Wiccan is a term that is associated with modern paganism and witchcraft. It is derived from the Old English word "wicca," which means "wise one" or "one who practices witchcraft." In English, Wiccan refers to a person who follows the spiritual beliefs and practices of Wicca. Wicca is a modern pagan religious movement that emerged in the mid-20th century. It was influenced by various ancient pagan traditions and practices, particularly those of Western Europe. Wicca is a nature-based religion that worships the Earth and its cycles, and it recognizes the sacredness of all living beings.
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Detail of Bayeux Tapestry: William at the battle of Hastings. Image by Myrabella, 2013, licensed under Creative Commons.
witch / Wicca
October 28, 2021Two photos of Starr Maddox that appeared in the Mobile Register on 8 September 1970. The caption run in the paper reads: “BEWITCHING BUNNY—Starr Maddox, 23, a member of a Miami cult known as Wicca, poses (top photo) in her witching outfit with black candles and skull. As a Playboy Club bunny (bottom photo) she displays her 36-24-36½ figure and a portrait of herself done by a warlock.”
28 October 2021
We all know the stereotypical image of a witch, an old woman with a wart on her nose, dressed in black with a conical hat, and riding on a broomstick—think Margaret Hamilton from the Wizard of Oz. But that image is very much a modern creation. Witch, meaning a practitioner of magic, can be traced to the Old English wicca (masculine) and wicce (feminine). Etymologist Anatoly Liberman goes further and traces it to an unattested, proto-Germanic root, *wit-ja, which is related to wise and wisdom. While this extended etymology is plausible, going beyond the Old English record is speculative.
We can see the Old English word in the law code of King Alfred, which dates to c.890:
Ða fæmnan þe gewuniað onfon gealdorcræftigan & scinlæcan & wiccan, ne læt þu ða libban.
(Regarding women who are accustomed to harboring magicians & wizards & witches, do not let them live.)
Liberman cites this as an example of the masculine form, but both wiccan and scinlæcan here can be either masculine or feminine—the accusative plural ending -an is the same for both; galdorcræftigan, however, is masculine. My conclusion is that the gender here is ambiguous and immaterial to the content. The practitioner of magic is to be condemned regardless of their gender. And indeed in early use, witch referred to men as well as women.
We do, however, get a reference to a female witch in one of Ælfric of Eynsham’s sermons from c.1000. Here he is referring to the Witch of Endor (1 Samuel 28:3–25):
Nu segð se wyrdwritere þæt seo wicce sceolde aræran þa of deaþe þone Drihtnes witegan Samuhel gehaten.
(Now the chroniclers [literally “fate-writers”] say that the witch shall call to raise Samuel, the prophet of the Lord, from death.)
In the Middle English period the final consonant became palatized and the final vowel disappeared (i.e., through apocope), and /wɪk-/ became /wɪtʃ/.
Also, in the fifteenth century witch starts becoming exclusively associated with women, and we also start to see use of the word to mean a disagreeable woman. In his poem The Order of Fools, written sometime before 1449, John Lydgate has this to say about one kind of fool, a man who marries an older woman for her money:
A lusty galaunt that weddit an old wicche,
For gret tresour, because his purs is bare;
An hungry huntere þIt handeth hym a bicche,
Nemel of mouth, for to mordre an hare;
Nyht riotours that wil no wareyn spare,
With-oute licence or ony lyberte,
Tyl sodeyn perel brynge hem in þe snare,
A ppreperatyf that they shal neuer the.(A lusty gallant that weds an old witch
For great treasure because his purse is bare;
A hungry hunter that hands him a bitch,
Quick to bite in order to kill a hare;
Night rioters that will no warren spare,
Without license or any liberty,
Till sudden peril brings them into the snare,
A preparation so that they should never thrive.)
In the medieval period, witches were without question evil and to be condemned. The distinction between good (white) and bad (black) witchcraft starts being made in the seventeenth century, although that is complicated in that all witchcraft, even that used for beneficial purposes, was thought to come from demonic and evil sources.
The present-day religion known as Wicca is a modern creation, not appearing until the latter half of the twentieth century. Its ceremonies and practices are also all modern inventions, despite claims by adherents that the religion is based on ancient, pre-Christian practices. In fact, we know very little detail about medieval or pre-medieval practice of witchcraft. Medieval writing about witchcraft, especially from the early medieval period, is primarily concerned with condemning, and not in detailing its practices, which would be considered sinful in and of itself.
The earliest reference to modern Wicca that I can find is from the Ottawa Citizen of 25 February 1964, which as an article on an English Wiccan, Sybil Leek:
Centuries ago “wicca”—craft of the wise, or witchcraft, was punishable by burning at the stake, and up to 12 years ago witches could be hanged for some offences and imprisoned for less serious crimes. When the English witch laws were repealed, Sybil Leek came into the open and discussed her religion and wrote books describing her life in the forest and her beliefs as a witch.
