A Brief (A Very Brief) History Of Wicca

[poliphilo]

Religious movements swiftly go out of date. They begin by challenging the status quo, then, once society has caught up with them, slip into conservatism as they defend their aging insights against the onrush of the new.

Wicca began as a challenge to the mores of the 1950s. It was always a little old-fashioned- with a whiff of geriatric naughtiness- and was soon overtaken by the sexual revolution of the 1960s. It was reinvented in the 70s, by Starhawk and others, as a vehicle for left-wing protest and feminist assertion. Now, unless I'm missing something, there's nothing much left in it except a nostalgia for ye olden dayes.

Charmed is the monument erected over its grave. If the US entertainment industry thinks something is safe for the mainstream, you can be pretty certain it's no longer prancing and kicking.

Comments

[catvalente.livejournal.com]

I used to wear my pentacle every day and in myriad other ways behave much as some of the sillier pagans one finds on LJ. When I was 15 and didn't know any better. For Christians, Pagans, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, or what have you, it is almost criminal not to bother to understand the history of the religion that controls much of their daily lives. Wiccans/Pagans--and Wicca is hardly the only brand of polytheistic, culturally varied religion out there--must be as honest with themselves as they expect monotheists to be. Otherwise, they're just talking out of their asses.

If I miss Samhain this year, it's not shocking--though some would say I'm a bad pagan--any more than if I missed church some Sunday. I no longer feel the need to advertise my faith, though I will talk about it if asked. I think most people in most religions find the simpler, less showy side of spirituality eventually. Despite the rhetoric, we're a young faith, after all--it may take some time for us to mature a bit.

In the meantime, we really ought to try not to sound as stupid as we do, as often as we do. And remember that Mormonism was all the rage at one point, too.

And that's all I have to say about that. ;)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's important that Wiccans should understand their true history. The best book (maybe the only book) to tell it like it really was is Ronald Hutton's Triumph of the Moon.

I regard Gerald Gardner as one might a reprobate old uncle. He was very brave and very mischievous and very naughty. I love him a lot.

[catvalente.livejournal.com]

I'll definitely look into that one.

As much as the idea that Wicca is itself the oldest religion is ridiculous, I think it is appropriate to note that Gardner did not invent paganism (defined as the polytheistic worship of pre-Christian gods) and while most of the knowledge of ancients good and bad is lost, one is perfectly capable of praying to Athena without invoking St. Gerald at her side. I do not, and have not for many years, consider myself Wiccan.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I am fond of St Gerald- and think we owe him a huge debt, but, no, he didn't invent Paganism; he didn't even invent neo-paganism; there were thousands of people there before him. It has a history going back at least as far as the Renaissance (and dear old Poliphilo.)

In my later years as a "Wiccan" we had moved a long way away from Gardner and were running what was essentially a pagan temple dedicated to Hermes, Aphrodite and the Unconquered Sun.

[eva-d-struction.livejournal.com]

"Despite the rhetoric, we're a young faith, after all--it may take some time for us to mature a bit."
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I always thought Wicca was "the Old Religion," so I am surprised at what I have read in this discussion!

Eva

[catvalente.livejournal.com]

That would be the rhetoric. Starhawk is no historian, whatever else she may be. :)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Paganism is "the Old Religion". But Paganism isn't a single religion but a term that covers a myriad of different cults and mysteries.

People in ancient Rome didn't think of themselves as Pagans (a slang term invented by early Christians) but as devotees of Aphrodite or Mithras or Isis or Whoever.

Wicca is a modern Pagan cult (or family of cults) with a history that cannot be traced back beyond the 1940s.