ABSTRACT

This chapter attempts to provide a synthesis of varying Wiccan practitioner, scholar, and scholar-practitioner sources on the origins of Wicca then proceeds through a description of much less obscure developments dating to the latter twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries Wiccans continue to identify with the victims of mediaeval and early modern witch hunts, which Wiccans describe as ‘the Burning Times’. The most basic Wiccan ceremony most regularly involves congregants gathering to worship in a sacred circle – often indoors, but ideally outside. The mythic version of Wiccan history, which informs belief and ritual practice, states that Wicca dates back all the way to the dawn of religious sensibilities in humankind – to the Paleolithic. The most basic Wiccan ceremony most regularly involves congregants gathering to worship in a sacred circle – often indoors, but ideally outside.