by David Roberson

Created on: September 17, 2008   Last Updated: September 18, 2008

The modern religion of Wicca emerged in England in the 1940s through the writings of Gerald Gardner (Fisher, 2005), who is credited only with creating its name. The rituals and traditions he presented (as witchcraft) were based on the practices of what was believed to be a last surviving coven of witches. The controversy that surrounds the practice of witchcraft overshadows suspicions that the rituals and traditions he reintroduced as Wicca were made up. The basis for the religious persecution of witches, based upon interpretations of a mistranslation in the Bible, is obscured by further misunderstandings that provoke fear and hostility between Wiccans and Christians to this day. In spite of the lingering distrust and misrepresentation of witches, Wicca is a surprisingly benign and enlightened religion grounded in strong ethics and environmental consciousness.

It is not uncommon for Wicca to be associated with the New Age movement, and many people find their way to Wicca through it. Prior to the establishment of the Internet, the most common way for an individual to begin investigating Wicca was to visit a New Age bookstore. On the whole, Wiccans choose the great outdoors for their places of worship, making bookstores or gift shops the closest thing to a church or temple for an outsider to visit. Informal gatherings of Wiccans might held at the private residence of a priest or priestess. More formal gatherings, on the other hand, are more likely to occur outside, sometimes on private land or in remote parts of public parks.

The natural splendor of the type of forest clearing preferred by Wiccans, however, may have inspired the artificial splendor of Christian churches and cathedrals and each tradition includes worship before an altar.Different groups maintain different levels of secrecy, and the remoteness of their places of worship tends to exclude the uninitiated. As a modern religion, Wicca seems to lay claim to the ancient traditions in the spirit of the Old Religion, the common indigenous beliefs of ancient Europe. Other traditions, such as "handfasting" or "wiccaning" seem like direct parallels to Christian traditions of Matrimony and Christening. Of course the concept of a trial marriage of "a year and a day" would seem scandalous to some Christians, and a child presented to the God and Goddess for protection is under no obligation to practice Wicca (Wiki, 2007).

A Protestant Christian, encountering a Wiccan for the first time, is in for an unsettling shock.

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