DISKUS Volume 6 (2000) http://www.uni-marburg.de/fb03/religionswissenschaft/journal/diskus DEMARCATING THE FIELD: PAGANISM, WICCA AND WITCHCRAFT Jo Pearson Research Lecturer, Department of Religious Studies, Faculty of Arts, The Open University, UK Email: J.E.Pearson@open.ac.uk --------------- ABSTRACT The growing popularity of witchcraft in Britain over the last three decades has seen the development of a variety of forms of witchcraft and Paganism which have fanned out from classical Wicca. Despite their commonalities, Wicca, Paganism and witchcraft are not synonymous. However, the common approach among scholars has been to treat these different entities as if they were one and the same. This article seeks to address the issue of confused terminology through an examination of the differences between the often conflated identities of Paganism, Wicca and witchcraft. ---------------- INTRODUCTION The emergence of Paganism as a field of study is coterminous with the emergence of Pagan traditions and practices into relative popularity. Paganism originated in 1950s Britain in the form of a 'relatively self-contained, England-based occultist religion' (Hanegraaff 1998: 85) known as Wicca <1>. From this 'relatively clearly circumscribed center' [sic], other Pagan traditions and other varieties of witchcraft developed in 'increasingly syncretistic and nondogmatic directions' (ibid.: 85), such that in 1996, of the estimated 110,000-120,000 <2> Pagans in Britain, only 10,000 were initiated Wiccans. Contemporary Paganism now includes a variety of traditions of witchcraft <3>, some forms of Druidry <4>, Asatru <5>, some shamanism <6>, and 'non-aligned' Paganism <7>, which together heavily outnumber initiatory Wicca. Thus, from being at the forefront of the development of modern Paganism, Wicca has become one of many Pagan traditions. WICCAN / PAGAN RELATIONS, 1970-1999 Historically, Wicca has been regarded as a core group around which Paganism has emerged. In September 1970, the Pagan Front was established after readers of a small-circulation <8> inter-coven newsletter, 'The Wiccan', decided to make 'a real attempt to overcome the fragmentation bequeathed to us by the Christian Church of past centuries, and any existing undercurrent or hostility from this or any other source' <9>. The inaugural meeting of the Pagan Front, chaired by founder member Doreen Valiente, was held on 1st May 1971 but it was not until 1989 <10> that the organisation changed its name to The Pagan Federation, which even then saw itself as 'speaking for the mainstream of revived Wicca in this country', offering a referral service among covens and 'genuine enquirers' and providing a 'forum for dialogue between Wicca <11>, which spearheaded the re-emergence of Nature religion in our time' <12>. Wiccans thus worked hard to establish the Federation, and every Pagan Federation president until 1997 was Wiccan. Added to this, Wicca also provided much of the available Pagan literature until the 1990s. This formative period for Paganism is now over. As Paganism has grown considerably in popularity, it has come to consider itself autonomous from Wicca; 'exoteric Paganism had come to stay - it embraced a constituency far beyond Wicca, and the Pagan Federation had to be reformulated to take account of the new developments' (Pengelly et al 1997: 23). In 1994 <13>, the journal of the Pagan Federation changed from 'The Wiccan' to 'Pagan Dawn'. The editor at this time, Harry Field, explained in the last issue of 'The Wiccan' that it was time 'to adopt a title more in keeping with [the Pagan Federation's] readership. Whilst 'The Wiccan' has always prided itself on trying to cater for all paths, we are aware that its very name gives many people the misleading impression that the Pagan Federation is a purely Wiccan organisation' <14>. Readers were asked to send in suggestions for a new name for the magazine, and 'Pagan Dawn' was chosen by the Pagan Federation committee. The election of the first non-Wiccan Pagan Federation President in 1997 has given added weight to this process of differentiation. More recently still, in 1998-1999, the Pagan Federation has been conducting written discussions about the three principles to which it adheres. The second of these three principles <15> is called the Pagan Ethic and is, in fact, the Wiccan Rede: 'An it harm none, do what thou wilt'. This principle, according to an article in 'Pagan Dawn', 'was instituted and named back in the early 1970s, when