In the United States, several forms of Wicca formed in the 1970s, based upon the Gardnerian and Alexandrian traditions, but with certain differences.

[8] This ran counter to all previous ideas about what witchcraft was in history and folklore - even Leland's variant of the witch-cult hypothesis in Aradia depicted witches as not fully benevolent, but rather as revolutionary figures who would use cursing and black magic to exact revenge on their enemies, the upper classes, and the Catholic Church.[14]. This website generates income through

[43], Gardnerian Wicca came to the United States through an Englishman who had recently emigrated to the US, named Raymond Buckland, and his wife, Rosemary. [28] Nonetheless, Valiente helped Gardner rewrite the Book of Shadows, removing much of what she saw as "Crowleyanity", and adding sections such as the Charge of the Goddess, which she adapted from Aradia in poetic verse. The American Joseph Bearwalker Wilson corresponded with the English Robert Cochrane prior to Cochrane's ritual suicide in 1966, and from this he founded the 1734 Tradition.

The coven was later taken over by a couple known only as Theos and Phoenix, who enlarged the Book of Shadows, adding further degrees of initiation which were required before members could found their own covens. The accused were put on trial and alleged to be witches who worshiped the Devil and committed acts of diabolism that included the cannibalism of children and desecration of the Eucharist. Most covens and Neopagan groups refused to allow under 18s into their ranks, and so many teenagers turned to books to find out more. Simpson noted that the only contemporary member of the Folklore Society who took Murray's ideas seriously was Gerald Gardner, who used them as the basis for Wicca. Murray was an Egyptologist, archaeologist, and a few other “-ists” who helped popularize what has become known as the “witch-cult hypothesis.”  Simply put, the hypothesis states that the witch trials during the witch craze were actually an attempt at snuffing out a pagan religion that pre-dated Christianity. Others, however, were more critical of Gardner’s actions and splintered off. to ancient practices at all, instead focusing on earth-based and relational living archaeological evidence.

I’ll cover other torture methods in a separate article for those interested in hearing what other grotesque things were done to accused witches. The canon decreed that witchcraft was a superstition and should not be taken seriously. After Leek emigrated to the United States, Doreen Valiente took over presidency, and began publication of a magazine, Pentagram. The interest in Wicca and modern paganism soared in the 90s, and the belief system underwent a huge paradigm shift when teenagers became interested in all things witchy. Gardner records a working by the coven in the New Forest in 1940 against the projected Nazi invasion. Yes, I have a black cat named Salem. [48], In traditional Gardnerian and Alexandrian craft, initiates took an oath of secrecy never to reveal the rituals of it to outsiders. In a way, Gardner sort of did the whole “magical mishmash” of different sources and what emerged was a turnkey religion ready to be sent to the masses for consumption! Modern paganism is the “container” within which sits Wicca, along with many other esoteric-type belief systems. If I could show you a funny picture of a cat in the hopes that you’ll stick with me through the rest of this, then I’d do it. How could anyone do such horrid things? In the 1960s, new figures arose in Britain who popularised their own forms of the religion, including Robert Cochrane, Sybil Leek and Alex Sanders, and organisations began to be formed to propagate it, such as the Witchcraft Research Association. So if you’re looking for solid answers and a definitive, authoritative defense of Wicca or paganism, I’m simply not the one to provide that. DID they occur? Among them were Charles Godfrey Leland, Rudyard Kipling, and Aleister Crowley.

Check out this handy chart that explains many of the world's religions. Is that enough drama for you? For a long time, Wicca was seen as being simply a minor sect, or cult. The tradition she founded became known as Reclaiming, and mixed Wicca with other forms of Neopaganism such as Feri, along with strong principles of environmental protection. Historian Brooks Alexander commented that this was a form of "minority empowerment".[55]. Available from Amazon in both Kindle and paperback. In 1963, he was finally initiated into Gardnerian Wicca by a different High Priestess. and old widows or spinster women. Free love, man. This is more in line with the modern belief systems of Wicca. There was a catch, though. The discovery of cave paintings from more than 30,000 …

