Wicca is a faith that celebrates a reverence of Nature, worshiping Divinity as both male and female; manifesting as various polytheistic deities. It is founded upon pre-Christian European beliefs and practices and has been influenced by Hermetic, Qabalistic and Masonic elements as well as various principles of Western Occultism and Eastern mysticism. European cultural Wiccan traditions include Celtic, Germanic, Nordic, Egyptian (Alexandrian), Greek, Polish, Hungarian and Italian (including Roman).

Today Wicca encompasses many ethnic traditions, new denominations are being founded based on Native American celebrations and practices, many of the native Asian practices (including and not limited to Chinese, Indian (Hindu), Malay, Indonesian, and Japanese), as well as African, Australian (Aborigine), and Caribbean.

When “Wicca” first came to public attention in through Gerald Gardner in 1954 in a publication titled “Witchcraft Today”, he portrays Wicca and modern practices as a direct linage of an ancient fertility cult. Practitioners of Wicca are called “Wiccan” and refer to their faith as the “Old Religion”.

A legacy of the Christian faith has been the “re-meaning” of the word “Pagan”. Look this word up today in any respectable dictionary and the word means “non believer” much like the Islamic use of the word “Infidel”, or the use in Jewish scripture to a “Gentile”.

Yet the actual term “Pagan” comes from the Latin root for villager or countryman – a rural person. The religious use and now vernacular comes from the early days of Christianity and the Roman Catholic Church; when in the Middle Ages were able to convert many of the ruling class and the court to Christianity, the rural dwellers and country folk continued to practice their “polytheistic” religion. Thereby a term for non Christian or non believer was born.

Today many proud Pagans are associated with the “polytheistic” definition – practicing the “Old Religion”; yet not all would consider themselves Wiccan.

Mainstream Wiccan philosophy believes that Divinity is both feminine and masculine. In most traditions or denominations of Wicca the polarity of the sexes is manifest in the Triple Goddess and the Horned God.

Alternatively there are traditions who believe in a single entity that of being God or Goddess containing both polarities of masculine and feminine energy. Wiccan theology can be traced back to the Neolithic cult of the Great Goddess where much of Wiccan theology may be traced.

Most traditions of Wicca hold themselves to the five tenants or ethics, these have also been referred to the five points of Wiccan Faith:

1. The Wiccan Rede
2. The Law of Return
3. The Ethic of Self Responsibility
4. The Ethic of Constant Improvement
5. The Ethic of Attunement

The source of the word “Wicca” is debated by many; according to the Collins English Dictionary (Second Edition, 1986) “the cult or practice of Witchcraft [C20 revival of Old English Wicca meaning Witch].

The Barnhart dictionary of Etymology (Rebert K Barnhart, Editor, Sol Steinmetz, Managing Editor, published by H.W. Wilson Company, 1988, first edition) states that the word developed from Old English wicce (female magician, sorceress) sometime around 1000ce. The dictionary suggests that the word Witch is most likely derived from the Old English “wiccian” (to practice Witchcraft).

The word Wiccian itself related to the Old English “wigle” (divination) and wiglian (to perform divination).

It is also suggested that the word Witchcraft has roots to the Middle Low and Middle High German word “wicken” (to bewitch) and wikken (to perform divination). The dictionary concludes that by 1000ce the term “wiccecraeft” was used to indicate the art of Witchcraft.