In my beginning days of Wicca I was under the impression, given to me by numerous authors, that because Wicca does not pre-set prayers or scriptures to read from and from-the-heart, spontaneous rituals were more powerful, it would be lazy to utilize the rituals or words of another in my practice. This lead me to re-write and re-invent every aspect of the Craft to create my own, unique, individual practice.
While I learned a lot from that, I was also quickly burnt out. Eventually, I read “The Tree” and met other Wiccans who followed specific traditions, with rituals and prayers handed down to them by others. Ironically, this idea of being okay with following the path created by another felt liberating. I have been a devote, fairly orthodox, Gesith of Seax-Wica since then.
Yes!! I’d lightly touched on The Tree / Saxon Witchcraft book but didn’t read it much. I had tried and struggled with doing my own rituals from scratch well before that and perhaps wasn’t ready for what it offered. It wasn’t until I watched Raymond Buckland’s Witchcraft documentary from 1989 that showcased a Wiccan ritual (which was honestly very close to his Seax-Wica teachings) and went back and read The Tree that I had a huge AH-HA moment. I love the simplicity, but also the written out steps to get me started. That, plus finding your website with modified solitary practices helped me have the confidence I needed to finally do a full ritual. It really fully set me on my path!
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