When Gerald Gardner published Witchcraft Today back in 1954, Wiccans
believed that their religion was a continuation of ancient pagan customs
practiced in secret through the centuries by those people the Christians hunted
as "witches". We now know that claim was an error, and any Wiccan worth their
salt will say upfront that Wicca is a new religion, started by Gardner himself
(although influenced by a plethora of older traditions).
"Witch" and "Wiccan" stopped being synonymous. There are many forms of
Witchcraft in practice today that are not Wiccan, and this rant is in no way
directed toward Witchcraft as a whole. What this rant is directed at is this
rather bizarre emerging entity called Traditional Witchcraft that makes a number
of very specific claims – namely that while Wicca is a new entity created by
Gardner, there really was a medieval witch-cult, that these witches were
persecuted by the Church, and that their modern practice is a direct continuity
that can be traced back to pagan times.
Well, I'm sorry, but if the theory doesn't work for Wicca, it's not going to
work for anyone else. It wasn't Gardner's association with Wicca and the witch-
cult that was debunked, it was the theory that the witch-cult existed at all.
You can't just give it a new name and expect us to all swallow it. And the
"proof" to these new claims?
"My grandma was a witch. She taught me everything I know." This claim has been
made falsely so many times by Witches and Wiccans alike that even if in your
case it's true, no one is going to buy it. Besides, even if this is true, this
in no way proves you practice some ancient system of belief. It simply proves
that there was Witchcraft before Wicca, which no one is arguing.
"My family's Book of Shadows is 500 years old." First, to the best of my
knowledge, "Book of Shadows" is a modern term. Second, while I've heard this
claim repeatedly, I've never seen one. The argument usually concerns secrecy.
Forgetting about religious implications for a moment, I'd like to see one of
these books for pure historical value. I'd like to see how a peasant family, in
a time when nearly everyone was illiterate, managed to create and preserve an
entire book of extremely expensive paper for 500 years in a damp, dirt floor,
thatch roof cottage.
Again, pot calling the kettle black. What don't work for Wicca doesn't work for
Witchcraft. No one's saying folk magic wasn't being practiced before Wicca. No
one's saying Wicca is the only way. But the grand claims of ancient lineage are
thirty years out of date for Wiccans and Witches alike.
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