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Religion In General:
If we are to believe modern archeologists, over the last twenty centuries, or so, there have been many great civilizations on this planet; the Egyptian, Aztec, Mayan, Greek, Roman and many, many more.

All of these great civilizations are reported to have had their own religions and to have worshiped their own Gods, until their civilization fell. The Romans absorbed most of the Greek pantheon and modified it to fit their needs. Then, it seems, they abandon those beliefs in favor of a new religion based on Jesus Christ.

Over the centuries untold thousands have given, willingly or unwillingly, their dedication, blood, sweat, tears, toil and lives to the service of a cacophony of deities and lesser Gods.

To what purpose has all of this effort, sacrifice and death served. Have any of these ancient civilizations survived? Could have all of these dedicated followers failed their Gods so totally?

Time after time, death and destruction has rained down on innocent, and not so innocent people in the name of God or Gods. Wars have all been fought with a God in support on both sides.

Why do we humans find it necessary to invent God after God? Zeus, Cailleach BhEara, Quatzequatel, Allah, Buddha, Hern, Jesus, The Lord God and more names than could be listed in a month of typing.

What or who is a God? Throughout our recorded history God, Gods and Goddesses have run the gambit, from vulnerable, weak, petulant, vindictive and conniving Gods, to the all powerful, all seeing, immortal Gods.

I do not claim to be any sort of expert on Gods, Goddesses or God. What little I "believe" is from reading, observation and personal evaluation. Moreover, my research has served to create more questions in my mind than it has offered in answers.

Notice I say "believe" and not "know", for I know nothing, can prove nothing. All that remains is what I believe. Beliefs are in the mind and in the heart, not in the realm of fact. However, history has proven that beliefs are enough to sacrifice all we have, even our very lives.

We know little, except supposition and guesswork, for the Mesolithic and Neolithic Gods; only vague and unverifiable myth and legend. These people left no written accounts of their beliefs. However, from the archeological record, it seems little in doubt that ancient peoples had strong religious ties. Many of the artifacts that we have, seem to support this conclusion. (Or do they? Are we merely framing these remains and interpreting them in our own paradigms?)

In contrast, the Gods of the Greeks and Romans have been well documented by the scribes and priests. However, this was a time when the ability to read and write was reserved primarily to the powerful and religiously initiated. Because of this, I have doubts as to their voracity in reference to the general population.

What the writings seem to show is a bunch of petulant and vindictive Gods, more resembling a group of angry children than a holy team of deities.

There are literally thousands of sects, cults, branches and beliefs in the world today, some who steep themselves in the myth of the past and some that look out to the stars and the infinite depths of space for their inspiration. In the next few paragraphs I will attempt to look at a few of the major religious groups and groups of interest to me.

Early Judaism and Christianity:

When you look at early Christianity you must also look at Judaism. The earliest Christians were in fact Jews. Jesus would have considered himself a Jew, not a Christian.

The main reference to early Judaism and Christianity is the Bible. The Bible is undoubtedly the most debated document ever to exist. It was written between 1400 BCE (Before Common Era), to around 200 years CE (AD), or after Christ's death. Some might say it's still in the writing or editing phase.

I use the word "written" loosely. It is my understanding that the Bible is a collection of letters and accounts. Some are reportedly dictated by the Lord God and some written by the hand of divinely inspired men.

When we speak of the Bible, we have to indicate what Bible we are talking about. There are numerous versions of the same book. supported by different groups.

The Hebrew/Jewish Bible: This is the Old Testament. Also called the Tanakh (pronounced ‘ta-nock’). It starts with the five books of Moses, reportedly written between the 14th and 7th centuries BCE (BC). The first five of 39 books, are the books of Moses. They were dictated by God and written by Moses.

Jewish tradition tells us that in the days of Nehemiah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, a council of 120 was formed with Ezra as its president, to reconstruct the worship and religious life of the people after the return from Babylonian captivity. It is thought probable that this group of spiritual leaders (or certainly their successors) combined the many religious writings handed down into the Old Testament.

New Testament: Next is the New Testament reportedly compiled between 30 AD and 200 AD. However, the earliest surviving list of books matching the "New Testament" Canon dates from 367 AD. Originally starting out as a collection of important documents, the New Testament bible was compiled from various letters, journals and other material, including some possibly written by the apostles that actually walked with Jesus.

