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Contents
1 Etymology
2 Distribution
3 History and structure
3.1 History of the Wicca movement
3.2 Coven
3.3 Initiation
4 Practice of the cult
4.1 Beliefs
4.2 God and Goddess
4.3 Life, death and rebirth
4.4 Parallels
4.5 Ethics
4.6 Festivals and holidays
4.7 Tools and implements
4.8 Common rituals
4.9 Use of herbs in rituals
4.10 Five elements
5 Wiccan traditions
6 Scholarly research on Wicca
6.1 Literature overview
6.2 Origin of Wicca
6.3 Typology of Wicca followers
7 See also
8 Literature
9 Web links
10 References
Wicca
Wicca (pronounced according to the English model ['wɪka]; sometimes pronounced ['wɪtʃa], like the Old English word wicca for "sorcerer") is a new religious movement, dating back to the first half of the 20th century, which is classified as belonging to Neopaganism. It understands itself as a newly shaped, nature-bound spirituality and as a mystery religion. It is a mystery religion in the sense that emphasis is also placed on knowledge of one's own life and inner transformation. Wicca also sees itself as the "religion of the witches," and most adherents describe themselves as witches. Many of the various strands of Wicca are, unlike most neopagan movements, explicitly syncretistic.
There are numerous parallels to the cult of the Great Goddess; in Wicca, however, a female and a male god are equal partners and representatives of a polar nature.
The pentacle, a symbol also used in the Wicca religion
Almost all Wicca followers share the celebration of the eight festivals of the wheel of the year and magical rituals oriented to the lunar cycle (Esbats).
Etymology
The term Wicca was adopted from Anglo-Saxon, where the word wicca (pronounced ['witʃa], masculine form) means "sorcerer," "magician"; the feminine form of this word is wicce (pronounced ['witʃe], the plural for both genders being wiccan ['witʃan]). The English word witch derives, in terms of linguistic history, from wicce or wicca. The esoteric term first appears in the form Wica in Gardner's Witchcraft Today (1954) as a designation for the followers of the "Old Religion" he described (and not for Wicca itself). The spelling Wicca is first attested in 1969.
Distribution
> Main article: Religions in Germany#Wicca and Neopaganism
Wicca is among the most numerous groupings within the spectrum of Neopaganism and is especially widespread in the Anglo-American world. In the USA, Wicca has been officially recognized as a religion since 1994. Estimates of the number of people in the USA who feel they belong to the Wicca religion vary widely, since the boundaries against other neopagan movements are not clear-cut and some people practice several forms of spirituality. According to estimates, their number around 1990 was more than 200,000 in the USA, 30,000 in Great Britain, and 800,000 worldwide. The American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) showed an increase in Wicca adherents in the USA from 134,000 in 2001 to 342,000 seven years later, in 2008. In Germany there are no uniform surveys on religious development. Based on comparisons with statistics from other countries and extrapolations from known figures, the number of Wiccans in Germany in 2020 can be estimated at 209,000, or at about 178,000 if only persons initiated into British Traditional Wicca are counted.
History and structure
History of the Wicca movement
The Wicca religion was probably founded between 1921 and 1950 by Gerald Brousseau Gardner (1884–1964). He stated that he had been initiated into an existing witches' coven, the New Forest Coven, from which most of the traditions of modern Wicca were also taken. From 1969 onward the spelling "Wicca" was used for the first time. In later years, alongside Gardner, Vivianne Crowley, Doreen Valiente, and Eleanor Bone were other leading figures who contributed to the development of this faith. Valiente wrote a great many of the texts known today as traditional (e.g. The Charge of the Goddess and The Wiccan Creed), and she also revised various passages of the Book of Shadows that Gerald Gardner had taken from the works of Aleister Crowley. Gardner and Valiente parted ways due to disagreements, and Patricia Crowther became his successor.
The Alexandrian line was founded by Alex Sanders, though it is not established beyond doubt by whom Sanders was initiated. The founding of the Alexandrian line was initially regarded as a schism, but has meanwhile come to be counted as Wicca in the narrower sense.
Wicca was brought to America by Raymond and Rosemary Buckland — initiates of the Gardnerian line — where Buckland in later years also founded his own line, Seax Wica. In America, Wicca was enriched, among others, by Zsuzsanna Budapest and Miriam Simos (better known as Starhawk) with elements of feminist goddess spirituality (Dianic Wicca, Reclaiming tradition), while through Selena Fox neo-shamanistic influences found their way in, such as African and Native American traditions like drumming, ecstatic dance, and vision work.
Janet and Stewart Farrar published numerous rituals in their books during the 1970s and 1980s that had until then not been generally known, in particular most of today's eight sabbat rituals. Janet Farrar rejected the accusation that by making these secret rituals public they had violated the vow of secrecy of the Wicca covens. She countered that these rituals had either already been made public earlier by Gerald Gardner himself or by Doreen Valiente, or had only been newly created by the Farrars on the basis of older sources.
Both Raymond Buckland and Janet Farrar and her new husband Gavin Bone (they married about a year after Stewart's death) rejected the exclusivity of initiation within the existing lines of tradition as dogmatism. They advocated self-initiation, which is actually an initiation by Goddess and God, as Doreen Valiente had already emphasized in her 1978 book. Vivianne Crowley, too, did not reject self-initiation on principle, but considered it only a stopgap solution. The modern eclectic Neo-Wicca of the so-called "free-flying" witches, who are self-initiated and not organized in covens, led, among other things through the bestsellers of Scott Cunningham and Silver RavenWolf, to an enormous increase in the spread of Wicca since the end of the 1980s. At the same time, however, there were also opposing efforts to preserve the Gardnerian and Alexandrian traditions.
