Wicca
Encyclopedia
Wicca (ˈwɪkə), is a modern Pagan religious movement. Developing in England in the first half of the 20th century, Wicca was popularised in the 1950s and early 1960s by a Wiccan High Priest named Gerald Gardner
, who at the time called it the "witch cult" and "witchcraft," and its adherents "the Wica." From the 1960s onward, the name of the religion was normalised to "Wicca.".
Wicca is typically a duotheistic religion, worshipping a goddess and a god, who are traditionally viewed as the Triple Goddess and Horned God
. These two deities are often viewed as being facets of a greater pantheistic
godhead
, and as manifesting themselves as various polytheistic
deities. Nonetheless, there are also other theological
positions within Wicca, ranging from monotheism
to atheism
. The religion also involves the ritual practice of magic
, largely influenced by the ceremonial magic
of previous centuries, often in conjunction with a broad code of morality known as the Wiccan Rede
, although this is not adhered to by all wiccans. Another characteristic of this religion is the celebration of seasonally-based festivals
, known as Sabbats, of which there are usually eight in number annually.
There are various denominations within Wicca, which are referred to as traditions. Some, such as Gardnerian
and Alexandrian Wicca
, follow in the initiatory lineage of Gardner. Others, such as Cochrane's Craft
, Feri and the Dianic tradition
, take primary influence from other figures and may not insist on any initiatory lineage.
The application of the word Wicca
has given rise to "a great deal of disagreement and infighting". Gardnerian and Alexandrian Wicca are often collectively termed British Traditional Wicca
, and many of their practitioners consider the term Wicca to apply only to these lineaged traditions. Others do not use the word "Wicca" at all, instead preferring to be referred to only as "Witchcraft," while others believe that all modern witchcraft traditions can be considered "Wiccan." Popular culture, as seen in T.V. programmes like Buffy the Vampire Slayer tends to use the terms “Wiccan” and "Wicca" as completely synonymous with the terms “Witch” and “Witchcraft” respectively.
are numerous and varied, the vast majority of Wiccans venerate both a god and a goddess. These two deities are variously understood through the frameworks of pantheism
(as being dual aspects of a single godhead
), duotheism
(as being two polar opposites), hard polytheism (being two distinct deities in a larger pantheon which includes other pagan gods) or soft polytheism (being composed of many lesser deities). In some pantheistic and duotheistic conceptions, deities from diverse cultures may be seen as aspects of the Goddess or God. However, there are also other theological viewpoints to be found within the Craft, including monotheism
, the concept that there is just one deity, which is seen by some, such as Dianic Wicca
ns, as being the Goddess, whilst by others, like the Church and School of Wicca
, as instead being genderless. There are other Wiccans who are atheists
or agnostics
, not believing in any actual deity, but instead viewing the gods as psychological archtypes of the human mind which can be evoked and interacted with.
According to the Witches Janet
and Stewart Farrar
, who held a pantheistic, duotheistic and animistic
view of theology, Wiccans "regard the whole cosmos as alive, both as a whole and in all of its parts", but that "such an organic view of the cosmos cannot be fully expressed, and lived, without the concept of the God and Goddess. There is no manifestation without polarization; so at the highest creative level, that of Divinity, the polarization must be the clearest and most powerful of all, reflecting and spreading itself through all the microcosmic levels as well".
found in Taoism
. As such they are often interpreted as being "embodiments of a life-force manifest in nature" with some Wiccans believing that they are simply symbolic of these polarities, whilst others believing that the God and the Goddess are genuine beings that exist independently. The two divinities are often given symbolic associations, with the Goddess commonly being symbolised as the Earth
(i.e. Mother Earth
), but also sometimes as the Moon
, which complements the God being viewed as the Sun
.
Traditionally the God is viewed as a Horned God
, associated with nature, wilderness, sexuality, hunting and the life cycle. The Horned God is given various names according to the tradition, and these include Cernunnos
, Pan
, Atho and Karnayna.
At other times the God is viewed as the Green Man
, a traditional figure in European art and architecture, and they often interpret him as being associated with the natural world. The God is also often depicted as a Sun God
, particularly at the festival of Litha, or the summer solstice. Another expression of the God is that of the Oak King and the Holly King, one who rules over winter and spring, the other who rules over summer and autumn.
The Goddess is usually portrayed as a Triple Goddess, thereby being a triadic deity comprising a Maiden goddess, a Mother goddess
, and a Crone goddess, each of whom has different associations, namely virginity, fertility and wisdom. She is also commonly depicted as a Moon Goddess
, and is often given the name of Diana
after the ancient Roman deity. Some Wiccans, particularly from the 1970s onwards, have viewed the Goddess as the more important of the two deities, who is pre-eminent in that she contains and conceives all. In this respect, the God is viewed as the spark of life and inspiration within her, simultaneously her lover and her child. This is reflected in the traditional structure of the coven
. In one monotheistic
form of the Craft, Dianic Wicca
, the Goddess is the sole deity, a concept that has been criticised by members of other more egalitarian traditions.
According to Gerald Gardner, "the Goddess" is a deity of prime importance, along with her consort the Horned God
. In the earliest Wiccan publications, she is described as a tribal goddess of the witch community, neither omnipotent nor universal, and it was recognised that there was a greater "Prime Mover
", although the witches did not concern themselves much with this being.
The concept of having a religion venerating a Horned God accompanying a goddess had been devised by the Egyptologist Margaret Murray
during the 1920s. She believed, based upon her own theories about the Early Modern witch trials in Europe
, that those two deities, though primarily the Horned God, had been worshipped by a Witch-Cult
ever since western Europe had succumbed to Christianity. Whilst now widely discredited, Gerald Gardner was a supporter of her theory, and believed that Wicca was a continuation of that historical Witch-Cult, and that the Horned God and Goddess were therefore ancient deities of the British Isles. Modern scholarship has disproved his claims, however various horned gods and mother goddesses were indeed worshipped in the British Isles during the ancient and early mediaeval periods.
, often viewed as a pantheistic
deity, thereby encompassing everything in the universe within its divinity. In his public writings, Gardner referred to this being as the Prime Mover
, and claimed that it remained unknowable, although in the rituals of his tradition, Gardnerianism
, it is referred to as Dryghten, which had originally been an Old English term meaning The Lord. Since then it has been given other names by different Wiccans, for instance Scott Cunningham
called it by its name in Neo-Platonism, The One
. Other Wiccans such as Starhawk
use the term Star Goddess to describe the universal pantheistic deity that created the cosmos
, and regard Her as a knowable Deity that can and should be worshipped.
As well as pantheism and duotheism, many Wiccans accept the concept of polytheism
, thereby believing that there are many different deities. Some accept the view espoused by the occultist Dion Fortune
that "all gods are one god, and all goddesses are one goddess" —that is that the gods and goddesses of all cultures are, respectively, aspects of one supernal God and Goddess. With this mindset, a Wiccan may regard the Germanic Eostre
, Hindu Kali
, and Christian Virgin Mary each as manifestations of one supreme Goddess and likewise, the Celtic Cernunnos
, the ancient Greek Dionysus
and the Judeo-Christian Yahweh
as aspects of a single, archetypal god. A more strictly polytheistic
approach holds the various goddesses and gods to be separate and distinct entities in their own right. The Wiccan writers Janet Farrar
and Gavin Bone
have postulated that Wicca is becoming more polytheistic as it matures, tending to embrace a more traditionally pagan worldview. Some Wiccans conceive of deities not as literal personalities but as metaphorical archetype
s or thoughtform
s, thereby technically allowing them to be atheists
. Such a view was purported by the High Priestess Vivianne Crowley
, herself a psychologist
, who considered the Wiccan deities to be Jungian archetypes
that existed within the subconscious that could be evoked in ritual. It was for this reason that she said that "The Goddess and God manifest to us in dream and vision."
Wicca is essentially an immanent
religion, and for some Wiccans, this idea also involves elements of animism
. A belief central to Wicca is that the Goddess and the God (or the goddesses and gods) are able to manifest in personal form, most importantly through the bodies of Priestesses and Priests via the rituals of Drawing down the Moon
or Drawing down the Sun.
is a traditional Wiccan teaching dating back to the New Forest coven
in the 1930s. The influential High Priest Raymond Buckland
said that a human's soul reincarnates into the same species over many lives in order to learn lessons and advance spiritually, but this belief is not universal, as many Wiccans believe in the reincarnation of the soul through different species. However, a popular saying amongst Wiccans is that "once a witch, always a witch", indicating a belief that Wiccans are the reincarnations of previous witches.
Typically, Wiccans who believe in reincarnation believe that the soul rests between lives in the Otherworld
or Summerland
, known in Gardner's writings as the "ecstasy of the Goddess". Many Wiccans believe in the ability to contact the spirits of the dead who reside in the Otherworld through spirit mediums
and ouija boards, particularly on the Sabbat of Samhain
, though some disagree with this practice, such as the High Priest Alex Sanders
, who stated that "they are dead; leave them in peace." This belief was likely influenced by Spiritualism
, which was very popular at the time of Wicca's emergence, and with which Gardner and other early Wiccans such as Buckland and Sanders had some experience.
Despite some belief therein, Wicca does not place an emphasis on the afterlife, focusing instead on the current one; as the historian Ronald Hutton
remarked, "the instinctual position of most [Wiccans], therefore, seems to be that if one makes the most of the present life, in all respects, then the next life is more or less certainly going to benefit from the process, and so one may as well concentrate on the present".
, a force they see as being capable of manipulation through the practice of witchcraft
or sorcery
. Some spell it "magick", a variation coined by the influential occultist Aleister Crowley
, though this spelling is more commonly associated with Crowley's religion of Thelema
than with Wicca. Indeed, many Wiccans agree with the definition of magic offered by ceremonial magic
ians, such as Aleister Crowley, who declared that magic was "the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with will", whilst another prominent ceremonial magician, MacGregor Mathers stated that it was "the science of the control of the secret forces of nature". Many Wiccans believe magic to be a law of nature, as yet misunderstood or disregarded by contemporary science, and as such they do not view it as being supernatural
, but being a part of the "super powers that reside in the natural" according to Leo Martello
. Some Wiccans believe that magic is simply making full use of the five senses that achieve surprising results, whilst other Wiccans do not claim to know how magic works, merely believing that it does because they have observed it to be so.
Wiccans cast spells
or workings during ritual practices, often held inside a sacred circle, in an attempt to bring about real changes in the physical world (these rituals are further explained in the "Ritual practices" section below). Common Wiccan spells include those used for healing, for protection, fertility, or to banish negative influences. Many early Wiccans, such as Alex Sanders
, Sybil Leek
and Doreen Valiente
, referred to their own magic as "white magic
", which contrasted with "black magic
", which they associated with evil
and Satanism
. Sanders also used the similar terminology of "left hand path" to describe malevolent magic, and "right hand path" to describe magic performed with good intentions; terminology that had originated with the occultist Madame Blavatsky
in the 19th century. Some modern Wiccans however have stopped using the white-black magic and left-right hand path dichotomies, arguing for instance that the colour black
should not necessarily have any associations with evil.
The scholars of religion, Rodney Stark
and William Bainbridge
, claimed, in 1985, that Wicca had "reacted to secularisation by a headlong plunge back into magic" and that it was a reactionary religion which would soon die out. This view was heavily criticised in 1999 by the historian Ronald Hutton
, who claimed that the evidence displayed the very opposite, that "a large number [of Wiccans] were in jobs at the cutting edge [of scientific culture], such as computer technology."
or ethical code
followed universally by Wiccans of all traditions, however a majority follow a code known as the Wiccan Rede
, which states "an it harm none, do what ye will". This is usually interpreted as a declaration of the freedom to act, along with the necessity of taking responsibility for what follows from one's actions and minimising harm to oneself and others. Another common element of Wiccan morality is the Law of Threefold Return
which holds that whatever benevolent or malevolent actions a person performs will return to that person with triple force, or with equal force on each of the three levels of body, mind and spirit, similar to the eastern idea of karma
. Both the Rede and the Threefold Law were introduced into the Craft by Gerald Gardner, and subsequently adopted by the Gardnerian and other traditions.
Many Wiccans also seek to cultivate a set of eight virtues mentioned in Doreen Valiente
's Charge of the Goddess
, these being mirth, reverence, honour, humility, strength, beauty, power and compassion. In Valiente's poem, they are ordered in pairs of complementary opposites, reflecting a dualism
that is common throughout Wiccan philosophy. Some lineaged Wiccans also observe a set of Wiccan Laws
, commonly called the Craft Laws or Ardanes, 30 of which exist in the Gardnerian tradition and 161 of which are in the Alexandrian tradition. Valiente, one of Gardner's original High Priestesses, argued that the first thirty of these rules were most likely invented by Gerald Gardner himself in mock-archaic language as the by-product of inner conflict within his Bricket Wood coven - the others were later additions made by Alex Sanders
during the 1960s.
Although Gerald Gardner initially demonstrated an aversion to homosexuality
, claiming that it brought down "the curse of the goddess", it is now generally accepted in all traditions of Wicca, with certain groups like the Minoan Brotherhood openly crafting their philosophy around it, and various important figures in the Craft, such as Alex Sanders and Eddie Buczynski, being openly homosexual or bisexual.
, they are seen as symbolic as opposed to literal; that is, they are representations of the phases of matter
. These five elements are invoked during many magical rituals, notably when consecrating a magic circle
. The five elements are Air
, Fire
, Water
and Earth
, plus Aether
(or Spirit), which unites the other four. Various analogies have been devised to explain the concept of the five elements; for instance, the Wiccan Ann-Marie Gallagher
used that of a tree, which is composed of Earth (with the soil and plant matter), Water (sap and moisture), Fire (through photosynthesis
) and Air (the creation of oxygen
from carbon dioxide
), all of which are believed to be united through Spirit.
Traditionally in the Gardnerian Craft, each element has been associated with a cardinal point of the compass; Air with east, Fire with south, Water with west, Earth with north and the Spirit with centre. However, some Wiccans, such as Frederic Lamond, have claimed that the set cardinal points are only those applicable to the geography of southern England, where Wicca evolved, and that Wiccans should determine which directions best suit each element in their region, for instance, those living on the east coast of North America
should invoke Water in the east and not the west because the colossal body of water, the Atlantic ocean
, is to their east. Other Craft groups have associated the elements with different cardinal points, for instance Robert Cochrane's Clan of Tubal Cain associated Earth with south, Fire with east, Water with west and Air with north, and each of which were controlled over by a different deity who were seen as children of the primary Horned God and Goddess. The five elements are symbolised by the five points of the pentagram
, the most prominently used symbol of Wicca.
, who defined ritual as being "one method of reintegrating individuals and groups into the cosmos, and to tie in the activities of daily life with their ever present, often forgotten, significance" noted that rituals, celebrations and rites of passage in Wicca are not "dry, formalised, repetitive experiences", but are performed with the purpose of inducing a religious experience
in the participants, thereby altering their consciousness. She noted that many Wiccans remain skeptical about the existence of the gods, afterlife etc but remain involved in the Craft because of its ritual experiences, with one, Glenna Turner, saying that "I love myth, dream, visionary art. The Craft is a place where all of these things fit together - beauty, pageantry, music, dance, song, dream."
The High Priest and Craft historian Aidan Kelly
claimed that the practices and experiences within Wicca were actually far more important than the beliefs, stating that "it's a religion of ritual rather than theology. The ritual is first; the myth is second. And taking an attitude that the myths of the Craft are 'true history' in the way a fundamentalist looks at the legends of Genesis really seems crazy. It's an alien head-space." It is for this reason that Adler stated that "ironically, considering the many pronouncements against Witchcraft as a threat to reason, the Craft is one of the few religious viewpoints totally compatible with modern science, allowing total scepticism about even its own methods, myths and rituals".
There are many rituals within Wicca that are used when celebrating the Sabbats, worshipping the deities and working magic. Often these take place on a full moon
, or in some cases a new moon, which is known as an Esbat
. In typical rites, the coven or solitary assembles inside a ritually cast and purified magic circle
. Casting the circle may involve the invocation
of the "Guardians" of the cardinal points, alongside their respective classical elements; Air
, Fire
, Water
and Earth
. Once the circle is cast, a seasonal ritual may be performed, prayers to the God and Goddess are said, and spells are sometimes worked. These rites often include a special set of magical tools
. These usually include a knife called an athame
, a wand
, a pentacle
and a chalice
, but other tools include a broomstick known as a besom, a cauldron
, candle
s, incense
and a curved blade known as a boline
. An altar is usually present in the circle, on which ritual tools are placed and representations of the God
and the Goddess
may be displayed. Before entering the circle, some traditions fast for the day, and/or ritually bathe. After a ritual has finished, the God, Goddess and Guardians are thanked and the circle is closed.
