Wicca ( ) is a Neopagan religion, that is also often referred to as Witchcraft or the Craft by its adherents, who are known as Wiccans or Witches. Its disputed origins lie in England in the early 20th century, though it was first popularised during the 1950s by Gerald Gardner, a retired British civil servant, who at the time called it the "witch cult" and "witchcraft", and its adherents "the Wica".
Wicca is typically a duotheistic religion, worshipping a Goddess and a God, who are traditionally viewed as the Triple Goddess and Horned God. These two deities are often viewed as being facets of a greater pantheistic Godhead, and as manifesting themselves as various polytheistic deities. Other characteristics of Wicca include the ritual use of magic, a basic code of morality, and the celebration of eight seasonally based festivals.
The term "Wicca" was introduced by one of Gardner's rivals, Charles Cardell, in the 1950s, who based it upon the Old English word wicca , which referred to male practitioners of sorcery. There are various different denominations within the Craft, which are referred to as traditions ; some, such as Gardnerianism and Alexandrianism (which are collectively often called British Traditional Wicca), follow in the initiatory lineage of Gardner, whilst others, such as Cochranianism, Feri and the Dianic tradition, take primary influence from other figures and do not always insist on an initiatory lineage. Some British Traditional Wiccans believe that the term "Wicca" should actually only apply to themselves, however others take Cardell's original view that all traditions can be considered to be "Wiccan".
Beliefs
Wiccan beliefs vary between different traditions, however there are commonalities between the various groups, which usually revolve around views on theology, the afterlife, magic and morality.
Theology
Main article: Wiccan views of divinityAlthough Wiccan views on theology vary, the vast majority of Wiccans venerate both a Goddess and a God. These two deities are variously understood through the frameworks of pantheism (as being dual aspects of a single godhead), duotheism (as being two polar opposites) or polytheism (being composed of many lesser deities). In some pantheistic and duotheistic conceptions, deities from diverse cultures may be seen as aspects of the Goddess or God.
According to the Witches Janet and Stewart Farrar, Wiccans "regard the whole cosmos as alive, both as a whole and in all of its parts", but that "such an organic view of the cosmos cannot be fully expressed, and lived, without the concept of the God and Goddess. There is no manifestation without polarization; so at the highest creative level, that of Divinity, the polarization must be the clearest and most powerful of all, reflecting and spreading itself through all the microcosmic levels as well".
The God and the Goddess
For most Wiccans, Wicca is a duotheistic religion worshipping both a God and a Goddess, who are seen as complementary polarities in the universe (which has been compared to the Taoist philosophy of yin and yang) and "embodiments of a life-force manifest in nature." Often, the Goddess is symbolised as the Moon, and the God as the Sun.
Traditionally the God is viewed as a Horned God, associated with nature, wilderness, sexuality and hunting. The Horned God is given various names according to the tradition, and these include Cernunnos, Pan, Atho and Karnayna. At other times the God is viewed as the Green Man, a traditional figure in art and architecture of Europe, or as a Sun God (particularly at the festival of Litha, or the summer solstice). Another depiction of the God is as the Oak King and the Holly King, one who rules over Spring and Summer, the other who rules over Autumn and Winter.
The Goddess is usually portrayed as a Triple Goddess with aspects of 'Maiden', 'Mother' and 'Crone', though she is also commonly depicted as a Moon Goddess. Some Wiccans see the Goddess as pre-eminent, since she contains and conceives all; the God is the spark of life and inspiration within her, simultaneously her lover and her child. This is reflected in the traditional structure of the coven. In some traditions, notably feminist Dianic Wicca, the Goddess is seen as complete unto herself, and the God is not worshipped at all, though this has been criticised by members of other traditions. Secondarily, the God is also sometimes viewed in a triple form (possibly in a reflective religious homage to the triple Goddess, referencing their complementary polarity) that being the aspects of 'Son', 'Father' and 'Sage'.
According to Gerald Gardner, the deities of Wicca are prehistoric gods of the British Isles: a Great Mother goddess and a Horned God. Modern scholarship has cast doubt on this claim; however various different horned gods and mother goddesses were worshipped in the British Isles in the ancient and early mediaeval periods.
Polytheism
The duotheism of the Goddess and the God is often extended into a type of dual pantheism through the belief that, in the words of the occultist Dion Fortune, "all gods are one god, and all goddesses are one goddess" —that is, the gods and goddesses of all cultures are, respectively, aspects of one supernal god and goddess. For instance, a Wiccan may regard the Germanic Eostre, Hindu Kali, and Christian Virgin Mary each as manifestations of one supreme Goddess—and, likewise, the Celtic Cernunnos, the ancient Greek Dionysus and the Judeo-Christian Yahweh as aspects of a single, archetypal God.
A more polytheistic approach holds the various goddesses and gods to be separate and distinct entities in their own right. Pantheistic systems may conceive of deities not as literal personalities but as metaphorical archetypes or thoughtforms. While these conceptualizations of deity—duotheism, polytheism and pantheism—may seem radically different from each other, they need not be considered mutually exclusive: Some Wiccans may find it spiritually beneficial (or magically practical) to shift among one or another of these systems, depending upon time and circumstance.
Wiccan writers Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone have postulated that Wicca is becoming more polytheistic as it matures, tending to embrace a more traditionally pagan worldview.
Godhead
Gardner stated that a being higher than the god and the goddess was recognised by the witches as the Prime Mover, but remains unknowable. Patricia Crowther has called this supreme godhead Dryghten , and Scott Cunningham called it "The One". This pantheistic or panentheistic view of God shares similarities with beliefs such as the Hindu Brahman.
Animism
Wicca is essentially an immanent religion, and for some Wiccans, this idea also involves elements of animism. A key belief in Wicca is that the Goddess and the God (or the goddesses and gods) are able to manifest in personal form, most importantly through the bodies of Priestesses and Priests via the rituals of Drawing down the Moon or Drawing down the Sun.
Afterlife
Beliefs in the afterlife vary among Wiccans, although reincarnation is a traditional Wiccan teaching dating back to the New Forest coven in the 1930s. The influential High Priest Raymond Buckland said that a human's soul reincarnates into the same species over many lives in order to learn and advance, but this belief is not universal, with many Wiccans equally believing in reincarnation through different species. However, a popular saying amongst Wiccans is that "once a witch, always a witch", indicating a belief that Wiccans are the reincarnation of earlier witches.
Typically, Wiccans who believe in reincarnation believe that prior to this, the soul rests for a while in the Otherworld or Summerland, known in Gardner's writings as the "ecstasy of the Goddess". Many Wiccans believe in the ability to contact the spirits of the dead who reside in the Otherworld through spirit mediums and ouija boards, particularly on the sabbat of Samhain, though some disagree with this practice, such as the High Priest Alex Sanders, who stated that "they are dead; leave them in peace." This belief was likely influenced by the religion of Spiritualism, which was very popular at the time of Wicca's emergence, and with which Gardner and other early Wiccans such as Buckland and Sanders had some experience.
Despite some belief in it, Wicca does not place an emphasis on the afterlife, focusing instead on the current one; as the historian Ronald Hutton remarked, "the instinctual position of most pagan witches, therefore, seems to be that if one makes the most of the present life, in all respects, then the next life is more or less certainly going to benefit from the process, and so one may as well concentrate on the present".
Magic
Wiccans believe in magic that can be manipulated through the form of witchcraft
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