Coven
Traditional Wicca followers usually join a convent or coven (a witches' circle), a circle of work and worship, an organizational form said to go back to Scottish witch belief, but probably having older sources.
No two covens resemble one another in their beliefs, and even the basic structure described is not necessarily the same in all covens. Styles range from Egyptian to Celtic to Native American or syncretistic mixtures — in ethnology, this is referred to as an eclectic approach. Most covens claim a connection to pre-Christian religions.
According to traditional belief, a coven ideally consists of 13 people (a number that has particular significance in Wicca), who are organized as far as possible into working pairs of woman and man. The high priest-priestess couple is seen as a unit and, as it were, as one person. Larger covens tend to split and give rise to a daughter coven. In the Wicca tradition, a coven has a high priestess and a high priest (initiated to at least the second degree) as leaders, as well as a Maiden ("the girl" or "the virgin") as the high priestess's deputy. All three are assigned particular tasks in most rituals. The coven meets in particular on the holidays (Sabbat) and on the full moon days (Esbat). Some, but not all, covens practice "skyclad" (ritual nakedness), as a sign of their connection to nature and of personal freedom. Others wear special robes, and still others only everyday clothing.
If the membership of a coven becomes too large, a working pair from the mother coven, together with any number of members they take with them, founds a new circle, traditionally at least three miles (about five kilometers) away from the mother coven. The distance is meant to prevent the emergence of an organized religion or church.
Initiation
> Main article: Novitiate (Neopaganism)
The initiation ceremony for official religious admission into a witches' coven is held by a high priest(ess) of the opposite sex. Through initiation there occurs (among other things) the initiate's voluntary dedication to a particular divine being and the imparting of knowledge and deeper insight, modeled on ancient mystery cults. In Wicca there are three degrees in total: the first degree is the degree of the Goddess and of water. The second degree is the degree of the God. With the second degree, the Wiccan is consecrated as a high priest. With this rank it would already be possible to lead one's own coven. The union with universal energy, the union of God and Goddess — the animus and the anima (in the view of Vivianne Crowley, 2004) — is the work of the third degree, though this is seen differently by some Wiccans.
As part of the initiation, a handwritten "Book of Shadows" is also passed on. This book, handed down within a coven, is not static, however, but is added to or expanded over time. In some traditions, the original version of the respective line is additionally passed down. This contains chiefly rituals, and fewer dogmas or fixed guidelines. Furthermore, many covens also have their own "Book of Shadows," into which secret knowledge, rituals, invocations, and personal experiences can be entered.
Practice of the cult
Beliefs
Wiccans believe that everything is fundamentally a unity and interconnected (holism). They venerate nature as sacred, since it is one with the divine primal ground and grants strength to human beings in body and spirit (chthonism). An important principle of belief is the rule "As above, so below," which is meant to express that in all realms of the cosmos, in the great as in the small, the same polar ordering principles are at work, and that the whole is always reflected in even the smallest part. The saying originates from the hermetic writing Tabula Smaragdina. It now represents a widespread view in the field of esotericism and New Age thought. Wicca is thus not a dualistic religion that regards God and creation as separate from one another and
[text continues beyond the excerpt provided]
The two polar powers
that stand at the centre
are personified as a threefold
moon goddess (maiden,
mother, crone)[>] or as
Symbol for the Horned God Earth Mother or
(crescent moon and full moon Mother Goddess as well as
or sun) dual Horned God
(god of fertility and
god of death; frequently
associated aspects: sacrificed year-god, Green Man,
Sky Father, Sun God[>]). Similarly to Carl Gustav Jung's
psychology, however, these deities are regarded by many Wiccans
merely as archetypes of the
collective unconscious or as symbols for anima and
animus in the individual subconscious.
panentheistic rather than theistic
Sun and triple moon (symbol for the
unity of God and Goddess)
Typically the Goddess stands for the passive and lunar female principle (Yin) and the Horned God
for the active and solar male principle (Yang), whereby the horn symbolises procreative power, might and strength.
These two principles are equal in rank and both necessary, for the all-encompassing
Divine is understood as the union of these polarities. For some theologians, Wicca is therefore only
superficially duotheistic, since at least certain traditions and currents within Wicca also
exhibit monotheistic or non-dual aspects.
Thus the Goddess and the God are also often seen as polar
aspects of an all-embracing, sexless and
monistic One, which was termed by Patricia Crowther as
Dryghten. This Old Germanic word
appears as Dryghtyn as a designation for God in some
old English Bibles. It is related to the Old High German
tröthin and treuga, based on the Proto-Indo-European *trw. This notion of an All-
One, which however is not shared by all Wiccans, resembles the
Hindu concept of Brahman or the
Buddhist Shunyata as well as the Taoist Tao or
the alchemical Azoth. Since Wiccans, like adherents of many
other forms of Neopaganism, believe, in the sense of a
philosophical panpsychism, that everything in
Dryghten symbol (combination of
the triple moon with the symbol of
the Horned God)
the world is alive and ensouled and connected through a world-soul, there are also clear links
to the animism of original "nature religions."[18] Also frequently adopted from the Far Eastern religions and
Theosophy are the notions of the existence of several layers
of energy bodies (etheric body, astral body, etc.), which are said to interact with the physical body through the seven chakras as well as the so-called
silver cord. Energy work is thus a central
component of the magical rituals. According to the scholar of religion Michael Bäumer, the rituals
of the Wiccan movement are a modern form of love magic and success magic.[17]
Astral travel is likewise regarded as a means of magic, whereby the so-called flying ointments of earlier
"witches" are said to have supported such experiences through intoxicating drugs.
