Can anyone explain the re-emergence of Wicca in the last 30 years?

Question

What sparked its re-arising?

Where did this begin?

It seems that there is a certain cosmology associated with Wicca that is not in sync with anything ancient that I'm aware of.

What are the sources of Wiccan philosophy, theology, epistemology, or cosmology?

Answer 1

I'm not sure what you mean by re-emergence in the last 30 years, but Wicca began with Gerald Gardner's published work, 'Witchcraft Today' in 1954. While you'll hear otherwise, The base of the confusion is that some people don't distinguish between something that exists today, and its historical roots.
For example, The poodle was designated as a recognized breed in 1887. Dogs today (including the poodle) have evolved from ancient dog species that existed thousands of years ago. The historic past of the poodle isn't in question, but you can NOT say that the poodle is thousands of years old. Wicca follows this same idea.
many people today are unsure of Gardner's claim of discovering an existing Wiccan coven, and feel that his writings were more his own creations than true (and ancient) practices that had been handed down through generations. He claimed to have been initiated into the New Forest Coven in 1939, by Old Dorothy Clutterbuck. But further examination into this has had difficulty proving that Old Dorothy ever existed.

Gardner's interests and knowledge of the occult would have given him plenty of raw material to work with. It's generally accepted that regardless of whether or not Gardner really found an existing witchcraft coven, he adulterated much of his work with Ceremonial magick concepts that appealed to him.

So even though there may be ideas, concepts, practices, or beliefs in the Wicca we know today that are based in older knowledge, the collected whole as presented by Gardner really only came into existance in the 1950s.

As for its cosmology, that varies. Some say that there is a Supreme Creator (Spirit/Akasha) that formed the God and Goddess and they then formed all life as we know it.
It's a mixed bag there.

That's not unusual for pagan beliefs. The Celts of Ireland had no cosmology.. for them, life always was.. they believed what's important is what is happening right now.

But the question you ask is the source and that would be Gerald Gardner who was heavily influenced by sources such as Aleister Crowley and ceremonial magick.

Answer 2

Re-emergence? It hit big in the 80's and did decline somewhat, but not to the point that it would re-emerge.

What drives Wicca at this point is that so many teenagers get into it (usually because they read a really cute Fluffy Pagan book that tells them all the happy things Wicca has *sigh*)

Wicca began in England in the 40's... in America, it came with the Hippy movement and then slammed the bookshelves in the 80's.

It's a mix of different ancient ideologies... mainly Celtic and Egyptian, but it doesn't hold to either one completely. You have to understand when Gardner started all of this, even he admitted a lot of it was only bits n pieces of information which HE filled in with symbols and rituals from the OTO, Golden Dawn, etc....

Depends on which path of Wicca you are referring to. Dianic Wicca stays strictly with Diana, where as Faery Wicca is a mix of old folk tales about Faeries and a lot of modern Happy stuff, that doesn't fit the folk tales at all (the old folk tales of faeries show them to be mischevious at best.... at their worst, they make Satan look good). Each path, though it holds to the basic tenets put down by Wicca, has their own philosophies, etc....

This would be like someone trying to put All the denominations of Christianity into one philosophy, etc... it doesn't work. You have to take them individually.

Answer 3

It's older than 30 y/o. There's various commentary on how it started. Some declare it's ancient and just continued on and renamed, and some say one guy invented it in the last century.

Wiccan philosophy varies according to the person claiming they're Wiccan, but the general philosophy is that they work in tune with the natural world to accomplish whatever goals they wish to accomplish (which is no different than other people using other religions to accomplish their own spiritual journey).

I was Wiccan, after a long journey from Catholicism, and I believed in working with the Egyptian, Greco-Roman and Nordic pantheons to do ritual. I saw Wicca as a logical progression from other various OLDER forms of paganism that worked with and respected the natural world. So everything differs according to the person who's practicing.