Wicca and Paganism were synonymous in the minds of the Pagan Federation (PF) leadership. Today, this is simply no longer appropriate . . . Since the PF is no longer a Wiccan organisation, it does us little good to identify ourselves as such in the minds of many by continuing to use this "Wiccan Commandment"' <16>. Such thinking reflects the growth in popularity of Paganism as distinct from initiatory Wicca. There are various reasons why initiatory Wicca remains small despite the growth of Paganism, and it is perhaps possible to interpret this numerical imbalance in terms of the perspective indicated above by Pengelly: that Wicca is esoteric and Paganism is its exoteric manifestation. Although some Pagans perhaps desire initiation into a Wiccan coven, many regard Wicca as hierarchical in structure and elitist in that it requires initiation of 'the chosen few', retaining 'secrets' which it does not share with the rest of the Pagan community, leading to claims that Wicca constitutes an elite Pagan 'priesthood'. Pagans tend to be non-hierarchical, so the majority remain outside the initiatory Wiccan traditions, committed to Paganism in general rather than to a specific spiritual tradition. Although Frederic Lamond, a long-standing Wiccan priest, has suggested that in the future Wiccans should 'be available as priests to the Pagan community when needed' <17>, Wiccan priests and priestesses tend not to consider themselves 'clergy' to a Pagan 'laity'. Rather, they regard themselves as priests and priestesses with no laity within their own particular religion, although they do perform ceremonies such as handfastings (weddings) and open rituals as and when required <18>. Yet, since Wiccan initiates are heavily outnumbered by people who identify themselves as Pagans but do not belong to any formal Pagan group or tradition, the aura of elitism is perpetuated. Wicca may thus be seen to use initiation, secrecy and intimate community to maintain strong, concrete boundaries which demarcate who is an 'insider' and who is an 'outsider', keeping its structure and practice distinct from the general melee of Paganism in which 'inside' and 'outside' status is not an issue. As Paganism has increased in popularity and traditions alternative to Wicca have become established, the distinctiveness of Wicca in relation to the wider, non-aligned Pagan community has become, somewhat paradoxically, both more and less pronounced. Within Wicca, practitioners increasingly feel that the growing popularity of Pagan spiritualities has 'eroded the traditional secrecy of Wicca' (Chapman 1995: 5), and that the distinctiveness of Wicca needs to be reaffirmed. Outside Wicca, however, the distinctiveness of Wicca appears less pronounced as the popularity of the religion has led to new and 'unorthodox' derivations of Wicca and conflation between the various forms. 'WITCH' AND 'WICCAN' The somewhat confused use of the words 'witch' and 'Wiccan' may provide a useful point at which to begin unravelling the tangled threads of Wicca, Paganism and various forms of witchcraft. It is usual for initiated Gardnerian/Alexandrian Wiccans to refer to themselves and each other as both Wiccans and witches when in closed company, where they can be sure of the context in which 'Wicca' will be placed, for they feel that Wicca is being simplified through 'how-to' books in order to make it more acceptable. The growing popularity of such written material on Wicca has led to many self-styled groups forming who refer to themselves as covens <19>, thus creating a 'popular' Wicca made up of people who have read a book on Wicca and joined together with friends in groups, but who are not initiated into an established Wiccan tradition. Increasingly, at the level at which Wicca interacts with popular culture, there appears to be a certain amount of 'trendiness' attached to identifying oneself as Pagan and, especially, Wiccan. For example, the film 'The Craft' (1996) proved especially influential with teenagers, and teenage girls in particular wrote to the Pagan Federation for advice about joining a coven <20>. Certainly, the 'teen witch' image is increasing in popularity, with Silver Ravenwolf's 1998 book 'Teen Witch: Wicca for a New Generation' proving to be a best-seller in the United States. The image of the witch as a figure clad in long black robes with long, preferably black, hair has been glamorised in the Gothic music scene, where the 'witch' also drapes herself with occult or (interestingly) Christian jewellery and wears striking make-up. In 1998, the video for the song 'Frozen' by the pop star Madonna made use of this 'Gothic witch' imagery, as well as representations of the Triple Goddess, a deity figure promulgated by Jane Harrison which is now common in modern Wicca. Madonna was seen by one initiated Wiccan in Britain as tapping into the cultural trend for witchcraft with an immaculate sense of timing. Thus, it is unsurprising that the February 1999 issue of 'The Cauldron: Pagan Journal of the Old Religion', contained the following list of witch-types: white witches, grey witches, black witches, green witches, teen witches, feminist witches, media witches, hedge witches, kitchen witches, New Age witches, and even weekend witches (issue 91: 30). As 'Wicca' becomes increasingly popular and the figure of the witch maintains its hold on the human imagination, appropriation of the word 'Wicca' becomes an increasing source of annoyance to those who see themselves as practitioners of a serious religion which demands a great deal of commitment and dedication. Thus, whereas even ten years ago one could assume that those who identified themselves as 'Wiccan' were initiates of the Alexandrian and/or Gardnerian traditions of Wicca, there is no longer any guarantee that someone who describes themselves as 'Wiccan' is an initiated witch. The terminology of identification has thus become confused, and many Wiccan initiates regard it as important to preserve Wicca as distinct from Paganism. Rob Hardy expressed the opinion that he would 'hope to see the Craft keep its individuality and not be swallowed up by general Paganism' <21>. SOME DISTINCTIONS That there is considerable overlap between Wicca, witchcraft and the wider Pagan movement is not in doubt; both witchcraft and Paganism have drawn from a heritage popularised by Wicca which includes, for example, the Pagan seasonal cycle of eight festivals making up the Wheel of the Year <22> and the practice of a Goddess/God nature-based spirituality. That there are distinctions, however, is often overlooked. In Britain, as we have seen, very few Pagans are Wiccan initiates <23>, and the two terms are considered to be distinctive: 'All Wiccans are Pagans, but not all Pagans are Wiccans. Nor should they be, any more than all Xtians [sic] should be monks or nuns. The way of the mystic is not the way of everyday life, and to pretend otherwise is sloppy thinking and false psychology' <24>. Yet 'Wicca' can be used to describe very different paradigms. On the one hand, 'Wicca' is used to refer to 'covens' of friends who have no initiation or training but gather together to celebrate the seasons or full moons, a practice which might instead be regarded as witchcraft or non-aligned Paganism. On the other hand, 'Wicca' is styled as an esoteric religion and mystery tradition operating in small, closed groups to which entry is solely by initiation ceremonies which contain oaths of secrecy and which are designed to trigger personal transformation. Yet, since those who designate themselves Wiccans also identify themselves as 'witches', we can perhaps characterise Wicca as a religion and mystery tradition which incorporates witchcraft, natural magic, and ceremonial magic into a religious system in which all initiates are members of a priesthood. 'Wica' [sic], introduced as a term of identification by Gardner in the 1950s, seems now to have become a constructed designation combining these elements. It may thus be possible to regard Gardnerian/Alexandrian Wicca as an 'esoteric' mystery religion which is distinguishable from 'exoteric' witchcraft and Paganism <25>. Writing from an emic perspective, Wiccan priestess Vivianne Crowley has portrayed the exoteric as dealing with the religious needs of society by, for example, providing meaningful rites of passage, and the esoteric as concerned with mystical and psychological matters of personal and inner transformation. From Wicca, she says, a more open Paganism has evolved, 'whose principal function is not to practise magic or to initiate into the mysteries as such' (Crowley 1994: 19). Both esoteric Wicca and exoteric witchcraft and Paganism are regarded as equally valid, differing predominantly in their aims and practices rather than in their religious outlook. Thus, both Wicca and Paganism worship ancient Pagan deities, but Wicca 'is also a Mystery tradition to help us grow in understanding of ourselves and hence nearer to the Gods, a system for