England in the 1800's saw a change in the people who inhabited the growing cities. As the cities grew in both size and population, the people had a longing for the country life, a connection to the land and all of nature. The earth of the farm had been replaced by the dirt of the city. This hunger for a romantic portrayal of nature started a new interest in the "old way" of life. Writers and artists of this time found a way to recapture the life left behind.

Nature was the theme, and ancient images the vehicle. The Victorian writer's and artist's favorite way to portray nature was to use the Greek and Roman pantheons of gods and goddesses. Pan, a minor Greek god of nature, was brought up from relative obscurity to be a major god of nature in works by Kenneth Grahame and Oscar Wilde, among others.

A group of artists known as the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was formed in 1848. Pre-Rephalelite artists include John Everet Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Holman Hunt, and several woman artists such as Evelyn de Morgan, Elizabeth Siddal, and Marie Spartali-Stillman among others. This group of artists chose the name Pre-Raphaelite because they wanted to return to the style of painting before Raphael. Raphael's work was considered soulless and unimaginative, and colorless. The Pre-Raphaelites painted directly from nature with truthfulness, and many used classical themes. Many of the classical art works on this site are from these Pre-Raphaelite artists.

Gaia, Greek Earth Mother, creator of the universe, became the favorite female symbol of nature and the female spirit of the Earth. She is the personification of the female spirit and is also known as Mother Earth and Mother Nature. She appears in the literature and art of the era, and by the 1900s the domination of the Goddess and Horned God was complete.

Folk rituals and customs were believed to be passed down generation to generation and that they were remnants of an "Old Religion." This was the thinking since the time of the Renaissance. It has been shown in further research that few cases are as old as they are claimed to be and none are from an ancient organized religion.

In the 16th and 17th century it was popular to attribute the folk rituals and customs to the Romans. In the 18th and 19th century the credit went to the Druids. It just depended on the whims of what was popular at the time.

Late in the 19th century, Sir James Frazer published "The Golden Bough." Frazer was influenced by the theory of evolution as put by Charles Darwin. It was the time of the beginning of archaeology. The discovery of fossil remains and the evolution theory all contributed to the book.

Frazer theorized the possibility of folk customs being the remnants of an ancient religion. He said it may be possible to reconstruct this religion by a comparative study of these customs and set out to do so. Scholars of the time never accepted the theory, and it is now known the book has many faults in the theories as written.

The motivation for Frazier's work on the "Golden Bough" was not a love of nature and beauty, but a detesting of all religions, including Christianity. Frazer felt that all religion was backward and wanted a progress to a better and wiser society without a need for "inferior" ritual behavior.

Frazer's work was embraced enthusiastically by collectors of folk customs and many folklore societies. The content of "The Golden Bough" was mixed with the nostalgia of the writers and artists of the time. It all got swept up and stirred together to create an old fertility religion with connections to nature, gods and goddesses, and spirits.

Before the publishing of the Malleus Malifacarum, the "Hammer of the Witches," and the beginning of the Inquisition, there are no records of witches covens, pacts made with the Devil, Sabbats or Esbats. No one seems to want to admit that much of Wicca is based on the texts of the witch hunts and is not an ancient religion that went underground during the time to the Inquisition.

The origins of the "Great Witch Hunt" were hotly debated during the 18th and 19th centuries. Scholars laughed at the idea of the possibility of magick. It was accepted as non-existent and the belief of witches thought laughable. This attitude made a mockery of the traditions of the church. From the church's point of view, this was not allowable.

A German scholar named Karl-Ernst Järcke, suggested that there was a surviving ancient, pre-Christian, German, Pagan religion at the time. He claimed the accused witches were followers of that religion. This argument made the persecutions and deaths justifiable, and according to Järke, the church was correct in what they had done. The church was naturally happy with this explanation.

The 19th century historian, Jules Michelet, began to write in opposition to this. Michelet was against the power of the church and used material from anti-clerical pamphlets that were circulated at the time for his works.

