This is tied to my previous post, Paganus. It may surprise people to know that there are many types or flavors of Wicca/Witchcraft in current practice. All of them borrow at least some elements from Gerald Gardner's Wicca. And he nicked it from Crowley, and he nicked it from the Golden Dawn, who stole it from the Rosicrucians, etc, etc. It makes you wonder if there is some credence to it being an "ancient practice." Perhaps, but if there is, it's kind of like a game of telephone, what you get in the end may have no resemblance to what started it. For that, you'd have to look into the reconstructionist paths. Maybe I'll do something about them in the future.
These first few take specific pantheons or gods and use Wicca as a basis for their practices.
The Temple of Kemetic Wicca - Wicca that uses the ancient Egyptian gods.
The Asatru Alliance - Wicca that uses the old Norse gods. They're slowly filtering out the Wiccan influences to the point where they could be considered reconstructionist.
Temple of Diana - Feminist Wicca that focuses on the Goddess, specifically Diana.
I would feel like I cheated if I counted all these old school Wiccas as their own thing. The differences between them don't really matter that much outside of the UK. The original is Gardnerian Wicca. His disciple developed Alexandrian Wicca, and the guy who got sick of the drama made Seax Wicca. It's kind of like the difference between Lutherans and Methodists if you ask me.
Raven Star Coven: Blue Star Wicca - It's kind of the standard Wicca practiced in the US. They've seeded a lot of covens.
Progressive Witchcraft - The founders of this movement, Stewart and Janet Farrar, and Gavin Bone, wouldn't call it a branch of Witchcraft at all. But they have been mighty inspirational to many covens. Including my own, Novices of the Old Ways Midwest. You may be thinking, "but James, you're not a Wiccan." True, but I'm a chaos magician, so I can shift my beliefs. I just happen to find the Novices to be the most open and accepting group in my area.
Stregheria - I include this due to the love/hate surrounding its founder, Raven Grimassi. He's written a shit-ton of accessible books on Wicca, popular with younger practitioners. Which to a lot of people means he's pushing watered-down shite. I've never read a book by him, so I don't know the answer. I do know that he goes to great lengths to call his Italian based Witchcraft "authentic." Obviously, there's a lot of Wiccan influence in it, so I don't know how he can make those claims with a straight face. Good to know about because it/he is influential.
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