Gaming and Religion

I’ll be the first to admit that I am an avid RPG and MMORPG player. I just got into World of Warcraft, and it eats my soul (lol). But, even in the most childish of things, I try to find spiritual wisdom. WoW is no different.

To be a programmer, you have to be able to understand and manipulate all aspects of a world. To be a witch, you have to be able to understand and manipulate the world around you. Sound similar?

In World of Warcraft, you can choose one of ten races, each which have ‘racial passive’ and ‘racial’ abilities. The racial passive abilities might just give you a boost on certain skills, and the racial abilities are fun. Undead, for example, get to eat humanoid flesh to gain health (Cannibalism), and night elves get ‘shadowmeld’, an ability which allows them to more or less disappear and avoid detection.

In Wicca, if you tend towards healing, you’ll find that things in your life work better than they used to. You touch a friend, and without intending to, you’ve suddenly allowed that friend a lessening of pain. When you become in touch with the abilities within yourself, you get side effects which are beneficial to all parties involved.

Also in World of Warcraft, you can choose from professions to complement your usual killing things. These professions include:

• Fishing
• Cooking
• First Aid
• Enchanting
• Tailoring
• Herbalism
• Alchemy
• Mining
• Blacksmithing
• Engineering
• Skinning
• Leatherworking

Now you can have all of the first three, then any two of the others. Enchanting and Tailoring are independent of all other professions. But, alchemy relies on herbalism, blacksmithing and engineering rely on mining, and leatherworking relies on skinning.

Similarly, in life, there are a wide variety of things you can do. However, specializing in a few particular areas enable you to be more effective in life (be happier, be more successful, have more money, etc). You can choose a few hobbies, usually one profession, but the skills you have determine these. As you grew up, and now that you’re here, your skills have increased.

Its an interesting, methodical way to look at things. Devoid of passion, perhaps, but you find that if you know how to read music, playing instruments gets a lot easier (lol). This enables you to begin to write music and sightread. You then may find yourself becoming a leader in the realm of music in family and social events.

As a witch, you start out with the basic lore of witchcraft. From there, there are any number of things you can do. But, if you do all of them at once, you’ll progress to ‘effective’ over a much longer period of time. However, if you devote all of your attention to a few subjects, you’ll become an expert.

For those of us interested in divination: it is near impossible to master the tarot cards, the runes, I Ching and astrology all at once. But, if you set aside time to learn and understand one at a time, suddenly, what you’ve been learning over 3-4 years can be done in 1.

I mention this because my high priest told me to choose something to specialize in. Its about that time that I be making my way to a third degree, and that means I need expertise, in some field or another. I know that Jerome over at Violet Sun is pretty much an expert in Rune divination. I know that, were I to want to learn runes, I could head to him with any questions. My high priest’s specialization is in tarot.

Wicca is a religion and a path, which enables you to gain knowledge in all areas of your life. Unlike other religions, we don’t celebrate every Sunday, or Saturday, or Friday. We celebrate at the moon and the sun’s beckoning, but we connect with our gods each and every day: when we divine, when we pick up that pretty stone on the side of the road, and when we make conscious decisions intended to further our spiritual and practical knowledge.