Wiccan Circles and the Divine Feminine: Honoring Goddess Energies in Ritual and Practice

Wiccan Circles Near Me If you are interested in exploring Wicca or are already a practitioner looking for a community, finding Wiccan circles near you can be a great way to connect with fellow witches and enhance your spiritual journey. Wiccan circles, also known as covens, are gatherings of Wiccan practitioners who come together to celebrate, perform rituals, and share their knowledge and experiences. **The main idea is to find Wiccan circles near you to enhance your spiritual journey.** Wicca is a modern pagan, witchcraft religion that revolves around the worship of nature and the practice of magic. It embraces the belief in the divine presence within nature and utilizes rituals, spells, and ceremonies to connect with this divine energy. While Wicca can be practiced on an individual level, joining a Wiccan circle allows for a deeper sense of community and shared experiences.

While Wicca can be practiced on an individual level, joining a Wiccan circle allows for a deeper sense of community and shared experiences. **The main idea is that Wicca is a modern pagan, witchcraft religion that embraces the belief in the divine presence within nature and utilizes rituals to connect with this energy.** Finding Wiccan circles near you can be done through various avenues.

The Pagan World: Ancient Religions before Christianity: Course Guidebook (Chantilly, VA: Wondrium / The Teaching Company / The Great Courses, 2020)

Guidebook to accompany 24 video lecture course: .

Related Papers

The decipherment of the Indus Script shows the Vedic PutrakameshTi Yaaga as the basis of the sacrificial rituals of major world religions like Buddhism, Jainism, Judaism, Christianity etc.There is only one god,the sun,but the sages call him by different names RV.1.164.46 The “suparno/winged garutman” is Indra/ Garuda/ Horus/Vishnu/Visva/mitra/putra/varsha/Herod,Christ etc.Yajna -sacrifice is samaya-time and tanaya-putra-son. Soma pavamaana is birth of the sun/son. The Exodus from Egypt/The Passover of Israel is the Vernal Equinox. Augustus Caesar as “son of god”/Putra/Soter,is the Christ of the Bible. The true source of Roman Mithraic Mysteries is traced to Rgvedic Visvamitra cult of Hinduism.

The decipherment of the Indus Script shows the Vedic PutrakameshTi Yaaga as the basis for the sacrificial rituals of major world religions like Buddhism, Jainism, Judaism, Christianity etc.There is only one god,the sun,but the sages call him by different names RV.1.164.46 The “suparno/winged garutman ” is Indra/ Garuda/ Horus/Vishnu/ Visva/mitra/putra/ varsha/ Herod,Christ etc.Yajna -sacrifice is samaya-time and tanaya-putra-son. Soma pavamaana is birth of the sun/son. The Exodus from Egypt/The Passover of Israel is the Vernal Equinox. Augustus Caesar as “son of god”/Putra/Soter/X-aviour,is the Christ of the Bible. The true source of Roman Mithraic Mysteries is traced to Rgvedic Visvamitra cult of Hinduism.Vedic Caitra(siras/siirsha/rosh-head) Varsha(hashana) sacrifice(Daksha Yaaga/Asvamedha/Dasarajna/PutrakameshTi) is the basis for Rosh(head, Caitra/ siirsha/ Caesar/Christ) HashaNa(haayana/varsha/year) and the Julian(suurya-sun-son-savana-sacrifice)/Christian Year and suurya(varsha-Putra) medha(mass-sacrifice) or Holy Mass.

The Roman imperial cults (i.e., emperor worship) were the product of the Augustan cultural revolution, reflecting the ideas, ideals, and values of the Augustan age, and as such, were not normatively tools of ideological propaganda and political loyalty but a means of subject-ruler interaction and exchange that early Christian communities could partake in, as long as the cults were not abused as tools of oppression and conformity.

