When Gardner formally wrote out his Wiccan rituals, he drew strongly from Crowley’s own, dating back to 1912. Gardner met famed occultist Aleister Crowley in 1947. In 1973, his extensive personal collection of artifacts was sold to Ripley’s Believe It Or Not. Gardner died of a heart attack in 1964 while onboard a ship off the North African coast.

In 1946 Gardner bought land in the village of Brickett Wood to establish a center for folkloric study, that would serve as headquarters for a coven of his own. A world traveler with an interest in the occult, Gardner first heard the word “Wica” used in the 1930s when he became involved with a coven in Highcliffe, England. Gardner, considered the founder of Wicca, was born in 1884, north of Liverpool in England. According to Gardner, the word was derived from Scots-English and meant “wise people.” Wicca was first given a name in Gerald Gardner’s 1954 book Witchcraft Today, in which he announced it as “wica,” the extra “c” being added in the 1960s. Later scholarship disputed Murray’s claims about witch cults, but her influence could not be erased within Wicca. She wrote several books on medieval religion centered around witch cults in medieval Europe that inspired British seekers to create their own covens and structure worship around her descriptions, starting with 1921’s The Witch-Cult in Western Europe. The rituals of modern Wiccan practice can be traced to famed first-wave feminist, Egyptologist, anthropologist and folklorist Margaret Murray.

Rituals in Wicca often include holidays centered around phases of the moon solar equinoxes and solstices elements such as fire, water, earth and air and initiation ceremonies.

Other Wiccan practices are atheist, pantheist, polytheist or respectful of gods and goddesses as archetypal symbols rather than as actual or supernatural beings. There is great diversity among individuals and groups that practice a Wiccan religion, but many are duotheistic, worshiping both a female goddess and a male god (sometimes referred to as a Mother Goddess and a Horned God). Wicca also has some commonalities with Druidism in its environmental component, and is considered the inspiration of the goddess movement in spirituality. It may be practiced by individuals or members of groups (sometimes known as covens). Wicca is considered a modern interpretation of pre-Christian traditions, though some involved claim a direct line to ancient practices.

Living wicca