The Catholic Bible: This is the Old Testament and the New Testament combined. However the Jewish Bible and the Catholic Bible have differences between the number and order of the Old Testament books. The Catholic Bible includes books not considered canon by Jews.

Emperor Constantine the Great was the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. Constantine wanted a uniform Bible to be used in all churches. Somewhere around 325 AD he commissioned Eusebius, a Political Historian of the Church and the Council of Nicea to translate and have 50 Bibles made. As all work at that time was done by hand this was no small task. One of these copies was kept and copies of it were used within the Catholic Church. Today this Bible - which according to Catholic Church teaching comes from the 50 Bibles that Constantine commissioned Eusebius to assemble - is known as CODEX VATICANUS.

It was also the Council of Nicea that wrote the first version of the now famous creed proclaiming that the Son was "one in being with the Father" by use of the Greek word "homoousius."

The Protestant Bible: This consists of the Jewish Old Testament and the Catholic New Testament, although the order of the books of the Old Testament is somewhat different from the Jewish Bible.

The King James version: Between 1604 and 1611, King James I of England authorized Anglican, scholars, from Oxford and Cambridge to translation of the Bible from the Greek Textus Receptus, mainly Beza's 1598 edition, and the Bomberg Masoretic text, edited by Jacob Ben Chayim. On July 22, 1604, the king announced that he had appointed 54 men as translators, the only qualification being that they should be "proficient as Bible scholars." The process of revising was the most thorough of any translation to that date. The scholars were organized into six different groups to translate a given section of the Scripture. When completed, their translation was gone over by the other five groups. A committee of six was selected from all the translators to be the final authority in making the revision complete.

The first English translation of the Bible from the Latin Vulgate, was done in 1382 AD by Wycliffe. However, the church of the time condemned his work.

Other Bibles include:
The Septuagint: The ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew.
The Vulgate (pronounced ‘vul-ga-tay’): The Latin translation of the Old and New Testament from ancient Hebrew and Greek sources.
The Revised Standard Version: Revised English translation, based on the King James Version.
The New American Bible: English translation of the Bible commissioned by Pope Pius XII and completed in 1970, based on the Catholic books of the Bible (translated from the original languages or the oldest existent form of the text).

Apocrypha:
Also we can't forget the Apocrypha. Apocrypha means 'hidden things' in Greek. The term "apocrypha" was used by the fifth-century biblical scholar St. Jerome to refer to the biblical books included as part of the Septuagint (the Greek version of the Old Testament), but not included in the Hebrew Bible.
Several works ranging from the fourth century BCE to New Testament times are considered apocryphal--including Judith, the Wisdom of Solomon, Tobit, Sirach (or Ecclesiasticus), Baruch, First and Second Maccabees, the two Books of Esdras, various additions to the Book of Esther (10:4-10), the Book of Daniel (3:24-90;13;14), and the Prayer of Manasseh.

The apocrypha have been variously included and omitted from bibles over the course of the centuries. Protestant churches generally exclude the apocrypha (though the King James version of 1611 included them). The Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches include all of the apocrypha (except for the books of Esdras and the Prayer of Manasseh), but refer to them as "deuterocanonical" books. In this context, the term "apocrypha" generally refers to writings entirely outside of the biblical canon and not considered inspired (such as the Gospel of Thomas). These same books are referred to by Protestants as the "pseudoepigrapha."

Please note, this is in no way a full list of Bibles or versions there of. It would take several pages to list the dozens of different bibles and translations.

I suspect that much of the text in all of these Bibles was written by men of the time with a definite political agenda. After all it would not do to have the common man get the idea that they did not need the clergy to talk to God.

It is impossible to know what is fact, fiction or myth. It is widely accepted that many documents in circulation at the time the Bible was compiled, were considered and rejected . From our perspective, it is impossible to judge how and why the decision was made to include or reject a particular document. In fact the Bible seems to have been produced much in the same way as I have made this webpage. I took the best (in my opinion) of the historic material available to me, and ordered it to fit my own agenda. I did use reputable resources for my information, where available, but in fact I have NOT personally checked the truth of any of the material I put here in print. I suspect the writers of the Bible did just the same.

It seems reasonably accepted, by modern theologians, that the writings of several major Christian sects of the time were totally ignored. The writings of the Gnostics and Asines fall into this category. Two documents, the Infant Gospels according to John and the Gospels according to Mary seem to have been rejected because they did not agree with the teachings of the church leadership of that time.