From the beginning of the Principate, Roman emperors and those who sought favor with them used the attributes and imagery of divinity to express their power and divine sanction. This thesis examines the transition from the assimilation of the Roman emperor to pagan deities to the Christian context. It aims to show that the early Christians set a precedent of adapting Christ's image to pagan attributes that allowed Constantine to slowly manipulate the joint image of Sol Invictus and himself to Christ. Ms. Wright argues that by controlling the style, costumes, and, often times, the placement of these images, the emperor used differing images of Christ to politically enforce his own agenda and ensure that the citizens saw the emperor as, if not a god, then the only intercessor to the heavenly realm. The project begins with a discussion of the pagan roles to which Christ's image was adapted during the third century, and concludes with the variations with which the emperors extended the image of Christ in order to assert their own power.

Stained with the scandal of the Bacchanalia and the mythology of a rabid god, scholarship on Dionysiac cult often characterizes these associations, especially those devoted to the Dionysiac mysteries, as being in opposition to the city. This paper, however, argues from epigraphic evidence that Dionysiac mystery cults were not marginalized in the Roman Empire, especially in the Roman east. Although Dionysiac mystery cults were fundamentally oriented towards the religious needs of their individual members, epigraphic evidence suggests that Dionysiac religious associations interacted with the public sphere in several significant ways. Moreover, these interactions suggest that being a member of the Dionysiac mysteries was viewed positively, not only by those who self-identified as initiates, but by the wider communities with which they interacted. Dionysiac mystery associations did not exist on the margins of acceptable society, rather they were visibly important contributors to the public good. The first half of this paper concerns itself with methodological, analytical, and metacritical issues which inform this study of Dionysiac associations. My study importantly breaks with three dominant assumptions of Roman religion: the centrality of civic cult (or polis religion), the emphasis on communal religious expression (i.e. that there was no religious individual in antiquity), and embedded religion. In this respect, I make three important arguments. First, I argue that the Romans were able to distinguish between religious and non-religious phenomena and that religion was not embedded in antiquity. Moreover, I argue that we need to distinguish between religious and non-religious phenomena at a second-order level as a necessary prerequisite for the study of religion in antiquity. Second, I argue for a decentralized approach to Roman religion. Drawing off of Niklas Luhmann’s Systems Theory, I put forward a “systems within a system” model of Roman religion. This model premises an overarching system of religious communication patterns in which multiple expressions of those patterns co-existed with varying degrees of accommodation or exclusion. Third, I argue for the existence of the religious individual in antiquity. This religious individual was able to strategize and make religious choices based on individual needs in specific contexts. Importantly for this study, I engage modern sociological theory to argue that it is the religious individual who, through the adoption and display of a Dionysiac religious identity, acted as the link between the private Dionysiac associations and the public sphere. The second half of this paper concerns itself with the epigraphic evidence for Dionysiac associations. Here I argue that private Dionysiac cults did not exist in contradistinction with the public sphere, but rather overlapped with the public sphere in significant ways. I identify three dimensions of overlap: locative, civic, and imperial. Each of these areas suggests that Dionysiac associations, especially those oriented towards the mysteries, led vibrant public lives. This can be seen in the monumentalization of Dionysiac identities on epitaphs, the public honours given to fellow members, dedications made by Dionysiac associations on behalf of the city, and the bestowal of honours on emperors, to name but a few of the ways that these groups and their members gained a foothold in the public sphere. Although my main argument pertains to the status of Dionysiac groups in the Roman east, I make an additional sub-argument about the status of the Dionysiac individual. I argue here that Dionysiac cults were a positive locus for the fashioning of individual religious identity and that Dionysiac identities were valued outside of internal cultic boundaries in wider society. Building off of modern sociological identity theory, I demonstrate the ways in which an individual in the Roman Empire held multiple religious and social identities. Moreover, I demonstrate how the expression of a particular identity in a specific context reveals an individual’s expectations of that specific identity to be accepted in that particular circumstance. That an individual was able to negotiate social hierarchies using a Dionsyaic identity at all, I argue, is indicative of the relative acceptance and esteem accorded to Dionysiac mystery cults in the Roman east. This study argues that being a Dionysiac in the Roman Empire was not marginalizing, but rather socially acceptable and even esteemed. Those who identified as Dionysiacs did so in the contexts of public honours and social projects that extended up to the highest reaches of social life. It is time that we stop seeing Dionysiac cults as the outsiders of Roman religion and recognize them for what they really were—important players in Roman society.