A sensationalised aspect of Wicca, particularly in Gardnerian and Alexandrian Wicca, is the traditional practice of working in the nude, also known as skyclad. This practice seemingly derives from a line in Aradia, Charles Leland's supposed record of Italian witchcraft. Other traditions wear robes with cords tied around the waist or even normal street clothes. In certain traditions, ritualised sex magic
is performed in the form of the Great Rite
, whereby a High Priest and High Priestess invoke the God and Goddess to possess them before performing sexual intercourse
to raise magical energy for use in spellwork. In some cases it is instead performed "in token", thereby merely symbolically, using the athame to symbolise the penis and the chalice to symbolise the vagina.
and most eclectics celebrate a set of eight of these Sabbats, though in other groups, particularly those that describe themselves as following "Traditional Witchcraft", such as the Clan of Tubal Cain, only four are followed, and in the rare case of the Ros an Bucca group from Cornwall
, only six are adhered to. The four Sabbats that are common to all these groups are the cross-quarter days, and these are sometimes referred to as Greater Sabbats. They originated as festivals celebrated by the ancient Celtic peoples of Ireland
, and possibly other Celtic peoples of western Europe as well. In the Egyptologist Margaret Murray
's The Witch-Cult in Western Europe (1921) and The God of the Witches (1933), in which she dealt with what she believed to be a historical Witch-Cult
, she stated that these four festivals had survived Christianisation and had been celebrated in the pagan Witchcraft religion. Subsequently, when Wicca was first developing in the 1930s through to the 1960s, many of the early groups, such as Robert Cochrane's Clan of Tubal Cain and Gerald Gardner
's Bricket Wood coven
adopted the commemoration of these four Sabbats as described by Murray. Gardner himself made use of the English names of these holidays, stating that "the four great Sabbats are Candlemass, May Eve, Lammas, and Halloween; the equinoxes and solstices are celebrated also."
The other four festivals commemorated by many Wiccans are known as Lesser Sabbats, and comprise of the solstice
s and the equinox
es, and were only adopted in 1958 by members of the Bricket Wood coven, before subsequently being adopted by other followers of the Gardnerian tradition, and eventually other traditions like Alexandrian Wicca
and the Dianic
tradition. The names of these holidays that are commonly used today are often taken from Germanic pagan
and Celtic polytheistic
holidays. However, the festivals are not reconstructive in nature nor do they often resemble their historical counterparts, instead exhibiting a form of universalism
. Ritual observations may display cultural influence from the holidays from which they take their name as well as influence from other unrelated cultures.
can be found within Wicca. Perhaps the most significant of these is an initiation
ritual, through which somebody joins the Craft and becomes a Wiccan. In British Traditional Wicca
n (BTW) traditions, there is a line of initiatory descent that goes back to Gerald Gardner
, and from him is said to go back to the New Forest coven
; however, the existence of this coven remains unproven. Gardner himself claimed that there was a traditional length of "a year and a day" between when a person began studying the Craft and when they were initiated, although he frequently broke this rule with initiates. In BTW, initiation only accepts someone into the first degree. To proceed to the second degree, an initiate has to go through another ceremony, in which they name and describe the uses of the ritual tools and implements
. It is also at this ceremony that they are given their craft name. By holding the rank of second degree, a BTW is considered capable of initiating others into the Craft, or founding their own semi-autonomous covens. The third degree is the highest in BTW, and it involves the participation of the Great Rite
, either actual or symbolically, as well as ritual flagellation
. By holding this rank, an initiate is considered capable of forming covens that are entirely autonomous of their parent coven.
According to new-age religious scholar James R. Lewis, in his book Witchcraft today: an encyclopedia of Wiccan and neopagan traditions, a high priestess becomes a queen when she has successfully hived off her first new coven under a new third-degree high priestess (in the orthodox Gardnerian system). She then becomes elgible to wear the "moon crown". The sequence of high priestess and queens traced back to Gerald Gardner is known as a lineage, and every orthodox Gardnerian High Priestess has a set of "lineage papers" proving the authenticity of her status.
This three-tier degree system following initiation is largely unique to BTW, and traditions heavily based upon it. The Cochranian tradition
, which is not BTW, but based upon the teachings of Robert Cochrane
, does not have the three degrees of initiation, merely having the stages of novice and initiate.
Some solitary Wiccans also perform self-initiation rituals, to dedicate themselves to becoming a Wiccan. The first of these to be published was in Paul Huson
's Mastering Witchcraft
(1970), and unusually involved recitation of the Lord's Prayer
backwards as a symbol of defiance against the historical Witch Hunt. Subsequent, more overtly pagan self-initiation rituals have since been published in books designed for solitary Wiccans by authors like Doreen Valiente
, Scott Cunningham
and Silver RavenWolf
.
Handfasting
is another celebration held by Wiccans, and is the commonly used term for their weddings. Some Wiccans observe the practice of a trial marriage for a year and a day, which some traditions hold should be contracted on the Sabbat of Lughnasadh, as this was the traditional time for trial, "Telltown
marriages" among the Irish. A common marriage vow in Wicca is "for as long as love lasts" instead of the traditional Christian "till death do us part". The first ever known Wiccan wedding ceremony took part in 1960 amongst the Bricket Wood coven
, between Frederic Lamond and his first wife, Gillian.
Infants in Wiccan families may be involved in a ritual called a Wiccaning
, which is analogous to a Christening
. The purpose of this is to present the infant to the God and Goddess for protection. Despite this, in accordance with the importance put on free will in Wicca, the child is not necessarily expected or required to adhere to Wicca or other forms of paganism should they not wish to do so when they get older.
, Jewish Tanakh
or Islamic Qur'an
although there are certain scriptures and texts that various traditions hold to be important and influence their beliefs and practices. Gerald Gardner used a book containing many different texts in his covens, known as the Book of Shadows
, which he would frequently add to and adapt. In his Book of Shadows, there are texts taken from various sources, including Charles Godfrey Leland
's Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches
(1899) and the works of 19th-20th century occultist Aleister Crowley
, whom Gardner knew personally. Also in the Book are examples of poetry largely composed by Gardner and his High Priestess Doreen Valiente
, the most notable of which is the Charge of the Goddess
.
Similar in use to the grimoires of ceremonial magicians, the Book contained instructions for how to perform rituals and spells, as well as religious poetry and chants like Eko Eko Azarak
to use in those rituals. Gardner's original intention was that every copy of the Book would be different, because a student would copy from their initiators, but changing things which they felt to be personally ineffective, however amongst many Gardnerian Witches today, particularly in the United States
, all copies of the Book are kept identical to the version that the High Priestess Monique Wilson copied from Gardner, with nothing being altered. The Book of Shadows was originally meant to be kept a secret from non-initiates into BTW, but parts of the Book have been published by authors including Charles Cardell
, Lady Sheba, Janet Farrar
and Stewart Farrar
.
Today, adherents of many non-BTW traditions have also adopted the concept of the Book of Shadows, with many solitaries also keeping their own versions, sometimes including material taken from the published Gardnerian Book of Shadows. In other traditions however, practices are never written down, meaning that there is no need for a Book of Shadows.
In certain Traditional Witchcraft traditions, different forms of literature are used, for instance in the 1734 tradition
, the published articles of Robert Cochrane along with letters he wrote to Joseph Wilson
, Robert Graves
and others are held in high esteem whilst in the Sabbatic tradition, various grimoires are followed, such as the Azoetia of Andrew Chumbley.
Various different symbols are used by Wiccans, similar to the use of the crucifix
by Christians or the Star of David
by Jews
. The most notable of these is the pentagram
, which has five points, each representing one of the five classical elements in Wicca (earth, air, fire, water and spirit) and also the idea that the human, with its five appendages, is a microcosm
of the universe. Other symbols that are used include the triskelion
, the triquetra
, the Three hares
and the triple Moon symbol of the Triple Goddess.
, a "tradition" usually implied the transfer of a lineage by initiation. However, with the rise of more and more such groups, often being founded by those with no previous initiatory lineage, the term came to be a synonym for a religious denomination
within Wicca. There are many such traditions and there are also many solitary practitioners who do not align themselves with any particular lineage, working alone. There are also covens that have formed but who do not follow any particular tradition, instead choosing their influences and practices eclectically.
Those traditions which trace a line of initiatory descent back to Gerald Gardner include Gardnerian Wicca
, Alexandrian Wicca
and the Algard
tradition; because of their joint history, they are often referred to as British Traditional Wicca
, particularly in North America
. Other traditions trace their origins to different figures, even if their beliefs and practices have been influenced to a greater or lesser extent by Gardner. These include Cochrane's Craft
and the 1734 tradition
, both of which trace their origins to Robert Cochrane; Feri, which traces itself back to Victor Anderson and Gwydion Pendderwen
; and Dianic Wicca
, whose followers often trace their influences back to Zsuzsanna Budapest
. Some of these groups prefer to refer to themselves as Witches, thereby distinguishing themselves from the BTW traditions, who more typically use the term Wiccan (see Etymology section).
British Traditional Wiccans in particular, but also other groups, insist that to become a bona fide member of that tradition, a person has to undergo an actual physical initiation ceremony performed by a pre-existing initiate. In this manner, all BTW's can trace a direct line of descent all the way back to Gardner. Other traditions however do not hold this to be necessary, for instance anyone following a Goddess-centred form of the Craft which emphasises feminism
could be considered to be Dianic.
s of initiated priests and priestesses. Covens are autonomous, and are generally headed by a High Priest and a High Priestess working in partnership, being a couple who have each been through their first, second and third degrees of initiation. Occasionally the leaders of a coven are only second-degree initiates, in which case they come under the rule of the parent coven. Initiation and training of new priesthood is most often performed within a coven environment, but this is not a necessity, and a few initiated Wiccans are unaffiliated with any coven.
A commonly quoted Wiccan tradition holds that the ideal number of members for a coven is thirteen
, though this is not held as a hard-and-fast rule. Indeed, many U.S. covens are far smaller, though the membership may be augmented by unaffiliated Wiccans at "open" rituals. When covens grow beyond their ideal number of members, they often split (or "hive") into multiple covens, yet remain connected as a group. A grouping of multiple covens is known as a grove in many traditions.
Initiation into a coven is traditionally preceded by a waiting period of at least a year and a day. A course of study may be set during this period. In some covens a "dedication" ceremony may be performed during this period, some time before the initiation proper, allowing the person to attend certain rituals on a probationary basis. Some solitary Wiccans also choose to study for a year and a day before their self-dedication to the religion.
, magical work, etc.) for when they are alone. Eclectic Wicca is the most popular variety of Wicca in America and eclectic Wiccans now significantly outnumber lineaged Wiccans; their beliefs and practices tend to be much more varied.
Eclectic
Wiccans do not following a single tradition exclusively, each creates their own syncretic spiritual path by adopting, reclaiming, and reinventing the beliefs and rituals of a variety of religious traditions connected to Wicca, paganism or neo-Paganism. An eclectic can be described as free of tradition, even while eclecticism is described as a tradition of Wicca. An eclectic might also be a follower of a particular religious or philosophical path, and yet develop individual ideas and ritual practices based on diverse sources. An eclectic approach to Wicca may draw from a diverse range of ancient and modern beliefs or practices, for example: ancient Egypt
ian, Greek
, Asian
, Hebrew, Saxon, Anglo-Saxon
, Polynesian
or Celtic
. Eclectic Wicca is a positive, peaceful, earth-centred religion, with a core ideology informed by those values and beliefs which are common to many Wiccan, pagan, polytheistic, shamanic
, Hawaiian
, or Polynesian religious traditions. Eclecticism may also reflect theories derived from psychology and philosophy, for example, self-actualization, Jungian archetypes
and karma
.
published several books detailing her theories that those persecuted as witches during the Early Modern period in Europe
were not, as the persecutors had claimed, followers of Satanism
, but adherents of a surviving pre-Christian pagan
religion - the Witch-Cult
. Despite now being discredited by further historical research, her theories were widely accepted and supported at the time.
It was during the 1930s that the first evidence appears for the practice of a pagan Witchcraft religion (what would be recognisable now as Wicca) in England. It seems that several groups around the country, in such places as Norfolk
, Cheshire
and the New Forest
had set themselves up as continuing in the tradition of Murray's Witch-Cult, albeit with influences coming from disparate sources such as ceremonial magic
, folk magic, Freemasonry
, Theosophy
, Romanticism
, Druidry, classical mythology
and Asian religions.
The Witchcraft religion became more prominent beginning in 1951, with the repeal of the Witchcraft Act of 1735, after which several figures, such as Charles Cardell
, Cecil Williamson
and most notably Gerald Gardner
, began propagating their own versions of the Craft. Gardner had been initiated into the New Forest coven
in 1939, before forming his own tradition, later termed Gardnerianism
, which he spread through the formation of groups like the Bricket Wood coven
. His tradition, aided by the help of his High Priestess Doreen Valiente
and the publication of his books Witchcraft Today
(1954) and The Meaning of Witchcraft
(1959), soon became the dominant form in the country, and spread to other parts of the British Isles
.
and most importantly Alex Sanders
, whose Alexandrian Wicca
, which was predominantly based upon Gardnerian Wicca, albeit with an emphasis placed on ceremonial magic
, spread quickly and gained much media attention. Around this time, the term "Wicca" began to be commonly adopted over "Witchcraft" and the faith was exported to countries like Australia
and the United States
.
It was in the United States and in Australia that new, home-grown traditions, sometimes based upon earlier, regional folk-magical traditions and often mixed with the basic structure of Gardnerian Wicca, began to develop, including Victor Anderson's Feri, Joseph Wilson's
1734 tradition
, Aidan Kelly
's New Reformed Orthodox Order of the Golden Dawn
and eventually Zsuzsanna Budapest
's Dianic Wicca
, each of which emphasised different aspects of the faith. It was also around this time that books teaching people how to become Witches themselves without formal initiation or training began to emerge, among them Paul Huson
's Mastering Witchcraft
(1970) and Lady Sheba's Book of Shadows (1971). Similar books continued to be published throughout the 1980s and 1990s, fuelled by the writing of such authors as Doreen Valiente
, Janet Farrar
, Stewart Farrar
and Scott Cunningham
, who popularised the idea of self-initiation into the Craft.
In the 1990s, amid ever-rising numbers of self-initiates, the popular media began to explore "witchcraft" in fictional films like The Craft
and television series like Charmed
, introducing numbers of young people to the idea of religious witchcraft. This growing demographic was soon catered to through the Internet
and by authors like Silver Ravenwolf
, much to the criticism of traditional Wiccan groups and individuals. In response to the way that Wicca was increasingly portrayed as trendy, eclectic, and influenced by the New Age movement, many Witches turned to the pre-Gardnerian origins of the Craft, and to the traditions of his rivals like Cardell and Cochrane, describing themselves as following "Traditional Witchcraft". Prominent groups within this Traditional Witchcraft revival included Andrew Chumbley's Cultus Sabbati and the Cornish Ros an Bucca coven.
, who certainly used the term "Wiccen" during the 1950s.
, an independent website which specialises in collecting estimates of world religions, cites over thirty sources with estimates of numbers of Wiccans (principally from the USA and UK). From this, they developed a median estimate of 800,000 members. In the United States population alone, there have been many attempts at finding a figure, with the 2001 American Religious Identification Survey estimating that at least 134,000 adults identified themselves as Wiccans, compared to 8,000 in 1990. Wiccans have also made up significant proportions of various groups within that country; for instance, Wicca is the largest non-Christian faith practised in the United States Air Force
, with 1,434 airmen identifying themselves as such.
In the United Kingdom, census figures do not allow an accurate breakdown of traditions within the Pagan heading, as a campaign by the Pagan Federation
before the 2001 Census
encouraged Wiccans, Heathens, Druids and others all to use the same write-in term 'Pagan' in order to maximise the numbers reported. For the first time, respondents were able to write in an affiliation not covered by the checklist of common religions, and a total of 42,262 people from England, Scotland and Wales declared themselves to be Pagans by this method. These figures were not immediately analysed by the Office of National Statistics, but were released after an application by the Pagan Federation
of Scotland.
Wicca emerged in a predominantly Christian
country, and from its inception suffered opposition from certain Christian groups and from the popular tabloids like the News of the World
. This has continued till this day, and some Christians have asserted that Wicca is a form of Satanism
, despite important differences between these religions, such as the lack of a Satan
-like figure in Wiccan theology. Due to negative connotations associated with witchcraft, many Wiccans continue the traditional practice of secrecy, concealing their faith for fear of persecution. Revealing oneself as Wiccan to family, friends or colleagues is often termed "coming out of the broom-closet". In a similar way, some people have accused Wicca of being anti-Christian, a claim disputed by Wiccans such as Doreen Valiente
, who stated that whilst she knew many Wiccans who admired Jesus
, "witches have little respect for the doctrines of the churches, which they regard as a lot of man-made dogma".
In the United States, a number of legal decisions have improved and validated the status of Wiccans, especially Dettmer v. Landon
in 1985. However, Wiccans have encountered hostility from some politicians and Christian organisations, including former president of the United States George W. Bush
, who stated that he did not believe Wicca to be a religion.
that was persecuted during the witch trial
s. Theories of an organised pan-European witch-cult, as well as mass trials thereof, have been largely discredited, but it is still common for Wiccans to claim solidarity with witch trial victims.
The notion of the survival of Wiccan traditions and rituals from ancient sources is contested by most recent researchers, who suggest that Wicca is a 20th century creation which combines elements of freemasonry and 19th century occultism. However, historians such as Ronald Hutton
have noted that Wicca not only predates the modern New Age movement but also differs markedly in its general philosophy.
In his 1999 book The Triumph of the Moon, Ronald Hutton researched the Wiccan claim that ancient pagan customs have survived into modern times after being Christianised in medieval times as folk practices. Hutton found that most of the folk customs which are claimed to have pagan roots (such as the Maypole dance) actually date from the Middle Ages. He concluded that the idea that medieval revels were pagan in origin is a legacy of the Protestant Reformation.
