Wicca and Initiation

There is often a great deal of dissension over the issue of Wicca and initiation. Many people believe that you can be a Wiccan without initiating or that a person can perform a "self-initiation", while others (mostly Wiccan) declare that initiation is definitely needed and that self-initiation is generally a ridiculous concept.
So which is it, really?


In many ways a lot of this really does just boil down to one question:

Do you believe Gardner?

Once that question is answered, all other questions and answers slide firmly into place. Though it is ironic and perhaps somewhat fitting, that whether your answer is “yes” or “no”, we still arrive to the same destination. All that differs is the journey that is taken in getting there.

So, we’ll begin with this question and start of at the easiest answer:

Do you believe Gardner?
“No.”

If you don’t believe that Gardner was really initiated into a coven of witches, with reference to Wica, as he claimed, then the situation automatically becomes very simple to resolve. For if he wasn’t really initiated, then that would mean that he created the entire religion himself (though using other sources as influences) and that there was no Wicca/Wica before him.

If this is the case then what can we take away from that? Well first of all we immediately get a distinct view onto what Gardner’s intentions for the religion really were. After all, he created it and he could make it anything he wanted. But in this scenario he made it a mystery religion, in which the only way to practice it was through initiation.
Obviously this is no accident. On the contrary, it is a direct reference for what he intended the religion to be and what he wanted it to be. If he wanted to make it open to everyone, then he could do, but he didn’t. He knew full well what a mystery religion was and had connections to a good few other initiatory organisations.
So from the view of Wicca originating only from Gardner, we can see directly that it was only ever intended for initiates.


But, we can’t just end it there. Though we will take a brief intermission to acknowledge that it is among the foremost opinions that Gardner was probably not initiated into a witch cult as he described and that he instead created Wicca from a combination of the folklore he knew, the influence of the works of Margaret Murray, the influence of OTO teachings, his personal interest in naturalism, Thelema and no doubt a good few other sources that I have neglected here.
It’s worth mentioning this here, as the works of scholars such as Ronald Hutton are not to be absently ignored. Indeed, Prof. Hutton has done extensive research in this area and indeed, in the area of studying historical witchcraft in general and remains the foremost expert on the subject today.
For further references to this line of enquiry and an examination of Prof. Hutton’s work, read his book “Triumph of the Moon”.


Now, with that said, lets try and tackle the more difficult subject of examining Gardner’s intentions for Wicca, while allowing for the possibility that his own claims to initiation into a witch cult were true.

When approaching this, there are several angles that need to be considered:
Who were these supposed witches and what was the nature of their craft?
What was Gerald Gardner’s relationship to them?
What was their view/tradition regarding initiation and the Wicca?
This last question is very relevant in that its answer will help us to understand not only the traditions that Gardner may have been following, but also the beliefs regarding initiation that were held by the first traceable followers of Wicca and just what initiation may have meant to them. Unfortunately we have no direct words from these witches (at least, not on matters of witchcraft) but we do have the words of Gardner and what he told us about them. But this will be sufficient, as we can all agree that Gardner is the root of the issue and it is his handed down practices that are being followed today.
But before anything, we must tackle that first question:

Who were these supposed witches and what was the nature of their craft?

The identity of the people of the New Forest Coven, to whom Gardner claimed his initiation, cannot be determined with absolute certainty. But although researchers both within and without Wicca have provided us with some very likely candidates, I’ll not spend too much time arguing the different ideas about who was who. For our purposes here it is enough to say that these witches, according to Gardner, had known him for a quite a while and that they lived in or around the area of the New Forest and Christchurch.
But what of their practices? Well Gardner has given us a fair amount of insight into their workings, from his initiation and onwards. For this we can refer to Gardner’s account per Bracelin:

“Gardner felt delighted that he was being let into their secret. Thus it was that, a few days after the war had started, he was taken to a big house in the neighbourhood. This belonged to ‘Old Dorothy’….
….it was in this house that he was initiated into witchcraft. He was very amused at first, when he was stripped naked and brought into a place ‘properly prepared’ to undergo his initiation.
It was half way through when the word Wica was first mentioned: “and I (Gardner) knew that that which I had thought burnt out hundreds of years ago still survived.
… I soon found myself in the circle and took the usual oaths of secrecy which bound me not to reveal any secrets of the cult.”

In just this short account we are able to gather a wealth of information to help us.
We know from this that the practices of these witches were kept secret, so much so in fact that Gardner didn’t even know what he was being initiated into until he was already half way into initiation. We now also know that if these witches existed as Gardner claims, then they definitely had rites of initiation that were needed to be undergone in order to be “let into the secret”. Perhaps more significant though, is that these witches referred to themselves as Wica.
Now, Gardner’s reaction to the word shows us that he was familiar with the old term and its connotations. However, it also implies that both he and they were unaware of how it was pronounced back in the Anglo-Saxon. This leads us to one of two possible conclusions here:
1) Either the pronunciation of the word had changed among this line of witches, so that now it was a different and new word, which now obviously only referred to them.
2) Or, that the word Wica, as used by them, didn’t actually have any connection to the old Anglo-Saxon and so it was still only relevant to them and their practices.

Either way we have a situation in which we have already established that their practices were secret and required initiation, and that the word Wica/Wicca can only refer to their secret hereditary practices.

One could use this alone as a case to drop the subject here and now, acknowledging that Gardner simply maintained this tradition of initiation and secrecy. But there is a lot more information available to us with which we can build a more complete picture as to exactly what their practices were in regards to initiation.

But first, let us stay on the matter of secrecy and examine the answer to our second question:

What was Gerald Gardner’s relationship to these witches?

Well, if we take Gardner at his word, then we already know that he was initiated by them and so thusly he and they were coven mates. But before we look into Gardner’s relationship with them as an initiate, we would probably do well to take a moment to examine their relationship before initiation. As Bracelin records:

“… I would have gone through Hell and high water even then for any of them.”
-Gerald Gardner on his feelings for the New Forest Coven even before being initiated into them (source: Gerald Gardner: Witch, by Jack Bracelin).

Obviously Gardner felt very strongly for these people and as researchers like Phillip Hessleton have shown us in their works, Gardner had a long association with these witches and that this close relationship was built over time. But exactly how close was this relationship?

“I fell in love with a witch when we were fire-watching together during the war.”
-Gerald Gardner to Ralph Merrifield, Deputy Director of the Museum of London, upon asking Gardner where he had learnt his witchcraft.

It is clear to see that Gardner had very strong feelings for the first of these witches that he encountered and although it seems reasonably clear that no lasting romance existed between himself and the afore mentioned witch (probably Edith Woodford Grimes), we do know that he did maintain an extremely close friendship with her and her family, even giving away her daughter at her daughter’s wedding. This event is listed in official records.

It is important to understand at this point that Gardner’s initiation wasn’t taken lightly. No, these witches had known him for a long time and never even mentioned the Craft to him. They kept him in the dark all the while.
We have a picture being painted here. Gardner kept it no secret that he had an interest in the occult and folklore, yet these witches never at any point before initiation even so much as mentioned the Wicca to their good friend. This alone speaks to its secrecy, but it also speaks of what is required for initiation, both then and now. The witches needed to be absolutely comfortable with him and to truly feel that they could bring him into the fold.
Initiation requires trust and love. These things develop over time.

But the nature of their relationship remains an important key in many regards, even after his initiation.

We have seen that secrecy is a necessity to these witches and that oaths were taken that their secret information should not be revealed. But as we know from the existence of his books, Gardner (already a published author), wished to share the existence of the cult with other people via his books.
By all accounts it seems to have been Gardner who broached the subject with them, regarding publishing information on the Wicca and by all accounts they were apposed to the idea.

“…I wanted to tell of my discovery. But I was met with a determined refusal. ‘The Age of Persecution is not over’, they told me, ‘give anyone half a chance and the fires will blaze up again’. When I said to one of them, ‘Why do you keep all these things so secret still? There is no persecution nowadays!’ I was told, ‘Oh, isn’t there? If people knew what I was, every time a child in the village was ill, or somebody’s chickens died, I should get the blame for it. Witchcraft doesn’t pay for broken windows.”
-Gerald Gardner, Witchcraft Today

However, there was eventually a compromise made, as Gardner was given permission to publish some information, but only if it was in the form of fiction. This, of course, leads us to his first book on Wicca, which was called “High Magic’s Aid”.

The witches seemed to be okay with this work of fiction and so followed his book “Witchcraft Today”.

By his own account he went to great lengths to keep secret information out of the book, not just because it was a matter of oath, but because he had so much love and respect for his friends in the New Forest Coven:

“In writing this book, I soon found myself between Scylla and Charybdis. If I said too much, I ran the risk of offending people I had come to highly regard as friends. If I said too little, the publishers would not be interested. In this situation I did the best I could.”
-Gerald Gardner, The Meaning of Witchcraft, referring to his earlier book, Witchcraft Today.

It would seem that the witches were pleased enough with High Magic’s Aid and that later they allowed for a little more flexibility when he came to write Witchcraft Today. However, they were also adamant that no secrets were to be revealed in the book. Perhaps they had seen that his works could be a positive medium to keep their name clean. Gardner quotes of them:

“Write and tell people we are not perverts. We are decent people, we only want to be left alone.”
Anonymous witch, quoted by Gerald Gardner in Witchcraft Today.

Gardner seems more than happy to honour this request, both to give Wicca a good name and to ensure that they are just left alone. Indeed, Gardner never personally reveals the identity of any member of the New Forest Coven, except by using pseudonyms.

“Now, I simply wont let my friends, the people who trusted me, be bothered and badgered about…”
-Gerald Gardner, 1952 (source: Wiccan Roots, by Philip Hesselton)

This, once more, goes to show the close levels of trust and respect that exist within a coven, but it also goes to show that Gardner had respect for their tradition of secrecy and understood their need for it.

