The Wicca Religion

These are certainly not all of the pagan religions, but they are some of them. So, what is paganism? Paganism is an umbrella term, meaning it is a big category that covers multiple religions and belief systems.

In many parts of the world, there are different myths about how the world was made or how the first humans came to be in the world. It was believed that greater beings of higher existences were the ones who made the world and humans. How were some myths different and similar to each other in a certain shape or form? First, in the Aztec mythology, before the earth was made, the earth mother god Coatlicue made the moon and the stars.

There are also rock engravings by the Nganguraku people at Ngaut Ngaut, which represent lunar cycles, sadly much of the Nganguraku culture has been lost for over a hundred years now. Many aboriginal traditions have a female sun and male moon figure. The Yolngu say that the sun-woman, Walu, creates dawn by lighting a small fire each morning. She paints herself with red ochre, an earth pigment, which spills onto the clouds creating sunshine. She then lights a torch and carries it across the sky from east to west creating daylight.

All these elements were combined together to create an impressive teaching tool allowing people to acquire the skills they needed to survive. COSMIC DANCES The movement of the celestial bodies themselves, such as the stars and the moon, and the way they interact with each other, in an observable way; have long been referred to as a cosmic dance. It is documented that, in classical antiquity, the vault of the sky was even called “the dance floor of the stars”.

It is to represent the Heavens, which as said before is his realm. Uranus was born by Gaea, the God of Earth, however he was also married

Rhea was thought to be of pre-Hellenic in origin. She was called the Great Mother of the Gods. Rhea’s official Roman name was Mater Deum Magna Idaea (Great idaean Month of the Gods). Rhea had the power to nurture and had the ability to provide fertility to the soil, earth, as well as women and motherhood. Rhea spent most of her time at Mount Olympus with the other gods.

In ancient Egyptian culture there are many gods who have been associated with the Moon, three of which being Thoth, Khonsu, and Iah. Khonsu, the god of the light in the night, held many other titles. The name Khonsu means "traveler," but he has also been called "embracer," "pathfinder," and "defender." The ancient Egyptians believed that Khonsu would watch over and protect travelers through the night, a task made easier by the light of the Moon. They also believed that he used the shine of the crescent moon to make women conceive, cattle to become fertile, ripen fruits, and grow plants.

Pompeii: Religion and Temples Pompeii was a polytheistic city that believed in many types of gods for many different purposes and had a god for just about anything. The gods the people of Pompeii believed in were the main gods that were worshipped throughout the Roman Empire. These Gods that were worshipped throughout Pompeii included Jupiter, who was a leader of the gods, who threw thunderbolts from the sky when up set. His wife was Juno, who was a god that was commonly associated with fertility just like the goddess Venus who was also associated with fertility but also of beauty and love that the people of Pompeii placed as their patron goddess of their city. Another god who was considered as fearful as Jupiter was Mars, the god of war.

It began as an element forming the ancient societies, it was indistinguishable from what is known as 'mythology ' in the present day and consisted of regular rituals based on a belief in higher supernatural entities who created and continued to maintain the world and surrounding cosmos. To this very day people are confronted with many philosophical questions regarding this belief and practice. It is a confrontation between the ones who believe and the ones who do not. As rational animals, humans are seeking meaning beings and always question everything. This process of seeking is what enables us to discover numerous scientific facts, laws, and theories as well as religions.

Ancient polytheistic societies incorporated religious ideas which involved a plethora of gods and goddesses, of which many were linked to certain human appeals or sacrifices. Similarities between various groups such as Roman, Greek, and other Near Eastern deities typified the universal ideology that gods and goddesses controlled the world and were often associated with elemental forces as well as fertility and love (Damrosch & Pike, 2009, p. 17-18). Appealing to goddesses for crops and provisions was a common characteristic of people during ancient times since it was commonly believed that the continuance of life and avoidance of disfavor depended on the goddesses’ connective interactions with humanity. As noted in both Egyptian and Babylonian

Wicca is a rapidly growing neopagan religious movement that is a nature based religion that celebrates the changing of the seasons and with a belief in a Divine that it is manifested into two aspects; the God and the Goddess that is revitalizing the “Old Ways”. There are generally two schools of thought about the history of Wicca as a religion. One is that Wicca is a continuous hidden witchcraft religion that had its start in paleolithic times then went underground and remained hidden during the Burning Times where Christianity came to the forefront, and the other is that Wicca is a modern reconstruction of the old pagan religions. The word wicca finds its roots in the old Anglo-Saxon word wicce that means one who practices sorcery with

Geography not only plays a part in the spread of a religion but also can be inspiration or reflection for the religion itself. Many societies have numerous deities inspired by the landscape in and around their civilization. However, I believe not all religions drew inspiration from the land they lived in. Mesopotamian societies had multiple gods. Most deities represented cosmic forces of nature such as the sun, moon, water, and storms who were responsible for the creation of the earth (World Societies p. 36).

Overview: Cultural Group: Santeria Religion Origin of Africa, fostered by Cubans, Cuban-American in Miami. Santeria: a religious system that blends African and Catholic beliefs, is practiced by many Cuban Americans and Puerto Ricans. Stigmatize with devil worship and idolizing catholic saints. Baptized as Christian Pentecostal, I will be initialing myself into the Santeria cult. The research will be based on my own initiating experience, Interviews regarding the Religion, and superstitious approach within healing, regarding how strong of a coping system it is to mental health clients who believe in the Santeria cult.

Nyan Lyih HIS102 2-6-16 Short Response Paper #1 Witchcraft The Malleus Maleficarum talks about the wickedness that exist within a woman. Women were believed to be involved with witchcraft. As stated in Ecclesiasticus xxv: "I had rather dwell with a lion and a dragon than to keep a house with a wicked woman" implying that women were more evil than such creatures. He came to the conclusion that a woman is most evil compare to everything else.