More important than the question of mono- or polytheism, however, is for many adherents of Wicca and other forms
of witchcraft or Goddess spirituality the idea of a threefold Goddess who changes
through the wheel of the year and to whom certain festivals are assigned:
= In spring the "bright, youthful, atmospheric goddess is celebrated, embodied in the
hunting maiden." ("Amazon")
= Summer is the time of the Mother Goddess, "who with her erotic power makes earth and waters,
animals and humans, land and sea fertile, and thereby sustains life."
= In winter the rebirth of life is celebrated, symbolised by the Crone Goddess,
"the death goddess as an old woman, who dissolves all life in the abyss and at the same time
lets it rise again from the depths. She is the mysterious deity of eternal decline
and eternal return; she determines the astronomical cycles (the setting and rising of the stars)
and thereby also the cycles of vegetation and of human life; thus she is
the mistress of cosmic order and eternal wisdom in person."
All three figures form one deity; they are never entirely separate from one another.[18] The notion of
the threefold Goddess who wanders through the wheel of the year derives primarily from writings of
the 19th century, among others the "Cambridge Ritualists" — Jane Ellen Harrison, Gilbert Murray, F.
M. Cornford and A. B. Cook — but was popularised above all by James Frazer in his work "The
Golden Bough" and Robert Graves's "The White Goddess."
The male counterpart, the Horned God, is by contrast worshipped either in threefold or in twofold
form, in the figures of the youthful god of light or divine child and the wild
man or Lord of the Animals, as well as Lord of the Underworld. Like the Great Goddess, the Horned God too
wanders through the wheel of the year:
= In spring he is born as the divine child of the Great Mother and undergoes his
initiation. This simultaneously symbolises the return of life.
= In summer, as the youthful god, he marries the virgin goddess in a sacred
marriage.
= In autumn he ultimately dies (and in death becomes ruler of the realm of the dead)
= and is reborn in winter, begotten by himself, at the beginning of a new cycle. [12]
See also: the section "Heide Göttner-Abendroth" in the article "History of Matriarchy Theories"
God and Goddess
Wiccans frequently practise their rituals with various deities. Like Hindus, but
unlike genuine polytheists, Wiccans regard these deities merely as different
manifestations or facets of their two great principal deities, the Goddess and the God. For many,
the maxim holds: "All goddesses are one Goddess, and all gods are one God" (first found
in Dion Fortune's novel The Sea Priestess, 1938, apparently borrowed from a passage in "The
Golden Ass" by the ancient author Apuleius). Individuals choose as a point of identification their personal
deity from among diverse deities of various pantheons, whose story they consider especially
inspiring and to which they wish to relate most for personal veneration.
Similarly, covens will choose certain deities as a group focus. Sometimes these specific
deities are also kept secret, or a more pantheistic approach is followed, dispensing entirely with the
veneration of personal deities. Wiccans place value on freedom and regard themselves as
equal partners of the deities, who do not consider gestures of humility an appropriate means of
worship.
Frequently venerated deities are:
= Aradia and Cernunnos (Gardnerian tradition)
= Aradia and Karnayna (Alexandrian tradition)
= Diana and Pan (Dianic tradition)
= Freya/Holda and Freyr, or Frigg and Odin/Wodan (Seax-Wica and Wiccatru)
= Hecate and Pan (Pagan tradition)
In British Wicca the name Herne is also often used for the Horned God. Less
common, by contrast, is the veneration of:
= Isis (Aset) and Osiris (Asar)
= Astarte and Adonis
= Ishtar and Tammuz, or Inanna and Dumuzi
= Danu and Cernunnos
= Lilith and Samael
= Shakti and Shiva
= Inanna and Cernunnos (animistic path)
Common to all of these is the core aim of an ecstatic union with nature and communication
with the (personified or abstract) Divine. Here shamanic ideas again shine through; see Mircea Eliade in his book Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy.
Life, Death and Rebirth
Since they understand everything in the world as cyclical processes of becoming and
passing away, adherents of Wicca also assume a
rebirth of the soul. Unlike the Far Eastern
teachings of rebirth, however, Wicca does not regard the cycle of reincarnation
(samsara) as something negative, whose consequences are only suffering, to be
overcome through spiritual development (moksha), but rather as a natural and eternal cycle that is sacred
and indeed desirable.
On the basis of the rule of threefold return, they also believe in
a karma, but not in the idea that every personal misfortune is
self-inflicted through bad karma. Nor do they believe in
determinism and predestination; on the contrary, they hold the
conviction that one's own soul is free and that one bears
responsibility for one's own life oneself. Between rebirths, the
Wiccan gravestone
soul is said to rest for a certain time in the afterlife called the "Summerland." This conception of the afterlife
is based on Celtic, Hindu (Devachan) and Theosophical roots, but also has certain
echoes of Christian and Islamic conceptions of paradise.
