WICCA INTRODUCTION

Wicca, which was founded by Gerald Brosseau Gardner (1884-1964), is the name given to a specific set of practices and beliefs that attempt to recreate an unnamed polytheistic religious tradition originally native to pre-Christian Europe. This folk tradition was practiced from about the 12th century BCE until Christianity spread throughout the continent. As European countries gradually converted to Christianity, this polytheistic tradition was set aside. However, it is still practiced by many people today.

The establishment of Wicca coincides with the heightened popularity of occult practices during the 20th century in England. Gardner had been initiated into several occult orders and secret societies between 1939 and 1947, and of these orders, Gardner claimed that the Rosicrucian Fellowship of Crotona served as a long-lasting tradition from which he was largely inspired to create Wicca. In his works,¹Witchcraft Today (1954), and The Meaning of Witchcraft (1959). Gardner promoted a two-fold belief of his own making: that witchcraft served as the indigenous religion of Europe since the Stone Age, and that it had secretly remained an unbroken tradition up to and including his founding of Wicca. Although many Wiccans once cited this unbroken tradition as their religious basis, they generally recognize today that Wicca originated with Gardner.

Wicca—like the folk religion that inspired it—is structured heavily around the worship of nature and the use of rites, ceremonies, and magic. While nature is the main object of Wiccan reverence, deities symbolizing aspects of nature are also worshiped. Many of these deities and other various elements of Wicca were inspired from Native American, Saxon, Celtic, Germanic, Greek, Egyptian, and Roman traditions. Due to the Wiccan emphasis on the reverence of nature, it has become popularized since the 1970s in North America as a form of environmental activism.

WICCA BELIEFS

• Worship: Wicca is primarily centered on the worship of nature and the environment.
• Deities: Wiccans are polytheistic and focus on two main deities: a fertility goddess and a horned god. These two deities are often described in vague terms; they do not have names or titles that have been standardized in either branch of Wicca. Other deities from different European traditions²Some Egyptian deities were worshiped in pre-Christian Greece and Rome, and thus, these deities have also been collected into Wicca. frequently appear as various aspects of nature.
• Festivals: Wiccans generally celebrate eight annual festivals, known as sabbats. These festivals, based on the agricultural year, often celebrate changes in each season. Half of these festivals, for example, take place on the solstices and the equinoxes.³The Winter Solstice, around December 21, signifies the passing of the shortest day of the year and the increase of sunlight as the days follow. The Summer Solstice, around June 21, signifies the passing of the longest day of the year and the decrease of sunlight as the days continue. The equinoxes (around March 21 and September 21) mark the halfway points to the solstice dates.
• Wiccan Laws: Wiccans believe in two main laws. The Wiccan Rede teaches practitioners to act as they will as long as they harm no one. The Law of Threefold Return teaches that if practitioners do good or evil to another person, that good or evil will then affect the Wiccan practitioner three times stronger than it affected their original target. More simply, good begets good and evil begets evil threefold.
• Sacred Texts: The Book of Shadows serves as the primary scripture of the Wiccan religion. It is a collection of lore, legends, and rituals that are claimed to be of ancient provenance. Aside from the Book of Shadows, a great number of books and biographies have been composed by Gardner, Sanders, and many longstanding members of the Wiccan religion.

WICCA HISTORY

• A Freemason named Gerald Brosseau Gardner first founded Wicca in England during the 1940s. This branch of Wicca is known as Gardnerian Wicca.
• In 1951, the 1736 Witchcraft Act⁴This act, effective throughout Great Britain, mandated punishments for anyone who claimed various occult powers such as the prediction of the future or the summoning of spirits. was repealed in England. Replaced by the Fraudulent Mediums Act, it legalized the practice of witchcraft so long as no harm was done to a person or his or her property.
• In 1960, Gardner initiated a woman named Patricia Crowther (b. 1932) into Gardnerian Wicca. She is widely respected within the tradition as one of its early female leaders.
• A man named Alex Sanders (1926-1988) was initiated into Gardnerian Wicca through an ex-member of Crowther’s coven. In the 1960s, Sanders founded a second Wicca branch, eventually known as Alexandrian Wicca.
• Ray Buckland, an initiate of Gardner’s, brought Gardenerian Wicca back to the United States in 1967. Buckland eventually founded his own Wiccan tradition, which he called Seax, or Saxon Wica.⁵Buckland spelled “Saxon Wica” with only one "C".
• Wicca became extremely popular from the 1950s through the 1970s due to widespread British media coverage⁶Once the modern practice of witchcraft in Britain became established, it naturally led to media attention. Many of the top Wiccans of the time (including Crowther and her husband) cooperated with the press in order to ensure that their faith received more publicity. of both Gardner and Sanders and several of their high-ranking initiates.
• In 1979, Vivianne Crowley—initiated into both branches of Wicca—founded a British coven that initiates followers simultaneously in Gardnerian Wicca and Alexandrian Wicca.

VARIOUS MISINTERPRETATIONS OF WICCA

Since the legalization and popularization of Christianity under the Roman Empire during the 4th century CE, various Christian traditions have attempted to get rid of the pre-Christian folk traditions of Europe in several ways. Early Christian authorities held their festivals and holy days on the same dates as folk festivals in an attempt to gain a monopoly on religion in Europe. Non-Christian and non-Jewish people were characterized derogatorily as either pagan⁷(Latin, paganus, "country dweller") or heathen.⁸(Old English, hæðen, "not Christian or Jewish") Despite their originally pejorative meanings, these terms are still used commonly.

The practice of grouping all non-monotheistic traditions under the heading of "Paganism" has led to many misconceptions concerning the nature of Wicca and other similar traditions. Some allegations attempt to connect Wicca to early American witchcraft, to the worship of demons, or to organized Satanism. While the majority of Wiccans refer to their practice as "witchcraft," they do not associate themselves with historical American witchcraft, demon worship, or Satanism. These ideologies have never been considered part of Wicca.