But it is deeper than that. In Witchcraft Today, Gardner informs us that in the beliefs of the Wicca, the need for initiation and secrecy goes far beyond a simple fear of persecution:

“…witches have a firmly rooted belief in their own powers, and the danger of these being misused if uninitiated people learn the methods. Also, they reverence their Gods, and do not wish their names to be known, or bandied about and mocked.”
-Gerald Gardner, Witchcraft Today

Indeed, even today the names of the Wiccan God and Goddess are not revealed to the uninitiated and they are not known to the public. One could argue that this alone makes for a difficult case in regard to uninitiated practice. Fore it is difficult to worship the deities of the Wicca, when you don’t even know who they are…

So we can see that the need for initiation exist as an act of devotion and respect for the Gods of the Wicca, but also in order to keep their magical secrets and rites from being practiced by those who may misuse them.
I am reminded of the Wiccan Rede: “An it harm none, do as thou will.”
Gardner tells us this is the morality of the witches and so it would seem that initiation is also a means to limit potential magical harm.

“…they do not wish it to be known how they raise power.”
-Gerald Gardner, Witchcraft Today

It would seem fair to conclude that this reverence for the divine and desire to do no harm is as true today as was in Gardner’s day. So it is no great surprise that the tradition of initiation is maintained and the inner mysteries of the Wicca remain hidden.

“If I were to disclose all their rituals, I think that it would be easy to prove that witches are not diabolists; but the oaths are solemn and the witches are my friends. I would not want to hurt their feelings. They have secrets which to them are sacred. They have good reason for their secrecy.”
-Gerald Gardner, Witchcraft Today

Good reason indeed. And as a man who was more than familiar with mystery religions, he surely understood better than most.
But as a friend and initiate himself, he respected these secrets and maintained them.

Okay, so we have established quite well that secrecy and initiation were very sacred to the Wicca (assuming they existed before Gardner), but we can even go deeper than that.
Earlier I asked the question: What was their view/tradition regarding initiation and the Wicca?
Well we have already explored a lot of their views and traditions in this regard, but the views so far regard the meaning of being initiated as opposed to being uninitiated. But through Gardner’s words we can also explore the meaning and purpose of initiation within the Wicca. Gardner tells us:

“We ever pick out those who have a little inherent power and teach them, and they practice one with the other and they develop their powers.”
Anonymous witch, quoted by Gerald Gardner in Witchcraft Today.

“…it is no use trying to develop these powers unless you have time and a suitable partner..”
-Gerald Gardner, Witchcraft Today

“They say that witches by constant practice can train their wills to blend this nerve force, or whatever it is, and that their united wills can project this as a beam of force, or that they can use it in other ways to gain clairvoyance, or even to release the astral body.”
-Gerald Gardner, Witchcraft Today

“Being initiated into the witch cult does not give a witch supernatural powers as I reckon them, but instructions are given, in rather veiled terms, in processes that develop various clairvoyant and other powers, in those who naturally possess them slightly. If they have none they can create none. Some of these powers are akin to magnetism, mesmerism and suggestion, and depend on the possibility of forming a sort of human battery, as it were, of combined human wills working together to influence persons or events at a distance. They have instructions in how to learn to do this by practice. It would take many people a long time, if I understand the directions aright… to a witch it is all MAGIC [Gardner’s emphasis], and magic is the art of getting results. To do this certain processes are necessary and the rites are such that these processes may be used. In other words, they condition you. This is the secret of the cult.”
-Gerald Gardner

Gardner quite implicitly tells us that one of the key parts of Wicca involves working with your coven and that this is the belief of the witches who initiated him. Indeed, he lets us know quite clearly that not only does the Wicca have secrets, but that their secret practices require a coven - they cannot be done without one.

”To do this certain processes are necessary and the rites are such that these processes may be used. In other words, they condition you. This is the secret of the cult.”

The secret rites of Wicca open up a person’s personal power and unite it with that of their coven. These rites teach and condition the individual to become stronger and more capable in this regard. To practice them requires a coven and these practices remain a secret of the Wiccan priesthood.

Okay, so we have explored the beliefs of Gardner as they were allegedly handed down to him by the New Forest Coven, and they quite clearly state that one must be initiated. The reasons for this are due to reverence for the Gods, personal protection, limiting potential harm and also because the rites of the Wicca are specifically designed to be utilised by a coven.
We also established earlier that “Wicca”, as a word, can only possibly apply to these practices. But when considering these practices in the way that we are, it would be sensible to consider whether any other witches out there may have passed down the teachings of the Wicca.
Again, we can explore Gardner’s own words:

“They are the people who call themselves the Wica, the ‘wise people’, who practice the age-old rites and who have, along with much superstition and herbal knowledge, preserved an occult teaching and working process which they themselves think to be magic or witchcraft.”
Gerald Gardner, Witchcraft Today

Okay, so according to Gardner the witches of the New Forest were following a religious path that had been handed down for a very long time. It would be fair to assume that over the course of that tradition, that religion had undergone some gradual changes that would make it unique, even if other lines existed elsewhere. The two would now be separate and different. Prof. Ronald Hutton does well to evidence that the existence of hereditary witchcraft dating back to ancient times is utterly unlikely and more than not such claims can be seen to be inaccurate at best, or just untrue at worst. So the idea of one such tradition surviving like this to modern day is unlikely, let alone several identical traditions spanning from the same source.
But we need not speculate about this, once more we can quote Gardner:

“To them the cult has existed unchanged from the beginning of time, though there is also a vague notion that the old people came form the East…”
-Gerald Gardner, 1954 (source: Wiccan Roots, by Philip Hesselton)

Here we can see that although they claim to have practiced an unbroken tradition, things have definitely been lost along the way, if only with regard to history.
Gardner also says:

“My great trouble in discovering what their beliefs were is that they have forgotten practically all about their God; all I can get is from the rites and prayers addressed to him.”
-Gerald Gardner, 1954 (source: Wiccan Roots, by Philip Hesselton)

Of course, Gardner is not implying that these witches do not know about their own God or that they don’t know who he is. Indeed, in the same quote Gardner is confirming that the passed down rites and prayers reveal who he is.
What Gardner is referring to is the history of the God and the religion. The witches essentially don’t know where they came from or who the first people were that worshipped their God. He confirms this later as he continues to explore their beliefs:

“The witches do not know the origin of their cult.”
-Gerald Gardner, 1954 (source: Wiccan Roots, by Philip Hesselton)

It is actually interesting to note that Gardner tends to move back and forth between the words “cult” and “religion” when he speaks of the Wicca. But it isn’t very hard to see why. He reveals to us in Witchcraft Today that he believes the Wicca to be a dieing cult and by all accounts it seems he was probably correct. Those identified as his coven mates were aging quickly and in no rush to initiate others into their line. By all accounts it seems that Gardner’s initiation was a rarity and that Wiccan covens were where few and on the decline, with members dieing within his lifetime.
He has been quoted as saying:

“How wonderful to think that these things still survive”
-Gerald Gardner (Source: Gerald Gardner: Witch, by Bracelin)

However, he was of the opinion that its survival was coming to an end and the idea of that was something that he didn’t want to entertain. This was the reason that he wanted to make the existence of the Wicca publicly known, so that he could quicken it.
But as we can see above, there were certain problems. Firstly the witches didn’t want too much to be known about their ways (a wish that Gardner honoured) and secondly they didn’t have a very clear understanding of their own history. Indeed, Gardner is quoted by Doreen Valiente as saying that the teachings that were handed down to him were fragmented and that he filled in the gaps himself. (Source: Witchcraft For Tomorrow, by Doreen Valiente).
However, we can see that Gardner (if he is taken at his word) had a strong motivation to reveal the existence of Wicca to the world, but he was also obliged to keep it a secret. So we have a rock and a hard place situation.
But as he says in Witchcraft Today, he worked with what he could, revealing a few basics of the religion, but making initiation a necessity to maintain its secrets – just as it was taught to him.

Gardner even goes to great lengths to maintain the traditional practices of initiation:

“The witches tell me: “The law always has been that power must be passed from man to woman or from woman to man, the only exception being when a mother initiates her daughter or a father his son, because they are part of themselves”. (The reason is that great love is apt to occur between people who go through the rites together.)”

Man to woman and woman to man remains the tradition by which initiations take place. But in this quote is also outlines another belief that makes initiation important. It is a transference of power – an energy exchange. The power of one witch to another.

Gardner effectively made the change from cult to religion. Although the beliefs of the Wicca before Gardner (still assuming there were any) would technically be defined as religious beliefs, the actual religion had been denigrated to the status of a small cult and a dieing one at that. Gardner revived it and took in from the status of cult up to recognised religion.

But we have to remember that regardless of anything, it is his religion. As has been shown, the teachings were fragmented, the history has been lost and all the original members from before Gardner are now long dead. All that remains is what Gardner learnt and what Gardner created from it. So nobody can lay claims to the teachings of Wicca, unless they came via him.

Gardner made Wicca initiatory and he made it so that the real teachings would only ever be revealed to those that were initiated. This practice maintains today by all those that have followed him in his lineage.
But this is not merely a matter of protecting secrets. No, it is also a matter of keeping a promise that Gardner made long ago. If the New Forest Coven existed, Gardner swore oaths to them that he would keep their secrets. This was the promise of a witch, but more importantly, it was the promise of a friend.
Initiation honours this promise and honours the promise of every Wiccan that has ever been initiated. With each new person the promise grows as each new person takes on the responsibility of upholding it. It is an issue of trust and of love.


Eclectic Wicca?

It’s established then, I feel, that the case has been made for the necessity of initiation in Wicca, whether based on pre-Gardnerian ideas or just upon those of Gardner. But how then to address the idea of “eclectic Wicca” and “self initiation”.

Well, let’s deal with the easy one first: Self Initiation.

