Some Thoughts on the Evolution of Wiccan Ritual  
                                       By: Paul Hume


          Undoubtedly (insofar as anything in this mish-mash of magick can be 
          undoubted (g)) the "convergent evolution" thing has a place in the 
          development of the various trads. 
            
          ie. hitting on similar manifestations of one True Thing.  An algorithm
          stays the same, no matter how you code it. 
            
          Some of the interesting divergences, f'rinstance... 
            
          The  Quarters:  Always  a lively discussion  (g).  Air's  in the East.
          No, it's in the North, etc.  The traditional post-GD attributions stem
          fgrom  a  system  attributed to  Egypt,  and  Egyptian  climate.   The
          traditional  Wiccan ones make sense in the context of Northern Europe,
          esp. Britain. (At least the Brit-Trad ones do). 
            
          The ceremonial (solar variety)  magician concentrates on the Equinoxes
          and  Solstices as  his major  milestones  in the  wheel  of the  year,
          whereas  Wicca sticks  with the  Cross-Quarters as their  main events.
          Again,  the solar  calendar is  an Egypto-Sumerian  bugaboo, and  more
          important  to agricultural peoples (or so it is suggested) whereas the
          Cross-Quarters fit the rhythm of birth and growth in herd animals, and
          thus suggest a tradition that  evolved in the herding cultures  of the
          early  Celts and  Britons (who did  not succumb  to the  siren song of
          agro-economy until much later). 
            
          How rigorous these arguments are is open to dispute - they may just be
          attempts to  correlate anthropology and  tradition.  But  they suggest
          areas of emphasis that separate the two paths, and suggest further the
          different aspects of Reality that drive them. 
            
          Paul 
           



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