A brief history

   In spite of two thousand years of tumultuous history, alternating between periods of tolerance and oppression, the ancient belief has continued to live in the shadows of churches, in the bottom of valleys and in the remote countryside. It has never been completely chased from the ancestral memory of men and women. Witchcraft is alive and cannot be fixed by any dogma.  In order to survive, it has had to blend into the cultural décor and as such has never ceased to borrow from other cultures. Often considered as purveyors of evil, it is not actually so surprising that sorcerers or simple country folk have blended magic rites into their prayers of the Saints.

   The beliefs, practices, and customs of the ancient religion have persisted through the knowledge of healing plants, tales, myths and legends, the stories of the Little People, children’s nursery rhymes, charms and superstitions and through what are generally recognised as Western magic.  It is this rich heritage that from the 14th century, folklorists, anthropologists, poets and occultists have endeavoured to rediscover, thus providing the beginnings of a renaissance of modern paganism. 

   Some of the important personalities at the forefront of this renewal were British, such as anthropologist Sir James Frazer (1854-1941); Charles Godfrey Leland (1824-1903) who was one of the first people to be interested in an overview of the different traditions such as the gypsies and Tuscan folklore. His name remained however principally associated with a small opuscule entitled Aradia, Gospel of the Witches that he collected from a strega, an Italian witch, called Magdalenna; and anthropologist Margaret Murray, whose work was inspired for the most part by stories gathered about witchcraft. 

   Although much criticized by historians, her ideas brought the key elements for the reconstruction of modern covens such as the concept of a male God, represented by antlers or a stag and the idea of an organized cult with its sabbats (a meeting of those who practice witchcraft and other rites. There are traditionally 8 sabbats in a year).   

   This renewed practice of western magic lived undoubtedly i

n the Hermetic order of the ‘Golden Dawn’, an English magic 

fraternity from which the brilliant syncretism still profoundly marks today’s practices. Alistair Crowley, Butler Yeats, Dion Fortune, Mathers, A.E. Waite were among the main actors of this flamboyant epoch. The controversial and colourful figure of Gerald Gardner who introduced the form of modern witchcraft known as Wicca and re-established the practice of coven groupings and initiations, Doreen Valiente, one of Gardner’s High Priestesses, and those who came after them, continued to innovate and add new elements. One finds numerous sources of  inspiration, like the poems of Kipling, fragments of texts inspired by Alistair Crowley, magic techniques of the ‘Golden Dawn’, the influence of Leland, medieval magic with the Clavicules of Solomon,… etc. 

The Traditions

Gerald Gardner indicated that only a sorcerer could make another sorcerer. According to this principle, a sorcerer cannot be initiated by anyone other than another sorcerer and moreover (except in specific cases mentioned in the laws), by another person of the opposite sex. This very strict and codified transfer of powers is one of the reasons why the Gardnerians carefully guard the lineage of their tradition. Gerald Gardner initiated many women to the title of High Priestess who founded their own covens. Witches who can trace their lineage to Gardner are called “Gardnerians’ by convention. Those who scrupulously follow these principles (traditionalists) often present themselves as members of Wicca (the writing format used by Gerald Gardner himself in his writings) and refer to themselves simply as witches (and not therefore as Wiccans). For several years however there has also been a stream of solitary witches who assemble under the very different practices of this term. They sometimes call themselves witches, but more often than not ‘Wiccans’.

   There is another way of understanding things that we try to follow in “The Cauldron of Rebirth”:

    The word tradition is for us synonymous with heritage and the 

transmission of knowledge. We can compare our tradition to a tree. We respect the roots by which we have been developed; the trunk of our tree represents the work of the ancients that we want to bequeath to those who will come later.    We consider that it is necessary to preciously guard the teachings f the past but that it is desirable to make the new leaves blossom which are part of new experiences and enriching knowledge. We are indifferent as to whether we are referred to as witches or as wiccans.                                                                                                    

Guy Allouchery