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An Introduction to Wicca
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Gardner may have been had ingenuity but the formation of Wicca was a conundrum, a problem having a conjectural future. In this regard he was either inordinately lucky or he had some acuity of mind to sensed the sturings of the revival of British Witchcraft. Unfortunately, he didn't know much about it, so he went hunting for what caught his fancy. |
In forming Wicca, Gardner became an assembler. He had knowledge of the Western Esoteric Tradition and Eastern Philosophy and was able to piece together concepts and practices from a spectrum of source material to form a religion that would catch the public's imagination. And so it did.
But what is this "spectrum of source material"?
Well, the list is rather surprising. It includes concepts, beliefs, practices, organizational structure, rituals, and high magic ceremonialism of:
Since Wicca was assembled from various external sources, and it appears that Gardner tried to conceal this fact, you may ask, "Can such a religion be valid?"
While on principle the use of "borrowed" material is irksome to some, it is a fact that all religions have assumed ownership of materials that pre-existed in earlier religions or in other sources. So as a religion organizer, he has good company.
Most Wiccans tend to see Wicca as an henotheistic religion, meaning they believe in many gods and goddesses with one that is supreme. This Supreme God/Goddess is named The One, a concept borrowed from Classical Neoplatonism.
Wicca believes The One is beyond comfortable human comprehension, so he personified the deity in a male and female dualism known as the Lord and Lady.
We know Gardner studied Eastern philosophy and religion. It is obvious that he adopted the Eastern philosophical view of reincarnation and karma and brought them into Wicca. The details of belief are much the same as in New Age thought.
To demonstrate that Wicca is an ethically-based religion for public relations, Gardner invented an "ancient" saying, the Wiccan Rede. This often quoted line, An it harm none, do what ye will, sounds like Aleister Crowley's "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." He demonstrated that Wicca was ethically based with the invention of The Threefold Law, states, "Mind the Threefold Law ye should, Three times bad and three times good," which tells the public that good deeds and bad deeds all come back to the sender in threes. This has nothing to do with Traditional Witchcraft.
The Threefold Law is also illogical. How does one action become three reactions. Energy does not multiply, it remains static.
Note that many Wiccans mistakenly refer to The Threefold Law as The Law of Return, which is actually the Traditionalist Witchcraft understanding of the scientifically based principle of the Law of Cause Effect which is entirely different. In this law, actions bring about opposite actions. One action, one reaction.
One thing that Gardner brought into Wiccan is the Traditional Witchcraft respect for Nature, although Wiccans only see the good and beautiful in Nature without realizing that Nature is innately neutral, as is the Horned God. Nature is neither good nor evil, it is what it is, eternally ambivalent, impartial, and dispassionate.
Gardner was a long-time nudist before he ever created Wicca. Gardner had spent many years in tropical weather, as a British civil servant assigned to Asia, where nudists can live in relative comfort. Although rather inappropriate for English weather, and not especially traditional in Traditional Witchcraft, Gardner brought in nudity, or skyclad, into Wiccan ritual. Certainly the sexual overtones are not lost on new members, which was probably the main reason for creating such a strange tradition.
While it is true that the more conservative Wiccan covens expect members to be skyclad during important rituals, if not all, many liberal Wiccan covens and solitary practitioners remain robed during ritual.
Wiccans follow the Wheel Of The Year, an adaptation of the festivals that were at one time popular in pagan Europe. Although festivals were always known as festivals, Gardner decided to call them sabbats, which is a term that traditionally applies to any meeting of Traditional Crafters. Gardner created eight (8) sabbats, one of which has very thin historical evidence of ever being popular anywhere, and one which was pure fabrication.
Gardner then included the full moon sabbats into his ritual regiment, but re-named them esbats, adopting an academic terminology mistake by Margaret Murray. He de-classed his esbats to secondary status under the festivals (sabbats), in reverse (wrong) order of their true importance.
Wicca's primary ritual tools are the chalice, pentacle, athame, and wand. These represent the four Hermetic elements that appear in the high rituals of many occult organizations. Of course, additional tools are used in ritual, such as the scourge, besom, bell, censer, and cauldron.
While in Traditional Witchcraft we pay minimum importance to correspondences, following ceremonial magick tradition Gardner placed high regard in correspondences, requiring, in effect, as much time and effort as necessary to insure perfect colour-coordination, down to the colour of the candles.
