2010-04-16

Witchcraft history: Old ways resurge as Wicca

Examiner.com

Witchcraft history goes back to the days of cave painting. Male Shamans donned animal skins and through dance and trance called the animals to the hunt. Females stayed close to home and learned the magic and medicine of plants.

Wicca is an Old English word meaning witch or wise one. It is the contemporary face of witchcraft. Wicca as a religion comes from England in the 1940’s. A man named Gerald Gardner brought local English pagan/witchcraft rituals together with ceremonial magic ala Aleister Crowley and formed the first covens.

Since the 1940’s Wicca has spread world-wide and is rumored to be the fastest growing religion in the United States. Many Wicca practitioners prefer to use the term Wicca because of the baggage associated with the term Witch. The gruesome witch-hunts of the Middle-Ages still resound in the collective unconscious keeping many witches closeted altogether.

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