A Brief Introduction to Wiccan History
I would love to say that Wicca came about in all of its glory and fully formed in the 1950s in England and was formulated by Gerald B. Gardner. That would be the easy way out and would make for a much shorter history to read through. The fact is, though, that Wicca is a revival and recreation of earlier magical religions and practices. That means that Wicca shares a long history, one that dates back several thousands of years!
The belief in and the use of magick has been widely recorded by historical documents and artifacts. It existed as a reality for ancient societies and a daily fact of life for the people living in those times. Sources ranging from the Bible to Roman law details the legality (or illegality) of magick and its practitioners. Different forms of Paganism and polytheism were the norm of the time; various related religions were the dominate faith systems around the world.
To start off, there is a lot of controversy over the start and history of Wicca. It seems that no two people can actually agree with each other on this topic. Some people tend to look at the hard, cold facts, the facts which can be documented and proven, much like evidence in a court trial. Other people may opt to bring in mythology and present that as actual and verifiable history. Some people will try to present Wicca as a religion with thousands of years of history itself and others will try to show that Wicca is [a] a more modern religion, one that came about during the 1950s in England and [b] is a blend of various religious and magickal practices and beliefs!
A part of the problem with establishing a thousands-of-years timeline is that many people assume that Wicca is a continuation of ancient European practices and beliefs. This viewpoint was first professionally presented by Margaret Murray back in the 1920s. In her work, Ms. Murray presented a religious system that had been in hiding since the Burning Times, the time of the persecutions against witches. This view was reemphasized by Ravensdale and Morgan in 1974 in their work, The Psychology of Witchcraft: An Account of Witchcraft, Black Magic and the Occult. While I don’t doubt that some people may stem from families that did indeed practice some forms of witchcraft from even before this time, I do not believe that their faith can actually be characterized as being Wicca. My preference is for establishing actual, verifiable facts, facts which most people can agree upon.
There are definitely a few things that we do know about pre-history and how they may have shaped religion. Initially, humans were hunter-gatherers. They do not seem to have farmed food nor to have raised their own animals, such as cows and pigs. Rather, they hunted as they travelled and they gathered food from the plants, such as berries, as they moved on. While they may have worshipped a Deity of plant life, they would have had no gods to worship for help in raising animals. Instead, they would have had a God of the Hunt. Early religion and magick would have been tools to ensure the group’s survival, a successful hunt.
We know, from history, that the men of the clan were the traditional hunters. They wore the cloaks of animals (with the heads attached), they painted on the walls of the caves the animals that they hunted. In a symbolic sense, these hunters became the very animals (or symbols of the animals) that they were hunting. This is definitely an early form of ritual and magick. This is what Raymond Buckland called “sympathetic magic". Thus, every animal and every plant had a spirit or was a god and, so, deserved to be worshipped (animism).
After a period of time, people discovered that it was easier to remain in one place, to grow their own crops and animals. Herding and tilling made for a more predictable food supply. The necessity of wild animals for food from hunting lost ground to the domesticated goat and cow, waiting in the fields for the slaughter to become food. The stag god of old was replaced by a god with the horns of a goat (which is not to be confused with the Christian Satan). At the same time, the earth took on the persona of the greatest Mother of all, the Mother (or Earth) Goddess.
In ancient witchcraft, women did not serve in a subservient role to men in matters relating to religion. This fact has been clearly demonstrated by such artifacts as the Venus of Willendorf and certain paintings on the walls of caves in Spain which depict women and their rituals. In addition, we see various cultures with various goddesses, many of Whom were female warriors, bringers of justice, healers, and more—often in positions that later cultures would ascribe only to the gods.
With the advent of farming and raising animals, we start to see a more formalized approach to religion. With this dawn, we see representations of Goddesses and Gods. Consider the literature, architecture, and artwork of the Indus Valley, the Mesopotamian region, the British Isles and northern France, Greece, Egypt, and the Middle East as examples. At this time, we see societies tended to be duotheistic or polytheistic. Even the Hebrew Bible gives us an insight into this in the passage with the reference to Elohim (אֱלֹהִים). In this example, we see the name of a Canaanite god (Elo) and the addition of the Hebrew “him”, indicating a number greater than one—thus, more than one god and/or goddess. So, when the Bible says, “And God (Elohim) said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,” (Genesis 1: 26), we are not getting an idea or desire from just one god, but the command to create human beings after the image of more than one god!
