What do you consider the difference between Wicca and Witchcraft?

Question

Please note. Key word consider.

Form your own opinion before answering.

ok, expanding.

Why were there witches before Wiccans?

Answer 1

Wicca is a religion without laity so specifically a priesthood, it carries specific beliefs, practices, doctrines and gods, and it is an initiate-only formalised oath-bound tradition working with Pagan mysteries. Wicca is a hard-polytheistic Pagan religion. Wicca practice both lower magic such as witchcraft and higher magic such as ceremonial magic like that of the Golden Dawn. Wicca is a modern religion, although based on Pagan beliefs pre-dating Christianity and upon Eastern philosophical and spiritual ideas Wicca was founded within the early 1900's, with some argument on specific date due to the nature of Wicca and the laws regarding witchcraft at the time.

Witchcraft is the practice of indigenous forms of magic and lower magics, often including healing and divination, witchcraft can be present within any religion excluding Islam which I believe is the only religious practice that strictly forbids the practice of witchcraft, witches can also be atheist or agnostic. Many people believe witchcraft should not be practiced within religious belief because it means that witchcraft is being practiced within the restrictions of how the specific belief views the world rather than how the world actually works – i.e. working with belief as apposed to knowledge. There has been evidence to suggest use of magic long before religion as we know it today, with cave paintings depicting the use of sympathetic magic being discovered some years ago.

Answer 2

Wicca is an earth-based religion. Witchcraft is a tool. These two are not the same at all and are not interchangeable. One can be a Wiccan and never practice witchcraft. One can also be a witch and not be a Wiccan. I suggest reading up more on the religion itself to better understand this.

And there are stories of witches long before Wicca ever came about, which was in the 1940's.

Answer 3

Okay, allow me begin with this. Witchcraft is pretty much an artwork or a device. It does no longer require any gods/goddesses to be worshiped nor does it require any laws/regulations. Paganism is a average time period used to consult any faith that's no longer one of the most 3 abrahamic religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam). If you are Buddhist, shinto, or hindu (a number of the many others) you are regarded a pagan. However, many men and women who check with themselves as pagans in general take into account themselves so due to the fact they comply with historic religions akin to worshiping egyptian dieties. Often occasions, those religions comprise using Witchcraft. Wicca is a pagan faith that involves the worship of a horned god and a goddess. Wiccans notice 8 vacations and esbats, which might be moon rituals. Many wiccans take into account themselves practicioners of witchcraft or witches, however a few decide on to not.

Answer 4

Answering on your expansion - because "Wicca" is a term that was applied to a set of ritualistic beliefs by Gerald Gardner in the 20th century, based on beliefs and rituals which - in various forms and in various cultures - pre-dated him by several thousand years.

I've gone back and forth on the "are Witchcraft and Wicca synonymous?" discussion, and I think I'm to the point that even though etymologically speaking they should be, the common usage of the words has diverged enough that no, they don't mean the same thing. There are Witches who are not Wiccan, and there are Wiccans who do not practice Witchcraft (though that is a finer line, because at what point does prayer or ritual cross over into Witchcraft?).

Answer 5

Wicca is a Earth based religion. Witchcraft is the use of Nature's magick. Someone can use Witchcraft without following the faith of Wicca just as someone could walk the path of Wicca and not be drawn to perform magick. And then there are those of us that both follow the path of Wicca and perform natural magick.

Blessed Be )O(

Answer 6

Wicca is a religion started by Gerald Gardener in the 1950's in England and Raymond Buckland was chosen to bring Wicca to the U.S. in the 1960's. Witchcraft is using magic to manipulate energy to bring about desired results. Wicca incorparates witchcraft in it's practices.

Answer 7

Wicca is a religion. All religions use magic(k) in their rituals.

Witchcraft is halfway between an Art and a Science (which is why it is called a Craft), that focuses on learning and mastering the more natural ways that humans change [the universe they experience] in conformity with their own will. {Not their own desire...} [[= my definition of magick]] (Those who focus on Spiritual ways are generally considered Shamans, those who focus on rituals and the use of sacred literature are generally considered Ceremonial Mages).

Some witches are Wiccans, some Wiccans are witches.
There are varieties of witchcraft in every country, in every age, far predating not only the religion re-created by Gerald Gardner and currently called Wicca, but every other religion known to man. Every known Science is based on a use of Magick in which they have over-focused on the focusing part of the sequence.

Answer 8

Witchcraft is the continuation of the native cultural beliefs and practices of the ancient Europeans as they continued to be passed down and followed, generation after generation, after the advent of Christianity. Witchcraft is the name that was given to these practices by the Catholic Church and was not the name by which those who followed these beliefs and practices originally called their religion.
Wicca was founded by Gerald Gardner in the late 1930's. It is comprised of Western European folk traditions, Eastern philosophy, and Cabbalistic mysticism. Although initially Wicca was based more in magickal pursuits, it has hence forth developed into a more spiritual religion. Today, Wicca can be seen as an ecclectic system of beliefs with an underlying static ritual and ethics base. Although some traditions in Wicca may cater to a specific culture, the rituals and ethics will still have this commmonality which identifies it as being Wiccan.

Blessings )O(

Answer 9

In my opinion............
Witchcraft is more....natural. It began first because it was based purely on the earth, and belief, and knowledge passed down through generations. It was not "organised" as such, and it varied through different clans, familys countries, even people had different views and feelings as to what a thing could mean.
Wicca is more like a structured religion. I guess it's really just a modernised form.

Hope that helps.

Answer 10

I personally see Witchcraft as a highly emotive term and often used by those who are overtly dramatic. Those into Wicca I find to be more serious about things - and less likely to be hooked on Charmed and Buffy.

As for which came first - the term Wicca is new though the concept old - and I have a feeling Witchcraft as a term was not used until Medieval time and coined by the Church to cover all folk, ancesteral, druidic and other practices they deemed as anti-Christian (including some useful stuff like medicinal herbs and midwifery).

My money is on the stuff under Wicca being older than the term Witchcraft.