We have no way of knowing but I suspect the second-century Gospel of Mary Magdalene was available to church leaders when the Bible was compiled. However, there is no mention of it until it was rediscovered in the late 19th century by archaeologists. Even then it remained largely ignored and untranslated for 50 years.

In hind sight, it can be easily understood why the Gospel according to Mary was rejected. The Mary indicated here is not the Virgin Mary but Mary Magdalene. It seems the early church leaders felt it important to keep control in the hands of men and out of the hands of women. It is my understanding that this was in keeping with their Jewish beliefs. Let us not forget that the early Christians were Jewish.

This early church leadership launched a propaganda campaign to brand Mary Magdalene as a whore. In fact, she was never identified as a woman of wanton ways anywhere in the Bible. For 1,500 years Mary Magdalene was portrayed in art and theology, as a prostitute.

According to the Catholic Church, this was the result of an erroneous sermon preached in 591 by Pope Gregory the Great. It seems the pontiff, misreading the Gospel of Luke, confused Mary Magdalene with another woman described as “sinful.” This misreading was reversed by the Vatican in 1969. However, the reversal was a bit late and the damage had been done. Personal opinion is that the "mistake" was intentional.

From what I have read there are two theories as to why this was done: One is revealed in the Dead Sea Scrolls. It seems Mary may have been a rival of the Apostle Peter. Because of this male church leaders who compiled the New Testament decided to exclude her.

The second is that there is some consensus of thought that Mary was very close to Jesus. Pardon the pun; close in the biblical sense. She made claims to private teachings from the mortal embodiment of God.

In my personal opinion this amounted to pillow talk. I believe that, be he the Son of God, or the human man, Jesus was in fact a mortal man while on this plane of existence. As a mortal man he was subject to the base needs men have always had.

Mary Magdalene was a normal woman who came from an ancient Goddess worshipping tradition, probably Egyptian. Some of the things she did had the resemblance of Pagan ritual, such as in the anointing of Jesus. By performing this ritual she may have believed that she was becoming a Goddess to the chosen God.

This situation might account for some of the sexual restrictions that the Christian church seems to have always had. Imagine, if the Son of God could not be trusted to keep the secrets of the Gods when in the sexual embrace of a woman's legs or lips, then what chance would mere mortals have? Better to make it a sinful, immoral and dirty act, only allowed for the purpose of making new Christians.

To be fair most of the Christian aversion to sexuality of any type, came from St. Augustine. At one time a man with a wife and a mistress, he made the decision that the only way to be close to God was to become celibate. In his writings he had to allow for sex or the church would run out of members so he decided that you could still be close to God and have relations, as long as you were married and doing the act only for children. He also decided that the people closest to God should be without sexual relations. This was the beginning of celibate Priests and Nuns in the Catholic church.

I suspect there was some sort of monumental event that brought St. Augustine to these radical decisions. I suspect was he had a sexual performance problem. It is conceivable to me that he had deep emotions for his mistress and when she dumped him, he had a personality breakdown that lead to these decisions. The other reason is that by making the "no sex" rule he could better control who was allowed into the inner circle of power.

It's interesting that today, one of the biggest problems within the Catholic clergy is sexual involvement (especially with children) and alcoholism. I suspect there is a valid connection with the "no sex" rule and both of these problems.

Over the centuries that are encompassed by the Old and New Testament the "One God" has made many and spectacular evolutions, from a God of vengeance to a God of love.

It is often stated that God loves us all. It is a concept I fail to see in action. As an example: God's great love of mankind was not exhibited by the nativity. We all know the story, Jesus born in a manger. There is a part of the story that seems to have been over looked in modern times.

Some time after the birth of Jesus, from a day to several months after, an angel came to Joseph and told him to flee from that place because King Herod was sending soldiers to kill the baby. As the story goes he did, and so began Christ's exile in Egypt.

Although it is not supported in any historic documentation, it is biblical legend that the soldiers of Herod did send a death squad to Bethlehem and they did kill all the male children from newborn to two years of age. God may have been concerned with his "only begotten son" but he seems to have had little compassion for the other children and their parents. Estimates of children slaughtered range from less than ten to many thousands, depending on the biblical resource you read.

It's interesting to me that it is well accepted that Jesus birth was not on December 25th as most Christians have been taught. In fact, no one knows exactly when he was born. Clues in the Bible indicate that it was three to five years earlier than we celebrate it in the Christian calendar. We know this because the Bible states that he was born in the reign of King Herod. Herod died three years before the celebrated birth of Christ.

