Yep I have studied Ancient Egypt and have never seen read or heard the word wicca in that context at all?

OMG someone mentioned Golden Dawn! Thats a massively debateable subject lol

I believe that wicca is considered to be a religion, as it should be. I'm still learning. I will be keeping a close eye in here, and I'm hoping to learn alot.

Peace

I believe that we should never stop learning but, to me, Wicca is a religion without set dogma.  

The focus of Wicca is to celebrate nature and find ways to harmonise with it.  

Additionally, Wicca encourages and enables the individual to continue their own personal development and journey towards enlightenment.

That's my view, anyway.

Blessed Be

Sarah

I'm new here and still figuring out how to correctly reply to posts and whatnot, so if this gets stuck after someone else's post in the wrong spot, please bear with me

Here's the basic truth of it in simplest terms as I understand and explain it:

Wicca has two definitions
Witchcraft has two definitions
All the definitions are accurate within their relative context
One of the definitions of Wicca is interchangeable with one of the definitions of Witchcraft.

That is the basis for the similarity and difference between them.

That is why some people use them as separate terms and some people use them as two forms of the same word.

If you use the definition of Wicca that is totally different than the definition of Witchcraft, then they are not the same thing. If you use the definition of Wicca that is the same as the definition of Witchcraft, then they are interchangeable.

The confusion and arguments come about because not everyone uses the interchangeable definitions.

Wicca (definition one) - Pronounced "Wit-cha" - Old English root word for "Witch". A Wicca IS a Witch. Now it's commonly pronounced 'Wick-ah'. A person who practices magic, or various wizened folk-practices like herbalism, holistic healing, or shamanistic studies whether or not it is within the constraints of a religious belief. Wicca is the masculine form of it, Wicce is the femininine form of it, Wiccan is the plural - more on this below.

Wicca (definition two) - Religion organized by Gerald Gardner based on studies of ancient European Paganism, Magical Rituals, and various personal beliefs. Commonly refered to as "Craft of the Wise". It incorporates belief and focus on divinity in both masculine and feminine form. There is great focus on earth-based spirituality. It may or may not incorporate magic as a focal point of the religion, but there is an understanding and appreciation for it. There are numerous traditions of Wicca practiced now around the world. A few are: Gardnerian, Alexandrian, Dianic, Cabot Temple, Seax-Wica, Witta, Corellian, Corellian-Nativist, Faery, Pictish/Pecti Wicca, and many others.

Witch (definition one) - The same as Wicca's first definition. A practitioner of magic or sorcerous arts. These practices do not necessarily follow the tenets of any specific belief system or religion. By virtue of the word's definition of 'magic worker', ANYONE who practices magic can call themselves a 'witch'. Typically, the witch is a practitioner of 'low' or folk magic as opposed to 'high' or ceremonial magic. Those practitioners of ceremonial magic prefer the term 'Magus'. Those that practice Voodoo, Santeria, or even Satanism may therefore use the term 'witch' to describe their members. This does not mean that Satanists are the same thing as Wiccans, or that Satanists are the same thing as others who claim the name "witch". It just means that as a word, it is applicable to various practitioners.

Witch (definition two) - Interchangeable with Gardner's Wicca. Both words apply to a practitioner of a reconstructionist or neo-pagan religion based on ancient Pagan practices, magic, and various other individual beliefs. Those that use the term Witch to describe themselves or their members see magical energy as the inherant root life force that combines and connects all things. A Witch by this definition is following a spiritual/religious path, most often one of Pagan origin or definition.

More info detailing the two words and their various uses and meanings is below. I just wanted to get the discrepancies handled first.

Witch- Etymology: Middle English wicche, from Old English wicca, masculine, wizard & wicce, feminine, witch; akin to Middle High German wicken to bewitch, Old English wigle divination, and perhaps to Old High German wîh holy. (Meriam Webster Dictionary)

So, is Wicca an ancient religion or something new that was founded in the 1950s? Is the concept of Wicca as an ancient religion partially flawed when the information about Gerald Gardner is taken into consideration? Can someone be a Wiccan without being initiated by another Wiccan? How can something be ancient when it just came out in the 20th century?

It is both ancient and modern because the word 'Wicca' has two meanings.

