I hang around Yahoo!answers a lot providing answers. Of late, we've been getting a slew of weird Wicca questions, and none of the regulars can figure out where they are coming from. I'm wondering if a reader might be able to help.
We're getting a lot of references about the goddess Nyx and Wicca. The suggen popularity of Nyx comes from a book called House of Night. I've not read it, but in all the reviews of it, I can't find a single reference to Wicca. Does this book even mention Wicca? And if not, what in this book keeps getting equated with Wicca?
Also seeing a lot of questions asking "What's my Wiccan element?" There's no such thing. Wiccans commonly work with the concept of elements, but people aren't associated with a single one. Quite the opposite, a balance of forces is a goal. Where is this coming from? I think part of it is coming from avatar: the Last Airbender (occasionally we get questions about "bending,"), but questions now specifically ask about being a "Wiccan element." Any clues?
What’s my Wicca element, could also be a House of Night reference. The vampires in that series have magickal talents that tend to focus towards one specific element – except, of course, for the protagonists who has talents for all elements.
It is a reference to the book series House of Night. The Goddess Nyx is a character in the book. So are references to questions on a personal element . While WICCA could have Nyx (The Greek Goddess of Night) as a deity, it not typical.
Due to the book talking about pagan themes, some might assume that Wicca must be what is bering refered to. A lot of people unfamiliar with witchcraft may assume all witches are Wiccan when that is not true. There are actually a multitude of pagan religions and quite a few might honor Nyx.
Hello Catherine, my name is Sheila and I think I can help explain some
House of Night stuff to you.
I’m 18 (soon to be 19) and I’ve been hooked on the House of Night series since I picked up the first book Marked in my high school library about 4-3 years ago. I’ve read/own every book so far so I hope I can explain things clearly.
I’m a huge fan of the series and if you wan to talk you can find me on tumble by the user name Luluko17. If you don’t want to read the books but want to read more you can read “The Fledgling Handbook 101”, “Nyx in the House of Night”, or the five House of Night comics from Dark Horse comics. The comics are in-between books one and two so it doesn’t give away a lot. ^^
In some smaller covens and circles, mainly if there are four members, when calling the guardians of the watchtowers each person take one element/guardian. That could be ehy you are getting the element questions…
There are several series with witches, not necessarily Wiccan, that give the characters powers that relate to which element they are stronger in controlling Modern Witch/Witchlight trilogy, Teen Witches, Nora Roberts’ Witch Trilogy, etc. I’ve come across it a lot.
I’ve wondered about the “Wiccan element” thing too. It makes no sense to me. But Nichele’s comment did remind me of something. My best friend introduced me to Wicca four years ago. She was sixteen at the time and routinely “casted circles” with other teenage friends of hers. When they first invited me to participate, they were excited because I was Earth (a reference to my Sun sign, I’m a Capricorn) and they already had Air, Fire, and Water. I’m capitalizing because the way they spoke of the elements seemed to suggest they should be. Anyway, they apparently believed that a circle of four with all different elements or a circle of twelve all different signs would make the circle experience much more profound. Until I did more research and started doing my own thing with Wicca, I actually thought this was normal. I assumed all Wiccans learned astrology and incorporated it into their practices.
In all actuality, nothing we did in those circles greatly resembled what I have come to know as Wicca. We pretty much sat around, holding stones and visualized a purple light emanating from our hearts to form a circle around us. Sometimes there would be a short prayer to the God and Goddess, but thats about as Wiccan as it got.
My friends have since moved on, and I am the only one who continued with Wicca. It amuses everyone because I was a staunch atheist until I found my Lord and Lady. But I asked my best friend why we did things that way, and she said that it was what the lady at the local New Age book store taught her to do. Apparently she taught classes. I’m glad I never paid that woman any money.
Greg, I’m glad you didn’t pay for that since it sounds like that New Age lady just ripped of the film, The Craft! Although the film is fictional, I think it represents nature worshipping pagans well to the general public. And the purple light also reminds me something similar happened on Buffy, only it was purple light emanating from crystals for spiritual healing. It’s funny how mainstream Wicca has become compared to a few years ago in the media.
When I started exploring Wicca as a teen, about 9 years ago I also came across the Wiccan element thing but I can’t remember from what books (books about Wicca rather than fictional stuff inspired by Wicca), it defiantly predates Avatar. I think it stems from narrowing correspondences of elements to pigeonhole people i.e. air is associated with intellectualism, I’m more intellectual than emotional, therefore I’m of the air element. Avatar may be the latest manifestation of it, though it’s odd though since the actual religious and philosophical influences including the whole premise of the show is based on Eastern religions and concepts
The focusing on just one element or being one element is not traditionally seen in Wicca, it’s also not seen in the Chinese elemental system either (I would argue that the elements and “bending” as seen in Avatar is much more influenced by the Chinese system than the Western). While in the Chinese system, each year has a ruling element which is said to affect a person’s personality i.e. you might be born in the year of the water dragon or metal pig, for example. This does not equate to being made up of that element or having the strongest connection to that element. Overtly fixating on one would be seen as unhealthy and ignorant
Greetings!
Yes the new hype of “what’s my element” has been rekindled by the books of the House of Night series.
The series relies heavily upon Sioux Wicca, which is not a bad thing per se.
In the books at some point the characters who have strong affinities for a specific element have taken part in rituals representing other than “their” element. But, as the series also revolves around the central hero, her having an extraordinary affinity for the element of Spirit and “kicking *ss” -as my niece told me-,must have left the greatest impact on the young readers.
Simply put though in Wicca a balance must exist when using the elements. Even when focusing on one, a way must be found in the spell-work/ritual practice, to honour and balance all the other elements. When a practitioner focuses only on one element, or uses a single one to “rule” over the other, then they are not practising Wicca.