While forms of witchcraft rose to prominence in the mid-20th century, the practices and beliefs of today's neopagan traditions share undeniable connections to far more ancient pagan ancestries. Through persecution and suppression, the old ways were driven underground only to reemerge in a new light.
In this article, let’s explore the winding path that bridges modern witchcraft and Wicca to ancient folk rituals, pre-Christian European religions, secret esoteric orders, and key figures who revived suppressed occult knowledge. Y
There are no direct lines between ancient and modern witchcraft. But through cultural clues, archeological evidence, surviving myths, and folklore, we can find striking parallels that echo through time. The magical threads binding ages reveal witchcraft's inherently pagan soul. So, let us delve into magic's mysterious past and unveil discoveries still shaping witches today. The old ways endure but are reborn.
Folk Magic in Europe
Well before the Burning Times, common folk magic permeated everyday life in the Middle Ages. These practices provided the foundation for contemporary witchcraft.
Peasants, village wise women, and cunning folk used simple charms, blessings, potions, and transcriptions for:
• Healing illness, protecting livestock, and lifting curses
• enhancing fertility, love, and abundance
• Communicating with spirits, interpreting omens
• Marking holidays like Beltane with rituals for luck
These rural traditions synthesized Christian prayers, pagan lore, and elemental magic using herbs, stones, talismans, and more. Magic served community needs pragmatically. Performed anonymously and passed down locally, this was the fabric of pre-modern European witchcraft that was later suppressed.
Persecution of Witches
While folk magics had long been tolerated, the 15th-18th century brought violent persecution:
• Christian authorities sanctioned witch hunts, especially during 1560-1630.
• Accused women were targeted as heretics, tortured into confession, and executed by fire or hanging. Convinced Satan has granted them powers, persecutors punished magic severely.
• The witch trial panic stemmed from religious zealotry, misogyny, and fear of the occult. Many victims were local healers and midwives.
• Estimates suggest around 40,000 to 60,000 were executed in the mania sweeping Europe and the American colonies.
• This suppression drove folk practices and pagan traditions underground as identifying as a ''witch'' became life-threatening. Occult knowledge was cautiously guarded.
While persecution eventually waned in the early 1700s, the effects cast a lingering pall over magical practice for centuries.
Pagan Religions
Prior to Christianity dominating Europe, various pagan religions venerated nature, goddesses, and fertility:
• Germanic paganism - Norse, Anglo-Saxon, and Continental Germanic tribes worshipped gods like Odin, Thor, and Freya alongside nature spirits.
• Celtic polytheism - Druids led rituals honoring Celtic deities across Britain and Gaul, like The Morrigan or Lugh. Reverence for trees and natural sites.
• Slavic, Baltic & Finno-Ugric beliefs - Vastly diverse pantheons and animistic beliefs covered Eastern Europe. Deities reflect the natural world.
• Greek and Roman myths - Rich lore and elaborate god/goddess hierarchies marked Southern European civilizations for centuries. Temples offered tribute.
• Scythian, Thracian & Dacian - Prominent goddess worship and shamanism in Black Sea regions. Reverence for forces of nature.
These faiths venerated feminine powers of creation, divination, nature connection, the underworld, fertility, and magic itself.
The Enlightenment
By the 17th-18th century, intellectual shifts took hold:
• Authority and traditions faced increasing scrutiny as rationalism rose.
• Superstitions and supernatural beliefs were dismissed by elites subscribing to skepticism and the scientific method.
• Thinkers like Voltaire and Rousseau questioned absolute religious control and rigid hierarchies.
• Magic and occultism were viewed warily as backward practices compared to “enlightened” thinking.
• Covens and magical traditions retreated from public view and operated largely underground.
• Folk remedies and cunning folk continued quietly serving commoners’ daily needs.
• The stage was slowly set for reinventing and demystifying witchcraft on a more secular humanist model.
The Enlightenment planted early seeds of dissent against suppressive religious authority that would help fertile occult revival.
Occult Revival
During the late 19th century, fascination with occultism and magical traditions reemerged in new forms:
• Rejecting Enlightenment rationalism, Romantics renewed interest in intense emotions, visions, and the mystical.
• Secret societies like the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn integrated ancient esotericism, ritual magic, Egyptian lore, and Tarot.
• Helena Blavatsky founded the Theosophical Society, blending Eastern and Western magical philosophies and practices.
• Public interest grew around Spiritualism and contacting spirits through seances and mediums.
• Occult materials became increasingly available. Customs and folklore were compiled and published.
• Anthropological discoveries fueled interest in ancient goddess worship, nature rituals, and non-Christian cosmologies.
Occult syncretism amplified in the Victorian era, granting modern magical revival deeper roots. Public interest blossomed by the century’s end.
Gerald Gardner & Wicca
Against this rich esoteric backdrop, Gerald Gardner formally established Wicca, merging ancient folk practices with modern ceremonial magic:
• In the 1940s and 50s, Gardner claimed initiation into a surviving English coven called the New Forest Coven.
• Whether authentic or not, this conveyed lineage from old witchcraft traditions that Gardner developed into formal Wicca.
• Gardner combined diverse occult principles like natural magic, pagan deities, ritual initiation, and respect for nature’s duality into a defined religion.
• Secretive covens passed down Gardner’s teachings through initiations. Public visibility grew through books like Gardner’s Witchcraft Today.
• Key collaborators like Doreen Valiente helped refine Wicca into a religious system of shared tenets and structured initiations.
From these beginnings, Wicca blossomed globally thanks to initiates spreading the teachings.
Modern witchcraft has blossomed far beyond its origins in English cottage magic and covens. Yet traces of ancient folk rituals, pre-Christian paganism, the esoteric revivals, and the evolution of Wicca nonetheless thread through the vibrant multiplicity of paths seen today.
While not an unbroken lineage, the recurring emphasis on nature worship, goddess veneration, divination, spirit communion, mastering altered states, and wielding magic connects contemporary practices to unearthed old mysteries.
Through understanding the winding journey of beliefs and rituals transmuted yet persistent through eras of suppression and revival, witches today can more fully perceive and forge ahead this ancient yet evolving craft. The roots run deep; the branches reach for the heavens. Pay homage, but make the path your own.
Sources
Ankarloo, Bengt and Henningsen, Gustav (1990) Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Levack, Brian P. (1995) The Witch Hunt in Early Modern Europe (2nd edition). London: Longman.
Behringer, Wolfgang (1995) “Estimates of the Number of Executions for Witchcraft in the 16th, 17th and 18th Centuries” in Bengt Ankarloo and Gustav Henningsen (eds) Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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