What do people practicing wicca believe in?
Wicca (IPA: /ˈwɪkə/) is a neopagan, nature-based religion popularised in 1954 by Gerald Gardner, a retired British civil servant, who at the time called it Witchcraft and its adherents “the Wica”. He said that the religion, of which he was an initiate, was a modern survival of an old witchcraft mystery religion that had existed in secret for hundreds of years, originating in the pre-Christian paganism of Europe. The veracity of Gardner’s statements cannot be independently proven, however, and it is possible that Wiccan theology began to be compiled no earlier than the 1920s. Various Wiccan lineages or ‘traditions’ have since branched out of that popularised by Gardner, which came to be called Gardnerian Wicca. Each lineage has distinctive rituals, oral traditions and liturgy, and most remain secretive and require that members be initiated. Other traditions have also formed independently of Gardnerian lineage, including a growing movement of Eclectic Wiccans who do not believe that any