Wicca (now commonly pronounced Wick-ah) has only been recognized as an organized religion for about the last half of the 20th century. Gerald Gardner was the first fellow to come out and publicly claim to be a Witch. He was an Englishman, Freemason, and practicing naturist. Gardner claimed to have been initiated by a woman named Dorothy Clutterbuck in 1939. Old Dorothy was a real person, this was proven by research done later on by Doreen Valiente and some other scholars. Dorothy and the New Forest Witches were, according to Gardner's claims, a surviving tradition of the Old Religion in England. With the repeal of England's anti-witchcraft laws in the 1950s, he made his move. He is credited with forming the basic ritual and setup for Wiccan practices. The idea of the four elements, of circle casting, of rites of initiation, of the specific use of tools, and everything else that's commonly found in a Wicca-101-type book, is seen as his work, influenced by the orders and societies he belonged to as well as texts he studied as an amateur anthropologist and British Civil Servant. True to Dorothy's training and wishes, Gardner's form of Witchcraft was secretive and intiatory only. He borrowed rites and practices from the Freemasons and was friends with another popular occultist, Aleister Crowley, whose magical philosophy and practices formed a foundation for Wicca's magical work. He studied books such as Margaret Murphy's The Witch Cult in Western Europe and James Frazier's The Golden Bough for historical references. These books claimed the ancient roots of Paganism and Goddess worship in Europe. (Further studies by more current historians have since then debunked a portion of Murphy's work, but when it was written, it was believed to be the most accurate studies to date. This is why it is important to study history - both old and new.) Gardner's High Priestess, Doreen Valiente, is credited with many of the common Wiccan writings and teachings, including the popular "Charge of the Goddess." These, along with Gardner's own practices that he claimed he learned from a coven of witches in England, were melded together into the first tradition of Wicca practiced as a religion. One could not be a Wiccan unless they were trained and initiated by another Wiccan. This is a belief held to by the many Gardnerian traditionalists today.

So, can someone be a Wiccan without being initiated by another Wiccan?

Let's use another religion as an example to make this point: Catholicism.

The Catholic religion has a set liturgy of practices. It has a set belief system. There are rites and rituals of confirmation and communion and the like. In order to be a Catholic, you must study catechism and be confirmed as a Catholic in a confirmation ritual. If you were to get a book on Catholic practices and beliefs, read it, and say, "I like this! This sounds just like what I believe and what I should do!" and then continue to study on your own you would not be recognized as a Catholic. Because you didn't go through the rites and ceremony, you would not be a Catholic. You could practice the faith and such on your own, but other Catholics would not recognize a 'self-initiated' Catholic. Does this mean you are any less religious or spiritual? No. You can hold the beliefs truly in your heart. But to call yourself a Catholic without going through the initiations would be false. You would be practicing your own version of Catholicism and not the sanctioned, accepted, true form of it.

Wicca, as Gardner organized it, is an initiatory religion. It's almost the same sort of concept. So, there are two schools of thought on this. One is that Wicca is initiatory and the other is that it's an individually chosen path and that it's perfectly acceptable to go through a self-initiation between the Wiccan and the Gods. That is because of Wicca's other meaning as a word.

Wicca (pronounced Wit-chah) is the Old English word for "Witch". Wicca is the masculine spelling for it. Wicce (pronounced Wit-chay) is the feminine and Wiccan is the plural. Wiccacraeft is the old spelling for Witchcraft. The idea of using an -an or -en ending for words to make them plural is not entirely unheard of in our modern language usage.

For example: Child - singular becomes Children - plural. So, quite literally Wicca means Witch. One witch would be a wicca. Two witches would be two wiccan. It's through our watering-down of the language that the pronounciation and terminology has changed.

Gardner was the first person to organize the religion and call it Wicca. But Wicca, as Witchcraft, existed long before him. So, yes it is an ancient belief. People believed in Witchcraft and practiced it before Gardner. Gardner doesn't 'own' the word Wicca. By this belief, anyone who accepts and believes the teachings of Witchcraft is a Wiccan. The way it is commonly practiced and written about now is newer. Unless you are following an older system or tradition, family tradition, or belief system outside of Gardner's concept of Wicca, you are not necessarily a Wiccan. You are a Witch. Just as Gardner and his students do not possess sole rights to the word Wicca, neither does Wicca possess sole claim to the word Witchcraft.