WICCA - YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW

by Ed Fitch, 1991

used with permission

Wicca, according to a few commentators who seem to know, is said to be, statistically, the fastest-growing religion in the United States, and perhaps in the world. All this has been largely unnoticed or ignored - as well as usually misunderstood - by the media and by governments. Which is probably just as well, since historical precedent seems to indicate that official sanctioning by an established power group can have a disastrous effect on a young movement - by quashing it, driving it underground, or by twisting it to serve political goals.

Wicca is by its very nature a creed which honors the Earth. Rather than having a harsh Old Testament directive to dominate and be the terror of all other creatures and to view the natural world as evil, Wiccans instead view the Earth as the very personification of humankind’s original and still pre-eminent deity. As such, Wicca is precisely in line of today’s most perceptive thinkers in caring for our planet and its variegated ecology.

Another most fundamental tenet of the Craft is that the Godhead is by its very nature both female and male.  In addition to very beautiful, sensual and magical Goddess and God imagery, this pre-eminent theological point requires an equal balance between male and female in the priesthood, in the coven membership, and even in the relations between the various members of Wiccan and Pagan groups. As such, Wicca and Neo-paganism are in the forefront of a very major and permanent change in today’s advanced societies. There is even a tendency to be matrifocal in reaction to our civilization’s overly long and harsh patriarchal tradition....which itself can be traced back to Wicca’s oldest and major adversary, Christianity.

A bit of clarification of terms is in order here: all Wiccans are Neo-pagans, but all Neo-pagans are not necessarily Wiccans. As the movement has grown in this country and abroad, the numbers of Wiccans - those interested in working magic and in delving into the Mysteries that surround life, death, and the turnings of the natural world - has grown vastly. Much greater in number however, are those who are not necessarily inclined towards studying magic in theory and practice, but who nonetheless subscribe to a worldview which honors the Earth and seeks to be at peace with Nature, and acknowledges the Ancient Gods. As such, the Neo-pagans and the Witches are close allies. 

Gardnerian Wicca, founded by Gerald Gardner and Doreen Valiente during the 1950s and using much of an older Witch tradition, spearheaded the coming of the Old Religion to North American during the 1960s. There have been quite a lot of spinoffs and adaptations under other names and, in the far western part of the United States, a lively growth of local varieties which claim the name of "Gardnerian" but which, in fact, have been researched and developed locally, expanding from the original corpus of ritual and practice compiled by Gardner and Valiente. While no longer, in practice, the true Gardnerian corpus or ritual and traditions, most tend to be quite good in ceremonial quality and should really be considered to be parallel varieties of Wicca in their own right.

The coming of the Gardnerian Craft also had the side effect of encouraging other local, family, or semi-ethnic traditions to "come out of the closet" and gave them a standard to compare against and to fill out any areas where their surviving lore was lacking. Some traditions were assembled whole-cloth by their founders with varying degrees of talent and scholarship, many of them claiming extreme, if unverifiable, antiquity. The means of testing the validity of these traditions has come be to be realized by many as something quite simple: If a tradition’s magic works, it’s valid. If not, it’s invalid. It’s proven to be that simple.

Wicca appeared in the mid-60s as an ancient Western-oriented alternative to Christianity. As such, it was embraced by parts of the counter-culture movement of the late 60s and underwent an explosive growth, in the process becoming linked more firmly with a young, well-educated demographic group. While the radical politics of that era have (fortunately) faded to a middle-of-the-road, middle-American ethos, the impressive gains of the Craft have not just remained, but have continued expanding.

Interestingly enough, many of the first and most influential Wiccans instrumental in spreading the Craft were in the Army, Navy, and Air Force. A person who is in the military has always been likely to be one who seeks adventure, travel, new sights, and new ideas. Gardnerian Wicca and others, have been spread to Europe in general, and Germany in particular by members of the US military. In their tours of duty they have begun by practicing the Old Ways in their military housing quarters, then usually off-base on the local economy where more privacy would be available.

The American Witches will, of course, be interested in the natural beauty and the traditions of their host country, and will in time meet with locals with similar, if unstated interests. Friendships will lead to initiations of others and a natural growth of their initially small covens. Then when the Americans have completed their tour of duty and must return home, they give their covens and groves over to locals who are friends and experienced co-coveners. The rituals, if they have not already been adapted, are translated into the local language, and probably even expanded. Others of the local populace join, further normal "hiving-off" takes place, and what had originally been founded in Britain, and developed to its maximum in (perhaps) California, has now become very much of a German (or other national) Wiccan tradition.

A very major penetration of Europe has been due to two other, very visible sources: Gavin and Yvonne Frost, and the writings of Starhawk. The former was assembled into the "School of Wicca" material in 1970 and marketed widely as correspondence training in the Old Religion. By the early 1980s the Frost material had been translated into German and advertised on the Continent, with apparently considerable success. As a result, there are many offshoots of the Frost Tradition in Germany and beyond.

