Notes

Contemporary or Modern Witchcraft refers to the various witchcraft or sorcery practices that are practised in the present day. The majority of these groups, such as Wicca and Stregheria claim to be religions, whereas others simply claim to exist alongside a religious belief.

Wicca is the most influential and widespread modern witchcraft movement. It is a contemporary Neopagan Nature-based religion or spiritual tradition with a specific assemblage of beliefs, as well as a set of practices with distinctive ritual forms, seasonal observances and religious, magical and ethical precepts. It generally honours a deity that is divided into male and female spirituality (known as the God and Goddess), it gives reverence to the Earth and sees the divine in all things, especially the natural world. It is one of the fastest-growing religions in the Western world (the Church of Wicca is estimated to have over 400,000 members in the USA alone).

Wiccans are witches in that they practice a kind of witchcraft, but not all witches are Wiccans. Similarly, most Wiccans call themselves pagans, though the umbrella terms Paganism and Neopaganism also encompass many faiths that have nothing to do with Wicca or witchcraft.

Wicca was largely popularized during the 1950s by Gerald Gardner, a retired British civil servant, who at the time called it Witchcraft or "the Wica”. He claimed it to be a modern survival of an old witchcraft mystery religion that had existed in secret for hundreds of years, originating in the pre-Christian Paganism of Europe. The authenticity of Gardner’s work has been questioned and the fragmentary ancient rites that he claimed to have rewritten may actually have come largely from the writings of earlier occultists.

As witchcraft became more popular and accepted during the 1960s, several alternative traditions developed. Each tradition has its own focus and its own brand of ritual and magic, although they are generally agreed on the overriding reverence for life, nature and the environment, as seen through the Goddess and God.

The vast majority of practitioners of Wicca venerate a Goddess and a God, who are generally understood to be dual aspects of a single godhead. The God and Goddess are seen as complementary polarities, and embodiments of the life-force manifest in Nature. The God is sometimes symbolized as the sun, and the Goddess as the moon. Some Wiccans also recognize a “Prime Mover”, higher than the God and Goddess, but unknowable or extend their beliefs to elements of animism, the belief that souls or spirits exist in animals, plants and other entities, in addition to humans. In the feminist tradition of Dianic Wicca, the Goddess is seen as complete unto herself, and the God is not worshipped at all.

There is a strong impulse within Wicca that looks towards the concept of balance, and towards relatedness, that existence is a network through which all being are linked. It encourages a harmonious way of living and environmental responsibility. Reincarnation is a traditional teaching of Wicca, although beliefs in the afterlife vary among Wiccans.

Wiccan morality is largely based on the Wiccan Rede, which states, in summary: “An it harm none, do what ye will” (or sometimes: “Do as ye will, as long as ye harm none”). This stresses the necessity of taking responsibility for the consequences of one's actions and minimizing harm to oneself and others and allows a witch to engage in any action, as long as it is carefully considered, and their actions harm nobody, including themselves.

The Law of Threefold Return holds that whatever benevolent or malevolent actions a person performs will return to that person with triple force, similar to the Eastern idea of karma. Some Wiccans also seek to cultivate a set of eight virtues: mirth, reverence, honour, humility, strength, beauty, power and compassion.

Traditional forms of Wicca usually require a first degree of initiation in order to gain membership of a coven (a group of 3 to 20 witches, usually with one or two leaders). The Summoner is responsible for calling other coven members to meetings or rituals, and for all inter-coven communication.

Those who aspire to become teachers may eventually undergo second and third degree initiations, conferring the title of High Priest or High Priestess and allowing them to establish new covens. At initiation, some Wiccans adopt a “craft name” to symbolize their spiritual "rebirth", to act as a magical alter-ego, or simply to provide anonymity when appearing as a witch in public.

In typical Wiccan rites, the coven or solitary practitioner assembles inside a ritually cast and purified magic circle, often involving an invocation of the "Guardians" of the cardinal points: East (Air), South (Fire), West (Water) and North (Earth), and a central fifth element called Spirit. The five points of the pentagram symbolize the four elements with Spirit presiding at the top. Once the circle is cast, a seasonal ritual may be performed, prayers to the God and Goddess are said, and spells are sometimes worked. Many Wiccans use a special set of magical tool: a broom, cauldron, chalice, wand, Book of Shadows (a private journal or core religious text of a particular Wiccan lineage), altar cloth, ritual knife, candles, crystals, pentacle, scented oils and incense.

Each full moon, and in some cases a new moon, is marked with a ritual called an Esbat. Wiccans also follow the Wheel of the Year and celebrate its eight festivals known as Sabbats. The Lesser Sabbats fall on the solstices and the equinoxes; the Greater Sabbats are celebrated on the cross-quarter days (halfway between the solstices and equinoxes).

There is no centralized organization in Wicca, and no single orthodoxy, so that the beliefs and practices of Wiccans can vary substantially, both among individuals and among traditions. Typically, however, the main religious principles, ethics and ritual structures are shared.

Gardnerian Wicca:
After England repealed its remaining witchcraft laws in 1951, Gerald Gardner was one of the first to go public about his practice of witchcraft, and he became something of a figurehead of the resurgent Wiccan religion, and is seen by many as the founder of modern-day Wicca. After exhaustive research, he re-wrote the rituals of his coven for historical accuracy, and many covens of modern witches sprang up in Britain under Gardner’s inspiration and spread to the United States in the counter-cultural mood of the 1960s. Gardnerian Wicca has a strong feeling for nature, colourful rituals, and deliberately challenges conventional religion and society (for example, the rituals are performed “skyclad” or naked). Individuals must be initiated by the coven and cannot initiate themselves, and there is a structured degree system in which one learns about the craft.