It is theorized that it was in the spring. Again, it says in the bible that the shepherds were tending their flocks. The spring is when the ewes were giving birth, and the only time shepherds tended the flock. It was decided by Pope Gregory XIII, in 1582 AD that December 25th would be the official day of Christ's birth because it would obliterate the pagan holiday of Winter Soltis.

It was a common practice for Christians to usurp pagan habits and holy days. They felt it would help people accept the new religion if they did not have to give up their holidays. Pope Gregory gave orders to his priests in England telling them that, whenever possibly, they should build their churches on the sites of Pagan temples and meeting places, so that people would, out of habit, continue to come there.

The Christians and Jewish faiths have grown in number over the past two centuries and during that journey split and changed to the extent that I doubt that the original Jewish apostles would recognize or reverie it.

It is my opinion that people are starting to realize that the Bible did not arrive by e-mail from God, and that it’s very much the work of men, and men with their own agenda.

All in all, I can't see that the "One God" or Jesus, is much of an improvement over the Greek and Roman flavors.

(Click on poster above to enlarge.)

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The Islamic Faith:
I am unable to make an informed decision on the Islamic faith because I have not done as much research. I do know I have some very basic differences on the role and treatment of women within their religious establishment.

What is Islam ?
ISLAM means submission, that is, submission to the will of God, the characteristic attitude of members of the faith. MUSLIM (also spelled Moslem) is based on the same Arabic root as Islam `(s-l-m) and means one who submits to God, that is, a believer in Islam.

It is incorrect and objectionable to call Muslims Mohammedans, as Muhammad is not worshipped in the way Christians worship Christ
Allah is the name of the One and Only God. Allah has ninety-nine beautiful names, such as: The Gracious, The Merciful, The Beneficent, The Creator, The All-Knowing, The All-Wise, The Lord of the Universe, The First, The Last, and others.

Some principals of Islam are:

• Oneness of God: He is One and the Only One. He is not two in one or three in one. This means that Islam rejects the idea of trinity or such a unity of God which implies more than one God in one.
• Oneness of mankind: People are created equal in front of the Law of God. There is no superiority for one race over another. God made us of different colors, nationalities, languages and beliefs so as to test who is going to be better than others. No one can claim that he is better than others. It is only God who knows who is better. It depends on piety and righteousness.
• Oneness of Messengers and the Message: Muslims believe that God sent different messengers throughout the history of mankind. All came with the same message and the same teachings. It was the people who misunderstood and misinterpreted them. Muslims believe in Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Ismail, Jacob, Moses, David, Jesus, and Muhammad. The Prophets of Christianity and Judaism are indeed the Prophets of Islam.
• Muslims believe that there is a Day of Judgment when all people of the world throughout the history of mankind till the last day of life on earth, are to be brought for accounting, reward and punishment.
• Innocence of Man at Birth: Muslim believe that people are born free of sin. It is only after they reach the age of puberty and it is only after they commit sins that they are to be charged for their mistakes. No one is responsible for or can take the responsibility for the sins of others. However, the door of forgiveness through true repentance is always open.
• State and Religion: Muslims believe that Islam is a total and a complete way of life. It encompasses all aspects of life. As such, the teachings of Islam do not separate religion from politics. As a matter of fact, state and religion are under the obedience of Allah through the teachings of Islam. Hence, economic and social transactions, as well as educational and political systems are also part of the teachings of Islam.

The legal sources of Islam are the Qur'an and the Hadith. The Qur'an is the exact word of God; its authenticity, originality and totality are intact. The Hadith is the report of the sayings, deeds and approvals of the Prophet Muhammad. The Prophet's sayings and deeds are called Sunnah. The Seerah is the writings of followers of Muhammad about the life of the Prophet. Hence, it is the life history of the Prophet Muhammad which provides examples of daily living for Muslims.

The Qur'an opens with " In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful." (I suspect mercy is only for the faithful.) It goes on to say, "All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds. The Beneficent, the Merciful, Master of the Day of Judgment. Thee do we serve and Thee do we beseech for help. Keep us on the right path. The path of those upon whom Thou hast bestowed favors. Not of those upon whom Thy wrath is brought down, nor of those who go astray."

"Master of Judgment": I say, we judge ourselves and our peers judge us. In addition, the idea of a path of favors seems a bit indulgent to me, based on the history of the countries that this religion is practiced.

