History of Wicca

Before I begin I would like to clarify something. Paganism is not a term used to describe one single religion, but rather as an umbrella religion for all those other than Abrahamic faiths of Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

Many Wiccans, Witches and Reconstructionists identify themselves as Pagan or Neo-Pagan. They find it easier to do rather then try to explain their own complex beliefs and systems. By doing this though it gives the impression that Paganism itself is the religion, but actually it's the collection of several religions. People who believe in the power of nature, and in the Great Mother (known by many names) these are just a couple of things that describe a Pagan Religion and Wicca is one of the many earth based practices, they incorporate a magical system into their beliefs, although this is not a requirement.

Much like the Pagan religions of long ago Wiccans believe in both male and female Gods and Goddesses, they are believed to be sacred and immanent with nature. Often referred to as Mother Earth and Father Sky or the Lord and Lady. Beginning thousands of years ago, they thought the forces of nature were Spirits or Deities, today we call this Animism. They had a different God for everything wind, sky, water and hunting, The people or Pagans of this time were great hunters and for the most part the animals they hunted were horned. Therefore when creating the image of their God of Hunt it seemed only natural he too would be horned. In time they developed simple rituals, in which they acted out the hunt using models they made of the animals. They believed if their ritual went well then the hunt would also be successful. These simple rituals by the fire, probably with chants and music of some sort were the first step to realizing and developing magick.

Being a primitive people they had no understanding of what actually happened when a female became pregnant. This of course led them to believe in the Goddess of Fertility. She was responsible for replenishing all life from the plants and animals, to the humans of the tribes. They also created images of the Goddess that can be seen today. Although it is clear the Pagans of long ago were not Wiccans, however the similarities they share does make it clear that Pagans paved the way for what we know today as Wicca.

How Old is Wicca?

Many years passed between those of the first primitive people and the times I am about to explain. A new religion was spreading it's word, and Christianity was it's name. They brought with them the years of persecutions, a time when anyone who believed something different from the Book (Bible) must be a witch and by this point in time it was believed by the followers of the Book that all witches were evil and up to no good.

For the next few hundreds years this opinion did not change and things only got harder for the craft to survive. The church was very persistent in it's war against the old religions refusing to stop until they were wiped out entirely. These persecutions spread all across Europe and even to the new colonies of America. The most famous of these being the Salem Witch trials of 1692.

Through propaganda, torture, and executions what was left of the old religions had been driven underground. During this time the church took the opportunity to destroy most texts and any other physical evidence they could find proving these old religions did in fact exist and were not evil like the church was brain washing people to believe. The disappearance of this evidence made it quite easy for them to make up their own definitions and theories, an example of this would be how their so called "Devil" often resembles the image of the Pagans Horned God, is this a coincidence, maybe but, I don't think so. Add all those things together and it's no wonder the history of the craft is so difficult to trace back. With no solid proof it makes it very hard to say whether or not Wicca has ancients roots or if it was completely made up by a man named Gerald Gardner. Although if you ask them, most Wiccans will tell you it doesn't matter to them either way. It's the fulfillment that it brings which makes it so attracting to people.

That all being said there is some truth to be found, and one of these truths is that Gardner did use older religions for the source of his own Wicca. A man named J. Gordon Melton said that "research suggests that Gardner did discover a pre-existing Witchcraft group". A paper at Ripley's Believe It or Not! which was published by Gardner himself declares that he took the magical resources he acquired in Asia, mixed with a selection of Western magical texts and thus created a new religion, which centered upon the worship of the Mother Goddess. Thus proving that although it was a mixture of ancient practices, Wicca itself was no older than the 1940's when Gerald Gardner first created it.