A Brief History of Witchcraft

By: Derrick Land 09/19/2020

There has been a belief in the supernatural, or some greater force or forces beyond that of physical man, since the Stone Age. Along with those believes developed certain rituals to gain the favor of those forces - for hunting, fertility, protection etc. - through worship and sacrifice. As mankind developed from nomadic hunter-gatherers to established agricultural societies, so to did their religious beliefs, and so too did a special class develop within that was trained specifically to commune and work with these supernatural forces to benefit their community. Depending on the culture and time period the names of these people changed - priests, cunning folk, druids, medicine men, benandanti...the list goes on.

Enter Christianity.
As Christianity spread, it sometimes incorporated some of the culture beliefs into its doctrine to make the conversion easier for the people. Major cities were more easily converted, with those offering the most resistance typically being in the smaller towns or countryside. We see this even today. A new fad comes out and it's the larger cities that get it first, sometimes taking months, if ever, to become trendy in smaller towns. This is where the term pagan comes from, from the Latin paganus which means "country-dweller". Pagan became an umbrella term for any and all remaining non-Christian beliefs and practices, and originally was a derogatory term.

Notice the terms witch and witchcraft have not been used up until now. There is a reason for this! These terms did not come into use until the Middle Ages. In Old English, the term wicce and wicca were nouns that meant a female or male sorcerer, respectively. Wiccecraft was a term that meant "craft of the wise". Wicce and wicca were combined into a new, non gender-specific word, witch, and with that, witchcraft. Therefore, a witch could be male or female. The definition changed slightly too, with a distinction being made between sorcerers, who used physical tools or actions, and witches, who used some intangible inner quality.

This set the stage for the Church then to change their perspective on witchcraft from it being quaint folk customs to malevolent acts done against the community and that "intangible inner quality" being fueled by Satan himself and/or his legion of demons. FYI - the Middle Ages was a chaotic time starting with the fall of the Roman Empire and saw its share of plagues, famine and destruction. It was a grim time, literally also known as the Dark Ages. Is it a coincidence that now there are new terms to blame these misfortunes on? It isn't until the late Middle Ages that we see the hysteria really start to pick up, which led to the infamous witch hunts across Europe and America. While we cannot know for sure how many were killed, modern scholars estimate it to be between 40,000 and 50,000 people. The most infamous in America were the Salem witch trials, in which 20 people were executed.

As we entered the period of history following the Middle Ages known as the Enlightenment, the hysteria died down as rational and scientific thought started to become commonplace as opposed to strictly religious. It's during this time period that we start to see interest shift back to occult (hidden) studies and practices; back to spiritualism. We see the formation of secret societies influenced by freemasonry and masonic lodges, such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.). It is from these organizations that influenced the contemporary period of history; the period we are in now.

In 1951, the last of the laws prohibiting the practice of witchcraft was repealed in England, paving the way for a man named Gerald Gardner to publish his non-fiction work on the subject, The Truth About Witchcraft Today. He claimed to have studied with a group that was interested in the occult and eventually put him through an initiation ceremony. During the ceremony, he heard the word "wicca" spoken and knowing it to be the Old English word for a male practitioner, realized that this group was one of the witch-cults whose teachings had survived the Middle Ages. Since that time he referred to them as the New Forest coven. He later purchased a piece of land near Bricket Wood and formed his own coven, the Bricket Wood coven. He incorporated knowledge and practices from various sources, along with the teachings passed down to him from the New Forest coven, to flesh out and form the religion of Witchcraft. Wait, but isn't it called Wicca, the religion of Wicca?

Funny enough, Gardner himself did not call it Wicca, but rather just Witchcraft, and on the occasion he did, he spelled it "Wica" with only one "c". As the religion spread throughout England to America and to other parts of the world, it gained the extra "c" and became known universally as Wicca. Also as it spread, different styles developed that were based on Gardner's Witchcraft/Wicca, but with enough of a variant to be something unique. Just like most religions have sects or denominations, these different styles became known as "traditions". Therefore, Gardnerian Wicca or the Gardnerian Tradition refers to the original form of teachings that Gardner passed down. Gardnerian Wicca and other Witchcraft traditions focused in the New Forest area (such as Alexandrian), are collectively referred to as British Traditional Witchcraft or British Traditional Wicca (BTW). The witchcraft revival of the 60's that he spearheaded in turn helped encourage the reconstruction of other polytheistic religions, and thus the movement of Neopaganism. But wait, there's more..........

It is true that Wicca is perhaps the most popular form of witchcraft today and what most people think of when they hear the term, but truthfully Wicca is only one variation. If you've noticed, there is a difference in capitalization. Witchcraft capitalized tends to refer to a religious practice and is mostly associated with Gardner and the Wiccan movement. Using a lowercase "w" for witchcraft, however, especially as in the term traditional witchcraft, refers to a broad range of contemporary styles of craft practice, usually with more local and historic roots, including family practices or traditions. Taking a quote from Wikipedia:

                               "According to British Traditional Witch Michael Howard, the term
                                 refers to "any non-Gardnerian, non-Alexandrian, non-Wiccan or
                                 pre-modern form of the Craft, especially if it has been inspired by
                                 historical forms of witchcraft and folk magic".

So, in a nutshell, Witchcraft/Wicca refers to traditions and practices that follow, are based upon or influenced by the works of BTW. Traditional witchcraft or just witchcraft refers to everything else! However, just because someone claims to be practicing witchcraft - Wicca, traditional or otherwise - does not mean they actually are. Proper vetting in always recommended, especially if they are claiming some obscure lineage or are asking you do things that, even for witches, seems out of place or make you uncomfortable.