A View of Witchcraft and Wicca
Random House Webster’s 10th Edition says that the religion of Wicca is the modern (1970 - 1975) revival of a benevolent nature orientied practice and is derived from a pre-Christian religion. This Dictionary says the word is from Wicca meaning male sorceror in Old English and/or Wicche in Midle English.
The Oxford English Dictionary, which is the standard dictionary of the English language, gives the same derivations and says. simply "Wicca is the religious practice of modern Witchraft."
Witches are an independant lot. Since we have no heirarchy, out of choice and necessisty, individual covens evolve their own practices, so there will always be differences in practice. Add to that the fact that many of us follow different pathways, and the result is that you will never find unanimity among us as to the “right” way to practice. We believe to each his own, that each must follow wherever their pathway leads. There are Witches from just about every ethnic and cultural heritage, who follow the Gods of their ancestors.
The Wicca of today is a modern interpretation of Witchcraft. It owes much to the practices of Charles Leland (Aradia), Gerald Gardner, Aleister Crowley, Arnold and Patricia Crowther, Doreen Valiente and the Alexandrians among others. Gerald Gardner in particular made many contributions to the lore of modern Wicca. He also introduced degrees of initiation. While Aleister Crowley was more of a practicioner of High Ceremonial Magick, some of his ideas were incorporated into Wicca. He also commissioned the production of the Thoth tarot deck, which is my personal favorite.
Dr. Margaret Murray really added impetus to the revival with the publication of her book “Witch Cult in Western Europe” and “God of the Witches”. Unfortunately, much of the information she collected came from the transcripts of the Witches' trials. Sinc e much of this testimony was gathered by torture and few Witches survied the process, and given the fact that a number of them may have confessed to anything to avoid further torture, we have descriptions of practices that may be unreliable. Most of those souls totured and executed were not witches anyway. Now to our problem.
Although many modern Witches call themselves wiccan there are some Witches who do not. They have chosen the pathway of their ancestors, and worship in a fashion that has been handed down within the family and without the influence of those who revived the Craft in recent times. Whether it be Celtic, Norse, Egyptian, Italian, Mexican, or any other ethnic pathway, they practice a Family Tradition Craft. Often it is less High Magick than it is simple Folk Magic, (commonly called Low Magic).
A Book of Shadows may be passed down in the family, or sometimes burned if there is no family member to take it. Others without these roots, can be brought into the Family circle and taught the practices, adopted, if you will, into the Family Tradition.
Some of us can trace our ancestry to ancient Witch families. The Plantagenets, for example, who were rulers of England and Normandy, were reputed to be Witches. Thousands of Americans with Western European backgrounds can trace their heritage to this family.
Thus not all Witches are Wiccan. Some feel very strongly about preserving their Traditional name and not being known as Wiccan. A Wiccan would not want to be known as a Druid, nor a Druid as a Baptist,any more than these Witches want to be called Wiccan. No one is saying one tradition is better than another, nor does anyone want to further divide our community. An apple, however, is not an orange, and some Witches are not Wiccan