History of Wicca

Pre-Christian Roots?

The essence of Wicca claims connection to a period from around the mid Pleistocene epoch where the rudimentary magical workings, known as Sympathetic Magic, was used in order for a successful hunt or a bountiful harvest.

To be a communities spiritual adept afforded the practitioner time to experiment and learn of new techniques. The adept is also likely to have been the communities medicine (wo)man as the spiritual and the physical could easily have been seen as interconnected; so having a spiritual dimension to healing would be a potent symbol.  

This, therefore, would bestow certain social responsibilities, especially with confidential information, which in turn would bestow a relatively high status although it would be unlikely that the adept would be the leader the tribe, in mundane matters.

Deities 

The nature of the life of early man held a community at the whim of nature.  A cold winter or a wet summer, for example, could be devastating for a community for the death of animals and the failure of natural vegetation. A plethora of gods and goddesses, therefore, were worshipped (pantheons). 

The Goddess

The goddess would have been seen as the font of life. The life washing over the land in spring, the bountifulness of nature, reproduction of food items, reproduction in humans etc. and her depiction was that of a very voluptuous full-bodied woman (which would be the most likely attributes for a woman  to produce a surviving child)^a.

The goddess was, therefore, a important part of a communities belief system. 

If the goddess was pleased with the tribe a bountiful harvest and abundant plant and animal life would be the result. If the goddess was displeased with the tribe, a difficult year would have been the result. 

It is quite easy, then, to extrapolate that into climate when a series of bad years occurred, or disease, the people of  the culture would consider that deity was displeased with them, therefore extraordinary measures would be taken to appease them. In cultures where sacrifices were part of ritual practice, this would be a period of increased sacrificial offerings. 

Many wiccans would claim that this is not the case. This may be due to the assertion, from some Christians, that modern wiccans partake in such rituals as part of their every day lives.

The bible, itself, holds many instances whereby God would call for/demand sacrifice. 

So to imply wicca practices sacrifice is akin to saying that Christians also practice the ritual. It might have been accurate for the past, but it is no longer applicable to modern religion, whether it be Christianity or Wicca.

To claim roots to the past is to take the unpalatable as well as the unpalatable aspects of that claim.

The God

As hunting was predominately a male preoccupation it was natural for the male aspect of divinity (the God) to be the deity of the hunt. Deities of this type were often given the attributes of the animals they were to hunt.

A deity like, for example, Cernunos is depicted having horns, and hooves (a horned god)^b. The god, therefore, had less significance to the goddess as the goddess was attributed to the reproduction of the animals and their growth, the god came into his own at hunting time when a good hunt was necessary for survival. A duality to nature naturally formed. The goddess had predominance during the spring and summer. The god had predominance over autumn and winter, where hunting for survival was predominant. 

As human development entered the agrarian age the emphasis on the goddess was enhanced as she was responsible for a successful crop, as well as the normal processes of nature, not to the absolute exclusion of the god, which some inexperienced pagans would tell you. 

The deities were very much those of fertility, hence the term fertility religion. Common elements are found through cultures from across the world lending credence to some of the elements of modern paganism being more in tune with nature.

Deities of Human Civilisation 

With more time on people's hands (with the advent of technology and tools) gave people more opportunity to flex their cerebral muscles. The nature of the universe and everything in came under scrutiny. 

Human civilisation gave rise to an ever increasing complexity to the religious structure from simply being the essence of natural forces, to more complex and anthropologicalised deities. These deities acted like humans, looked like humans but had "godly powers".

Questions such as "Who are we, how did we come to be here" were probably uttered from time immemorial, but these views were of a personal nature and not every one subscribed to them. One of the earliest and probably most influential to those that followed was the Egyptian religion. Each deity had their own unique story to tell, all had different attributes and 'duties'. 

Probably one of the first standardised belief systems, to be adopted by a culture as a religion. 

Others that follow would possess, at least some, of their "inner mysteries" to have roots to Egyptian philosophy and religion, as many religions that have come since, including Christianity, has essences reminiscent of those preceding it.

The Rise of Christianity

What has Christianity got to do with wicca? Many pagans would say that it was the defining moment in history when Christianity became such a big beast and could do exactly what it wanted. This was period, in history, where a demonstration of the term "power corrupts absolutely" is explored in the subjugation and the near genocide of people who have contrary beliefs, explained in greater clarity - below.