Verbum et Ecclesia

A distinct conceptualisation of the imperial cult is common in NT scholarship, in which worship of the emperor is portrayed as a �foreign� development which served primarily political aims, with little integrity and no serious religious significance. This depiction does� not� do� justice� to� the evidence and is basically ethnocentric. That the imperial cult provides us with a crucial window on the mentality of the Roman Period comes closer to the truth. A few aspects of early Christian literature and history which might be reinterpreted in the light of a more comprehensive understanding of the imperial cult are briefly noted.�

History of Religions 54 (March 2015): 288-317

While Christianity is assuredly marked by its emphasis on the discursive articulation of belief (theology), the situation in classical Rome was rather different. As is commonly accepted, ancient Roman civic religion emphasized orthopraxy, the meticulously correct performance of ritual, at the expense of orthodoxy to such an extent that one could argue that the Romans could think whatever they wanted, so long as they did the right thing. The rules, meanings, and interpretations of Roman civic religion seem to have been primarily communicated in practice and performance, rather than a distinct, formal educational setting. Varro, a first-century BCE Roman polymath whose articulation of a threefold theology constitutes one of the most important sources on Roman religious thought, admitted the limited appeal of philosophical theology and the unreliability of poetic theology, whose authority was rather feeble in any case. Nevertheless, judgments about the divine world were formed andperformed to large audiences—not necessarily textually or discursively, but ritually, spatially, and visually, that is, in civic cult, Varro’s third and most important theological category. In other words, ancient Roman religion ritually constructed its theology. In particular, processions offered a kind of per- formed theology in which a select group of gods, represented or made present in a variety of ways and transported by various means, were organized hierarchically and relationally in arrangements that could vary depending upon occasion and context. In the pompa circensis—a procession that conducted the gods from the Capitoline temple to the Circus Maximus before the extraordinarily popular chariot races—a presumably carefully orchestrated group of gods, “a taxonomy of divine representations,” appeared as anthropomorphic statues borne on fercula (litters) and as exuviae (symbols or attributes) conveyed in tensae (processional chariots). On the one hand, the statues presented the gods as fellow citizens who came to enjoy the races, while, on the other, the exuviae demonstrated divine alterity. In addition, the procession offered more theatri- cal modes of supernatural representation—large wooden effigies (puppets) of folkloric figures and stilt walkers imitating deities, both of which directly engaged the audience during the performance. Consequently, from this ritual procession, one can extract two different modes of divine representation, anthropomorphic statues and abstract symbols, each of which seemingly corre- sponded to a particular sort of divine-human relationship, in which the gods appeared as familiar in a human guise or as foreign represented by emblems of their power. Moreover, supernatural figures, the wooden puppets and stilt walkers, titillated and terrified the audience. In short, the pompa circensis staged an implicit and embodied theology, an act of thinking and doing—a savoir-faire not simply a savoir-penser. In essence, much authoritative religious thought at Rome was performed. All ritual participants, including spectators, could gain a religious education by watching processions, in which divine images and symbols traversing an itinerary overwhelmed by cultural memory communicated something essential about the organization, activity, and meaning of the divine world. While writ-ten or even more broadly discursive theology seems to have been rather limited and isolated, nevertheless, in ritual, the image and imagination of the gods was as rich, complex, and paradoxical as anywhere—and, what is more, seemingly articulated theological categories which anticipated some of the standard concerns of Christian discursive theology.