developing and using psychic and natural powers, and a body of natural lore which is often called natural magic' (Crowley 1996: 1). A shared terminology and understanding of what is and is not 'Wicca' helps maintain important boundaries, aiding the differentiation between Wiccan priests and priestesses who are initiates of the self-styled esoteric mystery religion of Wicca on the one hand, and other forms of witchcraft and Paganism on the other. It can also be helpful in demarcating boundaries for research. WICCA AND WITCHCRAFT: ETYMOLOGY AND CONNOTATIONS Now that the twentieth century has drawn to a close, we might usefully ask ourselves 'what is a modern witch?' In addition to the problem of identification of Wiccan initiates, the terms 'Wicca' and 'witchcraft' are a focus of discussion within contemporary Wicca due to their lack of etymological clarity. If 'Wicca' derives from the same root as the Anglo-Saxon word for knowledge, 'wit', 'wittich' which stems from 'weet' meaning 'to know', then it lends itself to modern Wiccans' understanding of themselves as 'wise' men and women who practice the 'Craft of the Wise' <26>. Similarly, if 'Wicca' derives from 'wik', meaning to 'bend or shape', it links nicely with the modern Wiccan definition of magic, which is to bend or shape energy through will in order to make manifest something on the physical plane. Jeffrey Russell (1991: 177), however, asserts that although 'Wicca' derives from 'weik' and 'wicce', the 'Old English 'witan', 'to know', and all related words including 'wise' are totally unrelated'. Ronald Hutton has also pointed out that 'Wicca' does not stem from the same root as that for knowledge. Rather, he says, it 'was simply the Anglo-Saxon word for a male witch (female, 'wicce')' (1993: xiv), the plural form of which may have been 'Wiccan'. The words 'witch' and 'witchcraft' hold many connotations in the public mind, most of which are negative. Both words tend to draw people's minds to story-book notions of the 'wicked witch', to the historical persecutions of witches for being 'in league with the devil', and to modern reports of satanic abuse in the sensationalist tabloid press. It is for these reasons that modern witchcraft is often called Wicca, and this would appear to be officially recognised since definitions of both terms have now found their way into the Oxford English Dictionary. Among Wiccans themselves, as we have noted, both words are used as terms of identification. The word 'witch' is used by many practitioners in an attempt to reclaim it and place it in a modern context, feeling that 'Wicca' is a sanitised version of witchcraft. Others use the term 'Wicca' in an attempt to define witchcraft as a religion, since the word 'witch' may be taken to refer to the practice of 'witchcraft' which may be perceived as historical use of spellcraft and natural magic on behalf of clients; witchcraft as a craft used to make a living, rather than as a religion. Additionally, 'witchcraft' lends itself primarily to images of witches gathered for a sabbat or under a full moon <27> to perform magic and fertility spells, practices which in turn lend themselves to anthropological analysis of more or less spontaneous ritual as part of primitive, magical religion. As Wiccan author Vivianne Crowley explains, Wicca is the name given by its practitioners to the religion of witchcraft. The word 'Wicca' derives from the Anglo-Saxon word for witch and has been used in its present sense since the 1950s. Within the Wiccan community, the term 'witchcraft' is used in a special sense to mean a Pagan mystery religion and nature religion which worships Goddess and God and is open to both men and women. The words 'witchcraft' and 'witch' are often capitalised by practitioners to distinguish their form of 'witchcraft' from anthropological and other uses of the word (Crowley 1998: 170-171). However, by identifying themselves as witches, Wiccans have to come to terms with the connotations of the word 'witch', including an identification with witches who were persecuted in the early modern period, fairy tale images of the wicked witch and the good witch, literary images such as Shakespeare's witches in "Macbeth", gathering on the blasted heath, and popular images of Halloween witches with warts, hooked noses, green skin and black cats. As Briggs reminds us, 'Witches are everywhere in modern children's literature. Sometimes they retain their old character, representing evil in its most virulent