We often hear the word Wicca and directly associate it with witchcraft. But what is Wicca aside from that? Wicca is the only religion found to be witchcraft, and that sets it apart. Kasey Hill is here to explain more about Wicca!

Paganism Versus Wicca

Paganism is a nature worship-based religion offset from the traditional worldly religions rooted in patriarchal fundamentals.

One of the significant precepts for this religion is the belief in not just a single God but in a multitude of gods and goddesses depicted in history through mythological texts and oral stories.

Paganism is the foundation for the Wiccan religion. Wicca is a pagan religious branch that focuses on nature worship by using a ritualistic ceremony, most commonly referred to as witchcraft, to commune with the deities of their tradition.

The Overall History Of Wicca

It first started under Gerald Garnder in 1954 under the name Witchcraft. In Great Britain in the 1960s, the name developed into Wicca, although Gerald Gardner is still deemed the creator of the religion. Many are confused about what exactly Wiccans are.

All pagans are not Wiccans, but all Wiccans are pagans. All witches are not Wiccans, but all Wiccans are witches. It’s much like how all Christians are not Catholic, but all Catholics are Christians or any other denomination of Christianity.

Wicca focuses on a godhead of Father, Mother, and, in some traditions, Son. They celebrate this focus with eight solar holidays throughout the year that parallel the seasons of the year called Sabbats of the Wheel of the Year.

The Wheel Of The Year

Yule is the winter solstice. It celebrates the birth of the God by the Goddess and traditionally falls on December 21st.

Coincidentally, this day is the shortest day of the year and the longest night of the year. Imbolc is the next turn of the wheel falling on February 2nd, celebrated by Americans as Groundhog’s Day.

Imbolc is the first shift from winter into spring. Its date falls in the middle of the winter solstice and the spring equinox and is referred to as a cross-quarter date, while the equinoxes and solstices are called quarter days.

The next Wheel of the Year holiday is called Ostara and falls on the spring equinox. Ostara celebrates the return of life to nature from the slumber it had fallen into during the days of winter. The Goddess becomes fertile during this period as the God has grown into a teenager by her side.

The next cross-quarter day is Beltane, which celebrates the middle ground between spring and summer on May 1st. This is when seeds are traditionally planted to prepare for summer’s growing season. In Wicca, this is when the God and Goddess are “married,” and the Goddess is impregnated with the seed of the God to be born at Yule.

Litha or Midsummer is the next holiday on the Wheel of the Year and traditionally falls on June 21st. This day is the longest day of the year and the shortest night of the year. This day celebrates the sun by using bonfires to symbolize the blazing rays that will grow the crops for the forthcoming harvest.

August 1st hails Lammas, the next Wheel of the Year holiday. Lammas is the first harvest cross-quarter sabbat of grain falling on August 1st, where God is thanked for his energy sacrifice to sustain life. Grains are harvested; traditionally, the holiday is celebrated with loaves of bread.

Mabon follows Lammas on the Wheel of the Year and falls on the fall Equinox on September 21st. Mabon is the “thanksgiving” of the sabbats and is the second harvest sabbat of the year. This is when apple season and gourds are in high demand, and the holiday is celebrated with ciders.

The Goddess is blossoming with the growing God in her belly as her term comes closer to an end while God has travelled to the underworld to rest his energy. The final holiday is the cross-quarter harvest, sabbat Samhain.

Samhain is the witch’s new year and is celebrated on October 31st. Even though they all have liminal space with a thinning of the veil between the living and the dead, this sabbat is primarily known for being the thinnest veil. This holiday celebrates that thinning by allowing the Goddess to visit her fallen God in the underworld in respite, awaiting his new spiritual birth at Yule, where he will release his energies to the new incarnate God.

That Is All Folks! That Is Wicca

The holidays fall in a wheel of a circle unbroken for a continuous ebb and flow of nature and energy. Wiccans celebrate these holidays through ritualistic ceremonies where they invoke the energies of God and Goddess into their sacred space to commune with them.

So, if you have a Wiccan neighbour, ask them about their religion. They would love to tell you about it as much as you would enjoy sharing your religion with everyone else.

Kasey Hill