During the 1990s and the early years of the new century, where statistics are available, it seems that the numbers of people either interested in or involved in Wicca is growing. In 1989, the Occult Census organized by the Sorcerer’s Apprentice mail order company in Leeds, Yorkshire, using a small sample of one thousand respondents, came up with a rather optimistic figure of 250,000 witches based on the then population of the United Kingdom. About 42 percent of those who completed the census declared they had a committed belief in the Craft. Other estimates of the number of practitioners of witchcraft in Britain in the 1990s ranged from 20,000 to 80,000. Most of the respondents to the Occult Census had been born in the 1960s, 37 percent had received some form of higher education, and another 21 percent possessed university degrees. Only 10 percent were unemployed, and most had responsible jobs in journalism, business management, the computer industry, engineering, and the civil service.
In 1991, the Reverend J. Gordon Melton of the Institute for the Study of American Religion in Santa Barbara, California, estimated the total neopagan population of the USA, including Wiccans, was about 130,000. In 1999, the figure was put at 200,000, and by 2001 this had increased significantly to 750,000. By 2005, a survey by the Covenant of the Goddess revised the figure down to between 150,000 and 200,000. A year later the Pagan Education Network estimated there were between 150,000 and 600,000 neopagan believers in the States, which seems a wide and variable figure. Another, more academically based survey (date unavailable) carried out by the City University of New York put the estimated figure at around 135,000.
Leading neopagan and Wiccan magazines such as PanGaia and SageWoman had a readership of between 7,000 and 20,000 in the 1990s (Lewis 1996: 303). Oberon Zell-Ravenheart (Tim Zell) of the Church of All Worlds claimed that based on the average readership of their magazine Green Egg, there must be at least 500,000 pagans in America. This figure was backed up by the Wiccan Pagan Press Alliance, who estimated between 500,000 and 600,000 based on magazine sales and readership. Certainly sales of neopagan and Wiccan books increased from 4.5 million in 1990 to over 100 million in 2000. In recent years this may have dropped, as in the UK at least, mainstream publishers have switched away from such books toward more general New Age subjects.
In 2001, for the first time, a question was included in the British National Census about religious affiliation. According to the results that were published by the government, 30,569 people declared their religion as paganism. How many of these were Wiccans or witches is not known. In a largely secular country where less then 10 percent of professed Christians attend church services on a regular basis, this figure ranks paganism as the ninth most-popular religion, behind Roman Catholicism and Spiritualism (The Times, December 14, 2004).
The socio-economic make-up of people who follow Wiccan beliefs was, according to Reverend Melton, “white-collar professionals.” Dr. Tanya Luhrmann’s research in the 1980s among British Wiccans also indicated they were mostly middle-class. Leo Ruckbie has claimed recent research in the UK indicates Wiccans are “predominantly working to lower middle class,” but he gives no source for his information. He also said they “subscribe to attitudes and values usually associated with the middle classes, tending to be more radically and politically left-wing.” They are also predominantly white in ethnic origin, and this is also reflected in the racial identity of their American cousins (2004: 163–164).
Writing in 1993, Anthony Kemp said: “[The] majority of witches I have met are in their thirties, and they own homes, and have two children. Both partners are likely to be employed … and probably vote for the Green Party” (Kemp 1993: 133). However, he also identified a younger, nonconformist faction of Wiccans and neopagans. They were involved in alternative activities such as rock festivals, agitprop, visiting Glastonbury, and “drinking in the pubs of bed-sitter land.” They spent their money on expensive biological soap powder and whole foods (Ibid.).
Today Wicca is dominated by the 1970s concept of witchcraft as a nature religion. The majority of pagan magazines published today devote several pages of each issue to environmental issues, ranging from animal welfare to genetically modified crops and they promote a green agenda and message. In fact many modern followers of paganism firmly, and sometimes almost fanatically, believe it represents the spirituality of the environmental movement and is the only hope for the future of the planet. Not all agree, and senior Wiccan elder Fred Lamond is on record as saying the increased interest in environmental matters among the general population owes more to pressure groups such as Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace than it does to the influence of pagans (quoted in Greenwood 2000: 112).
Ecopagan groups such as the Dragon Environmental Network (DEN) have emerged from the Wiccan scene to support the recent anti-road campaigns that threaten the countryside and ancient woodlands. DEN was founded in the 1990s by Adrian Harris, a member of Friends of the Earth. He was an initiate of the “Progressive Wicca” group in London, a mixture of Alexandrian and Gardnerian traditions with a radical outlook. Harris was also involved in interfaith and worked with the Creation Spirituality movement in the United States founded by the Roman Catholic priest Father Matthew Fox.
In the 1990s, many pagans and Wiccans became involved in the struggle to stop the government’s road-building plans at Oxlea Wood and Twyford Down in southern England. Protesters dug underground tunnels, chained themselves to trees, lay in front of bulldozers and earth-moving equipment, and fought with the police and private security guards in a failed attempt to stop the destruction of woodland by construction workers.
