Don't Put Wands in the Hands of Cavemen [View all]

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I overheard a coven member telling a new Seeker at his first open circle, “Wicca is the oldest religion.” I cringed, swallowed and reminded myself that I, too, am a guest at this open circle and that I also did once believe Wicca was an ancient religion. That was many years ago, before I became as scholarly as I try to be now, and because most of the Pagan authors of that era stated it was such, I believed them. After all, they knew enough to write a book, right?

Gerald Gardner formed Wicca. He claims that Dorothy Clutterbuck taught him, but unless the woman led an astounding secret life, she was no Witch herself. I suppose it is possible that he used someone else’s name so as not to “out” his teacher, but if that were the case, why would he have used the name of a real local person at all? Then there is the fusion of Crowley-style Ceremonial magick with folk tradition (historically, Cunning Folk and Witches were common people, usually quite illiterate; while Ceremonial magick was something for the learned nobility or court-sponsored alchemists such as John Dee) , which points to formulation rather than having it passed down through the ages.

The worst case of “Wicca is ancient” I came across was a forum site some “High Priestess” had set up to teach about “Real Wicca” over the internet. She came upon me in another forum and invited me to hers. I was dumb-founded. She claimed that Wicca had been practiced for MILLIONS of years. She was none-too-happy when I pointed out that the human race as we exist now is only around 200, 000 years old and that I doubted homo erectus had wands or athames in their repertoire of tools.

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