Hello, first post and I don't have a lot of time to write but I'll do as much as I can. A lot of points I use in my arguments could have an entire thread to itself, but for now I want to discuss how 'eclectic' Wicca fits in to the main religion.
My view in particular is that it doesn't. Besides the few practices that differ between each classification, the main thing with eclectic types is that there is a push to 'find your God/dess'. I'm not BTW thus first considered myself eclectic by default as I equated 'neo' with eclectic. When first finding my way I found Hecate and Pan to be the most logical choices based off of the characteristics of the God and Goddess defined in Wicca, but try as I might never really trusted them in the same way as I did to the 'general' God and Goddess and eventually realized that trying to jam Hellenistic mythology and practices into my own made no sense.
As one said in another thread, the God/dess are deities in their own right with their own split characteristics and mythology (ala WOTY). Wicca is sometimes described as orthopraxic i.e. related by similar practices, not similar beliefs. But if that were true, why would it bother to have its own mythology at all if it was just a specific way people worship various gods? I do believe that it is indeed orthodox, that the collective religion must believe in some core tenets everyone can agree on, such as who they are worshipping. 'True' Wicca is a duotheistic religion, while adopting particular deities from other pantheons is henotheistic, and switching out deities for whatever specific purpose you are doing the ritual for is a polytheistic view.
In addition, Wicca is not a reconstructionist religion. It doesn't need roots in a more well established religion to be legitimate, nor does it need to apologize for adopting points or practices of other religions as long as it fits into the ideology of our own religion. I do ascribe that how people of other religions can be viewed as just faces of the same solitary God and Goddess, and a rose is still a rose by any other name, but that is how I justify the belief that other religions aren't wrong. Not that they are able to be substituted into my own religion just because they celebrate what I personally find important. If you want to celebrate Pan and Hecate specifically with rituals from Wicca, be a henotheistic Hellenist, not a Wiccan. Same for any other pairing.
To be clear I do want this to be a discussion if you disagree. I'm just laying out my views for you to counter on with your own, or agree with. Or agree with on certain parts and counter others, what have you.
My view in particular is that it doesn't. Besides the few practices that differ between each classification, the main thing with eclectic types is that there is a push to 'find your God/dess'. I'm not BTW thus first considered myself eclectic by default as I equated 'neo' with eclectic. When first finding my way I found Hecate and Pan to be the most logical choices based off of the characteristics of the God and Goddess defined in Wicca, but try as I might never really trusted them in the same way as I did to the 'general' God and Goddess and eventually realized that trying to jam Hellenistic mythology and practices into my own made no sense.
As one said in another thread, the God/dess are deities in their own right with their own split characteristics and mythology (ala WOTY). Wicca is sometimes described as orthopraxic i.e. related by similar practices, not similar beliefs. But if that were true, why would it bother to have its own mythology at all if it was just a specific way people worship various gods? I do believe that it is indeed orthodox, that the collective religion must believe in some core tenets everyone can agree on, such as who they are worshipping. 'True' Wicca is a duotheistic religion, while adopting particular deities from other pantheons is henotheistic, and switching out deities for whatever specific purpose you are doing the ritual for is a polytheistic view.
In addition, Wicca is not a reconstructionist religion. It doesn't need roots in a more well established religion to be legitimate, nor does it need to apologize for adopting points or practices of other religions as long as it fits into the ideology of our own religion. I do ascribe that how people of other religions can be viewed as just faces of the same solitary God and Goddess, and a rose is still a rose by any other name, but that is how I justify the belief that other religions aren't wrong. Not that they are able to be substituted into my own religion just because they celebrate what I personally find important. If you want to celebrate Pan and Hecate specifically with rituals from Wicca, be a henotheistic Hellenist, not a Wiccan. Same for any other pairing.
To be clear I do want this to be a discussion if you disagree. I'm just laying out my views for you to counter on with your own, or agree with. Or agree with on certain parts and counter others, what have you.
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