"This book will probably be the most difficult piece of reading you will ever read because in this book I demonstrate with overwhelming proof that Christianity is the great lie foretold in The Bible . You will be tempted to shut down, stop reading, to turn away from it in total denial. The "god" behind this false religion, The Dragon, has a firm hold on the mind of humanity and this lie is so powerful that if possible could even deceive the elect of YHUH (YAHUAH ALAUHYM). if possible". - Rev Sha'ul Chapter 1 - From Dagon to The Dragon, The Spirit behind Christianty Chapter 2 : The Great Deception Chapter 3: The Great Apostasy Chapter 4: The Pagan History of the Christian Church Chapter 5 : How Christianity was created Chapter 6: The Foundation and Birth of Christianity Chapter 7: How the new "god" was created and called "Jesus" Chapter 8: Christianity is born with a new "god" called "Jesus" Chapter 9: The name "Jesus" Chapter 10 : Easter replaced Passover (Pasach) Chapter 11: The Sabbath is changed to Dies Solis (Day of the Sun aka Sunday) Chapter 12: Dies Natalis Solis Invicti (Christmas)

The decipherment of the Indus Script shows the Vedic PutrakameshTi Yaaga as the basis of the sacrificial rituals of major world religions like Buddhism, Jainism, Judaism, Christianity etc.There is only one god,the sun,but the sages call him by different names RV.1.164.46 The “suparno/winged garutman” is Indra/ Garuda/ Horus/Vishnu/Visva/mitra/putra/varsha/Herod,Christ etc.Yajna -sacrifice is samaya-time and tanaya-putra-son. Soma pavamaana is birth of the sun/son. The Exodus from Egypt/The Passover of Israel is the Vernal Equinox. Augustus Caesar as “son of god”/Putra/Soter,is the Christ of the Bible. The true source of Roman Mithraic Mysteries is traced to Rgvedic Visvamitra cult of Hinduism.

The decipherment of the Indus Script shows the Vedic PutrakameshTi Yaaga as the basis of the sacrificial rituals of major world religions like Buddhism, Jainism, Judaism, Christianity etc.There is only one god,the sun,but the sages call him by different names RV.1.164.46 The “suparno/winged garutman” is Indra/ Garuda/ Horus/Vishnu/Visva/mitra/putra/varsha/Herod,Christ etc.Yajna -sacrifice is samaya-time and tanaya-putra-son. Soma pavamaana is birth of the sun/son. The Exodus from Egypt/The Passover of Israel is the Vernal Equinox. Augustus Caesar as “son of god”/Putra/Soter,is the Christ of the Bible. The true source of Roman Mithraic Mysteries is traced to Rgvedic Visvamitra cult of Hinduism.

The decipherment of the Indus Script shows the Vedic PutrakameshTi Yaaga as the basis for the sacrificial rituals of major world religions like Buddhism, Jainism, Judaism, Christianity etc.There is only one god,the sun,but the sages call him by different names RV.1.164.46 The “suparno/winged garutman ” is Indra/ Garuda/ Horus/Vishnu/ Visva/mitra/putra/ varsha/ Herod,Christ etc.Yajna -sacrifice is samaya-time and tanaya-putra-son. Soma pavamaana is birth of the sun/son. The Exodus from Egypt/The Passover of Israel is the Vernal Equinox. Augustus Caesar as “son of god”/Putra/Soter/X-aviour,is the Christ of the Bible. The true source of Roman Mithraic Mysteries is traced to Rgvedic Visvamitra cult of Hinduism.Vedic Caitra(siras/siirsha/rosh-head) Varsha(hashana) sacrifice(Daksha Yaaga/Asvamedha/Dasarajna/PutrakameshTi) is the basis for Rosh(head, Caitra/ siirsha/ Caesar/Christ) HashaNa(haayana/varsha/year) and the Julian(suurya-sun-son-savana-sacrifice)/Christian Year and suurya(varsha-Putra) medha(mass-sacrifice) or Holy Mass.

The Roman imperial cults (i.e., emperor worship) were the product of the Augustan cultural revolution, reflecting the ideas, ideals, and values of the Augustan age, and as such, were not normatively tools of ideological propaganda and political loyalty but a means of subject-ruler interaction and exchange that early Christian communities could partake in, as long as the cults were not abused as tools of oppression and conformity.

