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13 Principals of Belief

I've poking around this morning a little during breaks and such and decided to swing by http://wicca.timerift.net/index.html to take a look at some wiccan articles. Wicca has been of particular interest to me in the past, but found that I couldn't "take it seriously" because too many people have turned it into a hollywood-day-at-the-mall mockery of religion. Sonja introduced this site to me, and on reading the opening article, "No More Fluffy Bunnies", I was elated. Finally, I had a practical resource for wiccan thought and practise that included dark and light.
Today, on the site, I stumbled upon an article entitled "13 Principals of Belief, Retort" by Aldous Tyler. I was somewhat angered by the article. In it, Aldous makes the point that the "13 principals of Belief", created by the Council of American Witches (a council I didn't know existed) is outdated and false. I read both the article (http://wicca.timerift.net/laws/13principals.html) and the retort (http://wicca.timerift.net/laws/13principals2.html) and came to the conclusion that Aldous missed the point.
I got the impression that they were written at a time of relative newness for the wiccan belief system, and were provisioned to give a framework for the beliefs of the assembled wiccans, to both introduce the precepts of the "new" religion to outside religions, and to lay a foundation to let other members build on. I didn't read these as laws, but rather ideas of what wicca may be.
Aldous' point revolve mainly around "there are many wiccans today..." to refute the principles, which is misguided and pointless. It should be viewed not as a stone tablet that says "This is how we live and if you live outside this, you aren't worthy", but rather a historical document. It was signed and dated in 1974 by a collection of likeminded people, and the belief system of wiccans has admittedly changed a great deal since that time. Saying the document is false because the modern strains of wicca did not exist is like saying Columbus didn't come to North America because he didn't have an airplane. Furthermore, to refute these general statements as un-wiccan is ridiculous. They, in general terms, outlined the core of a belief system I think not only worthy of what I understand about wicca, but my own hopes for my spiritual path.
By saying that marking the rituals of the wheel of the year is an "unneeded act", by implying that we should do nothing to protect our environment, that authoritarian heirachy and organizational hierachy are the same to me is sad. If we do not revere the God and Goddess and their aspects in nature, if we do not seek the balance of nature, the life force that permeates everything, what the hell is wicca about?
I do take solace, however, in Aldous' closing statement, "no one I know around here would sign a document like this today", because I don't think I'd want to be associated with so callous, so deluded an individual.

posted by September @ 11:07 AM