Ravensdale and Morgan (1974: 15) make record of a rather unique ritual enacted to ensure a successful harvest for the year. They write:
There is a very well-documented version of this symbolic drama (the need for the sacrifice of one person to ensure the survival of the community). The king dances with his twelve companions (a college of priestesses), after which he is slain, dismembered, and partly eaten by his followers. His blood is saved, drunk at a feast and the remainder scattered in the fields. Various parts of the body, the most important of which are the head and genitals, are reverenced and buried at sacred shrines. Death took place by water, by fire or by hanging on a T-shaped cross.
Now, before anyone gets the wrong idea and starts to argue that Wiccans don’t make such sacrifices and that there is no evidence that ancient pagans did so, I would point out something contemporary, something which has been performed for almost 2,000 years:
· Jesus hung on a cross
o Some modern experts are pointing out that this cross would have been T-shaped
o The last supper
§ Jesus instructing His Disciples to eat of His symbolic flesh and to drink of His symbolic blood
In other words, the Person on Whom modern Christianity was based, instructed His followers to follow practically the same ritual as the more ancient pagan kings performed with their priestesses! Ancient pagan rituals and the more recent Last Supper and crucifixion both reflect the sacrifice of the king to ensure either the literal survival of his people through a successful harvest made possible by his death or the more spiritually-inclined survival of His people with eternal life through His own sacrifice of His life on a T-shaped cross.
Now, polytheism and paganism also developed in Europe (approximately 2000 B.C.E.) with the Greeks inheriting certain elements of the mystery cults from the Minoans. In turn, many of these concepts were absorbed by the Romans (along with the existent Etruscan practices native to Italy). From there, some of these mystery teachings appear to have been brought into Gaul and other Celtic lands by the Romans as their empire continued to spread and grow.
The idea of a polytheistic pantheon is not new to us. The ideas of witchcraft and paganism are not new to us. Indeed, as early as 906 A.D., the Catholic denied the very existence of witchcraft and of witches in the Canon Episcopi by Regino of Treves. The belief in witchcraft is actually condemned in this work! The Canon Episcopi was to be used later as an argument against the inhumane witch trials. After all, if witchcraft does not exist, how can someone be accused of the non-existent witchcraft, be tried for the non-existent witchcraft, be convicted of the non-existent witchcraft, and, finally, be punished in any way for the non-existent witchcraft. You should not be able to accused of a crime which does not exist, much less be convicted and punished for it.
In the 10th century, the Church decided that witchcraft does exist, but only commands a relatively mild punishment (when compared to what was to take place a few centuries later). The punishment for witchcraft is simply a one-year diet of bread and water.
In the 13th and 14th centuries, a change happened in the Roman Catholic Church’s policies and practices. In 1227 A.D., Pope Gregory IX declared the start of the Inquisition in order to stamp out heresy and criticisms of the Church; the Inquisition would then add torture to its tools around 1252 A.D. as this tactic draws out more confessions from the victims. In 1326 A.D., the Inquisition was expanded to include stamping out witchcraft and demonology.
Actual persecution of suspected witches in Christianized Europe appears to have begun around the 12th and 13th centuries. There may have been a bit of a lull in these persecutions around the 14th century, possibly due to devastation that Europe faced from the numerous deaths caused by the Black Plague, but they took off again during the time that the Protestant Reformation began.
In the 15th century, the Catholic Church decided that witches eat babies and that they sell their souls to the Christian Devil. Then, in 1487 A.D., a work was published which sealed the fate of countless people in Europe. The Malleus Maleficarum was published by Heinrich Kramer, under his Latin name of Henricus Institoris (Jakob Sprenger’s name was later added as an author of this book, but the veracity of the Sprenger as a co-author has been debated by historians). The Malleus Maleficarum (also known as The Hammer of the Witches) introduced certain ideas to the witch hunts. Some of the new ideas included:
· Witchcraft is a form of heresy against the Church
· A detailed physical examination of the accused to find certain marks that would identify the person as a witch
· Secular courts can place a person on trial for the crime of witchcraft, using the inquisitorial practices of the Church
· The convicted witch was to be punished in the same manner as any other heretic—being burned at the stake
The Maleus Maleficarum formalized the legal practices of the Church against suspected witches and against witchcraft itself. Because of the fears surrounding these ideas, laws were passed to criminalize these practices, laws which extended to England (Witchcraft Act in 1736 and Vagrancy Act in 1824 (which outlawed fortune telling and acts of divination)) and the American colonies. The Salem witch trials (1692) are a grim reminder of these laws. These laws, however, did not simply disappear just because of some Enlightenment. They took time to be repealed! Indeed, for centuries, witchcraft was considered a heresy by the Church and was punishable, using a variety of techniques that ensured the death of the person suspected of “witchcraft”. For example, the last execution for the crime of witchcraft in England took place in 1716 A.D.
