Sixth Grade
Worksheets
What Is Wicca?
You may have read about witches. Dorothy met the Wicked Witch of the West on her way to Oz. Harry Potter has made everyone curious about magic and spells. Even though pointing wands and casting spells has been a part of fiction for a long time, magic is a part of real life for a group of people who follow the practices of Wicca.
Wicca was popularized in the 1950s by a man named Gerald Gardner. He created The Gardnerian Book of Shadows. He was an occultist who combined beliefs from several ancient traditions to form Wicca. He used British legends and Eastern mysticism. He started a number of witch's groups, or covens, in England until his death in 1964. Wicca came to the United States in 1963, and today, there are different kinds of groups. Wicca is paganism, a non-Christian religion.
Some basic beliefs in Wicca are common to many groups. Wiccans believe in respecting and honoring nature. They are often passionately interested in preserving the environment. They believe that the divine is in everything. Their idea of god is not the same as the Christian God. They believe that the divine has both a masculine and a feminine part. Some adopt a system of duo theism, with a ruling god and goddess. Others believe that a great god or goddess is a combination of many other gods and goddesses. Still others are polytheistic, believing that the world is filled with spirits.