One must understand that "paganism" is not an 'institution' it is a way of life which contains constituent religions. Therefore pagan countries may have two, or more, elements (religions - if you like) to it, which shares a common frame of reference.

The predominance of paganism in 1^st millennium Europe, was largely unchallenged until the first attempt to mass convert the population to Christianity was made by Pope Gregory the Great (590-604 AD).

Gregory was the first pope to, amongst other things, order that churches were built on areas which were used by the pagan population, as places of worship. These sites were, therefore, rededicated to the Christian god.

The Church, in this endevour, required local stonemasons, who were predominantly pagan, to comply with the edict from Rome. It is not surprising, then, that certain elements of pagan symbolism crept into church buildings.

Symbols such as Sheela-na-gigs^c and the well known image of the Green Man^d were used as sculptures in the new churches by the pagan stone masons. This meant that pagans could worship their own gods in the new church, if so desired.

The presence of the sheela-na-gig is puzzling as one would not expect a goddess figure, replete with quite visual clitoral region, to be present in a church but some  have survived, in some churches, even to this day.

Have a look around  your church, if you live in the UK or Europe.

"The Burning Times" (Witch Persecutions)

As the strength and influence of Christianity grew so did its intolerance of indigenous religions. In 1484 two Pope Innocent VIII published a 'Bull' against Witches, which was followed by the Malleus Maleficarium (The Witch Hammer), in 1486, published by two German monks, Heinrich Kramer and Jakob Sprenger. The result was a sanctioned  methodology for the treatment of accused witches. 

These were the defining series of events, spanning over three centuries, which is cited most by witches. The term "Burning Times" is used today emotively due it was one of the methods utilised during this period. This rationale, for modern persecution, is used by wiccans as it demonstrates the apparent hypocrisy due to actions of the people and the teachings of the bible, which they held most dear.

Paganism, including witchcraft, was perceived to be the most influential indigenous religion (due to its many roles in a community) thus became the target for the new religion. In order to 'encourage' people to convert the deities of the previous religion was made less palatable. The most efficient method utilised was to change the Gods of the previous religion into something so terrifying that to worship such an entity one would be liable to die or be corrupted as to be ineligible for entry into heaven. This methodology was used extensively across the world, in many different cultures. Christianity, methods used across the world, hence the reason for why the devil has many faces.

The Malleus Maleficarium, considered to be the initiator of the witchcraft persecutions (referred to as the Burning Times), was a written precedent for the persecution of witches. This, apparently, was not endorsed by the Pope, but it was not condemned either, for over three centuries.

It was "unfortunate" that the Christians of the time did not follow, to any great extent, the Bibles teachings. Two classical teachings "Do not judge otherwise you will be judged yourself," and "Thou shalt not kill" appeared to have been ignored for a large proportion of Christianities existence, the crusades the most notable series of events, apart from the witch persecutions.

It is also interesting to note how brutal and severe some of the torture methods utilised in order to obtain a confession were. One of the most well known was to stretch the victim until the limbs were broken and torn apart. This was supplemented, occasionally, by the ramming home of wooden wedges into broken bone but there were many, many inventive methods of inflicting the highest amount of pain for the least amount of effort.

This may be quite inflammatory content but it was quite conceivable, from what has been read, that the tortures were infinitely more severe than what the Nazi's did in World War II.

The detection of witchcraft was by word of mouth, as there were no telecommunications, only rudimentary literature (which only a few could read), in the times in question. 

This meant that many of the accused were, in fact, innocent victims of someone's greed, avarice or hate. It was easy to attribute the charge of witchcraft onto anyone who had a slightly unusual trait (e.g.. talking to oneself). 

The realisation of this became more apparent towards the late 17^th Century, resulting in the persecution of witches becoming less frequent. 

The damage, however, had been done. Hundreds of thousands of lives lost. Witchcraft had gone underground, an oral tradition, for the most part, lost and forgotten.

The ramifications of the confluence of events were severe as, for many accused of witchcraft were hanged, drowned, burnt or tortured. The estimated death-toll from these series of events are 800,000 but it must be noted that the population of the planet was quite small in comparison today, so in proportion (with today's population) that number was much larger.  

The assertion by some witches of 9,000,000 people being killed during the Burning Times has generally been over-estimated, with the root of the number being published in Gardner's "Witchcraft Today". 