Parallels
The beliefs of Wicca bear certain resemblances, in part, to ideas found in
Neoplatonism, Christian mysticism, Jewish mysticism (Kabbalah) and Islamic mysticism
(Sufism), in Hinduism (Advaita Vedanta), Buddhism (Tantra, Zen) and Taoism, as well as in
Theosophy and Anthroposophy. Wicca, however, is not a
further development of these older concepts from other faiths, but rather only superficial
borrowings or coincidental correspondences, even though such resemblances have at times been mistakenly
regarded as properties of a universal "Perennial Philosophy" (Philosophia perennis).
On occasion a connection has also been drawn between Wicca and the vanished religion of the Sabians
of Harran, though this cannot be historically substantiated. Among the spiritual models for
borrowings in modern Wiccan belief are, in the view of historians of religion (e.g. Hutton,
2001), in particular Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry, as well as Hermeticism, alchemy and
ritual magic (e.g. the medieval grimoire Clavicula Salomonis, from which many of Gardner's rituals
are borrowed). These findings from the history of religion, however, still meet with
opposition from some Wiccans, who instead consider Gardner an author who merely brought forth again the "obvious" elements of a far older
religion — so that, in their view, the influence is said to have run
in exactly the opposite direction: the "Old Religion" is said to have influenced the Freemasons and Rosicrucians, and the
development in our modern age is merely a flashback. From a
scholarly standpoint, however, there is no evidence whatsoever for such views. For the development of Wicca, the
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was of particular importance. More recently, neo-
shamanistic influences are also unmistakable, as well as a stronger orientation toward Celtic and
Germanic paganism.
Ethics
The ethical principles of Wicca are based on the precept (the Rede) "An ye harm none, do as ye
will" and the rule of (threefold) return: "All that
issues from you returns threefold upon you." [20]
"You will build on the Witches' Law in truthful love and true trust. — Live and let live, be moderate in giving and moderate in taking. — Draw the circle three times round and keep all evil out. — The verses will be effective when they are forged in rhyme. — Eyes gentle, touch tender, listening before speaking be your manner. — When the moon waxes, go sunwise, dance and sing the pentacle alive. — But if the wolf howls by the blue vervain, then go to meet the sun, for the moon is waning. — When the Goddess's moon is new again, then kiss her hand twice. — Heed the full moon, be ready, for longing in the heart it is the right time. — If the mighty North wind makes itself felt, then furl the sails and shut all doors. — The wind from the South brings hearts to glowing, you too can bloom into life with it. — News will the East wind unveil, expect it and prepare yourself for celebration. — When the wind from the West holds sway, restless then are the wandering souls. — Nine woods are good for the cauldron, burn them quickly with gentle ember. — The Goddess's tree is wise and old,
should you harm it, her curse be your wage. — When the year reaches Walpurgis Night, burn her fire in full splendour. — When the wheel arrives at Yule, light the torches, and Pan reigns. — All plants shall you tend, for that brings the Goddess's blessing. — The murmuring waters are your conscience, cast a stone and you shall know it. — In your need you shall arm yourself and never covet the possessions of your neighbour. — Do not consort with fools, for they bring you to false semblance. — Greeting and parting made with warmth, your heart is brought to happy glowing. — The Threefold Law be your guiding thread, thrice it brings luck and thrice the harm. — When misfortune rules dark days, upon your brow then wear a star. — Those who love you, you shall never deceive, else they too will lie to you. — Lastly still eight words, and there it holds: "An it harm none, do what thou wilt!""
— TRANSLATION OF THE ENGLISH ORIGINAL OF THE WICCAN REDE BY LADY GWEN THOMPSON, OFTEN WRONGLY ATTRIBUTED TO DOREEN VALIENTE.
The term Rede is derived from the Old English word rædan, meaning to counsel or to guide. The immediate origin of the Wiccan Rede is Gerald Gardner's book The Meaning of Witchcraft (1959), in which he mentions the saying of King Pausole, "Do what you like so long as you harm no one," which comes from the novel The Adventures of King Pausole (1901) by Pierre Louÿs. It is, however, generally assumed that the Rede was also inspired by Aleister Crowley's Law of Thelema, which states: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Love is the law, love under will." Crowley in turn may have been influenced by Augustine's words "Love, and do what you will" or by the words "Do as thou wilt..." of the author François Rabelais from the novel Gargantua (1534). A hitherto largely overlooked possible origin of the wording of the Wiccan Rede could be the French Constitution of 1791, which defines: "Liberty consists in being able to do anything that does not harm another." Today's eight-word version of the Rede stems from an address by Doreen Valiente on 3 October 1964 and was published that same year by Gerard Noel.
The "Rede" is often interpreted by Wiccan adherents to mean that it forbids all actions that could in any way cause harm of any kind. There is, however, also the view that the freedom to do as one wills applies only on the condition that one thereby harms no one. Actions that cause harm are thus not free in the same way, but must, where applicable, be sufficiently justified and proportionate in their extent. Other interpretations see in the Rede a demand to discover one's true will and to exercise it, under the restriction of thereby harming no one (neither another nor oneself).
The Rule of Threefold Return rests on the principle of cause and effect and the idea that everything one does also has consequences, whereby small causes can also have great effects. This rule is, however, only distantly related to the Eastern concept of karma. The combination of the "Rede" and the Rule of Return largely fulfils, within so-called Wiccan ethics, the function of the "Golden Rule."
