1
0
Just like the question of how we practise our Pagan religion today, the question of how it all began is a little… contentious. In some circles.
We know, of course, that what we’re doing now in our various spiritual traditions is derived from, and continually inspired by, ancient sources. Some practices are closely related to pre-Christian traditions, while others are more modern interpretations shaped by evolving cultural understandings.
However, the early days of the NeoPagan movement were tangled with fakelore – fabricated histories and dubious claims that, while often well-intentioned, have caused considerable confusion and misrepresentation.
I’d hope that, as a global community, we’ve moved past all that.
You know what I’m talking about too – those grand tales of secret initiations by wise old Grandparents who supposedly passed down ancient, untouched traditions of a Pagan religion stretching back through millennia.
Maybe the odd one of these stories is true – but even then, how do you really know that your Granny wasn’t just spinning a yarn?
✨ Post by Lora O’Brien, MA in Irish History
(Any book links provided are affiliate fyi, it doesn’t cost you to click… but it helps us!)
My own Nana shared stories about older relatives engaging in what I’d recognise as magic spells and seasonal observances. And my Granny on the other side told me after reading my first book that my own practices and interactions with the Good Neighbours (the Fairies – though we generally don’t call them that out loud) were exactly what her Granny had been doing whenever she was visiting their farm.
None of this means that I inherited a family tradition of ancient witchcraft or fairy doctoring.
It’s a pity that some feel so insecure in their own beliefs that they cling to these stories as validation. And as Wicca has now been popular for a couple of generations we’re seeing a lot of confusion.
I recently read a new blog by a beginner Irish Witch, talking about his ancient ‘Irish Family Tradition’ that involved crystals and chakras and honestly folks, my eyeballs rolled right back inside my skull.
There’s no need for any of that nonsense – just get on with things as they are, will ye?
Decolonising Neo Pagan Religion
We are part of a contemporary religious movement that has the potential to support and even revive traditional, indigenous, or native religions – if we do it responsibly. Decolonising our NeoPagan spiritual practice means recognising that it’s not acceptable to take traditions that don’t belong to us and use them however we like.
The roots of this modern Pagan religion lie in the romanticist and national liberation movements of Europe from the 1700s to the early 1900s.
Scholars, folklorists, and occultists such as Johann G. Herder, George MacGregor-Reid, Douglas Hyde, W. B. Yeats, Alexander Carmichael, J. G. Frazer, Jacob Grimm, Sperenza Wilde, Aleister Crowley, and Charles G. Leland (listed in no particular order of preference or endorsement!) played a key role in reviving interest in folklore, folk customs, occultism, and mythology.
But how many of those individuals were actually part of the native cultures they wrote about and profited from?
Leland, for instance, was one of the earliest writers to document a supposed living Witchcraft tradition, with his 1899 book Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches. He claimed the text was passed down to him by an Italian witch named Maddalena.
The authenticity of this has been debated ever since, and many now recognise it as fakelore. Yet Aradia had a significant influence on the development of Traditional Wicca in Britain.
The Wiccan Roots of NeoPaganism
The most significant turning point for the modern Pagan religion came with Gerald Brousseau Gardner (1884–1964).
A retired British civil servant, Gardner spent much of his life in Malaysia and Borneo, where he became fascinated by various occult beliefs and magical practices. He returned to England in 1936 and began engaging with the Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship in the New Forest region.
The story goes that he met a coven of the “Old Religion” and was initiated into a tradition known as “Wica.” He had claimed that the word derived from the Anglo-Saxon wig (idol) and laer (learning), giving us wiglaer, which then became Wicca (or Wica in Saxon).
Doreen Valiente later suggested that wicca came from the Indo-European root weik, associated with magic and religion.
Who actually initiated Gardner remains a mystery. The original tale credited a woman named Old Dorothy Clutterbuck, whom Valiente later confirmed did exist – though whether she was a witch is still unclear.
Other theories suggest a woman called Dafo (Edith Woodford-Grimes) or Rosamund Sabine (Mother Sabine), as proposed by scholar Philip Heselton in his recommended book Witchfather.
Gardner went on to write several books that shaped modern Wicca:
- High Magic’s Aid (1949) – A fiction book written under the pen-name Scire, though some suggest it was only presented as fiction due to the legal status of witchcraft at the time.
- Witchcraft Today (1954) – Introduced the idea of a surviving witch cult.
- The Meaning of Witchcraft (1959) – Expanded on the history and beliefs of Wicca.
Gardnerian Wicca developed with the involvement of key figures like Doreen Valiente, Jack Bracelin, Pat and Arnold Crowther, Lois Bourne (Hemmings), Monique Wilson, and Campbell “Scotty” Wilson.
The Development of Traditional Wicca
Gardner was followed by Alex Sanders (1926–1988), who founded the Alexandrian tradition in the 1960s. Sanders claimed to have been initiated by his grandmother as a child, though we now know he was likely initiated into Gardnerian Wicca in 1963. From there, he put his own spin on things.
From his lineage emerged Stewart Farrar (1916–2000), who was initiated in 1970 at the age of 54. Alongside his wife Janet (1950– ), Farrar helped shape the wider public understanding of Wicca through books and media presence. Janet, now married to Gavin Bone, continues to write and teach on Pagan topics worldwide from her home in Kells, County Meath, Ireland.
Another influential figure was Roy Bowers – better known as Robert Cochrane (1931–1966). Cochrane claimed to come from a hereditary line of witches dating back to at least the 1600s, with a Grandfather who was supposedly the last Grand Master of the Staffordshire witches. His own family (and his wife Jane) later dismissed these claims.
Cochrane founded the Clan of Tubal Cain in the early 1960s through a newspaper advert. He and the Gardnerians had ongoing disputes over legitimacy, but we don’t need to go into all that here.
And that’s essentially where it all began.
Pagan Religion Today
NeoPaganism has evolved far beyond its early roots in Wicca and the occult revival movements of the 18th and 19th centuries. Today, the Pagan religion globally encompasses a diverse range of spiritual traditions, from polytheistic reconstructionism to modern adaptations of folk practices.
Some practitioners seek to revive and honour pre-Christian belief systems as accurately as possible, while others embrace eclectic, contemporary approaches.
Whether through Wicca, Druidry, Heathenry, or other forms of Pagan religion, the movement continues to grow, evolve, and challenge assumptions about spirituality, history, and identity.
For whatever it’s worth, my own Trad Wiccan initiation was in 1996, at the age of 18, by Barbara Lee and her then-husband (a man who has gone so far down in my estimation, I won’t even deign to publish his name) – both of whom trained with Janet and Stewart Farrar directly.
Only a few years later I earned my Third Degree before moving away from that tradition, and slowly but surely making my way to developing and formalising (eventually teaching) my own contemporary version of native Irish spirituality.
No secret initiations by mysterious Grandmothers required.
🔗 This is How We Do Irish Paganism
✨ Take a Class – Irish Paganism: A Living Tradition
