Essential Facts

I would like to clear up some misconceptions about wiccecraft that you may find interesting: The word "witch" came from the Old English wicc(pronounced witch because in Old English two c's are pronounced "ch") which means to "twist" or "turn" and this is a reference to the ecstatic circle dances of the Wane worshippers of early England (the Wanes are gods that rule the cycles of nature. Linguisticly their name is related to "wheel").

In Old English it was customary to genderise a word by adding an "a" or an "e".Thus a male witch is called a "wicca"(witch-ah) and a female witch was called a "wicce"(witch-uh).

The deities they honored were Ing-Freo(god of fertility, lust, woodlands, peace and wealth.The Old Norse called him Frey) and Ostara-Frea(goddess of dawn, rebirth, beauty, love, and witchcraft, the Old Norse called her Freya.) As well as their father/mother Niord/Nerthus(God of the Sea/Goddess of the Earth, they are actually the same god, an amphibious/androgenous being).

Animistic deities were also important to the Old English witches, they were Earth, Sun, Moon, Day and Night (yes, they were literaly gods, their names came down to us through the very linguistics of the language we speak, and for obvious reasons the Christains could not eliminate these words).

Other gods that belonged to the same culture as the Old English witches are Woden(<MASTER of the Wild Hunt, Alfather of the Aeces, winner of the Runes, poetic inspiration, wisdom, and death. The Old Norse called him Odin), Thunnor(defender of his mother Earth, god of thunder, lightning, and patron of warriors and trademen.The Old Norse called him Thor), Sif(the Harvest Queen, goddess of autumn, harvest, and the golden feilds, also Thunnor's wife), Tiw(sword god, giver of justice, law, order, and warfare, has a wife named Zisa and the Old Norse called him Tyr) and Hama(The Bright God. The White Gaurdian that gaurds the Shimmering Rainbow[Bifrost]which leads to Osyard.The Old Norse called him Heimdallr).

The wights that inhabit the clouds, earth, sea, thunder, storms, forest fires, snowstorms, tornadoes, mountains, caves, ect were the elves, huldre folk, dwarves, trolls, pu'ki, kobolds, tomte, nixies, pixies, wyrms, mara, risar, thursar, giants, fossergrim, ect.

All of this is part of the Old English tradition, which is essentially Teutonic and not Celtic, because the Old English, or Anglo Saxons had their roots in Germania (modern day Germany, Holland, Switzerland, and Austria) and had drove the Celtic Britons into modern day Wales(3).

Their way of life and religion was very similar to their Scandinavian cousins, whom were identified with the Vikings. It should be noted that most of the peasants were practictioners of Wanic Troth(Old Norse:Vanatru')(and not Aecer Troth(Old Norse:Asatru'),which was practiced by the social elite; except for the exception of Thunnor and Sif, which tended to overlap both the noble and the layman) and was more concerned with the Wanes,animistic gods and wights because it pertained to their everyday lives as farmers and tradesmen (although they could pick up pitchfork and flail and act as warriors at any times notice, after all Ing- Freo and Ostara-Frea were mighty warriors in the myths:Ing-Freo slew the giant Beli with a stag-horn(horned god?!) and Ostara-Frea commands half the walkreis, battle maidens of war!).

Witches were concerned with providing services to their fellow laymen/women.

source

Wassail!

RiVeR