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This article is from the magicK kreEePing
oOze FAQ, by tyagi nagasiva tyagI@houseofAos.abyss.coM with
numerous contributions by others.
13.5: "Where did Wicca come from? Did Crowley invent it? (etc.)" cont
...Gardner was in fact continuing and building upon the esoteric Freemasonic
tradition in an organic way. It had been common practice for decades to
discover some as yet untapped well of mythology and appropriate its symbols
within the context of new rites of initiation and invocation, which rites
however derived their basic structure from other similar rituals within the
esoteric tradition.
That is exactly what Gardner did with the anthropology of Murray, augmented
with a good deal of classical scholarship on other "witch" myths. In this
way he was not breaking with esoteric tradition, but continuing it in both
intent and form. It would be more accurate to say that he used the new
mythology as patching over the existing and unaltered edifice of esoteric
Masonry, rather than the other way around.
...For his central celebratory ritual he took Crowley's Gnostic Mass and
preserved the structure point by point, but changed the divine names and
some of the wording to point to his new mythology. Both rituals are
symbolic re-creations of an inner sexual formula, which appears -- at least
before the Valiente edits -- to have been identical between the two
traditions.
There are also reasons to believe that Gardner may have been influenced
by the common theme in British pornography of the religious spanking
initiatory order; compare the treatment of the subject in part III of
Ginzburg's "An_Unhurried_View_of_Erotica" (New York: Helmsman, 1958)
with Gardner's. It is unclear whether such societies of nudist
flagellants actually existed before Gardner, but it is hard to deny the
similarity. Here I mean no disrespect and gladly acknowledge with our
modern-day Leather Faeries that there may be great spiritual meaning in
such customs.
tim@toad.com (Tim Maroney)
--------------------------
Wicca is derived from largely Christian, masonic and pseudo-masonic
structures, infusing an alternative mythos which was taken from
revolutionary and anthropological sources.
Gardnerian tradition is arguably the central trunk of Wiccan tradition in
its most conservative form. It was founded upon heretical teachings which
were developed by historical and philosophical founders of Satanist groups.
Unable to bear the brunt of the psychosocial backlash, these Satanists
could not identify themselves as such and instead took the slightly less
controversial (yet martyred) label 'Witch' or 'Wiccan' so as to identify
more strongly with what they sought to promote as indigenous and nature-
centered religion.
Wicca arises in some measure as a *response* to Christianity, as a masonic,
pseudo-agrarian and Northern European alternative to a Semitic mystery
tradition gone wild, and it is a composite of very diverse individuals who
at times know absolutely nothing about either where they are coming from
(usually oppressive and nominally Christian homes) or where they have
landed (within a resurgent tradition founded upon mythical history which
has roots in Western Hermetica and dreams of connection to pre-Christian
nature-worship).
nagasiva, tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com
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The double C in Wicca/Wicce is pronounced like the TCH in Witch,
thus the words sound like "witch-uh"; not surprising, since they
are the source of the modern word "witch". The fact that Gardner
and subsequent Neo-Pagans pronounce Wicca like a Bostonian saying
Wicker does not make the words cognates. They appear to come
from two different (but similar-looking) root words -- Wicker from
a root meaning "bent", as you say, but Wicca/Witch from a root
referring to magic, religion, craftiness, and guile.
-- Raven (JSingle@Music.Lib.MATC.Edu). [All standard disclaimers apply]
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