The Origins of Wicca its Principles of Belief
Wicca all began with a man named Gerald Gardner. He was fascinated by the world of Witchcraft. Gardner claimed that in 1939 he was initiated into the New Forest Coven by Dorothy Clutterbuck. Whether this Witch coven ever existed is still in question today, and if it did, how old it actually was.
He was also a member of a Ceremonial association known as the Order of the Golden Dawn, as well as being a friend of Aleister Crowley, the famous occultist. For those of you who don't know, Ceremonial Magic is a formal and complex style of ritual magic, often associated with Christian figures such as God and the Archangels rather than Pagan deities.
With the help of his High Priestess Doreen Valiente, Gardner blended Witchcraft and Ceremonial Magic, and created what is now regarded as the most popular Neopagan religion of our time: Wicca.
The aim of this thesis is to give the origins of each aspect of Wicca, its cultural background, and how Gardner came to choose them.
The God
The concept of a Horned God primerely comes from the writtings of Margaret Murray. She wrote about the fictitious Witch-cult worshiping a Horned God, and it is known that Gardner took a lot of inspiration from her work.
The Wiccan God has two primary aspects:
It is thought that the Oak King aspect comes from the old image of the Green Man in English folklore. Likewise, the Holly King/Hunter is his Winter aspect.
The God in his Winter aspect of Lord of the Hunt is believed to stem from a few places. There are several gods and spirits in English folklore who preside over wild animals and the hunt, notably Herne and Cernunnos.
The idea of the dying God who is reborn later in the year comes from the Slavic mythos of a dying god, Volos, who brought life to the harvest through dying each year.
Robert Graves is partly responsible for this idea: "[Graves] divided her consort into two opposed aspects, as God of the Waxing and of the Waning Year..." Hutton, Triumph.
The Goddess
The Maiden/Mother/Crone model of goddess upon which the Wiccan Goddess is based comes from Robert Graves' book The White Goddess, first published in 1948. Historical triple goddesses were not age and fertility based, and this MMC format is an entirely modern creation of Graves'.
Hutton, Triumph P. 41: "The image of goddess as moon was in fact only a part of this cluster of symbols which underwent any significant development during the first half of the twentieth century, and not until 1948 with the publication of the first edition of Robert Graves' "The White Goddess". ... He took Harrison's imagary of three aspects and related them to waxing, full and waning moon, to represent the One Goddess... as the bringer of life, in her forms of Maiden, Mother, and Crone."
The Harrison of whom he speaks is Jane Harrison, the woman who first put forward the idea of ancient goddesses being MMC, however she based her belief (and she states it is only her belief, ie. theory) on the work of Sir James Frazer, author of the Golden Bough, which is not a historical work.
The MMC model is one commonly used among Neopagans in general. The maiden is the aspect of childhood, adolescence, beginnings, purity, virginity, independence, and courage. The mother is the aspect of motherhood, protection, fertility, growth, and sexuality. The crone is the aspect of old age, wisdom, change, transformation, death, rebirth, and banishing.
Gardner used Graves' book as one of his many inspirations for Wicca, and he was also a good friend of Graves. Thus Gardner chose his idea of a triple Goddess as the basis for his own Wiccan Goddess.
The Sabbats
In the simplest terms, the Wiccan Sabbats are a combination of 4 Celtic holidays and 4 Norse holidays. The idea of using the 4 Fire festivals of the Celts came from Margaret Murray's work, in which she lists the holy days as sacred in the mythical Witch cult of which she wrote (though of course, this is not historic fact). Gardner, after reading her work, chose to use these festivals in his religion, also adding the 4 Norse holy days of the Solstices and Equinoxes to complete his 8-fold version of the Wheel of the Year (the term coined by Murray). The term "Sabbat" itself is derived from Murray, who took inspiration from the Witch trials in her work, as the Witches gatherings in Christian myth were called the "Sabbat".
The myths that surround the Wiccan Sabbats, however, are entirely different to those of the Celts and the Norse. Gardner created a whole new set of seasonal myths to fit in with his God and Goddess, rather than the Celtic and Norse gods.
The Rituals
Much of the ritual structure in Wicca comes from Ceremonial Magic. The specific methods of casting protective circles, invoking the Quarters and going through a strict ritual plan are all common traits found within CM. Originally, any Witchcraft practices would only involve the marking of a circle on the ground, if at all, and even then it was not used in the same context as the Wiccan circle. They were not used as protective barriers, but simply to mark out the area for magic.