Modern scholarly investigations have concluded that Witch trials were substantially fewer than claimed by Gardner, and seldom at the behest of religious authorities. For example, in the book Witches and Neighbors, Robin Briggs (1996) examines the history of witchcraft in medieval Europe and refutes the widely-told story that large numbers of independent women were burned at the stake by vindictive Christian ecclesiastics for the crime of practicing naturalistic healing or neopagan religion. Most scholars estimate that a total of 40,000 people were executed as witches during the entire medieval period, and that church authorities participated reluctantly in this process, which was largely fueled by the political turmoil of the Reformation
.
Practices and beliefs
History of Wicca
Wicca in different countries
General
Gerald Gardner
Gerald Brousseau Gardner , who sometimes used the craft name Scire, was an influential English Wiccan, as well as an amateur anthropologist and archaeologist, writer, weaponry expert and occultist. He was instrumental in bringing the Neopagan religion of Wicca to public attention in Britain and...
, who at the time called it the "witch cult" and "witchcraft," and its adherents "the Wica." From the 1960s onward, the name of the religion was normalised to "Wicca.".
Wicca is typically a duotheistic religion, worshipping a goddess and a god, who are traditionally viewed as the Triple Goddess and Horned God
Horned God
The Horned God is one of the two primary deities found in some European pagan religions. He is often given various names and epithets, and represents the male part of the religion's duotheistic theological system, the other part being the female Triple Goddess. In common Wiccan belief, he is...
. These two deities are often viewed as being facets of a greater pantheistic
Pantheism
Pantheism is the view that the Universe and God are identical. Pantheists thus do not believe in a personal, anthropomorphic or creator god. The word derives from the Greek meaning "all" and the Greek meaning "God". As such, Pantheism denotes the idea that "God" is best seen as a process of...
godhead
Deity
A deity is a recognized preternatural or supernatural immortal being, who may be thought of as holy, divine, or sacred, held in high regard, and respected by believers....
, and as manifesting themselves as various polytheistic
Polytheism
Polytheism is the belief of multiple deities also usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own mythologies and rituals....
deities. Nonetheless, there are also other theological
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
positions within Wicca, ranging from monotheism
Monotheism
Monotheism is the belief in the existence of one and only one god. Monotheism is characteristic of the Baha'i Faith, Christianity, Druzism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Samaritanism, Sikhism and Zoroastrianism.While they profess the existence of only one deity, monotheistic religions may still...
to atheism
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
. The religion also involves the ritual practice of magic
Magic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
, largely influenced by the ceremonial magic
Ceremonial magic
Ceremonial magic, also referred to as high magic and as learned magic, is a broad term used in the context of Hermeticism or Western esotericism to encompass a wide variety of long, elaborate, and complex rituals of magic. It is named as such because the works included are characterized by...
of previous centuries, often in conjunction with a broad code of morality known as the Wiccan Rede
Wiccan Rede
The Wiccan Rede is a statement that provides the key moral system in the Neopagan religion of Wicca and other related Witchcraft-based faiths. A common form of the Rede is An it harm none, do what ye will....
, although this is not adhered to by all wiccans. Another characteristic of this religion is the celebration of seasonally-based festivals
Wheel of the Year
The Wheel of the Year is a Neopagan term for the annual cycle of the Earth's seasons. It consists of eight festivals, spaced at approximately even intervals throughout the year. These festivals are referred to as Sabbats...
, known as Sabbats, of which there are usually eight in number annually.
There are various denominations within Wicca, which are referred to as traditions. Some, such as Gardnerian
Gardnerian Wicca
Gardnerian Wicca, or Gardnerian Witchcraft, is a mystery cult tradition or denomination in the neopagan religion of Wicca, whose members can trace initiatory descent from Gerald Gardner. The tradition is itself named after Gardner , a British civil servant and scholar of magic...
and Alexandrian Wicca
Alexandrian Wicca
Alexandrian Wicca is a tradition of the Neopagan religion of Wicca, founded by Alex Sanders who, with his wife Maxine Sanders, established the tradition in the United Kingdom in the 1960s...
, follow in the initiatory lineage of Gardner. Others, such as Cochrane's Craft
Cochrane's Craft
Cochrane’s Craft, which is also known as Cochranianism, is a tradition of the Neopagan religion of Witchcraft founded in 1951 by the English Witch Robert Cochrane, who himself claimed to have been taught it by some of his elderly family members, a claim that is disputed by some historians such as...
, Feri and the Dianic tradition
Dianic Wicca
Dianic Witchcraft and Dianic Feminist Witchcraft, is a tradition, or denomination, of the Neopagan religion of Wicca. It was founded by Zsuzsanna Budapest in the United States in the 1970s, and is notable for its focus on the worship of the Goddess, and on feminism...
, take primary influence from other figures and may not insist on any initiatory lineage.
The application of the word Wicca
Wicca (etymology)
The term "Wicca" is commonly used to refer to the religion of contemporary Pagan Witchcraft, however there are two different definitions of the term currently being used in the Pagan community...
has given rise to "a great deal of disagreement and infighting". Gardnerian and Alexandrian Wicca are often collectively termed British Traditional Wicca
British Traditional Wicca
British Traditional Wicca is a term used to describe some Wiccan traditions which have their origins in the New Forest region of England...
, and many of their practitioners consider the term Wicca to apply only to these lineaged traditions. Others do not use the word "Wicca" at all, instead preferring to be referred to only as "Witchcraft," while others believe that all modern witchcraft traditions can be considered "Wiccan." Popular culture, as seen in T.V. programmes like Buffy the Vampire Slayer tends to use the terms “Wiccan” and "Wicca" as completely synonymous with the terms “Witch” and “Witchcraft” respectively.
Beliefs
Wiccan beliefs vary markedly between different traditions and individual practitioners. However, various commonalities exist between these disparate groups, which usually include views on theology, the afterlife, magic and morality.Theology
Although Wiccan views on theologyTheology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
are numerous and varied, the vast majority of Wiccans venerate both a god and a goddess. These two deities are variously understood through the frameworks of pantheism
Pantheism
Pantheism is the view that the Universe and God are identical. Pantheists thus do not believe in a personal, anthropomorphic or creator god. The word derives from the Greek meaning "all" and the Greek meaning "God". As such, Pantheism denotes the idea that "God" is best seen as a process of...
(as being dual aspects of a single godhead
Deity
A deity is a recognized preternatural or supernatural immortal being, who may be thought of as holy, divine, or sacred, held in high regard, and respected by believers....
), duotheism
Dualistic cosmology
Dualistic cosmology is a collective term. Many variant myths and creation motifs are so described in ethnographic and anthropological literature...
(as being two polar opposites), hard polytheism (being two distinct deities in a larger pantheon which includes other pagan gods) or soft polytheism (being composed of many lesser deities). In some pantheistic and duotheistic conceptions, deities from diverse cultures may be seen as aspects of the Goddess or God. However, there are also other theological viewpoints to be found within the Craft, including monotheism
Monotheism
Monotheism is the belief in the existence of one and only one god. Monotheism is characteristic of the Baha'i Faith, Christianity, Druzism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Samaritanism, Sikhism and Zoroastrianism.While they profess the existence of only one deity, monotheistic religions may still...
, the concept that there is just one deity, which is seen by some, such as Dianic Wicca
Dianic Wicca
Dianic Witchcraft and Dianic Feminist Witchcraft, is a tradition, or denomination, of the Neopagan religion of Wicca. It was founded by Zsuzsanna Budapest in the United States in the 1970s, and is notable for its focus on the worship of the Goddess, and on feminism...
ns, as being the Goddess, whilst by others, like the Church and School of Wicca
Church and School of Wicca
The Church and School of Wicca was founded by Gavin Frost and Yvonne Frost in 1968. It was the first federally recognized Church of the religion known as Wicca in the United States. It is well known for its correspondence courses on the Frosts' unique interpretation of Wicca...
, as instead being genderless. There are other Wiccans who are atheists
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
or agnostics
Agnosticism
Agnosticism is the view that the truth value of certain claims—especially claims about the existence or non-existence of any deity, but also other religious and metaphysical claims—is unknown or unknowable....
, not believing in any actual deity, but instead viewing the gods as psychological archtypes of the human mind which can be evoked and interacted with.
According to the Witches Janet
Janet Farrar
Janet Farrar is a British teacher and author of books on Wicca and Neopaganism. Along with her two husbands, Stewart Farrar and Gavin Bone, Farrar has published "some of the most influential books on modern Witchcraft to date." According to George Knowles, "some seventy five percent of Wiccans...
and Stewart Farrar
Stewart Farrar
Frank Stewart Farrar , who always went by the name of Stewart Farrar, was an English screenwriter, novelist and prominent figure in the Neopagan religion of Wicca, which he devoted much of his later life to propagating with the aid of his seventh wife, Janet Farrar, and then his friend Gavin Bone...
, who held a pantheistic, duotheistic and animistic
Animism
Animism refers to the belief that non-human entities are spiritual beings, or at least embody some kind of life-principle....
view of theology, Wiccans "regard the whole cosmos as alive, both as a whole and in all of its parts", but that "such an organic view of the cosmos cannot be fully expressed, and lived, without the concept of the God and Goddess. There is no manifestation without polarization; so at the highest creative level, that of Divinity, the polarization must be the clearest and most powerful of all, reflecting and spreading itself through all the microcosmic levels as well".
The God and the Goddess
For most Wiccans, the God and Goddess are seen as complementary polarities in the universe that balance one another out, and in this manner they have been compared to the concept of yin and yangYin and yang
In Asian philosophy, the concept of yin yang , which is often referred to in the West as "yin and yang", is used to describe how polar opposites or seemingly contrary forces are interconnected and interdependent in the natural world, and how they give rise to each other in turn. Opposites thus only...
found in Taoism
Taoism
Taoism refers to a philosophical or religious tradition in which the basic concept is to establish harmony with the Tao , which is the mechanism of everything that exists...
. As such they are often interpreted as being "embodiments of a life-force manifest in nature" with some Wiccans believing that they are simply symbolic of these polarities, whilst others believing that the God and the Goddess are genuine beings that exist independently. The two divinities are often given symbolic associations, with the Goddess commonly being symbolised as the Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
(i.e. Mother Earth
Mother Nature
Mother Nature is a common personification of nature that focuses on the life-giving and nurturing aspects of nature by embodying it in the form of the mother. Images of women representing mother earth, and mother nature, are timeless...
), but also sometimes as the Moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
, which complements the God being viewed as the Sun
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
.
Traditionally the God is viewed as a Horned God
Horned God
The Horned God is one of the two primary deities found in some European pagan religions. He is often given various names and epithets, and represents the male part of the religion's duotheistic theological system, the other part being the female Triple Goddess. In common Wiccan belief, he is...
, associated with nature, wilderness, sexuality, hunting and the life cycle. The Horned God is given various names according to the tradition, and these include Cernunnos
Cernunnos
Cernunnos is the conventional name given in Celtic studies to depictions of the horned god of Celtic polytheism. The name itself is only attested once, on the 1st-century Pillar of the Boatmen, but depictions of a horned or antlered figure, often seated in a "lotus position" and often associated...
, Pan
Pan (mythology)
Pan , in Greek religion and mythology, is the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, nature, of mountain wilds, hunting and rustic music, as well as the companion of the nymphs. His name originates within the Greek language, from the word paein , meaning "to pasture." He has the hindquarters, legs,...
, Atho and Karnayna.
At other times the God is viewed as the Green Man
Green Man
A Green Man is a sculpture, drawing, or other representation of a face surrounded by or made from leaves. Branches or vines may sprout from the nose, mouth, nostrils or other parts of the face and these shoots may bear flowers or fruit...
, a traditional figure in European art and architecture, and they often interpret him as being associated with the natural world. The God is also often depicted as a Sun God
Solar deity
A solar deity is a sky deity who represents the Sun, or an aspect of it, usually by its perceived power and strength. Solar deities and sun worship can be found throughout most of recorded history in various forms...
, particularly at the festival of Litha, or the summer solstice. Another expression of the God is that of the Oak King and the Holly King, one who rules over winter and spring, the other who rules over summer and autumn.
The Goddess is usually portrayed as a Triple Goddess, thereby being a triadic deity comprising a Maiden goddess, a Mother goddess
Mother goddess
Mother goddess is a term used to refer to a goddess who represents motherhood, fertility, creation or embodies the bounty of the Earth. When equated with the Earth or the natural world such goddesses are sometimes referred to as Mother Earth or as the Earth Mother.Many different goddesses have...
, and a Crone goddess, each of whom has different associations, namely virginity, fertility and wisdom. She is also commonly depicted as a Moon Goddess
Lunar deity
In mythology, a lunar deity is a god or goddess associated with or symbolizing the moon. These deities can have a variety of functions and traditions depending upon the culture, but they are often related to or an enemy of the solar deity. Even though they may be related, they are distinct from the...
, and is often given the name of Diana
Diana (mythology)
In Roman mythology, Diana was the goddess of the hunt and moon and birthing, being associated with wild animals and woodland, and having the power to talk to and control animals. She was equated with the Greek goddess Artemis, though she had an independent origin in Italy...
after the ancient Roman deity. Some Wiccans, particularly from the 1970s onwards, have viewed the Goddess as the more important of the two deities, who is pre-eminent in that she contains and conceives all. In this respect, the God is viewed as the spark of life and inspiration within her, simultaneously her lover and her child. This is reflected in the traditional structure of the coven
Coven
A coven or covan is a name used to describe a gathering of witches or in some cases vampires. Due to the word's association with witches, a gathering of Wiccans, followers of the witchcraft-based neopagan religion of Wicca, is also described as a coven....
. In one monotheistic
Monotheism
Monotheism is the belief in the existence of one and only one god. Monotheism is characteristic of the Baha'i Faith, Christianity, Druzism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Samaritanism, Sikhism and Zoroastrianism.While they profess the existence of only one deity, monotheistic religions may still...
form of the Craft, Dianic Wicca
Dianic Wicca
Dianic Witchcraft and Dianic Feminist Witchcraft, is a tradition, or denomination, of the Neopagan religion of Wicca. It was founded by Zsuzsanna Budapest in the United States in the 1970s, and is notable for its focus on the worship of the Goddess, and on feminism...
, the Goddess is the sole deity, a concept that has been criticised by members of other more egalitarian traditions.
According to Gerald Gardner, "the Goddess" is a deity of prime importance, along with her consort the Horned God
Horned God
The Horned God is one of the two primary deities found in some European pagan religions. He is often given various names and epithets, and represents the male part of the religion's duotheistic theological system, the other part being the female Triple Goddess. In common Wiccan belief, he is...
. In the earliest Wiccan publications, she is described as a tribal goddess of the witch community, neither omnipotent nor universal, and it was recognised that there was a greater "Prime Mover
Unmoved mover
The unmoved mover is a philosophical concept described by Aristotle as a primary cause or "mover" of all the motion in the universe. As is implicit in the name, the "unmoved mover" is not moved by any prior action...
", although the witches did not concern themselves much with this being.
The concept of having a religion venerating a Horned God accompanying a goddess had been devised by the Egyptologist Margaret Murray
Margaret Murray
Margaret Alice Murray was a prominent British Egyptologist and anthropologist. Primarily known for her work in Egyptology, which was "the core of her academic career," she is also known for her propagation of the Witch-cult hypothesis, the theory that the witch trials in the Early Modern period of...
during the 1920s. She believed, based upon her own theories about the Early Modern witch trials in Europe
Witch trials in Early Modern Europe
The Witch trials in the Early Modern period were a period of witch hunts between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, when across Early Modern Europe, and to some extent in the European colonies in North America, there was a widespread hysteria that malevolent Satanic witches were operating as...
, that those two deities, though primarily the Horned God, had been worshipped by a Witch-Cult
Witch-cult hypothesis
The Witch-cult is the term for a hypothetical pre-Christian, pagan religion of Europe that survived into at least the early modern period. As late as the 19th and early 20th centuries, some scholars had postulated that European witchcraft was part of a Satanic plot to overthrow Christianity; most...
ever since western Europe had succumbed to Christianity. Whilst now widely discredited, Gerald Gardner was a supporter of her theory, and believed that Wicca was a continuation of that historical Witch-Cult, and that the Horned God and Goddess were therefore ancient deities of the British Isles. Modern scholarship has disproved his claims, however various horned gods and mother goddesses were indeed worshipped in the British Isles during the ancient and early mediaeval periods.
Pantheism, Polytheism and Animism
Many Wiccans believe that the God and Goddess are merely two aspects of the same godheadDeity
A deity is a recognized preternatural or supernatural immortal being, who may be thought of as holy, divine, or sacred, held in high regard, and respected by believers....
, often viewed as a pantheistic
Pantheism
Pantheism is the view that the Universe and God are identical. Pantheists thus do not believe in a personal, anthropomorphic or creator god. The word derives from the Greek meaning "all" and the Greek meaning "God". As such, Pantheism denotes the idea that "God" is best seen as a process of...
deity, thereby encompassing everything in the universe within its divinity. In his public writings, Gardner referred to this being as the Prime Mover
Cosmological argument
The cosmological argument is an argument for the existence of a First Cause to the universe, and by extension is often used as an argument for the existence of an "unconditioned" or "supreme" being, usually then identified as God...
, and claimed that it remained unknowable, although in the rituals of his tradition, Gardnerianism
Gardnerian Wicca
Gardnerian Wicca, or Gardnerian Witchcraft, is a mystery cult tradition or denomination in the neopagan religion of Wicca, whose members can trace initiatory descent from Gerald Gardner. The tradition is itself named after Gardner , a British civil servant and scholar of magic...