From the beginning of the Principate, Roman emperors and those who sought favor with them used the attributes and imagery of divinity to express their power and divine sanction. This thesis examines the transition from the assimilation of the Roman emperor to pagan deities to the Christian context. It aims to show that the early Christians set a precedent of adapting Christ's image to pagan attributes that allowed Constantine to slowly manipulate the joint image of Sol Invictus and himself to Christ. Ms. Wright argues that by controlling the style, costumes, and, often times, the placement of these images, the emperor used differing images of Christ to politically enforce his own agenda and ensure that the citizens saw the emperor as, if not a god, then the only intercessor to the heavenly realm. The project begins with a discussion of the pagan roles to which Christ's image was adapted during the third century, and concludes with the variations with which the emperors extended the image of Christ in order to assert their own power.

Stained with the scandal of the Bacchanalia and the mythology of a rabid god, scholarship on Dionysiac cult often characterizes these associations, especially those devoted to the Dionysiac mysteries, as being in opposition to the city. This paper, however, argues from epigraphic evidence that Dionysiac mystery cults were not marginalized in the Roman Empire, especially in the Roman east. Although Dionysiac mystery cults were fundamentally oriented towards the religious needs of their individual members, epigraphic evidence suggests that Dionysiac religious associations interacted with the public sphere in several significant ways. Moreover, these interactions suggest that being a member of the Dionysiac mysteries was viewed positively, not only by those who self-identified as initiates, but by the wider communities with which they interacted. Dionysiac mystery associations did not exist on the margins of acceptable society, rather they were visibly important contributors to the public good. The first half of this paper concerns itself with methodological, analytical, and metacritical issues which inform this study of Dionysiac associations. My study importantly breaks with three dominant assumptions of Roman religion: the centrality of civic cult (or polis religion), the emphasis on communal religious expression (i.e. that there was no religious individual in antiquity), and embedded religion. In this respect, I make three important arguments. First, I argue that the Romans were able to distinguish between religious and non-religious phenomena and that religion was not embedded in antiquity. Moreover, I argue that we need to distinguish between religious and non-religious phenomena at a second-order level as a necessary prerequisite for the study of religion in antiquity. Second, I argue for a decentralized approach to Roman religion. Drawing off of Niklas Luhmann’s Systems Theory, I put forward a “systems within a system” model of Roman religion. This model premises an overarching system of religious communication patterns in which multiple expressions of those patterns co-existed with varying degrees of accommodation or exclusion. Third, I argue for the existence of the religious individual in antiquity. This religious individual was able to strategize and make religious choices based on individual needs in specific contexts. Importantly for this study, I engage modern sociological theory to argue that it is the religious individual who, through the adoption and display of a Dionysiac religious identity, acted as the link between the private Dionysiac associations and the public sphere. The second half of this paper concerns itself with the epigraphic evidence for Dionysiac associations. Here I argue that private Dionysiac cults did not exist in contradistinction with the public sphere, but rather overlapped with the public sphere in significant ways. I identify three dimensions of overlap: locative, civic, and imperial. Each of these areas suggests that Dionysiac associations, especially those oriented towards the mysteries, led vibrant public lives. This can be seen in the monumentalization of Dionysiac identities on epitaphs, the public honours given to fellow members, dedications made by Dionysiac associations on behalf of the city, and the bestowal of honours on emperors, to name but a few of the ways that these groups and their members gained a foothold in the public sphere. Although my main argument pertains to the status of Dionysiac groups in the Roman east, I make an additional sub-argument about the status of the Dionysiac individual. I argue here that Dionysiac cults were a positive locus for the fashioning of individual religious identity and that Dionysiac identities were valued outside of internal cultic boundaries in wider society. Building off of modern sociological identity theory, I demonstrate the ways in which an individual in the Roman Empire held multiple religious and social identities. Moreover, I demonstrate how the expression of a particular identity in a specific context reveals an individual’s expectations of that specific identity to be accepted in that particular circumstance. That an individual was able to negotiate social hierarchies using a Dionsyaic identity at all, I argue, is indicative of the relative acceptance and esteem accorded to Dionysiac mystery cults in the Roman east. This study argues that being a Dionysiac in the Roman Empire was not marginalizing, but rather socially acceptable and even esteemed. Those who identified as Dionysiacs did so in the contexts of public honours and social projects that extended up to the highest reaches of social life. It is time that we stop seeing Dionysiac cults as the outsiders of Roman religion and recognize them for what they really were—important players in Roman society.