“Self-initiation” is technically an incorrect term, but it is one that you may run into from time to time.
Initiation is a gift of acceptance. To be Initiated means that that a group that you don’t belong to is welcoming you into their fold. It is the opening of a door by another person and inviting you to step through.
You couldn’t declare yourself a Catholic Priest and you couldn’t give yourself a Knighthood. Initiation is the same; it is something that other people give to you, not something that you can give to yourself.
What people often refer to as “self-Initiation” is more correctly termed as a Dedication. This is when a person in a solitary capacity declares that they are going to follow a certain path or certain Gods, often by performing a personal ritual.
Dedication Rituals are absolutely fine for the solitary practitioner and a very good way to give your path a sense of personal meaning and structure, as well as an outspoken declaration to the Gods.

But a dedication like this does not make one a member of Wicca.
Referring back to Gardner, it is interesting to note that he doesn’t really refer to Wicca as a religion, instead he tends to refer to Wicca as a group of people.
This is actually very true to form for both Gardner and ancient Pagan religions. Today “Wicca” is often applied offhandedly to name or describe the religion, but in the strictest sense the religion itself doesn’t really have a name. Although Gardner may reference to Wicca and its beliefs, his implication is that Wicca is the people, not the beliefs and that those who are initiated become Wicca.
As I mentioned, this mirrors the practices of older Pagan religions. In ancient times, it was quite rare to name a religion, however certain groups within that religious community would have names. For example, the Celts didn’t really have a collective name for their religion, however the Druids acted as priests. Not everyone following those Gods and those practices was a Druid. No, Druids were specifically a priesthood of law keepers, lore keepers and advisers. The other people simply went by the name of their tribe. Equally, all of Athens may have paid worship to Dionysus, but there was no name for this “religion”. However, there was the Eleusian Mysteries, but that was a title specifically for the initiated members of that sect.
Wicca is the same. “Wicca” isn’t really the name of the religion, per sé, that is just simply how the religion has become known through ease of speech. But the word “Wicca” is a specific name for that priesthood. In all truth those outside the priesthood that choose to follow the same Gods, don’t actually have a name, but that doesn’t mean that they can just offhandedly take the name of the Priesthood if they aren’t in it.
A Wiccan is a member of the Wicca priesthood.

Gardner certainly seemed to recognised the distinction. When he spoke of Wicca, he did so not in a reference to a religion, but in regards to the people who were initiated into it and that practiced the initiatory rites of that priesthood.


Of course, there are those who, when considering solitary or eclectic practice, like to bring up the root word of “wicca” and “wicce”.
I’ve explained before why these words aren’t really applicable in the sense of Wicca, but of course people can be free to use them at their leisure.
These words are simply the old Anglo Saxon for “witch” and although it would be very odd to regress back into such a linguistic anachronism, it is the choice of the inidivual to do so if they so choose.
However, it must be pointed out that the words “wicca” and “wicce” are not the same as Wicca and do not mean the same thing. Fistly, both words are pronounced “witch-a” and not “wicka”, so when saying these words you sound totally different. Secondly, if you are using the words properly, then only a male can use the word “wicca” and a female has to use the word “wicce” when writing them. They are the sexual definers of the word and the correct way to use them.
But again, neither “wicca” nor “wicce” are in any way the same as Wicca, nor do they in any way imply a practice that is similar to Wicca. In actuality, the implication is that they describe something totally different from Wicca, as one would expect that if an old word is being used, then it is being used to describe something old. Wicca isn’t old and so the words “wicca” and “wicce” can’t be describing it.

Moving onto the subject of “eclectic Wicca” it is proper to examine the grammar of such a phrase.

The word “Wicca” is a noun. It is the name of a priesthood.
The word “eclectic” is an adjective and in this case defines the way in which one approaches Wicca, or implies that Wicca is the sphere within which one is eclectic.

Eclectic means to borrow freely from many different sources. That isn’t what Wicca is. Wicca is a defined religion that exists within a structure of practices and beliefs. Wicca is not eclectic.

If the term is taken to mean that one is eclectic within the confines of Wicca, then that becomes extremely problematic for the non-initiate. Being as there is only a very small amount of Wicca available to the public and it is often mixed up with things that aren’t Wicca at all, it becomes very hard to pick and choose eclectically and still retain a viable practice that is even slightly like Wicca. Basically, you would be taking a very small amount of available information and then skimming it down to even less. This would effectively make it even less Wicca than it was before.

In short, the term is a grammatical anomaly and makes no great sense.

It’s surely hard enough to practice a religion when you don’t know what it is. Practicing such a religion eclectically only makes it further from the target.



Evolution in Wicca

I have seen that there is common habit to suggest that non-initiated Wicca is in some way an evolution of Wicca, making it better and more than it was. Perhaps this is an ironic statement, being as non-initiatory practices only remove from Wicca and in actuality what they remove is the vast majority of the religion’s teachings and beliefs.
It is very difficult to see this as a positive evolution.

But the other problem with this view of Wicca “evolving” outside of initiation is that it completely reveals the ignorance of the real evolution that Wicca is undergoing by somehow suggesting that initiatory traditions are in some way static and unchanging. But the reality is quite to the contrary. That much is clearly evident by the fact that there are now initiated traditions beside Gardnerian Wicca, even though they all derive from Gardnerian Wicca through initiation.
But of course, the other evolutions within Wicca would require an intimate understanding of the real religion.
But we can once again to the words of Gerald Gardner, via Fred Lamond, to gain a little understanding as to how the priesthood progresses together:

“Gerald was always at pains to tell us: “The Book of Shadows’ is not a Bible or Koran, but a personal ‘cookbook’ or spells that the individual witch has found to work. I (Gerald) am giving you my book to copy to get you started: it contains the spells and rituals that worked for me. As you gain in experience, add the successful spells that you have made up, and discard those that didn’t work for you!”
-Fred Lamond, 50 Years of Wicca

I feel it is important at this point to explain what is being said here.
As has been discussed earlier, Gardner’s Book of Shadows is a secret text that defines the core of Wicca and every initiate copies it. It is the basis of Wiccan practice, beliefs, ritual, magic and tradition. As such it is the “core book” if you will and remains unchanged and the fundamental basis for all Wiccans within a coven.
The last line in the quote explains the practice of forming your own coven workings and magics, experimenting with the inner secrets of Wicca and finding what works for you. These things are recorded in a Wiccan’s personal Book of Shadows and those things that did not work a left out of their personal Book of Shadows. Again, the Gardnerian Book of Shadows is not changed, it forms the basis of the religious rites and the starting point for the individual within a coven and the coven entire.
Without access to the Book of Shadows and a coven with which to practice the rites within it, one cannot practice Wicca. As Gardner explained in our earlier quotes, a coven is necessary and the rites rely on a coven.

Wicca is also an experiential religion and requires the group on that level, as the rites are performed.
It has already been outlined that the rites that make up the core basis of what Wicca is, require a coven in order to be performed. But in this the coven becomes doubly significant. As an experiential religion the understanding of the mysteries derives from group practice and communal sharing.
The ritual space is sacred and those within it in many ways become one in their workings. Each person in the coven is an intrinsic part of the whole and each adds their energy, mind, power and understanding to the rites, then through this combined essence and inner unity, the mysteries become manifest and are explored.
The group is essentially a singular and united consciousness that exchanges freely between those within it and in that they become of the same essence.


This is the truth of Wicca, whether one believes it was created by Gardner or not. These are the practices, these are the beliefs. The secrets and majority of the religion are hidden and no one on the outside can practice them because of this. No one on the outside is Wiccan.

Wicca is the named priesthood of this faith. This is how it was created, either by tradition or intent, and this is how it remains today.



© Luthaneal Adams 2008

-isms and such

Animism -belief systems that attribute souls to animals, plants, and other non human entities in addition to humans.

Deism -supreme god, takes no roll in universal events.

Duotheism -two gods, complementary and equal

Ditheism -two gods, oppose each other and are equal

Henotheism -belief in and worship of one God without at the same time denying that others can with equal truth worship different gods

Monism -belief that everything can be taken down to one thing. ranging from the mind is not real to the physical is not real.

Monolatry -recognize existence of many gods, worship only one.

Monotheism -only one god. may have multiple facets of being. Christian -father, son, holy ghost.

Pandeism -god precedes the universe and is the universes creator but currently the universe is god but it will one day return to being only god and no universe.

Panentheism -god is the universe, plus extends beyond the universe. all nature is a part of god but god is not solely nature.

Pantheism -god is nature,

Polytheism -worship of multiple gods

Transtheism -an Absolute exists in trancendence over the gods.

Fideism -faith unaffected by reason, reason and rationality dont matter. only faith and revelations matter.

Fetishism -belief that an object has powers

Naturalism - everything labeled ’supernatural’ really isnt supernatural.

Pluralism - the universe is made up of several substances. -ex: greek -earth, water, fire, air.

Dualism -philosophy that some mental phenomena are non physical and related directly to the soul.

Shamanism -spirits effect the world, relationships can be formed, animals can bear omens, spirits can be good or bad.

Theism - deities exist, immanent yet trancendant; they are omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent

Nontheism -reject possibility of deities, atheism and agnostism are nontheistic. Not the same as irreligion.

Immanence - divine being acts within the universe

Trancendence - divine being is beyond the physical

Misotheism -hatred of gods

Polydeism -multiple gods, none of which are interested in the universe anymore.

Humanism -religion should not effect human affairs

Archetypalism - new view by neo pagans that gods are part of humanities joint unconsciousness, or ’oversoul’.

Atheism - as an explicit position, can be either the affirmation of the nonexistence of gods, or the rejection of theism. It is also defined more broadly as synonymous with any form of nontheism, including the simple absence of belief in deities.

