Religion

Hi
  
I have had a debate going on message boards such as Earth song spirit and Mysticwicks for Years and even the old Aol Pagan boards.

Is Witchcraft a Religion?

Is Witchcraft the same thing as Wicca or is it just semantics?

Can you be a Witch and a member of another religion?

Argh!

1. I was raised in The Craft, I was taught that The Goddess reigns supreme, I was raised to worship her, revere her, love her, love all of nature and be in constant awe, respect and reverence of the creative process that we exist as part of.    To me this is a clear sign of a religion.    I do consider Witchcraft to be my religion and no amount of arguing I hear on other sides of the fence will ever convince me otherwise.

2. I am always in deep thought about this.   I wonder what my aunt Helen was at times and what she was really teaching me.  Wiccans tend to believe in a God and Goddess, a dual energy that is found in Nature and she raised me to believe that Nature was Sacred and had divine energy within it, she always said that The Divine energy was both male and female, black and white, gay and straight, it contained all things, was all things, was in all things natural and was all things natural.    Is that Wicca?      Wiccans have a long list of holidays that wrap around a pair of deities and a whole lot of mythology to boot and as I said in the last post, I do not believe in any of that nonsense, its all fake to me.

The Rede...An it harm none, do what ye will.   I do not live like that.   I do not seek revenge, I let the law of return handle this for me because I do believe that whatever I send out probably returns, it's what I have experienced in my own personal life time and time again but I am an all or nothing person and I cannot follow the rede as it's stated--I eat meat which I feel violates the rede right there, I do not know why more Wiccans cannot see that eating meat and animal parts is extremely harmful to the planet we live on, it's probably because they love their meat and are rationalizing it all away.

I think this is why we have so many divisions between Wicca and Witchcraft.   People do not feel connected to one law or teaching of Wicca and so they wander off looking for another answer, because they can't be Wiccan, they don't believe in casting circles for example or they do not believe the law of return works.   I don't know.    Just random thoughts at the moment.   

3. Yes.  

I am tired or I would write more!  
Plus my back hurts from sitting in this chair  :(

Blessings!