After Gardner retired and returned to his native England, he continued studying things related to the occult and other esoteric beliefs. In 900 CE, the Catholic Church published the canon Episcopi, which described witchcraft as Devil-worship. In fact, he claimed to be the descendent of a long line of “traditional witches.”  Sanders, like Gardner, had a flair for the dramatic. From the 1970s onward, books began to be published by such figures as Paul Huson, Scott Cunningham, and Stewart and Janet Farrar which encouraged self-initiation into the Craft, leading to a boost in the number of adherents and the development of traditions. He wanted more and more exposure of both himself and his Craft. In Hutton's view, Gardner may have used her name as a joke and/or as a subterfuge to conceal the identity of Dafo or some other individual. One element that is apparently distinctive is the use of ritual scourging and binding as a method of attaining an ecstatic trance for magical working. However, one does not have to join any one of these organizations in order to be considered a Wiccan. [21] Valiente also assumed that Clutterbuck was the same individual as Dafo. However, in the 1960s, it also began to spread much further abroad, most notably in the English-speaking nations of Australia and the United States. Civil rights movements, baby boomers, Marty McFly kissing his mom, and Wicca. Witchcraft is closely related to the concept of “sorcery,” which can be traced back to many different ancient societies such as the ancient Egyptians, Greco-Roman, and Hebrew civilizations. [8] Murray suggested, based in part on the work of James Frazer in The Golden Bough, that the witches accused in the early modern trials were not in fact Satanists, but worshiped a pre-Christian god associated with forests and the natural world. Whilst these were heavily criticised by many Wiccans (Margot Adler called The Craft "the worst movie ever made!

Lecture at the Wiccan Conference in Canberra, 1991, Accounts of would-be Wiccans who compiled rituals out of published sources together with their own imaginative reconstructions, without formal initiations, appear in, Negotiating Gender in Contemporary Occultism - Interview with Manon Hedenborg White, https://www.religiousstudiesproject.com/podcast/negotiating-gender-in-contemporary-occultism/, Crafting the Art of Magic: A Critical Review, "An Annotated Chronology and Bibliography of the Early Gardnerian Craft", "Far From Devil Worship And 'Harry Potter,' Young Witches Explain What They're Really About", List of religions and spiritual traditions, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_Wicca&oldid=974247546, Articles with unsourced statements from July 2016, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 21 August 2020, at 22:38. Since the early 1990s, historians have published studies and research into the history of Wicca, including the American Aidan Kelly[1][2] and the Britons Ronald Hutton[3] and Philip Heselton. This actually became a lucrative business for con men. That doesn’t mean, however, that there aren’t other sources (albeit less-than-ideal sources) that would be evidence enough for someone to come to the conclusion that maybe, just maybe, the hypothesis was on the right track. His tradition, which was later coined as "Alexandrian" by Stewart Farrar, an initiate of Sanders, incorporated aspects from ceremonial magic and the Qabalah, as well as Judeo-Christian iconography. In 1963, both Bucklands were initiated into the Gardnerian craft by Monique Wilson in a ceremony in Britain. Seeking to fit these into a framework in which descriptions of witchcraft had both a natural and pagan-religious explanation, Murray posited that these malevolent actions were actually twisted interpretations of benevolent actions, altered either under duress during the trials, or by practitioners themselves who had, over the years, forgotten or changed the "original" intent of their practices. But Valiente was very much of the mindset that the practice of Wicca should be largely “secretive.”  The two clashed hard over this, and Valiente eventually told Gardner (and his media attention) to go screw himself. [8], Murray was very interested in ascribing naturalistic or religious ceremonial explanations to some of the more fantastic descriptions found in witch trial testimony. This document was just one in a long line of edicts, bulls, and laws passed by the Catholic Church from the 1300s & 1400s. But we’re getting a bit “long in the virtual tooth” in this section, so I’ll just say that there’s plenty more where that came from. The interest has continued through to the present day with movies like “Harry Potter” and “Lord of the Rings” continuing to spark interest in witchcraft and modern pagan belief systems.

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