The statement of the "Rede" is one of the factors why Christian and other groups criticise Wicca as being a hedonistic religion for the consumer and fun society. Its adherents, however, see Wicca as a religion whose ethics are very strongly based on the idea of personal responsibility. Every person must weigh and consider for themselves in order to act morally, and must bear the consequences for their actions (Rule of Threefold Return). This emphasis on one's own
responsibility fundamentally distinguishes the ethics of neopagan religions in general from the ethics of the great monotheistic religions, which are based on fear of God and obedience, but it also stands out clearly from those ethical standards that place the will or the wellbeing of the majority at the centre, such as legal positivism and utilitarianism. The Wiccan Rede, with its emphasis on freedom, self-responsibility, and the prohibition of harm, largely corresponds with the natural-law ethics of human freedom and the basic principle of the renunciation of aggression in individualist anarchism and in modern libertarianism.[22][22] In contrast to these individualist-anarchist currents, however, Wicca emphasises not only individual freedom,
but also the social embeddedness of each individual within the societal community. [22
Festivals and Holidays
> Main article: Wheel of the Year (Wicca) -
The Wheel of the Year, also called the Year's Wheel, denotes the
system of eight seasonal festival days customary in
the Wiccan religion, which symbolises the cycle of becoming and
passing away in nature. It has great
similarities to the Celtic wheel of the year. The system
of Wicca is a modern combination of the four Celtic
high festivals with pagan solstice/equinox festivals of
Bronze Age cultures. The names for two of the festival days
(Litha and Mabon) as well as many of the rituals are modern
inventions.
OSTARA
The eight main holidays, called Sabbats, are oriented according to
the course of the year (which are calculated partly according
to fixed dates, partly according to natural
or astrological events).
The eight main festivals of Wicca as
the Wheel of the Year
Four festivals are considered the "higher" festival days and are therefore also called Greater Sabbats (other
designations for these are in some cases Light or Fire festivals or Moon festivals). These fall, in each case,
exactly in the middle between two solar festivals and are therefore also called
cross-quarter days. For determining the exact dates of the cross-quarter days, there are, depending on tradition,
different approaches. Traditionally, the dates coinciding with the calends are
used; in other traditions these are also celebrated calendrically exactly midway between the solar
festivals:
= Samhain
= Imbolc
= Beltane
= Lughnasadh
The four solar festivals, which are determined according to astronomical constellations of the sun's position,
are also called Lesser Sabbats (another designation for these is in some cases Sun festivals)
and are:
= Litha, Summer Solstice
= Yule, Winter Solstice
= Ostara, Spring Equinox
= Mabon, Autumn Equinox
Besides these eight Sabbat festivals there are the 13 so-called Esbats,
which are held in honour of the Goddess at the full moon (sometimes also the dark moon). These
are magical working days.
Tools and Implements
The traditional ritual tools within the Wiccan movement
are: For the sun festivals the
wheel-cross is also
= The (sword or) athame: The double-edged, used as a symbol.
black ceremonial dagger (for directing energy, almost
never used for cutting).
= Boline: The white knife (for practical activities such as cutting
herbs and carving candles).
= The wand: a magic wand, meant to serve for directing energies.
= Pentacle: A ritual disc (also shield), on which a
pentagram (five-pointed star with the point directed upward) is depicted within
a circle.
= Censer: For ritual incensing.
= Scourge: As a sign of power and dominance.
= Cord: Used in the swearing of various oaths, also
called "the measure," because the cord is supposed to correspond to the body height of the
wearer.
In some traditions the following implements are in part used:
= Broom (among other things for ritual cleansing of negative energies).
= Book of Shadows (formerly also called grimoire). A book with
magical rituals, spells, recipes and the like, which is handed to the novice
at initiation.
= Chalice: Is used at vow and initiation ceremonies.
= Cauldron: This is normally a
wrought-iron cooking pot, which is used both for ritual meals as
well as for incensing.
= Cakes and wine: Are used for the "social part" after a
ritual.
= Salt and holy water: Are used in consecration rituals. Athame with
= Pendulum: A heavy object on a cord, which through contact sheath (left) and boline
with the medial consciousness enables divination. on the right
= Aspergillum: A bundle of herbs or similar, with which one sprinkles water before or during
a ritual.
= Labrys: A double axe modelled on the Minoan example, which is placed on the left side of the altar.
Athame and wand are held with the right hand (for left-handers, the left hand).
This hand, which is also called the "power hand," symbolically stands for the point at which the
personal power streams out of the body. The left hand (for left-handers, the right hand), by contrast,
is called the "receptive hand," because energy streams into our body through it. In some rituals
the chalice symbolises the female principle (the womb) and the athame the male principle (the
phallus), quite in the sense of Riane Eisler's "The Chalice and the Blade"; in some traditions/paths the
meaning of athame and wand (and their respective assignment to the cardinal direction) is reversed.
Common Rituals
In Gardnerian Wicca, rituals are often performed nude (in "sky-clad," English skyclad),
since clothing is thought to hinder the magical energies and the connection with the earth. In most
other traditions of Wicca, robes are worn. Common rituals are:
= The drawing of the magic circle has great ritual
significance. The circle is defined as the
place where a spherical sphere, created
through visualisation and magic, meets the earth. As
a rule, the quarters of the circle are invoked within
the magic circle, to which as correspondences are assigned
in particular the four cardinal directions, four
seasons, and four elements.
