Wicca Series: History Of Wicca?

Every Monday and Friday in January we will be asking people questions about Wicca. Want to weigh in? Find the next question at the bottom of this post!

What do you believe the origins of Wicca to be? Does academic research affect your views on its history?

Rua Lupa responds:

The Origins of Wicca? It really depends on what you mean by this question. What Wicca is based on or who started its traditions? Does academic research affect your views on its history? Sure does. What is history without academics? Not very accurate history that is usually very biased.

First, it can be agreed that Wicca’s geographical origin lies in Britain. Now, if we go as far back as current records go we know that there was a Neolithic culture in the British Isles who built what we know as Stone Henge; shortly thereafter in the Bronze Age were the Celts who’s belief system has been called Druidic. From 43 AD to 410 AD, Britain was mostly Roman and the druidic rites were completely forbade in AD 54 by the the Senate, and Claudius. In 380 Theodosius I established Christianity as the official religion. In the late 5th Century, The Roman Empire collapsed. From this point on Christianity spreads and the people whom still practiced Druidic rites were in hiding since the time of Roman influence. In this time those who were found still practicing Druidic rites, or whatever remains of it, where persecuted and called wicce “witch” and wicca “wizard” by Christians. It is from these times that Gerald Gardner and his friends in the late 1940s and ’50s, based his new religion on. So in conclusion, Wicca’s origins lie in the Druidic beliefs of the British Isles.

What the important thing is, it really doesn’t matter what the origins are, as long as the current traditions work for you; if they don’t work for you, you can make your own way with its inspiration.

Sunweaver responds:

Wicca began in England with Gerald Gardener, a civil servant who had become fascinated by magical and polytheist practices and traditions as a young man in southeast Asia. Upon his return to England, he joined the Folklore Society, a Rosicrucian order, and was initiated into the New Forest Coven. He joined an order of druids and the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O) where he met Aleister Crowley. In 1949, he published High Magic’s Aid as a fictional account that included the practice of Witchcraft as he understood it then and in 1954, when the Witchcraft laws were repealed in England, he published Witchcraft Today, the first nonfiction book on what later came to be known as Wicca. Margaret Murray, an accomplished Egyptologist and member of the Folklore Society, proposed the theory of Witchcraft as a pre-Christian organized religion wrote the preface to the later work. Her two books, The Witch-Cult in Western Europe, published in 1921, and The God of the Witches, published in 1931, were highly influential in the creation of modern Witchcraft traditions. But though he drew heavily from these sources, Wicca did not emerge like Athena, fully formed, from Gerald Gardener’s head.

In the early days of the Bricket Wood Coven, formed by Gardener, there was a distinct magical tradition and the worship of a God and Goddess, but today it would hardly be recognizable as Wicca. Doreen Valiente, who joined in 1953, not only contributed a great deal of original works, including “The Charge of the Goddess,” but insisted on the celebration of the solstices and equinoxes as well as the quarter days.

Wicca spread to America at exactly the right time for its exponential growth and evolution to occur. The late fifties and early sixties was a revolutionary time when many began looking for new ways to live. Feminists emphasized the worship of a Goddess and Wicca became an avenue to celebrate the feminine divine. Environmentalists picked up on the recognition of the change of the seasons and from that, a sense of stewardship for the Earth became part of a spiritual journey. In today’s Wicca, you can see influences from Eastern traditions, Native American traditions, and though we sometimes don’t like to admit it, New Age thought and practice.

Perhaps Wicca did not come from a long, unbroken line of organized practitioners as described by Murray, but this myth inspired the creation of something even better. Our history shows innovation and adaptability and continuing academic research does not dampen my faith in the least. I am instead inspired by my predecessors to worship my gods in my own way, to write new prayers and rituals, and to encourage others in my community to do the same. A myth is not a falsehood, but a story that connects us with others who tell that story. So, let me tell you a story about my people. I do not know if it really happened, but I know that it is true.

Lady Moonshadow Xian (Ravenwood tradition) responds:

I believe that the origins of Wicca to be the old pagan practices that continue and are passed down from one generation to the next. The term “Pagan” having the older meaning back to Roman time when the “Pagani” were the country or rural folk as opposed to the “Urbani” or city folk. People were considered backward hicks if they didn’t adopt the new gods and come to the big temples that were built.

