I wrote this FAQ from the knowledge I have attained over time. If anyone has any comments about it, I would like to be emailed (abraxas@writeme.com) with any information you would like. Also, I do not have any problems with this FAQ, in it's unaltered form, to be placed on any page that does not seek to make profit off it. (but really, who would charge for such basic information anyway?)

That is not an easy question to answer. I will start by explaining to you the extreme basics, then what Wicca is not. To do this, I will tell you a few quotes that some of the ignorant have said to me. I will then address each quote.

Wicca is a religion. We believe in a goddess and a god that rule everything. We believe in magick(the k means it's not like stage magic). We believe in many things that will be explained later.

"You're a Witch?!? You sure you haven't been playing too much of those Role Playing Games?"

"Yeah... There's a bunch of those Witches that go worship by the river up the street from me every full moon. They go up there to worship Satan on some unholy night celebration.

"Witches believe in magic, which is a sin because it claims power, and only got can give power."

"Witch-craft? That's all fake. It's just a bunch of stupid people."

The first quote was from an Irish Catholic friend of mine. What he was talking about was my interest in Roleplaying Games, such as Dungeons and DragonsŪ. He was very wrong, yet hit on a bit of truth. Though my belief in Wicca has nothing to do with my enjoyment of Roleplaying, i must admit that because of my Roleplaying, I didn't instantly laugh at its absurdity and stop asking questions of it. For one more time, i would like to say "Wicca is NOT the result of years of roleplaying. It is a religion, not a disorder."

The second quote was from a lady that used to drive me to school with her son. (Let me mention that this was a Catholic school, and this was before I became a Wiccan. For that reason, I believed her at the time.) She was talking about a small river. She made it sound like they had animal sacrifices (if she didn't outright say they did) and she bestowed in me a dislike for Witches that lasted for a long time. What she was wrong about was this. First, Wiccans do NOT perform sacrifices of any living being. We consider life sacred, and most of us don't have the heart to. The few that do have the heart to would never because of the Threefold Law, "An ye harm none, do what ye will." About being Satanists now. Wiccans are NOT worshippers of Satan, and one point of proof is that we do not believe in Satan, and the pagan religions that were our roots existed many thousands of years before the Catholic Church invented Satan. Satan was invented to inspire fear of Witches. They took one of the most used images of our Horned God, Pan, and changed him into a demon that opposes the Church. But we believe in loving everything, so if you call Satan worshippers, then you would be saying Satan worshippers preach love, while Christians preach killing those who do not believe the same religion.

The third was said by my Catholic Religion teacher. He did not mention that, by his idea of why magick is a sin, having any money at all, those who did not directly oppose the government(power not given by God) were sinners, and many other ideas. I think it's rather obvious that, like anything else, if you don't make sitting there doing magickal rituals your life instead of eating, sleeping, meeting people, etc, there is nothing wrong.

The fourth was from another friend of mine. He is an athiest. He believes that the worship of anything above yourself is a waste of time. First I must say, there is a phsychological need for a religion, even if it isn't "right" in a sense that we cannot understand until the end of our lives. About being stupid, I can't say for sure, but I have some belief that I'm not as dumb as that, nor are most Wiccans. And about fake... Well, that is something you would never believe me on until you felt it for yourself. Not just the magick. When I look at anything in nature, I know how real the goddess is to me. And yes the magick is real, if you believe it is. You can't cast a spell thinking "this will prove magick is real/fake". If you are healthy of mind and spirit, and if you truly believe in the magick, and if you act in accord, by doing something to help out how the spell is to be, you can be pretty sure that the spell will work. If it does not, maybe you got what you needed instead of what you wanted. Some consider that there is a higher self to you, which is far more knowledgable and far wiser than you. That higher self seeks what is best for you, not what will make you happy all the time.

Now, for more explanation about what Wicca is...
Wicca is a religion compiled of many pagan religions of the past.
Wicca is a religion with no central power to say what is the truth to the religion. We find the truth by looking into ourselves.
Wicca is a relationship between oneself and the Deities.
Wicca is a religion of worship of nature and the respect of all that lives.
Wicca is living by a moral code that is not strict with made up rules, that has only one rule, "An ye harm none, do what ye will", which means simply this: "As long as you do not harm anyone, follow our inner guidance, your True Will." (Amber K, True Magick).
There are those who will probably disagree with this statement, which explains all that I have learned about what Wicca is through experience...
Wicca is love!