Opening Your Mind To Wicca
In 1954, Gerald Gardner published Witchcraft Today in which he advocated the use of old, long established rituals and introduced many of his own devising. Gardner venerated The Goddess and women in general. He believed in the power of nature and that men and women could tune into it to alter the course of things. Gardner’s work, according to several anthropologists, three direct links to ancient paganism – the use of high magic, the use of plants and herbs in spells, and the involvement of folk rites and customs to manipulate the powers of nature.
Gardner’s work lead to a revival in interest of the traditions of witchcraft, not just in Britain, and he is credited by many as being the founder of what has become an officially recognized new religion – Wicca. Wicca honors The God and The Goddess (their names vary from group to group) as the two main deities and followers worship them in rites and rituals.
Wicca spread and as it did, different groups developed their own rites and rituals. In England, Celtic practices and Gardnerian belief are blended together in the form of what has come to be known as British Traditional Witchcraft. In the United States, where Gardner’s work was introduced and developed by Raymond Buckland, Wicca has now become an officially recognized religion.
Wicca has followers all over the world, wherever people feel a need to turn from traditional religions and return to a more Earth-based one. They practice various forms of white magic and perform rituals to attune themselves with the natural rhythm of life forces, particularly those marked by the phases of the moon and the four seasons.
Wiccans belong to a wider movement – neo-paganism,