The coven hierarchy is utilised a lot in Wiccan ritual, as the High Priest and Priestess would usually lead each ritual. The hierarchy of Degrees itself is derived from Freemasonry, so once again we see hints of Ceremonialism.
The Initiation rituals in Wicca involve such things as ritual binding, scourging, being blindfolded and challenged when entering the circle. Again we see elements of CM and Freemasonry here in the Wiccan Initiations.
The Elements
The four Elements, or Quarters, invoked in Wiccan ritual are derived from Ceremonial Magic. Gardner was a well known member of the Order of the Golden Dawn, a Ceremonial order, and it is here where he gained the inspiration to invoke the Elements during circle casting, among other things. The idea of "Elemential Watchtowers" is most certainly a Ceremonial concept.
The Tools
Many of the ritual tools in Wicca are of Ceremonial origin. These include the athame, the sword, the scourge, the bell, the wand (to a degree), the pentacle, and the chalice, as well as lesser tools like candles and censer.
The besom or broom is thought to be derived from the old legends of Witches riding on brooms to the Sabbat.
The wand, while partly a Ceremonial tool, is also thought to be derived from various accounts of Cunning Folk who would use a long branch or rod in their magical work.
The cauldron is probably one of the more traditional Pagan tools/symbols. The Celtic Goddess Cerridwen has a cauldron which represents femenine power and rebirth, in which she brewed magical formulae. This is thought to be where the legend of Witches brewing their magical potions came from, which later was used in real Witch practices.
The Rede and Charges
The Wiccan Rede, the most well known of Wiccan literature, was writen by Doreen Valiente, Gardner's High Priestess. The Charge of the Goddess was also writen by her, although the exact origin of the Charge of the God is unknown as it is a much later addition and there are several versions around today.
The Three Fold Law
The first known reference in print to the three-fold law of return appeared in 1970 in 'Witchcraft Ancient and Modern' by Raymond Buckland who was initiated into Wicca by Gerald Gardner. Therefore it is speculated that the Law was an early componant in Wicca, promoted by Gardner. However, its exact origins are unknown.
Despite popular belief, the Law has nothing to do with the Eastern concept of Karma.
The 161 Laws of Wicca
Written by Gerald Gardner shortly before Valiente left his coven. They are thought to be an attempt at reenforcing the idea that Wicca is an old religion, by the way they are writen in faux Old English. They are also considered to be a way to try and form some sort of control over the Wiccan population by setting them rules to live by. They are a later addition to the religion compared to other componants.
The Pentagram
Was taken from...you've guessed it... Ceremonial Magic. The pentagram is a promenant symbol used in Ceremonial Magic and Kabbala to invoke and banish spirits. It was not an original Pagan Witch symbol, and many non-Wiccan Witchcraft traditions do not include the pentagram for this reason. Gardner, being a member of a Ceremonial order, used the symbol in ritual. Thus it became the trade symbol of Wicca.
The Book of Shadows
The term "Book of Shadows" was coined by Gardner after he heard of a book of the same name which detailed the practice of divination by shadow lengths (hence, Book of "Shadows"). Historically speaking, a Witches' book was called a Grimoire, not a Book of Shadows as this is a modern term coined, as I said, by Gardner.
The notion of a Cunning Man or Wyfe (workers of good folk magic, often in a Christian context, who worked against local Witches) having a book in which to keep their concoctions and magical formulae is an old one. Hutton outlines this in his book, and he notes that this is the probably cause of the Witches' "spell book" in our modern stereotype, and indeed modern practice. There are various records of local Cunning folk who always seemed to have a black book with them, which they referanced when doing their work.
The Coven
The structure of the Wiccan coven is derived from two main places. Margaret Murray is responsible for the idea of covens having 13 members, and Gardner took this for a basis for his coven structure in Wicca. I go into more detail on this in the second thesis.
The degree system of 1st (Initiate), 2nd (Priest/ess) and 3rd (High Priest/ess) Degrees in Wicca is inspired by the degrees within Freemasonry. Indeed Crowley, whom aided Gardner in setting out a lot of Wicca's early structure, was a Mason. Until then, any existing Pagan Witch practices did not include any formal degree system.
Phoenix