Alexandrian Wicca:
Alex Sanders, who dubbed himself the “King” of his witches, founded this tradition in the 1960s, initially in England. Much of their ritual is based on Gardnerian Wicca, including the insistence on membership of a coven and the naked meetings, although the Alexandrians tend to place more emphasis on ceremonial magic, and often include many Judeo-Christian elements.

Seax-Wica:
This tradition (also known as Saxon Wicca) was founded by Raymond Buckland in 1973 in the United States. Buckland was originally a follower of Gerald Gardner, but he moved to the U.S. in 1962 and gradually moved away from the Gardnerian tradition. Buckland made up his own rituals based on ancient Saxon traditions. Covens decide for themselves whether to work skyclad or robed, and witches can be initiated either by the coven or through self-study.

British Traditional Wicca:
There are a number of different British traditions, based on various differing views of the pre-Christian practices of Britain. Most British Traditional groups follow either Gerald Gardner or Janet and Stewart Farrar, who have written a number of influential books about witchcraft. The groups tend to be highly structured with training for neophytes (or beginners) following a degree program like the Gardnerians, and their practices tend to be a mix of Celtic and Gardnerian traditions.

Georgian Wicca:
George Patterson founded the Georgian tradition (or “Georgian Church”) in Bakersfield, California in 1970. Their rituals are drawn from the Gardnerian and Alexandrian traditions, with other elements added as coven members see fit (some write their own rituals). Some Georgian covens work skyclad, while others do not, and eclecticism is encouraged, following Patterson's dictum: "if it works use it; if it doesn't, don't".

Algard Wicca:
The Algard tradition was established in 1972 by Mary Nesnick. It is a combination of the Gardnerian and Alexandrian tradition and therefore, in practice, very similar to Gardnerian Wicca.

Celtic or Druidic Wicca:
This tradition looks to ancient Celtic and Druidic deities and beliefs, with an emphasis on the magical and healing powers of plants and minerals, as well as gnomes, fairies and elemental spirits. Many of the rituals tend to be derived from Gardnerian practices, but stressing the elements, nature and the Ancient Ones.


Reclaiming Wicca:
The Reclaiming Collective was founded in 1980 in the San Francisco Bay area by Starhawk, the popular author of “The Spiral Dance”. She had received some training in the Feri tradition from Victor Anderson, but wanted to focus more on linking spirituality and magic with political activism. Although the Reclaiming Collective itself no longer exists, the tradition has continued to thrive. It is a non-hierarchical tradition and its teachings are disseminated both by individual teachers and at week-long “witch camps” in the United States, Canada, England and Germany.

Dianic Wicca:
The Dianic tradition, named after the Greek goddess Diana, focuses on the Goddess and down-plays the role of the God. It was founded by Zsuzsanna Budapest and, since the 1970s, it has largely represented the feminist movement within witchcraft. The Goddess is worshipped in her three aspects, Maiden, Mother and Crone. There are different varieties of Dianic witches, and some covens welcome women only and some do not.

Blue Star Wicca:
Based largely on the Alexandrian tradition, the Blue Star collection of covens started in the 1970s in Pennsylvania, but has since spread across the United States partly due to early members travelling the country as folk musicians and disseminating their ideas.

Black Forest Clan (Euro-Witchcraft):
Training in this tradition (which can encompass Celtic, Druidic, Gardnerian and German witchcraft) prepares one as a licensed member of the Wicca clergy. High Priests and High Priestesses form new covens while remaining part of their original coven, making the clan strong both in numbers and in unity. The lineage includes such Wicca luminaries as Gerald Gardner, Raymond Buckland, Lord Serphant, Silver RavenWolf, Gertie Guise and Preston Zerbie.

Lothloriën:
Lothloriën is an Earth-based religion, with its roots in the Wiccan tradition and other mystery religions of the world, which celebrates the seasons and the cycles of life. It prides itself on its inclusiveness, and makes a point of accepting of all people, regardless of their culture, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, religion or sexual orientation. The tradition was founded in 1977 by Rev. Paul Beyerl (a neo-Alexandrian tradition initiate), and a network of communities and solitary practitioners has since grown up across North America under the auspices of Beyerl's Rowan Tree Church and Hermit's Grove in Washington state.

Discordianism:
The Discordian (or Erisian) movement is self-described as a "Non-Prophet Irreligious Disorganization". It began with the "Principia Discordia, or How I Found the Goddess and What I Did to Her When I Found Her", a collection of articles and ideas compiled by Greg Hill (aka Malaclypse the Young-er) and Kerry Thornley in the 1960s, and its central theme is that "Chaos is every bit as important as Order". Although humour is central to Discordianism, its practitioners do not dismiss it as a joke but rather see it as a path towards liberation and spiritual growth.

Eclectic Wicca:
A growing movement of Eclectic Wiccans who do not believe that any doctrine or traditional initiation is necessary in order to practise Wicca. They generally discard the institutions of initiation, secrecy and hierarchy, have more widely varying beliefs and are generally less strictly observant. Some Eclectic Wiccans neither perform magic nor identify as witches. Eclectics may be solitary or work in covens, and they probably now outnumber the initiates of more traditional Wicca.

Solitaires (or Solitaries):
Eclectic Wiccans are more often than not solitary practitioners. Many solitaries do attend gatherings and other community events, but reserve their spiritual practices (Sabbats, Esbats, spell-casting, worship, magical work, etc) for when they are alone.