i've only read the Gardenian book of shadows recently..and am forced to ask if these laws or ways apply to all other wiccans..is this BoS even authentic?
It requires a henotheistic view. The ancient Egyptians were henothiests, as evidenced by them holding that, while in the temple of Ra, Ra created the universe and this is fact, but in the temple of Isis, Isis created the universe and this is fact.
The Divine exists on a much higher, much less restrictive level than we. The Gardnerian Book of Shadows, the Bible, and the Quran only conflict when taken literally and when we insist on trying to measure divinity by our own limitations.
Correct! By not following Gardner's traditional Wiccan laws... well that just means you're not a traditional Gardnerian Wiccan - it doesn't mean you're not still Wiccan, just not that exact type.
As for the authenticity of Gardner's BoS... that's a kind of interesting issue. In some measures it is the most authoritative as Gardner was the founder of modern Wicca. However, much of his work was influenced by the "research" of Margaret Murray (http://wicca.cnbeyer.com/murray.shtml), back when people thought that was accurate and when Wicca was still based upon the premise that it is an ancient religion - something most people now completely discredit as being unrealistic, unfounded in history, and lacking in evidence.
This isn't to say that Wicca isn't a real or valid religion - it definitely is. It's just not ancient, and as a practitioner of a religion only slightly more than 100 years old, I don't see what all the fuss is about.
Magaret Murray was very much discredited even at the time of Gardner. Most of the books of Gardner were written with, and influenced by, others. Doreen Valiente, Patricia Crowther, Alex Sanders. Sanders disagreed with some of Gardner's teaching, and formed the "breakaway" form of Alexandrian Wicca. (From the city, not from his name!)
Patricia Crowther is still alive, as is the widow of Alex, Maxine Sanders. Wicca is not "over a hundred years old, it is less than that. First formed from ideas of Aleister Crowley and others in the 1930s. Any form of witchcraft was illegal in Britain until 1951, and it was only in the 1960s that Wicca became well known.
The first book of Wicca was "Witchcraft Today" by Gerald Gardner, a sensational best seller in 1956.
Sorry, I wasn't trying to insinuate that Wicca is over 100 years old - it isn't. My religion, Thelema, is. It was founded in 1904. My point was simply that my religion isn't old and that doesn't bother me at all, so why the heck do Wiccans keep wishing they were ancient?
I did understand what you meant! However,there are some aspects of Wicca that are very old; but very few.Waving swords about, and dressing up in fancy robes, has very little to do with witchcraft.
Wicca is a religion; witchcraft is exactly that, a Craft.
