Gerald Gardner is widely credited with introducing and popularizing the principles of Wicca. In the mid-20th century, Gardner claimed to have been initiated into a coven of witches in England, and he later founded his own tradition of witchcraft, which became known as Gardnerian Wicca. Gardner believed that witchcraft was a survival of an ancient and pre-Christian religion, and he sought to revive and preserve its practices. He wrote several books on the subject, including "Witchcraft Today" and "The Meaning of Witchcraft," which helped to spread awareness and understanding of Wicca. Despite controversy and criticism, Gardner's teachings have had a lasting impact on the modern pagan and witchcraft movements, shaping the principles and practices of many subsequent traditions of Wicca. Today, Wicca is a widely recognized and respected spiritual path for many individuals around the world.
I began to type and defenses melted, dropping away. I remembered pieces of myself: how I fell in love with the Wiccan Way and how similar Christian Science Sunday School is to Wicca. How, yeah, I want to be good. The ninth principle reminded me that Wicca is a philosophy-of-life within WitchCraft that evolving and developing our consciousness gives meaning to our role in the Universe we know. It was like reading a prayer or a song that I had been living but had never heard until this moment - when I most needed grounding, rooting to my first chakra, my Wiccan origin story.
We recognize both outer worlds and inner, or psychological worlds - sometimes known as the Spiritual World, the Collective Unconscious, the Inner Planes, etc. We recognize that our intelligence gives us a unique responsibility toward our environment, We seek to live in harmony with Nature, in ecological balance, offering fulfillment to life and consciousness within an evolutionary concept.
Today, Wicca is a widely recognized and respected spiritual path for many individuals around the world. The main idea is that Gerald Gardner introduced and popularized the principles of Wicca..
Out of the Shadows: Wicca Grows in Austin and Beyond
Mary Caldwell has spiky pink hair, tattooed arms and works in customer service for a software company. She’s also the leader of a Wicca meet-up that gathers every other Monday at Monkey Nest Coffee on Burnet Road.
On a recent Monday evening, she led the group in a discussion of numerology – the belief that numbers have mystical meanings – as well as rituals and personal experiences with spirits. Recently, some members of the group had visited a local cemetery to commune with spirits.
“Some of the people in the group just see them, some just hear them and some of them just smell them,” said Caldwell, 44. “It was great fun.”
Wicca is a modern version of ancient pagan religions, created in England and brought to the United States in the 1960s. Its followers worship a goddess and a god, honor the Earth and practice ritual magic. They follow the Wiccan Rede, a statement of principles that stresses the importance of doing no harm.
“We believe that everything is part of the One,” said Ed Fitch, 80, a Wiccan senior high priest and a member of Caldwell’s meet-up group, one of several Wiccan or witches’ groups in Austin. “Everything in the universe is linked to everything else in the universe.”
Because Wicca is a highly decentralized religion with no central authority, it’s hard to get a tally of its members. The American Religious Identification Survey, which periodically surveys 50,000 Americans, said the number of self-identified Wiccans increased to 342,000 in 2008, up from 134,000 in 2001. The 2008 figures are the most recent available.
Wicca’s growth tracks the changing religious landscape in the U.S., as a growing number of people leave established religions and become either unaffiliated or switch to alternative religions. About 5.9 percent of Americans followed a non-Christian faith in 2014, up from 4.7 percent in 2007, according to the Pew Research Center,
“The number of people who have institutional affiliation are declining in general, so [Wicca] is part of a larger trend,” said Jennifer Graber, an associate professor of religious studies at the University of Texas at Austin. “People are not aligning themselves in traditional religious ways.”
Fitch gives a lecture on the basic principles of Wicca during the meet-up at Monkey Nest Coffee. Qiling Wang/Reporting Texas
Wiccans come from all walks of life, including in the military. Fitch is a former Air Force officer and a retired technical writer and engineer. There are Wiccan covens on military bases, including at Fort Hood. The Pagan Student Alliance at UT includes Wiccans and followers of Paganism and other nontraditional faiths.
Philip Elmore, 22, an alliance member, said he was attracted to Wicca because of the equality in its theology.
“Traditional religion is very hierarchical, or even patriarchal at times, while paganism has always been focusing on everyone is equal,” Elmore said. “We don’t just have god, who in Christian values is a white male. We’ve got a goddess. They are equal to each other.”
Fitch said he’d been interested in alternative religions for many years, and was initiated into Wicca in 1967. He’s part of the Gardnerian Wicca tradition, one of the earliest branches, created by Gerald Gardner in England in the 1950s.
“There is not a fixed order of authority in Gardnerian Wicca,” Fitch said. “Anyone who gets trained can become a high priest.”
Unlike other versions of Wicca, the Gardnerian tradition requires that people be formally initiated by a high priest. Initiation separates “plastic Wiccas,” or people who claim to be Wiccan but aren’t serious about it, from true believers, Caldwell said.
“If I run into a person who claims to be a Gardnerian Wiccan on the street, I will ask him ‘Who’s your high priest?’” Caldwell said.
“We like to know who initiated who,” Fitch added.
Caldwell dabbled in Wicca when she was a teenager, but said her interest faded as she grew up and had children. It was not until eight years ago that she became fully devoted the religion.
“My kids were a little bit older and I could actually get more time for myself,” said Caldwell. “So I got back to my spirituality.”
Both she and her husband, Joe, are third-degree Gardnerians, meaning they are serious students of Wiccan theology and have the ability to lead a coven.
With Wiccan signs hanging on her office wall, she said her coworkers know and accept the fact that she’s Wiccan.
“It’s funny, because I’ve got people who are devoted Catholics coming to me and saying, ‘I’ve got a problem, and can you do a spell for me?’ ” she said.
Fitch holds up his magic wand while discussing numerology with Wicca members at the gathering. Qiling Wang/Reporting Texas
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It seems as if many new Wiccans are under the impression that this document was actually created by Silver Ravenwolf. This is perhaps because she has included it in at least one of her books, To Ride a Silver Broomstick, one of the few pieces of useful information that can be found in that book. Silver Ravenwolf had nothing to do with the creation of this document. To the best of my knowledge, she was not even a practicing witch at the time of its creation.
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Reviews for "The Influence of Ceremonial Magic on Wiccan Principles"
1. Jane - 1 star
I was highly disappointed with "Who introduced the principles of wicca". The book lacked substantial information and seemed to be filled with vague generalizations about Wicca. The writing style was also very dry and didn't engage me at all. I was hoping to gain a deeper understanding of the principles and origins of Wicca, but this book fell short of my expectations. I would not recommend it to anyone looking for detailed and comprehensive information on the subject.
2. Michael - 2 stars
As a practitioner of Wicca, I was excited to read "Who introduced the principles of wicca". However, I found the book to be quite basic and lacking in depth. The author barely scratched the surface of the topic, providing brief overviews of the principles without delving into any real substance. I was hoping for a more comprehensive exploration of the origins and development of Wicca, but this book only offered a superficial glance at the subject. I would recommend looking for other more comprehensive resources if you're seeking a thorough understanding of Wicca.
3. Sarah - 1 star
I found "Who introduced the principles of wicca" to be a disappointing read. The book lacked a clear structure and failed to effectively convey its message. The author seemed to jump from one concept to another without proper explanation, leaving me confused and frustrated. Additionally, the information provided was very basic and did not offer any new insights into Wicca. Overall, I was left feeling unsatisfied with this book and would not recommend it to others who are seeking a deep understanding of Wicca.