Starting With Wicca: A primer
(This is a repost of a community post I made over on my main blog @wolfgirlcoven)
This is a repost from a post I made on TherianGuide as a response to someone inquiring about getting started with Wicca. I have been a witch for 13 years, and really started delving fully into NeoWicca around 2021/2022-ish, and am in the process of crafting my own NeoWiccan tradition which draws influence from Stregheria, Heathenry, Druidry, and American Folkloric Witchcraft's non-oathbound materials.
Wicca tends to come in two forms: Traditional Wicca, and NeoWicca. Traditional Wicca is an initiatory mystery tradition, whereas NeoWicca is built off of the available materials that Traditional Wiccans have made public.
Traditional Wicca: Traditional Wicca has many different traditions, but the most well known are Gardnerian and Alexandrian. Alexandrian being an offshoot of Gardnerian. There's other traditions such as Blue Star, Corellian, Seax-Wica, and so on. (Fun Fact, Seax-Wica is actually self-initiatory, and does not require a coven structure like other traditions do. It's inspired by Anglo-Saxon paganism, but is still strictly Wiccan and not reconstructionist Heathenry.) With Trad Wicca, especially British Traditional Wicca (which I will refer to as BTW from here on), you will most often find that they operate in a coven based structure, and the covens can trace back their lineages to BTW in most cases. These covens will more often than not have an age requirement, as many practice skyclad (aka nude). In all honesty, I'd steer away from any coven that DOESNT have an age requirement.
NeoWicca - NeoWicca is what most people know as Wicca. Unnfortunately NeoWicca gets a bad reputation due to the 90s witch craze and new age boom blending the two, and certainly misinformed witchtokers do not help. True NeoWicca (and not NewAge Fluff repackaged) is heavily influcenced by authors such as Raymond Buckland, Scott Cunningham, Vivianne Crowley, etc. Silver Ravenwolf, as controversial as she is, also is responsible for the growth of solitary neo-wicca. (Unpopular opinion but I do think her books have merit if you read them from a standpoint of acknowledging it as HER tradition and not the end-all/be-all of Wicca, like many do. I'm quite fond of her book Solitary witch, even if I don't personally agree with everything in it. I certainly would NOT start with her though, and not use her work for a path-foundation.)
Core Aspects of Wicca: Both Neo and Traditonal Wicca will have some shared core aspects.
1. Belief in the God and Goddess. The God and Goddess are the gods of Wicca. How one approaches them may vary, but it's common to take the approach of what I like to call Pluriform Duotheism(this is the approach I take myself). This is the belief that the gods and goddesses seen in the many cultures and mythologies around the world are various manifestations of the God and Goddess. All gods are one god, all goddesses are one goddess. This is controversial as many take this to mean you can call whoever you want for whatever you want. I would disagree. Names are energetic calling cards/titles that people have bestowed upon the divine. For example, if you were to worship Diana and Pan as your Goddess and God, you would indeed want to look into how they were worshipped in the cultures that gave them those names. Studying the mythos and cultural beliefs around the forms of the gods you worship can help you deepen your understanding of them. It's also good to study various deific archetypes, such as the Queen of Heaven, Earth Mother, Sky Father, Horned God, Triple Goddess, etc. There is no right or wrong way to worship the gods in Wicca so long as you are worshipping them in good faith.
2. The Wiccan Rede. The Wiccan Rede serves as a code of conduct to live by. The word Rede means advice, not commandment. Many people take the "an it harm none, do what you will" part of the Rede to mean no baneful magick ever. This is ahistorical to traditional Wicca. While it is certainly good to strive to harm none, if someone hurts you, is abusive, etc. it is ok to use magick to strike back and defend yourself. Think of it as not throwing the first punch, or as a firearm used in self-defense. The Rede itself may not be used in all forms of Wicca, ironically enough, but today it is very commonly seen. I think of "An it harm none, do as ye will" as moreso "if it isn't hurting anyone, let em be".
Of course, nowdays Wicca is a bit of a loaded word. You've likely seen a lot of anti-wicca posts in the witchcraft community. This is mostly because people are ill-informed on the religion, and only know Wicca from the 90s-2000s New Ager stuff dubbed "Wicca". So, below, let's play mythbusters and bust some myths:
1. Wicca is Built off of Appropriation - wrong. Wicca, at its conception, is an attempt to reconstruct the Witch-Cult as theorized by Margaret Murray. Though the idea of a pan-european witch cult is basically debunked, at the time of Wicca's founding, it was indeed believed. Wicca also incorporates a lot from various Western Esoteric traditions, which were part of the backbone of the occult movement. There's nothing wrong with practicing wicca, and there is indeed merit in the concepts of the god and goddess of the hunt & fertility being the oldest gods worshipped, as those were essential to the survival of early humans. Cultural appropriation in Wicca comes from the New Age boom of the 90s and 2000s throwing everything non-christian under the wicca label to get money.