, it is referred to as Dryghten, which had originally been an Old English term meaning The Lord. Since then it has been given other names by different Wiccans, for instance Scott Cunningham
Scott Cunningham
Scott Douglas Cunningham was a U.S. writer. Cunningham is the author of several books on Wicca and various other alternative religious subjects....
called it by its name in Neo-Platonism, The One
Henosis
Henosis is the word for "oneness," "union," or "unity" in classical Greek, and is spelled identically in modern Greek where "Enosis" is particulary connected with the modern political "Unity" movement to unify Greece and Cyprus....
. Other Wiccans such as Starhawk
Starhawk
Starhawk is an American writer and activist. She is well known as a theorist of Paganism, and is one of the foremost popular voices of ecofeminism. She is a columnist for Beliefnet.com and On Faith, the Newsweek/Washington Post online forum on religion...
use the term Star Goddess to describe the universal pantheistic deity that created the cosmos
Cosmos
In the general sense, a cosmos is an orderly or harmonious system. It originates from the Greek term κόσμος , meaning "order" or "ornament" and is antithetical to the concept of chaos. Today, the word is generally used as a synonym of the word Universe . The word cosmos originates from the same root...
, and regard Her as a knowable Deity that can and should be worshipped.
As well as pantheism and duotheism, many Wiccans accept the concept of polytheism
Polytheism
Polytheism is the belief of multiple deities also usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own mythologies and rituals....
, thereby believing that there are many different deities. Some accept the view espoused by the occultist Dion Fortune
Dion Fortune
Violet Mary Firth Evans , better known as Dion Fortune, was a British occultist and author. Her pseudonym was inspired by her family motto "Deo, non fortuna" , originally the ancient motto of the Barons & Earls Digby.-Early life:She was born in Bryn-y-Bia in Llandudno, Wales, and grew up in a...
that "all gods are one god, and all goddesses are one goddess" —that is that the gods and goddesses of all cultures are, respectively, aspects of one supernal God and Goddess. With this mindset, a Wiccan may regard the Germanic Eostre
Eostre
Old English Ēostre and Old High German Ôstarâ are the names of a Germanic goddess whose Anglo-Saxon month, Ēostur-monath , has given its name to the festival of Easter...
, Hindu Kali
Kali
' , also known as ' , is the Hindu goddess associated with power, shakti. The name Kali comes from kāla, which means black, time, death, lord of death, Shiva. Kali means "the black one". Since Shiva is called Kāla - the eternal time, Kālī, his consort, also means "Time" or "Death" . Hence, Kāli is...
, and Christian Virgin Mary each as manifestations of one supreme Goddess and likewise, the Celtic Cernunnos
Cernunnos
Cernunnos is the conventional name given in Celtic studies to depictions of the horned god of Celtic polytheism. The name itself is only attested once, on the 1st-century Pillar of the Boatmen, but depictions of a horned or antlered figure, often seated in a "lotus position" and often associated...
, the ancient Greek Dionysus
Dionysus
Dionysus was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology. His name in Linear B tablets shows he was worshipped from c. 1500—1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks: other traces of Dionysian-type cult have been found in ancient Minoan Crete...
and the Judeo-Christian Yahweh
Yahweh
Yahweh is the name of God in the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jews and Christians.The word Yahweh is a modern scholarly convention for the Hebrew , transcribed into Roman letters as YHWH and known as the Tetragrammaton, for which the original pronunciation is unknown...
as aspects of a single, archetypal god. A more strictly polytheistic
Polytheism
Polytheism is the belief of multiple deities also usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own mythologies and rituals....
approach holds the various goddesses and gods to be separate and distinct entities in their own right. The Wiccan writers Janet Farrar
Janet Farrar
Janet Farrar is a British teacher and author of books on Wicca and Neopaganism. Along with her two husbands, Stewart Farrar and Gavin Bone, Farrar has published "some of the most influential books on modern Witchcraft to date." According to George Knowles, "some seventy five percent of Wiccans...
and Gavin Bone
Gavin Bone
Gavin Bone is an author and lecturer in the fields of magic, witchcraft, Wicca and Neo-Paganism, and an organizer in the Neo-Pagan community. He was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire in England, in 1964.-Wicca and Neopaganism:...
have postulated that Wicca is becoming more polytheistic as it matures, tending to embrace a more traditionally pagan worldview. Some Wiccans conceive of deities not as literal personalities but as metaphorical archetype
Archetype
An archetype is a universally understood symbol or term or pattern of behavior, a prototype upon which others are copied, patterned, or emulated...
s or thoughtform
Thoughtform
A thoughtform is a manifestation of mental energy, also known as a tulpa in Tibetan mysticism. Its concept is related to the Western philosophy and practice of magic. links mantras and yantras to thoughtforms:...
s, thereby technically allowing them to be atheists
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
. Such a view was purported by the High Priestess Vivianne Crowley
Vivianne Crowley
Vivianne Crowley is an author, university lecturer, psychologist, and a High Priestess and teacher of the Wiccan religion. She was initiated into the London coven of Alex Sanders at the age of eighteen, but later joined a Gardnerian coven...
, herself a psychologist
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
, who considered the Wiccan deities to be Jungian archetypes
Jungian archetypes
Carl Jung created the archetypes which “are ancient or archaic images that derive from the collective unconscious” Also known as innate universal psychic dispositions that form the substrate from which the basic symbols or representations of unconscious experience emerge...
that existed within the subconscious that could be evoked in ritual. It was for this reason that she said that "The Goddess and God manifest to us in dream and vision."
Wicca is essentially an immanent
Immanence
Immanence refers to philosophical and metaphysical theories of divine presence, in which the divine is seen to be manifested in or encompassing of the material world. It is often contrasted with theories of transcendence, in which the divine is seen to be outside the material world...
religion, and for some Wiccans, this idea also involves elements of animism
Animism
Animism refers to the belief that non-human entities are spiritual beings, or at least embody some kind of life-principle....
. A belief central to Wicca is that the Goddess and the God (or the goddesses and gods) are able to manifest in personal form, most importantly through the bodies of Priestesses and Priests via the rituals of Drawing down the Moon
Drawing down the Moon (ritual)
Drawing down the Moon is a ritual central to many contemporary Wiccan traditions. During the ritual, a coven's High Priestess enters a trance and requests that the Goddess or Triple Goddess, symbolized by the moon, enter her body and speak through her...
or Drawing down the Sun.
Afterlife
Belief in the afterlife varies among Wiccans, although reincarnationReincarnation
Reincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...
is a traditional Wiccan teaching dating back to the New Forest coven
New Forest coven
The New Forest coven were a group of Neopagan witches or Wiccans who allegedly met around the area of the New Forest in southern England during the 1930s and 1940s...
in the 1930s. The influential High Priest Raymond Buckland
Raymond Buckland
Raymond Buckland , whose craft name is Robat, is an English American writer on the subject of Wicca and the occult, and a significant figure in the history of Wicca, of which he is a High Priest in both the Gardnerian and Seax traditions.According to his written works, primarily Witchcraft from the...
said that a human's soul reincarnates into the same species over many lives in order to learn lessons and advance spiritually, but this belief is not universal, as many Wiccans believe in the reincarnation of the soul through different species. However, a popular saying amongst Wiccans is that "once a witch, always a witch", indicating a belief that Wiccans are the reincarnations of previous witches.
Typically, Wiccans who believe in reincarnation believe that the soul rests between lives in the Otherworld
Otherworld
Otherworld, or the Celtic Otherworld, is a concept in Celtic mythology that refers to the home of the deities or spirits, or a realm of the dead.Otherworld may also refer to:In film and television:...
or Summerland
The Summerland
The Summerland is the name given by Wiccans and other earth-based Neopagan religions and by Theosophists to their conceptualization of an afterlife.-General overview of Summerland in Neopaganism:...
, known in Gardner's writings as the "ecstasy of the Goddess". Many Wiccans believe in the ability to contact the spirits of the dead who reside in the Otherworld through spirit mediums
Mediumship
Mediumship is described as a form of communication with spirits. It is a practice in religious beliefs such as Spiritualism, Spiritism, Espiritismo, Candomblé, Voodoo and Umbanda.- Concept :...
and ouija boards, particularly on the Sabbat of Samhain
Samhain
Samhain is a Gaelic harvest festival held on October 31–November 1. It was linked to festivals held around the same time in other Celtic cultures, and was popularised as the "Celtic New Year" from the late 19th century, following Sir John Rhys and Sir James Frazer...
, though some disagree with this practice, such as the High Priest Alex Sanders
Alex Sanders (Wiccan)
Alex Sanders , born Orrell Alexander Carter, was an English occultist and High Priest in the Neopagan religion of Wicca, responsible for founding the tradition of Alexandrian Wicca during the 1960s. He was a figure who often appeared in tabloid newspapers...
, who stated that "they are dead; leave them in peace." This belief was likely influenced by Spiritualism
Spiritualism
Spiritualism is a belief system or religion, postulating the belief that spirits of the dead residing in the spirit world have both the ability and the inclination to communicate with the living...
, which was very popular at the time of Wicca's emergence, and with which Gardner and other early Wiccans such as Buckland and Sanders had some experience.
Despite some belief therein, Wicca does not place an emphasis on the afterlife, focusing instead on the current one; as the historian Ronald Hutton
Ronald Hutton
Ronald Hutton is an English historian who specializes in the study of Early Modern Britain, British folklore, pre-Christian religion and contemporary Paganism. A reader in the subject at the University of Bristol, Hutton has published fourteen books and has appeared on British television and radio...
remarked, "the instinctual position of most [Wiccans], therefore, seems to be that if one makes the most of the present life, in all respects, then the next life is more or less certainly going to benefit from the process, and so one may as well concentrate on the present".
Magic
Many Wiccans believe in magicMagic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
, a force they see as being capable of manipulation through the practice of witchcraft
Witchcraft
Witchcraft, in historical, anthropological, religious, and mythological contexts, is the alleged use of supernatural or magical powers. A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft...
or sorcery
Magic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
. Some spell it "magick", a variation coined by the influential occultist Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley , born Edward Alexander Crowley, and also known as both Frater Perdurabo and The Great Beast, was an influential English occultist, astrologer, mystic and ceremonial magician, responsible for founding the religious philosophy of Thelema. He was also successful in various other...
, though this spelling is more commonly associated with Crowley's religion of Thelema
Thelema
Thelema is a religious philosophy that was established, defined and developed by the early 20th century British writer and ceremonial magician, Aleister Crowley. He believed himself to be the prophet of a new age, the Æon of Horus, based upon a religious experience that he had in Egypt in 1904...
than with Wicca. Indeed, many Wiccans agree with the definition of magic offered by ceremonial magic
Ceremonial magic
Ceremonial magic, also referred to as high magic and as learned magic, is a broad term used in the context of Hermeticism or Western esotericism to encompass a wide variety of long, elaborate, and complex rituals of magic. It is named as such because the works included are characterized by...
ians, such as Aleister Crowley, who declared that magic was "the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with will", whilst another prominent ceremonial magician, MacGregor Mathers stated that it was "the science of the control of the secret forces of nature". Many Wiccans believe magic to be a law of nature, as yet misunderstood or disregarded by contemporary science, and as such they do not view it as being supernatural
Supernatural
The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
, but being a part of the "super powers that reside in the natural" according to Leo Martello
Leo Martello
Leo Martello was an author, lecturer, gay civil rights activist, and an early voice in the American Neopagan movement. He drew heavily on his Sicilian heritage, teaching the Strega Tradition which was named after the Italian word for Witch....
. Some Wiccans believe that magic is simply making full use of the five senses that achieve surprising results, whilst other Wiccans do not claim to know how magic works, merely believing that it does because they have observed it to be so.
Wiccans cast spells
Spellcasting
Spellcasting is the act of casting spells and is most often found in a variety of communities. Within the Dungeons & Dragons and other fantasy roleplaying gaming communities, spellcasting is a skill often used by druids, clerics, and wizards. Spellcasting is also associated with occult communities,...
or workings during ritual practices, often held inside a sacred circle, in an attempt to bring about real changes in the physical world (these rituals are further explained in the "Ritual practices" section below). Common Wiccan spells include those used for healing, for protection, fertility, or to banish negative influences. Many early Wiccans, such as Alex Sanders
Alex Sanders (Wiccan)
Alex Sanders , born Orrell Alexander Carter, was an English occultist and High Priest in the Neopagan religion of Wicca, responsible for founding the tradition of Alexandrian Wicca during the 1960s. He was a figure who often appeared in tabloid newspapers...
, Sybil Leek
Sybil Leek
Sybil Leek was an English witch, astrologer, psychic, and occult author. She wrote more than sixty books on occult and esoteric subjects...
and Doreen Valiente
Doreen Valiente
Doreen Edith Dominy Valiente , who also went under the craft name Ameth, was an influential English Wiccan who was involved in a number of different early traditions, including Gardnerianism, Cochrane's Craft and the Coven of Atho...
, referred to their own magic as "white magic
Magic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
", which contrasted with "black magic
Black magic
Black magic is the type of magic that draws on assumed malevolent powers or is used with the intention to kill, steal, injure, cause misfortune or destruction, or for personal gain without regard to harmful consequences. As a term, "black magic" is normally used by those that do not approve of its...
", which they associated with evil
Evil
Evil is the violation of, or intent to violate, some moral code. Evil is usually seen as the dualistic opposite of good. Definitions of evil vary along with analysis of its root motive causes, however general actions commonly considered evil include: conscious and deliberate wrongdoing,...
and Satanism
Satanism
Satanism is a group of religions that is composed of a diverse number of ideological and philosophical beliefs and social phenomena. Their shared feature include symbolic association with, admiration for the character of, and even veneration of Satan or similar rebellious, promethean, and...
. Sanders also used the similar terminology of "left hand path" to describe malevolent magic, and "right hand path" to describe magic performed with good intentions; terminology that had originated with the occultist Madame Blavatsky
Madame Blavatsky
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky , was a theosophist, writer and traveler. Between 1848 and 1875 Blavatsky had gone around the world three times. In 1875, Blavatsky together with Colonel H. S. Olcott established the Theosophical Society...
in the 19th century. Some modern Wiccans however have stopped using the white-black magic and left-right hand path dichotomies, arguing for instance that the colour black
Black
Black is the color of objects that do not emit or reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light...
should not necessarily have any associations with evil.
The scholars of religion, Rodney Stark
Rodney Stark
Rodney Stark is an American sociologist of religion. He grew up in Jamestown, North Dakota in a Lutheran family. He spent time in the U.S. Army and worked as a journalist before pursuing graduate studies at The University of California, Berkeley...
and William Bainbridge
William Sims Bainbridge
William Sims Bainbridge is an American sociologist who currently resides in Virginia. He is co-director of Human-Centered Computing at the National Science Foundation and also teaches sociology as a part-time professor at George Mason University. He is the first Senior Fellow to be appointed by...
, claimed, in 1985, that Wicca had "reacted to secularisation by a headlong plunge back into magic" and that it was a reactionary religion which would soon die out. This view was heavily criticised in 1999 by the historian Ronald Hutton
Ronald Hutton
Ronald Hutton is an English historian who specializes in the study of Early Modern Britain, British folklore, pre-Christian religion and contemporary Paganism. A reader in the subject at the University of Bristol, Hutton has published fourteen books and has appeared on British television and radio...
, who claimed that the evidence displayed the very opposite, that "a large number [of Wiccans] were in jobs at the cutting edge [of scientific culture], such as computer technology."
Morality
There exists no dogmatic moralMoral
A moral is a message conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim...
or ethical code
Ethics
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...
followed universally by Wiccans of all traditions, however a majority follow a code known as the Wiccan Rede
Wiccan Rede
The Wiccan Rede is a statement that provides the key moral system in the Neopagan religion of Wicca and other related Witchcraft-based faiths. A common form of the Rede is An it harm none, do what ye will....
, which states "an it harm none, do what ye will". This is usually interpreted as a declaration of the freedom to act, along with the necessity of taking responsibility for what follows from one's actions and minimising harm to oneself and others. Another common element of Wiccan morality is the Law of Threefold Return
Rule of Three (Wiccan)
The Rule of Three is a religious tenet held by some Wiccans. It states that whatever energy a person puts out into the world, be it positive or negative, will be returned to that person three times...
which holds that whatever benevolent or malevolent actions a person performs will return to that person with triple force, or with equal force on each of the three levels of body, mind and spirit, similar to the eastern idea of karma
Karma
Karma in Indian religions is the concept of "action" or "deed", understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect originating in ancient India and treated in Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Sikh philosophies....
. Both the Rede and the Threefold Law were introduced into the Craft by Gerald Gardner, and subsequently adopted by the Gardnerian and other traditions.
Many Wiccans also seek to cultivate a set of eight virtues mentioned in Doreen Valiente
Doreen Valiente
Doreen Edith Dominy Valiente , who also went under the craft name Ameth, was an influential English Wiccan who was involved in a number of different early traditions, including Gardnerianism, Cochrane's Craft and the Coven of Atho...
's Charge of the Goddess
Charge of the Goddess
The Charge of the Goddess is a traditional inspirational text sometimes used in the neopagan religion of Wicca. Several versions exist, though they all have the same basic premise, that of a set of instructions given by a Great Goddess to her worshippers...
