Wiccans in Japan
- Thread starter avocado
- Start date
kireikoori
Sempai
- 3 Aug 2007
- 264
- 7
......................
No.
There are several definitions of cult, and we don't fit any of them.
I define a cult as any group that says it's a religion, but spends more than 50% of its total resources (time, money, and energy) trying to convert other people. If you spend more time trying to get others to worship than you do actually worshiping, what is going on here?
We don't spend anything trying to get anyone to convert. We know this path isn't for everyone. If you like the path you are on, and feel it's the right one for you, we are happy for you! Go for it!
CyberPatrol defines cult as "A closed society that is headed by a single individual where loyalty is demanded and leaving is punishable."
Most of our groups are not closed. Some are, largely because of the fear of misunderstanding and ignorance. But many of us have realized that only by opening our groups, and taking that risk, can we change misunderstanding and ignorance to understanding and knowledge. After all, it's just silly to expect someone to understand something they have never encountered, or heard the truth about.
Headed by a single individual! Ha! Just try it! We value our freedom and independence way too much for that, and we trust our own instincts. In his "Advanced Bonewits' Cult Danger Evaluation Frame" Isaac Bonewits lists as one of the danger points the disempowerment of the members of the group, as they hand over their will to the leader, allowing him to be responsible for their personal decisions. (The ABCDEF is excellent, by the way, but far too long to cover point by point here.) I think that is what CyberPatrol means. We believe in empowerment, not disempowerment, and feel that each of us is solely responsible for all of our personal decisions. Most of us feel, as I do, that no one can make us do anything. Anything we do, we have chosen to do ourselves. Even not choosing is a choice, really, and we are responsible for it.
As for leaving being punishable, well, I have always said that Pagan/Wiccan groups are a lot like Lava Lamps. They are constantly breaking apart, flowing, and coalescing in some other form. No one has ever been punished for simply leaving a group, as far as I know, although they may be sorely missed. In fact, we have a saying when one disagrees with the things the rest of the group has decided to do. We "vote with our feet." Leaving a group is a fine old tradition around here!
So, basically, we are about as far from a cult as you can get! We don't ever recruit, we don't have any national leaders to whom everyone owes loyalty at all, and people leave the group they are in all the time!
BrianLewis
先輩
- 27 Nov 2012
- 317
- 33
Perhaps a necromancer with a comment to make?
luckysnack
Registered
- 4 Sep 2018
- 2
- 0
wow ok there is tea in this thread. Damn I'm just here looking for other pagans to celebrate holidays with
- 21 May 2003
- 14,310
- 4,404
This thread is so old , they have probably all died and went to heaven , LOL. Are you a Marine stationed at Iwakuni ?
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luckysnack
Registered
- 4 Sep 2018
- 2
- 0
ah, nope. I'm a family member.
- 21 May 2003
- 14,310
- 4,404
Kami Nana
Registered
- 12 Mar 2018
- 6
- 0
I think you meant that they "went to the Summerland"?
I was always kinda curious about this topic as one that's interested in Pagan beliefs. This thread has been informative to read over it's (mostly dated) posts.
AceWinters
Registered
- 5 Mar 2020
- 1
- 0
I don't know if Wicca is practiced in Japan, and I wished for an answer to that question when I came here. I thought that perhaps Wicca might be practiced by the immigrant community in Japan. I now see that Wicca obviously is not practiced or even known of in Japan.
However, I see a lot of hate in some of the responses calling Wicca a "pseudo-religion" and other such hurtful slurs and mischaracterizations, so as a wiccan I would like to clarify Wiccan beliefs and the origin of Wicca to people who do not understand.
Wiccans believe broadly in two main dieties, a triple aspect goddess, and a sun god. Wiccans believe that the two deities also represent a combined whole, that permeates and composes all of existence. Wiccans believe that the various Pagan goddesses, gods, and kami worshipped throughout the world are local manifestations of the goddess and god. Wiccans believe that since the Goddess is so broad and all-encompassing, a person can call upon one or more specific names of the Goddess in prayer and ritual to better acheive the goal of the prayer or ritual. Such names and manifestations are usually chosen from the pagan dieties of a wiccan's current or ancestral homeland. Some people choose to simply use the terms Goddess and God.
The way wiccan rituals and prayers are conducted is intentionally de-standardized.