Agnosticism - is the philosophical view that the truth value of certain claims — particularly metaphysical claims regarding theology, afterlife or the existence of God, gods, deities, or even ultimate reality — is unknown or, depending on the form of agnosticism, inherently impossible to prove or disprove.

Ietsism - An unspecified belief in some higher force , a range of beliefs held by people who, on the one hand, inwardly suspect - or indeed believe - that there is “More between Heaven and Earth” than we know about, but on the other hand do not necessarily accept or subscribe to the established belief system, dogma or view of the nature of God offered by any particular religion.

Ignosticism - the theological position that every other theological position (including agnosticism) assumes too much about the concept of God and many other theological concepts. An ignostic cannot even say whether he is a theist or a nontheist until a better definition of theism is put forth.

Gnosticism - a diverse, syncretistic religious movement consisting of various belief systems generally united in the teaching that humans are divine souls trapped in a material world created by an imperfect god, the demiurge, who is frequently identified with the Abrahamic God, called "Yahweh" or "Jahveh", for the true name of God is the ineffable tetragrammaton.

Nihilism - They claim that there is no reasonable proof or argument for the existence of a higher ruler or creator, or posit that even if a higher ruler or creator exists, humanity has no moral obligation to worship them.

Solipsism - an epistemological or metaphysical position that knowledge of anything outside the mind is unjustified.

Omnitheism- also called soft polytheism, all gods are a smaller reflection of one supreme divine being.

Spiritism - all souls are fragments of God

"ron"ism - deities are a manifestation of their believers energies.

copied from Ajay

Choosing a Craft Name

It is traditional to choose a name when entering the Craft. This needs to be a name that you feel is completely you (especially, magickally speaking). It is not necessary that it match your birth number, that is a preference left up to individuals. In some cases, if a candidate for initiation does not pick a name, the initiator may choose one, under the guidance of the gods, of course.

A Craft name is a symbol of your re-birth into the Craft. It is a sign of all you are and all you aspire to be, so think on it carefully. There are some Witches who keep their name secret, revealing it only to coven-mates or other trusted Witch friends (because many believe that to know someone’s true name is to have power over them). There are others who openly use their Craft name among the general Pagan populace. There are still others who take two different names, a private Craft name and a public one (Inner Circle and Outer Circle names).

One of the origins of taking a new name, according to Craft lore, was to ensure secrecy and safety. If no one in the coven knew anyone else’s true name, it made it impossible to betray them to the Witch-finders.

Symbolic Meaning of Names


Symbolic Meanings of Names

Afghani
Badria: Moonlike
Mallalai: Beautiful
Palwasha: Spark of light
Roxanna: Sparkling
Shahla: Beautiful eyes



Arabian
Akilah ("ah KEE lah"): Intelligent
Anan: Clouds
Falak: Star
Fatin ("FAH teen"): Captivating
Hana: Happiness
Hilel: The new moon
Sabir: Patient
Shadi: Singer
Talib: Seeker
Umm: Mother



Armenian
Anahid: Goddess of the moon
Astrid: Star
Nairi: Land of canyons
Siran: Lovely



Basque
Izar: Star
Lur: Earth
Nora: Greek, Light
Pellkita: Latin, Happy



Burmese
Mima: Woman
Mya: Emerald



Cambodian
Chan: Sweet-smelling tree
Chantrea ("CHAN thee ay"): Moonshine
Dara: Stars



Danish
Asta: Greek, Star



Ethiopian
Desta: Happiness
Fannah: Fun
Seble: Autumn



Finnish
Ametisti ("AH may tis tea"): Amethyst
Eeva : Life
Haltijatar ("HAHL ti yah tahr"): Fairy
Haukka ("HOUK kah"): Hawk
Joki ("YOA key"): River
Jumalatar ("YOU mah lah tar"): Goddess
Kalevi ("KAHL ev ee"): Hero
Kesa ("KAY sah"): Summer
Kevat ("KAY vaht"): Spring
Kuu ("KOO"): The moon
Lilja ("LEEL yah"): Lily
Linna: Castle
Luuta: Broom
Maaginen ("MAA gi nayn"): Magic
Metsa ("MAYT sa"): Forest
Noita ("NOI tah"): Witch
Moituus ("NOI tooss"): Witchcraft, magic
Onnellinen ("OAN nayl li nayn"): Happy
Onyksi ("OA newk si"): Onyx
Satu ("SAH too"): Fairy tale
Syksy ("SEWK sew"): Autumn
Talvi ("TAHL vi"): Winter
Timantti ("TI mahnt ti"): Diamond
Vesiputous ("VAY si poo toa ooss"): Waterfall



French
Artur: Celtic, Noble, Bear man
Blaise: Latin, Stammerer
Candide: Pure white
Demitri: Greek, Goddess of the harvest
Denis: Greek, God of wine
Fantine: Childlike
Gustave: Teutonic, Staff of Gods
Isidore: Greek, A gift of ideas
Marlon: Little falcon
Morgance/Morgane: Sea-dweller
Natacha/Nathalie: Born at Yule
Sylvie/Sylvianne: From the forest
Tatiana: Russian, Fairy queen
Vivien/Vivienne: Lively



Greek
Aretha: Nymph
Calandra: Lark
Charis ("KAHR is"): Love
Cloris: Goddess of flowers
Damia: Goddess of the forces of nature
Delia: Goddess of the moon
Kalliope ("kahl ee O pee"): Beautiful voice
Medea: Part Goddess, part sorceress
Silas/Silvanos: Forest
Thea: Goddess
Vanessa: Butterfly



Hawaiian
Haimi: The seeker
Kahoku ("kuh HOH koo"): The star
Kaili ("kah EE lee"): Hawaiian deity
Kala ("kuh LAH"): Sun, Princess
Kalama: Flaming torch
Kali ("KAH lee"): Spear carrier
Kele: Seahorse
Kolika: From the ocean
Konane ("ko NAH neh"): Bright as moonlight
Laka: Goddess of the hula
Lani: Sky
Leilani: Sky child
Lono: God of peace and farming
Luana: Enjoyment
Lukela ("loo KEH luh"): Like a fox
Mahina: Moon
Makani: Wind
Mana: Supernatural power
Mapuana ("mah poo AH nuh"): Wind-blown fragrance
Nahele ("nah HEH leh"): Forest, grove of trees
Peni ("PEH ne"): Weaver



Indian
Aditi: Goddess Ambar: Sky
Ambika: Goddess of power and destruction
Amma: Mother Goddess
Amritha: God
Anala: Fire
Anila: Wine God
Chandra: Moon; Moon God
Ellama: Mother Goddess
Ganesha ("guy NAY shuh"): God of good luck and wisdom
Guri: Goddess of abundance
Hema: Daughter of the mountains
Indra: God of power
Manda: God of the occult
Matrika: Mother
Mitra: God of daylight
Sesha: Symbol of time
Sita: Mother earth Goddess
Soma: Moon



Italian
Argento: Silver
Capra: Goat
Cascata: Waterfall
Chiaro di Luna: Moonlight
Corrente: Stream, current
Dea: Goddess
Dio: God
Incanto: Witchery
Luce stellare: Starlight
Luna: Moon
Magico: Magician
Maliardo: Sorcerer
Mistico: Mystic
Mita: Myth
Pagano: Pagan
Quercia: Oak
Raggio lunare: Moonbeam
Salice: Willow
Scintillante: Twinkling
Scintillare: Twinkle
Sirena: Mermaid
Stella: Star
Stellato: Starlit
Strega: Female Witch
Stregone: Male Witch
Stregoneria: Witchcraft
Sucente: Starlike



Irish Girl’s Names
Affrica: Pleasant
Arienh ("A reen"): Pledge
Bebhinn ("BEH vin"): Melodious lady
Briana: Strong
Bride: Strength
Caitlin ("KAT leen or "KATE lin"): Pure
Erin: Peace
Fiona ("FEE oh nah" or "FEE nah"): White, fair
Glynis: Valley
Grainne ("GROH nyuh"): Grace
Ide ("EED uh"): Thirst
Kelly: Warrior
Kennocha ("ken OH kuh"): Beauty
Kerry/Keriann: Dark-haired
Lasairiona ("las a REE nuh"): Flame wine
Luighseach ("LOO seh"): Bringer of life
Mave: Mirth
Mavelle: Songbird
Morgan: Sea dweller
Moya: Great
Rowena: White mane
Sheena: God’s gift
Siobhan ("shuh VAHN"): Gracious
Sorcha: Clear, bright
Tara: Tower
Una ("OO nuh"): Unity



Irish Boy’s Names
Aidan: Flame, fiery
Aindreas ("AHN dree ahs"): Manly
Artur: Noble, bear man
Baird: Ballad singer
Bevan: Youthful warrior
Brenainn ("BREH neen"): Sword
Brendan: Raven
Broin ("bree AHN"): Raven
Carlin: Little champion
Cillian/Killian ("KEEL yan"): War
Conroy: Wise man
Conway: Hound of the plain
Corey: From the hollow
Cullan/Collin: Handsome
Dagda: Good God
Daibheid ("DEH vid"): Beloved
Dallas: Wise
Daray: Dark
Devin: A poet
Donagh: High king
Donahue: Dark warrior
Donovan: Dark warrior
Duncan: Dark man
Erin: Peace
Evan: Young warrior
Faolan/Felan ("FEH lahn"): Wolf
Farrell: Courageous
Farry: Manly
Ferris: The rock
Fionan ("FIN ee ahn"): Fair
Gannon: Fair of face
Glen: Valley
Innis: Island
Kearney: Warrior
Keegan: Little and fiery one
Logan: From the hollow
Maghnus ("MAKH nus"): Great
Mannix: Monk
Nealon: Champion
Nolan: Famous
Padraig ("PAH dreek"): Noble
Rory: Famous ruler
Scully: Town crier
Sean/Shawn/Shane: God’s gift
Searlas ("SHAR las"): Full-grown: manly
Wynne: White, fair



