Wiccan Studies

[http://www.ulcseminary.org/wicca.php] Greetings,   Lord Starwalker/Robert OCallahan has requested a 500 word letter on what I thought about the Master of Wiccan Studies course. The course was ok. Since I have been a wiccan for 20 yrs and have trained people in the craft myself and have held the position of high priestess I enjoy getting other peoples ideas and view points concerning the craft. I do believe he could have done the order of the lessons a little differently. I would have started out with the following: 1. what wicca is and what it is not. 2. some history as to how wicca came about 3. picking a craft name 4. the altar tools 5. who the different GODS and GODDESSES are   a) the different traditions of Wicca 6. how to cast a circle 7. the holidays-major/minor 8. self dedication ritual   I would have saved the good stuff like dowsing, pendulum use, herbology and magik to be taught more towards the end of the course. A person can only teach what they know and believe. I think that the subjects he chose to teach were fine and very basic as the course states. I do believe he could have gotten a little more in depth with some of the subjects especially the good stuff. Since I have not taken the Paganism course, it may be that Robert does get more in depth with various subjects. After all, wicca is only one small part of Paganism as a whole.       Asking me to write a wiccaning ritual was very interesting. I don't know if everyone was suppose to do that or just me. The Banishing ritual is used by some of the covens who do rituals at the pagan/wiccan church I am a member of in St.Petersburg, FL. We have over 300 members and have a different coven  perform the sabbat rituals according to which ones they are. We have a very diverse group of people. We even have druids do rituals on occasion. It's really great!    Other than possibly changing the order of the subjects, I think that Robert should continue to teach his course as he is. He has obviously been a member of the craft for sometime as well as a coven member. I thank him for taking time out of his personal life to dedicate his belief in the God and Goddess to others out there in the seminary who are interested in learning what wicca is. Keep up the good work and may the Lord and Lady bless you always.                                              Rev. Beverly L Racey                                            (aka- Kybelegreywolf)