form, but more often they have become either harmless tricksters or repositories of ancient wisdom. Such trends remind us how easily the pliable figure of the witch can be manipulated to fit the spirit of each age' (Briggs 1996: 5). THE IMAGE OF THE WITCH The image of the witch is thus usually negative, and we might question why people choose to identify with such a term. Perhaps one reason is that, despite the negativity, the witch is imagined as powerful - she can make people sleep for one hundred years, she can see the future, she can curse and kill as well as heal, she can pervert the course of history by putting a new king on the throne, she can defy gravity and fly, and, of course, she can turn people into frogs! Although, as Briggs points out, the witch in early modern Europe gained her power from those 'hidden and potent forces' imbuing the world, which ultimately stemmed from either God or the devil (Briggs 1996: 4), the powerful imagery of the witch is attractive, particularly for women. As Ronald Hutton recounts: 'the advantage of the label 'witch' is that it has all the exciting connotations of a figure who flouts the conventions of normal society and is possessed of powers unavailable to it, at once feared and persecuted. It is a marvellous rallying point for a counter-culture, and also one of the few images of independent female power in early modern European civilization' (Hutton 1993: 335). Thus, the witch appears as an active and powerful figure, culturally constructed throughout history and easily manipulated to fit each age. In the second half of the twentieth century, the witch was reclaimed from association with 'evil' and, according to Lynne Hume (1997: 87) 'the symbolism of the witch transcends phallocentric imagery and conveys the image of an independent, anti-establishment, political, spiritual and magical being'. But she is no longer an image only of independent female power, but of human power, available to both men and women through living in harmony with the tides of nature. If '[h]istorical European witchcraft is quite simply a fiction', as Briggs assures us (1996: 6), then modern witches are free to construct their own fiction, to use their imagination to affirm a positive image of the witch. The 'slippery' status of witchcraft 'as a logical and linguistic construct whose boundaries are both arbitrary and insecure' (Briggs 1996: 7) can be seen to aid this ongoing process of reinvention. Evidence of this reinvention can be found in the many varieties of witchcraft extant during the 1990s, from radical feminist separatists in North America to the stereotypically conservative Gardnerian and Alexandrian Wicca in Britain. It is increasingly obvious from the literature that specific traditions of witchcraft are plentiful: Alexandrian, Gardnerian, Traditional, Hereditary, 1734, Regency, Reclaiming, Dianic, Faery, Seax, Radical Fairies, Celtic, to name a few <28>. The majority of these witchcraft-types were generated in North America in the 1970s and 1980s, when witchcraft diversified into a variety of forms, some of which are far removed from their origin. In Britain, Alexandrian, Gardnerian and the combined Alexandrian/Gardnerian traditions remain the classic, specifically Wiccan, forms of witchcraft among the growing popularity of non-initiatory, popular forms imported from the USA or emerging from the growing cultural taste for identification as a witch or Pagan, particularly among teenagers. WICCA AND WITCHCRAFT: BRITAIN AND THE USA Wicca emerged in Britain in the 1950s as a highly ritualistic, nature venerating, polytheistic, magical and religious system, operating within a predominantly Western framework. It arose from the cultural impulses of the fin de siecle, in particular from the occult revival of the 1880s onwards. Various threads were gradually gathered together and in the 1940s woven into Wicca by Gerald Gardner. By the mid-1950s, Wicca had become relatively popular due to Gardner's love of publicity which drew the religion to the attention of the public, and in the early 1960s it was imported to North America. It was in the context of late 1970s and 1980s North America that the development and movement of Paganism beyond its traditional boundaries took place, at a time when New Age was becoming conscious of itself as a movement and feminist spirituality was emerging <29>. This should draw our attention to obvious parallels between the three movements. Wicca as traditionally practised in