In movements within the circle, direction plays a
great role. Deosil, movement in the clockwise direction
(which at the same time follows the course of the sun), stands for
the good and positive energies. Widdershins, the
movement counter-clockwise, stands for
negative energies. Since in the southern
hemisphere (e.g. in Australia) the sun moves counter-clockwise, the
movements are in some cases used by Wiccan adherents there with
reversed meaning.
= An important and popular full-moon esbat ritual is "Drawing Down the Moon," in which the Goddess is invoked and embodied by the High Priestess, who absorbs her power into herself. This is a form of willed ritual possession, whose origins are said to have already been practised by Thessalian witches in ancient Greece.
= The so-called "Great Rite" is a symbolic — or, more rarely today, actual — sexual act between High Priestess and High Priest, which in no case is performed publicly. It is a ritual union of the traditional "Sacred Marriage" (Hieros gamos) with elements of tantric sex magic.
= Two central magical practices are "Grounding" and "Centering." "Grounding" means connecting oneself with the earth. "Centering" means gathering oneself in the center of the body. Another important technique is Focusing, that is, the use of intense imagination to release and channel magical energies.
Use of Herbs in Rituals
Because of the panentheistic character of Wicca, when gathering flowers, herbs, etc., an attempt is first made, through visualization, to establish a connection with the corresponding plants. Only then is what is needed cut, often with the Bolline (a white-handled knife). Examples of applications for the use of herbs include:
= Offerings for the Goddess (watery and earthy flowers and seeds) and the God (fiery and airy herbs and flowers)
= Body and hair adornment during rituals, e.g. flower wreaths for spring and summer rituals, oak and spruce wreaths for winter rituals, or herb and seed chains made of aniseed, acorns, spruce cones, nutmegs, tonka beans, or similar
= Ritual fires (apple tree, rowan, oak, spruce, dogwood, mesquite, poplar, juniper, cedar)
= Consecration of the chalice, cauldron and other magical tools, e.g. rubbing the blade of the magical knife (with basil, rosemary or oak leaves), the wand (with lavender, eucalyptus or peppermint leaves), the broom (with chamomile, willow and lemon balm), the crystal ball (with mugwort), and many others
= Decoration for the magic circle and altar (depending on the time and occasion; for the full-moon ritual: night-blooming flowers, white flowers, all with five petals)
Five Elements
Classical elemental theory is an essential part of Wicca's worldview. Every manifest form is understood as an expression of the four archetypal elements Earth, Water, Air and Fire, which are interpreted in different ways (sometimes materialistically as states of matter, but usually esoterically as subtle energies). Added to these, as a fifth element, is Spirit (Aether), which Wicca interprets as spirit, in contrast to the classical fifth element such as quintessence or akasha. In Wicca, the five points of the
Beltane Altar
pentagram symbolize these five elements.[26] When invoking the magic circle, in addition to the four cardinal directions and quarters of the circle, the four elements are also often invoked at the cardinal points, personalized in the form of four elemental rulers (elemental kings or watchtowers) who are said to command the corresponding elemental spirits. Influenced by his connections to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Gerald Gardner borrowed the concept of elemental magic and the watchtowers from the system of Enochian magic of John Dee and Edward Kelley. Wicca's
Pentagram with the Five ideas about elemental spirits are based largely on the works of Paracelsus Elements
as well as on Theosophy and the Anthroposophy of Rudolf Steiner that arose from it.
Wicca Traditions
> Main article: Wicca Traditions
British Traditional Wicca (BTW) is the term used, in English as well, ... [line below] Initiation line of a German coven, for all traditions — also called lines or paths — within Wicca that go back tracing back to the New Forest Coven, Bricket Wood Coven, and the
to the New Forest Coven.[2] Whitecroft line.
Eclectic Wicca refers to followers of Wicca who do not belong to any particular tradition, but draw on various traditions and cultures. Eclectics can either be initiated within a coven or perform a self-initiation before the God and the Goddess.
Solitary Wicca ("free-flying witches") is a particularly "free" style of Wicca that emphasizes personal freedom and avoids hierarchical structure. It encompasses all Wiccans who are not organized in covens and who learn independently.
Neo-Wicca is not a tradition in the proper sense, but rather the umbrella term for modern and more open interpretations of Wicca — with less emphasis on themes such as sexuality and death, and usually based on self-initiation.
Scholarly Research on Wicca
Literature Overview
The first English-language scholarly treatments of the historical development and belief system of Wicca were the books by the American journalist Margot Adler (1987) and the American anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann (1989).[27] The first English-language dissertations on Wicca were by Gini Graham Scott (1976),[28] Joan Ludecke (1989),[29] and the social anthropologist Susan Greenwood (2000).[30]
The Wicca author Aidan Kelly argued in a 1991 book that Wicca was a creation of Gerald Gardner, and that the older traditions Gardner claimed for it (e.g. regarding the person of Dorothy Clutterbuck and the New Forest Coven) were not authentic.[31] Wicca books
This work was, however, also criticized from a scholarly standpoint.[32] Kelly (2008) reaffirmed his views and supported them in greater detail in a new book.[33]
The historian Ronald Hutton (1999) provided the first independent and detailed scholarly treatment of the history of the origins of the modern witch religion. Hutton, too, concluded that Wicca was largely a new creation of Gerald Gardner, building on existing magical traditions and organizations (the Isis mystery cult, the Theosophical Society,
Rosicrucian Society, the Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship, the Hermetic Philip Heselton (2005) Order of the Golden Dawn, Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO), Thelema, the Ancient Druid Order, the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids (OBOD), etc.), rites of Freemasonry (in particular the Co-Masonry, which also admits women), the romantic Woodcraft movement (in particular the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry), and even nudism, as well as the books of Michelet, Leland, Murray, Frazer and Graves.
