A Witch by Any Other Name by Mike Nichols
"A difference
that makes no difference is not a difference." --Ambassador Spock
It took more than twenty years before I first ran across the
notion that Witchcraft and Wicca were not the same thing. I don't remember
where I first read it, but I do remember feeling bemused at such an assertion,
and assumed the author had failed to do adequate research into the origins of
the word "witch". I also assumed I'd heard the last of it. I assumed
wrong!
Over the years, I've seen this sentiment turning up more and
more, in conversations, in online discussions and websites, and even in published
works on Witchcraft. It is often stated with such conviction that one might
conclude it is the very least one needs to know on the subject. The author is
usually at pains to convey the distinction that Wicca designates a religion,
whereas Witchcraft is merely the practice of magic. In recent years, I have
come across three further amplifications: The first is that some groups
identify themselves as practicing Wicca exclusively, as a religious or
spiritual path. As such, they do not hold with the more "debased"
practice of Witchcraft or other magic! The second is that some groups claim
that Witchcraft predates Wicca (which they apparently believe was invented by
Gerald Gardner) and is therefore more "authentic". The third is that
only practitioners who are in a lineal descent from Gardner or one of his covens may use the word
Wicca to describe their tradition. All others would have to default to the word
Witchcraft for their praxis.
Needless to say (or is it?), this so-called
"distinction" between Witchcraft and Wicca came as a huge surprise,
and a bit of a shock, to those of us who embarked upon this path back in the
1960s and '70s. Although the term Wicca was known (as the origin of the word
Witch), it was seldom used. We were Witches, pure and simple. And we practiced
Witchcraft, or sometimes "the Craft", or (based on a popular but
incorrect etymology) "the Craft of the Wise", or "the Old
Religion". But nobody practiced "Wicca". Even Gardnerians called
themselves Witches, typically modified by others to Gardnerian Witches. On the
rare occasion when the word Wicca did come up, it was used interchangeably with
Witchcraft. Most often, it was when someone was trying to dodge the issue.
Potential father-in-law: "So what is this weird cult my daughter says
you're into?" Boyfriend (blood draining from face): "Uhhhhh..... OH!
I think you must mean Wicca? yeah, that's it... Say, how about those
Dodgers?"
The attempt to make a distinction between the spiritual,
devotional, or celebrational side of our religion, and the more utilitarian use
of ritual and ceremony to effect desired changes in our world, would never have
occurred to us. One of the principle tenets of Witchcraft is that the spiritual
and material sides of life interpenetrate one another and cannot be
meaningfully separated. To attempt to do so is to encourage the sort of
Neo-Platonic dualism that has bedeviled our Western society for centuries and
led to, among other things, the demonizing of sex and the body, and disdain for
our environment. In fact, any attempt to separate Wicca from Witchcraft, the
religious practice from the magical practice, is not only historically
misguided, but politically dangerous. It plays us directly into the hands of
our detractors. But I am getting ahead of myself.
The first question to tackle is where this idea came from.
It clearly wasn't there in the 1960s. Nor can it be found in the writings of
the 1970s. In fact, an unambiguous reference to this idea does not occur until
the late1980s! So the first thing to realize is that this notion is of far more
recent vintage than most people would believe. Books about Witchcraft (such as
Sybil Leek's Diary of a Witch, in which she speaks of Witchcraft as a religion)
began to be published frequently from the 1960s onward, yet they used the word
Wicca quite sparingly. In fact, the first popular book to use the word Wicca in
the title did not appear until 1988! This was Scott Cunningham's Wicca: A Guide
for the Solitary Practitioner. Had this title appeared in bookstores in the '60s
or '70s, the most likely reaction, even from Witches themselves, would have
been "Huh?!" They would have recognized the word, but would have
wondered why such an obscure term should have been preferred to a common one.
Not coincidentally, Scott Cunningham was among the first writers to claim there
is a difference between Wicca and Witchcraft.
But is there really a difference? In point of fact,
"wicca" and "witch" are the same word. This cannot be
overstated because few people today believe it. Nonetheless, it is true. Wicca
is simply the earlier form of the word witch. Proof of this can easily be found
in the twenty-volume Oxford English Dictionary. The O.E.D. (as it is known by
scholars) is the highest court of appeals for questions of etymology. "Witch"
comes from the Saxon word "wicca". That is a noun with a masculine
ending, and (hold on to your pointy hats!) it should properly be pronounced
"witch'-ah", not "wick'-ah"! In the Saxon tongue, nouns had
either masculine or feminine endings, depending on their referents. The
feminine form was "wicce", properly pronounced "witch'-eh".