It is a problem that the vast majority of modern Wiccans are usually urban dwellers who practice their rituals indoors and have very little, if any, experience living in the countryside. For this reason they are likely to have a sentimental “townie” view of nature. The anthropologist Dr. Susan Greenwood, who carried out research into Wiccan groups in London in the late 1990s, said most of their members were concerned with their own personal inner spiritual development and were not interested in environmental activism. She claimed two of the covens she joined “showed no interest in nature other than as a backdrop for their rituals and imagery for their sense of interconnectedness” (Ibid., 113). Dr. Greenwood quoted one Wiccan who said she did not watch nature documentaries on television because they were “boring.” Another refused to go for a walk because it was raining and he might get his feet wet!
In the last ten years, the interest taken in Wicca, its beliefs, practices, and historical background by anthropologists and historians has led some of its modern devotees to reevaluate it. Many of them have begun to question “the gospel according to St. Gerald” concerning witchcraft that has been passed down to modern practitioners by the senior guardians of the tradition. In an interview published in 2007, Janet Farrar and her present partner Gavin Bone said of Wicca, “… some may claim ‘ancient origins,’ [but] it is really a new religion, a mystery tradition, which since its conception in the 1950s has created its own theology and ritual practices.” They added that Wicca was only “fifty years young” and, although it had gone “mainstream” and become a more acceptable religious path within modern culture, there was a danger it would now lose its “mystery tradition” aspects (“An Interview with Janet Farrar & Gavin Bone” in The Cauldron #125, August 2007).
Apparently, in a last-ditch attempt to preserve this mystery tradition for future generations, Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone have followed in Gerald Gardner’s footsteps and created a new form of witchcraft called “Progressive Wicca.” Its aim is to give Wiccan beliefs and practices a fresh attitude, looking to the future and discarding those things from the past that are no longer relevant to spiritual growth and the progress of the Craft in the twenty-first century. One aspect where this has manifested in Progressive Wicca is the traditional duotheistic nature of a single God and Goddess as a couple. Instead Farrar and Bone see a much wider belief in the many faces of Deity represent
ed at a practical level as polytheism (Ibid., and 2008: 166). In this sense, Progressive Wicca takes a similar view to many modern traditions of neopaganism who revere many gods and goddesses.
What we have seen over the years since the days of Gerald Gardner and his followers is a gradual movement away from the rigid dogmas that once existed in Wicca. This has accelerated in recent years due to the corresponding cultural changes in society as a whole. According to Farrar and Bone, such concepts as lineage are becoming less important with a rise in more experiential training and an emphasis on solitary working. They say they have personally moved away from doing just lectures and now prefer workshops where participants can get involved at a practical level. This has extended onto the Internet where they offer courses for solitary practitioners who have been unable to join a coven or do not want to commit themselves to one. The courses run for seven months and are based on working with the elemental forces of fire, earth, air, water, and ether, or spirit. They also include shamanism and other traditions to “give a workable magical system for the twenty-first century.”
While progressive Wiccans like Farrar and Bone are interested in reclaiming the modern Craft as a mystery cult, others see its future more in terms of its relationship to the wider neopagan movement and its aspirations to become a future world religion. After all, that seems to have been the reason why Gerald Gardner decided to go public with his version of witchcraft in the 1950s. For instance, from exclusively being “a priesthood without a congregation,” as when a witch was initiated he or she traditionally became a priest or priestess of the Craft, many modern practitioners support the neopagan idea of a professional pagan priesthood or clergy administering to other followers. This is already being put into practice through the Pagan Federation in the UK and the Circle Sanctuary in the USA, who are providing pagan chaplains to prisons, hospitals, and the armed forces to minister to Wiccans.
In 2005, Selena Fox of Circle Sanctuary put forward her hopes for the development of neopaganism as the twenty-first century progresses. These hopes included an increase in the number of pagan study courses in higher education at colleges and universities. She also wanted to see more Wiccans coming out of the broom closet, including prominent ones in the fields of entertainment, sports, science, business, industry, and politics. Another of her wishes was to see the establishment of pagan churches, libraries, research centers, seminaries, schools, and cemeteries, and the general recognition of pagan seasonal festivals by other faiths. Finally, Fox hoped that one day soon paganism would receive recognition as a legitimate world religion (quoted in Adler 2006: 454–455).
No doubt such future developments would be welcomed by the vast majority of solitary Wiccans who follow a more eclectic path than those within the traditional and established coven system. Even some of those who belong to the Wiccan establishment might also agree. Alan Tickhill (b. 1955) of the Galdraheim Coven in southeastern England was initiated into both Gardnerian and Alexandrian Wicca in the early 1980s. Writing on his website in 2008, he optimistically predicted Wicca was poised to become “a spiritual way that will enrich, inform, and empower the lives of millions.” Unfortunately, he also said that, in Britain at least, Wicca suffers from a lack of a reliable communication network, poor support between covens, and the lack of a referral system for new seekers. Part of this problem, Tickhill claims, is that as an initiated tradition, despite its rituals having been published and publicly available, modern Wicca still adheres to secrecy about its beliefs and activities (www.galdraheim.kirion.net).
