I wrote this as an essay in a course I was taking. The Question posed was: What does Wicca mean to you? What is Wicca? I have been asked this on a number of occasions in one way or another over the past 20 years. I will tell you how I respond. “Do you want the verbatim by the book answer, or do you want to know the REAL scoop? "
One of the many definitions for the word Wicca : often refers to British Traditional Witchcraft, also called English Traditional Witchcraft: a specific magickal Mystery tradition that evolved down through the centuries along with the evolution of the English people and the English language. The use of the Old English word Wicca distinguishes British Traditional Witchcraft from the many other forms of religious Witchcraft that exist.
Does this mean that All Wiccans are Witches? NO. There are some modern Pagans who call themselves Wiccan, but who deny that the word Wicca has anything to do with Witchcraft or the practice of Magickal Arts. These people follow Wicca as a way of life, and reverence for nature and God/Goddess Worship.
Succinctly, Modern Wicca is a religion, based, in part, on ancient, northern European Pagan beliefs in a fertility Goddess and her consort, a horned God. Although the religion is a modern creation, most notably brought into the 20th century by a rubber plantation inspector whom we know as Gerald Gardner, some of its sources pre-date Christianity by many centuries. Many Wiccans do not believe that their religion is a direct, descendent of this earlier religion.
Wicca, as many practice the religion today, is relatively new, barely fifty years old. The rituals used at present are not entirely what your elders practiced even thirty years ago. Many feel this is due to the lack of the written word of the subject. Another question, you may ask, perhaps would be, “Why was there very little handed down through the generations if the Bible has been around for so long?” Simply because what was practiced centuries ago is not necessarily what is done today, and people who were so called witches, were often persecuted, and fearful that if caught, they would be hanged, tortured, or imprisoned. In many cases, some of these village wise people were illiterate. Much of the information was passed down through the generations by word of mouth. In no way can we replicate to perfection the precise circumstances of environment, society, culture, religion and magick a hundreds of years ago.
Getting back to Gerald Gardner… It is not sure to many where he got much of his material. His claims of being initiated by Old Dorothy Clutterbuck, have not been founded. And no one is sure if this is a fictitious story. Much of Gardner’s Book of Shadows seems to be excerpts from Free Masonry, The Golden Dawn, and Other Occult texts.
According to Gardner, Wicca began in prehistory, as ritual associated with fire, the hunt, animal fertility, plant propagation, tribal fertility and the curing of disease. This developed into a religion, which recognized a Supreme Deity. They worshipped the Goddess of fertility and her horned consort, the God of the hunt. Later, Wicca survived the Roman, Saxon, and Norman invasions by going underground, and then suffered major loss in numbers during the active Christian genocides, which continued into the 18th Century. By the middle of the 20th century, much of the theology and ritual had been lost; thereby, leaving Wiccan covens so isolated that they had lost contact with each other. This created many solitary witches, or simply phased covens out, due to lack of members. Mr. Gardner felt that Wicca was revived in England by himself, and his High Priestess Doreen Valiente, (as well as a few other people), who took the surviving beliefs and practices, and fleshed them out with material from other religious, spiritual and ceremonial magick sources.
Wiccans are not evil. They don't harm or cast beguiling spells upon people. They are not dangerous. They are ordinary people like you. They have families, jobs, hopes, and dreams. While many religions worship in a building, we use the earth as our church. They don’t believe in Satan or the Devil. This entity is a Christian belief. Wiccans do not proselytise.
The main "Law" of Witchcraft is the "THREE-FOLD LAW OF RETURN". Basically, this is the natural law of "cause and effect". The Goddess charges us to exercise great care in all that we, as Witches, do and say and even think. The Threefold Law takes the notion that "what we reap, we will sow", a few steps further, in fact, THREE steps further. For what we do "for good or for ill, shall be returned to us threefold." In light of this fact, Witches are loath to cause any harm, lest it be returned to them in spades!!
Wicca is one of the fastest growing religions at the moment. However, due to the lack of understanding and misinformation the general public at large has received for many centuries, many practicing Wiccans are still in the Broom Closet. Religious hate crimes are part of the 21st century as much as it hade been part of the 17th century. People lose children in custody battles, jobs, and even have their property vandalized.
What can Wiccans do to prevent this sort of thing? Answer questions politely, and truthfully. No, we don’t have ritual orgies (Nor does the Church of Satan, for that matter). To be perfectly honest, if Wiccans really could do things as we do in the movies, Hollywood would not have to do so much in the way of special effects, now would they? No, we cannot change our hair colour, unless we purchase a bottle from the nearest chemist. But perhaps, we can help change the world.