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The terms "Witchcraft" and "Wicca" are not interchangeable, yet even many Wiccan have a difficult time defining and distinguishing between them.

Part of the problem is the confusion inherent in the definitions of the terms "Witch", and "witchcraft".

WITCHCRAFT:
As the new religious fad from the East (Christianity) swept across Europe, it labelled every practice belonging to the Old Pre-Christian, (Shamanic) Religions - including herbalism, midwifery, divination, and Shamanic psycho-spiritual-psychic practices - "witchcraft" , by which it meant evil, demonic.

There are many different kinds of "witchcraft" - there are various ethnic types of Witchcraft, like Stregheria (Italian), (Hawaiian), Norse, and others.

There are *practices* that are much like the practices some folks call "witchcraft" (divination, herbalism, and Shamanism) involved in Druidism, various Native American, and other paths.

Then there are syncretic religions that have combined various aspects of witchcraft practices, with other religions, like Christianity: Voodun and Santeria are good examples of this type.

There have also in recent years developed various *created* paths, made up from popular fiction. For example, Klingon Witchcraft, and the Necronomicon (please note the Spelling - it is often misspelled), a fictional book authored by HP Lovecraft, which has been used by some folks to create an entire magickal-metaphysical system. For more info on this , see: http://www.necronomicon.org/

PA GAN, HEATHEN:
The term "Pagan" is from the Latin "pagani" meaning "people of the countryside", because it was the country folks who held onto their pre-Christian practices longer than the city folks. Similarly, "Heathen" may refer to a plant that grows wild in the country.

WICCA:

The term "Wicca" may have ancient roots, but was relatively recently popularized by Gerald Gardner, a British government worker, along with the practices currently called "Wiccan", around 1940-1950.

Gardner said he learned much of what was later called "Wicca" from a group of "New Forest" witches when he was taught and initiated by their High Priestess, "Old Dorothy" Clutterbuck, circa 1930-1940.

Gardner added material and practices from various other Paths, including Ceremonial Magick, Kabbalah (the Jewish mystical system), Rosicrucianism, folk practices, and more.

After the last anti-Witchcraft laws were repealed in England in 1951, Gardner published the first non-fiction account of modern Witchcraft (which later became Wicca).

From Gardnerian

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