It's not a wonder that some misguided Muslims are willing to kill anyone that can not follow this seemingly "I'm better than you" religion.

I will say that I have a good friend that has been willing to give me a better understanding into the Islamic faith. It is not the blood thirsty and unreasonable doctrine that most Americans believe. It is an honorable religion and if the teaching of the Qur'an were followed there would not be the problems we are currently having. Again, the hand of man over rides the teaching of a moral God.

The Hebrew/Jewish Faith:

Again, I am unable to make an informed decision on the Jewish faith because I have not done as much research on them. Again, I have some very basic differences on the role and treatment of women within their religious establishment.

The spiritual world of the Jew contains a global and detailed system of theories and wisdom for all areas of life and views of life. Within this system, over which many books were written, there are thirteen basic teachings, which are obligatory for each Jew.

These are some of the things a person of the faith should believe:

• To believe and know: There is a perfect being, the creator, praised is his name, the master of the world. HE is the origin of all existence. Everything that exists, depends on HIM. HE however is fully independent.
• God is an absolute and complete unit, one and only.
• God is not material and not body. Not subjected to the laws of nature and not to be assumed with human senses.
• HE was before anything has been. HE is and in eternity will be.
• Only may to God be served. HIS commandments, laws and will are to be kept. No other existence (e.g. angels and other natural forces) may be adored, they all were created by God.
• God reveals HIS desires by very special humans, in different manner and for different purposes.
• Moses' prophecy was the highest form of prophecy. It was exceeded by no other prophets and none equaled it.
• The entire Torah, which was given to the people of Israel by Moses, was given to Moses by God. It is the true and only Torah.
• This Torah is eternal. It will be never modified and never replaced by another law.
• God's knowledge is absolute and all universal. No existence is hidden from HIM, as HE sees past, present and future. God foresees all causes and consequences.
• God control's and monitors the world, recompenses humans for good acts and punishes for bad acts. The main rewards are kept hidden for the times of the world to come.
• At the end of all days God will send us our *Mashiah, from the house of David.( *Hebrew title "Mashiah" or "Masiah" became the phrase "Iêsous ho Christos" in the Greek.) He will be a perfect king in a perfect world, and the world will be saved by him.
• God will wake up the dead ones. That means absolute rahamim and justice, which will wipe away all tears. HE will again structure everything that was destroyed and this resurrection and restructuring will be the end of the presence of death.

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Why can't they all get along?

Repeatedly I have seen good and honorable people in all religions. In cases of disaster, it is they that band together and provide aid to their fellow man, not "the Church." However it is usually the church that takes the credit.

It's sad that in spite of the fact that all three religions, Christian, Jewish and Islamic all believe in the same God and in Jesus, (one views him as the "Son of God" and the others see him as a prophet.) they are unable to come together in peace. If these religions were to follow the laws and guidelines the religion supports it would be a much better world. Unfortunately, the hand of man keeps getting in the way. The desire of the various churches to protect their own interests and the desires of a few bad seeds that were and are only interested in their own personal power, has tarnished these religions for all time.

How many religions are there in the world? Can we provide an exact number? No. The sixth edition of the Encyclopedia of American Religions, published last year, contains descriptions of 2,300 different religious groups represented in the United States. These are defined either by their dominant influence in a particular country (like the Finnish Lutheran Church) or their worldwide presence. These include 400 sects in Christianity, 72 sects in Islam, 14 sects in Judaism, plus hundreds of other denominations among them Buddhists Hindus and New Age religions. In addition there are probably twice that many religious groups that have not been catalogued.

We can, however, divide all religion into three classes. These are the monotheistic, the polytheistic, and the pantheistic.

The characteristic of monotheistic religions is belief in one God. Some examples of this kind of religion are Christianity, Judaism and Mohammedanism.

Polytheistic religions are marked by the belief in many Gods; such as worship of the stars, animal worship, plant worship, and others. For the most part, Wicca falls in this class, as do most other New Age religions.

Pantheistic religions are Brahmanism, Buddhism, and others. Some Wiccan paths fall in this category. New Scottish Wicca falls in this category. Characteristic is the belief that the universe is God and that within the universe the divine remains passive and does not necessarily have a personality of its own. This includes the belief that you and I are God.

