Wicca is a neo-pagan religion that is often misinterpreted despite its wide spread and fame. Especially the actual history and traditions of this new witchcraft are sometimes taken for granted. Even informative websites and encyclopedias sometimes commit inaccuracies or uncritically repeat clichés about Wicca and Wiccans. So it’s time to set the record straight and answer questions like: ,Is Wicca really an ancient religion, and ,were its followers ruthlessly persecuted?, “Do Wiccans worship the devil and cast curses?” “And is it true that witches have been writing in the Book of Shadows for centuries?”
,Witch, or ,Wiccan,?
The terms ‘witch’ and ‘wicca’ or ‘wiccan’ are often used interchangeably without making a clear distinction. When Wicca emerged in England and the United States, followers of the new religion decided to abandon the name ‘witches’ because it had negative connotations. Neopagans have now apparently reconciled themselves with the old name, which is no longer immediately associated with harmful magic.
Different definitions of witchcraft
Some of the incorrect statements about Wicca have to do with conceptual confusion. When we talk about ‘witchcraft’, it can have three possible different meanings:
- the practice of sorcery and witchcraft worldwide. It concerns witchcraft in tribal societies (Africa, New Guinea, Congo, etc.) as studied by anthropologists;
- witchcraft according to the view of European witch persecutors as harmful, demonic magic;
- modern neo-pagan movements such as Wicca with their emphasis on reverence for life and nature. Wicca as ‘white magic’ involves a mixture of ritual magic and religion.
Mixing up these categories of meaning creates misunderstandings .
,Wicca is an ancient religion,
Wrong: Wicca emerged in the mid-20th century. The founder was the Englishman Gerald Gardner, who in turn was heavily inspired by the writings of the Egyptologist Margaret Murray. She claimed that witches had actually existed in Europe as a sect that was persecuted by Christians. That idea has now been rejected by researchers as unscientific fantasy. However, Wiccans continue to believe in it, despite the absence of any evidence for the existence of such a sect. It is historically correct that in many pre-modern Western societies magic and witchcraft were part of popular belief. However, there was no question of religion or a sect that worshiped devils and demons. That negative image of the witch became dominant from the late Middle Ages and would also influence our fairy tale writers.
“Wicca is the name Gardner gave to his form of witchcraft”
Incorrect: Gardner never referred to the religion as Wicca, but sometimes referred to its practitioners as ,Wica, (with one c). He called the religion itself ,the Craft of the Wise,, ,witchcraft,, or ,the witch cult,. He adopted the latter name from Margaret Murray’s witch cult hypothesis.
“Wiccans were persecuted and almost exterminated for centuries”
Wrong. Wiccans or wiccans as self-proclaimed witches call themselves today, did not yet exist at the time of the witch persecutions in Europe (15th to 18th centuries). During the witch persecutions, no real ‘witches’ were convicted either. They were simply innocent victims, usually women, suspected of witchcraft. There are accounts from ancient times of prosecutions of individuals accused of sorcery. Only at the end of the first millennium could so-called witches be punished by the Church for practicing magic and witchcraft. Religious persecution of alleged witches did not begin until the 14th century. But all this has nothing to do with 20th century Wicca.
,Wicca is opposed to Christianity,
Wrong. This misconception is somewhat of an outgrowth of the assumption that modern Wiccans are the spiritual heirs of persecuted witches of the past. Wicca is a tolerant religion. It is therefore not necessary to renounce Christianity or other religions to practice Wiccan practices: for example, there are Christian, Jewish and Buddhist Wiccans.
,Wicca is not a religion,
The idea of recognizing Wicca as a religion still encounters a lot of misunderstanding. In the Christian West, when people think of religion, they think of a highly centralized organization, local buildings (churches) with a priest in each community, and a single male deity. None of this is the case with Wicca. Most controversy surrounds the fact that Wiccans also call themselves ‘witches’, causing Christians to wrongly associate them with Satanists. However, Wicca has now been accepted as a religion in several tolerant countries. Also, for example, in the Netherlands, where there is freedom of religion. Due to the rather complex set of teachings regarding the spiritual aspects of their way of life, as well as the ceremonies and structure, it was felt in the US as early as the 1980s that there was sufficient reason to recognize Wicca as a religion.
,Wicca is an outgrowth of New Age,
This is not correct, because New Age only dates from the 1970s and is therefore a much younger movement. Most Wiccans therefore deny the association with New Age. Ronald Hutton, the historian of new witchcraft, noted in his 2001 study The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft that Wicca not only predates New Age, but also differs significantly in philosophy. Within Wicca, there are many variations and interpretations of the original teachings of Gerald Gardner (,the father of modern witchcraft,, 1884-1964) and Doreen Valiente (,the mother of modern witchcraft,, 1922-1999). One of the more superficial variants, whose followers are ironically called fluffy bunnies, incorporates many elements from the New Age movement. By definition, these fluffy bunnies take on everything without examining or scrutinizing it, and yet have a reputation among serious students of Wicca for being religiously exalted and annoying know-it-alls.
