How Wicca Started
Where Wicca Started from

Wicca is believed to start from an ancient religion called Shamanism. The Shamans were medicine people, the power wielders, male and female. They wrought magick and spoke to the spirits of Nature.

From these primitive beginnings arose all magick and religion including Wicca. Though refined and changed for our world, Wicca still touches our souls and causes ecstasy--awareness shifts--uniting us with Deity. Many of the teachings of Wicca are Shamanic in origin.
As told from Eileen Hollands book "The Wicca Handbook" pg 5

Modern Wicca began in England in 1939, when Gerald Gardner was initiated into a traditional British coven by Dorothy Clutterbuck (Old Dorothy). He later broke the coven's seal of secrecy and published books about the beliefs and practices of British Wiccans, because he feared the religion would die out. This began what continues to be a groundswell of people converting to Wicca.

http://www.angelfire.com/realm2/amet...castarted.html

I would disagree with this assessment.

There is absolutely nothing to show that Wicca existed as a religion before Gardner created it in the 1940's-50's.

Nearly all of the rituals and laws Gardner laid down in his creation of this religion can be directly traced to other sources; Aleister Crowley, and various sects of Kabblistic/Masonic magickal works to be precise. In order to integrate these ceremonial magicks into a religon, he borrowed heavily from many sources of European folklore to provide a backdrop of myths, gods, stories, and philosophies.

None of these sources are choesive with each other; the Old Ways had no interest in or use for the kinds of structured ceremonial magick Garnder was into and the Magicks he was into (courtesy of Crowley) had no use for gods, spirits or religion of any sort.

I'm inclined to agree with Panth. Some good sources of info would be Ron Hutton- Triumph of the Moon and a couple of books by Philip Heselton- Wiccan Roots and Gerald gardner and the cauldron of inspiration. You could do worse than to ask a traditional Gardnerian too.

BB

Mike

So what of druidism, celtism, paganism and others?

Many of the sabbaths that are commonly recognized in wicca have been celebrated for centuries not just decades. And of course these sabbaths were then adopted, or multilated; take your pick, into the christian faith. (Easter(Ostara) and Xmas (Yule) being the main two - though don't forget the Catholic Candlemas on Groundhog day or All Saint's day on Nov. 1 directly after Halloween)

I don't know as I would go with shamanism, though many european towns and cities did have a local doctor or other elder (I am trying to avoid 'witch doctor' as that is an anglo term used to describe 'savages' of the new world) that they went to when they were in need of assistance.

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I am hardly an expert on such matters, but I have been doing quite a bit of reading lately about the history of Wicca, Neo-Paganism, etc. and what I've read is that Wicca started in the first half of the twentieth century. Dorothy Clutterbuck may have been part of an early upstart "resurrection" of what was believed to remain of ancient pre-christian traditions, as theorized by Margaret Murray (whose theories have been completely discredited over the past fifty or so years). Gardner may have been initiated into this "tradition" which would explain his statement that the rituals and such were fragmentary, if they were new rites they would not have much substance or structure to them, they would require supplementation, which Gardner admittedly did.
Anyway, from what I've read, Druidism, in its current incarnation, has absolutely nothing to do with (it has no lineage or continuous tradition dating back to) ancient druids, of which we know pitifully little. I have heard that the Druids built stone henge, but this is not true, stone henge was already there when the druids came onto the scene.

When I mentioned those certain sects, I mentioned them in the idea that they most certainly had some influence on Wicca today and to say otherwise would be ludicrous.

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- Wisdom comes when you stop looking for it. -
"If God were alive today, he'd be an atheist" - Kurt Vonnegut

Please visit my foster dog blog: The Colbert Report.

Moderator; Native American Forum: Do you have any questions?