Note the same word was applied to both males and females (no 'warlocks' here!),
with only the ending changed. As the word evolved into modern English, the
gender ending was dropped, leaving us with a word that is pronounced
"witch", and ultimately spelled that way.
When you consider that the Saxon "cc" was
pronounced "tch", it becomes easier to understand how the modern word
"witch" is derived from the Old English "wicca", and how,
ultimately, they are the same word. To say that they are different words, with
a different provenance, and different meanings, is to ignore these simple
facts. While we're at it, here's one more surprise: the word
"wiccan", although typically used by modern Witches to modify a noun
("This is a Wiccan ceremony."), is not an adjective. It's a plural
noun. One wicca, two wiccan. That's the masculine plural ending, obviously. The
feminine plural form would be "wiccen" (rhymes with bitchin'). ;)
Although in modern English, the "s" or "es" plural ending
is the most common, the "an" or "en" plural is not unknown,
the most obvious example being child > children.
So how is it that Wicca came to be seen as distinct and
separate from Witch, in both provenance and meaning? One might speculate that
Gerald Gardner himself played a role. Not only did Gardner revive and popularize the craft of
the witch, he also revived and popularized the older Saxon form of the word,
wicca. In doing so, however, he spelled it with only one "c",
rendering it as "wica" in his writings. This tended to undermine the
correct "tch" pronunciation of the original "wicca", and
thus to obscure its obvious connection with the word "witch". Further,
it may have encouraged the now common pronunciation of "wicca" as
"wick'-ah", an entirely new critter in our English lexicon. This
criticism of Gardner's
spelling may actually be too harsh considering "wicca" dates to a
time before dictionaries or standardized orthography were invented.
Incidentally, there are some authors today who are so
convinced that Gardner invented modern Wicca, or Witchcraft (as opposed to
simply reviving it), that they also mistakenly believe that he invented the
word "wicca" itself! (Even more amusing, an article on a well-known
Wiccan website recently claimed that Selena Fox invented the word Wicca in the
1960s!) Again, anyone who takes the trouble to do a modicum of research will
discover the antiquity of the word. According to the O.E.D. (and as noted by
Doreen Valiente), the oldest extant appearance of the word "wicca"
can be found in the Law Codes of Alfred the Great, circa 890 C.E. Alfred was a
Christian and zealous about converting everyone under his rule to his faith.
Those who followed the pre-Christian "superstitious" practices of
their Pagan ancestors were called Wiccan, whether they were Alfred's own
countrymen, or the Celtic people in the areas Alfred was conquering. What did
the Celts themselves call these people, in 890? Not Wiccan, because that was
the Saxon word for it. Very probably, they used some form of the modern word
"druid". That being the case, we have a scenario dating back over a
thousand years, where the word "Witch" was applied to people who
called themselves "Druid". This is one reason I have always believed
that Druidism is one of the tributaries (and a large one!) of modern
Witchcraft. (This will no doubt give hissy-fits to all those authors who have
written Wicca-Isn't-Celtic articles.)
So now the question becomes, did the word Wicca become
totally extinct at some time before Gardner
resurrected it? The answer will come as a shock to many. It may have been
"extinct" in the sense of being replaced by "witch" in
common usage, but it continued to be known in its earlier form,
"wicca", even before Gardner
came onto the scene. One quick and obvious proof of this is that J.R.R.
Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, used the word
"wicca" when drafting his earliest manuscript of The Two Towers. We
know this because Tolkien's son Christopher has meticulously documented his
father's creative process throughout twelve volumes of analysis. In volume
seven, "The Treason of Isengard", Ch. XX, "The Riders of
Rohan", Christopher mentions, in a passing footnote, that Tolkien uses the
word "wicca" apparently to identify the characters Gandalf and
Saruman, who were otherwise called "wizards" throughout the trilogy.
The word "wicca" is written in the margin next to the scene
discussing the identity of a mysterious old bearded man wondering Rohan.
Tolkien was writing this draft in 1942, ten years before Gardner published his first treatise on Wica.
So it is impossible for Gardner
to have influenced Tolkien's use of the term. Nor did Tolkien influence Gardner, since this
marginalia was unpublished. These were totally independent uses of the same
word by different authors working in different fields, with Tolkien giving the
more common spelling a full decade before Gardner.
