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Wicca: Modern Wicca
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Although Wicca is a new religion, its traditions are drawn several ancient sources: traditional Witchcraft, pre-Christian pagan beliefs, Eastern philosophy and ceremonial magick. Wicca tends to be misunderstood because of its ancient association with Paganism and Witchcraft. For this reason, Celtic Paganism in Medieval times, was treated as an enemy of the Catholic church which demonized everything which was not the Catholic version of Christianity. Witchcraft or Folk Magick was therefore associated with evil when the Catholic Church began to Christianize Europe. It was firmly believed after the 1400s, by those who were not Pagan, that in order to become a witch, one must make a formal pact with the devil. Modern scholars... have shown that the Inquisitors fabricated the pact with the devil and other anti-witch propaganda to further their own social and/or political agendas.
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Wicca is the modern form of an earth-based spirituality that pre-dates Christianity. This religion is indigenous to Europe with similar life-reaffirming spiritualities all over the world; it is both new and old. Wiccans experience the Divine as immanent, as embodied in the universe, the world in all its aspects and in humanity. Followers of the Wiccan path perceive all life and all forms of life to be sacred. Modern Wicca incorporates ancient ways and modern liturgy in their practices and rituals. This is easy to see if you realize that the structure of Catholic Mass is Christianized rituals of the Old Religion.
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Whatever its origins, Wicca today is a vibrant, modern religion, open to change, creativity and personalization. Wicca is different than the religions of the ancient people, but it embraces some of the same beliefs. Wiccan's have a common belief that the Earth is Sacred and the animals that dwell on it are sacred as well. Wicca or Witchcraft, Paganism, High Magic and other forms of Occultism are not Satanism. Satan is a belief of Christianity.
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Although there were precursors to the movement, the origins of modern Wicca can be traced to a retired British civil servant, Gerald Brousseau Gardner (1884–1964). Gardner spent most of his career in Asia, where he became familiar with a variety of occult beliefs and magical practices. He ... read widely in Western esoteric literature, including the writings of the British occultist Aleister Crowley. Returning to England shortly before the outbreak of World War II, Gardner became involved in the British occult community and founded a new movement based on a reverence of nature, the practice of magic, and the worship of a female deity (the Goddess) and numerous associated deities (such as the Horned God). He also borrowed liberally from Western witchcraft traditions. Following the 1951 repeal of England's archaic Witchcraft Laws, Gardner published Witchcraft Today (1954), founded his first coven of followers, and, with input from its members, especially author Doreen Valiente, developed modern witchcraft into what today is known as Wicca.
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W[I]cca is a religion of Nature, which venerates Nature by worshiping both the feminine as masculine aspects of Divinity. Its spiritual roots go back to pre-Christian belief and practices in Europe. Wicca first attained public attention through the efforts of Gerald B.Gardner in the 1950s, as it was portrayed as the remnant of an ancient European fertility cult. Those practicing Wicca refer to it as the Old Religion, or the Craft of the Wise. Outwardly modern Wicca appears to be a system of folklore and folk magic, but its composition consists of pre-Christian European Mystery Teachings.
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Wicca is a Neopagan religion and a religious movement found in various countries throughout the world. It was first popularised in 1954 by a British civil servant named Gerald Gardner after the British Witchcraft Act was repealed. He claimed that the religion, of which he was an initiate, was a modern survival of an old witchcraft religion, which had existed in secret for hundreds of years, originating in the pre-Christian Paganism of Europe. Wicca is ... sometimes referred to as the Old Religion, or the New Religion of the Old Gods.
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Modern Wicca