During the sixteenth century and beyond, we see the writing of various texts about magick and certain esoteric mysteries. In 1533, for example, we find the writing of Henry Cornelius Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy, which detailed various magickal practices. In 1866, we find The Key of the Mysteries and Transcendental Magic by Eliphas Levi; don’t let the relative youth or newness of these works fool you, however, as this date is simply the time of the English translation of the original manuscripts from the French. In 1877, Madame Blavatsky gave us Isis Revealed and, in 1888, we get The Secret Doctrines by H.P. Blavatsky. 1881 gave us The Occult World, by A.P. Sinnet. In 1897, we are introduced to Charles Godfrey Leland’s seminal work, Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches. Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches was purported to be the surviving holy text of witches in Italy who followed the cult of Aradia and Her Daughter, Diana. In this work, we read the first published version of any Charge of the Goddess.
It must be said that Leland is the closest thing that some Wiccans can claim as a “patron saint” for the religion. From Leland and Aradia, the Gospel of the Witches, we see the reintroduction to many people the idea of a Goddess figure, a Deity Who is concerned about humans, Her children. From these sources, we can see the evolution of modern Stregheria and the Correllian Nativist Tradition (a Wiccan Tradition which started out more as a family tradition of witchcraft before Gerald Gardner wrote about Wicca).
1903 brought us Proglegomena to the Study of Greek Religion by Jane Ellen Harrison. The following year (1904) gave us Aleister Crowley’s work, Book of the Law, followed by Magick in Theory and Practice in 1929. Various spiritualism groups (such as the Theosophical Society in New York, the Golden Dawn, and the Hemetic Society (the Hemetic Society appears to be our source for the four quarters as related to the four directions and the watchtowers, as well as the use of our modern working tools of wands, chalice, and scourge)) and spiritualist individuals helped to contribute to the continued success of such works.
The twentieth century brought about an interesting change in occultic literature. Rather than repeating some “ancient traditions”, we see the beginning of studying paganism and witchcraft from a more scientific perspective. Key among these attempts was Margaret Murray’s work in 1921 The Witch Cult in Western Europe. In this work, Professor Murray introduced the world to the concept of there being 13 people in a coven, the theory of ancient goddess traditions, and the celebration of four of the Sabbats for religious celebration and Esbats for more of a business purpose.
The modern age of Wicca, the time period in which Wicca became a distinct and separate religion from the more general Paganism and Witchcraft can be looked at as taking place with the birth of Gerald B. Gardner (1884 – 1964) and with the contributions that Edward Aleister Crowley (1875 – 1947). Together, these two men, along with the significant contributions of Doreen Valiente (1922 – 1999), ended up creating much of the framework of some of the more ceremonial aspects of Wicca and its foundational “scriptures”. Some of the elements of modern Wicca were introduced by Gardner in his work High Magic’s Aid in 1949, which gave us the description for the use of the athame, introduced the world to a Book of Shadows, and made women an equal part of the ceremonies. This work also took us from the four Sabbats mentioned by Murray to the more universally accepted idea of the eight Sabbats. Now, some of the members of Gardner’s coven disapproved of having their rituals and practices revealed to the public, so Gardner had this work published as a piece of fiction.
Gardner had been a civil servant and had served in Asia, learning of some of the local myths, beliefs, and religious practices. He was interested and involved in the occult and joined a Rosicrucian group. Through this group, Gardner met a woman named Dorothy Clutterbuck, a follower of the Old Religion. In 1939, Gardner was initiated into Clutterbuck’s coven in the New Forest (appropriately named the New Forest Coven). Gardner also continued to study some of the more ceremonial aspects of magick and it may be from this interest that we see some of the introduction of a more formalized practice fused with Old World witchcraft.