There is no doubt that Gardner pieced together rituals from several sources, with direct borrowings from the Golden Dawn, Freemasonry, and the Rosicrucians. Wiccan rituals were also obviously influenced by Margaret Murray's quaint academically erroneous theories, and the thoughts and creations of Aleister Crowley. Gardner included Crowley's text because he was an initiate of Crowley's OTO. When Gardner initiated Doreen Valiente in 1953, she was disappointed to realize that the supposedly traditional rituals were in fact mainly bogus. She then went to work to clean up Wiccan rituals. This is NOT remotely Traditional Witchcraft.
The type of magic practiced in Wicca places emphasis on the ceremonial magick that comes from the Western Esoteric Tradition. However, Wiccans never think of themselves as ceremonial magickians unless they have specific training outside of Wicca.
Wiccans subscribe in the concept of spell snobbishness, only practicing good or positive spells only, and no spells in self-defense. In theory, a Wiccan should never use a hex or a curse even as a means of protection, although this is not always followed, especially by experienced witches originally trained outside of Wicca.
In order to understand the somewhat wide scope of practices and organization in Wicca, I believe it best to think of Wicca as divided into two primary divisions. These I name Traditional Wicca and Progressive Wicca.
Especially in the United States, this is a coven-based family of Wiccan traditions related to the founding Gardnerian Wicca. This is the conservative wing of Wicca which includes the Gardnerians, Alexandrians, Georgians, Correllians, and other such groups.
All Traditional Wiccans are initiated and can trace their initiation lineage back directly to the first initiaee, Gerald Gardiner himself. To them this is very important.
Traditional Wiccan covens are always hierarchical and have a strict degree-level system of ranks. They all tend to be rigid and secretive. Entry into one of their covens is by member sponsorship only. The process of gaining membership can be slow and difficult.
To test mental stability, some covens will place perspective members under strong psychological pressure during the interview process so as to weed out those they feel to be too weak. Some have criticized these groups for being overly invasive and emotionally abusive in this selection process.
Traditional Wiccans seldom allow a member to be a solitary practitioner. The only exception is when a long-time member is in poor health. Otherwise attendance at scheduled coven events is always required.
This is the liberal wing of Wicca. There must be hundreds of covens and tens of thousands of solitary practitioners that are progressive in spirit but Wiccan in belief and practice. Covens usually have a looser structure and varied practices. Many foster a co-operative, helpful attitude to those wishing to join. Of course, most members are expected to attend. But there is no question that these groups represent an important reform movement.
Very surprisingly, practicing magic privately is often considered optional. Many liberal covens and individual practitioners do not consider witchcraft to be their 'calling'.
Many in Wicca, especially younger members, are only involved for worship rituals and the social aspect of the group. So, interest in magic in Progressive Wicca can be weak or non-existent.
Nevertheless, many Progressive Wiccans consider witchcraft and magic to be important and take it very seriously. Some leading witches are Progressive Wiccans.
Wiccans have ideas about their religion that are misleading or simply not true. Most of this misinformation came from Gardner himself. It seems that Gardner viewed a great deal of Wicca with no regard whatsoever to historic fact. Although some have argued that Gardner simply did not know better.
1) "Wicca is descended from the "Old Religion". There is NO historic evidence to presume this to be correct. Nevertheless, Wiccans, especially Traditional Wiccans, stubbornly insists this is true. As with the other points on this list, Traditional covens teach this mistaken belief as fact. Some Traditional Wiccans even state that Wicca IS the Old Religion, which is preposterous.
The fact is that the Wicca religion is not ancient paganism and was not based on ancient British religion. It would be more accurate to say that Wicca was inspiration by some aspects of old pagan religions.
2) "Wicca is Celtic." This is NOT possible. The Celts were a culture of various peoples that once covered a wide part of Europe. It was not a religion. Anthropologists believe it is very likely that Celtic groups held radically different religious beliefs to that of modern Wicca. It would be more accurate to say that Wicca draws inspiration from some aspects of Celtic myths and culture.
3) "Wicca is witchcraft." Wicca is a religion, it is not witchcraft. Witchcraft is magical practice and is not of itself a religion. Wicca uses a unique blend of two distinctly different forms of magic thereby producing one of several forms of witchcraft in use today. Wicca 'does not own the whole pie'.
4) "Wicca is British Traditional Witchcraft." Gardnerian and Alexandrian Wiccans stubbornly insists they are traditional British witches. This is NOT possible because their link to actual Traditional Witchcraft in Britain is weak, at best, and pretentious. Wiccan high magick simply does NOT reflect the traditions of British witchcraft.
It would be more accurate to say that Gardnerian and Alexandrian Wicca is British Traditional Wicca.
Pagan Religions