Wiccan Revival

The revival of the craft is commonly accredited to Gerald Gardnere(1883-1964), which in 1949 published a book called High Magic's Aid. The book had beliefs and practices, as they were, albeit weaved into a fictional story. This was all that the coven, which he claimed affiliation, to would allow to publish.

This is the only definable period, in history, that can be traced to modern wicca. It must be understood that its origin was in the 1940's; any claim to the contrary does not have any evidence to support it. Primary evidence before this date has not been found. Simularities to pre-christian times, although certain roots have been established is not a total replication and, therefore, the assertion of unbroken lineage is highly dubious. 

The origins of the beliefs and practices have been extracted from numerous sources (utilise what works - type of mentality) and items which were experimented by Gardner himself, with probable help from the coven he was a member of are the basis of the Book of Shadows. The current form of the Book of Shadows was further refined by Doreen Valiente, which is often given the title of the "Mother of Witchcraft".

The sources he was said to have drawn upon are the Golden Dawn, OTO, Aleister Crowley and many others

It is noted that the material is not entirely from the New Forest covens book of shadows as it was likely that it was deficient of many points due to the secrecy and its relative isolation. Gardner obviously researched many items, for his book Witchcraft Today, and in that research it could be conceivable of a pattern of core principles coined the mysteries could be extrapolated in places where the original was deficient.

In 1951 the Witchcraft Act of 1604 and 1735 was repealed, in the United Kingdom, and replaced by a modified law Fraudulent Mediums Act 1951, thus allowing witches to come back out of the "broom closet".

The next publication, from Gardner, was in 1954 where in the book called Witchcraft Today where he gave the factual treatment to the beliefs and principles he hinted at in High Magic's Aid.

This allowed Wicca to grow as people became interested in its principles and beliefs, and gave precedence for existing covens around the world to become more visible, even though the law only existed in the UK.

Over time differences began to form in the way that Gardner and others would practice witchcraft. A deviation from the original was the inevitable result as the beliefs and practices were not to everyone's liking, and slight modifications were adopted.

Today there are a plethora of paths associated with Wicca some core, some peripheral, but the beliefs and practices all follow average criteria. As with everything there are traditions which closely follow that of the original.

Wicca has now become a generic term for those plethora of paths (as the term Christian is to Catholicism, Protestantism, etc); although Gardnarian wiccans would claim the word for themselves (understandably).

In Wicca these paths are in the form of a prefix to the word Wicca hence:

Gardnarian Wicca - Wicca as Gardner intended
Solitary Wicca - Wicca as practiced by individuals
etc.

Wiccan and Pagan Future

Due to the sacrifice and risk those of the past had to endure, for the pagans of the present; so the pagans of the present should set an example to the future. Paganism is becoming more accepted in the UK, with every appearance of paganism consisting of "normal people" the public becomes more reassured, however there are still elements of militant Christianity (Evangelicals) who are actively denying the religious freedom afforded to members of religious groups, minority or otherwise, by law. The arrival of the Human Rights Bill (adopted by the UK on October 2^nd, 2000) gave legal credence to minority religions and their treatment by others. This will bestow protection for the right of religious expression of pagans in the UK, by law,. whether this will be any use, or not, has yet to be seen.

The US already has a law governing the freedom of religion (1^st Amendment of the US Constitution) pagans, however, are also having difficulty in having that freedom recognised by mainstream society. Instances of discrimination by militant Christians (Evangelists) appear to be relatively common, and severe, when it appears. This is the culture which claims it is "The land of freedom and opportunity"?

It isn't as if the US does not have a wide and varied culture but these attitudes are contradictory! The US Constitution states quite clearly that there is to be freedom for all in society, but the freedom of expression of that religion in schools, the workplace or in normal life appears to be selective, especially for those following non-mainstream religions. This precedent, taken to it logical conclusion, would require abolishment of the constitution as it doesn't apply to all its citizens.

Although in the 2000 US Presidential election George Bush Jr, decided to deny wicca as being a religion, and therefore deny the guarantee of the 1^st Amendment. Now he is president it will be interesting to see what he thinks he can get away with. 

The future, obviously, requires a considerably increased amount of work in order for true religious tolerance to be achieved. The work needs, mainly, to prove to the religious intolerants that a contrary belief is not necessarily a threat.