Note, the etymology given by Ms. Leek is a bit off. In Old English, wicca means witch, not witchcraft, and while the word’s root can be plausibly linked to the concepts of “wise” or “wisdom,” such a link is speculative.
And we have this Associated Press piece about a Wiccan Playboy Club bunny that ran on 8 September 1970 that illustrates both the spirit of the era and the general public’s reaction to Wicca, a reaction where misogyny has turned into sexism:
Starr Maddox is a beautiful Playboy Club bunny who’s on the verge of becoming a first class witch.
A stunning brunette with waist length tresses and spell-binding green eyes, 23-year-old Starr is a member of a Miami cult that practices a brand of witchcraft known as “Wicca”
“Witchcraft is really misunderstood,” said Starr. “Ours isn’t a Satanic religion. We don’t worship Satan. we’re interested in nature and good deeds and things like that.”
Ælfric. “29. Macarius and the Magicians, Saul and the Witch of Endor.” Homilies of Ælfric: A Supplementary Collection, vol. 2 of 2. John C. Pope, ed. Early English Text Society 260. London: Oxford UP, 1968, 792.
Associated Press. “Miami Playboy Club Bunny Proves Bewitching in More than One Way.” Mobile Register (Alabama), 8 September 1970, 3-C. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.
Dunn, Sheila (Southam News Service). “Witchcraft Is Not Black Magic England’s No. 1 Witch Explains.” Ottawa Citizen (Ontario), 25 February 1964, 2. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
Liberman, Anatoly. An Analytic Dictionary of English Etymology. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota Press, 2008, xlvi, 215–24, s.v. witch.
Liebermann, Felix. Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. 1 of 3. Halle: Max Niemeyer, 1903, Alfred § 29, 38.
Lydgate, John. “The Order of Fools.” The Minor Poems of John Lydgate, vol. 2 of 2. Henry MacCracken and Merriam Sherwood, eds. Early English Text Society OS 192. London: Oxford UP, 1934, lines 113–20, 453. Oxford, Bodleian Library, Laud Misc. 683, fols. 56–60.
Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, September 2021, s.v. witch, n., black witch, n., Wiccan, n. and adj., witch, v.1.; March 2015, modified September 2021, s.v. white witch, n.
Image credit: Unknown photographer, 1970. Associated Press. Fair use of a low-resolution image to illustrate the topic under discussion.
witch (n.)
Old English wicce "female magician, sorceress," in later use especially "a woman supposed to have dealings with the devil or evil spirits and to be able by their cooperation to perform supernatural acts," fem. of Old English wicca "sorcerer, wizard, man who practices witchcraft or magic," from verb wiccian "to practice witchcraft" (compare Low German wikken , wicken "to use witchcraft," wikker , wicker "soothsayer").
OED says of uncertain origin; Liberman says "None of the proposed etymologies of witch is free from phonetic or semantic difficulties." Klein suggests connection with Old English wigle "divination," and wig, wih "idol." Watkins says the nouns represent a Proto-Germanic *wikkjaz "necromancer" (one who wakes the dead), from PIE *weg-yo- , from PIE root *weg- "to be strong, be lively."
That wicce once had a more specific sense than the later general one of "female magician, sorceress" perhaps is suggested by the presence of other words in Old English describing more specific kinds of magical craft. In the Laws of Ælfred (c. 890), witchcraft was specifically singled out as a woman's craft, whose practitioners were not to be suffered to live among the West Saxons:
Ða fæmnan þe gewuniað onfon gealdorcræftigan & scinlæcan & wiccan, ne læt þu ða libban.
The other two words combined with it here are gealdricge , a woman who practices "incantations," and scinlæce "female wizard, woman magician," from a root meaning "phantom, evil spirit."
Another word that appears in the Anglo-Saxon laws is lyblæca "wizard, sorcerer," but with suggestions of skill in the use of drugs, because the root of the word is lybb "drug, poison, charm" (see leaf (n.)). Lybbestre was a fem. word meaning "sorceress," and lybcorn was the name of a certain medicinal seed (perhaps wild saffron). Weekley notes possible connection to Gothic weihs "holy" and German weihan "consecrate," and writes, "the priests of a suppressed religion naturally become magicians to its successors or opponents." Whatever the English word's origin, the use of a "poisoner" word for "witch, sorceress" parallels that of the Hebrew word used for "witch, sorceress" in the Levitical condemnation.
In Anglo-Saxon glossaries, wicca renders Latin augur (c. 1100), and wicce stands for "pythoness, divinatricem ." In the "Three Kings of Cologne" (c. 1400) wicca translates Magi :
Þe paynyms . cleped þe iij kyngis Magos , þat is to seye wicchis.