Kenyan
Barika: Bloom
Dalila ("dah LEE lah"): Gentle
Machupa ("mah CHOO pah"): Likes to drink
Makalani ("mah kah LAH nee"): One skilled in writing
Mwassaa ("m wah SAH"): Timely
Paka: Pussycat
Pili ("PEE lee"): Second-born
Sadiki ("sah DEE kee"): Faithful
Sanura ("sah NOO rah"): Kitten
Shani ("SHAH nee"): Marvellous
Sikudhani ("see koo THAN nee"): A surprise



Latin
Ardere: Fire
Astrum: Star
Deus: God
Dia: Goddess
Diva: Goddess
Divus: God
Fabula: Myth
Lumen: Star
Luna: Moon
Lunae Lumen: Moonlight
Magice: Magic
Paganus: Pagan
Quercus: Oak
Saga: Witch
Sagus: Prophetic
Siderbus Inlustris: Starlight
Stella: Star



Native North American
Aleshanee: She plays all the time
Amitola: Rainbow
Aponi: Butterfly
Awenasa: Cherokee. My home
Awenita: Fawn
Ayita: Cherokee. First in the dance
Elsu: Falcon flying
Enola: Alone
Gaho: Mother
Hadan: Fiery
Hinun ("hee NOON"): God of clouds and rain
Iye ("EE yeh"): Smoke
Jacy: Moon; creator of all plants
Kachina: Sacred dancer
Kai: Willow tree
Karmiti: Trees
Kaya: My elder sister
Kimama: Butterfly
Leotie ("leh o TEE eh"): Prairie flower
Litonya: Hummingbird darting
Lulu: Rabbit
Luna: Moon
Macawi: Motherly
Macha: Aurora
Mahal: Woman
Mahkah: Earth
Mamid: The star dancer
Mascha: Owl
Masou ("mah SO OO"): Fire deity
Meda: Prophet
Miakoda: Power of the moon
Migina: Returning moon
Mimiteh: New moon
Nahimana: Mystic
Nasnan: Surrounded by a song
Nata-Akon: Expert canoeist
Niabi: Fawn
Nidawi: Fairy girl
Nita: Bear
Nova: Chasing a butterfly
Nuna: Land
Onatah: Corn spirit, daughter of the earth
Orenda: Magic power
Pelipa: Lover of horses
Raini: Deity who created the world
Satinka: Magic dancer
Sedna: Goddess of food
Snana: Jingles like little bells
Tadewi: Wind
Taigi: Returning new moon
Taima: Crash of thunder
Taini: Coming new moon
Tala: Wolf
Tama: Thunderbolt
Tateeyopa: Happy hostess, her door
Tuwa: Earth
Waitilanni: Wonder water
Wakanda: Inner magical power


Scandinavian
Davin ("DAH vin"): The brightness of the Finns
Disa: Active spirit
Freya ("FRAY yah"): After Goddess Freyja
Kaia ("KAH ee ah"): From Gaia, earth Goddess
Karen ("KAH rehn"): Pure (also Kari, Karine, Katinka, Trine)



Scottish
Aaid: Magpie
Baird: Poet
Blair: Child of the fields
Cameron: Crooked nose
Campbell: Crooked mouth
Coleen: Girl
Duncan: Dark-skinned warrior
Gaisgeil: Heroic, brave
Geasachd: Enchantment, astrology
Geasadair: Wizard
Gointe: Bewitched, fay
Grian: Sun
Grianchrisos: Zodiac
Grianghamhstad: Winter Solstice
Grianghath: Sunbeam
Muir: Sea
Muireannach: Female champion
Muirn: Joy
Murdachan: Mermaid
Orra: Charm, amulet
Orraidheachd: Enchantments
Orrtha: Music or bewitchery
Orrthannan: Enchantment
Osran: Peace
Pogadh: Kissing
Ruis: Elder tree
Sgaileach: Shadowy, ghost-like
Suil: Willow tree
Uilioc: Mistletoe
Uchdbhan: Fair-breasted
Ur: Yew tree

Copied from Mark Sumpter

The Wiccan Rede: Law or Guideline?

After posting on some pagan forums for some time, I noticed a tendency for some Wiccans to try and follow the rede to the letter, giving little thought to what the rede actually means or what following it so closely would entail. I decided to pursue this further as I sometimes like to do with Wiccan concepts.

As I found from previous research, the rede originated (unsurprisingly given Wicca's close ties with Thelema and Golden Dawn) from Aleister Crowley's phrase "Do as thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. Love is the law, love under will". It has been shaped into the rhyming couplet that most Wiccans now follow: "Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfill, and it harm none, do as thou will".

My approach to the rede has always been that it is not a hard and fast rule but a guideline. Think of it as one of those bumpers you have down the side of bowling alleys. The ball may veer off course a little but the bumper helps it back on track. This is how I believe the rede works: as a bumper to keep us from veering too far off the path.

I have never believed that following the rede means that you cannot ever do anything harmful. I fully believe that it is there to give you cause for thought over what you are about to do and decide for yourself whether you are willing to accept the consequences that it brings. It is there as a guide for you to weigh up the pros and cons of each course of action. If you really feel strongly about inflicting harm on someone or something for whatever reason, are you willing to accept the responsibility for your actions?

I'm often fond of quoting Doreen Valiente in the context of this subject: "A witch who can't curse, can't cure". To me, this implies that the willingness to harm when necessary must be there in order to balance out the good than you can do. I believe that to deny darker urges in ourselves and to suppress them is to suppress the balance we need and to suppress what comes naturally to us. Just as leaning too far towards the darker aspects are bad for us in the long run, so equally I believe leaning too far into only the "happy, shiny" side can be as bad. Hence, we have a guide to keep us balanced and content.

I have also noticed that, when quoting the rede in the context of a problem, people have a tendency to apply the rede to others and forget to apply it to themselves. Of course, application of the rede to the self, if taken as a law, can be taken to the extreme, i.e. not drinking, not smoking, not doing any dangerous sports etc. Likewise, not taking yourself into consideration in a given situation would equally well go against the rede. The spark of the divine is also in ourselves and we should be protecting ourselves.

The thing that really tips me towards using the rede as a guide and not a law is the fact that for it to be a law, everyone would have to apply the same set of ideals and beliefs to themselves. This would be in much the same way that the Ten Commandments are a specific set of DO NOT's. Of course, we know that the rede is not a specific instruction and leaves room for individuality and for common sense.

I am certainly working further on this and delving further into this for my own curiousity, but in conclusion, I believe the rede to be a guideline and not a hard and fast rule. It's there to help us decide whether the benefits of an action we take outweigh the negatives. It is not only there to help us in our magical lives but also our every day lives. I believe it can be taken to the extreme but if used as I think it was intended, can lead to harmonious and balanced living.


When I wrote this last one, I was actually unaware of Gardner's own admission that the rede was based on the story of King Pausol and not on Crowley's Thelemic law. Live and learn eh? ;)

Copied from Spunky

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Wicca - An Overview

Wicca is an earth-based mystery religion, which was formed from various sources (Thelema, Golden Dawn, The Goetia and Clavicula Salomonis, as well as native British and European religions, such as Celtic practice) by Gerald Gardner in the 1930's - 1940's and brought into the public eye with the publication of his "fiction" work, High Magic's Aid in 1949, published under the pseudonym of Scire. In 1954, following the repeal of the Witchcraft Act in England, he published a further work, namely Witchcraft Today. Thus the religion was brought firmly into the public eye.

Wicca in it's original form (what is now known as British Traditional Wicca/ Witchcraft or Gardnerian/ Alexandrian Wicca) is an initiatory religion, which is oathbound, practiced in a coven and is essentially a priesthood. With the rise in popularity of Wicca through popular culture and the increase in publications on the subject, it is now fair to say that there are two forms of Wicca. The first remains the initiatory form and the second comprises those paths inspired by the first form, which are not necessarily initiatory but are often solitary or eclectic and often involves a self-dedication ritual by the practitioner to their chosen deities.

Initiatory Wicca is a coven based practice. Dedicants or seekers to this path will undergo a basic training period, which works in two ways. Firstly it determines whether Wicca is for them and whether the coven they are training with is the right group for them, and secondly it determines whether the coven themselves are comfortable with the trainee. Once this has been determined, the dedicant or seeker may ask the group for initiation. The coven will generally never push this issue and it is up to the individual to ask for this. When initiation has been asked for there is usually a slightly more indepth training period, designed to provide more knowledge and also for the individual to change their mind if they so wish. This period is usually set at a year and a day by default but is more often tailored to the needs of the individual. Some may take longer to be initiated, others just a few months.

The initiation itself is a rebirth and is effectively opening the doors to the mysteries beyond. It is up to the individual to follow the path through those doors. Initiation requires that the individual take an oath of secrecy, that is to say that they must not reveal certain information gained beyond initiation save to a verified brother or sister of the Craft. The person is also given the title of Priest/ Priestess and Witch and thus begins their training as a full coven member with access to the information within, though obviously only as far as their degree allows.

There are three degrees within Wicca and it is following your second degree initiation, when you become a High Priest or Priestess that you are able to teach, to lead rituals and in some traditions, to hive off and form a separate coven. At this level of training you are considered competent enough to work with the material under your own steam, though it goes without saying that it is a constant learning process and your spiritual development always be ongoing.


The religion of Wicca itself is split into two halves; that of the religion and that of the practice of witchcraft. Individuals within Wicca practice both to a greater or lesser extent.

In it's basic form, Wicca is an earth-based fertility religion, encompassing the concepts of divine masculine and divine feminine and the balance inherent in this (i.e. dark/ light, male/ female, life/death etc). The deities are approached in the forms of a tri-une Goddess (being three in one, Maiden, Mother Crone) and a di-une God (being two in one, Lord of Light and Life and Lord of Death and Resurrection). The God and Goddess follow the seasonal cycles, from birth to death to rebirth and so on, as well as following our own life cycles. Wiccans see life as cyclical and the seasonal festivals reflect this. The following post will give details of what the seasonal festivals and what they mean to Wiccans.

