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Religious movements swiftly go out of date.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

[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.