_()_

Answer 4

From the dawn of time humans seem to have needed something to believe in that explained the apparent mysteries of life. For centuries Christianity provided a belief system in the Western world. As its appeal declined it was matched by belief in Marxist Communism in certain circles. Now that Marxism is effectively dead, and Christianity is but a shadow of its former self there many people are searching for an alternative belief system. For serious searchers Wicca offers a very attractive belief system - if you do not think about it too seriously. My fear is that an alternative belief system - Islam - is spreading in Western Europe as unrestricted immigration is allowing Muslim communities to grow and spread their beliefs. But they are beliefs, just like Christianity, Communism, and Wicca.

Answer 5

I would say that the rather large amounts of criticism on the "big 3" religions in the world (Christianity, Islam, Judaism) in the last 30 years would probably prompt people who seek religion or belief to turn to other alternative means of having a faith, or belief.

Possibly the media, or the aura of mystery and intrigue that surrounds Wicca adds to its popularity as well.

I believe Wicca was first established about 50 years ago, by a British occultist named Gerald Gardner, after the British witchcraft act was repealed. It has its basis in ancient paganism, and other forms of nature worship. It also draws on other occult beliefs and forms of worship.

Answer 6

The source (or the bulf of it) comes from the writings of Aleister Crowley, a man who thought he was the anti-Christ (he wasn't).

Crowley was a psychotic who died a junkie in a flophouse in Hastings England in the 1940's. One student of his, Gerald Gardner, had a fetish for being tied up and beaten by strong willed women. This led to the creation of Wicca. Wicca is not ancient, it's about as old as Rock and Roll, BTW.

Crowley founded an occult religion called Thelema (Greek for "The Will") that said basically, "If it feels good, do it" or more precisely, "Do What Thou Wilt" Since Crowley could do anything he wanted, he decided to practice occult rituals, use drugs, and have sex with prostitutes, gullible followers both male and female, the occsional child (apparently even including his own children from his writings).

Gardner, waited until Crowley had died and plagarized from his teacher's writings. One follower named Doreen Valentine, reading Gardner's original Book of Shadows saw how much it had been plagarized from Crowley, helped re-write parts of it for him. There are still some parts that read word for word (see link below)

You might find these past answers helpful:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AhU3APMDMy3WiLuyb6vR_sy6IX?qid=20060915145049AAkDSCG

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AnmpBWCNQ4CeOacIJt2avsy6IX?qid=20060923114119AAAusg9&show=7#profile-info-85e3efd122e8f209277b7bb6e4c2d432aa

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AsJPtqbU7SQfe6s8aZ1kmfsy6IX?qid=20060918191343AA1dAL3

Answer 7

"Wicca" did not re-emerge... but rather was invented.

The very name itself only goes back at best 75 years. Gerald Garnder was able to parley some small coincidences into something much bigger so that it eventually led to its current heightened state.

The true spark was the "repealing of the old anti-witchcraft laws" in England in the 1950's. Add into this generally "free time" the "free love" movement and the "Hippie movement" and then top it off with the antidisestablishmentarianism that reigned during that time and you have the perfect time for such things to flower and take root.

Lets face it...... if you wanted to "piss-off-the-Man" you would smoke weed, make love-not-war, and cast spells at the same time and thereby in one fell swoop break with the culture of the 1950's completely.

Answer 8

I have never heard much about Wicca, until I got on this site. Maybe it started with the womans rights movement, and womans general disenchantment of men.
I've never seen them in the news blowing up clinics, or throwing green paint on someones coat, so I'd say they are fairly peaceful.

Answer 9

.... Wicca is a very new religion. It IS only about 85 years old. Its neo-pagan. It just traces its routes back for millenia in much older religions.

Wicca was created by Gerald Gardner though he took the inspiration from much older religions.

You already know whats sparked its popularity. People are tired of the prevalent religions and are looking for something else. They're tired of the hatred and prejudice, persecution and violence of modern religion.

Wicca is none of those things. Its one of the few religions in the world that can honestly say that it hasn't gone out to murder people or attempted to force/harass people into joining.

Answer 10

some guy, i think in the 1960s, wrote a book about Wiccan and it's advanced from there. I think it's popularity stems from a disenchantment of the major religions particularly Christianity. Most of the new recruits, about 95 percent, are disgruntled teenage girls.