The History of Witchcraft, Wicca & Paganism

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If you’re just starting out learning about witchcraft you’ll notice a lot of terms being thrown around such as modern witchcraft, wicca and paganism. So what all is witchcraft? 

Historically and traditionally, the term witchcraft has meant the use of magic or supernatural powers. It is a craft, a practice, something you do and does not describe a belief system there for there is no one specific way to practice. 

Modern Witchcraft

Nowadays modern witchcraft is widely talked about throughout the internet. Modern day witchcraft is based on folk traditions, superstitions and historical finds on magic practice and occultism. 

What you understand as witchcraft depends on practices you grew up with, the cultural background, the continent you grew up in, the traditions that got passed down to you and probably also a general level of historic knowledge and culture. Witchcraft goes in all directions from a bit of tarot reading for self reflection to full blown animal sacrifices. 

I dive deeper into the types of witchcraft and spells in another post so feel free to check that out next.  

What most western modern day witches understand under the term witchcraft is mostly a very nature focused practice involving things such as lunar cycles, the astronomical constellations, celebrating the seasons, self reflection, self development, helping your life along with some sort of rituals, spell work, mindfulness and intentional living. 

Witchcraft does not relate to any religions or affiliations its completely secular meaning free of religion; it’s worldly. 

History of Witchcraft

How we use the term witchcraft in modern days is vastly different from how it was described in the days of the 19th century. 

If we look at the etymology of the word witchcraft it comes from the old word Wicca (old English) witch means magician, sorceress, or the Low German term wikken meaning to bewitch, to influence, to hex. 

Witchcraft back in the day was looked at as an evil thing. People believe that in the 19th century witch hunts the people being accused and killed were real witches who were absolutely evil. However, if you look into the actual history you will find that it was regular folk accusing each other.

For example, pub owners would get accused by other pub owners because they sold more beer, or nagging wives accused by their husbands because they made a noodle go limp. They were business rival, love rivals, people that were a little bit off that were outcasts of society; not because they were wise or they knew how to do stuff with the earth but rather a little different. It wasn’t just women either, there were men that were accused, children as well, and from all levels of society. 

When did the term witchcraft switch from negative to positive?

Witchcraft shifted to a more positive note mainly during the renaissance era, when the rich and famous dabbled in occultism, alchemy, numerology, and how the universe worked in a metaphysical sense meaning in a way they couldn’t really explain but they tried to make sense of it in order to increase their own power. In some ways it was also for self development and by then any types of rituals or invocations became really “in”. 

With the popularity of Wicca, witchcraft became its modern day meaning. 

What is Wicca?

Wicca became known as a religion that revolves around worshipping nature, and the idea of the divine feminine and masculine god/goddess and that duality in nature. It is actually a recognized religion in many countries such as Canada, the United States, and England. 

Where did the religion of Wicca start?

At the beginning of the 20th century there was a revival and great interest in old religions, witchcraft, folk practices, occultism and many cultural anthropologist would play back and forth on the idea of witch cults in Europe. They believed that there were some secret societies of witches, however it was usually proven false.

There was an English man named Gerald Gardner who became very interested in witches and witchcraft and in 1939 he got himself initiated into an occult or coven… supposedly.

It is still not proven because there wasn’t too much information on it. He stated that he did this however, he didn’t give too much proof and his reasoning was “to keep them protected and keep the privacy”. 

He said this coven taught him a lot of ancient knowledge which he shared and muddled it a bit with ideas of Buddhism, Hinduism, Old European religions and mixed it into his own flavor of belief. For example, he stated they ate sabbaths, the Wiccan sabbaths are derived from actual rural festivities that took place all over Europe under different names. He wrote a coven book of shadows and even attempted to create the Wiccan laws he said were passed down from ancient wisdom; however people were skeptic. 

His form of Wicca became known as Gardenian Wicca and then there came another form called Alexandrian created by a man named Alexander and then a more feminine form called Dianic created by a women named Diana; and so on so forth came a few others.