Toward the end of her life, Doreen Valiente’s views on the secrecy and dogma in Wicca changed. She said in the past there was a need for a hierarchy who could impose discipline, as then it was a matter of life and death. For the same reason there was also a clear requirement for secrecy and to punish breaches of it. Now, she said, “the Old Religion of the past is growing and changing into the new religion of the future.” Valiente predicted this neopagan religion would be a happy and constructive one involved with nature and the biosphere. It would also “take its stand against greed, cruelty, and social injustice, and feature rituals with colour, music, and dancing, as well as meditation and healing.” She concluded “this new religion will enable every man to be his own High Priest and every woman to be her own High Priestess in the coming Aquarian Age” (1989: 218). We will have to wait to see if either hers or Selena Fox’s predictions come true.
Resources and Contacts
Organizations
Australia
Pagan Alliance (PA)
P.O. Box 477
Kyneton, VIC 3444
Alexandrian Wicca Inc.
P.O. Box 653
Ulladulla, NSW 2539
Australian Pagan Information Centre (APIC)
P.O. Box 54
Castlemaine, VIC 3540
Canada
Pagan Federation/Federation Paienne Canada
Box 876 Stn B
Ottawa, ON KIP 5P9
Ireland
Fellowship of Isis (FOI)
Clonegal Castle
Enniscorthy
Co. Wexford
Italy
La Federazione Pagana
c/o Roberto Fattore
Casella Postele 54
47100 Forlì
Netherlands
Pagan Federation International (PFI)
Postbus 473
3700 AL Zeist
South Africa
South African Pagan Rights Alliance (SAPRA)
P.O. Box 184
Hoekwil 6538
United Kingdom
Children of Artemis
BM Artemis
London, WC1N 3XX
Dragon Environmental Network (DEN)
c‚ÅÑo 23B Pepys Road
London, SE14 5SA
Website: www.dragonnetwork.org
The Green Circle
Box 280
Maidstone, Kent ME16 0UL
Pagan Federation (PF)
BM Box 7097
London, WC1N 3XX
Website: www.paganfed.org
Pagan Federation (Scotland)
P.O. Box 14251
Anstruther, KY10 3YA
Website: www.scottishpf.org
Pagan Pathfinders
BM Opal
London, WC1N 3XX
Wicca Study Group
BM Deosil
London, WC1N 3XX
Witchcraft Research Centre
Museum of Witchcraft
The Harbour
Boscastle
Cornwall, PL35 0HD
Website: www.museumofwitchcraft.com
United States
Annwfn/Forever Forests
P.O. Box 48
Calpella, CA 95418
Website: www.annwfn.org
Church of All Worlds (CAW)
P.O. Box 785
Cotati, CA 95931
Website: www.caw.org
Circle Sanctuary
P.O. Box 9
Barneveld, WI 53507
Website: www.circlesanctuary.org
Covenant of the Goddess (COG)
P.O. Box 1226
Berkeley, CA 94701
Website: www.cog.org
Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans
8190A Beechmont Avenue, Suite 334
Cincinnati, OH 45255
Lady Liberty League
P.O. Box 9
Barneveld, WI 53507
Website: www.circlesanctuary.org
Military Pagan Network (MPN)
P.O. Box 1225
Columbia, MD 21644
Website: www.milpagan.or
g
Minoan Tradition
409 East 189th Street
Bronx, New York, NY 10458
New England Covens of Traditionalist Witches (NEWC)
P.O. Box 29182
Providence, RI 02909
Website: www.nectw.org
New Wiccan Church International (NWCI)
P.O. Box 162046
Sacramento, CA 95816
Officers of Avalon
P.O. Box 22
Baraboo, WI 53913
Website: www.officersofavalon.com
Reclaiming
P.O. Box 14404
San Francisco, CA 94114
Website: www.reclaiming.org
Magazines
France
Liberation Painne
BP 2355
Marseilles 13002
Codex 02
(French language)
Netherlands
Wiccan Rede
P.O. Box 473
3705 AL Zeist
Website: www.silvercircle.org/wiccanrede.htm
United Kingdom
The Cauldron
BM Cauldron
London, WC1N 3XX
Website: www.the-cauldron.org.uk
The Hedgewytch
AHW
BM Hedgewytch
London, WC1N 3XX
Merry Meet
51 Prospect Road
Dorchester
Dorset, DT1 2PF
Pagan Dawn
BM 5896
London, WC1N 3XX
Pentacle
78 Hamlet Road
Southend-on-Sea
Essex, SS1 1HH
Website: www.pentaclemagazine.org
The Pomegranate
International Journal of Pagan Studies
Turpin Distribution Services
Stratton Business Park
Biggleswade
Bedfordshire, SG18 8TQ