There was a lot of knowledge in the Wise Women and Wise Men of the rural villages. With most of the population being illiterate, knowledge was passed orally from teacher to student, parent to child, etc. The things that work are difficult to destroy and will continue no matter what overlay that is placed upon them. The gods of the old become the demons of the new. If you cannot kill the old traditions, you make them scary and evil or trivialize them to just frivolities. However that which is of value remains.

Knowledge of herbs, knowledge of seasons, knowledge of the movement of stars and planets, the passing of comets and the influences that those things have are powerful things. Understanding and framing that knowledge into useful information that can be used by everyday people was the work of the village Wise Ones.

The Wise Ones were the spiritual guides, healers and leaders of the people. When new forces sought to destroy them for the sake of power they simply went underground. They always continued. People always seek out the people who can help them and guide them even if it is outside the mainstream of what those in power tell them is evil, wrong, or just simply and old wives tale.

My family has some very strange traditions if you look at them from what most families have. My Grandmother and Great Grandmother sat me down one day in October and said, “It is time we taught you how to make brooms properly.” It was a lesson on the practical construction, knot magick, and the keeping of a proper home with the seasons as our family does it. There is a whole set of rules on type of grass to use, when to cut it, what handles to use, who can cut them and when, not to mention the knot work. And both of these ladies would be very insulted to be thought of as anything but fine Southern Baptist Christian women.

A craft elder once told me, “If they wanted us to be Catholic, we were Catholic. If they wanted us to be Fascist, we were Fascist. If they wanted us to be Nazis, we were Nazis. It did not change what we did in our everyday life. It is what we had to do to survive and pass the knowledge on to the next generation. It was only on the surface to blend in.”

I believe that Wicca as it is today is the reconstruction of the old ways that have survived in spite of all efforts to destroy them. It has been cobbled together from what has been passed down and what has been rediscovered by research in academic areas.

The work of people like Robert Graves, Joseph Campbell, members of the Theosophical Society, archeologist, historians, anthropologist and many others bring forward and reveal new information everyday. They help bring light to the hidden ways, document and help to put new knowledge about the old ways into a framework that is being constantly revised to fit how everyday life was actually lived rather than accepting what was written by the conquerors.

Scientific research is being done that is proving that many of the old home remedies and herbal cures do actually work. The field of quantum physics parallels very closely with what my elders taught me about energy.

Modern Wicca is very much old knowledge passed on, but also rediscovered. It is a reconstruction. It is an oral tradition. It is a combination of the two.

The more research that comes to light in many fields simply confirms that my beliefs are correct.

As for me? I have a lot of respect for the academic work regarding the history of Wicca and researching Pagan survivals. I personally feel that all of the scholarship out there, good and bad, is useful to me.

Yet, when it comes to what I believe, like a true Wiccan, I think academics can only go so far. In my heart I believe that Wicca springs from Pagan traditions that went underground. What that journey was and how that evolution occurred I can’t tell you anything other than my own speculation. I think the true history of Wicca is impossible to prove by academic standards. I don’t think we will ever truly know and that’s ok.

Whatever the history it’s now obscured by myriad lies. White lies perhaps, told with good intention. I believe that Gerald Gardner and Robert Cochcrane did have knowledge and experience of Pagan survivals. I believe what they found was old-time, homegrown religion and I think they didn’t feel it was flashy enough and where they couldn’t divulge the truth they made up something enticing. Pagan religions are simple piety, folksy worship and traditional values. Some of the flash and drama they brought, as with the flamboyance of Alex Sanders after them, has fallen by the wayside. Some of it reinvigorated the practice of religious Witchcraft and has become cherished by us today.

I believe strongly that what I practice is something very old, something passed down generation to generation for centuries, evolving to survive and to meet the needs of the times. Like Morpheus Ravenna mentions in American Mystic, I have also felt the Witches of Old and they are not so different from me that we do not recognize each other. I accept that Wicca is new by academic standards, but it’s not what I believe. It’s not what my experience tells me.

I hope further research brings more clarity and insight, but I don’t think it will ever be able to uncover the full history of Wicca. What concerns me is that this tradition of unnecessary secrecy, false history and “white lies” continues. The history of Modern Wicca from the 70’s forward isn’t a great deal clearer. Lineage is obscured, organic evolution convoluted and important history is lost. We are losing the voices of our modern elders as surely as we lost the voices of our ancient elders. We need to record our history honestly now and not leave future generations in the same quandry.

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