Each prayer and ritual is designed by the person or group conducting them based on a commonly recognized set of symbols as well as things and actions that have individual symbolic meaning. For example, colored candles can be used in a prayer or ritual that grant the prayer or ritual spiritual power coresponding to the symbolic meaning of the candle's color. Many other tools, materials, and ritual actions are used, each with their own symbolic meaning and purposes.
Each Wiccan is encouraged to learn and develop as many prayers, rituals, and symbols as they need, and this spiritual work is commonly referred to as "the craft." The collected work of each Wiccan is recorded in their own personal journal / manual called a "Book Of Shadows" or "Grimoire" sometimes in code. Wiccans sometimes gather in groups of no more than 13 (called covens) to practice our religion together, usually in a circle formation.
That, --broadly-- is what Wiccans believe in, and what the practice of Wicca looks like. I will now address the issue of Wicca's origin.
The archeologist Marija Gimbutas, who was also an expert in the fields of surviving ancient european customs and pre-christian mythology, discovered that Neolithic (stone age) peoples of a region she referred to as "Old Europe" were a peaceful, matri-focal society that worshipped either a broad pantheon of goddesses, or a single, multifaceted goddess figure. Then, a large group from a culture of militant peoples who worshiped a sun god invaded and conquered the area, leading to a sudden mixture of religious beliefs. The chauvinistic archeologist community of the 70's 80's and 90's refused to recognize the validity of her work, but in 2017 her biggest male critic released a lecture presenting new DNA evidence that proved Marija Gimbutas's work (namely her "Kurgan Hypothesis") to be correct, several years after her death in the 90's.
Dramas of archeological society aside, Gimbutas's work proves the existence of the core foundation of wiccan beliefs to be existent by AT LEAST the time period around 3000 BCE, a good 2,000 years before the existence of Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and eventually Abrahamic Religions such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
During all that time between the dawn of the beliefs that went on to form the foundation of what we know as modern Wicca, the practitioners of the ancient folk religion shared and merged certain elements with the different religions that rose and fell, represented in the Greco-Roman mythology of the newer gods overthrowing the ancient Earth-Mother and her Sun-God consort. Then, Rome changed its religion to Cristianity, giving birth to Roman Catholicism, and the Roman Empire eventually collapsed in a heap of corruption, failure to fund basic infrastructure, and invasion from Germanic barbarians. All that time, the common folk (mostly rural farmers) kept the old faith.
And then The Dark Ages came around, and with it came The Burning Times. The Burning Times is a period of time between around 900 CE an 1800 CE that makes the persecution of Christians in Japan look like a tea party. Anybody who was accused of or even suspected of possessing non-christian religion was tortured for a confession and the names of accomplices and then burned at the stake, among other gruesome execution methods. Giving a confession often did not save them from death, they were simply hanged instead of burned. Witch hunts wiped entire villages off the map. Estimates of the death toll range from 150,000 to over 9 million. Some people call it a "holocaust of women."
The reason Wicca doesn't look like other religions is that we had to adapt to survive. Our rituals and prayers are not standardized so that they could not be recognized. Our group size is limited to 13 so that one confession under torture didn't lead to 50 or more deaths.
This way of hiding was continued until the end of the burning times around the beginning of the 20th century. Practitioners of the old folk religions came together and pooled their knowledge in secret and formed the first standardised Wiccan covens, which went on to induct Gerald Gardner, who became the High Priest of his own coven and brought Wicca to the public in 1954.
The rest is a matter of public record. Students of Gardner went on to start their own covens and traditions (the Wiccan word for denominations), we entered politics to seek the repeal of the laws that allowed for witch trials, and we are now publicly recognized after four thousand years of existence.
So no, we are not a "50 year old pseudo-religion based on superstition" and I will hold myself back from speaking on all of the absurdities of Abrahamic religions such as Christianity.
I would much rather see a timeline comparison of Wiccan development with Shinto development in Japan, and diagrams of overlapping beliefs and shared symbols. As a Wiccan, Japan and Shinto is like a magical wonderland where nobody commited genocide against my people. (Lol it's like an irl Wiccan Wacanda)
However, I see a lot of hate in some of the responses calling Wicca a "pseudo-religion" and other such hurtful slurs and mischaracterizations, so as a wiccan I would like to clarify Wiccan beliefs and the origin of Wicca to people who do not understand.
Wiccans believe broadly in two main dieties, a triple aspect goddess, and a sun god. Wiccans believe that the two deities also represent a combined whole, that permeates and composes all of existence. Wiccans believe that the various Pagan goddesses, gods, and kami worshipped throughout the world are local manifestations of the goddess and god. Wiccans believe that since the Goddess is so broad and all-encompassing, a person can call upon one or more specific names of the Goddess in prayer and ritual to better acheive the goal of the prayer or ritual. Such names and manifestations are usually chosen from the pagan dieties of a wiccan's current or ancestral homeland. Some people choose to simply use the terms Goddess and God.
