Wiccans: How important is an understanding-even rudimentary- of the natural sciences to your practice?

Question

Happy Friday:

Way back many years ago, I recall my early training required a basic hands on knowledge of biology, psychology, chemistry and physics (as it applied to natural science.) Whether your training required it or not, how important is a basic understanding of how the natural world works to your practice?

Answer 1

Thinking back to my early training in this tradition...you had to have a basic understanding of psychology and biology but not so much chemistry and definitely not physics.  There is one path in the tradition, that I didn't take, that focused a lot on anatomy and physiology to better understand the human body.

Because I'm a pantheist I put more of a focus on learning how the natural world worked, more so than my teachers did, because it is what I view as deity.  The more I understand it, it's forces and how it works, the more I understand deity.

Answer 2

I haven't had formal training, but here goes.

Sometimes I'll sit around thinking about "Wiccan" things, and I find myself thinking about science - biology, and physics, to be specific. A bit of bio-chemistry. I end up doing a lot of internet research into scientific topics, which seemingly have nothing to do with Wicca, yet these things add to my experience. I'm an art student who is focussed on sculpture and design, so the psychiatry of experience (physical, emotional, spiritual, etc) is something I have to understand deeply. I find that understanding how art works applies to ritual in a meaningful way, since both are just a means of experiencing the physical world at a higher level of consciousness.