A more recent book by Philip Heselton (2003), for which Ronald Hutton wrote the foreword, arrives at different conclusions on the basis of further research into Dorothy Clutterbuck and several other points.[34] A personal "inside view" of the history of Wicca was published by Frederic Lamond (2005) in his book Fifty Years of Wicca, though it cannot be regarded as — and does not claim to be — a scholarly, neutral study. The history of Wicca in America has also been examined by the author Chas Clifton (2006). In 2008 the ethnographer Sabina Magliocco published her study of neopagan "witch culture" in America.[36]
In the German-speaking world there have so far likewise been only a few scholarly works on the development and social significance of Wicca:
= Jörg Wichmann (1958–2020)[38] published, based on his master's thesis at the
University of Bonn, in 1984 with his book[37] the first more extensive, religious-studies account of Wicca as a spiritual system, and showed that the Wicca cult constitutes a genuine religion.
= Gisela Graichen published her book Die neuen Hexen (The New Witches) in 1999, with interviews of witches and neopagans of both sexes.
= The ethnologist and scholar of religion Oliver Ohanecian published in book form in 2005 his master's thesis, already completed in 2003, Das Fremde im Eigenen — Zur Konstruktion von Wirklichkeit im Wicca-Kult (The Foreign Within the Familiar — On the Construction of Reality in the Wicca Cult). This work is based on the philosophy of radical constructivism and was discussed controversially in Wicca circles.[28][39]
= Britta Rensing also dealt with the belief system of Wicca in 2006 in her religious-studies dissertation,[*] and, unlike Wichmann, took into account not only witch covens but also so-called "free-flying witches."
= Birgit Neger wrote in 2007 the unpublished diploma thesis Die beiden Seiten des Zaunes. Zur Genese des Modernen Hexentums und Wicca unter besonderer Berücksichtigung Österreichs (The Two Sides of the Fence: On the Genesis of Modern Witchcraft and Wicca, with Special Reference to Austria) at the Historical Seminar of the University of Vienna. In 2009 her book Moderne Hexen und Wicca: Aufzeichnungen über eine magische Lebenswelt von heute (Modern Witches and Wicca: Notes on a Magical Lifeworld of Today) appeared.
= Kathrin Fischer published in 2007 the first folkloristic study of Wicca in Germany and Austria. She distinguished three types within the following of the Wicca movement.
= In Helmut Birkhan's book Nachantike Keltenrezeption (Post-Antique Reception of the Celts) (2009) there is a chapter on Wicca, in which he critically examines the movement's supposedly Celtic foundations. He does not, however, classify this as a "forgery" or the like (as, for example, with James Macpherson's "Ossian" or Iolo Morganwg's Barddas), but rather as "fictional scholarship," as with Robert Ranke-Graves. He points out at length, however, the very free interpretation of Celtic religion, mythology and deities.[42]
Origins of Wicca
Scholarship in religious studies assumes that Wicca came about through a synthesis and recombination of numerous elements. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, conditions were favorable for a revival of the old "nature religions." Romanticism at the beginning of the 19th century aroused great interest in the pre-Christian cultures of Europe. Even later there were influential cultural currents that expressed a longing for the connection of humanity, culture and nature (e.g. the Woodcraft movement). For many
people who had lost their faith in Christianity, nature represented the connection between humankind and ancient pagan religions. In addition, in 1951 the Witchcraft Act was repealed in Great Britain.[43]
The organization into covens, the three degrees of initiation, and also some symbols originate from the world of Freemasonry. Members of Masonic lodges were bound to secrecy, as some Wiccans still are today with regard to the details of their rituals. From Freemasonry there eventually developed the Society of Rosicrucians and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, whose main purpose was the study of and work with ritual magic. Gardner in particular had contact after 1938 with members of the Rosicrucians. However, what was borrowed from Freemasonry was the adaptation of an outer structure, which was filled with different content.
Other elements of Wicca do indeed originate from pre-Christian times, such as the veneration of goddesses, in part also that of a threefold goddess, and many of the festivals of the Wheel of the Year. Thus Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh and Samhain were indeed celebrated among Celtic tribes of the British Isles. Solstice celebrations are attested among the Germanic peoples. However, little is known about the details of these festivals. The notion of the Summerland and the Otherworld likewise derives from the Celts. The statements of various sources on the subject of belief in rebirth among the Celts are contradictory, but the current scholarly view is that while the Celts did hold beliefs in shapeshifters, revenants and the revival of the dead, there is no reliable evidence for belief in reincarnation or transmigration of souls.)
A work from classical antiquity that was influential for Wicca is the novel The Golden Ass (c. 150 AD) by the Roman writer Apuleius, which describes initiation into the mysteries of Isis. The first mention of night-riding women is found in the Canon episcopi in the year 906. The assumption that this refers to a surviving pagan cult or religion is disputed.
