Wiccan traditions

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Wicca traditions are different directions within the Wicca cult. Originally the term refers exclusively to lines of tradition connected by initiation in Wicca- Coven , but more recently the term has also been used for different orientations (e.g. the preference for certain gods and rituals) in Neo-Wicca, which are mostly based on self- initiation .

British Traditional Witchcraft

The British Traditional Witchcraft (BTW) includes some Covens of British origin, especially from the New Forest region, such as Sybil Leek's "Horsa Coven", "Plant Bran", "The International Red Garters" and the "Clan of Tubal Cain" and "The Regancy" by Robert Cochrane and the two original Wiccan traditions:

Gardnerian Wicca
Describes the most traditional form of Wicca, which goes back to Gerald Gardner . You have to be initiated by a coven if you want to walk this path. The rituals are mostly carried out without clothes (“skyclad”).
Alexandrian Wicca
Refers to the splitting off of the Wicca that goes back to Alex Sanders . Although Sanders claimed to belong to a separate line (through his grandmother), this branch differs only slightly from Gardner's ideas. As in the Gardnerian Wicca, you have to be initiated into a coven by another member. The ceremonial process provides for corresponding ritual robes. The tree of life is also worked in this line .

British Traditional Wicca or Traditional Wicca

It is a term used frequently in the United States. There it is used as a self-designation for those Wiccans who can refer to an initiation line that goes back to Gerald Gardner, i.e. were initially initiated by the New Forest Coven. Since the term Wicca is used in America today as a generic term for many different natural religious religions, the term British Traditional Wicca is often used as a self-designation for those Wicca who refer to an initiation line that goes back to Gerald Gardner:

  • Gardnerian Wicca
  • Alexandrian Wicca
  • Mohsian
  • Central Valley Wicca

Traditions or lines

Traditions or lines are mostly understood to mean covens that are close to the British Traditional Wicca and that emphasize a topic or a certain pantheon that is particularly important to them . They also pass these characteristics on to all of the successor covens they have founded. Along with a strong increase in the spread and popularity of Wicca, there has recently been an increasing trend away from organized coven structures and towards so-called "free-flying" witches, who may feel connected or belonging to a certain Wicca tradition, but don't belong to a coven, learn autodidactically from books and practice self-initiation (see Neo-Wicca ).

Algard Wicca
Denotes a combination of the Alexandrian and Gardnerian Wiccan traditions.
ATC signpost in Index Washington
Aquarian Tabernacle Church (ATC)
An American Wicca tradition based on the British Traditional Wicca. The ATC was founded in 1979 by Pierre Davis and has its own churches and ritual places, most of which are surrounded by menhirs .
Blue Star Wicca
Denotes a number of American Wiccan traditions based on the traditional Gardnerian Wicca and Alexandrian Wicca.
Celtsun Wicca
A Wiccan shamanic tradition that started through an agreement between Druids, Wiccans and Native American medicine women in the early 1980s. The most important characteristic is the work with Indian medicine wheels.
Circle witchcraft
A tradition started in 1974 with an emphasis on shamanism.
Convenant of the Goddess (COD)
An organization to promote the religion of witches founded by Witches and Wiccans in California in 1975.
Corellian Wicca
Based on the teachings of the High-Corell family. A combination of traditional Scottish Wicca with Native American (Cherokee) practices and ancestral worship. Became known u. a. also through the Ebay auction of the online Wicca school WitchSchool.com.
Egyptian Wicca (Kemetic Wicca, Tameran Wicca)
An alignment of Wicca that focuses on the Egyptian pantheon (especially Isis and Osiris) and Egyptian mythology, and refers to the ancient tradition of Egyptian magic.
Faery Wicca
Denotes a tradition that focuses on working with fairies and other nature spirits. Formally, Faery-Wicca is closely related to Celtic Wicca and derives its beliefs from the mythical Irish fairy people of the Thuata de Danaan. Faery Wicca, contrary to a common misunderstanding, is not identical to the Feri tradition (see below).
Greco-Roman Wicca (Greek Wicca, Hellenic Wicca, Roman Wicca)
Above all, follows the Greek and Roman traditions.
Gypsy-Wicca
Refers to the connection between Wicca and elements of Roma and Sinti culture.
Istari Wicca
Is a traditional line in Germany that emerged in 2004 from the merger of the Gardnerian / Celtsun high priest Berthold Röth with the first high priestess of the Istari.
Mesopotamian Wicca
Denotes a tradition that is geared towards the Mesopotamian / Sumerian pantheon.
Odyssean Wicca
Denotes an Eastern Canadian Wiccan tradition with close ties to the Wiccan Church of Canada. Like Blue Star Wicca, Odyssean Wicca has its roots in the continental traditions of the Gardnerian and Alexandrian Wicca.

Neo-Wicca, Eclectic Wicca, Solitary Wicca

Eclectic Wicca is understood to be Wicca followers who do not belong to any particular tradition, but who make use of different traditions and cultures. Eclectic people can be initiated in a coven as well as self-initiation towards the god and goddess.

Solitary Wicca ("free-flying witches") is a particularly "free" Wicca style that emphasizes personal freedom and avoids a hierarchical structure. This includes all those Wiccans who are not organized in a coven - that is, learn independently from books or through conversations with others. They either follow a certain tradition or they don't. Solitary Wicca can include traditional Wiccans who have left their coven and henceforth practice their religion for themselves, or eclectics who have initiated self-initiation and live their religion individually for themselves.

