Correllian Nativist Tradition, also known as Correllian Wicca, is a Wiccan tradition and is based upon the teachings of the members of the High-Correll family. In this sense, the Tradition is an example of a Family Tradition (FamTrad). Blv. Orpheis Caroline High Correll (an American practicing psychic, spiritual healer, herbalist, and an owner of a circus ) created the Tradition in the early 20th century. Her family came from a line of Cherokee Didanvwisgi (medicine men) and traditional Scottish Witches who were further influenced by Aradian witchcraft and the Spiritualist Church. The Tradition was launched at what is now known as Correll Mother Temple in Danville, Illinois, on September 4, 1879, and Blv. Orpheis Caroline High Correll would head the church until she died in 1940. The new Tradition was founded as an entity that was separate from her own ancestry.
The Correllian Tradition was founded on a blending of Blv. Orpheis Caroline High Correll’s Cherokee heritage, European Witchcraft through her Scottish heritage, Spiritualism, and Hermetic thought. An additional influence was her Aradian connection that she had acquired through her initiation by Lydia Beckett in 1904; Lydia Beckett was a student of Charles Godfrey Leland’s, famous for his publication of Aradia: The Gospel of the Witches. In this sense, the Tradition did not start as a Wiccan tradition.
In its initial form, the Correllian Tradition followed a formal, matriarchal, and matrilinear structure. This beginning helped to form the structure of the current offices in the Tradition.
From its very beginnings, the Tradition was founded with an eye towards the formation of community among various forms of Paganism (including the non-European forms). To this point, the Tradition includes the word, “Nativist,” in its name. However, it is easier for many to simply call the Tradition, “Correllian.” The Tradition serves as a form of syncretic Pagan universalism—we have more in common with each other than things that separate us—and the Tradition emphasizes the need for unity among Pagans in the face of Christian hegemony. It wouldn’t be until the 1970s, under the Tradition’s third First Priestess (LaVeda High-Correll) that the Tradition would become increasingly affiliated with Wicca and the Tradition did not regard itself as a Wiccan Tradition until 1992. From its start, however, the Tradition adopted eclecticism and universalism.