The writings of Starhawk have been extremely influential on the Continent as well, perhaps because her political stance was quite close to that of the Greens social/political movement. Starhawk’s books were translated into German in the 1980s and have received a wide response through the Greens and their friends. The spread of Wicca in Germany is quite rapid.

With the fall of the Communist Bloc there has been a considerable flow of Wicca and Neo-paganism into Eastern Europe and Russia, but little is known about it as yet. A few tantalizing words have crept through the media on this matter, by reporters who have no idea of what is really going on and are simply reporting on other stories.

There has been an increasing trend for Wiccans also to practice the Norse pantheon in addition or as part of their religion. Asatru or Odinism has a particularly strong ethos of protection of one’s family, kindred and extended family against the threats of a hostile outside world. Given the painfully obvious decline and even decay in today’s society, pagans as much as or more than other citizens are coming to realize that friends, extended families, and our children must have protection from the rising tide of arrogant savagery on the streets.

Related to this, there has also been a growth in Wiccan-oriented Warrior Orders among younger Witches and Pagans, often combining regular combat using Oriental training weapons (such as shinai, or bamboo swords) and martial arts with the growing Renaissance Faire movement and the ancient Western warrior ethos. Such gatherings seem to have the perilous atmosphere of the near-outlaw, yet they are strongly protective of comrades and clan, stressing honor and excellence.

Celtic has long been a favorite of Wiccans, and indeed much work has been done in recovering the ancient magical traditions and reconstituting the archaic rites of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Large groups such as The Roebuck in Southern California, and a great variety of Celtic groups in the Bay Area have grown and spread greatly over the last twenty years, and promise to grow even greater in the future.

Wicca and paganism have resulted in a continually-growing corpus of researched and reconstructed lore, rituals, traditions, historical studies and more. The richness of all this material further enriches the Craft, and the spiritual spiral thus continues upwards to higher and higher levels as the scholarship of many Wiccans and their friends continues.

Wicca, in its many branches and traditions, as well as the general and "nondenominational" Neo-paganism which has grown up in association with it, represent nothing more nor less than the continuing culmination of our deeply-ingrained seeking of our own British and European roots. We have long known, sometimes intuitively - and sometimes in sharp brilliance in the writings of Tolkien, Howard and others- that our own ancient past held magic and power that would fulfill the soul and swell our pride. Wicca has given us back this solid foundation, and it has returned to us our old Gods - the ones who grew with our archaic ancestors over a thousand thousand generations.

Yet Wicca is for today. There is a growing realization in high-tech areas such as computer hardware and software that many of the "wild cards," the brilliant young movers and shakers in the industry, are "techno-Pagans," who have their feet in a tradition older than the human race, but their heads and hands in the present and the future. The US space program was perhaps the first professional area where Witches and pagans tended to find their niches. They have spread from there.

Techo-pagans, who know their computers as well as they know their magic, launghingly often refer to themselves as "wizards." Which indeed they are, for corporations depend upon their unsurpassed expertise and co-workers come to them to solve problems that are beyond all others. Their wit and high intelligence has gained them the comradeship of atheists and agnostics - who are also to be found abundantly in high-technology industries - who view them as (almost) kindred souls. The attitude is, "You’re smart and unconventional and good company: if the Fundamentalists come after you tomorrow, they’ll come after me the day after!" In sheer playfulness and for profit the computer games they design have caught the imagination of an entire generation of kids, teen-agers and adults.

And where is the Craft of the Wise going in the future? It is likely that Wicca will, before too many more years, become widespread enough that its adherents will be in enough positions to affect not just the arts and sciences, but the courses of governments and multinational corporations as well. The result would be a calming effect of honoring the Earth as more and more effective public policy. The existing religious structures, which until now have only made occasional grumbles about the return of an antagonist which outclasses them in every way, will have to be persuaded or compelled to accept that freedom of religion is here to stay. But by that time enough Wiccans and Pagans should have gravitated to suitably high positions in industry and politics to assure that this does indeed happen! With a (thoroughly Pagan) balanced, honest liking of one’s fellow human ("I’ll extend friendship to you, but you must deserve it!") and a deep love of nature, added to an enjoyment of the challenges that science can bring, the world can only become better. Even if a Time of Troubles must come first, as it may, Wicca will cause events to ultimately improve.

Tomorrow the world. The next day....to the stars themselves! But that, friends, will be another story.

Ed Fitch, one of the Founding Fathers of American Paganism, is the author of Magical Rites from the Crystal Well, The Rites of Odin, and A Grimoire of Shadows.

All text on this page is copyright (c) Ed Fitch, 1991. The usual restrictions apply.