Well apparently some people think wicca only goes back to the 1950's, when gerald gardner brought it to the publics attention. I decided to write this post to do my best to dispell that. I *personally* do not like, or agree with Gardner. That man wasnt quite right in the head, and even said on his own basis that being gay was wrong (im not gay, but i know the lord and lady have no problem with gay people!) He did many other things that are a darned shame because people look at this man and think he created wicca, when he did not! I got all this information from history class, and from a really good book by Raven Grimassi called 'Wiccan mysteries' which researches the historical proof of wicca. See Raven wants to dispell the gerald myth too. I never knew Gerald Gardner personally, so please dont think im insulting him because i dont agree with him, i just dont agree with what he did publicly etc... Okay anyways to a breif history of wicca, and if you want more info try that book. Modern wicca is thought to have come from Gerald Gardner, an english hereditary witch from England in the 1950's. What he did was write books about the wiccan religion after the last law punishing witches for being witches was revoked. He thought he may have been the only witch left, but he wasnt. This man went on to get wicca in the public eye, and inspired many a people to look into a beautiful religion. Sadly oppenets of wicca will always look and say this man created wicca for his own use, and that it is only 50 years old (trust me not just people i have spoke with, i read it in a few magazines too!) Well thats not the truth. With Gardner many hereditary witches came out too. Lady Sheba was one. I dont have the whole history on her but i do believe she was part native american and 'a gardernian by choice.' Thats another myth the oppents have. Not all wiccans agree with gerald gardner, we have different beliefs just like christians do about there religion, and there are many different forms of wicca, and gardenian wicca is only one. Another thing to note is that Llweywn (I can never spell it :P) a witch book publishing company turned a 100 years old in 2001 i believe. That means that it was around in 1901, which was pre gardenian influence (there is also further proof seeing many different books were published on the witch subject pre 1950's, and they werent all by Charles Leland either.) Okay now on to some more history and proof that this religion goes farther back then the 1950s and gerald gardner. In the late 1800's a man named Charles Leland set out to discover the witch mysteries. He supposdly met with a woman named Matilda I do believe, and she initaiated him and taught him the strega (italian word for witch) ways. He also learned his way into the gypsys. He wrote books on the subject, but he seemed to be contradicting himself because one of his books would be all 'this is a great religion' and the others would mock the religion and say it was just not right. So that makes us wonder on Lelands dependibility. Whether this man believed in wicca or not, he did record practices that have been shown to be older then gardner through records and family books of shadows. Thats another argument: Hereditary witches. Many were out there, and still are. Gardner was a hereditary witch, but not all witches are related! Many of these familes kept books of shadows with many surving from the 1800s, and a few from the middle ages. Even though the inquisition wasnt a good thing, the witch trials oddly enough do show proof some witches existed. Many of the 'confessions' were just christian fears, and not true, but some of the confessions do show known practices that real witches have done, and still do. So here I have gone all the way back to the middle ages with proof, yet I can go farther. Now something to explain before I continue is that the word wicca is celtic for 'witch.' The italian word is strega and there are a few other not used as much names. Gerald Gardner being a hereditary witch from England, based what he knew from celtic beliefs. So that means this goes back to the acient celtics. Archelogoical proof shows the religion of the celts, though they did not leave many idols for they thought it was foolish (as greek historians recorded) to have idols of their gods and goddesses. So even if Gerald Gardner wasnt the greatest man, and threw in a few personal beliefs, it does show wicca in general can at least go back that far (I'm talking BCE, i dont have specific dates with me but if u need me to look in my books I will!) Then there is further evidence that greek and italian influences met the celtic belief. The god dionyosus aka bacchas is a really good example of this (see the book for a really long explanation :p.) So this means that not only does wicca come from celts but it comes from a combination of greek, roman/italian, celtic, and even north american (thanks to lady sheba) shamanistic beliefs. If you want to go into each aspect of each of those then you may but they go back a long way! So I hope in this post i helped solve a few mysteries, and showed that wiccans go back a lot deeper then LeLand or Gardner. I really recommend that book, and if you think its biased, then go look up some history books, they dont lie :p!-Kaja aka Queen Crazy
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