 The earliest known published reference for the word Wicca is within an advertisement published in a 1962 issue of Fate magazine ; in this , a Cardiff @-@ based group of Pagan Witches advertised a tradition as " Wicca – Dianic and Aradian " . The advert may have been linked to Charles and Mary Cardell because Mary was allegedly born in Wales and Cardellian Witchcraft had apparently venerated a goddess under the name of Diana . However , many Pagan Witchcraft groups would have adopted the deity name Diana and Aradia , these being the goddesses featured in the American folklorist Charles Leland 's supposed account of a Tuscan witch tradition , Aradia , or the Gospel of the Witches ( 1899 ) . Another early use could be found from December 1965 , in the penultimate issue of Pentagram , the newsletter of the Witchcraft Research Association . Here , a small column on Halloween made reference to " the Craft of the Wiccan " , apparently referring to the entire Pagan Witchcraft community . The author 's name was not printed , although it had probably been produced by one of the figures involved in editing Pentagram , such as Gerard Noel or Doreen Valiente . In July 1968 , a group of British Gardnerians began publishing a magazine titled The Wiccan , while Welshman Gavin Frost founded the Church of Wicca in the United States that same year . 
