Wicka: The Chronicles of Elizabeth Blake

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Imbolc is the holiday during which some pagans give thanks to Brigid as well as to the increasing daylight, which comes with hope for an abundant spring. It is also a traditional holiday for rededications or for witch initiations.

Since the pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon culture shares Germanic roots with the Norse culture of Scandinavia, and many similarities have been between the religions of the two areas, there is potential for overlap between Norse Wicca and Seax-Wica. For example, the use of runes for divination is found in both traditions. Originally, a large shell or a gourd was used to hold sacred liquids, but over time, silver became the preferred material for the chalice. 8- WandA witch who works alone and under their own steam rather than with a group of other witches. A solitary witch can follow one particular branch of witchcraft or a combination. Hereditary Witch Heselton, Philip (2003). Gerald Gardner and the Cauldron of Inspiration: An Investigation into the Sources of Gardnerian Witchcraft. Milverton, Somerset: Capall Bann. A primary Wiccan symbol, the circle denotes infinity, wholeness, and unity. On the other hand, the so-called ritual circle, or the circle of the arts, serves as the sacred space where Wiccans perform rituals and spells. Accounts of would-be Wiccans who compiled rituals out of published sources together with their own imaginative reconstructions, without formal initiations, appear in Hans Holzer's The New Pagans (Doubleday, New York: 1973) Of course, almost nothing is known about the specific magical and/or religious activities of the Druids, since they deliberately kept their knowledge in an oral tradition, so much of what is practiced today is inspired from Celtic mythology and the roles Druids play in these stories.

Another hypothesis that would have major influence on Wicca during its development was the idea of primitive matriarchal religions, which derived from the work of the Swiss lawyer Johann Jakob Bachofen, was popular in Gardner's day, both among academics (e.g., Erich Neumann, Margaret Murray) and amateurs (e.g. Robert Graves). Later scholars (e.g. Carl Jung and Marija Gimbutas) continued research in this area, and later still Joseph Campbell, Ashley Montagu and others became admirers of Gimbutas' theories of matriarchies in ancient Europe. Matriarchal interpretations of the archaeological record and the criticism of such work continue to be matters of academic debate. Some academics carry on research in this area (such as the 2003 World Congress on Matriarchal Studies). Critics argue that such matriarchal societies never actually existed and are an invention of researchers such as Margaret Murray. This is disputed by documentaries such as Blossoms of Fire (about contemporary Zapotec society). For a long time, Wicca was seen as being simply a minor sect, or cult. However, with the rise of solitary practitioners describing themselves as Wiccans, the faith went from becoming simply a mystery cult to becoming a public religion. The number of practicing Wiccans in the United States has proven difficult to estimate, with sources reporting anywhere from 300,000 to three million practitioners. SOURCES The Alexandrian Tradition was created by Alex Sanders and his wife Maxine, who were members of the Gardnerian Tradition and initiated into one of its covens in the early 1960s. The tradition was named “Alexandrian” by a friend and fellow Witch, Stewart Farrar, in part because of Sanders’ first name, but also in veneration of the ancient Library of Alexandria, which held a legendary wealth of occult knowledge. The terms "Wicca" and "Wiccen" were first used by Charles Cardell, not to refer purely to Gardnerians, but to refer to all followers of the Witch-Cult religion. In his notebooks he used the term "Wicca" to refer to the religion, and he called it the "Craft of the Wiccens" in a 1958 article in Light magazine. [32]

An independent practice

However the rise of this teenage-focused, New Age, pop-culture Wicca has been highly criticized by traditionalists, many of whom refuse to accept it as Wicca, instead using terms like "wicca-lite". The historians Brooks Alexander and Jeffrey Russell commented that "pop-culture witchcraft is sufficiently vague in structure and content to qualify more as a 'lifestyle' than a 'religion'." [54] Second, there is no official “holy book” or specific, rigid ideology that all practitioners are expected to adhere to. While there are several beliefs that Wiccans have in common, there is no single way of understanding the divine that is considered to be more “correct” than another. For example, some Wiccans have a pantheistic view of the world, meaning they believe that the same divine source is present in all of nature, while others are more polytheistic, incorporating one or more additional deities from other religions into their practice along with the Goddess and God. Practitioners do not have a Bible of any kind, although some may view the Wiccan Rede to be a kind of textual guiding force, and others may document their own beliefs and practices in writing in a book sometimes known as a grimoire, or Book of Shadows, which may become their personal religious guide. While in northern European traditions, the greater ones include Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh, and Samhain. Yep, you guessed it—this witch is all about the drama of a ceremony. They focus on ceremonial magic or “high magic,” which often involves more elaborate or specific rituals than everyday magic. Sea Witch

Wicca is a modern, Earth-centered religion with roots in the ancient practices of our shamanic ancestors. Its practitioners, who call themselves Wiccans, honor the life-giving and life-sustaining powers of Nature through ritual worship and a commitment to living in balance with the Earth. Wicca is technically classified as one of many Pagan religions, though not all Wiccans would identify as Pagans—and plenty who identify as Pagans are not Wiccans.The idea of a supreme Mother Goddess was common in Victorian and Edwardian literature: the concept of a Horned God – especially related to the gods Pan or Faunus – was less common, but still significant. [19] Both of these ideas were widely accepted in academic literature and the popular press at the time. [20] The New Forest coven [ edit ] One Gardnerian, who went under the craft name of Starhawk, started practicing Dianic Wicca, and tried to reconcile the two, writing the 1979 book The Spiral Dance on the subject. The tradition she founded became known as Reclaiming, and mixed Wicca with other forms of Neopaganism such as Feri, along with strong principles of environmental protection. [47] Solitaries and the "Wicca or Witchcraft" debate (1970–present) [ edit ]