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Pagan Faiths of Interest to Me:

Church of All Worlds: - http://www.caw.org/
The CAW is the first Pagan Church founded in the US. It was incorporated in 1968 by Oberon Zell-Ravenheart and recognized by the IRS in 1970. Oberon read Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein and was so inspired by the vision of a Nest, a close-knit group seeking a deep knowing of each other, that he brought his vision alive with the Church of All Worlds (CAW.)

In the years since its founding, CAW has worked with this myth and many others: Oberon's Theagenesis vision (a vision of Gaia as a living entity), the Greek Eleusinia (a sacred cycle of descent and return) and the May Royalty (who carry the energies of the Church from their crowning until Winter).

While CAW members express a broad spectrum of personal magic's and beliefs, what brings them together is a shared set of values:

• Immanent divinity (expressed as "Thou art God/dess").
• Self-knowledge and personal responsibility.
• Deep friendship and tribal intimacy.
• Positive sexuality.
• Living in harmony with the natural world.
• Appreciation of the diverse nature of human beings.

They express their connections with each other with the most sacred rite of Watersharing. On a general level, it signifies the connection in the web of life.

The CAW has Nests in many states as well as a thriving online community.

I must say here that in my opinion Oberon Zell-Ravenheart is an amazing man and one of the true Wizards left in the world today. Of all the people I have read about in the New Age movement he is the one person I would like to have tea with and talk about the multiverse.

I suggest you check out his book 'Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard' for a true flavor of the man and a staggering amount of information.

The highest compliment I can give to him is that in him Robert Heinlein's character Lazarus Long may truly live. If you have not read the adventures of Lazarus Long I suggest you search our Robert Heinlein books with this character.

Wicca purports to be a pagan religion containing traditions of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The Pagan religion family includes Celtic, Druidism, Asatru, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman. It is said it's origins can be traced even further back to Paleolithic peoples who worshipped a Hunter God and a Fertility Goddess.

The basic ethical statement of Wicca is called 'the Rede.' The Wiccan Rede states, "An It Harm None, Do As Ye Wilt."

Followed by many people it is a religion that, for the most part, teaches the best of the religious principals. Not enough time has elapsed to judge this movement; it has not yet passed the test of time. In a century or so, it will be interesting to see if it is still around.

Viewed from another prospective Wicca could be considered older than the Islamic, Jewish and Christian religions combined. The problem with this view is that it has not been a contiguous span of practice. The current versions practiced may, or may not have any resemblance to the faith as it was originally practiced.

As I understand it, In 1951, the laws against Witchcraft were repealed in England. A man named Gerald Gardner was the first to come into the public eye with a description of what modern witches were practicing. His information came from the traditions of a coven called the New Forest Witches, and from Ceremonial magic and the Cabballah. He began what is now called the Gardnerian Tradition of Wicca. From Gardnerian came Alexandrian Tradition and a host of other offshoots that today number in the hundreds.

I am uncertain whether Wicca is Poly or Pantheistic. It may be both depending on the branch.

Many Wiccans believe, pantheistically, that the spirit of God/dess exists in every living thing: in the trees, the rain, the flowers, the sea, and in each other. This means that they must treat their peers, and all the beings of the Earth as aspects of the Divine.

Others believe in a named God and Bodes polytheistically. It is interesting that the God and Goddess are worshiped in balance no matter the name given to them.

It must be said that there is a lot of misinformation bandied about Wicca and there are so many versions that it is hard to separate the facts from the fiction. I am still learning.

It is my impression that the practitioners of Wicca tend to put elements from various religions together, along with a Jungian foundation into a modernist ideology. It seems to me that when Gardner was putting his creation together he also drew upon Eastern philosophies, Egyptian ideologies and Judaic ceremonialism, in addition to Celtic lore.

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There is a Scottish version of Wicca called PectiWita. ( I have also seen it spelled Pecti-Witta. Buckland, in his book 'Scottish Witchcraft spells it PectiWita so this is the spelling I shall use.) This style of practical witchcraft is taught personally to its students in its house in Castle Carnonacae, in Scotland. This tradition has harmony with the solar and lunar changes, a balance between the God and the Goddess. Meditation and the divination have a great influence in the tradition and a diverse variation of solitary work in magic is taught. The information is not available to the public.

The practices of PectiWita are somewhat different from the forms from Wicca. This is a solitary tradition. It is not a practice of a consecration circle, or a formalized ritual of more Wiccan traditions. The basic instruments are a dagger and walking stick or staff.

Here the magic is part of the tradition and these are called celebrations seasons like Samhain, Feill-Fionnain, Bealtainn, and Feill-Sheathain. The art of the sanación is an important part where the tradition of the herbología and the divination play an important role.