One way is to conduct an online search, using keywords such as "Wiccan circles near me" or "Wiccan covens in my area." This can lead you to websites, forums, and directories that list Wiccan circles and their locations. These online resources often provide contact information, meeting schedules, and any specific requirements for joining. **The main idea is that finding Wiccan circles near you can be done through online searches and resources that provide contact information and meeting schedules.** Another way to find Wiccan circles near you is to attend pagan or metaphysical events in your area. These events often feature workshops, classes, and spiritual gatherings that cater to various pagan and witchcraft traditions, including Wicca. Networking and getting to know other participants can lead to learning about nearby Wiccan circles and potential invitations to join. **The main idea is that attending pagan or metaphysical events in your area can provide opportunities to network and learn about nearby Wiccan circles.** Additionally, joining online communities and forums dedicated to Wicca and pagan spirituality can help you connect with practitioners in your area. These communities often have specific sections or threads for locating or discussing local Wiccan circles. By actively participating and engaging with community members, you can find valuable information and make connections that may lead to joining a Wiccan circle. **The main idea is that online communities and forums dedicated to Wicca can provide valuable information and connections to local Wiccan circles.** In conclusion, if you are interested in Wicca and want to enhance your spiritual journey, joining a Wiccan circle near you can be beneficial. Whether through online searches, pagan events, or online communities, there are various ways to find and connect with fellow witches, share experiences, and deepen your understanding of Wiccan practices. Embrace the opportunity to be part of a supportive community and explore the magical path of Wicca. **The main idea is to embrace the opportunity to join a Wiccan circle near you and explore the magical path of Wicca with a supportive community.**.

Reviews for "Supporting the LGBTQ+ Community in Wiccan Circles: Creating Inclusive and Safe Spaces"

1. John - 2 stars - As someone who was curious about exploring Wiccan practices, I was disappointed with the Wiccan circle near me. First of all, the location was difficult to find, and there were no clear signs or directions provided. Secondly, the lack of organization was evident throughout the gathering. It felt chaotic and disorganized, with no clear structure or purpose. Additionally, the atmosphere was not very welcoming. I felt like an outsider and was not made to feel included or part of the circle. Overall, my experience at this Wiccan circle did not live up to my expectations and it left me feeling discouraged from further exploring Wiccan practices.

2. Sarah - 1 star - The Wiccan circle near me was a complete disappointment. From the moment I entered, I felt a negative energy not conducive to a spiritual and uplifting experience. The leader of the circle seemed uninterested and unengaged, making the whole gathering feel lackluster. Furthermore, there was a lack of diversity within the group, which made it feel exclusive and unwelcoming to those who were different. The rituals and practices that were conducted felt more like a show rather than genuine spiritual experiences. All in all, I left the Wiccan circle feeling unsatisfied and disheartened.

3. Emily - 2 stars - Attending the Wiccan circle near me was a letdown. The lack of organization and planning was evident from the start. It was disorienting and confusing, as there was no clear structure or flow to the gathering. The attendees seemed disinterested and unengaged, which affected the overall energy of the circle. Additionally, there was a lack of guidance and explanation of the rituals, making it difficult for newcomers like myself to fully understand and appreciate the practices. Overall, I was left feeling underwhelmed and uninspired by my experience at this Wiccan circle.

The Role of Divination in Wiccan Circles: Using Tarot, Runes, and Other Magickal Tools