Wiccans celebrate eight seasonal rites per year relating to the cycle of the God and Goddess and these are known as sabbats. Where possible they will also celebrate moon rites (usually held at either full moon or dark of the moon but not exclusively) known as esbats. Although Wiccans can do magical workings (spells/ spellcraft) at seasonal rituals, this type of work is often saved for the esbats unless the working has a purpose relating to a seasonal ritual.

Within traditional covens, rituals are usually held with the members being skyclad (naked) and this is for a number of reasons. Many people believe that being unclothed allows the person to feel nuances in energies, something that Wiccans work with a lot. It is also an expression of "Perfect Love and Perfect Trust" amongst the members of the group and with other Wiccans who may be visiting that group.

Although Wicca does have specific beliefs, tenets and practices, it does not have any rules, besides those which are common sense. Two aspects of Wicca are often mistakenly given the title of rules or laws, and these are the Wiccan Rede ("And it harm none, do as thou will" - this was taken from a law within Thelema - "Do as thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. Love is the law, love under will"), and Threefold Return, the idea that whatever action you take will return to you threefold, good or bad. Both of these are guidelines and are there to give the individual cause to ponder their actions and to take responsibility for any repercussions. They are not there to say you must never do anything bad, after all, it was Doreen Valiente herself who said "a witch who can't curse, can't cure". This again ties in with the concept of balance within Wicca. It is not to say that unless you curse someone or take an unpleasant course of action, you won't be able to do good, it is simply saying that the willingness to take a course of action, good or bad, must be there in order for you to balance yourself.

Wicca is also a fertility religion. It places a large amount of importance on the concepts of fertility and life within the natural world and of the relationship between God and Goddess, and thus there is a large amount of importance on intimacy between men and women. This is not to say that Wiccans hold orgies or are promiscuous people, but that sex is a sacred act and is a celebration of the joining of God and Goddess as well as being a powerful magical act in it's own right. This is of course one of the reasons that Wiccan covens do not initiate under 18's.

Copied from Spunky

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Wicca and Initiation


There is often a great deal of dissension over the issue of Wicca and initiation. Many people believe that you can be a Wiccan without initiating or that a person can perform a "self-initiation", while others (mostly Wiccan) declare that initiation is definitely needed and that self-initiation is generally a ridiculous concept.
So which is it, really?


In many ways a lot of this really does just boil down to one question:

Do you believe Gardner?

Once that question is answered, all other questions and answers slide firmly into place. Though it is ironic and perhaps somewhat fitting, that whether your answer is “yes” or “no”, we still arrive to the same destination. All that differs is the journey that is taken in getting there.

So, we’ll begin with this question and start of at the easiest answer:

Do you believe Gardner?
“No.”

If you don’t believe that Gardner was really initiated into a coven of witches, with reference to Wica, as he claimed, then the situation automatically becomes very simple to resolve. For if he wasn’t really initiated, then that would mean that he created the entire religion himself (though using other sources as influences) and that there was no Wicca/Wica before him.

If this is the case then what can we take away from that? Well first of all we immediately get a distinct view onto what Gardner’s intentions for the religion really were. After all, he created it and he could make it anything he wanted. But in this scenario he made it a mystery religion, in which the only way to practice it was through initiation.
Obviously this is no accident. On the contrary, it is a direct reference for what he intended the religion to be and what he wanted it to be. If he wanted to make it open to everyone, then he could do, but he didn’t. He knew full well what a mystery religion was and had connections to a good few other initiatory organisations.
So from the view of Wicca originating only from Gardner, we can see directly that it was only ever intended for initiates.


But, we can’t just end it there. Though we will take a brief intermission to acknowledge that it is among the foremost opinions that Gardner was probably not initiated into a witch cult as he described and that he instead created Wicca from a combination of the folklore he knew, the influence of the works of Margaret Murray, the influence of OTO teachings, his personal interest in naturalism, Thelema and no doubt a good few other sources that I have neglected here.
It’s worth mentioning this here, as the works of scholars such as Ronald Hutton are not to be absently ignored. Indeed, Prof. Hutton has done extensive research in this area and indeed, in the area of studying historical witchcraft in general and remains the foremost expert on the subject today.
For further references to this line of enquiry and an examination of Prof. Hutton’s work, read his book “Triumph of the Moon”.


Now, with that said, lets try and tackle the more difficult subject of examining Gardner’s intentions for Wicca, while allowing for the possibility that his own claims to initiation into a witch cult were true.

When approaching this, there are several angles that need to be considered:
Who were these supposed witches and what was the nature of their craft?
What was Gerald Gardner’s relationship to them?
What was their view/tradition regarding initiation and the Wicca?
This last question is very relevant in that its answer will help us to understand not only the traditions that Gardner may have been following, but also the beliefs regarding initiation that were held by the first traceable followers of Wicca and just what initiation may have meant to them. Unfortunately we have no direct words from these witches (at least, not on matters of witchcraft) but we do have the words of Gardner and what he told us about them. But this will be sufficient, as we can all agree that Gardner is the root of the issue and it is his handed down practices that are being followed today.
But before anything, we must tackle that first question:

Who were these supposed witches and what was the nature of their craft?

The identity of the people of the New Forest Coven, to whom Gardner claimed his initiation, cannot be determined with absolute certainty. But although researchers both within and without Wicca have provided us with some very likely candidates, I’ll not spend too much time arguing the different ideas about who was who. For our purposes here it is enough to say that these witches, according to Gardner, had known him for a quite a while and that they lived in or around the area of the New Forest and Christchurch.
But what of their practices? Well Gardner has given us a fair amount of insight into their workings, from his initiation and onwards. For this we can refer to Gardner’s account per Bracelin:

“Gardner felt delighted that he was being let into their secret. Thus it was that, a few days after the war had started, he was taken to a big house in the neighbourhood. This belonged to ‘Old Dorothy’….
….it was in this house that he was initiated into witchcraft. He was very amused at first, when he was stripped naked and brought into a place ‘properly prepared’ to undergo his initiation.
It was half way through when the word Wica was first mentioned: “and I (Gardner) knew that that which I had thought burnt out hundreds of years ago still survived.
… I soon found myself in the circle and took the usual oaths of secrecy which bound me not to reveal any secrets of the cult.”

In just this short account we are able to gather a wealth of information to help us.
We know from this that the practices of these witches were kept secret, so much so in fact that Gardner didn’t even know what he was being initiated into until he was already half way into initiation. We now also know that if these witches existed as Gardner claims, then they definitely had rites of initiation that were needed to be undergone in order to be “let into the secret”. Perhaps more significant though, is that these witches referred to themselves as Wica.
Now, Gardner’s reaction to the word shows us that he was familiar with the old term and its connotations. However, it also implies that both he and they were unaware of how it was pronounced back in the Anglo-Saxon. This leads us to one of two possible conclusions here:
1) Either the pronunciation of the word had changed among this line of witches, so that now it was a different and new word, which now obviously only referred to them.
2) Or, that the word Wica, as used by them, didn’t actually have any connection to the old Anglo-Saxon and so it was still only relevant to them and their practices.

Either way we have a situation in which we have already established that their practices were secret and required initiation, and that the word Wica/Wicca can only refer to their secret hereditary practices.

One could use this alone as a case to drop the subject here and now, acknowledging that Gardner simply maintained this tradition of initiation and secrecy. But there is a lot more information available to us with which we can build a more complete picture as to exactly what their practices were in regards to initiation.

But first, let us stay on the matter of secrecy and examine the answer to our second question:

What was Gerald Gardner’s relationship to these witches?

Well, if we take Gardner at his word, then we already know that he was initiated by them and so thusly he and they were coven mates. But before we look into Gardner’s relationship with them as an initiate, we would probably do well to take a moment to examine their relationship before initiation. As Bracelin records:

“… I would have gone through Hell and high water even then for any of them.”
-Gerald Gardner on his feelings for the New Forest Coven even before being initiated into them (source: Gerald Gardner: Witch, by Jack Bracelin).

Obviously Gardner felt very strongly for these people and as researchers like Phillip Hessleton have shown us in their works, Gardner had a long association with these witches and that this close relationship was built over time. But exactly how close was this relationship?

“I fell in love with a witch when we were fire-watching together during the war.”
-Gerald Gardner to Ralph Merrifield, Deputy Director of the Museum of London, upon asking Gardner where he had learnt his witchcraft.

It is clear to see that Gardner had very strong feelings for the first of these witches that he encountered and although it seems reasonably clear that no lasting romance existed between himself and the afore mentioned witch (probably Edith Woodford Grimes), we do know that he did maintain an extremely close friendship with her and her family, even giving away her daughter at her daughter’s wedding. This event is listed in official records.

It is important to understand at this point that Gardner’s initiation wasn’t taken lightly. No, these witches had known him for a long time and never even mentioned the Craft to him. They kept him in the dark all the while.
We have a picture being painted here. Gardner kept it no secret that he had an interest in the occult and folklore, yet these witches never at any point before initiation even so much as mentioned the Wicca to their good friend. This alone speaks to its secrecy, but it also speaks of what is required for initiation, both then and now. The witches needed to be absolutely comfortable with him and to truly feel that they could bring him into the fold.
Initiation requires trust and love. These things develop over time.

But the nature of their relationship remains an important key in many regards, even after his initiation.

We have seen that secrecy is a necessity to these witches and that oaths were taken that their secret information should not be revealed. But as we know from the existence of his books, Gardner (already a published author), wished to share the existence of the cult with other people via his books.
By all accounts it seems to have been Gardner who broached the subject with them, regarding publishing information on the Wicca and by all accounts they were apposed to the idea.