In 1862 Michelet published the work entitled "La Sorcier." The idea behind the book was to show a feminine, pagan, witch religion that was lead by a Priestess. It was described as nature loving, peaceful and democratic. Michelet proposed the Pagans of the Middle Ages knew of a fertility cult that predated Christianity and adapted what they knew of it to fit their needs. The book "La Sorciere" has also been described as the basis for the Satanist's ideology. In the work, the priestess's nude body served as the altar, allowing Michelet to parody the Mass of the Church. The book went on to be a bestseller. No matter how different Wicca and Satanism have become, the roots are quite close, both using the papers from the Inquisition and "La Sorciere" for ideas.

Then we have Charles Godfrey Leland. An American writer and folklorist. In 1899 Leland published a booklet titled "Aradia, or the Gospels of the Witches." He claimed the text was given to him by a woman named Maddalena, who said it was the book of the local witches. Leland said the witches that used the book were still in existence and in the area. The work is said to be directly inspired by Michelet's "La Sorciere" and argues against the nostalgia for the Middle Ages. This form of Italian Witchcraft was more far more feminist than the work of Michelet, and made the main deity a Goddess. "Aradia," along with some of Leland's other works, contain the phrase "la Vecchia Religion," meaning the Old Religion. This may be where Wicca took the reference of being the "Old Religion." Aradia also contains the Charge of the Goddess, still seen in many different forms. The Charge describes the Goddess and ways to worship her.

Leland's book, "Aradia," is primarily used in the Strega Tradition today. It contains what appears to be the original version of the "Charge of the Goddess." Doreen Valiente, a prominent witch living in England, wrote a version of the Charge for the Gardnarian Tradition. This poem is incorporated into other traditions also. Her version has interpretations made by other witches and is used around the world today.

The works of Frazer, Michelet and Leland captured the imagination of Egyptologist, folklorist, and anthropologist, Margaret Murry. In 1921 she wrote "The Witch Cult in Western Europe." She reexamined documents of the Inquisition. She also used texts such as H.C. Lea's "History of the Inquisition," written in 1888. Murry's book tried to reinforce the idea that Witchcraft was the surviving pagan pre-Christian religion of Old Europe. Her book "God of the Witches," published in 1933 also showed a universal pagan religion of ancient Europe. She claimed the persecuted witches of the Inquisition where followers of the surviving religion, and their god was covered with hair. With the influence of other writers and artists, she described a god very much like Pan. Murry never produced any proof and her work has largely been discredited, even though it was one of the driving forces of the "revival" of Wicca. Her idea of an ancient organized religion of Western Europe, a fertility worshiping society, where the god dies and is reborn as shown in the seasons, is the basis of Wicca.

There has been no traceable evidence to support the theory of an ancient witch religion. There are no ancient writings, no traceable family lineage, no evidence of covens, no proof. The first evidence came from England at the end of the 1930's. A group of Cambridge students gathered to practice a religion based on the works mentioned. It is the first evidence of any such group. No doubt, there are family traditions and folk magick that go further back, but it is not a religion that has traceable ancient roots.

The Modern Craft is based on the works of the writers mentioned, and of Englishman Gerald Gardner. After the repeal of the Witchcraft Act in England in 1951, there was a resurgence of interest in what came to be known as The Old Ways. Gardner claimed he was initiated into a coven by hereditary witch with a lineage that was unbroken. It is now known the works of Charles Godfrey Leland, Margaret Murry, Rudyard Kipling, Ovid, Aleister Crowley, Doreen Valiente, among others, form the basic components of Gardner's rituals. They were not handed down from an old coven. Valiente was a major force in rewriting rituals and bringing the Goddess into the group. Gardner's rituals and structure were drawn from Celtic Druidry and the mysteries of Freemasonry, the Key of Solomon, and The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Gardner combined ideas and rituals from all of these sources, and mixed in a little folk magick. Today's Wicca is a combination based on the works of Gardner and present day Wiccans such as Raymond Buckland, Starhawk, Janet and Stewart Farrar, Scott Cunningham, and many others. We acknowledge them in helping to bring Wicca, in its many forms, to all who wish to learn.