Which Witch is which?

by Kim

Hi Ken,

A distrubing thing happened on another pagan site that I want you opinion on. To make a long story short, there was a discussion post stating that only people who completed the initiation rites of British Traditional Wicca (Gardnerian/Alexanderian or their offshoots)are Wiccan---that anyone who is self taught is not Wiccan, but pagan.

Their arguement is that if a self taught pagan calls themself a Wiccan it cheapens the inititary rites that members of BTW Wiccans must go through to be called Wiccan. Not to mention, that since Gardner supposedly coined the phrase Wicca that unless you are of that tradition you in essence are not Wiccan.

Of course, this was upsetting to those of us who are solitary and self taught as we feel that our committment (we're not talking about Fluffy Bunnies) to our religious studies, the Goddess, our craft, etc is just as serious and real as a BTW initiate.

I understand their stance on this, they are trying to protect their tradition, however, calling it the only way smacks of "traditional" mainstream religion (my way or no way) is, in my opinion, destructive to the pagan, especially, Wiccan community.

Thoughts?