, these being mirth, reverence, honour, humility, strength, beauty, power and compassion. In Valiente's poem, they are ordered in pairs of complementary opposites, reflecting a dualism
Dualism
Dualism denotes a state of two parts. The term 'dualism' was originally coined to denote co-eternal binary opposition, a meaning that is preserved in metaphysical and philosophical duality discourse but has been diluted in general or common usages. Dualism can refer to moral dualism, Dualism (from...
that is common throughout Wiccan philosophy. Some lineaged Wiccans also observe a set of Wiccan Laws
Wiccan Laws
The Wiccan Laws, also called the Craft Laws, the Old Laws, the Ardanes or simply The Laws are the traditional laws of Wicca from the Book of Shadows...
, commonly called the Craft Laws or Ardanes, 30 of which exist in the Gardnerian tradition and 161 of which are in the Alexandrian tradition. Valiente, one of Gardner's original High Priestesses, argued that the first thirty of these rules were most likely invented by Gerald Gardner himself in mock-archaic language as the by-product of inner conflict within his Bricket Wood coven - the others were later additions made by Alex Sanders
Alex Sanders (Wiccan)
Alex Sanders , born Orrell Alexander Carter, was an English occultist and High Priest in the Neopagan religion of Wicca, responsible for founding the tradition of Alexandrian Wicca during the 1960s. He was a figure who often appeared in tabloid newspapers...
during the 1960s.
Although Gerald Gardner initially demonstrated an aversion to homosexuality
Homosexuality and Wicca
Throughout most branches of Wicca, all sexual orientations including homosexuality are considered healthy and positive, provided that individual sexual relationships are healthy and loving. Sexual orientation is therefore not considered an issue. Although Gerald Gardner, a key figure in Wicca, was...
, claiming that it brought down "the curse of the goddess", it is now generally accepted in all traditions of Wicca, with certain groups like the Minoan Brotherhood openly crafting their philosophy around it, and various important figures in the Craft, such as Alex Sanders and Eddie Buczynski, being openly homosexual or bisexual.
Five elements
In certain traditions, there is a belief in the five classical elements, although unlike in ancient GreeceAncient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
, they are seen as symbolic as opposed to literal; that is, they are representations of the phases of matter
Phase (matter)
In the physical sciences, a phase is a region of space , throughout which all physical properties of a material are essentially uniform. Examples of physical properties include density, index of refraction, and chemical composition...
. These five elements are invoked during many magical rituals, notably when consecrating a magic circle
Magic circle
A magic circle is circle or sphere of space marked out by practitioners of many branches of ritual magic, which they generally believe will contain energy and form a sacred space, or will provide them a form of magical protection, or both. It may be marked physically, drawn in salt or chalk, for...
. The five elements are Air
Air (classical element)
Air is often seen as a universal power or pure substance. Its supposed fundamental importance to life can be seen in words such as aspire, inspire, perspire and spirit, all derived from the Latin spirare.-Greek and Roman tradition:...
, Fire
Fire (classical element)
Fire has been an important part of all cultures and religions from pre-history to modern day and was vital to the development of civilization. It has been regarded in many different contexts throughout history, but especially as a metaphysical constant of the world.-Greek and Roman tradition:Fire...
, Water
Water (classical element)
Water is one of the elements in ancient Greek philosophy, in the Asian Indian system Panchamahabhuta, and in the Chinese cosmological and physiological system Wu Xing...
and Earth
Earth (classical element)
Earth, home and origin of humanity, has often been worshipped in its own right with its own unique spiritual tradition.-European tradition:Earth is one of the four classical elements in ancient Greek philosophy and science. It was commonly associated with qualities of heaviness, matter and the...
, plus Aether
Aether (classical element)
According to ancient and medieval science aether , also spelled æther or ether, is the material that fills the region of the universe above the terrestrial sphere.-Mythological origins:...
(or Spirit), which unites the other four. Various analogies have been devised to explain the concept of the five elements; for instance, the Wiccan Ann-Marie Gallagher
Ann-Marie Gallagher
Ann-Marie Gallagher is an author, historian, feminist, witch, and a principal lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire in England. She has written extensively on her subjects, and appears often on British radio. For years she has been practising, teaching, and broadcasting on witchcraft,...
used that of a tree, which is composed of Earth (with the soil and plant matter), Water (sap and moisture), Fire (through photosynthesis
Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis is a chemical process that converts carbon dioxide into organic compounds, especially sugars, using the energy from sunlight. Photosynthesis occurs in plants, algae, and many species of bacteria, but not in archaea. Photosynthetic organisms are called photoautotrophs, since they can...
) and Air (the creation of oxygen
Oxygen
Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...
from carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...
), all of which are believed to be united through Spirit.
Traditionally in the Gardnerian Craft, each element has been associated with a cardinal point of the compass; Air with east, Fire with south, Water with west, Earth with north and the Spirit with centre. However, some Wiccans, such as Frederic Lamond, have claimed that the set cardinal points are only those applicable to the geography of southern England, where Wicca evolved, and that Wiccans should determine which directions best suit each element in their region, for instance, those living on the east coast of North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
should invoke Water in the east and not the west because the colossal body of water, the Atlantic ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
, is to their east. Other Craft groups have associated the elements with different cardinal points, for instance Robert Cochrane's Clan of Tubal Cain associated Earth with south, Fire with east, Water with west and Air with north, and each of which were controlled over by a different deity who were seen as children of the primary Horned God and Goddess. The five elements are symbolised by the five points of the pentagram
Pentagram
A pentagram is the shape of a five-pointed star drawn with five straight strokes...
, the most prominently used symbol of Wicca.
Practices
The Neopagan researcher and High Priestess Margot AdlerMargot Adler
Margot Adler is an author, journalist, lecturer, Wiccan priestess and radio journalist and correspondent for National Public Radio .- Early life :Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, Adler grew up mostly in New York City...
, who defined ritual as being "one method of reintegrating individuals and groups into the cosmos, and to tie in the activities of daily life with their ever present, often forgotten, significance" noted that rituals, celebrations and rites of passage in Wicca are not "dry, formalised, repetitive experiences", but are performed with the purpose of inducing a religious experience
Religious experience
Religious experience is a subjective experience in which an individual reports contact with a transcendent reality, an encounter or union with the divine....
in the participants, thereby altering their consciousness. She noted that many Wiccans remain skeptical about the existence of the gods, afterlife etc but remain involved in the Craft because of its ritual experiences, with one, Glenna Turner, saying that "I love myth, dream, visionary art. The Craft is a place where all of these things fit together - beauty, pageantry, music, dance, song, dream."
The High Priest and Craft historian Aidan Kelly
Aidan Kelly
Aidan Kelly is an American academic, poet and influential figure in the Neopagan religion of Wicca. Having developed his own branch of the faith, the New Reformed Orthodox Order of the Golden Dawn, during the 1960s, he was also initiated into other traditions, including Gardnerianism and Feri, in...
claimed that the practices and experiences within Wicca were actually far more important than the beliefs, stating that "it's a religion of ritual rather than theology. The ritual is first; the myth is second. And taking an attitude that the myths of the Craft are 'true history' in the way a fundamentalist looks at the legends of Genesis really seems crazy. It's an alien head-space." It is for this reason that Adler stated that "ironically, considering the many pronouncements against Witchcraft as a threat to reason, the Craft is one of the few religious viewpoints totally compatible with modern science, allowing total scepticism about even its own methods, myths and rituals".
Ritual practices
Full moon
Full moon lunar phase that occurs when the Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun. More precisely, a full moon occurs when the geocentric apparent longitudes of the Sun and Moon differ by 180 degrees; the Moon is then in opposition with the Sun.Lunar eclipses can only occur at...
, or in some cases a new moon, which is known as an Esbat
Esbat
An esbat is a coven meeting other than one of the Sabbats within Wicca and other Wiccan-influenced forms of Neopaganism. Janet and Stewart Farrar describe esbats as an opportunity for a "love feast, healing work, psychic training and all."...
. In typical rites, the coven or solitary assembles inside a ritually cast and purified magic circle
Magic circle
A magic circle is circle or sphere of space marked out by practitioners of many branches of ritual magic, which they generally believe will contain energy and form a sacred space, or will provide them a form of magical protection, or both. It may be marked physically, drawn in salt or chalk, for...
. Casting the circle may involve the invocation
Invocation
An invocation may take the form of:*Supplication or prayer.*A form of possession.*Command or conjuration.*Self-identification with certain spirits....
of the "Guardians" of the cardinal points, alongside their respective classical elements; Air
Air (classical element)
Air is often seen as a universal power or pure substance. Its supposed fundamental importance to life can be seen in words such as aspire, inspire, perspire and spirit, all derived from the Latin spirare.-Greek and Roman tradition:...
, Fire
Fire (classical element)
Fire has been an important part of all cultures and religions from pre-history to modern day and was vital to the development of civilization. It has been regarded in many different contexts throughout history, but especially as a metaphysical constant of the world.-Greek and Roman tradition:Fire...
, Water
Water (classical element)
Water is one of the elements in ancient Greek philosophy, in the Asian Indian system Panchamahabhuta, and in the Chinese cosmological and physiological system Wu Xing...
and Earth
Earth (classical element)
Earth, home and origin of humanity, has often been worshipped in its own right with its own unique spiritual tradition.-European tradition:Earth is one of the four classical elements in ancient Greek philosophy and science. It was commonly associated with qualities of heaviness, matter and the...
. Once the circle is cast, a seasonal ritual may be performed, prayers to the God and Goddess are said, and spells are sometimes worked. These rites often include a special set of magical tools
Magical tools in Wicca
In the neopagan religion of Wicca, a range of magical tools are used in ritual practice. Each of these tools has different uses and associations, and are used primarily to direct magical energies...
. These usually include a knife called an athame
Athame
An Athame or Athamé is a ceremonial dagger, with a double-edged blade and usually a black handle. It is the main ritual implement or magical tool among several used in the religion of Wicca, and is also used in various other neopagan witchcraft traditions. It is variously pronounced or...
, a wand
Wand
A wand is a thin, straight, hand-held stick of wood, stone, ivory, or metal. Generally, in modern language, wands are ceremonial and/or have associations with magic but there have been other uses, all stemming from the original meaning as a synonym of rod and virge, both of which had a similar...
, a pentacle
Pentacle
A pentacle is an amulet used in magical evocation, generally made of parchment, paper or metal , on which the symbol of a spirit or energy being evoked is drawn. It is often worn around the neck, or placed within the triangle of evocation...
and a chalice
Chalice (cup)
A chalice is a goblet or footed cup intended to hold a drink. In general religious terms, it is intended for drinking during a ceremony.-Christian:...
, but other tools include a broomstick known as a besom, a cauldron
Cauldron
A cauldron or caldron is a large metal pot for cooking and/or boiling over an open fire, with a large mouth and frequently with an arc-shaped hanger.- Etymology :...
, candle
Candle
A candle is a solid block or cylinder of wax with an embedded wick, which is lit to provide light, and sometimes heat.Today, most candles are made from paraffin. Candles can also be made from beeswax, soy, other plant waxes, and tallow...
s, incense
Incense
Incense is composed of aromatic biotic materials, which release fragrant smoke when burned. The term "incense" refers to the substance itself, rather than to the odor that it produces. It is used in religious ceremonies, ritual purification, aromatherapy, meditation, for creating a mood, and for...
and a curved blade known as a boline
Boline
In Wicca the boline is a white-handled ritual knife, one of several magical tools used in Wicca. Unlike the athame, which in most traditions is never used for actual physical cutting, the boline is used for cutting cords and herbs, carving candles, etc...
. An altar is usually present in the circle, on which ritual tools are placed and representations of the God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
and the Goddess
Goddess
A goddess is a female deity. In some cultures goddesses are associated with Earth, motherhood, love, and the household. In other cultures, goddesses also rule over war, death, and destruction as well as healing....
may be displayed. Before entering the circle, some traditions fast for the day, and/or ritually bathe. After a ritual has finished, the God, Goddess and Guardians are thanked and the circle is closed.
A sensationalised aspect of Wicca, particularly in Gardnerian and Alexandrian Wicca, is the traditional practice of working in the nude, also known as skyclad. This practice seemingly derives from a line in Aradia, Charles Leland's supposed record of Italian witchcraft. Other traditions wear robes with cords tied around the waist or even normal street clothes. In certain traditions, ritualised sex magic
Sex magic
Sex magic is a term for various types of sexual activity used in magical, ritualistic or otherwise religious and spiritual pursuits. One practice of sex magic is using the energy of sexual arousal or orgasm with visualization of a desired result...
is performed in the form of the Great Rite
Great Rite
In Wicca, the Great Rite is a form of sex magic that includes either ritual sexual intercourse or else a ritual symbolic representation of sexual intercourse....
, whereby a High Priest and High Priestess invoke the God and Goddess to possess them before performing sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
to raise magical energy for use in spellwork. In some cases it is instead performed "in token", thereby merely symbolically, using the athame to symbolise the penis and the chalice to symbolise the vagina.
Wheel of the Year
Wiccans celebrate several seasonal festivals of the year, which are known as Sabbats; collectively these occasions are often termed the Wheel of the Year. Many Wiccans, such as GardneriansGardnerian Wicca
Gardnerian Wicca, or Gardnerian Witchcraft, is a mystery cult tradition or denomination in the neopagan religion of Wicca, whose members can trace initiatory descent from Gerald Gardner. The tradition is itself named after Gardner , a British civil servant and scholar of magic...
and most eclectics celebrate a set of eight of these Sabbats, though in other groups, particularly those that describe themselves as following "Traditional Witchcraft", such as the Clan of Tubal Cain, only four are followed, and in the rare case of the Ros an Bucca group from Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
, only six are adhered to. The four Sabbats that are common to all these groups are the cross-quarter days, and these are sometimes referred to as Greater Sabbats. They originated as festivals celebrated by the ancient Celtic peoples of Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, and possibly other Celtic peoples of western Europe as well. In the Egyptologist Margaret Murray
Margaret Murray
Margaret Alice Murray was a prominent British Egyptologist and anthropologist. Primarily known for her work in Egyptology, which was "the core of her academic career," she is also known for her propagation of the Witch-cult hypothesis, the theory that the witch trials in the Early Modern period of...
's The Witch-Cult in Western Europe (1921) and The God of the Witches (1933), in which she dealt with what she believed to be a historical Witch-Cult
Witch-cult hypothesis
The Witch-cult is the term for a hypothetical pre-Christian, pagan religion of Europe that survived into at least the early modern period. As late as the 19th and early 20th centuries, some scholars had postulated that European witchcraft was part of a Satanic plot to overthrow Christianity; most...
, she stated that these four festivals had survived Christianisation and had been celebrated in the pagan Witchcraft religion. Subsequently, when Wicca was first developing in the 1930s through to the 1960s, many of the early groups, such as Robert Cochrane's Clan of Tubal Cain and Gerald Gardner
Gerald Gardner
Gerald Brousseau Gardner , who sometimes used the craft name Scire, was an influential English Wiccan, as well as an amateur anthropologist and archaeologist, writer, weaponry expert and occultist. He was instrumental in bringing the Neopagan religion of Wicca to public attention in Britain and...
's Bricket Wood coven
Bricket Wood coven
The Bricket Wood coven, or Hertfordshire coven was a coven of Gardnerian Witches founded in the 1940s by Gerald Gardner. It was notable for being the first coven in the Gardnerian line, though having its supposed origins in the pre-Gardnerian New Forest coven...
adopted the commemoration of these four Sabbats as described by Murray. Gardner himself made use of the English names of these holidays, stating that "the four great Sabbats are Candlemass, May Eve, Lammas, and Halloween; the equinoxes and solstices are celebrated also."
The other four festivals commemorated by many Wiccans are known as Lesser Sabbats, and comprise of the solstice
Solstice
A solstice is an astronomical event that happens twice each year when the Sun's apparent position in the sky, as viewed from Earth, reaches its northernmost or southernmost extremes...
s and the equinox
Equinox
An equinox occurs twice a year, when the tilt of the Earth's axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the Sun, the center of the Sun being in the same plane as the Earth's equator...
es, and were only adopted in 1958 by members of the Bricket Wood coven, before subsequently being adopted by other followers of the Gardnerian tradition, and eventually other traditions like Alexandrian Wicca
Alexandrian Wicca
Alexandrian Wicca is a tradition of the Neopagan religion of Wicca, founded by Alex Sanders who, with his wife Maxine Sanders, established the tradition in the United Kingdom in the 1960s...
and the Dianic
Dianic Wicca
Dianic Witchcraft and Dianic Feminist Witchcraft, is a tradition, or denomination, of the Neopagan religion of Wicca. It was founded by Zsuzsanna Budapest in the United States in the 1970s, and is notable for its focus on the worship of the Goddess, and on feminism...
tradition. The names of these holidays that are commonly used today are often taken from Germanic pagan
Germanic paganism
Germanic paganism refers to the theology and religious practices of the Germanic peoples of north-western Europe from the Iron Age until their Christianization during the Medieval period...
and Celtic polytheistic
Celtic polytheism
Celtic polytheism, commonly known as Celtic paganism, refers to the religious beliefs and practices adhered to by the Iron Age peoples of Western Europe now known as the Celts, roughly between 500 BCE and 500 CE, spanning the La Tène period and the Roman era, and in the case of the Insular Celts...
holidays. However, the festivals are not reconstructive in nature nor do they often resemble their historical counterparts, instead exhibiting a form of universalism
Universalism
Universalism in its primary meaning refers to religious, theological, and philosophical concepts with universal application or applicability...
