What does Witch and Wiccan mean?

Wicca is a word derived from the origin of the term “Witch”. Of Germanic origin, the word was introduced in Old English meaning male-witch (the female equivalent being wicce). It was pronounced like “witcha” and “wicce” would likely have sounded like “witch”. The origins are obscure leaving etymologists to grasp at straws. They claim a great number of possible original meanings of the word “wicca” such as “to bend” or “to soothsay”. It is clear however that “wiccien”, which sounds like wichen, meant to bewitch. In Middle English, it was spelled “wicche” whether male or female, and by the 16th century, the modern word “witch” appeared, but before this point, it began to be entirely female with words like “wizard” and “warlock” replacing it when referring to male witches.

Neopaganism tried to reconstruct paganism of the past, so the revival of old words was popular. It seemed as if they lent some validity to the practice. There were many attempts to revive older words and Wicca is one such example, however, in the modern day it is pronounced as “Wik-ka”. In Magic practing groups in Great Britain, this term usually means the Traditional British Witchcraft of Gerald Gardner or Alex Sanders, but in the USA and Australia, it can just mean any form of modern witchcraft or Neopagan ritual, no matter how distinguished from those practices. Note: while it used to be the person who practiced (i.e a Wicca meant a witch), in modern parlance, it means the practice itself (i.e. Wicca means Witchcraft). In modern-day, a practitioner would be called a “Wiccan” whether male or female or as Gerald Gardner put it, “an adherent of Wicca“. Ironically, neither Gerald Gardner nor Alex Sanders referred to themselves as “Wiccan”, but as “Witches“.

Wicca and the Neopagan movement is considered the only modern religion to originate in the UK, while these names are different, the practices overlap so significantly and the differences are too inconsistent for them to be considered separate religious observances.

Gerald Gardner is renowned for creating Gardnerian Wicca. Gardner’s Book of Shadows represents the practices of Gardnerian Wicca, which originated sometime in the 1950s. He claims the practices were taken from a coven that he had worked with and was initiated into. The coven was known as “the New Forest Coven”. Contrary to this claim, much of his Book of Shadows contains ritual words taken from Eliphas Levi’s Dogma and Ritual of the High Magic, Aleister Crowley’s poetry, Aleister Crowley’s Gnostic Mass, Aleister Crowley’s Liber ABA, Aleister Crowley’s Book of the Law, Aradia Gospel of the Witches, Samuel Mathers translation of the Greater Key of Solomon, and some poetry from Rudyard Kipling’s Puck of Pook’s Hill.

Early in the creation of his Gardnerian Wicca there arose a powerful Witch known as Doreen Valiente. She quickly noticed the stolen ritual words and poetry and challenged Gerald Gardner about this. When challenged about these sections, Gardner said that what he had received from the New Forest Coven was fragmentary and unworkable without putting these sections in. Supposedly, he needed to fill in parts of it, but if we remove those sections and the parts most obviously inspired by them, we really have very little else left. If what was received from the supposed New Forest Coven was unworkable, then one must question how did they work it before its present form. Sadly, no credible proof of the New Forest Coven was ever been found. Some claims were made by people to have contacted them, such as Gavin Bone, though their claims are doubtful. Frequently, you hear “I met them, but they don’t want to meet anyone else.” Doreen Valiente helped re-write some of the ritual words inspired by Aleister Crowley because his influence as a Ceremonial Magician was considered undesirable. Until she died in 1999, Valiente frequently came across people attempting to publish her own writing that had been added to the BOS because it quickly obtained a reputation as allegedly “ancient”. It became traditional and traveled the world. Her work contributed greatly to what is considered “Gardnerian Witchcraft“. The sad truth is that Gardner copied ritual words and Doreen Valiente used her own creativity. It is evident that she was force to be reckoned with, and a powerful witch in her own right, but what should really be known as “Valientan Witchcraft” is sadly known as “Gardnerian Witchcraft”. I guess we still have a way to come with regard to feminism. I wonder if we should call other things into question like should the Rider-Waite tarot really be called the Rider-Waite tarot when neither the men Rider nor Waite painted the cards, but instead the woman Pamela Cole Smith did? Anyway I digress due to my own personal views.

Alex Sanders claimed to have been initiated by his Welsh Grandmother after stumbling upon her doing a ritual. Supposedly, she told him to take off his clothes and initiated him, there and then, in 1933 at the age of 7. Soon after this supposed act of possible child abuse and ill-obtained consent, he then obtained her Book of Shadows for the “traditional” copying of the BOS. However, the Sanders Book of Shadows which was supposedly copied around 1933, somehow contains the material written by Doreen Valiente in the 1960s, many years after his supposed initiation as a young boy. It was discovered in 2018 that his grandmother, who he claimed initiated him, had died 19 years before he was even born. Most likely he was initiated around 1962 into a Gardnerian Coven, where he met his wife Maxine. He attempted to reintegrate some of the aspects of High Magic (we will define this later) and created the Sanders Book of Shadows, defining the practices of Alexandrian Witchcraft / Alexandrian Wicca. Alex Sanders was well known for intentionally inciting the media which may have possibly delayed his initiation into Wicca. At one point he decided to self-proclaim that he and his wife were the king and queen of Witchcraft.

In both Alexandrian and Gardnerian Wicca, initiates are taking into the practice through 3 initiation rituals. Upon completing the first initiation the initiate is considered a priest or priestess immediately. There are no lay persons in Wicca.