“…I wanted to tell of my discovery. But I was met with a determined refusal. ‘The Age of Persecution is not over’, they told me, ‘give anyone half a chance and the fires will blaze up again’. When I said to one of them, ‘Why do you keep all these things so secret still? There is no persecution nowadays!’ I was told, ‘Oh, isn’t there? If people knew what I was, every time a child in the village was ill, or somebody’s chickens died, I should get the blame for it. Witchcraft doesn’t pay for broken windows.”
-Gerald Gardner, Witchcraft Today

However, there was eventually a compromise made, as Gardner was given permission to publish some information, but only if it was in the form of fiction. This, of course, leads us to his first book on Wicca, which was called “High Magic’s Aid”.

The witches seemed to be okay with this work of fiction and so followed his book “Witchcraft Today”.

By his own account he went to great lengths to keep secret information out of the book, not just because it was a matter of oath, but because he had so much love and respect for his friends in the New Forest Coven:

“In writing this book, I soon found myself between Scylla and Charybdis. If I said too much, I ran the risk of offending people I had come to highly regard as friends. If I said too little, the publishers would not be interested. In this situation I did the best I could.”
-Gerald Gardner, The Meaning of Witchcraft, referring to his earlier book, Witchcraft Today.

It would seem that the witches were pleased enough with High Magic’s Aid and that later they allowed for a little more flexibility when he came to write Witchcraft Today. However, they were also adamant that no secrets were to be revealed in the book. Perhaps they had seen that his works could be a positive medium to keep their name clean. Gardner quotes of them:

“Write and tell people we are not perverts. We are decent people, we only want to be left alone.”
Anonymous witch, quoted by Gerald Gardner in Witchcraft Today.

Gardner seems more than happy to honour this request, both to give Wicca a good name and to ensure that they are just left alone. Indeed, Gardner never personally reveals the identity of any member of the New Forest Coven, except by using pseudonyms.

“Now, I simply wont let my friends, the people who trusted me, be bothered and badgered about…”
-Gerald Gardner, 1952 (source: Wiccan Roots, by Philip Hesselton)

This, once more, goes to show the close levels of trust and respect that exist within a coven, but it also goes to show that Gardner had respect for their tradition of secrecy and understood their need for it.

But it is deeper than that. In Witchcraft Today, Gardner informs us that in the beliefs of the Wicca, the need for initiation and secrecy goes far beyond a simple fear of persecution:

“…witches have a firmly rooted belief in their own powers, and the danger of these being misused if uninitiated people learn the methods. Also, they reverence their Gods, and do not wish their names to be known, or bandied about and mocked.”
-Gerald Gardner, Witchcraft Today

Indeed, even today the names of the Wiccan God and Goddess are not revealed to the uninitiated and they are not known to the public. One could argue that this alone makes for a difficult case in regard to uninitiated practice. Fore it is difficult to worship the deities of the Wicca, when you don’t even know who they are…

So we can see that the need for initiation exist as an act of devotion and respect for the Gods of the Wicca, but also in order to keep their magical secrets and rites from being practiced by those who may misuse them.
I am reminded of the Wiccan Rede: “An it harm none, do as thou will.”
Gardner tells us this is the morality of the witches and so it would seem that initiation is also a means to limit potential magical harm.

“…they do not wish it to be known how they raise power.”
-Gerald Gardner, Witchcraft Today

It would seem fair to conclude that this reverence for the divine and desire to do no harm is as true today as was in Gardner’s day. So it is no great surprise that the tradition of initiation is maintained and the inner mysteries of the Wicca remain hidden.

“If I were to disclose all their rituals, I think that it would be easy to prove that witches are not diabolists; but the oaths are solemn and the witches are my friends. I would not want to hurt their feelings. They have secrets which to them are sacred. They have good reason for their secrecy.”
-Gerald Gardner, Witchcraft Today

Good reason indeed. And as a man who was more than familiar with mystery religions, he surely understood better than most.
But as a friend and initiate himself, he respected these secrets and maintained them.

Okay, so we have established quite well that secrecy and initiation were very sacred to the Wicca (assuming they existed before Gardner), but we can even go deeper than that.
Earlier I asked the question: What was their view/tradition regarding initiation and the Wicca?
Well we have already explored a lot of their views and traditions in this regard, but the views so far regard the meaning of being initiated as opposed to being uninitiated. But through Gardner’s words we can also explore the meaning and purpose of initiation within the Wicca. Gardner tells us:

“We ever pick out those who have a little inherent power and teach them, and they practice one with the other and they develop their powers.”
Anonymous witch, quoted by Gerald Gardner in Witchcraft Today.

“…it is no use trying to develop these powers unless you have time and a suitable partner..”
-Gerald Gardner, Witchcraft Today

“They say that witches by constant practice can train their wills to blend this nerve force, or whatever it is, and that their united wills can project this as a beam of force, or that they can use it in other ways to gain clairvoyance, or even to release the astral body.”
-Gerald Gardner, Witchcraft Today

“Being initiated into the witch cult does not give a witch supernatural powers as I reckon them, but instructions are given, in rather veiled terms, in processes that develop various clairvoyant and other powers, in those who naturally possess them slightly. If they have none they can create none. Some of these powers are akin to magnetism, mesmerism and suggestion, and depend on the possibility of forming a sort of human battery, as it were, of combined human wills working together to influence persons or events at a distance. They have instructions in how to learn to do this by practice. It would take many people a long time, if I understand the directions aright… to a witch it is all MAGIC [Gardner’s emphasis], and magic is the art of getting results. To do this certain processes are necessary and the rites are such that these processes may be used. In other words, they condition you. This is the secret of the cult.”
-Gerald Gardner

Gardner quite implicitly tells us that one of the key parts of Wicca involves working with your coven and that this is the belief of the witches who initiated him. Indeed, he lets us know quite clearly that not only does the Wicca have secrets, but that their secret practices require a coven - they cannot be done without one.

”To do this certain processes are necessary and the rites are such that these processes may be used. In other words, they condition you. This is the secret of the cult.”

The secret rites of Wicca open up a person’s personal power and unite it with that of their coven. These rites teach and condition the individual to become stronger and more capable in this regard. To practice them requires a coven and these practices remain a secret of the Wiccan priesthood.

Okay, so we have explored the beliefs of Gardner as they were allegedly handed down to him by the New Forest Coven, and they quite clearly state that one must be initiated. The reasons for this are due to reverence for the Gods, personal protection, limiting potential harm and also because the rites of the Wicca are specifically designed to be utilised by a coven.
We also established earlier that “Wicca”, as a word, can only possibly apply to these practices. But when considering these practices in the way that we are, it would be sensible to consider whether any other witches out there may have passed down the teachings of the Wicca.
Again, we can explore Gardner’s own words:

“They are the people who call themselves the Wica, the ‘wise people’, who practice the age-old rites and who have, along with much superstition and herbal knowledge, preserved an occult teaching and working process which they themselves think to be magic or witchcraft.”
Gerald Gardner, Witchcraft Today

Okay, so according to Gardner the witches of the New Forest were following a religious path that had been handed down for a very long time. It would be fair to assume that over the course of that tradition, that religion had undergone some gradual changes that would make it unique, even if other lines existed elsewhere. The two would now be separate and different. Prof. Ronald Hutton does well to evidence that the existence of hereditary witchcraft dating back to ancient times is utterly unlikely and more than not such claims can be seen to be inaccurate at best, or just untrue at worst. So the idea of one such tradition surviving like this to modern day is unlikely, let alone several identical traditions spanning from the same source.
But we need not speculate about this, once more we can quote Gardner:

“To them the cult has existed unchanged from the beginning of time, though there is also a vague notion that the old people came form the East…”
-Gerald Gardner, 1954 (source: Wiccan Roots, by Philip Hesselton)

Here we can see that although they claim to have practiced an unbroken tradition, things have definitely been lost along the way, if only with regard to history.
Gardner also says:

“My great trouble in discovering what their beliefs were is that they have forgotten practically all about their God; all I can get is from the rites and prayers addressed to him.”
-Gerald Gardner, 1954 (source: Wiccan Roots, by Philip Hesselton)

Of course, Gardner is not implying that these witches do not know about their own God or that they don’t know who he is. Indeed, in the same quote Gardner is confirming that the passed down rites and prayers reveal who he is.
What Gardner is referring to is the history of the God and the religion. The witches essentially don’t know where they came from or who the first people were that worshipped their God. He confirms this later as he continues to explore their beliefs:

“The witches do not know the origin of their cult.”
-Gerald Gardner, 1954 (source: Wiccan Roots, by Philip Hesselton)

It is actually interesting to note that Gardner tends to move back and forth between the words “cult” and “religion” when he speaks of the Wicca. But it isn’t very hard to see why. He reveals to us in Witchcraft Today that he believes the Wicca to be a dieing cult and by all accounts it seems he was probably correct. Those identified as his coven mates were aging quickly and in no rush to initiate others into their line. By all accounts it seems that Gardner’s initiation was a rarity and that Wiccan covens were where few and on the decline, with members dieing within his lifetime.
He has been quoted as saying:

“How wonderful to think that these things still survive”
-Gerald Gardner (Source: Gerald Gardner: Witch, by Bracelin)

However, he was of the opinion that its survival was coming to an end and the idea of that was something that he didn’t want to entertain. This was the reason that he wanted to make the existence of the Wicca publicly known, so that he could quicken it.
But as we can see above, there were certain problems. Firstly the witches didn’t want too much to be known about their ways (a wish that Gardner honoured) and secondly they didn’t have a very clear understanding of their own history. Indeed, Gardner is quoted by Doreen Valiente as saying that the teachings that were handed down to him were fragmented and that he filled in the gaps himself. (Source: Witchcraft For Tomorrow, by Doreen Valiente).
However, we can see that Gardner (if he is taken at his word) had a strong motivation to reveal the existence of Wicca to the world, but he was also obliged to keep it a secret. So we have a rock and a hard place situation.
But as he says in Witchcraft Today, he worked with what he could, revealing a few basics of the religion, but making initiation a necessity to maintain its secrets – just as it was taught to him.

