and other parts of the world. Starhawk approached the Craft from a different stance to British Wicca which was rooted in both natural magic and in the occult traditions. Starhawk had been initiated into the American Faery Tradition founded by poet Victor Anderson and the bard Gwydion Pedderwen. This borrowed much from Gardnerian Craft practice but favoured a spontaneous ritual approach.
From here, Starhawk’s approach took another turn. Guardianship of the land was a philosophy that the Craft has always espoused. With its roots in an agricultural cycle, the Craft recognized that the survival of humanity depended on the continuing plenitude of the land. The relationship between the Earth and her inhabitants is one of mutual protection and love. This was a very different attitude from that of Christianity and other Near Eastern monotheisms. The Craft, with its emphasis on the Goddess, the Earth, empowerment of women, reverence for the reproductive process and honouring the body, had great appeal for many women, for whom masculine monotheisms seemed anti-feminine, narrow and unwelcoming. The feminist Craft looked outward to the political realm and in particular to two aspects of politics that had become very important in the 1970s onwards – the peace movement and the ecological crisis. The eco-feminist approach has drawn many women and men interested in Green politics to take up Wise-Craft and Goddess religion.
Both the Gardnerian and Alexandrian Traditions have been developed in Continental Europe by people who have sought initiation into the British traditions and have then transplanted them into their own countries, combining the Witch lore which has been preserved in Britain with their own local Wise-craft and Pagan traditions. To seek for esoteric knowledge in the misty isles of the Western seas has a long historical precedent in Europe. Britain, and Ireland beyond, have been considered sacred isles since ancient times and some of the major Druid training colleges in Celtic times were in the British Isles.
In Europe, Wicca spread first to Northern Europe. In Ireland, this was stimulated by the Wiccan authors Janet and Stewart Farrar who settled there some years ago. Gardnerian Wicca was taken to the Netherlands in the 1970s by the Silver Circle, followed by Alexandrian Wicca and the Wiccacentrum Aradia in the 1980s. From the Netherlands, groups have been set up in nearby Belgium. In Germany, although there were Witches before the 1970s, the Craft became more active from the 1970s on, stimulated by German Witches who had contact with Gardnerian covens in England and by American Witches in the US armed forces who were stationed in Germany. Later, in the 1980s, the German Craft movement received new impetus from a series of seminars and lectures given by Alex Sanders in the last years before his death. This resulted in Alex initiating a number of German Witches into the Alexandrian Tradition. Starhawk’s book The Spiral Dance was published in German in 198319 and many eclectic feminist groups sprang from this. The German Craft development was also aided by the publication of Das Hexenbuch20 by a group of Alexandrian initiates. There are now representatives of Alexandrian, Gardnerian, and most of the other large branches of Wicca in Germany. Across Scandinavia, there are flourishing combined Gardnerian and Alexandrian covens, and in France, there is now a small but growing Wiccan movement.
In the Southern hemisphere, there are covens in New Zealand and Australia. There are also Witches in Japan. Australia has the wider selection of groups, with Gardnerian and Alexandrian covens and some covens with other traditional origins. Practising Wicca in New Zealand seems to be relatively straightforward in that the seasonal cycle is not unlike that of Europe. The Australian climate, however, particularly in the Tropical zone, makes following a sabbat cycle developed in Northern Europe rather difficult. Other problems arise in the Southern Hemisphere. Do you celebrate Yule when everyone else in the country is celebrating Christmas or do you celebrate on the shortest day in June? Considerable thought has to be put into making a sensible interpretation of the Sabbat round. An additional problem in both Australia and New Zealand is that Wiccan circles are cast sun-wise or deosil. In the Northern hemisphere, the sun appears to move clockwise, but in the Southern hemisphere it appears to move anti-clockwise. Magical groups in Australia and New Zealand tend to follow the Northern hemisphere practice and to work clockwise, but in Wicca where attuning ourselves to the forces of nature is more important, then the issue is more problematic. Different groups have come to different solutions, but I found it impossible to cast a clockwise Wiccan circle in Australia and to me the flow of the power seemed to be definitely anti-clockwise, the Australian direction of the sun.
Since 1939 when Gerald Gardner was initiated and the early 1960s when Alex Sanders launched the Alexandrian branch of the Craft, thousands of people have been initiated into Wicca all over the world. People often ask me how large Wicca is and I have to reply that I have no idea! Wicca has no central organization which can do a headcount, but it is certainly large and growing. So how is this religion practised today?
The rites of Wicca
In Wicca, we contact the Divine through ritual and through the enactment of ancient myths which express eternal truths about human beings and the universe we inhabit. Some Witches worship alone, but those who belong to a coven will generally meet for the eight sabbats, the major seasonal festivals, and also at the 13 Full Moon esbats. Some covens, and particularly those which emphasize training, will meet more frequently.
Where possible, Witches like to perform their rites outside, close to the world of Nature; for it is in the Goddess and God’s creation that it is easiest to feel their presence. Outside working is not always practical. Climate and the fact that not all covens have access to private land mean that often Witches will create a temple in their houses in which to honour the Gods. For those who do not have the luxury of spare space, then a room will be cleared for each rite.
What takes place in a Wiccan rite? The main function of the rites is to worship the Gods. A second function is to perform magic. Divination and spells for healing and to help people with their life problems are an integral part of the work of a Witch. Magical working takes place principally at esbats. These are seen as the most appropriate time to ask the Gods for their help. The sabbats emphasize not so much receiving, but giving back. They are acts of thanksgiving to the Gods who give us life and being. The sabbats take place at eight roughly-equidistant points around what is often called the Wheel of the Year.
The wheel of the year
The rites, and in particular the sabbats, are also celebrations. Sabbats frequently end with a feast which takes place in the sacred circle which has been made for the rite. This is not considered to be separate from the rite, but an integral part of it. We eat and drink of the bounty of the Goddess and God to celebrate and honour what they have provided for us. In Wicca, this is considered pleasing to the Gods; for we are taught that our Gods love us and are pleased when we are happy.
The idea of worshipping Gods through ritual can seem strange to us in the modern world. For our ancestors, ritual functioned to mark the transitions between different life stages. Birth, sexual maturation, marriage, giving birth, kingship, war and death were all marked by rites of passage. These rites contained powerful symbols which helped us to understand the meaning of each part of life’s journey. We were taught that each stage of the life cycle was but part of the Spiral Dance of life and death, of which we and all Nature are a part. Our griefs, pains and sorrows were transient. Like the ever-changing wheel of the seasons, they would pass, transmute; death would become life once more. Thus we were taught courage, endurance, and to look with objectivity on our own individual concerns, which were part of the greater whole. Myth and ritual touch on our deeper inherited levels of consciousness. This is why so many people entering Wicca feel that they have been Witches before. Somehow, they know instinctively the form of the rites and, in entering the Wiccan circle, they feel that they have come home.