Neo-Wicca is not a tradition in the strict sense of the word, but the collective term for modern and more open interpretations of Wicca - with less emphasis on topics such as sexuality and death, and usually also the acceptance of self-initiation. Typical representatives of Neo-Wicca are:

Caledonii Wicca (Hecatine Wicca)
A variant of the traditional Scottish line, similar to Pecti-Witta.
Christian Wicca (Catholic Wicca)
A connection of Wicca with Christian traditions and the Christian pantheon, whereby Jesus has the role of the sacrificed god of the year and Mary the role of the mother of God and consort (as Mary Magdalene). Mostly common in America.
Norse Wicca (Teutonic Wicca, Wiccatru)
Denotes a mixture of Wicca and the Germanic paganism Asatru , whereby most representatives of the Asatru strictly reject this type of syncretism . In Wiccatru, the Germanic pantheon of the Edda and the Germanic names of the annual festivals are used and the ethics are supplemented by the so-called "Nine Noble Virtues" (courage, truth, honor, loyalty, discipline, hospitality, diligence, independence and perseverance). In magical practice, for example, runic oracles and the shamanic-ecstatic Seidr magic are used.
Pecti-Witta
Denotes an orientation close to the Seax Wica, which however does not use Anglo-Saxon, but Scottish symbolisms.
Satanic Wicca
Denotes a Wicca lineage that once split off from the Alexandrians. According to their own testimony, the followers of this cult worship the dark god and act accordingly. Their main line within the Wicca coven is called the Baphomet line. This line goes back directly to Aleister Crowley , who quarreled with Gardner when it came to founding a united tradition line that would act more directly than Gardner envisaged for Wicca.
Shakti-Wicca
Denotes a variant of Wicca influenced by Hindu Shaktism , which only works with the Hindu pantheon (especially Shakti and Shiva).

Related traditions

Traditions closely related to the Wicca cult or closely based on Wicca were mostly inspired by elements of the Wicca belief, but do not belong directly to them. They mostly combine their own religious ideas with set pieces of the Wicca faith. In some cases, there are also witch traditions that existed before Wicca (mostly only in a smaller family context) and that have taken over some elements of the Wicca belief over time:

Celtic Witchcraft ("Celtic-Wicca")
Variant of Celtic Neopaganism , in which Celtic, mainly Irish and Welsh symbolisms are used with practical reference to Wicca rituals and philosophy. The focus here is often on the goddesses Ceridwen or Brigid and the gods Cernunnos and Lugh . In contrast to most Wicca traditions, in Celtic Wicca the moon is often seen as the male and the sun as the female aspect of the divine.
Ceremonial witchcraft
A form of magical practice related to the Wicca religion that uses elements from Egyptian magic, Kabbalism , Gnosticism and Rosicrucianism in particular . In this tradition there are also influences of the hermetic ceremonial magic of Aleister Crowley , Thelema and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn .
Dian Wicca
Is a split from the feminist Wicca whose center is the traditions of the ancient Roman goddess Diana (Artemis among the Greeks). Diana-Covens are often built exclusively for women, some even exclusively for lesbians. It is important to know that not all feminist covens are necessarily part of the Diana cult.
Feri tradition
The fairy tradition was founded by Victor and Cora Anderson and is not considered a Wicca tradition in the narrower sense and should not be confused with Faery Wicca. The fairy tradition worships a star goddess and her divine twin children and believes in a three-part human soul. The ecstatic work with the so-called fairy energy and with sexual magic is in the foreground. Gwydion Pendderwen and Starhawk are the best-known successors from the fairy tradition. The fairy tradition is particularly open to any sexual orientation.
Heredetary Witchcraft
Followers of this tradition are following a path that existed before Gardner (although the word Wicca as such is not used here). It is a question of family traditions, that is to say those followers of the old religion, in whose families the knowledge was preserved, who call themselves, as it were, “native” witches or hereditary witches.
Jewitch
Combination of neo-Pagan witchcraft and mystical Judaism, with an emphasis on Kabbalism.
Minoan Brotherhood / Minoan Sisterhood
These two Gardnerian traditions were founded in the 1970s by Eddie Buczynski, known as Lord Gwydion, Lady Miw-Sekhmet and Lady Rhea, the "Witch Queen" of New York. The Minoan Brotherhood and Sisterhood are each limited to same-sex members with a homosexual or bisexual orientation.
Pow-wows
Denotes a German-born folk magic from Pennsylvania, which is also incorrectly referred to as "Pennsylvania Dutch Hexcraft". This tradition is one of the roots of the later neo-Wicca author Silver RavenWolf .
Seax Wica
Describes a Wicca tradition founded by Raymond Buckland (originally a follower of Gardner), which draws on Old Saxon or Anglo-Saxon symbolisms. The most important deities are Wodan and Freya. Seax Wica is more democratic and open in its practices than the Gardnerian or Alexandrian line.
Stregheria (Strega Witchcraft)
Denotes an Italian, medieval form of witchcraft related to Wicca, which was developed by Charles Godfrey Leland ("Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches" 1899) and Raven Grimassi ("The Book of the Holy Strega" 1981; "Ways of the Strega “1994) was revived. The focus is on the worship of the witch goddess Aradia .

See also

literature

Web links

Wikibooks: Book on Wicca  - learning and teaching materials

swell

  1. ↑ History of the secret cult of the witches, origins of the Wicca in philognosie.net
  2. ↑ Definition of the 9 Noble Virtues ( Memento of the original from April 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 271 kB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ura-linda.de