. Ritual observations may display cultural influence from the holidays from which they take their name as well as influence from other unrelated cultures.
| Sabbat | Northern Hemisphere | Southern Hemisphere | Historical Origins | Associations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Samhain Samhain Samhain is a Gaelic harvest festival held on October 31–November 1. It was linked to festivals held around the same time in other Celtic cultures, and was popularised as the "Celtic New Year" from the late 19th century, following Sir John Rhys and Sir James Frazer... , aka Halloween Halloween Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day... |
31 October | 30 April, or 1 May | Celtic paganism Celtic polytheism Celtic polytheism, commonly known as Celtic paganism, refers to the religious beliefs and practices adhered to by the Iron Age peoples of Western Europe now known as the Celts, roughly between 500 BCE and 500 CE, spanning the La Tène period and the Roman era, and in the case of the Insular Celts... (see also Celts) |
Death and the ancestors. |
| Yuletide | 21st or 22 December | 21 June | Germanic paganism Germanic paganism Germanic paganism refers to the theology and religious practices of the Germanic peoples of north-western Europe from the Iron Age until their Christianization during the Medieval period... |
Winter Solstice Winter solstice Winter solstice may refer to:* Winter solstice, astronomical event* Winter Solstice , former band* Winter Solstice: North , seasonal songs* Winter Solstice , 2005 American film... and the rebirth of the sun Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields... . |
| Imbolc Imbolc Imbolc , or St Brigid’s Day , is an Irish festival marking the beginning of spring. Most commonly it is celebrated on 1 or 2 February in the northern hemisphere and 1 August in the southern hemisphere... , aka Candlemas |
1st or 2 February | 1 August | Celtic paganism Celtic polytheism Celtic polytheism, commonly known as Celtic paganism, refers to the religious beliefs and practices adhered to by the Iron Age peoples of Western Europe now known as the Celts, roughly between 500 BCE and 500 CE, spanning the La Tène period and the Roman era, and in the case of the Insular Celts... (see also Celts) |
First signs of spring Spring (season) Spring is one of the four temperate seasons, the transition period between winter and summer. Spring and "springtime" refer to the season, and broadly to ideas of rebirth, renewal and regrowth. The specific definition of the exact timing of "spring" varies according to local climate, cultures and... . |
| Ostara | 21st or 22 March | 21st or 22 September | Germanic paganism Germanic paganism Germanic paganism refers to the theology and religious practices of the Germanic peoples of north-western Europe from the Iron Age until their Christianization during the Medieval period... |
Spring Equinox and the beginning of spring Spring (season) Spring is one of the four temperate seasons, the transition period between winter and summer. Spring and "springtime" refer to the season, and broadly to ideas of rebirth, renewal and regrowth. The specific definition of the exact timing of "spring" varies according to local climate, cultures and... . |
| Beltaine aka May Eve, or May Day May Day May Day on May 1 is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday; it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures.... |
30 April or 1 May | 1 November | Celtic paganism Celtic polytheism Celtic polytheism, commonly known as Celtic paganism, refers to the religious beliefs and practices adhered to by the Iron Age peoples of Western Europe now known as the Celts, roughly between 500 BCE and 500 CE, spanning the La Tène period and the Roman era, and in the case of the Insular Celts... (see also Celts) |
The full flowering of spring Spring (season) Spring is one of the four temperate seasons, the transition period between winter and summer. Spring and "springtime" refer to the season, and broadly to ideas of rebirth, renewal and regrowth. The specific definition of the exact timing of "spring" varies according to local climate, cultures and... . Fairy folk. |
| Litha | 21st or 22 June | 21 December | Possibly Neolithic | Summer Solstice Summer solstice The summer solstice occurs exactly when the axial tilt of a planet's semi-axis in a given hemisphere is most inclined towards the star that it orbits. Earth's maximum axial tilt to our star, the Sun, during a solstice is 23° 26'. Though the summer solstice is an instant in time, the term is also... . |
| Lughnasadh Lughnasadh Lughnasadh is a traditional Gaelic holiday celebrated on 1 August. It is in origin a harvest festival, corresponding to the Welsh Calan Awst and the English Lammas.-Name:... aka Lammas Lammas In some English-speaking countries in the Northern Hemisphere, August 1 is Lammas Day , the festival of the wheat harvest, and is the first harvest festival of the year. On this day it was customary to bring to church a loaf made from the new crop... |
1st or 2 August | 1 February | Celtic paganism Celtic polytheism Celtic polytheism, commonly known as Celtic paganism, refers to the religious beliefs and practices adhered to by the Iron Age peoples of Western Europe now known as the Celts, roughly between 500 BCE and 500 CE, spanning the La Tène period and the Roman era, and in the case of the Insular Celts... (see also Celts) |
The harvest of grain. |
| Mabon Mabon ap Modron Mabon ap Modron is a prominent figure from Welsh literature and mythology, the son of Modron and a member of Arthur's warband. Both he and his mother were likely deities in origin, descending from a divine mother–son pair. His name is related to the Romano-British god Maponos, whose name means... aka Modron Modron In Welsh mythology, Modron was a daughter of Afallach, derived from the Gaulish goddess Matrona. She may have been the prototype of Morgan le Fay from Arthurian legend... |
21st or 22 September | 21 March | No historical pagan equivalent. | Autumn Equinox. The harvest of fruit. |
Rites of passage
Various rites of passageRites of Passage
Rites of Passage is an African American History program sponsored by the Stamford, Connecticut US public schools. The program consists of an extra day of schooling on Saturday for 12 weeks, service projects, and a culminating educational trip to Gambia and Senegal. Gambia and Senegal are the...
can be found within Wicca. Perhaps the most significant of these is an initiation
Initiation
Initiation is a rite of passage ceremony marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components...
ritual, through which somebody joins the Craft and becomes a Wiccan. In British Traditional Wicca
British Traditional Wicca
British Traditional Wicca is a term used to describe some Wiccan traditions which have their origins in the New Forest region of England...
n (BTW) traditions, there is a line of initiatory descent that goes back to Gerald Gardner
Gerald Gardner
Gerald Brousseau Gardner , who sometimes used the craft name Scire, was an influential English Wiccan, as well as an amateur anthropologist and archaeologist, writer, weaponry expert and occultist. He was instrumental in bringing the Neopagan religion of Wicca to public attention in Britain and...
, and from him is said to go back to the New Forest coven
New Forest coven
The New Forest coven were a group of Neopagan witches or Wiccans who allegedly met around the area of the New Forest in southern England during the 1930s and 1940s...
; however, the existence of this coven remains unproven. Gardner himself claimed that there was a traditional length of "a year and a day" between when a person began studying the Craft and when they were initiated, although he frequently broke this rule with initiates. In BTW, initiation only accepts someone into the first degree. To proceed to the second degree, an initiate has to go through another ceremony, in which they name and describe the uses of the ritual tools and implements
Magical tools in Wicca
In the neopagan religion of Wicca, a range of magical tools are used in ritual practice. Each of these tools has different uses and associations, and are used primarily to direct magical energies...
. It is also at this ceremony that they are given their craft name. By holding the rank of second degree, a BTW is considered capable of initiating others into the Craft, or founding their own semi-autonomous covens. The third degree is the highest in BTW, and it involves the participation of the Great Rite
Great Rite
In Wicca, the Great Rite is a form of sex magic that includes either ritual sexual intercourse or else a ritual symbolic representation of sexual intercourse....
, either actual or symbolically, as well as ritual flagellation
Flagellation
Flagellation or flogging is the act of methodically beating or whipping the human body. Specialised implements for it include rods, switches, the cat o' nine tails and the sjambok...
. By holding this rank, an initiate is considered capable of forming covens that are entirely autonomous of their parent coven.
According to new-age religious scholar James R. Lewis, in his book Witchcraft today: an encyclopedia of Wiccan and neopagan traditions, a high priestess becomes a queen when she has successfully hived off her first new coven under a new third-degree high priestess (in the orthodox Gardnerian system). She then becomes elgible to wear the "moon crown". The sequence of high priestess and queens traced back to Gerald Gardner is known as a lineage, and every orthodox Gardnerian High Priestess has a set of "lineage papers" proving the authenticity of her status.
Cochrane's Craft
Cochrane’s Craft, which is also known as Cochranianism, is a tradition of the Neopagan religion of Witchcraft founded in 1951 by the English Witch Robert Cochrane, who himself claimed to have been taught it by some of his elderly family members, a claim that is disputed by some historians such as...
, which is not BTW, but based upon the teachings of Robert Cochrane
Roy Bowers
Robert Cochrane , who was born as Roy Bowers, was an English Neopagan witch who founded the tradition known as Cochrane's Craft, which is seen by some to be a form of Wicca but is sometimes considered distinct from it due to Cochrane's opposition to both Gerald Gardner and Gardnerian Wicca.Born...
, does not have the three degrees of initiation, merely having the stages of novice and initiate.
Some solitary Wiccans also perform self-initiation rituals, to dedicate themselves to becoming a Wiccan. The first of these to be published was in Paul Huson
Paul Huson
Paul Huson is a British-born author and artist currently living in the United States. In addition to writing several books about occultism and witchcraft he has worked extensively in the film and television industries.-Family:...
's Mastering Witchcraft
Mastering Witchcraft
Mastering Witchcraft: A Practical Guide for Witches, Warlocks and Covens is a book written by Paul Huson and published in 1970 by G.P. Putnams- the first mainstream publisher to produce a do-it-yourself manual for the would-be witch or warlock....
(1970), and unusually involved recitation of the Lord's Prayer
Lord's Prayer
The Lord's Prayer is a central prayer in Christianity. In the New Testament of the Christian Bible, it appears in two forms: in the Gospel of Matthew as part of the discourse on ostentation in the Sermon on the Mount, and in the Gospel of Luke, which records Jesus being approached by "one of his...
backwards as a symbol of defiance against the historical Witch Hunt. Subsequent, more overtly pagan self-initiation rituals have since been published in books designed for solitary Wiccans by authors like Doreen Valiente
Doreen Valiente
Doreen Edith Dominy Valiente , who also went under the craft name Ameth, was an influential English Wiccan who was involved in a number of different early traditions, including Gardnerianism, Cochrane's Craft and the Coven of Atho...
, Scott Cunningham
Scott Cunningham
Scott Douglas Cunningham was a U.S. writer. Cunningham is the author of several books on Wicca and various other alternative religious subjects....
and Silver RavenWolf
Silver RavenWolf
Silver RavenWolf , born Jenine E. Trayer, is an American author and lecturer who focuses on Neopaganism. She is married and has four children. She currently resides in Dillsburg, Pennsylvania.- Biography :...
.
Handfasting
Handfasting
Handfasting is a traditional European ceremony of betrothal or wedding. It usually involved the tying or binding of the right hands of the bride and groom with a cord or ribbon for the duration of the wedding ceremony.-Etymology:...
is another celebration held by Wiccans, and is the commonly used term for their weddings. Some Wiccans observe the practice of a trial marriage for a year and a day, which some traditions hold should be contracted on the Sabbat of Lughnasadh, as this was the traditional time for trial, "Telltown
Telltown
Telltown is an outdated place name in County Meath, Ireland, for the area between Navan and Kells. It was named for the Irish mythological figure or goddess, Tailtiu...
marriages" among the Irish. A common marriage vow in Wicca is "for as long as love lasts" instead of the traditional Christian "till death do us part". The first ever known Wiccan wedding ceremony took part in 1960 amongst the Bricket Wood coven
Bricket Wood coven
The Bricket Wood coven, or Hertfordshire coven was a coven of Gardnerian Witches founded in the 1940s by Gerald Gardner. It was notable for being the first coven in the Gardnerian line, though having its supposed origins in the pre-Gardnerian New Forest coven...
, between Frederic Lamond and his first wife, Gillian.
Infants in Wiccan families may be involved in a ritual called a Wiccaning
Wiccaning
A wiccaning is a Wiccan ceremony or ritual analogous to a christening or baptism for an infant which centers on the presentation of the infant to the God and Goddess for protection.-Application:...
, which is analogous to a Christening
Infant baptism
Infant baptism is the practice of baptising infants or young children. In theological discussions, the practice is sometimes referred to as paedobaptism or pedobaptism from the Greek pais meaning "child." The practice is sometimes contrasted with what is called "believer's baptism", or...
. The purpose of this is to present the infant to the God and Goddess for protection. Despite this, in accordance with the importance put on free will in Wicca, the child is not necessarily expected or required to adhere to Wicca or other forms of paganism should they not wish to do so when they get older.
Book of Shadows
In Wicca there is no set sacred text such as the Christian BibleBible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
, Jewish Tanakh
Tanakh
The Tanakh is a name used in Judaism for the canon of the Hebrew Bible. The Tanakh is also known as the Masoretic Text or the Miqra. The name is an acronym formed from the initial Hebrew letters of the Masoretic Text's three traditional subdivisions: The Torah , Nevi'im and Ketuvim —hence...
or Islamic Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
although there are certain scriptures and texts that various traditions hold to be important and influence their beliefs and practices. Gerald Gardner used a book containing many different texts in his covens, known as the Book of Shadows
Book of Shadows
A Book of Shadows is a book containing religious texts and instructions for magical rituals found within the Neopagan religion of Wicca. Originating within the Gardnerian tradition of the Craft, the first Book of Shadows was created by the pioneering Wiccan Gerald Gardner sometime in the late 1940s...
, which he would frequently add to and adapt. In his Book of Shadows, there are texts taken from various sources, including Charles Godfrey Leland
Charles Godfrey Leland
Charles Godfrey Leland was an American humorist and folklorist, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was educated at Princeton University and in Europe....
's Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches
Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches
Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches is a book composed by the American folklorist Charles Leland that was published in 1899. It contains what he believed was the religious text of a group of pagan witches in Tuscany, Italy that documented their beliefs and rituals, although various historians and...
(1899) and the works of 19th-20th century occultist Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley , born Edward Alexander Crowley, and also known as both Frater Perdurabo and The Great Beast, was an influential English occultist, astrologer, mystic and ceremonial magician, responsible for founding the religious philosophy of Thelema. He was also successful in various other...
, whom Gardner knew personally. Also in the Book are examples of poetry largely composed by Gardner and his High Priestess Doreen Valiente
Doreen Valiente
Doreen Edith Dominy Valiente , who also went under the craft name Ameth, was an influential English Wiccan who was involved in a number of different early traditions, including Gardnerianism, Cochrane's Craft and the Coven of Atho...
, the most notable of which is the Charge of the Goddess
Charge of the Goddess
The Charge of the Goddess is a traditional inspirational text sometimes used in the neopagan religion of Wicca. Several versions exist, though they all have the same basic premise, that of a set of instructions given by a Great Goddess to her worshippers...
.
Similar in use to the grimoires of ceremonial magicians, the Book contained instructions for how to perform rituals and spells, as well as religious poetry and chants like Eko Eko Azarak
Eko Eko Azarak
Eko Eko Azarak is the opening phrase from a Wiccan chant, assembled in its current form by Gerald Gardner, usually considered as the founder of Wicca as an organized, contemporary religion...
to use in those rituals. Gardner's original intention was that every copy of the Book would be different, because a student would copy from their initiators, but changing things which they felt to be personally ineffective, however amongst many Gardnerian Witches today, particularly in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, all copies of the Book are kept identical to the version that the High Priestess Monique Wilson copied from Gardner, with nothing being altered. The Book of Shadows was originally meant to be kept a secret from non-initiates into BTW, but parts of the Book have been published by authors including Charles Cardell
Charles Cardell
Charles Cardell was an English Wiccan who propagated his own tradition of the Craft, which was distinct from that of Gerald Gardner. Cardell's tradition of Wicca was based around a form of the Horned God known as Atho, and worked with a coven that met in the grounds of his estate in Surrey. His...
, Lady Sheba, Janet Farrar
Janet Farrar
Janet Farrar is a British teacher and author of books on Wicca and Neopaganism. Along with her two husbands, Stewart Farrar and Gavin Bone, Farrar has published "some of the most influential books on modern Witchcraft to date." According to George Knowles, "some seventy five percent of Wiccans...
and Stewart Farrar
Stewart Farrar
Frank Stewart Farrar , who always went by the name of Stewart Farrar, was an English screenwriter, novelist and prominent figure in the Neopagan religion of Wicca, which he devoted much of his later life to propagating with the aid of his seventh wife, Janet Farrar, and then his friend Gavin Bone...
.
Today, adherents of many non-BTW traditions have also adopted the concept of the Book of Shadows, with many solitaries also keeping their own versions, sometimes including material taken from the published Gardnerian Book of Shadows. In other traditions however, practices are never written down, meaning that there is no need for a Book of Shadows.
In certain Traditional Witchcraft traditions, different forms of literature are used, for instance in the 1734 tradition
1734 Tradition
The 1734 Tradition is a tradition of Traditional Witchcraft founded by the American Joseph Wilson, who developed it between 1964 and 1972 and founded the tradition in late 1973 and early 1974. It was largely based upon the teachings which he received from an English Traditional Witch namedRobert...
, the published articles of Robert Cochrane along with letters he wrote to Joseph Wilson
Joseph Bearwalker Wilson
Joseph Bearwalker Wilson was a shaman and witch, founder of the 1734 Tradition of witchcraft, toteg Tribe, Metista, and a founding member of the Covenant of the Goddess....
, Robert Graves
Robert Graves
Robert von Ranke Graves 24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985 was an English poet, translator and novelist. During his long life he produced more than 140 works...
and others are held in high esteem whilst in the Sabbatic tradition, various grimoires are followed, such as the Azoetia of Andrew Chumbley.