Therefore, if Wicca is merely an earlier form of the word
Witch, and still extant in the decades before Gardner, it seems highly unlikely that Wicca
and Witchcraft mean two different things. Of course, to make them perfectly
parallel, one should give the latter the fuller Saxon form, Wicce-cræft. But
what did the word Wicca actually mean? How does one define it? Before traveling
too far down that road, it will be necessary to dismiss a couple of pop
etymologies that have gained favor in recent decades. The first is that
"wicca" is the origin of our modern words "wisdom" and
"wise". Hence, Wicce-cræft is the "Craft of the Wise". This
is a lovely concept, and one embraced by many practicing Witches today who call
their religion "the Craft of the Wise", or simply "the
Craft" for short. Sadly, this etymology is no longer supportable. Still,
it is easy to see how the confusion arose, since the two concepts touch each
other at many historical points. It was a common practice for many centuries to
refer to the village herbalist or midwife as either a "witch" or a
"wise woman". As Reginald Scott says in his Discoverie of Witchcraft
(published in 1584), "At this day it is indifferent to say in the English
tongue, 'she is a witch,' or 'she is a wise woman.'" We also know that the
male equivalent of such a person was often termed a "wizard"
(remember Tolkien's wizards, also designated "wicca"), and wizard is
etymologically connected to the words "wisdom" and "wise".
Finally, it will be recalled that King Alfred applied the word
"wiccan" to people who very probably referred to themselves by a
variant of the word "Druid", which has been translated as "oak
wisdom" or "oak wise". So the connection between
"witch" and "wisdom", if not linguistic, is a long-standing
and stubborn one.
A slightly more recent attempt at the etymology of
"wicca" relates it to an ancient word that meant "to twist or
bend". Supporters of this theory "explained" it by saying that
Witches are people who "twist or bend" reality -- a reference to
their magical workings. The only thing that seems twisted or bent about this
explanation is that it is strained almost to the breaking point. So if
"wicca" doesn't mean either "twisted" or "wisdom"
(or Twisted Wisdom -- which would be a great name for a Pagan rock band), what
does it mean? My own inclination is to follow the lead of historian Jeffrey
Burton Russell and trace the word wicca back to its ultimate origin in the
Indo-European root word, *weik2. Linguists now believe that *weik2 had a
meaning that was about halfway between our modern concepts of
"religion" and "magic". It might best be explained by
drawing a Venn diagram of two overlapping circles, one labeled
"religion" and one labeled "magic". *Weik2 would apply to
the area where the two circles overlap. And this meaning is just what one would
logically expect. (Interestingly, the only other word in any modern Indic
language that is also traced back to *weik2 is the word "Veda", a
word used to designate Hindu sacred scriptures, once again underscoring its
connection to religious tradition.)
So then, is Wicce-cræft or Witchcraft a religion? Is someone
designated as Wicca or Witch a follower of that religion? The short answer is
that it all depends on what you mean by "religion". Scholars of
comparative religion will already know where I'm going with this. In our
Western culture, we tend to think of religion in very narrow terms. We suppose
it always comes with certain trappings and structures, and that it remains
highly consistent over time. We might assume a religion must have specific
beliefs, that it has sacred scriptures, that it has a recognizable clergy, that
it has some connection to a God or Gods, that is has a specific set of rituals,
that is has a hierarchy of followers, or that it champions a certain set of
moral precepts. Surprisingly, as travelers to the Orient have discovered, many
of the world's great religions break one or more of these rules. All the more
so do the hundreds of smaller, tribal, and aboriginal religions break them.
Some of these religions are little more than a loose collection of rituals and
devotions that change dramatically over time. They are not the large-scale,
well-funded, organized religions typical of the West. Rather, they might best
be described as "folk religions". It is in this sense that Witchcraft
is a religion. And always has been. And always will be.
No, of course Witches don't practice their rituals the same
way their Pagan ancestors did two thousand years ago. Neither do Christians
still gather in catacombs to hold their agapes. But that doesn't mean they
aren't followers of Christianity. Any more than Witches aren't followers of
their own ancient religion. Of course Witches didn't call their religion
"Witchcraft" two thousand years ago. Neither did Christians call
theirs "Christianity". They didn't even speak the same language! Any
more than Witches did! Nor did they worship the same Gods! The Jewish religion
once had many Gods (and Goddesses! -- see the work of Raphael Patai) and,
according to archeological evidence, kept them well into Roman times, long
after the monotheistic reforms were supposed to have taken place. (There's
something you won't hear from your local Rabbi!) Early Christians had many Gods
and Goddesses, too, as anyone familiar with the Nag Hammadi Library knows only
too well. Yes, I'm speaking of "Gnostic" Christians, but remember
they probably outnumbered the proto-orthodox Christians by the second century
and, as recent archeological discoveries have shown, spread as far as the British Isles! What eventually became "normative"
Christianity had to be painfully hammered out at Nicea and similar Church
councils over the centuries. Most religions, including Christianity, have gone
through just as many changes down the centuries as Witchcraft has, and yet we
don't doubt their continuity. Why should Witchcraft be held to a different
standard?
