Wiccans: Why Wicca and not a self-determined, personalized, nameless, stigma-less Nat

What's the appeal of Wicca specifically? It seems like the commercialized version of personal paganGanactices. Wouldn't it make more sense to make up whatever feels right to you instead of borrowing from a structured and packaged religion?
Labgirl: I'm not asking you to "convert" to or ignore anything. I just asked you "why." Thanks for the in-depth answer.

Because everyone wants to belong to a group. It's the herd mentality and it's instinctual.

I cannot believe in modern society people are still subscribing to this ridiculous behavior.

Wicca has quite allot of freedom, though. Not all Wiccans believe the same thing and most Wiccans say that what Wicca is, is what they already believed before they read what Wicca is.

As a Wiccan, it would be silly for me to convert to a "self-determined, personalized, nameless, stigma-less Nature-based spirituality" because my faith is not:
-self-determined (It is communal)
-nameless (it has a history, albeit a brief one, which deserves to be honored)
or
-Nature-based (it is gods-based. Of course, gods are natural, but so are we, but that's just semantics.)

Wicca is a stigma-less term, it had no meaning before the 1960s in Modern English, and the baggage (and silliness) of Gardner's use of Witch is why many of us preferred it. Any stigma attached to the word today is a new artifact, and would come into being REGARDLESS OF WHAT WORD WE USED. We could call ourselves just about anything and in 3-5 years there would probably be an author or group co-opting the word.

I'm not sure why I'm supposed to ignore the three generations of elders I have a connection to, however, could you explain?

Edit: Also, commercialized? Maybe some Wicca, yeah...but we're not all one group.

Whoever told you that Wiccans worship something called Wicca sold you a line son...

Wiccans worship Gaia, the Mother of Us All...the Earth Spirit herself.

Whether she is more or less real than God, Allah, Brahma, or any of the animal or ancestral spirits of Shinto depends on who you ask.

As for the Structured and Packaged Religion line, you may as well ask anyone that worships their god or gods only as directed by the Person at the Front of the Room, instead of worshiping by living a Good Life and a Spiritual Life. (i.e.: The Christian God directs his Worshipers to "worship in the Quietude of your Heart," but "His" assorted Churches either discourage or outright make it immoral to worship anywhere but in a "House of God," going so far as to make it sinful to Worship in any way but as directed by the (generally parasitical) Priest at the Pulpit. After all, line-up 10 "Holy Men", and you have 8 Parasites, 1 Well Meaning person, and 1 Genuine Sanctified Soul. (Note: the latter two ratios may vary downwards...drastically, but will rarely exceed those values.)

Good Luck!

Basically from my experience that's what people do. Wicca is a very broad term, and most people have there own personal Deity. You will find alto of eclectic Wiccans. If you talk to 100 different Wiccans you will get 100 different opinions on the Goddess and God, and how to practice Wicca.

Why does anyone work within what you call a "packaged religion"? What Wicca teaches has always made sense to me. It lines up with my own experiences when other religions did not. As an eclectic, my practices are highly personalized, but it still easily fits within the Wiccan framework.

Honestly, considering what my beliefs are and where they come from, I think it would be kind of dishonest of me to NOT call myself Wiccan.

I ignore the commercialized stuff done in the name of Wicca. Just because someone exploited my religion doesn't somehow make the message of my religion less meaningful. I just have to be careful to separate the nonsense from the serious...which people really should be doing regardless of their religious path, IMHO.

I refuse to let the idiots define my religion.

Wicca actually came before paganism,Smherefor wicca is not 'version' of it. but, they both fall under the title of paganism, which has many other branches. we do not borrow anything from any religion and wicca is actually quite structured. the only difference between wicca and other religions is that wicca follows the wiccan rede as opposed to just the threefold law. you can email me.

First off, what Wicca seems like to you is not necessarily what I experience.

Second, I don't borrow from Wicca; I practice it outright.

I don't feel the need to make up my own religion when I find the one I adhere to extremely fulfilling.

Part of religion is expression of personal faith, and in Wicca I can do that.

Another part of religion is community and tradition, and with Wicca I also have that-- I don't have that so much if I invent my own religion and do whatever I feel like doing.

I have no interest and see no point in inventing my own religion when there is a great deal about Wicca I willingly embrace, and don't feel it stifles my individual expression of faith in the least.