Dianic Wicca

Differences between Dianic and mainstream Wicca

Like other Wiccans, Dianics may form covens, attend festivals, celebrate the eight major Wiccan holidays, Samhain, Beltane, Imbolc (or Imbolg), Lammas, the solstices and equinoxes (see Wheel of the Year) and the Esbats, which are rituals usually held at the full moon or dark moon. They use many of the same altar tools, rituals and vocabulary as other Wiccans. Dianics may also gather in more informal Circles.

The most noticeable differences between the two are that Dianic covens are usually female-only while other Wiccan covens are usually mixed, some aiming for equal numbers of men and women, and that most Wiccans worship the God and Goddess, while Dianics generally worship the Goddess as Whole Unto Herself; or if they worship the God, it is as a consort of the Goddess, rather than an equal.

It should be noted many Wiccans do not consider the Dianic path to be Wiccan at all as they only venerate, and sometimes espouse only the existence of, the Goddess.