Several modern works also exerted a strong influence on Wicca. The first book in which the witch religion was reliably presented as a surviving ancient pagan tradition was apparently La Sorcière (1862) by Jules Michelet. In 1899 Charles Godfrey Leland published a book in which he recorded the magical traditions of Italian witches.[2] In 1921 the British anthropologist Margaret A. Murray published the book The Witch-Cult in Western Europe, concerning the supposedly long line of tradition of the "wise women" in Europe, treating witches as their own religious/magical cult who lived in constant confrontation with Christianity (as antagonist) and had to assert themselves against the decline of their tradition. An important influence also came from James Frazer's book on the history of religion, The Golden Bough (1890), as well as from Robert Graves and his book The White Goddess (1948). Both authors believed they could reconstruct a prehistoric, pagan religion from the myths and fairy tales that had been handed down. The book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949) by the myth researcher Joseph Campbell also exerted considerable influence on the Wiccan cult, particularly on the notion of the sacrificed year-god. The theses put forward in the aforementioned works by Michelet, Leland, Murray, Frazer and Graves are, however, from today's ethnological perspective, in part considered refuted or of little plausibility. This also applies to the supposed rediscovery of ancient Welsh druidic traditions by the British author Edward Williams (1747–1826) (known as Iolo Morganwg), from whose Barddas a whole series of rituals, myths and terms have been borrowed into present-day Wicca.
Since the 1960s the Italian historian Carlo Ginzburg has documented evidence for the thesis that the witches' sabbaths can, at least in part, be traced back to a substratum of shamanic fertility and death cults connected with the ingestion of psychotropic plants, and that the blanket criticism of Murray must therefore be somewhat qualified. [>] Ginzburg's theses of a surviving, pre-Christian, pagan substratum have since been confirmed and supported by various further serious historical studies. [46][47][48][49]
Since the 1970s an important influence on Wicca has also come from feminist-inflected goddess spirituality, in particular from the book The Spiral Dance (1983, English 1979) by Starhawk and Holy Book of Women's Mysteries (1987, English 1975) by Zsuzsanna Budapest. The modern veneration of the Great Goddess also draws, among other things, on works of archaeology and matriarchy studies, such as The Language of the Goddess (1995, English 1989) and The Civilization of the Goddess (1996, English 1991) by Marija Gimbutas, or, in the German-speaking world, the book Die Göttin und ihr Heros (1980) by Heide Göttner-Abendroth. Finally, certain stories and novels, such as Puck of Pook's Hill (1906) by Rudyard Kipling, The Sea Priestess (1938) by Dion Fortune, or The Mists of Avalon (1982) by Marion Zimmer Bradley, also influenced the development and popularity of modern Paganism, goddess spirituality and Wicca. [50][52]
Typology of Wicca adherents
The cultural scholar Katrin Fischer conducted a total of twelve interviews with Wicca adherents from the German-speaking world for her dissertation.[52] She sets out how their life-world, the everyday life connected with it, and images of self and other come together to form a group-specific social reality. Based on these criteria, Fischer found three types of Wicca, which differ in certain characteristics.
Priest and Priestess
These people belong to British Traditional Wicca. Their path to Wicca led through a religious quest, since Christianity could no longer give them answers to life questions that were important to them. For them, their priesthood stands at the center of interest. Wicca constitutes their religion, in which they live out their convictions and their faith. This means for them that they find themselves on a lifelong spiritual path meant to lead them to their true self. Wicca is the content of their life. People of this type see no reason to publicly represent their belief system and mostly withdraw. They are integrated into a coven and place great value on clear structures, including with regard to matters of belief. They are the group that insists most strongly on secrecy regarding their cult practices. Feminism and the historical persecution of witches hold no particular significance in their thinking. Magic is not meant to entitle Wicca of this type to exercise power, nor do they wish this.
Feminist Wicca
This includes Wicca practitioners who turn especially to the Goddess. They mostly belong to unconventional Wiccan traditions such as Dianic Wicca. People of this type either came to Wicca through the women's movement or were politicized by it. The bonds among members within the coven are very close and personal. Unlike the first type, belief in rebirth holds great significance for them. The historical persecution of witches is interpreted as a campaign of annihilation against women, one that, however, is not presently being repeated. People
of this type often stand in public life, hold elected offices, or are engaged in the women's, ecological, and, more recently, anti-globalization movements. They see no reason to conceal their convictions, which, however, more frequently leads to conflicts with conservative segments of society.
Free-Flying Witches
For this group, the connection to nature and the animistic world is important. They are characterized by a strong connection to their native roots and by reference to flora and fauna. Hereditary witchcraft is, for members of this type, decisive for the feeling of being a witch. Germanic or Celtic roots serve as the connecting element between the religion and their abilities as a witch. For them, the historical persecution of witches is a campaign of annihilation against the old knowledge of wise women. This, they believe, could still be repeated today. They feel personally affected by it. One interviewed Wiccan, for example, regularly lays flowers on the memorial for the last witch burned in her town. They keep their faith partly secret, but partly also deliberately provoke their conservative surroundings. Feminism plays no role for them. Witches of this type believe that through magic they possess power. They also use this in defense against strangers. [53]
See also
= Celtomania
= Wiccan Rede
= Neopaganism
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15 December 2004 at the Internet Archive).
Britta Rensing: Die Wicca-Religion. Marburg 2007.
Kathrin Fischer: Das Wiccatum volkskundliche Nachforschungen zu heidnischen Hexen im
deutschsprachigen Raum. Würzburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-89913-589-3 (also: Freiburg
(Breisgau), Univ., Diss., 2007 under the title: Fischer, Kathrin: Die Hexen der
Postmoderne).
Cf. Kathrin Fischer: Das Wiccatum. Würzburg 2007.
Authority control (subject heading): GND: 4132000-1
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