The glossary translates Latin necromantia ( "demonum invocatio" ) with galdre, wiccecræft . The Anglo-Saxon poem called "Men's Crafts" (also "The Gifts of Men") has wiccræft , which appears to be the same word, and by its context means "skill with horses." In a c. 1250 translation of "Exodus," witches is used of the Egyptian midwives who save the newborn sons of the Hebrews: "Ðe wicches hidden hem for-ðan, Biforen pharaun nolden he ben."
Witch in reference to a man survived in dialect into 20c., but the fem. form was so dominant by 1601 that men-witches or he-witch began to be used. Extended sense of "old, ugly, and crabbed or malignant woman" is from early 15c; that of "young woman or girl of bewitching aspect or manners" is first recorded 1740. Witch doctor is from 1718; applied to African magicians from 1836.
At this day it is indifferent to say in the English tongue, 'she is a witch,' or 'she is a wise woman.' [Reginald Scot, "The Discoverie of Witchcraft," 1584]
Entries linking to witch
Old English leaf "leaf of a plant, foliage; page of a book, sheet of paper," from Proto-Germanic *lauba- (source also of Old Saxon lof , Old Norse lauf , Old Frisian laf , Dutch loof , Old High German loub , German Laub "foliage, leaves," Gothic laufs "leaf, foliage"), perhaps from PIE *leub(h)- "to peel off, strip or break off" ((source also of Old Irish luib , "herb," lub-gort "garden;" Albanian labë "rind, cork;" Lithuanian luba "plank, board;" Russian lob "forehead, brow," Czech leb "skull;" Lithuanian luobas "bast," Latvian luobas "peel," Russian lub "bast;" Old Norse lyf "medicinal herbs," Old English lybb "poison; magic").
Related to lodge and lobby; for another PIE root see folio. Extended late 14c. to very thin sheets of metal (especially gold). Compare Lithuanian lapas "leaf," from a root also in Greek lepos "bark," lepein "to peel off." Also applied to flat and relatively broad surfaces, especially of flexible or mounted attachments; meaning "hinged flap on the side of a table" is from 1550s. To turn over a (new) leaf (1590s; 1570s as turn the leaf ) "begin a new and better course of life" is a reference to the book sense. Among insects, leaf-hopper is from 1847; leaf-cutter from 1816.
Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to be strong, be lively."
It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit vajah "force, strength," vajayati "drives on;" Latin vigil "watchful, awake," vigere "be lively, thrive," velox "fast, lively," vegere "to enliven," vigor "liveliness, activity;" Old English wacan "to become awake," German wachen "to be awake," Gothic wakan "to watch."
The Wiccan's Dictionary of Prophecy and Omens
Divination—the art of obtaining knowledge of the future or of secret things—has played an important role in ancient cultures and religions as well as in modern times. It was once a method of sacred communication with the spirit world and a way to determine the will of the gods by means of visions and predictions. In the present age, divination, including astrology, palmistry, and the I Ching, continues to be a popular method of looking into the future or past, as well as revealing that which was once unknown. In fact, a large number of our contemporary customs and superstitions are remnants of the once-powerful divinatory rituals of the ancient pagan religions. The Wiccan's Dictionary of Prophecy and Omens details over two hundred methods of divination, from those used in antiquity to those in use today. It traces the history of these practices and provides examples of nearly every known divinatory art. This is an essential resource for followers of today’s Wiccan lifestyle by modern Wiccan expert Gerina Dunwich.
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- Wicca / Witchcraft
Wicca is a nature-based religion that worships the Earth and its cycles, and it recognizes the sacredness of all living beings. In English, Wiccan also refers to the religious rituals, beliefs, and practices associated with Wicca. Wiccans often engage in rituals that celebrate the cycles of nature, such as the solstices and equinoxes.
Связанные категории
- Альманахи
- Тело, разум и дух
- Демонология и сатанизм
- Этническая и племенная
- Язычество и неоязычество
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They also honor the moon and its phases, as well as various deities and spirits associated with nature and magic. Unlike popular stereotypes, Wicca is not associated with Satanism or evil practices. Wiccan ethics emphasize the importance of harm none and living in harmony with nature and others. Wiccans believe in personal responsibility, self-development, and respecting the free will of others. Wicca has gained popularity in recent decades and has become recognized as a legitimate religion in many countries. Wiccan practitioners often form covens or participate in larger community gatherings to share their beliefs and practices. In conclusion, Wiccan is an English term that refers to a person who follows the religious beliefs and practices of Wicca. It is a nature-based religion that emphasizes the sacredness of the Earth and the interconnectedness of all living beings. Wiccans engage in rituals, honor the cycles of nature, and practice ethics that promote harmony and personal responsibility. The term Wiccan can also refer to the religious rituals, beliefs, and practices associated with Wicca..
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