Aleister Crowley was an influencing factor on Gardner and his writings and religion. It is widely believed that many of Gardner’s writings and rituals were anonymously penned by Crowley.
About that same time (1948), Robert Graves educated the world about the concepts of:
· Triple Goddess, incorporating the Crone aspect
· Ancient Goddess religions form some of the genetic blueprint for ancient poetic sources
In 1951, the rather primitive Witchcraft and Vagrancy laws were repealed in England. This meant that certain practices to be found in modern Paganism, Witchcraft, and Wicca were no longer criminal acts in England. This gave Gardner the freedom to publish his work, Witchcraft Today. As opposed to High Magic’s Aid, Witchcraft Today was a non-fiction and introduced us to the ideas of a belief in faeries, the Knights Templar practicing a form of witchcraft, and that nine million victims were killed in the Burning Times (modern estimates show the figure to be more likely somewhere between 40,000 and 100,000). It appears that this is the same time period that Gardner assumed a leadership role in Clutterbuck’s coven and moved the coven from the Old Religion to Wicca.
An important figure in Wiccan history (Doreen Valiente) joined Gardner’s coven (1953) and was critical for the growth of this religion thanks to her poetic talent. She is rumored to be largely responsible for the creation of the modern Gardnerian Book of Shadows and, more importantly, reworked the Charge of the Goddess found in Aradia, the Gospel of the Witches. Valiente ultimately left Gardner’s coven (1957), largely due to her disagreeing with Gardner as to how public Wicca was becoming.
It didn’t take long for other people to devise their own forms or Traditions of Wicca. Probably one of the most famous offshoots would be the Alexandrian Tradition founded by Alexander Sanders. His Book of Shadows was almost identical to the one composed by the Gardnerians, but his Tradition also incorporated more “high magick”. Alexandrian Wicca has had a certain controversial history. Initially, Sanders had attempted to join a Gardnerian coven led by the Crowthers (1962), but they felt an instant dislike for him and refused to let Sanders join them. Sanders then performed a public ritual based on the Gardnerian Tradition and falsely claimed to be a Gardnerian initiate. Later, he changed his story and claimed that he was initiated into Wicca by his grandmother.
Alexandrianism was greatly influenced by Janet and Stewart Farrar, so much so that even the name of the Tradition was influenced by this couple (the term, “Alexandrian”, is based on the Library at Alexandria). Another change that was brought about was in relation to gender roles. In the Gardnerian Tradition, gender roles were more strictly defined thanks to gender polarity (a product of its times) and this, in turn, made homophobia more acceptable in that Tradition (of course, most Gardnerians are much more inclusive and accepting of the LGBTQ community now). In the Alexandrian Tradition, Wicca became more accessible to the members of the gay community.
In 1966, the Regency coven was founded by some of the followers of Robert Cochrane. Cochrane’s Craft offered certain differences to Wicca, such as:
· The abandonment of the scourge
· A greater emphasis on philosophy and mysticism
· The idea that Wicca is not a Pagan religion, that Wicca is simply based on paganism
· It is preferable to perform ritual outdoors whenever possible
· Elements with their corresponding Quarters or directions
§ Earth = North
§ Air = East
§ Fire = South
§ Water = West
Unfortunately Cochrane perpetrated one of the most common beliefs that scares some people away from Wicca. In Cochrane’s view, his Tradition was the only valid and “real” Wicca. Valiente had been involved with Cochrane’s Tradition, but left it because of this insistence on his Cocharne’s Craft being the only way; Valiente considered Gardnerian Wicca and Cochrane’s Craft to be equally valid.
Cochrane committed suicide in 1966, but a version of Cochrane’s Craft lives on in the 1734 Tradition.
In 1963, Raymond Buckland came and introduced Wicca to the United States. America turned out to be fertile ground for this new religion as many groups of people were hungry for a faith outside of the white male-dominated religious hierarchy that dictated the social norms of the time. Wicca was a religion that encouraged people to acknowledge and honor their own spiritual roots, insisted on empowerment for women, and generally welcomed members of the LGBTQ community as full equals.
Now, in 1975, Doreen Valiente published her works, An ABC of Witchcraft Past and Present, along with her book, Natural Magic. In these works, Valiente introduced to the Wiccan community the idea of self-initiation (you did not have to be a member of the “right” Tradition or coven in order to become Wiccan), correspondence with Nature, the idea that anyone (and not just people who were recognized as Wiccans by the “proper” authority or chain of command) could work positive magick, and her original charges of the Gods.