Symbols
Crucifix
A crucifix is an independent image of Jesus on the cross with a representation of Jesus' body, referred to in English as the corpus , as distinct from a cross with no body....
by Christians or the Star of David
Star of David
The Star of David, known in Hebrew as the Shield of David or Magen David is a generally recognized symbol of Jewish identity and Judaism.Its shape is that of a hexagram, the compound of two equilateral triangles...
by Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
. The most notable of these is the pentagram
Pentagram
A pentagram is the shape of a five-pointed star drawn with five straight strokes...
, which has five points, each representing one of the five classical elements in Wicca (earth, air, fire, water and spirit) and also the idea that the human, with its five appendages, is a microcosm
Macrocosm and microcosm
Macrocosm and microcosm is an ancient Greek Neo-Platonic schema of seeing the same patterns reproduced in all levels of the cosmos, from the largest scale all the way down to the smallest scale...
of the universe. Other symbols that are used include the triskelion
Triskelion
A triskelion or triskele is a motif consisting of three interlocked spirals, or three bent human legs, or any similar symbol with three protrusions and a threefold rotational symmetry. Both words are from Greek or , "three-legged", from prefix "τρι-" , "three times" + "σκέλος" , "leg"...
, the triquetra
Triquetra
Triquetra originally meant "triangle" and was used to refer to various three-cornered shapes. Nowadays, it has come to refer exclusively to a particular more complicated shape formed of three vesicae piscis, sometimes with an added circle in or around it...
, the Three hares
Three hares
The three hares is a circular motif appearing in sacred sites from the Middle and Far East to the churches of southwest England , and historical synagogues in Europe....
and the triple Moon symbol of the Triple Goddess.
Traditions
In the 1950s through to the 1970s, when the Wiccan movement was largely confined to lineaged groups such as Gardnerian WiccaGardnerian Wicca
Gardnerian Wicca, or Gardnerian Witchcraft, is a mystery cult tradition or denomination in the neopagan religion of Wicca, whose members can trace initiatory descent from Gerald Gardner. The tradition is itself named after Gardner , a British civil servant and scholar of magic...
, a "tradition" usually implied the transfer of a lineage by initiation. However, with the rise of more and more such groups, often being founded by those with no previous initiatory lineage, the term came to be a synonym for a religious denomination
Religious denomination
A religious denomination is a subgroup within a religion that operates under a common name, tradition, and identity.The term describes various Christian denominations...
within Wicca. There are many such traditions and there are also many solitary practitioners who do not align themselves with any particular lineage, working alone. There are also covens that have formed but who do not follow any particular tradition, instead choosing their influences and practices eclectically.
Those traditions which trace a line of initiatory descent back to Gerald Gardner include Gardnerian Wicca
Gardnerian Wicca
Gardnerian Wicca, or Gardnerian Witchcraft, is a mystery cult tradition or denomination in the neopagan religion of Wicca, whose members can trace initiatory descent from Gerald Gardner. The tradition is itself named after Gardner , a British civil servant and scholar of magic...
, Alexandrian Wicca
Alexandrian Wicca
Alexandrian Wicca is a tradition of the Neopagan religion of Wicca, founded by Alex Sanders who, with his wife Maxine Sanders, established the tradition in the United Kingdom in the 1960s...
and the Algard
Ålgård
Ålgård is an area functioning as the administrative centre for the Gjesdal municipality in Rogaland, Norway, in the Jæren region. It is 10 km southeast of Sandnes...
tradition; because of their joint history, they are often referred to as British Traditional Wicca
British Traditional Wicca
British Traditional Wicca is a term used to describe some Wiccan traditions which have their origins in the New Forest region of England...
, particularly in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. Other traditions trace their origins to different figures, even if their beliefs and practices have been influenced to a greater or lesser extent by Gardner. These include Cochrane's Craft
Cochrane's Craft
Cochrane’s Craft, which is also known as Cochranianism, is a tradition of the Neopagan religion of Witchcraft founded in 1951 by the English Witch Robert Cochrane, who himself claimed to have been taught it by some of his elderly family members, a claim that is disputed by some historians such as...
and the 1734 tradition
1734 Tradition
The 1734 Tradition is a tradition of Traditional Witchcraft founded by the American Joseph Wilson, who developed it between 1964 and 1972 and founded the tradition in late 1973 and early 1974. It was largely based upon the teachings which he received from an English Traditional Witch namedRobert...
, both of which trace their origins to Robert Cochrane; Feri, which traces itself back to Victor Anderson and Gwydion Pendderwen
Gwydion Pendderwen
Thomas deLong , better known as Gwydion Pendderwen, was an American musician, writer, poet, conservationist and witch....
; and Dianic Wicca
Dianic Wicca
Dianic Witchcraft and Dianic Feminist Witchcraft, is a tradition, or denomination, of the Neopagan religion of Wicca. It was founded by Zsuzsanna Budapest in the United States in the 1970s, and is notable for its focus on the worship of the Goddess, and on feminism...
, whose followers often trace their influences back to Zsuzsanna Budapest
Zsuzsanna Budapest
Zsuzsanna Emese Mokcsay is an American author of Hungarian origin who writes on feminist spirituality and Dianic Wicca under the pen name and religious name Zsuzsanna Budapest or Z. Budapest. She is the High Priestess and the founding mother of the Susan B. Anthony Coven #1, the first feminist,...
. Some of these groups prefer to refer to themselves as Witches, thereby distinguishing themselves from the BTW traditions, who more typically use the term Wiccan (see Etymology section).
British Traditional Wiccans in particular, but also other groups, insist that to become a bona fide member of that tradition, a person has to undergo an actual physical initiation ceremony performed by a pre-existing initiate. In this manner, all BTW's can trace a direct line of descent all the way back to Gardner. Other traditions however do not hold this to be necessary, for instance anyone following a Goddess-centred form of the Craft which emphasises feminism
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
could be considered to be Dianic.
Covens and solitary Wiccans
Lineaged Wicca is organised into covenCoven
A coven or covan is a name used to describe a gathering of witches or in some cases vampires. Due to the word's association with witches, a gathering of Wiccans, followers of the witchcraft-based neopagan religion of Wicca, is also described as a coven....
s of initiated priests and priestesses. Covens are autonomous, and are generally headed by a High Priest and a High Priestess working in partnership, being a couple who have each been through their first, second and third degrees of initiation. Occasionally the leaders of a coven are only second-degree initiates, in which case they come under the rule of the parent coven. Initiation and training of new priesthood is most often performed within a coven environment, but this is not a necessity, and a few initiated Wiccans are unaffiliated with any coven.
A commonly quoted Wiccan tradition holds that the ideal number of members for a coven is thirteen
13 (number)
13 is the natural number after 12 and before 14. It is the smallest number with eight letters in its name spelled out in English. It is also the first of the teens – the numbers 13 through 19 – the ages of teenagers....
, though this is not held as a hard-and-fast rule. Indeed, many U.S. covens are far smaller, though the membership may be augmented by unaffiliated Wiccans at "open" rituals. When covens grow beyond their ideal number of members, they often split (or "hive") into multiple covens, yet remain connected as a group. A grouping of multiple covens is known as a grove in many traditions.
Initiation into a coven is traditionally preceded by a waiting period of at least a year and a day. A course of study may be set during this period. In some covens a "dedication" ceremony may be performed during this period, some time before the initiation proper, allowing the person to attend certain rituals on a probationary basis. Some solitary Wiccans also choose to study for a year and a day before their self-dedication to the religion.
Eclectic Wicca
While the origins of modern Wiccan practice lie in coven activity and the careful handing on of practices to a small number of initiates, since the 1970s a widening public appetite made this unsustainable. From about that time larger, more informal, often publicly advertised camps and workshops began to take place and it has been argued that this more informal but more accessible method of passing on the tradition is responsible for the rise of eclectic Wicca. Eclectic Wiccans are more often than not solitary practitioners. Some of these solitaries do, however, attend gatherings and other community events, but reserve their spiritual practices (Sabbats, Esbats, spell-casting, worshipWorship
Worship is an act of religious devotion usually directed towards a deity. The word is derived from the Old English worthscipe, meaning worthiness or worth-ship — to give, at its simplest, worth to something, for example, Christian worship.Evelyn Underhill defines worship thus: "The absolute...
, magical work, etc.) for when they are alone. Eclectic Wicca is the most popular variety of Wicca in America and eclectic Wiccans now significantly outnumber lineaged Wiccans; their beliefs and practices tend to be much more varied.
Eclectic
Eclecticism
Eclecticism is a conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles, or ideas to gain complementary insights into a subject, or applies different theories in particular cases.It can sometimes seem inelegant or...
Wiccans do not following a single tradition exclusively, each creates their own syncretic spiritual path by adopting, reclaiming, and reinventing the beliefs and rituals of a variety of religious traditions connected to Wicca, paganism or neo-Paganism. An eclectic can be described as free of tradition, even while eclecticism is described as a tradition of Wicca. An eclectic might also be a follower of a particular religious or philosophical path, and yet develop individual ideas and ritual practices based on diverse sources. An eclectic approach to Wicca may draw from a diverse range of ancient and modern beliefs or practices, for example: ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
ian, Greek
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
, Asian
Asian people
Asian people or Asiatic people is a term with multiple meanings that refers to people who descend from a portion of Asia's population.- Central Asia :...
, Hebrew, Saxon, Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...
, Polynesian
Polynesian mythology
Polynesian mythology is the oral traditions of the people of Polynesia, a grouping of Central and South Pacific Ocean island archipelagos in the Polynesian triangle together with the scattered cultures known as the Polynesian outliers...
or Celtic
Celtic polytheism
Celtic polytheism, commonly known as Celtic paganism, refers to the religious beliefs and practices adhered to by the Iron Age peoples of Western Europe now known as the Celts, roughly between 500 BCE and 500 CE, spanning the La Tène period and the Roman era, and in the case of the Insular Celts...
. Eclectic Wicca is a positive, peaceful, earth-centred religion, with a core ideology informed by those values and beliefs which are common to many Wiccan, pagan, polytheistic, shamanic
Shamanism
Shamanism is an anthropological term referencing a range of beliefs and practices regarding communication with the spiritual world. To quote Eliade: "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism = technique of ecstasy." Shamanism encompasses the...
, Hawaiian
Hawaiian religion
Hawaiian religion is the term used to describe the folk religious beliefs and practises of the Hawaiian people. It is unrelated to, though commonly confused with, the philosophy of Huna....
, or Polynesian religious traditions. Eclecticism may also reflect theories derived from psychology and philosophy, for example, self-actualization, Jungian archetypes
Jungian archetypes
Carl Jung created the archetypes which “are ancient or archaic images that derive from the collective unconscious” Also known as innate universal psychic dispositions that form the substrate from which the basic symbols or representations of unconscious experience emerge...
and karma
Karma
Karma in Indian religions is the concept of "action" or "deed", understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect originating in ancient India and treated in Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Sikh philosophies....
.
Origins and early development, 1921–1959
In the 1920s and 30s, the Egyptologist Dr Margaret MurrayMargaret Murray
Margaret Alice Murray was a prominent British Egyptologist and anthropologist. Primarily known for her work in Egyptology, which was "the core of her academic career," she is also known for her propagation of the Witch-cult hypothesis, the theory that the witch trials in the Early Modern period of...
published several books detailing her theories that those persecuted as witches during the Early Modern period in Europe
Witch trials in Early Modern Europe
The Witch trials in the Early Modern period were a period of witch hunts between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, when across Early Modern Europe, and to some extent in the European colonies in North America, there was a widespread hysteria that malevolent Satanic witches were operating as...
were not, as the persecutors had claimed, followers of Satanism
Satanism
Satanism is a group of religions that is composed of a diverse number of ideological and philosophical beliefs and social phenomena. Their shared feature include symbolic association with, admiration for the character of, and even veneration of Satan or similar rebellious, promethean, and...
, but adherents of a surviving pre-Christian pagan
Paganism
Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....
religion - the Witch-Cult
Witch-cult hypothesis
The Witch-cult is the term for a hypothetical pre-Christian, pagan religion of Europe that survived into at least the early modern period. As late as the 19th and early 20th centuries, some scholars had postulated that European witchcraft was part of a Satanic plot to overthrow Christianity; most...
. Despite now being discredited by further historical research, her theories were widely accepted and supported at the time.
It was during the 1930s that the first evidence appears for the practice of a pagan Witchcraft religion (what would be recognisable now as Wicca) in England. It seems that several groups around the country, in such places as Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
, Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
and the New Forest
New Forest
The New Forest is an area of southern England which includes the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in the heavily-populated south east of England. It covers south-west Hampshire and extends into south-east Wiltshire....
had set themselves up as continuing in the tradition of Murray's Witch-Cult, albeit with influences coming from disparate sources such as ceremonial magic
Ceremonial magic
Ceremonial magic, also referred to as high magic and as learned magic, is a broad term used in the context of Hermeticism or Western esotericism to encompass a wide variety of long, elaborate, and complex rituals of magic. It is named as such because the works included are characterized by...
, folk magic, Freemasonry
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
, Theosophy
Theosophy
Theosophy, in its modern presentation, is a spiritual philosophy developed since the late 19th century. Its major themes were originally described mainly by Helena Blavatsky , co-founder of the Theosophical Society...
, Romanticism
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
, Druidry, classical mythology
Classical mythology
Classical mythology or Greco-Roman mythology is the cultural reception of myths from the ancient Greeks and Romans. Along with philosophy and political thought, mythology represents one of the major survivals of classical antiquity throughout later Western culture.Classical mythology has provided...
and Asian religions.
The Witchcraft religion became more prominent beginning in 1951, with the repeal of the Witchcraft Act of 1735, after which several figures, such as Charles Cardell
Charles Cardell
Charles Cardell was an English Wiccan who propagated his own tradition of the Craft, which was distinct from that of Gerald Gardner. Cardell's tradition of Wicca was based around a form of the Horned God known as Atho, and worked with a coven that met in the grounds of his estate in Surrey. His...
, Cecil Williamson
Cecil Williamson
Cecil Williamson was an influential English Neopagan Witch. He was the founder of both the Witchcraft Research Center which was a part of MI6's war against Nazi Germany, and the Museum of Witchcraft...
and most notably Gerald Gardner
Gerald Gardner
Gerald Brousseau Gardner , who sometimes used the craft name Scire, was an influential English Wiccan, as well as an amateur anthropologist and archaeologist, writer, weaponry expert and occultist. He was instrumental in bringing the Neopagan religion of Wicca to public attention in Britain and...
, began propagating their own versions of the Craft. Gardner had been initiated into the New Forest coven
New Forest coven
The New Forest coven were a group of Neopagan witches or Wiccans who allegedly met around the area of the New Forest in southern England during the 1930s and 1940s...
in 1939, before forming his own tradition, later termed Gardnerianism
Gardnerian Wicca
Gardnerian Wicca, or Gardnerian Witchcraft, is a mystery cult tradition or denomination in the neopagan religion of Wicca, whose members can trace initiatory descent from Gerald Gardner. The tradition is itself named after Gardner , a British civil servant and scholar of magic...
, which he spread through the formation of groups like the Bricket Wood coven
Bricket Wood coven
The Bricket Wood coven, or Hertfordshire coven was a coven of Gardnerian Witches founded in the 1940s by Gerald Gardner. It was notable for being the first coven in the Gardnerian line, though having its supposed origins in the pre-Gardnerian New Forest coven...
. His tradition, aided by the help of his High Priestess Doreen Valiente
Doreen Valiente
Doreen Edith Dominy Valiente , who also went under the craft name Ameth, was an influential English Wiccan who was involved in a number of different early traditions, including Gardnerianism, Cochrane's Craft and the Coven of Atho...
and the publication of his books Witchcraft Today
Witchcraft Today
In the book Gardner also repeats the claim, which had originated with Matilda Joslyn Gage, that 9 million victims were killed in the European witch-hunts." Current scholarly estimates of the number of people executed for witchcraft during this time period vary between about 40,000 and 100,000.The...
(1954) and The Meaning of Witchcraft
The Meaning of Witchcraft
The Meaning of Witchcraft is a non-fiction book written by Gerald Gardner, the, known to many in the modern sense as the "Father of Wicca", based around his experiences with the religion of Wicca and the New Forest Coven...
(1959), soon became the dominant form in the country, and spread to other parts of the British Isles
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...
.
Adaptation and spread, 1960–present
Following Gardner's death in 1964, the Craft continued to grow unabated despite sensationalism and negative portrayals in British tabloids, with new traditions being propagated by figures like Robert Cochrane, Sybil LeekSybil Leek
Sybil Leek was an English witch, astrologer, psychic, and occult author. She wrote more than sixty books on occult and esoteric subjects...
and most importantly Alex Sanders
Alex Sanders (Wiccan)
Alex Sanders , born Orrell Alexander Carter, was an English occultist and High Priest in the Neopagan religion of Wicca, responsible for founding the tradition of Alexandrian Wicca during the 1960s. He was a figure who often appeared in tabloid newspapers...
, whose Alexandrian Wicca
Alexandrian Wicca
Alexandrian Wicca is a tradition of the Neopagan religion of Wicca, founded by Alex Sanders who, with his wife Maxine Sanders, established the tradition in the United Kingdom in the 1960s...
, which was predominantly based upon Gardnerian Wicca, albeit with an emphasis placed on ceremonial magic
Ceremonial magic
Ceremonial magic, also referred to as high magic and as learned magic, is a broad term used in the context of Hermeticism or Western esotericism to encompass a wide variety of long, elaborate, and complex rituals of magic. It is named as such because the works included are characterized by...
