Introduction to Wicca: Tips for Beginners

When you're looking for an introduction to Wicca, you'll find a lot of contradictory information. One book will swear by one method, and another will guarantee that one is wrong.

The problem is compounded when your introduction to Wicca is through websites. Everyone can make a website these days — and has! — and there's no quality control at all. (Although, honestly, books aren't necessarily much better.)

So how do you know what's true and what's not?

Here are some guidelines.

How To Tell the Good from the Bad

Be sure to check out the article on Coven Cautions to find more information on this subject. Here's the brief version, specific for Wiccan books and websites.

Avoid Hype

Is there a lot of hype or claims of secret knowledge?

If they're selling an introduction to Wicca with claims like "No one else knows these secrets" or "I'm gonna be in trouble for telling you this," you should move on. It's pure bunk.

You can usually feel when someone's yanking your chain.... Trust that feeling. Just click off and go elsewhere.

Avoid Dictators

If they are very heavy-handed, telling you exactly how Wicca must be done, that their way is the only right and true way... well, they're either dreadfully inexperienced, entirely missing the point, or just plain power-tripping.

If they ever threaten you or advocate using or harming another being (physical or non), they're totally off the mark. Don't believe them for a second.

Avoid these people like the plague — these are the kinds of people who end up creating really scary, traumatic experiences for Wiccan beginners. Just walk away!

Avoid Pushy Salesmen

It's one thing for someone to receive financial reimbursement for their time and efforts on your behalf... that's how they can afford to keep teaching. It's a fact of life that we need money to live.

And an energy-exchange is honourable: they provide something you need with their time and money, and you give something back in return. That aligns with the principle of Balance that's so central to all spiritual paths, including Wicca.

But it's another thing altogether when the whole thing seems designed to sell you something, rather than help you find out what you want to know.

If the training, book, website, or group is organized around sales more than information, you might want to keep looking.

The information might be good, but it might be manipulated to sound good, so you’ll buy.

Experiment

If a certain introduction to Wicca seems reliable to you, try some of it out.

When you act on it, you will feel in yourself whether it seems good or not.

• Does it work?

• Does it uplift you and inspire you?

• Do you feel that the Divine was there with you?

• Does it leave you feeling deeply at peace, balanced, and more authentic?

• Do you feel good about yourself after?

• Does your life improve after — more harmonious relationships, more kindness, more ease, more success, etc.?

These are pretty good guidelines.

Use Your Intuition

You are your own best protection against bad information. Listen to your heart and your guts.

When you feel comfortable and happy with something, it's probably fairly safe. If you feel a little anxious or uncomfortable with it, it's likely not right for you... even if the source is trustworthy.

Your own gut sense, and then your experience, are the best guides.

When In Doubt, Leave It Out

When it comes down to it, Wicca is not about rites and rituals and dogma... it's about the practices that help you become more aware of the LIFE around you and within you.

Go back to the basics, what you already know and trust.

With Brightest Blessings,

erin Dragonsong

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