Wiccan Fundamentalism
By: Ben Gruagach
http://www.WitchGrotto.com
This article may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes, providing that this original
copyright notice stays in place at all times.
Religious fundamentalism is characterized by literal belief in specific spiritual claims,
often about a particular religion's history, regardless of any available evidence. A
particular dogma is promoted as the One True and Only Way and anything that deviates is
considered heretical.
The Roman Catholic church has an office within its organization called the Sacred
Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. In previous times this office had another
name: the Holy Office of the Inquisition. Despite the name change the office's role has
remained the same. It is responsible for keeping doctrinal discipline and confronting and
eliminating deviations in doctrinal thought. It's all about maintaining the authority of
the Vatican and the Pope and ensuring that all Roman Catholics are following the same
religion and respecting the established hierarchy.
Wicca is a religion based on autonomy. It draws its basis from Pagan religions of the
past but primarily from lore about witches and witchcraft. Most today consider Wicca to
trace back directly or indirectly to a single man, Gerald Gardner, who promoted the
religion starting in the 1940s or early 1950s in Britain. Gardner described Wicca as
based on covens with each coven being autonomous. If there was dissent within a coven the
rules as Gardner presented them allowed for the dissenting parties to separate and form
new covens. This way of dealing with conflict resulted in encouraging diversity within
Wicca and reinforced the idea that there was no central authority which would dictate
that one coven was wrong and another right on matters of philosophy or practice.
Gardner also insisted that there were other Wiccans out there that he did not know about
who had been practicing before he was initiated. He did this partially to promote the
debatable claim that he was merely passing on an intact ancient religion. One consequence
of this is that it left the door open for others to come forward and claim they were
witches or Wiccans too from a common mythical ancestry and Gardner could not really
insist they were wrong. Even if these other Wiccans practiced things differently,
Gardner's "old laws" clearly made it acceptable for variety in the way covens and
practitioners did things. He might not have intended to do so but Gardner's decisions
regarding how to handle things in his own group had set the stage for Wicca to become
much more than just his own teachings in his own groups.
The result of all this was that Gardner essentially gave away the right to exclusive
ownership over the label Wicca for his groups and those directly descended from them. He
might not have anticipated this possibility but in any case it is what happened. Many
groups, sometimes with conflicting philosophies and ways of doing things, have come
forward under the banner of Wicca. New groups have been created and old ones have
splintered into other quite distinct groups. Autonomy was there so of course it was
exercised!
Not everyone has been happy about this. Some of Gardner's direct spiritual descendants
have argued that only they and a few select groups that they approve of should have the
right to call themselves Wiccan. However the autonomous structure had already been set up
and no one group has the authority to dictate to the rest of the community. Wicca did not
have a central authority structure in the past and it does not have one now. It is highly
unlikely at this point that a central authority could be established which the majority
of Wiccans would respect.
There have been attempts to seize power and establish a central Wiccan authority but
these have all failed. One example is when Alex Sanders proclaimed himself the King of
the Witches but it was quickly pointed out, particularly by Gardnerian Wiccans, that he
did not have any authority outside of Alexandrian Wiccan covens. Another example is when
in 1974 at the Witchmeet gathering in Minnesota, Lady Sheba (a.k.a. Jessie Wicker Bell)
declared herself the leader of American witches and demanded that everyone hand over
their Books of Shadows to her so that she could combine their contents and then establish
a single authoritative Book of Shadows which all American witches would be expected to
follow. She was laughed at and needless to say was not successful in establishing the
central authority she sought.
It was at that same 1974 Witchmeet where we had probably the closest thing to a central
Wiccan authority created in the declaration of the Principles of Wiccan Belief. This set
of thirteen principles attempted to outline in a very general way the basic foundation of
Wiccan philosophy. The concept of autonomy of both groups and individuals is clear in the
document. It also specified that lineage or membership in specific groups was not a
requirement in order to be Wiccan. Many Wiccans, both as groups and individually,
consider the Principles to be the foundation of their spiritual path. However, true to
the autonomy inherent in Wicca, there are some Wiccans who do not consider the Principles
to be part of their individual or group philosophy.