Because there are so many forms of Wicca, there is a lot of different beliefs as well. Some say you have to be initiated, some say you can initiate yourself or some say that you have to practice in a coven others say you can practice solitary. There is also debate on how long you have to learn in order to call yourself Wiccan, or what hierarchy might look like. 

One thing Wiccans do consent on is their moral conduct; which is do what you want and harm none “an ye harm none, do what ye will”. There’s also the role of three playing on karma, meaning everything you do will come back to you in three folds. This does particularly follow a Wiccan belief but not necessarily witchcraft because witchcraft dos not follow a moral scheme; it’s not a faith or belief system. 

What is paganism?

The word pagan comes from the Latin word paganus of the country villagers in rustic rural areas. People back in the day didn’t describe themselves as pagan they just followed their old traditions and religion; the religion of their land. 

The term pagan was developed and used by the early 4th century Christian’s to denote everyone that practiced a religion outside of Christianity. In that time Christianity became the enforced religion to be practiced by all and people who stuck to their old tradition, rituals and beliefs were described as pagans or heathens and it was not meant as a very nice term. 

Back then, you could get prosecuted for being pagan and the reason wasn’t necessarily that they followed the “wrong gods” even though that was the excuse, but it was more so that Christianity was used as a tool by the people in charge. It was used to keep people in line, to keep their faith in line and to have a moral upper hand in order to suppress the people. 

Paganism back then, in the broader sense of the term, would mean all religions outside of Christianity; meaning that of Ancient Rome, the Celtic, Germanic and Slavic tribes. However, modern day paganism has widened out a little bit. Now people also use it to refer to religions or belief that go way further back into the bc years and might even be used to describe any type of native, indigenous religion of tribes and nations all over the world. 

Modern day Paganism

Paganism in a whole, stems from people that didn’t have the comforts of modern day world. They had to survive off what nature provided for them. They are somewhat more in tune and observant with nature and what’s happening in nature because this is how they assure their survival to plant their plants, harvest crops and so on. 

Pagans tend to be polytheists, meaning they believe in many gods, all pertaining to different parts of nature and how they affect all aspects of nature. A lot of pagan religions observe lunar festivals as well. 

Neo-pagonism does look a little different it is re-constructional paganism meaning people try to figure out how our ancestors have practiced their religions based on historic or archeological finds, cultural anthropology and written documents from observers. They work with the information they have sometimes prescribing to one pantheon or multiple, worshipping gods work with seasonal festivities or modern interpretations of some practices. 

For example, how runes are used, back in the day they were just a scripture devise like we use the alphabet now. Nowadays people use runes for divination purposes or candle rituals and similar things which is a modern interpretation of an old instrument. 

Hellenism, Heathenism, Dysgordianism, modern day Druidism, Wicca is also part of paganism as derived from different old pagan beliefs, Re-constructionist Paganism, Roman Polytheistic, Slavic native fate, and many, many more. 

Be aware, there is a heavy racist issue in the pagan community especially when you look into Germanic paganism and north paganism. A lot of people use it as an excuse to be unpleasant without any true notion of history or actual knowledge. This all dates back to hitler and nazi beleifes, how he wanted to bring back ancient religious beliefs and even brought into play runes for their propaganda. That is not to say all Pagans are racist but it can be a very selective belief system. 

So what does paganism have to do with witchcraft?

In theory, paganism does not have much to do with witchcraft because a pagan practioner might not practice witchcraft they might just worship the gods. However, since paganism also stems from folk practices that can be titled as witchcraft some pagan practitioners also practice witchcraft. They might call it witchcraft or they might just see it as part of paganism. 

How do you know which to choose or identify with?

You can choose your own path. It really is up to you and you don’t have to identify with anything if you don’t want to. 

If you are interested in any form of witchcraft then study it. Find as many resources as you can, practice what you feel called to do, write down all that you learn, practice and enjoy about the craft. This is what modern day witchcraft is all about. It is about being free to connected to nature in any way you choose to do so. 

If you feel more inclined to learn further about paganism or Wicca feel free to do that as well and decide for yourself as you learn more if it is something you want to dive deeper in or not. 

It is all up to you what you wish to create and believe in and that is the beauty of magic.