Is Wicca Satanic?
To understand if Wicca is "Satanic", one must understand what Satanic actually means. In this post, I will not only clarify Wicca, but Satanism as well...a two-for-one.
I make the assumption that Satanism began as a rebellion from the Christian religion, hence the name. But as the years went on, Satanism evolved and/or branched from sympathy-for-the-devil, to being an atheistic system, using Satan merely as a symbol to represent what they felt was the "raw, human self", free from the restraints and constraints placed upon humanity by religious rule.
In a sense, Satanism is indeed a rebellion, but I don't use the word "rebellion" in a negative manner, here. Many good things have come from rebellions. Essentially (well, most of the time) when a group rebels, they're rebelling to fight against oppression. Most times organizations would put too strong a restraint on citizens, which causes rebellion because people no longer want to be controlled and manipulated through overly-rigid ruling.
In the case of Satanism, people rebelled against [possibly] over restrictive rule of the Christian church. The restraining rules of abstaining from physical intimacy until marriage and only for procreation, never recreation; being considered sinners and constantly seeking forgiveness for benign things such as "impure thoughts" or "blasphemy", or simply going against non-religious rules of the town for so long could create such frustration one would naturally feel the need to rebel in order to feel true freedom...then once they DO rebel, are considered heathens and are considered "Satanic" or under the control of Satan.
Of course this is all speculation, but makes sense if you really think about it. Some may actually had sympathy for the devil, believing "Lucifer" is the fallen angel who could not take the rules and restraints of God, believing Satan to be the "good guy" in the end, people would side with Satan, and embrace the term "Satanist". So as time evolved, they went from believing in an actual entity, to believing Satan is nothing more than a symbol.
Evolution in a religion is not uncommon. Even religions such as Christianity have evolved over the years...the evidence is clearly found in their own bible.
But I digress from the main point of this post. The entire point was to see if Wicca was the Satanic religion. Well, for one, Wicca would have to embrace such an idea as Satan for it to even minutely resemble Satanism. Satan is in no way found within the religion of Wicca. Wicca is not even a Christian religion, therefore it has NOTHING remotely close to anything Christian-related in it. Therefore Wicca is NOT a Satanic religion.
So why do people keep saying Wicca is "Satanic"?
Christians (usually the extremists and fundamentalists) will say anything that is not Christian is automatically Satanic. They have a "you're with us or against us" mentality. If you're not on the side of God and Jesus Christ, then you are on the side of Satan. That's a rather unfair assessment. It shows the rather insecure nature of many Christians when they automatically assume that if someone is say, a Buddhist is practicing a Satanic religion, especially considering Buddhism is an ATHEIST system. Buddhism is the attempt at achieving spiritual enlightenment; inner peace. Sounds horribly devilish, no? The very reason anything non-Christian is considered "Satanic" is merely out of fear mongering; the attempt to make everything non-Christian seem so scary...so much so that people would avoid it at all costs. Unfortunately for them, it can have the opposite effect. The idea of something being scary can be attractive to some.
But, regardless, Wicca is as benign as Buddhism. Looking at my post on what Wicca is, one would have a greater understanding of what Wicca is. I also have several links on the sidebar with even better information. Wicca is not Satanic. Those who say it is have little understanding of the real world.
Related:
What is Wicca?
Is Wicca Witchcraft?
Is Wicca a Cult?
Wiccan Ethics: The Wiccan Rede
In a sense, Satanism is indeed a rebellion, but I don't use the word "rebellion" in a negative manner, here. Many good things have come from rebellions. Essentially (well, most of the time) when a group rebels, they're rebelling to fight against oppression. Most times organizations would put too strong a restraint on citizens, which causes rebellion because people no longer want to be controlled and manipulated through overly-rigid ruling.
In the case of Satanism, people rebelled against [possibly] over restrictive rule of the Christian church. The restraining rules of abstaining from physical intimacy until marriage and only for procreation, never recreation; being considered sinners and constantly seeking forgiveness for benign things such as "impure thoughts" or "blasphemy", or simply going against non-religious rules of the town for so long could create such frustration one would naturally feel the need to rebel in order to feel true freedom...then once they DO rebel, are considered heathens and are considered "Satanic" or under the control of Satan.
Of course this is all speculation, but makes sense if you really think about it. Some may actually had sympathy for the devil, believing "Lucifer" is the fallen angel who could not take the rules and restraints of God, believing Satan to be the "good guy" in the end, people would side with Satan, and embrace the term "Satanist". So as time evolved, they went from believing in an actual entity, to believing Satan is nothing more than a symbol.
Evolution in a religion is not uncommon. Even religions such as Christianity have evolved over the years...the evidence is clearly found in their own bible.
But I digress from the main point of this post. The entire point was to see if Wicca was the Satanic religion. Well, for one, Wicca would have to embrace such an idea as Satan for it to even minutely resemble Satanism. Satan is in no way found within the religion of Wicca. Wicca is not even a Christian religion, therefore it has NOTHING remotely close to anything Christian-related in it. Therefore Wicca is NOT a Satanic religion.
So why do people keep saying Wicca is "Satanic"?
Christians (usually the extremists and fundamentalists) will say anything that is not Christian is automatically Satanic. They have a "you're with us or against us" mentality. If you're not on the side of God and Jesus Christ, then you are on the side of Satan. That's a rather unfair assessment. It shows the rather insecure nature of many Christians when they automatically assume that if someone is say, a Buddhist is practicing a Satanic religion, especially considering Buddhism is an ATHEIST system. Buddhism is the attempt at achieving spiritual enlightenment; inner peace. Sounds horribly devilish, no? The very reason anything non-Christian is considered "Satanic" is merely out of fear mongering; the attempt to make everything non-Christian seem so scary...so much so that people would avoid it at all costs. Unfortunately for them, it can have the opposite effect. The idea of something being scary can be attractive to some.
But, regardless, Wicca is as benign as Buddhism. Looking at my post on what Wicca is, one would have a greater understanding of what Wicca is. I also have several links on the sidebar with even better information. Wicca is not Satanic. Those who say it is have little understanding of the real world.
Related:
What is Wicca?
Is Wicca Witchcraft?
Is Wicca a Cult?
Wiccan Ethics: The Wiccan Rede
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