Is Wicca an ancient religion or was it invented in 1954?

Question

"The history of Wicca is much debated. 'Gardner claimed that the religion was a survival of matriarchal Pagan religions of pre-historic Europe, taught to him by members of the New Forest Coven; their rites were fragmentary, and he had substantially rewritten them. It has been posited by authors such as Aidan Kelly and Francis X. King that Gardner invented the rites in their entirety,[27] incorporating elements from the thesis of Dr. Margaret Murray, incantations from Aradia[28] and practices of ceremonial magic.[29]
Heselton concludes that while Gardner may have been mistaken about the ancient origins of the religion, his statements about it were largely made in good faith"

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicca#History

Answer 1

It was "invented" and I use the term loosely, recently but is based off of much older religions. Its a collection of old pagan beliefs. I used to think it was "Fluffy" but I have been some truley bad *** Wiccans who have explained a lot to me. It's not for me, but it's not what most people think it is either.

Answer 2

There is absolutely nothing that indicates its an ancient religion. Among other things, there's no ancient religion that looks similar to Wicca. (and isn't that kind of required if you want to claim that it's ancient?) What Wicca DOES resemble is a variety of claims made by people who have been debunked such as Murray (who was embarrassingly wrong in both method and conclusion) and Leland (who has no evidence for his claims and lots of reasons why we should distrust his source).

Ronald Hutton makes a good case for it being slightly older than 1954. Gardner appears to have been constructing his BOS in the late 40s, and it may have been in its development stages with a group working in the 30s. But I feel very confident saying "Wicca is less than 100 years old." I don't think we'll ever pinpoint a specific year for the birth of Wicca, but we can narrow it to the 20th century.

Answer 3

It's of them condundrums, with people on both sides of the fence screaming at each other. I think it's safe to say that a strong tradition of folk magic, divination and herbalism survived among the European peoples well into the Middle Ages, and that there are similiaries between what rural folks did and what Gardner did. But the problem is trying to lump all those "Pagans" (translation: people who lived in the country) and "Heathens" (people who lived in the heaths, again meaning country) under one label and suggest that they shared a common belief system or that they were part of an organized community. Personally, I think what Gardner practiced and what many Wiccans practice today is a 20th-century invention.

But so what? What I practice is a 21st-century invention and my Aquarian outlook delights in it! Who cares? I think people waste a lot of time looking for validation in history or in external things and forget to be spiritual. Sit under an old tree sometime and commune with Nature. That's when you'll be practicing what folks did in the olden days. Will that make you "right"? more powerful? smarter? Nope! But it might give you insight, clarity, depth, and inner peace. Just put down the books and the Internet and go outside! :) Hugs all!

Answer 4

It was "invented" by Gardener back then. However, he used elements of witchcraft he had gathered from several different sources when he created it. So, in effect, it was an attempt to recreate an approximation of ancient faith systems.

Gardener obviously had some gaps in his faith system having to do with the exact nature of the religious rituals that should be performed. He appears to have filled those gaps in with bits and pieces of ritual magic from the Golden Dawn esoteric group. I've read some of the rituals of the Golden Dawn, and it is very obvious that Gardener used these when he was creating Wicca.

On the whole, I would have to say its a fairly decent approximation of a pre-christian religion. It certainly seems to be put together well enough to be a workable religion that a lot of people find they enjoy.

I also suspect that few modern people would really enjoy being part of a completely authentic ancient pagan belief system. There were some rather unpleasant bits about some ancient religions. Human sacrifice would be an obvious thing that would not be acceptable to modern people. Animal sacrifice would be pretty unpopular with a lot of people as well.

Personally, I really would rather not participate in any sort of amateur butchery. I suspect that while trying to use a large knife to sacrifice some squirming, panicking animal I would be somewhat likely to end up sacrificing one of my own fingers by accident.

So, I think that Wicca was a pretty good starting point for a lot of the modern pagan movements. I also think that all of those movements are tending to adjust and evolve as they attract more adherents and those adherents do more research into the ancient pagan practices.

In the end, it seems like people will eventually come to a good balance between the true ancient practices and the practices that will provide satisfaction for the spiritual needs of modern people.

Answer 5

Invented by Gerald Gardner. Wicca is a branch of witchcraft. Not all witches are wiccan, and there are some wiccans who prefer not to be referred to as witches for some reason. Traditional (non-wiccan) witchcraft on which Wicca is loosely based has been traced back to Paleolithic times. There are many different types of witchcraft. Wicca is only one. Some people have their own personal tradition. Wicca and Witchcraft are extremely versatile, which is why many people are attracted to it.

Gardner didn't have much material to work with when he invented Wicca because he was oathbound to his coven. Therefore, he had to make a lot a things up to fill in the holes. Some people try to say that Aleister Crowley helped him do this and ghosted some of Gerald Gardner's books, but there is no proof of this. Regardless, Wicca is a valid religious Path for many people from different walks of life.

Answer 6

It is true as mentioned in previous answers,the problem we have in the UK is that the pre roman era was never recorded and was lost to us,before Wicca you can trace its exponents to other society's such as the Golden Dawn and no doubt others before them.
This is a problem to some people,to me well we may never know anything of the druids ceremonies so we can only emulate them as best we can,there are literally thousands of other other"pagan" traditions which can help to create an understanding of what went on before christianity and roman times,in other continents and countries some people still follow thousands of year old traditions so they I find will tell you more about yourself than any book can ever do...peace

Answer 7

What Gardner created in the 1940s and 1950s is largely a reconstruction of a fragment of the Pre-WWII British Spiritualism and magic culture. At best, it could be said to be 75 years old or so.


Since we're title dropping like it means something:
Wiccan for over 20 years, Priestess for more than 10, leadership of somekind for well over 15. High Priestess for, oh, over five, sorry, I don't really count these kinds of things. Author of five books on Wicca, paganism and history. Two BAs, An MS and a Ph.D in progress...and none of it makes me an authority. Look it up YOURSELF.

Answer 8

Wicca is only around 50 years old and was created or founded by a man named Gerald Gardner. Wicca is a modern religion based on "some" old traditions from central Europe and the British Isles that was taught to him by a woman he named in one of his books that "allegedly was of the Old Religion". And yes some of these practices do pre-date Cristianity.

Answer 9

i say it was both. the ideas, traditions, and dieties are ancient. it was only pulled together into another religion, wicca. hey, if it was ancient, it was re-invented by Gardner (i highly doubt he had everything there is or was to know about wicca. he had to base some of it off himself). i think knowing the truth is important, but i can live off false opinions of my religions origin. the important part is the beliefs, not the origin.

Blessed Be
)o(

Answer 10

It was invented in 1954. Before Gerald Gardner, there were no people who identified as "Wiccans", and worshiped a God and Goddess, and followed the 3-fold law, etc.

Granted, Wicca does BORROW from ancient religious customs here and there, which is why it's sometimes referred to as a "Neo-Pagan" religion. But again, there were no people around 60 or more years ago calling themselves "Wiccans" and follow the whole Wicca religion.

Answer 11

It is a new religion that is based on ancient traditions.

A lot of the history from Margaret Murray has been discredited, such as a universal "Old Religion", though before she was discredited her ideas were quite popular with many pagans.