Britain was exported by Raymond Buckland in the 1960s to the United States where, according to Orion (1995: 143), it was transformed into a 'very different kind of religion' <30>. In particular, Wicca was adapted by the women's spirituality movement, resulting in the development of Pagan Goddess spirituality and feminist witchcraft traditions such as Dianic and Reclaiming witchcraft. This 'mutant "Feminist Witchcraft"' developed, according to Salomonsen (1996: 32), as female witches gradually took part in the Women's Movement and 'in some cases met, in other cases helped create, the Goddess Movement' (ibid.: 32; Bonewits 1989: 110). The Goddess Movement, however, has not adopted witchcraft but has used its ritual expression for inspiration <31>. Feminist witchcraft and feminist/Goddess spirituality thus blend into each other, and it is predominantly this blurring of distinctions between the original British Wicca and North American feminist witchcraft into a normative, generally-applied (mis)understanding of Wicca/witchcraft which has been the reason for misrepresentative categorisation. The distinctly feminist branch of witchcraft shares little commonality with Alexandrian and Gardnerian Wicca in Britain beyond an initial framework consisting of the ritual Wheel of the Year. Feminist witchcraft, for example, emphasises the Goddess as representative of divinity, attempts to maintain an explicitly non-hierarchical organisation inherited from the feminist consciousness movement (in which women rotate leadership and make collective decisions), and engages in political activism after the feminist rubric 'the personal is political is spiritual' (Culpepper 1978: 222). Alexandrian and Gardnerian Wicca, however, emphasise both Gods and Goddesses as representative of divinity, allow a 'hierarchy of experience' (implicit in their organisation in covens led by a High Priestess and/or High Priest and the structure of three degrees of initiation), and tend to maintain a distance between spirituality and politics. Thus, whereas Alexandrian and Gardnerian Wicca can be considered one entity, feminist witchcraft is an altogether different entity, distinct from its non-feminist kin. Again, the choice of 'Wicca' or 'witchcraft' as terms of identification is brought into play. On the one hand, Wiccans use the term 'Wicca' to denote a mystery religion involving a process of initiation and rigorous training within a cosmos polarised between male and female forces, all of which is an inheritance from the magical secret societies from which Wicca is descended. The term is also used in order to differentiate between the anthropological study of primitive, tribal witchcraft <32> and the Wiccan religion of Western, literate, post-industrial society (re)invented by Gerald Gardner in Britain in the 1950s and developed since that time into its contemporary forms. On the other hand, feminist witches prefer the term 'witchcraft', using it to describe a religious practice based upon the human (female) witch becoming empowered through interaction with the Goddess as divine counterpart of the witch, an empowerment which is sought in order to provide personal liberation for the individual woman and thus sustain women in their struggle against patriarchy. Feminist witchcraft is thus located within the wider feminist spirituality and Goddess movements. It makes use of a constructed image based on a feminist reading of the witchcraft persecutions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and on a myth of matriarchy, both of which are preferred alternatives to a legacy from secret societies, which are regarded as a predominantly male preserve, and from Gerald Gardner as founding father. Feminist witchcraft thus makes a statement of connection with an image from the past mythologised into a modern context. CONCLUSION Wicca, Paganism and witchcraft are not synonymous, despite their commonalities. However, the common approach among scholars has been to treat these different entities as if they were one and the same and, furthermore, to conflate the entire field of Wicca and Paganism with already existing but inappropriate categories <33>. Wicca occupies an ambiguous position vis a vis other forms of witchcraft and Paganism: it is at once central to and on the margins of both. That Wicca, historically, was central to the variety of pagan revivals in Britain and America which now constitute modern Paganism is indisputable, but Wicca claims a heritage also from the