The way wiccan rituals and prayers are conducted is intentionally de-standardized.
Each prayer and ritual is designed by the person or group conducting them based on a commonly recognized set of symbols as well as things and actions that have individual symbolic meaning. For example, colored candles can be used in a prayer or ritual that grant the prayer or ritual spiritual power coresponding to the symbolic meaning of the candle's color. Many other tools, materials, and ritual actions are used, each with their own symbolic meaning and purposes.
Each Wiccan is encouraged to learn and develop as many prayers, rituals, and symbols as they need, and this spiritual work is commonly referred to as "the craft." The collected work of each Wiccan is recorded in their own personal journal / manual called a "Book Of Shadows" or "Grimoire" sometimes in code. Wiccans sometimes gather in groups of no more than 13 (called covens) to practice our religion together, usually in a circle formation.
That, --broadly-- is what Wiccans believe in, and what the practice of Wicca looks like. I will now address the issue of Wicca's origin.
The archeologist Marija Gimbutas, who was also an expert in the fields of surviving ancient european customs and pre-christian mythology, discovered that Neolithic (stone age) peoples of a region she referred to as "Old Europe" were a peaceful, matri-focal society that worshipped either a broad pantheon of goddesses, or a single, multifaceted goddess figure. Then, a large group from a culture of militant peoples who worshiped a sun god invaded and conquered the area, leading to a sudden mixture of religious beliefs. The chauvinistic archeologist community of the 70's 80's and 90's refused to recognize the validity of her work, but in 2017 her biggest male critic released a lecture presenting new DNA evidence that proved Marija Gimbutas's work (namely her "Kurgan Hypothesis") to be correct, several years after her death in the 90's.
Dramas of archeological society aside, Gimbutas's work proves the existence of the core foundation of wiccan beliefs to be existent by AT LEAST the time period around 3000 BCE, a good 2,000 years before the existence of Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and eventually Abrahamic Religions such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
During all that time between the dawn of the beliefs that went on to form the foundation of what we know as modern Wicca, the practitioners of the ancient folk religion shared and merged certain elements with the different religions that rose and fell, represented in the Greco-Roman mythology of the newer gods overthrowing the ancient Earth-Mother and her Sun-God consort. Then, Rome changed its religion to Cristianity, giving birth to Roman Catholicism, and the Roman Empire eventually collapsed in a heap of corruption, failure to fund basic infrastructure, and invasion from Germanic barbarians. All that time, the common folk (mostly rural farmers) kept the old faith.
And then The Dark Ages came around, and with it came The Burning Times. The Burning Times is a period of time between around 900 CE an 1800 CE that makes the persecution of Christians in Japan look like a tea party. Anybody who was accused of or even suspected of possessing non-christian religion was tortured for a confession and the names of accomplices and then burned at the stake, among other gruesome execution methods. Giving a confession often did not save them from death, they were simply hanged instead of burned. Witch hunts wiped entire villages off the map. Estimates of the death toll range from 150,000 to over 9 million. Some people call it a "holocaust of women."
The reason Wicca doesn't look like other religions is that we had to adapt to survive. Our rituals and prayers are not standardized so that they could not be recognized. Our group size is limited to 13 so that one confession under torture didn't lead to 50 or more deaths.
This way of hiding was continued until the end of the burning times around the beginning of the 20th century. Practitioners of the old folk religions came together and pooled their knowledge in secret and formed the first standardised Wiccan covens, which went on to induct Gerald Gardner, who became the High Priest of his own coven and brought Wicca to the public in 1954.
The rest is a matter of public record. Students of Gardner went on to start their own covens and traditions (the Wiccan word for denominations), we entered politics to seek the repeal of the laws that allowed for witch trials, and we are now publicly recognized after four thousand years of existence.
So no, we are not a "50 year old pseudo-religion based on superstition" and I will hold myself back from speaking on all of the absurdities of Abrahamic religions such as Christianity.
I would much rather see a timeline comparison of Wiccan development with Shinto development in Japan, and diagrams of overlapping beliefs and shared symbols. As a Wiccan, Japan and Shinto is like a magical wonderland where nobody commited genocide against my people. (Lol it's like an irl Wiccan Wacanda)
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