The worship of the Virgin Mary in the Wiccan Tradition.

Mary , Queen of Heaven 

  Spirituality  is a alternative way  of building a personal connection between an individual's immaterial dimension and the spiritual realm . 

  This new ideology  is slowly wining  ground in face of the more traditional forms of organized religion which often employ complex rituals , well define dogmatic systems and rigid hierarchies . 

  Spirituals paths intend not only to try to create a stable bridge between us and the universe as a  whole ,but,  it also to creates good relationship between the spirit and the material world. Many new religions that focus on spirituality are nonchristian ,  some of them , like Wicca , are restorationist in their nature , meaning that they try to bring back in to practice sets of believes that preceded  Christianity. Wicca , like Christianity , is not one solid body of believes and practices ,but rather, variation of tradition that trace their origin to a common point . 

 This variations of Wicca are generated by the preferences when it comes to choose a pantheon , if we take this in consideration , wiccans can use one of the following traditions - celtic,slavic,roman,greek ,egyptian , nordic -  or a combination of then , this later tradition being referred as Eclectic Wicca.  Wicca , like all the prechristian faiths of Europe , is polytheistic in its nature , meaning that followers worship more then one god. Even with this great range of deities  that can be used in rituals and worship , there are two main deities that are found in every branch : The God and the Goddess. 

  This two figures are the symbolic representation of the two genders and even more then that , the binary system , the two primordial entities that generate life from their interaction. Depending on the personal preferences of the wiccan , one can concentrate more on the worship of the male or of the female deity .

  Wicca has a remarkable ability to assimilate deities from any pantheon , as a result over time , even christian elements were integrated in it forming a new tradition - Christian Wicca.  This tradition uses the fundamental characteristics of the faith , like all the other traditions do , but uses  the christian personas of the Trinity and the Blessed Virgin Mary in their pantheon .  

  Mary takes the place of the goddess in the god-goddess equation , and one of the other personas of the Trinity can take the place of the god. The Virgin Mary is the symbol of fertility and motherhood , being the one chosen to give birth to the Son of God in to the world of the mortals , She also represents communion , peace , detachment from the material and forgiveness . 

Mary of Guadalupe 

   The image of Mary worshiped in the wiccan tradition is a accurate translation of Her image present in roman catholicism , where she also holds a special place in worship. Many elements of marian worship got translated in to Wicca , having the role of intermediate between the believer and the personas of the Trinity in the roman catholic tradition , the Blessed Virgin Mary , even in the wiccan tradition  , channels  a strong person-to-person type relationship  with the believer . The Blessed Virgin is not the first important religious female figure in the history of humanity , ancient mythologies contain of great number of goddesses , important in the daily worship of the people , figures such as : Athens , Isis, Diana , Venus , etc. 

   Being a very spiritual path , Wicca gives a lot of space for the believer to see things through  his eyes and give different symbolic connotations to certain object of worship , rituals or characteristics of the deities . From a personal point of view , The Blessed Virgin Mary , holds a place in the immediate material world , having to stay  somewhere between the material world and the higher spiritual plan. 

   Even though , this is in some way a contradiction to the wiccan premise that the two  are equal in power and statute. The objects used in the worship of the Blessed Virgin can vary , choosing the right one being up to the believer , many times the focal object would be a statue or icon . 

   Being the most important female figure in Christianity , attributes regarding fertility and life are connected to the Blessed Virgin  , in this way her figure is frequently used in rituals related to nature , that can focus on the fertility of the soil and so on .

  In the roman catholic tradition She also holds the title of "Queen of Heaven" which can empower her equal position in the wiccan tradition with the male god. The theological branch of mariology gives us four fundamental believes attributed to Virgin Mary : Perpetual virginity, Mother of God, Immaculate Conception and Assumption . Being a figure traditionally related to the christian world , Mary , even in Wicca , dosen't lose Her historical background and attributes but rather She is used in  practicing a range of rituals that are not christian based and maybe , in some cases , gaining some extra attributes common to some pagan female deities.