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Religious movements swiftly go out of date.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]

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.