Western Esoteric Tradition, which Paganism inherits from Wicca but does not emphasise. The fact that developments from Wicca, such as other forms of witchcraft and Paganism, have moved along a different trajectory away from esotericism does not necessarily mean that Wicca as the core tradition has followed. In fact, it may be that Wicca remains as an esoteric Paganism or Pagan esotericism. Wicca can, therefore, be characterised as a pagan religion (indeed, as the classic pagan religion from which all others derive), but although Paganism and feminist witchcraft may have developed out of Wicca, Wicca itself is not wholly situated within Paganism. As Wouter Hanegraaff (1998: 86) has noted, Wicca 'is a neo-pagan development of traditional occultist ritual magic, but . . . the latter movement is not itself pagan. In other words . . . [Wicca] gradually and almost imperceptibly shades into a non-pagan domain'. Thus, although Wicca has been intricately bound up with the development of exoteric Paganism, there is increasing evidence of growing differentiation between the two; and although Wicca is most often classed as 'Pagan', by both practitioners and scholars, this may not necessarily be accurate, or may not be in the future, and we must leave ourselves open to question whether it is, in fact, necessary to be Pagan in order to be Wiccan. NOTES <1> Specifically, Gardnerian Wicca and later joined by Alexandrian Wicca in the early 1960s. <2> Estimate provided by Prof. Ronald Hutton, 27th July 1998, 'Intro' in email to the Nature Religion Scholars' List (http://meteor.uscolo.edu/clifton/natrel.html). <3> As will become clear, there is no normative 'Wicca' or 'witchcraft' which can be generally applied, and I use the terms to refer to quite different genuine entities. <4> I say 'some forms of Druidry' because not all Druids are Pagans. For the nineteenth and much of the twentieth centuries, Druidry overlapped with Christianity and many Druid orders operated as social or charitable, rather than religious, bodies. It was not until the 1980s that specifically pagan Druidry was developed with the foundation of orders such as the British Druid Order, one of the earliest (1979) Pagan druid orders which has a shamanic and Wiccan influence. <5> Asatru, also known as the Northern Tradition, is a Pagan path which bases itself on Norse Gods and mythology. <6> I am grateful to Gordon 'The Toad' MacLellan for pointing out to me that not all shamans are Pagan, or even religious. <7> This term refers to those people who identify themselves as 'Pagan' but who do not belong to any specific Pagan tradition such as Wicca or Druidry. Ronald Hutton uses the term 'non-initiatory' to describe this group of Pagans. However, since many Druids, shamans, and followers of Asatru prefer not to use an initiatory structure either, I prefer 'non-aligned' as a more accurate descriptor of Pagans who belong to no specific Pagan tradition. <8> The first issue, in 1968, had a print run of just 12 (Pengelly et al 1997: 26). <9> 'The Wiccan', issue 91 February 1989, page 1. <10> By 1989 its circulation was 250 (ibid.: 49). Prudence Jones notes that subscriptions to 'The Wiccan' varied from 50 to 100 during the 1970s and 1980s, 'but the Hallowe'en 1988 printing had more than doubled from that of May, to 240, and from then the trend was unstoppable' (ibid.: 21), Indeed, the present membership of the Pagan Federation exceeds 4000. <11> Presumably this dialogue was necessary for, by its own admission, 'The Wiccan' 'fulminated regularly against the outrageous antics of Alex Sanders' (issue 91, page 2). <12> ibid.: page 2. <13> Issue 113, Samhain (October 31st) 1994. <14> Issue 112, Lughnasadh 1994, page 1. <15> The first principle is 'Love for and kinship with nature: reverence for the life force and its ever-renewing cycles of life and death'; the third is 'Honouring the totality of Divine Reality, which transcends gender, without suppressing either the female or male aspect of Deity' ('Pagan Dawn' issue 126, Imbolc 1998, page 14). <16> 'Pagan Dawn' issue 126, page 15. <17> 'Pagan Dawn' issue 122, Imbolc 1997, page 20. <18> Wiccans are not the only celebrants to offer this service, however. Many Druid priests and priestesses perform these ceremonies as, increasingly, do those who feel inspired to act as celebrants whether or not they have been formally initiated or inducted into any specific group. <19> A coven is made up of witches who have been initiated into that coven and