long as you don’t interfere with anyone else’s free will;
3. That which you send out returns to you threefold.
As long as you are clear on the above, you are on your way to becoming a formidable Witchy presence on the planet – and beyond!
There are many versions of the herstory of Witchcraft. Some idealists believe it can be traced through an unbroken lineage – handed down from mother to daughter, grandmother to granddaughter, generation after generation, existing in various levels of exposure and secrecy since the dawn of humankind. Witches who believe this consider Wicca to be the original religion of humankind, rooted in an ancient utopian time when women held the deciding vote, and the ability to give life was worshipped more than the ability to kill, as is honoured now in this time of patriarchal dominance.
Before the role men played in procreation was understood, Woman was revered as Goddess because of her ability to give and nurture life.
For prehistoric humans, a woman’s stomach mysteriously swelling, then nine moon cycles later, a baby emerging from between her legs was one of the most awe-inspiring spectacles they could witness. That she could also produce food – the life sustaining milk that squirted from her breasts – made her representative of the nurturing and providing elements of Nature. The oldest work of art discovered from prehistoric times, the Venus of Willendorf, is a small clay statue of a fertile woman with a rotund stomach and huge pendulous breasts. It is a representation of the Fertility Goddess worshipped in those times, and has evolved into the multi-faceted Goddess all Witches love and worship today.
In ancient times the ability to hunt for food, rather than kill for sport as in the present-day, was also worshipped. Cave paintings from pre-historic times show that (most likely male) humans would throw on animal skins and antlered masks and in a kind of ‘sympathetic’ magickal ritual, play out a successful hunt for food, hoping to ensure a successful real hunt outside the cave on the plains the next day. The humans enacting these rituals were ‘shamans’ who were considered to have magickal relationships with the animals, able to communicate with and woo their spirits, so that they would be prepared to give their lives in order that the human tribe could continue. From this the concept of a God of Hunting developed which went on to evolve to the present day Witches’ God of Nature and Animals, the Horned God.
Most Wiccans now relate to the concept of Witchcraft existing as an unbroken mythic tradition. The Craft today is really built on the sense of our culture having lost, buried or corrupted the old traditions and Witches are attempting to rediscover them and make them relevant to this brave new world. Some do this through historical research and re-enactment, but most work more on tapping into the intuition and the collective unconscious to recreate a Witchcraft in which the voices of the lost past are reawoken in fresh, new chants, rites and spells.
As the mythic and objective herstory of the Craft has been discussed at great length in many books, rather than attempt to restate it at length here, I’ll recommend some of the better works on the subject. For more detailed publishing information see ‘The Library’ chapter at the back.
Starhawk’s Spiral Dance has an excellent first chapter ‘Witchcraft as Goddess Religion’. Laurie Cabot and Tom Cowan’s Power of the Witch has an inspiring chapter called ‘The Old Religion’. Margaret A. Murray’s The Witchcraft in Western Europe is considered a classic on the herstory of ancient Witchcraft, but some dispute its accuracy. Murray was an English Egyptologist who claimed Witchcraft originated in Palaeolithic times 25,000 years ago long before Christianity. After persecution by the Church in the Middle Ages, Murray claims it continued as a secret tradition until its re-emergence around the time she was writing in the 1920s. Scholars and historians have refuted her work saying that she largely contrived the whole thing, but it still makes for thought-provoking reading.
Anthony Kemp’s Witchcraft and Paganism Today has an easy to read and comprehensive examination of the historical background of Witchcraft and Paganism, starting in primitive times and then moving on to cover the Egyptians and then the Celts – specifically the Druids whose teachings and lore have greatly influenced contemporary Wicca. He then discusses the Middle Ages, specifically the persecution of Witches during the Inquisition, and continues to move through herstory until the present day.
I also recommend Diane Purkiss’s The Witch in History. It is interesting in that she has thoroughly researched the presence of Witch figures throughout modern history yet ultimately construes that the Witch is only a fantasy figure. If you want to know everything that Witchcraft never was nor will be, track down a copy of Montague Summers’ The History of Witchcraft. Written in 1925 by a Catholic priest, it celebrates the atrocities committed during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by the Church in its attempts to wipe out ‘witchcraft’ and heresy – otherwise known as ‘The Burning Times’ – where many people in Europe were burned at the stake or hung after being forced to admit they were Witches and in league with the Devil. It is alternately horrifying and laughable.
Modern Witchcraft, specifically Wicca, probably owes much of its origins to an Englishman named Gerald Gardner. In 1939 he claimed that he was initiated into a traditional Witchcraft coven in England and from his teachings and writings, especially his book Witchcraft Today written in 1954, the Gardnerian tradition established itself. Before discovering Wicca, Gardner was involved in Co-Masonry, Rosicrucianism and travelled for many years in the Far East observing the lives of indigenous people and spiritual beliefs.
The Wiccan tradition reflects a lot of the teachings and experiences Gardner himself was exposed to in the first half of his life and many wonder if he truly was initiated into an established tradition or if he just made it up himself. But as the Craft isn’t into gurus and most religions are initiated in one form by individuals (from Moses to Manson, and Hubbard to Koresh) before morphing drastically into something else altogether, most Witches aren’t too concerned about the issue of who invented the Craft. In fact the Craft is often described by Witches as a ‘non-prophet disorganization’!
Anti-witchcraft laws were only repealed in England in 1951 and suburban covens sprang up everywhere. Gardner died in 1964 and subsequently the worldwide Witchcraft movement divided somewhat as other individuals made their presence noticed. One in particular was Alex Sanders, founder of the Alexandrian Tradition, a prominent Wiccan tradition today. He based his rituals on Gardner’s work, but introduced more material from other Western magickal practices when he established his own tradition.
Sanders claimed to be a hereditary Witch initiated by his grandmother, but who knows? He was a bit of an attention-seeker, claiming to have been crowned ‘King of the Witches’ in 1965, presumably nominated by over 2,000 English Witches. This is debatable because Wiccans are really way too independent to ever accept a ‘King’ or ‘Queen’. He also recorded an album and appeared on lots of TV and radio shows and … sounds a bit like me, eh? I’m kidding! He continued to popularize the Craft in the Western World until his death in 1988. Many Wiccan covens now will have their open coven meetings in the Alexandrian tradition, reserving the Gardnerian work for their initiated and more experienced members.
A lot of other traditions established themselves in the late 1960s and early 1970s. One which has had a big influence on me is the Dianic Tradition, popularized by the charismatic Hungarian, Zsuzsanna Budapest, who now lives in America. Her mother was an artist and Witch who initiated Zsuzsanna into Witchcraft when she was very young. In the 1970s when Zsuzsanna became a feminist, she realized her Witchcraft background was an appropriate expression of feminist spirituality and wrote The Holy Book of Women’s Mysteries, which