How old is Wiccanism?
Wicca
Wicca (), also termed Pagan Witchcraft, is a contemporary Pagan new religious movement. It was developed in England during the first half of the 20th century and was introduced to the public in 1954 by Gerald Gardner, a retired British civil servant. Wicca draws upon a diverse set of ancient pagan and 20th-century hermetic motifs for its theological structure and ritual practices.
Etymology of Wicca
In the 1960s, the Gardnerian initiate Alex Sanders founded his own tradition, which became known as Alexandrian Wicca; he used the terms "Wicca" and "the Wicca" in reference to the entire Pagan Witchcraft religion. One of Sanders' initiates, Stewart Farrar, describes "Wicca" as "the witches' name for their Craft" in his book "What Witches Do" (1971). The widespread adoption of "Wicca" in reference to Pagan Witchcraft would have brought benefits to its practitioners, who were widely maligned and faced persecution for their practice of "witchcraft"; an emotive term often associated with Satanism that had negative connotations in the Western imagination. Doyle White argued that the practitioners' presentation of themselves as Wiccans rather than witches removed some of the social stigma that they faced.