Gardner even goes to great lengths to maintain the traditional practices of initiation:

“The witches tell me: “The law always has been that power must be passed from man to woman or from woman to man, the only exception being when a mother initiates her daughter or a father his son, because they are part of themselves”. (The reason is that great love is apt to occur between people who go through the rites together.)”

Man to woman and woman to man remains the tradition by which initiations take place. But in this quote is also outlines another belief that makes initiation important. It is a transference of power – an energy exchange. The power of one witch to another.

Gardner effectively made the change from cult to religion. Although the beliefs of the Wicca before Gardner (still assuming there were any) would technically be defined as religious beliefs, the actual religion had been denigrated to the status of a small cult and a dieing one at that. Gardner revived it and took in from the status of cult up to recognised religion.

But we have to remember that regardless of anything, it is his religion. As has been shown, the teachings were fragmented, the history has been lost and all the original members from before Gardner are now long dead. All that remains is what Gardner learnt and what Gardner created from it. So nobody can lay claims to the teachings of Wicca, unless they came via him.

Gardner made Wicca initiatory and he made it so that the real teachings would only ever be revealed to those that were initiated. This practice maintains today by all those that have followed him in his lineage.
But this is not merely a matter of protecting secrets. No, it is also a matter of keeping a promise that Gardner made long ago. If the New Forest Coven existed, Gardner swore oaths to them that he would keep their secrets. This was the promise of a witch, but more importantly, it was the promise of a friend.
Initiation honours this promise and honours the promise of every Wiccan that has ever been initiated. With each new person the promise grows as each new person takes on the responsibility of upholding it. It is an issue of trust and of love.



It’s established then, I feel, that the case has been made for the necessity of initiation in Wicca, whether based on pre-Gardnerian ideas or just upon those of Gardner. But how then to address the idea of “eclectic Wicca” and “self initiation”.

Well, let’s deal with the easy one first: Self Initiation.

“Self-initiation” is technically an incorrect term, but it is one that you may run into from time to time.
Initiation is a gift of acceptance. To be Initiated means that that a group that you don’t belong to is welcoming you into their fold. It is the opening of a door by another person and inviting you to step through.
You couldn’t declare yourself a Catholic Priest and you couldn’t give yourself a Knighthood. Initiation is the same; it is something that other people give to you, not something that you can give to yourself.
What people often refer to as “self-Initiation” is more correctly termed as a Dedication. This is when a person in a solitary capacity declares that they are going to follow a certain path or certain Gods, often by performing a personal ritual.
Dedication Rituals are absolutely fine for the solitary practitioner and a very good way to give your path a sense of personal meaning and structure, as well as an outspoken declaration to the Gods.

But a dedication like this does not make one a member of Wicca.
Referring back to Gardner, it is interesting to note that he doesn’t really refer to Wicca as a religion, instead he tends to refer to Wicca as a group of people.
This is actually very true to form for both Gardner and ancient Pagan religions. Today “Wicca” is often applied offhandedly to name or describe the religion, but in the strictest sense the religion itself doesn’t really have a name. Although Gardner may reference to Wicca and its beliefs, his implication is that Wicca is the people, not the beliefs and that those who are initiated become Wicca.
As I mentioned, this mirrors the practices of older Pagan religions. In ancient times, it was quite rare to name a religion, however certain groups within that religious community would have names. For example, the Celts didn’t really have a collective name for their religion, however the Druids acted as priests. Not everyone following those Gods and those practices was a Druid. No, Druids were specifically a priesthood of law keepers, lore keepers and advisers. The other people simply went by the name of their tribe. Equally, all of Athens may have paid worship to Dionysus, but there was no name for this “religion”. However, there was the Eleusian Mysteries, but that was a title specifically for the initiated members of that sect.
Wicca is the same. “Wicca” isn’t really the name of the religion, per sé, that is just simply how the religion has become known through ease of speech. But the word “Wicca” is a specific name for that priesthood. In all truth those outside the priesthood that choose to follow the same Gods, don’t actually have a name, but that doesn’t mean that they can just offhandedly take the name of the Priesthood if they aren’t in it.
A Wiccan is a member of the Wicca priesthood.

Gardner certainly seemed to recognised the distinction. When he spoke of Wicca, he did so not in a reference to a religion, but in regards to the people who were initiated into it and that practiced the initiatory rites of that priesthood.


Of course, there are those who, when considering solitary or eclectic practice, like to bring up the root word of “wicca” and “wicce”.
I’ve explained before why these words aren’t really applicable in the sense of Wicca, but of course people can be free to use them at their leisure.
These words are simply the old Anglo Saxon for “witch” and although it would be very odd to regress back into such a linguistic anachronism, it is the choice of the inidivual to do so if they so choose.
However, it must be pointed out that the words “wicca” and “wicce” are not the same as Wicca and do not mean the same thing. Fistly, both words are pronounced “witch-a” and not “wicka”, so when saying these words you sound totally different. Secondly, if you are using the words properly, then only a male can use the word “wicca” and a female has to use the word “wicce” when writing them. They are the sexual definers of the word and the correct way to use them.
But again, neither “wicca” nor “wicce” are in any way the same as Wicca, nor do they in any way imply a practice that is similar to Wicca. In actuality, the implication is that they describe something totally different from Wicca, as one would expect that if an old word is being used, then it is being used to describe something old. Wicca isn’t old and so the words “wicca” and “wicce” can’t be describing it.

Moving onto the subject of “eclectic Wicca” it is proper to examine the grammar of such a phrase.

The word “Wicca” is a noun. It is the name of a priesthood.
The word “eclectic” is an adjective and in this case defines the way in which one approaches Wicca, or implies that Wicca is the sphere within which one is eclectic.

Eclectic means to borrow freely from many different sources. That isn’t what Wicca is. Wicca is a defined religion that exists within a structure of practices and beliefs. Wicca is not eclectic.

If the term is taken to mean that one is eclectic within the confines of Wicca, then that becomes extremely problematic for the non-initiate. Being as there is only a very small amount of Wicca available to the public and it is often mixed up with things that aren’t Wicca at all, it becomes very hard to pick and choose eclectically and still retain a viable practice that is even slightly like Wicca. Basically, you would be taking a very small amount of available information and then skimming it down to even less. This would effectively make it even less Wicca than it was before.

In short, the term is a grammatical anomaly and makes no great sense.

It’s surely hard enough to practice a religion when you don’t know what it is. Practicing such a religion eclectically only makes it further from the target.





I have seen that there is common habit to suggest that non-initiated Wicca is in some way an evolution of Wicca, making it better and more than it was. Perhaps this is an ironic statement, being as non-initiatory practices only remove from Wicca and in actuality what they remove is the vast majority of the religion’s teachings and beliefs.
It is very difficult to see this as a positive evolution.

But the other problem with this view of Wicca “evolving” outside of initiation is that it completely reveals the ignorance of the real evolution that Wicca is undergoing by somehow suggesting that initiatory traditions are in some way static and unchanging. But the reality is quite to the contrary. That much is clearly evident by the fact that there are now initiated traditions beside Gardnerian Wicca, even though they all derive from Gardnerian Wicca through initiation.
But of course, the other evolutions within Wicca would require an intimate understanding of the real religion.
But we can once again to the words of Gerald Gardner, via Fred Lamond, to gain a little understanding as to how the priesthood progresses together:

“Gerald was always at pains to tell us: “The Book of Shadows’ is not a Bible or Koran, but a personal ‘cookbook’ or spells that the individual witch has found to work. I (Gerald) am giving you my book to copy to get you started: it contains the spells and rituals that worked for me. As you gain in experience, add the successful spells that you have made up, and discard those that didn’t work for you!”
-Fred Lamond, 50 Years of Wicca

I feel it is important at this point to explain what is being said here.
As has been discussed earlier, Gardner’s Book of Shadows is a secret text that defines the core of Wicca and every initiate copies it. It is the basis of Wiccan practice, beliefs, ritual, magic and tradition. As such it is the “core book” if you will and remains unchanged and the fundamental basis for all Wiccans within a coven.
The last line in the quote explains the practice of forming your own coven workings and magics, experimenting with the inner secrets of Wicca and finding what works for you. These things are recorded in a Wiccan’s personal Book of Shadows and those things that did not work a left out of their personal Book of Shadows. Again, the Gardnerian Book of Shadows is not changed, it forms the basis of the religious rites and the starting point for the individual within a coven and the coven entire.
Without access to the Book of Shadows and a coven with which to practice the rites within it, one cannot practice Wicca. As Gardner explained in our earlier quotes, a coven is necessary and the rites rely on a coven.

Wicca is also an experiential religion and requires the group on that level, as the rites are performed.
It has already been outlined that the rites that make up the core basis of what Wicca is, require a coven in order to be performed. But in this the coven becomes doubly significant. As an experiential religion the understanding of the mysteries derives from group practice and communal sharing.
The ritual space is sacred and those within it in many ways become one in their workings. Each person in the coven is an intrinsic part of the whole and each adds their energy, mind, power and understanding to the rites, then through this combined essence and inner unity, the mysteries become manifest and are explored.
The group is essentially a singular and united consciousness that exchanges freely between those within it and in that they become of the same essence.


This is the truth of Wicca, whether one believes it was created by Gardner or not. These are the practices, these are the beliefs. The secrets and majority of the religion are hidden and no one on the outside can practice them because of this. No one on the outside is Wiccan.

Wicca is the named priesthood of this faith. This is how it was created, either by tradition or intent, and this is how it remains today.

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