A Brief History of Paganism & Wicca

Paganism is a general term, while Wicca is specific in much the same way that Christianity is a general term and Catholic is a specific type of Christianity.

Modern Wicca is sort of a paradox, since what is now considered Wicca is based on ancient religions.  These ancient religions had their beginnings in Mesopotamia which is considered as a birth place of civilization.

Without getting into specifics, (I don't want to bore you) I am going to relate as much history as I can.

 Back then, supernatural occurrences were considered quite normal.  The belief in the spirit world as an extension of our "real" world was normal.  The Babylonians and Mesopotamians had their gods and goddesses, and these beings were quite like us humans.  Some were hard and cruel while others were merciful and helpful.  There was also a recognition of a supreme god and supreme goddess, who were both tied to nature. The two supreme beings held power over the other lesser gods to some degree.  Various festivals, usually held at important times of the year - winter solstice, spring planting, summer solstice and autumn harvest - were dedicated to one or more gods or goddesses.  Other festivals would occur during the full moon each month.  Since the culture was based on agriculture, it makes sense that these festivals would happen at times important to people who depended on agriculture.  

The priests and priestesses in these societies were able to study the stars and other important signs and omens to discern the future.  They practiced a nature based type of magick in order to bring about a plentiful harvest or to help ensure completion of an important project or undertaking.

It is important to note that much of what the ancient  Babylonians believed and practiced, their heroes and their mythology are present in a modified form in Judaism.  As proof, just check out the Gospel's account of Jesus' birth.  We all know of the Magi who came from the East.  Those Magi (look it up, it means "wise man" or "astrologer king") were from the Mesopotamia region.  Other areas in the Bible make note of the various seasonal and lunar festivals as being important to the Israelites.  

What all this means is that many ancient cultures realized that there was some sort of spiritual being and that we humans were, ourselves, spiritual beings.  As such, by some method or other, we should be able to influence nature by bending it to our will.

Other cultures which recognized this originated in North and South America.  Most of the native cultures believed in the spirit world, acknowledged that spirits could be approached and through some type of magick, nature could be influenced.

Each village or area might have a slightly different belief system.  During the height of the Roman empire, the term pagani was a generic term to denote these different village religions.  Today we call them Pagans.  In spite of persecution, Paganism survived.  

In pre-Roman Britain, the Celts practiced a similar type of religion as did the ancient Mesopotamians.  The Druids are another group who practiced some type of nature religion; it is unfortunate they did not leave much written work about their beliefs - we can only learn about them from what other cultures wrote and from recent archaeological evidence. 

Even after the Romans visited and conquered most of Europe and the British Isles, paganism survived.  Various Pagan festivals were carried out in the guise of Christian observances (ironic, since the majority of Christian holidays are actually pagan in origin - Christmas was originally the Saturnalian festival of ancient Rome, Easter was first dedicated to Ashera, a fertillity goddess and All Hallows was important to the pagans of north western Europe) to ensure the survival of those under Roman rule.

Then, as time progressed, there came about the infamous witch hunts in Europe and the Colonies in North America.  It was at this time that any non-conformist was branded a witch.  Witches were seen as evil women, who made deals with the devil and who could curse or seduce law abiding "Christian" men.  In actual fact, many of these witches were not even pagans.  Most of the people tortured or killed during this time were blameless, few were pagans and the majority were simply people who were undesirable, for one reason or other, to those in power.  The true "witches" of this period were men and women who understood herbal medicines, who were in tune with nature and who had some innate psychic ability to predict general events.  These "witches" were people, usually women, who realized that nature could be influenced or "bent" by our will.  It is interesting to note that Wicca comes from a word meaning "to bend"; ever seen a wicker basket - it is made from bent reeds.  Also, it should be understood that the term warlock is based on a word which means "poisoner"; typically, a warlock was one who would poison or spoil a village's water supply.  So you can see why nobody wanted to have a warlock around - warlocks were not witches!  Witches were wise men or wise women.  In North America we would have called them shamans, medicine men or medicine women.

And that brings us to the present day.  Many European followers of the ancient pagan religions still existed less than a century ago.  With the relaxing of various religious laws, they became less secretive.  In the last 60 years, due much to the openness of today's society, Wicca has been reborn. What sets Wicca apart from most other pagan belief systems is the emphasis on the active use of magick.  Perhaps it is for this reason that people fear the witch.  When it is fully comprehended, the will of an individual coupled with complete faith in accomplishing a task is a formidable force to be faced with.  As the Bible says - faith can move mountains.  This is one of the beliefs of Wicca, that when we combine our will with our faith, anything is possible.  Another basic tenant of Wicca is that whatever we do, we must harm none.  This rule constrains witches to perform only that which is beneficial for any and all who may be affected by what magick we do.