When Christianity and Witchcraft first began to clash,
Christianity certainly regarded Witchcraft as a competing religion. In the
"Canon Episcopi", a part of official Church doctrine, which may date
back to the fourth century, Witches were accused of following the Goddess
Diana. It wasn't until later that the Church shifted its stance and began
accusing Witches of devil-worship, instead. Although Margaret Murray is the
scholar usually credited with the thesis that European Witchcraft was the
remnants of the old, pre-Christian Pagan faith, she was by no means the first
to suggest this. That honor should probably go to German linguist and
folklorist Jacob Grimm (yep, that Jacob Grimm, of Grimm's Fairy Tales fame).
However discredited some of Murray's
ideas may have become, to jettison her core thesis (and Grimm's) may be
throwing the baby out with the bath. Modern historian Carlo Ginzburg, in his
exploration of the "Benandanti" in sixteenth and seventeenth century Italy, has
unearthed much well-documented evidence of the survival of ancient European
Pagan spiritual practices well into the Christian era. Since this material has
been widely accepted even by skeptics, could it also throw new light on that
pivotal 1899 publication by Charles Godfrey Leland, Aradia, or The Gospel of
the Witches, which examines the survival of Witchcraft practices in Tuscany? If one defines
"religion" in the broad sense used by scholars of comparative
religion, it seems clear that Witchcraft does indeed meet the criteria. But
Witchcraft is even more than that.
It is also the practice (or the "craft") of magic.
As we have seen, "wicca" may have come from a word that mixes
elements of religion and magic in equal parts. Why is this so important?
Because it underscores the idea that religion and magic are not mutually
exclusive, that they can exist side by side harmoniously: that religious people
can use magic to improve their lot, and that people who use magic can be spiritual,
religious, "good" people. Academics had long tried to drive a wedge
between religion and magic. This can be traced back to the pioneering work of
Sir James Frazer and The Golden Bough. Although modern occultists may honor him
for codifying the "laws" of magic, he had another agenda. Like most
social scientists of his day, he was overwhelmed by Darwinian thinking and
began applying evolutionary theory to everything, even to areas where it didn't
fit. Consequently, magic, in Frazer's view, was nothing more than a debased
precursor to "true" religion. As he saw it, the evolution went
something like this: Mankind started with a flawed version of cause and effect,
called sympathetic and contagious magic. Then, as he evolved, he became
animistic, invoking the spirits that inhabit every river, tree, and rock. Then,
as he became still more enlightened, he became polytheistic, believing in many
Gods and Goddesses, each with different functions. Finally, as man evolved into
the paragon of reason that he is today (sic!), he became monotheistic,
realizing there could be only One True God.
Granted, this model was quickly dismantled, at least in
academic circles. Theodore Gastor, professor of comparative religion, took
Frazer to task for this idea, in his preface to a newer critical edition of
Frazer's The Golden Bough. Gastor rightly points out that even the most
"primitive" magician does not typically perform magic without
invoking a God or Goddess. And in even the most "sophisticated"
monotheistic religions, there is still a goodly amount of magic, although it
may be re-christened as "liturgy" and "prayer". (In the
West, the Catholic Mass is the parade example of magic as liturgy.) In fact,
Gastor goes on to posit that religion and magic are inescapably found together
throughout all cultures of the world, throughout all periods of history.
Although academics have accepted this revision, non-specialists have been
slower to catch on, and the Frazerian model still holds sway for many. It
especially appeals to those "sophisticated" monotheists who believe
they have already attained the zenith of theological ideals, and that the
practice of magic could not possibly have a place in it. Apparently, there are
even some new "Wiccan" groups that buy into this, seeing themselves
as religious only, and holding themselves above such practices as magic.
