What’s the difference between Wicca and Neopaganism?

This was a question that arose from a new LGBTQIA+ spirituality group which came up. What’s wicca? What’s neopaganism? And What’s the difference?

Origin of the word Wicca

A lot of people will tell you the word Wicca means the witchcraft religion which is neopagan… but there’s more here than you would expect. Wicca found its origin in the 9th century Old English word which looks like this:

ƿiċċa

Is that picca? No. That doesn’t begin with a p like you might think to look at it. It’s actually an old fashioned letter called “Wynn”. English adopted a lot of words from Anglosaxon, a language written in runes and the W sound was represented by two separate “U”s: “UU” or “uu” and soon the rune Wynn was revived from anglosaxon and it appears in the earliest renditions of this word. This was a time when there was no agreed correct way to spell, so after the word first appears in English texts with wynn, it soon becomes seen with UU as well. Eventually less common characters such as Wynn and Thorn faded out of use by 1300s and were completely eliminated because of the cost of manufactoring additional letters for the printing press in the 1400s.

There’s also another couple of letters in that word which might not be pronounced how you would expect. The “c”. This was a time before we added the h to show when a C was softened to a “ch” sound. This word is actually originally pronounced Witcha, although that’s not the most common pronounciation today.

Wicca is a male sorcerer? Whaaaaat?

When Wicca just appeared as this word in Old English it was the masculine form and referred to a male sorcerer. The feminine was ƿiċċe and that last “e” did what many end of word “e”s did in English and trended towards shorter and less emphasized pronounciation, until they were silent and only their impact on the other letters in the word was retained.

As English began to shake itself free of some of its gendered language both of these words tended to a gender neutral “wicche” in middle English and the modern spelling begins around the time which we refer to as modern English. Although we call this modern English it is worth noting this is still during the 1500s, the period of Shakespear and Dr Johannes Dee. Yes in the academic land Shakespearean English is still called Modern English even though it is a very early version of it. Isn’t that gay!

Birth of the Modern use of the word Wicca

In the 1950, Witchcraft laws were repealed and suddenly spawned a new breed of spiritual practitioner who identified themselves by the term Witch. They steaked a claim that they inherited a pre-existing pagan religion that had been practiced in secret behind Christianity. As exciting as that sounds, the evidence for this practice occurring continuous throughout that time, is poor. Generally what is termed the Margret Murray thesis is generally considered accademically debunked. However there was a real push to revive certain pagan traditions most notable in the works of Doreen Valiente and Dion Fortune. Some traditions tap into folk lore which may have pre-existed Christianity and many who identify as Witches through this are often drawn to pagan texts on spell craft, but the most consistent aspects of this practice are born out of the Ceremonial Magic of Aleister Crowley, which was later removed by Doreen Valiente and poetry written by Rudyard Kiplin and Doreen Valiente.

Early members of this group would have referred to themselves as Witches, but Gerald Gardner who was instrumental in reviving this practice, also revived the word Wicca. Since the word was communicated to many through the written format the pronounciation was quickly rendered Wicka by most readers. It was also understood to be the practice rather than a person. The term “Wiccan” being used for a person instead. As time went on this became the term for someone who specifically inherited this 1950s Witchcraft from either Gerald Gardner, Alex Saunders or who had a specific practice modelled after their invention. Ironic considering these people actually referred to themselves as Witches rather than Wiccans. Although that’s not how the word originally began its life, it is how the word is often used now.

Characteristics of Modern Wicca

The most common characteristics of Wicca include:

1. A belief in a dual deity which is often explored by pagan or achtypal themes.
2. The equal treatment of both men and women.
3. The delimiting of temporary sacred space by circumscribing the practitioners with a circle, often drawn invisibly in the air. This is usually accomopanied by the calling the 4 quarters: East, South, West and North.
4. The adherence to 8 holy festivals called sabbats 4 being agricultural and 4 being solar.
5. The process of initiation through which an initiate instantly becomes a priest or priestess of the religion, entering in with respect, before they have even had time to learn the craft.
6. A belief in the threefold law (whatever moral or immoral deed you do, is returned to you with three times the effectiveness in some form.