meet regularly for religious festivals and for training. Russell (1991: 157) suggests that the word 'coven', which first appears as a Scottish invention in the sixteenth century, derives from the French 'couvent' and the Latin 'conventus', meaning 'gathering' or 'meeting'. He claims that 'Murray's intense interest in covens was transferred to Gardner, who made the coven the centre of modern witchcraft'. <20> This is problematic, for Gardnerian and Alexandrian covens tend not to accept people for initiation below the age of eighteen, although there are some exceptions. The film 'Practical Magic', screened at British cinemas in early 1999, had less of an impact perhaps because it did not specifically portray teenagers as witches but concentrated for the most part upon two sisters in adulthood. <21> 'Pagan Dawn' issue 122,. page 21. <22> Which Gardner apparently learned from Ross Nicholls of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. The Wheel of the Year is therefore not adopted by Pagans strictly from Wicca, but from Wicca and Druidry. <23> In addition to the figures previously cited, membership of the Pagan Federation in 1994 was made up half of Pagans and half of various types of Wicca (self-initiated, non-initiated, and initiated). 'The Wiccan' 112 (Lughnasadh 1994). <24> Comment (anonymous) in 'The Wiccan' issue 94, October 1989. <25> Mary Daly (1981: 221) wrote that 'to limit the term [witch] only to those who have esoteric knowledge of and participation in "the Craft" is the real reductionism'. It is, of course, inappropriate for 'witch' and 'witchcraft' to be limited to those initiated into Wicca, for anyone can call themselves a witch quite legitimately. However, Wicca does require initiation into, and the practice of, an esoteric mystery religion and my point is simply that the two terms can and do refer to different entities. <26> This phrase apparently pre-dates Gardner. Doreen Valiente (1989: 41) points to its occurrence in 'The Arrow and the Sword' (1947) by Hugh Ross Williamson, concerning the death of William Rufus and Thomas à Becket. <27> The sabbat was traditionally regarded as the meeting to which witches flew for their rituals. Hutton explains that the origins of the term come from the identification by early demonologists of witches with Jews, both of which were characterised as the antithesis to Christianity (Hutton 1993: 303, cf. Cohn 1975: 101). 'Sabbat' in contemporary Wicca refers to the eight seasonal festivals of The Wheel of the Year. <28> Many other varieties of witchcraft developed from Gardnerian Wicca (largely in North America) can be found at Beaufort House 'Index of English Traditional Witchcraft'. Available from http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/5756/tradlist.html/ [Accessed December 1998]. <29> See, for example, Hanegraaff 1998: 85-7. <30> Orion (1995: 143) lists several differences, including a less formal and hierarchical ritual style which is more inventive and celebratory, Native American influences such as shamanism and drumming, the superimposition of psychotherapy onto Wicca, and the application of Wicca to political activism. <31> Salomonsen (1996: 33) further points out that the Goddess Movement does not associate itself with the occult, magical tradition or with Paganism; '[a]lthough Neopagan men (and women) may worship the Goddess, women in the Goddess Movement do not regard them as feminists'. <32> For example, Evans-Pritchard (1937). <33> In large part, this is due to the emerging nature of Wicca and Paganism as fields of study. There has been a number of necessary general and sweeping studies produced over the past five years, but specific studies are still lacking. 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(1995), Never Again the Burning Times: Paganism Revived, Prospect Heights, Illinois: Waveland Press. Pengelly, James, Robert Hall & Jem Dowse (1997), We Emerge: The History of the Pagan Federation, London: The Pagan Federation. Ravenwolf, Silver (1998), Teen Witch: Wicca for a New Generation, St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications. Russell, Jeffrey B. ([1980], 1991), A History of Witchcraft: Sorcerers, Heretics and Pagans, London: Thames & Hudson. Salomonsen, Jone (1996), "I Am a Witch - A Healer and a Bender": An Expression of Women's Religiosity in the Contemporary USA, University of Oslo: unpublished PhD thesis. Valiente, Doreen (1989), The Rebirth of Witchcraft, Washington: Phoenix Publishing Inc. END 12