These days there are 1000s of lineages of Witchcraft: Robert Cochrane’s Cochrane Witchcraft (formed with Doreen Valiente of Gardnerian Wicca), Trad Craft (based on Cochrane, local myths and cunning), Chumley’s Sabbatic Craft (Luciferian and Cunning), Dianic Witchcraft (women only Gardnerian-inspired goddess worship), Stregheria (Italian Witchcraft inspired by Gardner), Correll’s Correllian Witchcraft (Modern American), Feri Tradition (Gardnerian and Alexandrian inspired American), Buckland’s Witchcraft (first American initiated into Gardnerian Wicca), Laurie Cabot’s Cabot Witchcraft (Alexandrian and Bucklands, in America), through Sybil Leak (Thelema, Alexandrianism and Mediumship), and many many more.

One of the many things that really discourage me from pursuing much Wicca, is the desperate attempts to lie about its origins at nearly every stage. Its unlikely creation story feeds into a discredited history work that attempts to use witch trials as poor evidence for a hidden pagan religion surviving under Christian rule. This is the Margaret Murray thesis. At witch trials, people did claim to worship a horned deity, however, the horned devil, which these poor victims of the trials were forced to confess that they worshipped, was meant to be the devil. They also were forced to confess to anything the Christians thought of as demonic such as trampling on crosses, having sex with the devil, selling the devil one’s soul, and more. These would not be pagan offerings but forced confessions to feed the trialist’s right to take action. It was not Pan or Cerrunos. In fact, the victims of these trials might not be well versed in mythology enough to know of such deities. They were simply tortured until they admitted to something diabolical and when they did not, the confession was probably faked anyway to justify the town’s horrific actions in torturing them. It is worth noting that witches may have existed such as cunning folk who could do a spell or two, but they were Christian, not pagan. There is little evidence the women convicted of witchcraft practiced any craft and most historians believed it was a form of slander and control used over women who weren’t compliant. “Won’t sell your land to me? Okay, I will tell everyone you’re a witch and when they kill you, I’ll buy it for cheap from your estate.” There’s little to no evidence for the pagan witch cult and there is evidence for both fathers of modern Wicca lying. Personally, I struggle to see how a person can reach for spiritual truths if they so fiercely cling to earthly lies. If you believe in sympathetic magic, where things you do on the earthly plane, have a small influence on your spiritual reality, then you must conclude that clinging to lies in our gross reality, could influence our experience of spiritual truth in more subtle planes.

Contrary to popular opinion, the word “witch” has ALWAYS had negative connotations. Even from the origins, “witch” meant to deceive or damage, usually by the use of supernatural power. The word did not seem to exist before being used to blame people for poor crops etc. It is only as late as the 20th century, that there has been an attempt to create an empowered and benevolent identity for the Witch. Only modern day sees the creation of the White Witch as an identity. One of the earliest references to a Witch in writing dates to 900AD, in legislation telling people not to associate with Witches for fear of the damage they can cause. Similarly, it is only in the 20th century that feminism arose with considerable force. Could these things be related and is it possible that the term Witch was simply the demonization of female power, female freedom, and female independence?

Wicca refers to a belief system, some could use the term to refer to someone who believes in a dual male-female deity as Wiccan, without them practicing any kind of craft, however, the term usually refers to practitioners of witchcraft and ritual magic.

Alternatively, a person cannot simply be a Witch, in my opinion. It is something you do (i.e the craft); it is not something you are. Many books like to convey the identity of being a witch to their readers, but frequently, they do this with some kind of dedication or oath to practice witchcraft. In my opinion, if there is no practice, there is no practitioner of witchcraft and therefore there is no witch.

Witches are often associated with a familiar, which is frequently a demon (not a cat or pet as popular entertainment would have you believe). The demon association is commonly said to be part of a Faustian pact though that is Christian propaganda. This is frequently an entity of supernatural origin that provides the witch support in understanding what is going on within spiritual reality and provides a connection between the witch and the place from which she draws her power. Some Christian texts suggest that witches allow their familiars to drink their blood leaving a mark on their skin, which is a sign of the pact, the witches mark.

Witches are frequently referred to as attending sabbaths. The term Sabbath probably originates as an attempt to demonize the Jewish holy day and was rarely used prior to the 19th century. Prior to the 19th century, witches are still depicted attending a celebration of no particular name. It involved witches dancing in a circle often around a demon, devil, goat or goat-man. They were often joined by spirits or other demons in the dance, frequently in a state of ecstasy that might be considered sexual. Their bodies were often touching or available to the demons with no protection. Sometimes the witches are depicted flying on goats or brooms. Guillaume Edelin was the first witch to be accused of riding on brooms in writing and was male, but 3 years prior some females of the excommunicated Christian sect Waldesians were depicted in art flying on a broom or a white stick. The Waldesian sect was excommunicated because it had female and layperson preachers. Sometimes witches were painted dancing with brooms between their legs. Many satanic elements were interjected such as trampling crosses, sacrificing babies, or offering them to the devil / goat-man. Common associations with potions and hallucinogens have led to these appearing in artistic representations of the witch’s ritual from before 1600s. In Eliphas Levi’s 19th-century text “The Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic”, it is suggested that while the sabbath was once attended in person, it is often now attended via a dream and/or drug-induced hallucination.

If this is the path for you, take a look at “A Witches Bible” by Janet and Stewart Farrar. It is considered the source work for Traditional British Witchcraft (of the 1950s onwards). Buckland’s Complete Witchcraft constitutes the sourcework of American Witchcraft. Finally, in my opinion, no one has contributed more to Wicca than Doreen Valiente who worked directly with Gerald Gardiner. Her poetry replaced much of the ritual text taken from Aleister Crowley. After reading and practising with these books and a good book of spells, you won’t need any further books in my opinion. In fact, other books will often be a distraction from the practice and your growth as I have noticed with others who have been practising for 20-odd-years and seem to not have got anywhere.

See also other types of Magical Practitioner.