History
Witchcraft or the "Craft of the Wise" (because the members of the group were known for being herbalists, healers, and free thinkers)
When did it start? -- The beliefs in the Goddess and God started long before most of the popular religions of today. There is evidence that Goddess worship was done in prehistoric days. It has been practices in many tribes around the world who had no contact with each other.
Research done by Janet and Stewart Farrar turned up this origin: "To divine the future by the cries of animals."
More commonly suggested meanings are, “The wise ones”, or, “To bend or shape” coming from the Anglo-Saxon root of word “witch”.
Scott Cunningham defines Wicca as: “A contemporary Pagan religion with spiritual roots in the earliest expressions of reverence of nature”.
Origins of modern Wicca:
In 1949 Gerald Gardner wrote a book entitled, “High Magic's Aid” which is a novel about a coven of witches, and in 1954 he published, “Witchcraft Today”, which is a non-fiction book on the history and practice of witchcraft. He suspected that his was the only coven in existence, but after his books came out he began receiving letters from other witches around the world.
Gardner created what we now know as modern Wicca by drawing rituals and traditions from many sources, and incorporating both folk magick and ceremonial magick.