Characteristic of Tradition in Witchcraft Paper

Wicca

There can be no exhaustive or authoritative sources that can trace Wicca back through ancient times. Wicca is mainly a manifestation of ancient systems of nature worship in the 20th century that is based out of northern Europe that has been in existence for thousands of years ago. Wicca is basically a religion that is rooted in the mist of Neolithic history which can be termed as fertility and agrarian society. Wicca is a nature worship religion and subsequent interaction with nature which is dissented from that practice by the Celtic clans that were found in the Western Europe as well as the indigenous people of British Isles. Therefore it is one of the mainstreams of indigenous earth spirituality that is found in European culture.

Wicca has its origins from the Celts and other people that lived in the area which is known as Great Britain. The Wiccans celebrate the earth and hold the belief that all living things have a spirit. They and claim to look at the divine in each and everybody. They celebrate rituals that are centered on lunar cycles and eight annual Wiccan holy days which are centered on solar cycles.

This pagan oriented worship of nature systems came into being and was passed down through history in countless ways which were mainly practiced in secret. This secrecy was important particularly during the dominance of Roman Catholic in Europe. Basically there were three pagan traditions that came out of the pagan societies where the environment was key on their survival. The ones who studied seasons and stars sought to understand and predict the influence of that the environment had on their crops, cattle, the rain and so on. Through this they also desired to be in a position of influencing these factors.it is therefore from the urge to understand and control nature that these like Wicca came into existence.

In the 16th and 17th centuries a witch hunt occurred across American colonies and Europe whereby between 40,000 and 60,000 people died. These people were accused of being witches who their prosecutors claimed they worshiped the devil and like cannibalism of children and Eucharist discretion. However Karl Ernst Jackie had a different vie of the origin of Wicca from this. His idea was expanded by Julie Michelet and Margaret Murray which was known as the witch-cult hypothesis that held the claim that witches were members of that had pre-dated Christianity and was under persecution by the Christians as a rival religion. Many of the Wiccans especially hose in the early decades held the belief that their religion was a sort of continuation of this pagan witch-cult .

Wicca has a very long history which extends to hundreds and thousands of years before modern period.it claims a history which goes back to the prehistorical period and traces its path through the ancient matriarchal societies, which then went into ancient Druid, Celtic followed by other moon and sun religions.it went underground in order for it to survive the persecutions by Christians and during this time those who practiced the religion lost their contacts with each other which led to the loss of many arts, their explanations and origins. The ideas were revived again in the U.K in the modern day period by a few of the priests and priestesses. Scholars and the Wiccans themselves discount the lengthy history of Wicca and historical link to ancient religions. This link is to the existing archaeological and anthropological evidence.

Reference

Carm.org.(2010). History and Origins of Wicca. Retrieved April 3, 2014 from http://carm.org/religious-movements/wicca/history-and-origins-wicca