WICCAN HISTORY


There is something called ‘the myth of Witchcraft’ which attempts to explain the origins of the Craft. According to this myth, Wicca’s roots extend back to Paleolithic times when the God and the Goddess of nature were worshipped through a single, unified religion that was common to all people.

After the Christian Church was formed and acquired power, the Church authorites began to discourage Pagan worship because it threatened their power. They perverted the Great Horned God of fertility into the form of the Devil, Christianized Pagan holidays and eventually persecuted, tortured and killed Pagan community leaders. Property and goods taken from persecuted Pagans were added to Church treasuries. These Church actions terroized the population into renouncing their old Pagan beliefs and strictly observing the Churches dictates.

These few who held fast to Pagan ways took their religion underground, worshipping in secret, because not until the mid-twentieth century were the laws against Witchcraft in Britain stricken from the books.

Part of the myth is veriafiable, but the rest cannot be proven. It is unlikely that a universal Old Religion ever existed. The Church did destroy Pagan beliefs in order to dominate the people more effectively and to propagate its own doctrines, torturing and killing millions of people in the process. However, many of those persecuted as “Witches” were not really Witches at all, but victims of jealous and covetess neighbors. Confessions wrought under torture attest more to the power of the imagination than to an actual widespread and active cult. If Witchcraft had been so universally dominant, the Church never could have driven it underground successfully.

Undoubtedly, many Pagans were forced to worship in secret. But much of the original Wicca legacy, which probably never formed a coherent doctrine anyway, survived in a radically altered state, or simply was forgotten.

It really does not matter whether Wicca traditions were assiduously preserved or not. The point is that Wicca today is very much alive and represents a creative, vibrant religion that addresses the spritual needs of many people. Margot Adler in her excellent history of the Craft, “Drawing Down the Moon” explains:
“Traditionally, religions with indefensible histories and dogmas cling to them tenaciously. The Craft avoided this through the realization, often unconscious, that is real sources lie in the mind, in art, in creative work. Once People became comfortable in the Craft, the old lies began to dissolve. That they did so quickly is an insight into the flexibility of Wicca.”

Where, then, can we find the roots of Witchcraft? In part, they are revealed in the originality of thought and creative geniuses of those who belong to the Multitudinous Craft groups. These Neo-Pagans, as they were termed, hail from a variety of backgrounds and beliefs. Often they associate their religion with nature and ecology movements, feminism, or the artisitc tradtion. But historical roots also can be traced, dating back to the end of the last century.

Wicca, in one form or another, is not a recent phenomenon in America. Some sort of Witchcraft was acknowledged as far back as the infamous Salem Witchcraft trials in the seventeenth century. Other indications of belief in natural magick are found in the customs of country folk like the Pennsylvania Dutch, who have always erected hex signs over the doorways of their houses and barns, and the Ozark and Appalachian hill people, whose traditions are rich in natural magick. Of course, the African slaves brought their Voodoo religion into this country, too, and many still observe these rites in New Orleans, and in other centers. The Hispanic people also have enriched the occult tradition with their form of folk magick called Santeria and Brujeria.

Many people carry on Wicca family traditions brought over from Europe. However, it is spurious to assume that these family traditions necessarily have survived intact from olden times. Like all aspects of the Craft, the traditions are fluid, and have been influenced by the tenets of doctrines such as Theosophy, Spritiualism, and High Magick. What they have in common with the Craft today is that these Witches practice magick of hearth fire, or agricultural magick, which includes raising storms, calling up the wind, growing better crops, and improved animal breeding.


This Page Updated 2008


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