, spread quickly and gained much media attention. Around this time, the term "Wicca" began to be commonly adopted over "Witchcraft" and the faith was exported to countries like Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
It was in the United States and in Australia that new, home-grown traditions, sometimes based upon earlier, regional folk-magical traditions and often mixed with the basic structure of Gardnerian Wicca, began to develop, including Victor Anderson's Feri, Joseph Wilson's
Joseph Bearwalker Wilson
Joseph Bearwalker Wilson was a shaman and witch, founder of the 1734 Tradition of witchcraft, toteg Tribe, Metista, and a founding member of the Covenant of the Goddess....
1734 tradition
1734 Tradition
The 1734 Tradition is a tradition of Traditional Witchcraft founded by the American Joseph Wilson, who developed it between 1964 and 1972 and founded the tradition in late 1973 and early 1974. It was largely based upon the teachings which he received from an English Traditional Witch namedRobert...
, Aidan Kelly
Aidan Kelly
Aidan Kelly is an American academic, poet and influential figure in the Neopagan religion of Wicca. Having developed his own branch of the faith, the New Reformed Orthodox Order of the Golden Dawn, during the 1960s, he was also initiated into other traditions, including Gardnerianism and Feri, in...
's New Reformed Orthodox Order of the Golden Dawn
New Reformed Orthodox Order of the Golden Dawn
The New Reformed Orthodox Order of the Golden Dawn is a Wiccan organization/tradition/denomination that, despite its name, has little or nothing to do with the original Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.The NROOGD Tradition of the Craft originated in 1967 with a group of friends The New Reformed...
and eventually Zsuzsanna Budapest
Zsuzsanna Budapest
Zsuzsanna Emese Mokcsay is an American author of Hungarian origin who writes on feminist spirituality and Dianic Wicca under the pen name and religious name Zsuzsanna Budapest or Z. Budapest. She is the High Priestess and the founding mother of the Susan B. Anthony Coven #1, the first feminist,...
's Dianic Wicca
Dianic Wicca
Dianic Witchcraft and Dianic Feminist Witchcraft, is a tradition, or denomination, of the Neopagan religion of Wicca. It was founded by Zsuzsanna Budapest in the United States in the 1970s, and is notable for its focus on the worship of the Goddess, and on feminism...
, each of which emphasised different aspects of the faith. It was also around this time that books teaching people how to become Witches themselves without formal initiation or training began to emerge, among them Paul Huson
Paul Huson
Paul Huson is a British-born author and artist currently living in the United States. In addition to writing several books about occultism and witchcraft he has worked extensively in the film and television industries.-Family:...
's Mastering Witchcraft
Mastering Witchcraft
Mastering Witchcraft: A Practical Guide for Witches, Warlocks and Covens is a book written by Paul Huson and published in 1970 by G.P. Putnams- the first mainstream publisher to produce a do-it-yourself manual for the would-be witch or warlock....
(1970) and Lady Sheba's Book of Shadows (1971). Similar books continued to be published throughout the 1980s and 1990s, fuelled by the writing of such authors as Doreen Valiente
Doreen Valiente
Doreen Edith Dominy Valiente , who also went under the craft name Ameth, was an influential English Wiccan who was involved in a number of different early traditions, including Gardnerianism, Cochrane's Craft and the Coven of Atho...
, Janet Farrar
Janet Farrar
Janet Farrar is a British teacher and author of books on Wicca and Neopaganism. Along with her two husbands, Stewart Farrar and Gavin Bone, Farrar has published "some of the most influential books on modern Witchcraft to date." According to George Knowles, "some seventy five percent of Wiccans...
, Stewart Farrar
Stewart Farrar
Frank Stewart Farrar , who always went by the name of Stewart Farrar, was an English screenwriter, novelist and prominent figure in the Neopagan religion of Wicca, which he devoted much of his later life to propagating with the aid of his seventh wife, Janet Farrar, and then his friend Gavin Bone...
and Scott Cunningham
Scott Cunningham
Scott Douglas Cunningham was a U.S. writer. Cunningham is the author of several books on Wicca and various other alternative religious subjects....
, who popularised the idea of self-initiation into the Craft.
In the 1990s, amid ever-rising numbers of self-initiates, the popular media began to explore "witchcraft" in fictional films like The Craft
The Craft (film)
The Craft is a 1996 American supernatural teen horror film directed by Andrew Fleming and starring Robin Tunney, Rachel True, Fairuza Balk and Neve Campbell. The film's plot centers on a group of four teenage girls who pursue witchcraft and use it for their own gain...
and television series like Charmed
Charmed
Charmed is an American television series that originally aired from October 7, 1998, until May 21, 2006, on the now defunct The WB Television Network. The series was created in 1998 by writer Constance M...
, introducing numbers of young people to the idea of religious witchcraft. This growing demographic was soon catered to through the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
and by authors like Silver Ravenwolf
Silver RavenWolf
Silver RavenWolf , born Jenine E. Trayer, is an American author and lecturer who focuses on Neopaganism. She is married and has four children. She currently resides in Dillsburg, Pennsylvania.- Biography :...
, much to the criticism of traditional Wiccan groups and individuals. In response to the way that Wicca was increasingly portrayed as trendy, eclectic, and influenced by the New Age movement, many Witches turned to the pre-Gardnerian origins of the Craft, and to the traditions of his rivals like Cardell and Cochrane, describing themselves as following "Traditional Witchcraft". Prominent groups within this Traditional Witchcraft revival included Andrew Chumbley's Cultus Sabbati and the Cornish Ros an Bucca coven.
Etymology
The term "Wicca" first achieved widespread acceptance when referring to the religion in the 1960s and 70s. Prior to that, the term "Witchcraft" had been more widely used. Whilst being based upon the Old English word wicca, which referred solely to male sorcerers, the actual individual who coined the capitalised term "Wicca" is unknown, though it has been speculated that it was Charles CardellCharles Cardell
Charles Cardell was an English Wiccan who propagated his own tradition of the Craft, which was distinct from that of Gerald Gardner. Cardell's tradition of Wicca was based around a form of the Horned God known as Atho, and worked with a coven that met in the grounds of his estate in Surrey. His...
, who certainly used the term "Wiccen" during the 1950s.
Demographics
The actual number of Wiccans worldwide is unknown, and it has been noted that it is more difficult to establish the numbers of members of Neopagan faiths than many other religions due to their disorganised structure. However, Adherents.comAdherents.com
Adherents.com is a website that aims to collect and present information about religious demographics, established in 1998. It is the largest pool of such data freely available on the internet. As of January 2010, the site contains approximately 44,000 references on over 4,300 faith groups...
, an independent website which specialises in collecting estimates of world religions, cites over thirty sources with estimates of numbers of Wiccans (principally from the USA and UK). From this, they developed a median estimate of 800,000 members. In the United States population alone, there have been many attempts at finding a figure, with the 2001 American Religious Identification Survey estimating that at least 134,000 adults identified themselves as Wiccans, compared to 8,000 in 1990. Wiccans have also made up significant proportions of various groups within that country; for instance, Wicca is the largest non-Christian faith practised in the United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
, with 1,434 airmen identifying themselves as such.
In the United Kingdom, census figures do not allow an accurate breakdown of traditions within the Pagan heading, as a campaign by the Pagan Federation
Pagan Federation
The Pagan Federation is a UK-based voluntary organisation, formed in 1971, which campaigns for the religious rights of Neo-pagans and educates both civic bodies and the general public about Paganism. It is active throughout Europe and organises a large number of Pagan events. The organisation...
before the 2001 Census
United Kingdom Census 2001
A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK Census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194....
encouraged Wiccans, Heathens, Druids and others all to use the same write-in term 'Pagan' in order to maximise the numbers reported. For the first time, respondents were able to write in an affiliation not covered by the checklist of common religions, and a total of 42,262 people from England, Scotland and Wales declared themselves to be Pagans by this method. These figures were not immediately analysed by the Office of National Statistics, but were released after an application by the Pagan Federation
Pagan Federation
The Pagan Federation is a UK-based voluntary organisation, formed in 1971, which campaigns for the religious rights of Neo-pagans and educates both civic bodies and the general public about Paganism. It is active throughout Europe and organises a large number of Pagan events. The organisation...
of Scotland.
Acceptance of Wiccans
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
country, and from its inception suffered opposition from certain Christian groups and from the popular tabloids like the News of the World
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...
. This has continued till this day, and some Christians have asserted that Wicca is a form of Satanism
Satanism
Satanism is a group of religions that is composed of a diverse number of ideological and philosophical beliefs and social phenomena. Their shared feature include symbolic association with, admiration for the character of, and even veneration of Satan or similar rebellious, promethean, and...
, despite important differences between these religions, such as the lack of a Satan
Satan
Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...
-like figure in Wiccan theology. Due to negative connotations associated with witchcraft, many Wiccans continue the traditional practice of secrecy, concealing their faith for fear of persecution. Revealing oneself as Wiccan to family, friends or colleagues is often termed "coming out of the broom-closet". In a similar way, some people have accused Wicca of being anti-Christian, a claim disputed by Wiccans such as Doreen Valiente
Doreen Valiente
Doreen Edith Dominy Valiente , who also went under the craft name Ameth, was an influential English Wiccan who was involved in a number of different early traditions, including Gardnerianism, Cochrane's Craft and the Coven of Atho...
, who stated that whilst she knew many Wiccans who admired Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
, "witches have little respect for the doctrines of the churches, which they regard as a lot of man-made dogma".
In the United States, a number of legal decisions have improved and validated the status of Wiccans, especially Dettmer v. Landon
Dettmer v. Landon
Dettmer v. Landon, 799 F.2d 929 , is a court case in which the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that although Wicca was a religion, it was not a violation of the First Amendment to deny a prisoner access to ritual objects.-Facts:The plaintiff, Herbert Daniel Dettmer, was a...
in 1985. However, Wiccans have encountered hostility from some politicians and Christian organisations, including former president of the United States George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
, who stated that he did not believe Wicca to be a religion.
Debates over the origin of Wicca
According to the history of Wicca given by Gerald Gardner, Wicca is the survival of a theoretical European witch-cultWitch-cult hypothesis
The Witch-cult is the term for a hypothetical pre-Christian, pagan religion of Europe that survived into at least the early modern period. As late as the 19th and early 20th centuries, some scholars had postulated that European witchcraft was part of a Satanic plot to overthrow Christianity; most...
that was persecuted during the witch trial
Witch trial
A witch trial is a legal proceeding that is part of a witch-hunt. * Witch trials in Early Modern Europe, 15th–18th centuries** Salzburg witch trials - 1675-1690, Salzburg, Austria** Spa witch trial - 1616, Belgium...
s. Theories of an organised pan-European witch-cult, as well as mass trials thereof, have been largely discredited, but it is still common for Wiccans to claim solidarity with witch trial victims.
The notion of the survival of Wiccan traditions and rituals from ancient sources is contested by most recent researchers, who suggest that Wicca is a 20th century creation which combines elements of freemasonry and 19th century occultism. However, historians such as Ronald Hutton
Ronald Hutton
Ronald Hutton is an English historian who specializes in the study of Early Modern Britain, British folklore, pre-Christian religion and contemporary Paganism. A reader in the subject at the University of Bristol, Hutton has published fourteen books and has appeared on British television and radio...
have noted that Wicca not only predates the modern New Age movement but also differs markedly in its general philosophy.
In his 1999 book The Triumph of the Moon, Ronald Hutton researched the Wiccan claim that ancient pagan customs have survived into modern times after being Christianised in medieval times as folk practices. Hutton found that most of the folk customs which are claimed to have pagan roots (such as the Maypole dance) actually date from the Middle Ages. He concluded that the idea that medieval revels were pagan in origin is a legacy of the Protestant Reformation.
Modern scholarly investigations have concluded that Witch trials were substantially fewer than claimed by Gardner, and seldom at the behest of religious authorities. For example, in the book Witches and Neighbors, Robin Briggs (1996) examines the history of witchcraft in medieval Europe and refutes the widely-told story that large numbers of independent women were burned at the stake by vindictive Christian ecclesiastics for the crime of practicing naturalistic healing or neopagan religion. Most scholars estimate that a total of 40,000 people were executed as witches during the entire medieval period, and that church authorities participated reluctantly in this process, which was largely fueled by the political turmoil of the Reformation
Reformation
- Movements :* Protestant Reformation, an attempt by Martin Luther to reform the Roman Catholic Church that resulted in a schism, and grew into a wider movement...
.
Further reading
Significant historical works- Gerald GardnerGerald GardnerGerald Brousseau Gardner , who sometimes used the craft name Scire, was an influential English Wiccan, as well as an amateur anthropologist and archaeologist, writer, weaponry expert and occultist. He was instrumental in bringing the Neopagan religion of Wicca to public attention in Britain and...
, Witchcraft TodayWitchcraft TodayIn the book Gardner also repeats the claim, which had originated with Matilda Joslyn Gage, that 9 million victims were killed in the European witch-hunts." Current scholarly estimates of the number of people executed for witchcraft during this time period vary between about 40,000 and 100,000.The...
(Ryder, 1954) - Gerald GardnerGerald GardnerGerald Brousseau Gardner , who sometimes used the craft name Scire, was an influential English Wiccan, as well as an amateur anthropologist and archaeologist, writer, weaponry expert and occultist. He was instrumental in bringing the Neopagan religion of Wicca to public attention in Britain and...
, The Meaning of WitchcraftThe Meaning of WitchcraftThe Meaning of Witchcraft is a non-fiction book written by Gerald Gardner, the, known to many in the modern sense as the "Father of Wicca", based around his experiences with the religion of Wicca and the New Forest Coven...
(Aquarian, 1959)
Practices and beliefs
- Stewart FarrarStewart FarrarFrank Stewart Farrar , who always went by the name of Stewart Farrar, was an English screenwriter, novelist and prominent figure in the Neopagan religion of Wicca, which he devoted much of his later life to propagating with the aid of his seventh wife, Janet Farrar, and then his friend Gavin Bone...
and Janet FarrarJanet FarrarJanet Farrar is a British teacher and author of books on Wicca and Neopaganism. Along with her two husbands, Stewart Farrar and Gavin Bone, Farrar has published "some of the most influential books on modern Witchcraft to date." According to George Knowles, "some seventy five percent of Wiccans...
, Eight Sabbats for Witches. - Nikki Bado-Fralick, Coming to the Edge of the Circle: A Wiccan Initiation Ritual (Oxford University PressOxford University PressOxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
, 2005).
History of Wicca
- Aidan A. KellyAidan KellyAidan Kelly is an American academic, poet and influential figure in the Neopagan religion of Wicca. Having developed his own branch of the faith, the New Reformed Orthodox Order of the Golden Dawn, during the 1960s, he was also initiated into other traditions, including Gardnerianism and Feri, in...
, Crafting the Art of Magic: A History of Modern Witchcraft, 1939-1964 (St Paul: Llewellyn, 1991). ISBN 0-87542-370-1. - Ronald HuttonRonald HuttonRonald Hutton is an English historian who specializes in the study of Early Modern Britain, British folklore, pre-Christian religion and contemporary Paganism. A reader in the subject at the University of Bristol, Hutton has published fourteen books and has appeared on British television and radio...
, The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft (Oxford University Press, 1999).
Wicca in different countries
- Helen A. Berger, A Community of Witches: Contemporary Neo-Paganism and Witchcraft in the United States (Columbia: University of South Carolina PressUniversity of South Carolina PressThe University of South Carolina Press , founded in 1944, is a university press that is part of the University of South Carolina.-External links:*...
, 1999). - Chas S. Clifton, Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca and Paganism in America (Lanham, Md.: AltaMira Press, 2006).
- Sabina MaglioccoSabina MaglioccoSabina Magliocco , is a professor of Anthropology and Folklore at California State University, Northridge . She is an author of non-fiction books and journal articles about folklore, religion, religious festivals, foodways, witchcraft and Neo-Paganism in Europe and the United States.A recipient of...
, Witching Culture: Folklore and Neo-Paganism in America (University of Pennsylvania PressUniversity of Pennsylvania PressThe University of Pennsylvania Press is a university press affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
, 2004) - Lynne Hume, Witchcraft and Paganism in Australia (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1997).
General
- Raymond BucklandRaymond BucklandRaymond Buckland , whose craft name is Robat, is an English American writer on the subject of Wicca and the occult, and a significant figure in the history of Wicca, of which he is a High Priest in both the Gardnerian and Seax traditions.According to his written works, primarily Witchcraft from the...
, The Witch Book: The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft, Wicca, and Neo-paganism (Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 2002). - James R. Lewis, Witchcraft Today: An Encyclopedia of Wiccan and Neopagan Traditions (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 1999).
- Shelly Rabinovitch and James R. Lewis, eds., The Encyclopedia of Modern Witchcraft and Neo-Paganism (New York: Kensington Publishing, 2002).
- James R. Lewis, ed., Magical Religion and Modern Witchcraft (Albany: State University of New York PressState University of New York PressThe State University of New York Press , is a university press and a Center for Scholarly Communication. The Press is part of the State University of New York system and is located in Albany, New York.- History :...
, 1996). - T. M. Luhrmann, Persuasions of the Witch's Craft: Ritual Magic in Contemporary England (London: Picador, 1994).
External links
- Witchvox.org - Neopagan news and networking
- Covenant of the Goddess (U.S.)
- Pagan Federation (UK), (Canada)
- The Pomegranate - The International Journal of Pagan Studies