“Witches and Wiccans have special powers”
The fact that witches have or had special powers, such as being able to fly and pronouncing curses, stems from the nonsensical accusations of the witch persecutors during the Renaissance. Convictions of sorcery are also found in popular belief, in ancient Roman legislation and in the Bible, although it is not called witchcraft. Superstition is found in all times and in many cultures. It is true that the new witches perform rituals, but these mainly have to do with expressing a deep connection between people and nature.
,A Wiccan must master occult arts, such as divination,
Tarot, dowsing, dowsing, astrological predictions, etc., do not have a direct connection with Wicca. However, these skills and arts are often learned during an initiation, which can take several years. Magical practices such as divination and spirit summoning are therefore permitted, but are not an integral part of Wicca.
,Wiccans cast curses,
That would be rather atypical for Wicca, which focuses on harmony and beneficence. Here too there is confusion with stereotypical stories about malicious witches and Satanists. Wiccans do cast magical spells and make potions intended for healing, wisdom, love and creativity. Some practitioners use runes or candle magic as a means of summoning these desired things.
“The new witches worship the devil” The Horned God
That Wiccans are worshipers of the devil is wrong. The Devil/Lucifer/Satan is a Judeo-Christian concept that is not part of what Wiccan believers believe. The Horned God is confused with the devil, with Satan, because of his outward similarity, and the use of the five-pointed pentagram also leads to the wrong conclusion that Wicca has something to do with Satanism. In its simplest form, Wicca is a duotheistic religion, with a female Great Mother Goddess (or Triune Goddess) and a male Horned God. The Horned God is an archetypal deity. Gardner was inspired by the Celtic god Cernunnos and the Greek god Pan as personifications of nature, life and animal instinct. Gardner presented his horned male god as the God of ancient witches and was supported in this by the witch cult theory of the British anthropologist Margaret Murray. Horns are traditionally a sacred symbol of virility, and male deities with horns or antlers were common in ancient pagan religious iconography.
Source: OpenClipart Vectors, Pixabay
The pentagram
In Wicca, the pentagram symbolizes the union of the five basic elements: fire, air, earth, water and spirit and is therefore not directed against Christian values as is sometimes assumed. Early Christians wore the pentagram as an emblem that may have represented the five wounds of Christ, but the pentagram as a magical symbol existed long before that time. For example, the symbolic assignments with the classical four or five elements date back to ancient Greece (5th century BC). The association with Satanism is also a misconception since Wiccans have nothing to do with Satan. The pentagram of Wicca is worn with 1 point upwards, while in Satanism it is worn with 1 point downwards.
,All Wiccans are feminists,
Although it is true that some Wiccans (individuals and groups) are attracted to this faith because of the Goddess, and also attribute more importance to her, male gods also exist within the pantheon of Wicca. Wicca therefore stands for equality of the male and female principle, and not for female superiority. However, in some traditions, especially in the feminist branch of Wicca (Dianic Wicca, which originated in the United States in the 1970s), the Goddess is seen as complete, and the God is not even worshiped at all. The focus here is on matriarchal feminism.
,The Book of Shadows is a book in which witches have passed on their knowledge for centuries,
Wrong. Firstly, as mentioned, there was no sect of witches from ancient times, and secondly, it is a tradition that Gardner, the founder of Wicca, started in the 20th century. Gardner borrowed this idea for a ‘witch’s grimoire’ in which the witch wrote down everything she had learned (spells, rituals, recipes, etc.) from the English occultist Aleister Crowley. Grimoires already existed in the late Middle Ages, and would exert a great influence on later founded magical orders such as the Golden Dawn of the 19th century. However, Gardner’s Book of Shadows was rather an individual diary that the witch kept in the tradition of Wicca.
To conclude
Despite the fact that Wicca is originally the 20th century invention of one man, many adherents remain convinced that their new religion is somehow a continuation of a secret (underground) religion of witches that remained hidden for thousands of years until the Church began to persecute them. They emphasize the similarities between ancient pagan customs and the views and practices of their faith. Wicca, however, simply combines surviving folk traditions with modern elements, which is called synchretism. It is loosely based on all kinds of Western European pagan customs and (magical) rituals that were performed for centuries in the context of the cycles of the seasons, such as the celebration of the harvest. However, the continuity that they believe they see in witchcraft of the past and present cannot be demonstrated and is extremely implausible.