i'm been practicing wicca since before i could remember but my family is basically all full of santeria decendants , so i was just wondering do any of u out there have the same issue of being ridiculed by ur family for being in a separate religion but which use the same principles ?

Yes we do. Come over here. This thread used to be entitled "Wicca" when it very first started but now we have simply re-named it to be a little more inclusive. It’s been running for ages. Please feel free to stop by. We would love to have a few more Wiccans on thread participating to get their views.

http://mingle2.com/topic/show/191492

We originally had a thread named "Wiccans" started by Ruth34611.

In fact it was the very first thread of this Forum "Other Religions".

The thread made it to Part 4 before we decided to change the name of it to "Witchcraft and Shamanism".

We changed the name because none of us (including Ruth) were truly "Wiccans".

As I'm sure you know 'Wicca' is a formalized religion started by Gerald Gardner around 1940.

We recognized that none of us followed Gardner's Book of Shadows, and neither did any of us want to support 'organized religion' (including one based on witchcraft).

Although I don't speak for everyone. I do believe that Jill is studying 'Wicca' specifically. But you'd need to confirm that with her.

I've only recently become interested in witchcraft (actually because of books that were recommended to me by Ruth who has unfortunately just resigned from the forums).

I have an interest in both witchcraft and shamanism (two topics that I see as being seperate concepts, but clearly related in many ways) and I'm currently studying some of the books of Christopher Penczak.

The Inner Temple of Witchcraft
The Outer Tempte of Witchcraft
The Temple of Shamanic Witchcraft

I'm finding Penczak's presentation to be very flexible and useful for my purposes.

If someone held an athame to my throat and demanded that I confess my religion I'd probably say that I'm a Zen Buddhist Monk and a celebate one at that.

However, I've also been very nature oriented and witchcraft (as presented by Christopher Penczak) has much to offer with repect to nature.

I personally see the techniques of witchcraft and shamanism as great tools to future my progress on my Buddhist/Taoist path.

I also personally believe that historically the early Celtics actually were Eastern Mystic who were labeled "Witches" in the European arena. Mainly by the Christians.

So, from my point of view, witchcraft actually has its roots in Eastern Mysticism and is therefore just an expression of the Buddhist/Taoist concepts.

Anyway, everyone in this forum that has an interest in 'Wicca' or witchcraft in general has typically been posting in the 'Witchcraft and Shamanism' thread.

But there aren't many posters participating. In fact, Ruth was the main hostest, and she just left.

But Jeanniebean will be glad to try to attract you to "The Law of Attraction"

As for "True Wiccans", we haven't really seen many post. I think a lot of people don't want to publically confess that they are associated with witchcraft in a predominant Christian society where whitches are believed to have soul their soul to the devil.

And yes, many Christians still believe that stupid crap.

Anyway, welcome to the forums.

ive been studying wicca for 4 years now. and i must say that i feel very uncomfortable in some situations because of my religion. i live with my aunt who is a devout christian and she tells me many times a day how ive committed a cardinal sin by selling my soul to the devil. well let me tell anyone who wants to know up front--- wiccans are NOT devil worshippers!!!! our polytheistic religion [meaning a religion based on the worship of many gods/godesses] is alot like most pagans in the aspect that we have a great respect for mother earth and all her creatures. we go by basically one rule called the wiccan rede. it simply states that we must use the power we are given to do only good unto others and ourselves. and we believe in the law of 3 which states that any action or spell performed by a witch is returned to us threefold.

if anyone has any questions please feel free to ask...

Check out this thread.

http://mingle2.com/topic/show/191492