Some are not satisfied with how things are in the Wiccan community and actively work to
establish a central authority with their own particular outlook of course identified as
the One True and Only Way. They are not satisfied with the fact that the autonomy they
personally enjoy in Wicca also means that other Wiccans are free to follow their own
different paths. These are the Wiccan fundamentalists who see variety as heresy. As far
as they are concerned, if you're not practicing things the way they personally do, and
don't believe things exactly the way they personally do, then you must be wrong and
should either correct your ways or else stop calling yourself a Wiccan.
Perhaps these attitudes are carried over from previous religious education where the idea
of One True Way was key, such as in many varieties of monotheism, particularly the
evangelical and literalist varieties. Often the Wiccan manifestation of the One True Way
idea comes through as a literal and absolute belief in the truth of a particular
teacher's work. Most often the teacher elevated to the status of never-to-be-questioned
guru is Gerald Gardner since he was the one who began the Wiccan movement in the middle
of the twentieth century. In the mind of many Wiccan fundamentalists, if Gardner taught
it then it must be absolutely true!
Unfortunately for the literalists Gardner has turned out to be a mere human being just
like the rest of us. Some things he got right and some things he got wrong. The history
of Wicca that Gardner presented, especially the part that explains what came before
Gardner was initiated, has proven to be largely speculation with very little evidence to
support many of its major claims. Historians aren't completely ignorant of what happened
prior to the 1950s in England. We have enough evidence to know that Gardner's historical
claims were not completely accurate nor were they completely supported by the evidence.
A religion's value does not depend on the literal truth of its historical claims. Many
millions of people find Christianity to be meaningful despite the fact its history is not
absolutely settled. Buddhists seem to still find their religion to be valuable despite
the questions regarding the provable history of the religion's founders. Wicca too is a
precious treasure for those who practice it even if they don't believe one hundred
percent of the historical claims made by Gardner.
Some religions do consider blind obedience to authority to be a virtue the faithful are
expected to cultivate in themselves. Wicca though cherishes autonomy and this is in
direct conflict with blind obedience. Wiccans who value blind obedience are welcome to
make that a part of their religious practice but they are out of line in expecting others
to abide by their dictates. Wicca does not have an Office of the Holy Inquisition and
many Wiccans will actively fight against the establishment of such. And that is to be
expected.
Wiccans who play the fundamentalist mind-game of proclaiming that those who do not agree
with them are not "true Wiccans" deserve the same reaction that Lady Sheba got back in
1974 when she declared herself Witch Queen of America - they should be laughed at and
then ignored. Wicca is not a One True Way religion and never has been. Those who would
make it over into one are in for a long hard struggle that they will likely never win. Is
it really worth it for them? After all, if they wanted a One True Way religion there are
plenty of those out there for them to join. Wicca is for those of us who are
free-thinkers, rebels, nature-worshippers, who laugh and love and dance in the name of
our Gods and Goddesses in spite of what the stiff-shirt self-declared authorities around
us tell us is right and proper. Others can try to co-opt our religion and turn it into
yet another fossilized dogma of right and wrong to be blindly followed on pain of
excommunication or threats of torment in other lives. The witch's cat is already out of
the bag and has been for some time now, and we're all enjoying the nighttime revels and
the daytime ignoring of arbitrary conventions too much to just follow what someone else
tells us is the One True Way.
References
Bonewits, Isaac. "Witchcraft: A Concise Guide." (Earth Religions Press, 2001.)
Heselton, Philip. "Gerald Gardner and the Cauldron of Inspiration." (Capall Bann
Publishing, 2003.)
Hutton, Ronald. "The Triumph of the Moon." (Oxford University Press, 1999.)
Lamond, Frederic. "Fifty Years of Wicca." (Green Magic, 2004.)
Valiente, Doreen. "The Rebirth of Witchcraft." (Phoenix Publishing, 1989.)