What is Wicca?

This week, Wiccans in the northern hemisphere will celebrate the festival of Beltane. Wicca is a small tradition that is paradoxically both new and old and which has grown tremendously in the past three decades. In addition, its influence is much grander than the number of adherents as many of its ideas and practices are diffusing into the wider culture. Wicca is not very well understood so let’s take this opportunity to explore this young-but-old tradition.

Image: Wicca Alter set-up from Discovery Week 2025. Source: Brian Carwana

What is Wicca?

Wicca is a sub-category of a larger movement called Neopagan. Neopaganism aims to revive ancient traditions that had mostly or wholly died out. Some Neopagan communities are focused on particular pre-Christian practices such as worshipping the Norse gods or reviving Druidism. Wicca is one form of Neopaganism (maybe the best known) and is more eclectic, sometimes worshipping old European deities but at other times praying to deities of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, the South Pacific, or Africa. Most Wiccans see the universe as led by a god and goddess who take many names and forms. Wicca also engages in practices to activate and employ magick (spelled differently than stage magic) which is a spiritual power used to achieve personal and communal goals. 

Thus, in some ways Wicca is very old, drawing on these ancient traditions. But in other ways, it is quite new. This is because the actual religious practices of pre-Christian Europe are not well known so people who helped birth Wicca in the post WWII decades, founders and pioneers like Gerald Gardner and Doreen Valiente, took the fragmentary historical sources that exist and used them as inspiration to create new rituals and practices. Thus, while Wicca reveres the ancient traditions, many in the community know that the tradition has had to invent itself in the past several decades.

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Key Teachings

Wicca is very earth-based and sees the god and goddess as deeply tied to the natural world. Key festivals are based on the agricultural cycle (more on this below) and rituals employ natural herbs and plant materials whose energies or powers are believed to help the mind, calm the spirit, and heal the body. Practitioners often admire Indigenous traditions and are sometimes inspired by these communities in their own rituals although care is taken to not appropriate others’ practices. 

Wicca is also somewhat female-centric. Although most practitioners honour both the god and goddess, the goddess (in her many names and forms) seems more prominent. More women are Wiccans (more on this below) and many of the figures who were most central in Wicca’s spread (such as Starhawk) have been women. The tradition also embraces sexuality as natural and creative, is very queer-friendly, and generally has a counter-cultural ethos that is sceptical of dominant power systems and institutions. 

Image: Starhawk – Pagan, eco-activist, and author of the influential book The Spiral Dance. Source Wikimedia commons, CC BY 3.0

Wiccan ethics are captured in the Wiccan Rede and the Rule of Three. The Wiccan Rede is sometimes given in its short version, drawn from the final line, which says “and ye harm none, do what ye will.” Outsiders sometimes interpret this as libertarian but for Wiccans, harming no one can be interpreted strictly, meaning you should not harm the environment, oneself, nor any person. The Rede also emphasizes human freedom and responsibility. The Rule of Three is a karmic idea, namely that what you send out to the world will return to you threefold. 

As for the afterlife, Wicca has no orthodoxy on this. Many believe in reincarnation after a time in the Summerland to rest and rejuvenate. But beliefs may vary.

The Wiccan Community

The Wiccan community grew rapidly in recent decades. In the USA, a 1990 study estimated there were only 8,000 Wiccans in the country but by 2008, the number had grown to around 350,000. Some more recent data suggests a much larger number between 1.0-1.5MM. In Canada, the 2021 Canadian census shows about 45,000 Neopagans and 13,000 who identify as Wiccans. Wicca is also predominantly female with two surveys that found women as the majority of adherents, comprising 2/3 of believers in one survey and ¾ in the other. It is also commonly believed that many Wiccans are converts from Christianity but this relies on anecdotal data as surveys are rare. 

Some Wiccans belong to a local community called a “coven” (akin to a Christian congregation) but many are solo practitioners. Being such a small community means finding enough folks locally to gather regularly can be challenging. In addition, Wicca values individual choice and thus many practice at home. They may have a home altar and perform rituals regularly or on special occasions. In Toronto there are covens and the oldest of these, in operation since the 1970s, has different levels of priesthood, specified roles for rituals, a training curriculum, and more. They have also generously welcomed groups we have brought them as part of our annual Discovery Week for the past 25 years. 

Full moons are key dates for ritual and especially important are the eight “sabbats” which are the two solar equinoxes, the two solstices, and four more dates in between those four events. Beltane is a Gaelic festival celebrated on May 1 (this Friday) which marks the midpoint between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. Beltane is for celebrating the spring and fertility. Some Wiccans tie the day to the use of a maypole around which men and women would dance. 

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Influence

Wicca’s influence is much greater than the number of its adherents. Many Wiccan practices (the use of herbs and crystals, tarot cards, astrology, psychics, the belief that there is spiritual energy in objects, etc.) have been surging in popularity. A 2018 survey showed about 60% of Americans had at least one of these beliefs and about 40% believe in psychics and that spiritual energy resides in physical objects. In short, many Wiccan ideas are simply common in North America. Moreover, these numbers may be underestimates given the study was done nearly a decade ago. It is the young who are turning to Wiccan ideas the most and TikTok has been a real boon for spreading these concepts. Many can be found using the search term #WitchTok or even just #Witch.

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Conclusion

What is Wicca’s future? It is hard to know. Wicca is by nature quite intentionally unorganized. There is amongst Wiccans some suspicion of organizations and hierarchies. Instead, they value fluidity and choice. On this front, one might argue the tradition is very modern and fits the age of individualism. But it also provides traditions, ancient stories, and rituals that can provide connection to something greater than this life. It could be that Wicca’s lack of structure will hamper its spread but, conversely, maybe it is well adapted to the modern world with its easily adapted practices that one can engage in at home to the degree one wishes. Its ideas are certainly filling a need currently as Wicca and its search for ancient tradition is ironically seeming well-suited to people’s needs in the age of social media.