and a chalice, but other tools include a broomstick known as a besom, a cauldron, candles, incense and a curved blade known as a boline. An altar is usually present in the circle, on which ritual tools are placed and representations of the God and the Goddess may be displayed. Before entering the circle, some traditions fast for the day, and/or ritually bathe. After a ritual has finished, the God, Goddess and Guardians are thanked and the circle is closed.

A sensationalised aspect of Wicca, particularly in Gardnerian and Alexandrian Wicca, is the traditional practice of working in the nude, also known as skyclad. This practice seemingly derives from a line in Aradia, Charles Leland's supposed record of Italian witchcraft. Other traditions wear robes with cords tied around the waist or even normal street clothes. In certain traditions, ritualised sex magic is performed in the form of the Great Rite, whereby a High Priest and High Priestess invoke the God and Goddess to possess them before performing sexual intercourse to raise magical energy for use in spellwork. In some cases it is instead performed "in token", thereby merely symbolically, using the athame to symbolise the penis and the chalice to symbolize the vagina.

Wiccan Basics

Wiccan Laws:

"An it harm none, do what ye will"

The Threefold Return: Whatever benevolent or malevolent actions actions a person preforms will return to that person with triple force, or with equal force on each of the three levels of mind, body and spirit. 

Eight Virtues:

1. mirth
2. reverence
3. honor
4. humility
5. strength
6. beauty
7. power
8. compassion

Five Elements:

• Spirit- Center
• Air- East
• Earth- North
• Fire- South
• Water- West

The Wiccan "Bible" or holy scriptures is The Book Of Shadows. The Book Of Shadows is not a pre-written text like the Bible, but a personal compilation of spells, rituals, and other religious things that are either personally made/discovered or passed down from a mentor/coven.

Wicca is a religion that is centered on nature and magik (magic), using the energies of the heavenly bodies to preform rituals and spells in order to achieve a personal relationship with the Earth, and the Holy Mother (Triple Goddess). 

Horned God and Triple Godess

THE HORNED GOD

The Horned God has been explored within several psychological theories, and has become a recurrent theme in fantasy literature.The term Horned God itself predates Wicca, and is an early 20th century syncretic term for a horned or antlered anthropomorphic god with pseudohistorical origins who, according to Margaret Murray's 1921 The Witch-Cult in Western Europe, was the deity worshipped by a pan-European witchcraft-based cult, and was demonized into the form of the Devil by the Mediaeval Church. The Horned God is one of the two primary deities found in some neopagan religions. He is often given various names and epithets, and represents the male part of the religion's duotheistic theological system, the other part being the female Triple Goddess. In common Wiccan belief, he is associated with nature, wilderness, sexuality, hunting and the life cycle. Whilst depictions of the deity vary, he is always shown with either horns or antlers upon his head, often depicted as being theriocephalic, in this way emphasizing "the union of the divine and the animal", the latter of which includes humanity.

THE TRIPLE GODDESS

The "Holy Trinity" of Wicca represents the Triple Goddess. The Triple Goddess has been adopted by many neopagans (notably Wiccans) as one of their primary deities . The term triple goddess is infrequently used outside of Neopaganism to instead refer to historical goddess triads and single goddesses of three forms or aspects. In common Neopagan usage the three female figures are frequently described as the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone, each of which symbolises both a separate stage in the female life cycle and a phase of the moon, and often rules one of the realms of earth, underworld, and the heavens. These may or may not be perceived as aspects of a greater single divinity. The feminine part of Wicca's duotheistic theological system is sometimes portrayed as a Triple Goddess, her masculine counterpart being the Horned God.

Wiccan Religious Symbols

THE PENTAGRAM

TRIQUETRA

THE IRON TRINITY

THE SPIRAL GODDESS

HORNED GOD SYMBOL

History of Wicca

Wicca, is a modern pagan religion. Developed in England in the first half of the 20th century, Wicca was popularised in the 1950s and early 1960s by a retired British civil servant named Gerald Gardner, who at the time called it the "witch cult" and "witchcraft", and its adherents "the Wica". From the 1960s onward, the name of the religion was normalised to "Wicca".
There are many different theological positions within Wicca, such as monotheism, goddess worship (such as in Dianic Wicca), polytheism, and followers are encouraged to choose what they wish to seek, it being a form of mystery religion.