Although Wicca is practiced differently by different people nearly all of these need to exist for there to be an adherence to the Wicca taught by Gerald Gardner or Alex Saunders. Other people practice witchcraft, but might not inherit this particular system of magic, they also might do a better job of inheriting from pre-Christian practices than Wicca ever managed.

What does pagan mean?

Pagan was a term from the late Roman Empire after it became Christian. Pagan or paganus was an adjective that mean “people’s” or “of the people”. Through this word, they termed certain spiritual or religious practices as the people’s religion rather than the state religion of Christianity. While there are claims that the pagan religion never died. There’s very little evidence of any continuous initiatory tradition spanning Christian rule, however certain local deities were made into saints which have had a continual veneration, and there are texts suggesting there were fan groups and worship cults for the Goddess Diana popping up from time to time among the Christian people.

Neopagan Revival

In the 1950s, access to new revival pagan groups was very limited meaning these Wicca groups had a huge influence over the early neopagan revival. Druid groups also had a huge impact, but often congregated around storytelling and folklore rather than practical spirituality, so when the Druids of the 70s wanted to add spiritual practices they borrowed heavily from Wicca. This permitted Wiccan philosophy spread throughout a large amount of the neopagan community and most noteablty Wiccan methods of delineating sacred space. That’s where Wicca and Neopaganism are similar.

Paganism v Neopaganism

Defining Neopaganism would be amiss without looking briefly at how it differs from the paganism of old. They’re actually quite different. Obviously each is an umbrella term encompassing a wide variety of practices, so I’m observing what’s predominantly consistent. The majority of the neopagan movement benefits from female and non-binary leaders, where as this was not consistent in the paganism of old, there being some groups which accept it and many which do not. The predominant and consistent acceptance of LGBTQIA+ people is a feature of most neopagan groups, while the majority of pagan groups were not accepting, and in ancient pagan groups which accepted homosexual sex, often they found the passive partner in male homosexual sex repugnant while accepting the active partner. Large portions of the neopagan community are vegetarian inheriting from the theurgy of the neoplatonists. Most people in the pagan world were meat eaters. Animal sacrifice is not generally accepted by most neopagan, but was a common part of old pagan practice. Due to the globalism of the 20th and 21st centuries, the neopagan community is more content to work with people who have a very different practice to us. Finally, much of the neopagan world is concerned with topics of socialism and environmentalism where these would likely not have been topics of interest in the pagan world. On the other hand the neopagan community has attempted to revive the worship of the old gods in as authentic and respectful way as possible, attempting to recreate pagan religious and spiritual practices, but within contemporary moral surroundings.

Wicca, Ƿiċċa and Neopaganism

So we have an idea of Ƿiċċa, modern Wicca and Neopaganism. Ƿiċċa is no longer used. Someone could practice Wicca relying entirely on archtypes and skating around pagan deities altogether, so they would be Wiccan, but not necessarily “neopagan”. I will state however the neopagan community is accepting enough that they would likely find themselves encompased and accepted here even without the pagan deities.

Someone could honour Pagan deities, but not explore these as Wicca’s dual deity so they would be neopagan, but not Wiccan. Someone could practice Witchcraft, but not use the techniques of Wicca. They might not create circles, they might not believe in the threefold law, they might not practice initiation and they might not honour the 8 sabbat often referred to as the Wheel of the Year they would likely still be included in the neopagan umbrella term and they could identify as a witch, but they would not normally be described as Wiccan by the modern occult community. If Witchcraft was performed using a Christian or Satanic paradigm, but that’s where it becomes debateable whether they are included in the neopagan community, but it is my experience that they would be welcome there, so long as they were evangelising.

Conclusion

So Wicca once meant a male sorcerer, however in Modern use, Wicca means the practices passed down by Gerald Gardner and Alex Saunders. Neopagan means part of the pagan revival community and permissive spirituality of the many groups that use these themes. There’s plenty of overlap with neopaganism encompassing most of Wicca and Witchcraft, but not all.

Disclaimer: this is based on how these terms are currently used in the British Occult scene and online forums. Obviously their use is subject to variation. Anyone whose practice deviates substantially from modern Wicca is not invalid in fact many other practices in the neopagan community are more consist replications of ancient pagan practices than Wicca ever was.