Investigations in Scotland could not unearth any background or proof as to a heritage. I don't have the ability to go to Scotland to study so, as with Wicca I will keep an open mind.

I did read the book Scottish Witchcraft, The History & magic of the Picts by Raymond Buckland, as based on Aiden Breac's teachings. The book is about PectiWita, Wicca for the solitary witch.

In this book, Raymond Buckland claims to present information of PectiWita, a mainly solitary form of ancient Pictish witchcraft. I found little of the actual old Scottish ways. In several sections he uses Irish Gaelic words he claims are Scottish Gaelic and his understanding of historic Scottish pagan worship and lifestyle seems to me to be very limited.

A particular problem for me was the understanding that ancient Scottish Pagans followed the Wiccan Rede or the temporal equalivant.

As a Clan based, Heroic Morality based culture the Rede would be considered a joke.

Very little is known about the Picts, but I think we can safely say that they did not practice any version of 20th century Wicca, wear kilts, scry with clock glasses, or the like. Unfortunately, Scottish Witchcraft has all of these anachronisms -- and more. The book is full of basic modern survival lore, Scottish food recipes, and the like. This information, while somewhat interesting, is basically filler.

The truly sad thing about this book is that Scotland has a wonderful folklore and magical history. Unfortunately, it is almost completely neglected in this book.

Celtic and Neo-Druidry:

The late 20th century has witnessed a renaissance in Druidry, inspired by the renewed interest in alternative spiritualitys from the 1960s, by the 'green' movement and by contact with other nature-based spiritual traditions, notably modern Witchcraft and the 'Shamanic' cultures of North America and elsewhere.

There are now over 35 Druid groups in Britain alone, with a further 300+ worldwide.

Modern Druidism is one of the Neo Pagan family of religions, which includes Wicca and recreations of Egyptian, Greek, Norse, Roman and other ancient Pagan religions. Some present-day Druids attempt to reconstruct the beliefs and practices of ancient Druidism. Others modern-day followers of Druidism work directly with the spirits of place, of the Gods and of their ancestors to create a new Druidism

Druidry is not a religion. It's a philosophy and you can worship a God or a Goddess, it's up to you. You can be a Christian or a Moslem or anything else and still be a Druid.

It is believed that the Druids were completely wiped out, first by the Roman massacres and later by the Christian conversions. Today's Druids believe that it is true that not many survive. However, they believe, some lived to pass on their knowledge in secret, usually through their families and most likely using the oral tradition of their peoples so there would be no record of their survival.

In several families across Europe, the Druid knowledge was preserved in this secret manner to avoid persecution. Some of these families lost their lore; others were eventually found and killed or converted. Many of the remaining families merged through marriage. Thus, a handful survived to pass down their traditions and lore.

The etymology of the word 'Druid' is from the Greek word drous, or oak. "Oak", has been a favorite wood of the Druid since the time of Pliny the Elder; according to this the Druids would be the priests of the God or Gods identified with the oak. It is true that the oak plays an important part as the sacred tree in the ancient cult of the Aryans of Europe, and this etymology is helped out by the Welsh word for druid.

Probably the best-substantiated derivation of the word is from the root vid, "to know", and the intensive prefix dru. According to this etymology, the druids would be the "very wise and learned ones". However, this, like the others, is merely a conjecture, and it has been surmised that the word as well as the institution was not of Celtic origin.

Although the Druids are mentioned with more or less fullness of account by a score of ancient writers, the information to be derived from their statements is very meager, and very little of it is at first hand. Even Caesar, who probably came more in contact with the Druids than any other writer, does not seem to speak of the Druids of his time in particular, but of the Druids in general.

With the ancient writers, the word Druid had two meanings; in the stricter sense, it meant the teachers of moral philosophy and science; in the wider sense, it included the priests, diviners, judges, teachers, physicians, astronomers, and philosophers of Gaul.

They formed a class apart and kept the people, who were inferior to them in culture, in subjection. They were regarded as the most just of men, and disputes both public and private were referred to them for settlement. Thus, their influence was much more a social than a religious one, in spite of the common opinion that they were exclusively a priestly class or Gaulish clergy.
They enjoyed certain privileges, such as exemption from military service and the payment of taxes; and the ancient authors are unanimous in speaking of the great honors, which were shown them.

Want to know more? Click this link. CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05162a.htm

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