2. Wicca is gender essentialist - somewhat true, as it does indeed focus on Male and Female as a creative dual force in the universe. Wiccans today are aware of this, but the idea of Masculine & Feminine being the forces of creation DOESN'T have to exclude queer. It's not mutually exclusive. When we look at the Goddess Inanna, the Queen of Heaven herself, she describes herself as both male and female, and was known to turn men into women, and women into men. Though some Wiccan covens may still hold antiquated ideas of gender and sexuality, most don't. In my personal Wiccan path, I view The God and Goddess as simply being the polar ends of the gender spectrum, and the universe as a whole (which is joining of the god and goddess/the all) as the divine androgyne, existent beyond gender. Anyone who falls betwixt, between, or outside of the spectrum are all equally divine, as the divine is in everything.
3. Gerald Gardner was a creep/homophobe/etc. therefore Wicca is bad - Gerald Gardner was a man born in the 1800s. Obviously, he is going to be a product of the time. Whether you love him, hate him, or don't really care too much about him, we would not have modern paganism and witchcraft if not for him. You cannot believe everything you hear on witchtok, because people will say things that are blatantly untrue. Yes, Gardner was not a good man by today's standards, because no one is perfect. Even Gardnerians will acknowledge this.
Ok with that out of the way, we're onto resources for Wicca. I'll start with books.
WICCA SPECIFIC: Wicca, a guide for the Solitary Practitioner - Scott Cunningham Raymond Buckland's Complete Book of Witchcraft- Raymond Buckland Wicca for One - Raymond Buckland The Craft - Dorothy Morrison The Witches Bible - Janet and Stewart Farrar Wicca: a comprehensive guide to the old religion in the modern world - Vivianne Crowley The Truth About Witchcraft - Scott Cunningham The Book of Shadows - Gerald Gardner Witchcraft Today - Gerald Gardner
THE GODS OF WICCA: The Witches God & The Witches Goddess - Janet and Stewart Farrar (two separate books, i put em together for the sake of ease) Queen of all Witcheries - Jack Chanek The Horned God of the Witches - Jason Mankey
WICCA-ADJACENT: Italian Witchcraft - Raven Grimassi The Spiral Dance - Starhawk Druidcraft - Phillip Carr Gomm Triumph of the Moon - Ronald Hutton
PROTO-WICCA: (aka Wicca draws a lot from this) Aradia, Gospel of the Witches - Charles Godfrey Leland
There's a LOT more books out there about Witchcraft and Paganism, so this is only a little sample platter lol.
Next up, let's delver further into the gods of Wicca:
When getting into Wicca, you will quickly learn that the names of the God and Goddess used in Traditional Wicca are often Oathbound, as in you cannot know them unless you are initiated into a coven. Different Covens may use different names for the God and Goddess. When talking with a good friend of mine (idk if eir on this site yet but shoutout to em) we have come to a theory as to why the names are oathbound: From a meta standpoint, knowing the oathbound/coven names of the gods marks you as an insider. Like it or not, insider vs outsider type mentality has always been a key part of humanity's survival.
Many people will say that the reason the names are oathbound is because they are the true names of the gods, but i personally disagree. My reasoning for disagreement is as follows: if the gods only had one set of true names, they wouldn't be responding to the prayers of non-initiated wiccans, neowiccans, etc. Worry less about names of the gods, and focus more on building a relationship with them. ALL names are true names, so long as you approach the god and goddess genuinely and with respect. Use the names and imagery of the divine that resonates with your soul. If it's Zeus and Hera, Cernunnos and Aradia, Lucifer and Diana, Ba'al and Astarte, etc. it doesn't matter, use what calls your soul. And be aware that the names you use for the gods may change over time, or you may even use multiple names for them, and that's ok.
I know some of the names listed may be scary, especially to those who were raised christian like me, and that's ok too. The main thing is to unlearn christian teachings and biases. Lucifer is originally a roman personification of the morning star, and an Italian god of the sun & light, akin to Apollo. Ba'al is a title that simply means "Lord" and was used to refer to a good number of near-eastern gods such as Hadad (who can be equated to Zeus and Thor), Hammon (who can be equated to Jupiter-Amun, as well as Saturn), and so forth. This is why studying the names of the gods is important, as it helps you unlearn that which you were taught to fear.
I'll link some videos that go into detail on understanding just who the God and Goddess are: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTbnsIcYvc8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bInWOUyMLQI
both of these videos I really enjoy! The first video I absolutely adore as it's simple and straight to the point, (also the altar Icons he uses are just GORGEOUS)
there will also be talk of the Goddess as Maiden-Mother-Crone, as this is one of the primary ways many see the Goddess, though many may not use the triple goddess archetype in their path, and that's ok! I personally experience the triple goddess as Crescent, Full, and Dark moons, as well as Earth, Sea, and Sky, rather than Maiden, Mother, and Crone.
Starting Out:
In all honesty, the best way to start your Wiccan path is to reach out to the Lady and Lord themselves, you don't need to use specific names for them, you can simply call them by any of their titles, or even just God/Goddess, or Lord/Lady, etc. Speak to them, ask them to guide you on your journey, give an offering if you can - even just pouring out some water is good enough. So long as what you offer is done in genuine faith, it will suffice.