In 1979, another revolutionary book was introduced, Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess, written by Miriam Simos, also known as Starhawk. This work applied certain psychological concepts to Wicca and placed a certain emphasis on spiritual feminism, ecofeminism, and the Goddess movement. Starhawk also applied the ancient ideas of karma and how they worked with magick.
At this time, James Lovelock introduced the idea of the Gaia Hypothesis. In this line of thought, we recognize the Earth as a living organism rather than as dead material to be exploited for wealth. As a living organism, humans are a part of that life, a part of nature as opposed to being apart from Nature. The Gaia Hypothesis caught the attention of many environmentalist and is generally accepted in the Wiccan community.
The 1980s and the 1990s were an important time for Wicca. The religion saw an explosion of books written and published that encouraged people to study on their own and to practice Wicca, to act as their own High Priest and/or High Priestess. In America, Wicca was becoming more eclectic and more of a do-it-yourself religion. It became more open, more free to experience. During this time, we saw more of a solitary experience becoming valid in Wicca. Additionally, in 1985, a district court in Virginia and, in 1986, a federal appeals court in the United States ruled that Wicca is a legitimate religion and must be respected by the government as such as it is to be protected under the First Amendment. Furthermore, in 2007, the Bush Administration decided to allow Pagan soldiers to have the pentacle engraved on their headstones when they are buried in any U.S. military burial grounds, such as at Arlington National Cemetery.
Other Wiccans stepped forward and became pioneers in the growth of Wiccan spirituality. Some of these innovators include Scott Cunningham, Silver Ravenwolf, Raymond Buckland, Marion Weinstein, Don Lewis, and Zsuzsanna Budapest. All of these people are well worth your time to look up and research. They have each brought something invaluable to the practice of Wicca.
Wicca is a relatively new development in the history of religion. It is not some religion that was passed down by word of mouth through each generation. Wicca is a faith whose foundations have been built on much older religious practices and systems, in the same sense that other religions are built upon the bones of an older faith system, such as Christianity being built on the ideas of Judaism. In a sense, Wicca is a renewal of the faith of all human ancestors. It has liberally borrowed from various religious traditions that were in practice prior to the introduction of the monotheistic religions with which so many of us were raised. More importantly, Wicca is not a static religion; it is constantly evolving.
The relative newness of this faith, however, does not in any way invalidate its worth and its contributions to the twenty-first century world. Wicca has been invaluable in attempting to restore a balance between the Divine Masculine which has dominated Western religions for the past two thousand plus years and the more ancient Divine Feminine, the ultimate Mother and Nurturer for the human race. A judgment of Wicca should not be based on how old the faith is, but on what the religion offers to people in the here and now.
It is true that Wicca is something of a journey back to a “simpler time” in that its roots are based on a more rural and nature-based faith system. It is a counter-balance to the mechanization of the human soul in our industrialized and computerized world. It is an act of rebellion against a world that is calculated, a world where worth is measured by wealth and the potential for exploitation. It is the attempt for humans to reconnect with Nature, with a more natural and intuitive path. The witch is a symbol of the freedom of women (and men) from the hierarchical structure of a more rigid faith system; Wicca is an extension and loosely formalized branch of that archetype.
Buckland, Raymond (2002). Buckland’s Complete Book of Witchcraft (Second Edition). St. Paul, Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications.
Grimassi, Raven (1997). The Wiccan Mysteries: Ancient Origins & Teachings. St. Paul, Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications.
Leland, Charles G. (2003). Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches with A Modern Introduction and Commentary by A.J. Drew. Franklin Lakes, New Jersey: New Page Books.
Pearson, Jo (April 2003). “Ritual and Religious Experience: William James and the Study of `Alternative Spiritualities’”. CrossCurrents, volume 53, issue 3.
Ravensdale, Tom and James Morgan (1974). The Psychology of Witchcraft: An Account of Witchcraft, Black Magic, and the Occult. New York City, New York: Arco Publishing Company, Inc.
White, Ethan Doyle (November 2010). “`The Meaning of Wicca’: A Study in Etymology, History, and Pagan Politics”. Pomegranate, volume 12, issue 2.