To sum up, it seems that the current drive to separate Wicca
from Witchcraft, to say that one refers to religion while the other refers to
magic, is full of "Frazerian residue". It appeals to those who are
uncomfortable with the thought that religion and magic can happily co-exist. (I
suspect that it appeals mainly to Witches who are recent converts from
monotheistic creeds, yet have ported a certain amount of their previous belief system
into their new faith.) Yet both historically and linguistically, it can be
shown that Witch and Wicca are the same word, and that they both mean the same
thing, a combination of religion and magic. I am perfectly aware, however, of
something that linguists call the "etymological fallacy", i.e. that a
word means its etymology. We all know that the meaning of words can change over
time. Maybe this has already happened to the word Wicca. Maybe too many people
have too often repeated the newborn platitude, "Wicca and Witchcraft are
not the same thing." Perhaps it is already too late to turn the tide of
opinion. Nonetheless, supporting this view would be a catastrophic mistake for
a religion like ours. And more to the point, it could be politically dangerous.
It wasn't long ago that Witches were sometimes arrested for
the "crime" of "fortune telling", e.g. for reading Tarot
cards, etc. In many such cases, Witches were able to mount a successful defense
by arguing that such magical practices were part of their religion. However, I
can envision a scenario in the not-too-distant future where the prosecutor will
counter with, "That's not true! Her religion may be Wicca, but she was
merely practicing Witchcraft!" In a culture like ours, in which all magic
is seen as suspect by the increasingly political majority religion, it is
perilous to allow a dark line to be drawn between religion and magic. Words
like Witch and Wicca present us with a unique opportunity to erase that line.
These words are the linguistic equivalent of a petri dish in which the cultures
of religion and magic have been allowed to mix in equal proportions. I believe
it is important for us to champion this unique mix of beliefs. When I first
embraced Witchcraft as my path, I knew I was embracing both a religion and a
practice of magic. Therefore, I will continue to proclaim that I am a Witch,
and I am Wiccan, for it means the same thing. It is my religion, and it is my
craft. It is my life.
ADDENDUM: First of all, many thanks to the literally hundreds
of you who took the time and trouble to email me following the publication of
this article at The Witches' Voice web site. To my great shock and surprise,
about 80% of that response was supportive. (Of course, maybe those who
disagreed with my views were less inclined to write.) Of the remaining 20%,
three questions turned up with such regularity that I thought I'd better
address them in an addendum here.
1.) Many of my correspondents seemed to think the words
"witchcraft" and "magic" are synonyms. Hence, they would
ask, "Well if Witchcraft=Wicca, what do you call someone who practices
magic, and yet is not Wiccan? Or a Witch?" Oddly enough, I call them
magicians. Which seems kind of self-evident to me. Using the word
"witchcraft" as a synonym for "magic" is linguistically
quite recent. For example, the first occurrence of using the word
"witchdoctor" to describe an African tribal shaman wasn't until the
1860s! So I restrict the use of the word-group
Witch/Witchcraft/Wicca/Wiccecraeft, to northwestern Europe, where it originated
and had its original referents. When I find magic being practiced in other
cultures, I call it magic. Although my true preference is to call it by its own
native word, whether Voudoun, Santeria, or whatever.
2.) Many people wrote to insist that they practice magic in
a non-religious way. (Many cited ceremonial magicians as a good example of this
–although ceremonial magicians are awfully fond of invoking archangels!) In my
article, I have argued that it is nearly impossible to practice magic in a
non-religious way. Bear in mind that I am using the word "religion"
in its most universal sense, as a scholar of comparative religion uses it. Folk
religion does not require the worship of (or even the belief in!) a god or goddess.
Simply to honor your ancestors by perpetuating their ways of doing magic would
qualify most Family Traditions as "religious" from an Eastern
perspective. About the only way one could do magic in a
"non-religious" way is to make it up out of whole cloth! But even
then, I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that one would end up "borrowing"
symbols from one's cultural background, and that takes us back to
"religion" again.
3.) Finally, some practitioners of traditional British
Witchcraft wrote to say they avoid the use of the word "Wicca"
because it represents, to them, a Gardnerian-influenced, and diluted version of
what they themselves practice. I sympathize with this concern and can only say
that the word "Wicca" belongs to us traditionalists just as much as
the word "Witch" does, because it is ultimately the same word, and it
was there first. If those who dilute our praxis have tried to make the word
"Wicca" uniquely their own, then it is high time we re-claimed it!
I hope this answers a few of the objections raised against
my original article, and perhaps articulates some of the unspoken assumptions
that undergirded it.
This document can be re-published only as long as no information is
lost or changed, credit is given to the author, and it is provided or
used without cost to others. Other uses of this document must be
approved in writing by Mike
Nichols. Most Recent Text Revision: Monday, March 27, 2006 c.e. Document Copyright © 2006 by Mike Nichols. Please
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