| In 1954, a former UK government worker named | | | | assertions in good faith. It is believed that Gardner had |
| Gerald Gardner proclaimed that he had received | | | | actually been initiated into a 1900s revival of the ancient |
| initiation into an archaic nature religion which was a | | | | paganism that Gardner been seeking, instead of a |
| survival of indigenous European faiths. The | | | | pure survival of an ancient European spiritual tradition. |
| practitioners of this religion were calling themselves the | | | | Even though he produced the craft's beliefs in order to |
| New Forest Coven. Gardner launched an effort to | | | | conserve witchcraft for his generation's descendants, |
| repopularize and revive this witchcraft religion by | | | | Gardner understood "witchcraft" as a mystery cult |
| writing and publishing a book named "Witchcraft | | | | that required initiation to be completely assimilated and |
| Today," in which he tied together the fragments of | | | | practiced. An English expatriate named Raymond |
| remaining tradition from the New Forest Coven. | | | | Buckland gained an initiation into the new mystery |
| Gardner referred to the spiritual system as | | | | tradition from Gardner's own coven, which he had |
| "witchcraft," and termed its practitioners "the Wica." He | | | | called the Isle of Man, and then introduced the traditions |
| explained that this latter term was introduced to him by | | | | of the Isle of Man back to the United States. The new |
| existing initiates of the Coven, and that its use was | | | | religion accrued support at a very nice pace in the |
| what introduced him to the likelihood that "the Old | | | | new world, where a devotional and spiritual revolution |
| Religion still existed." Gardner asserted, like most | | | | was on the horizon. |
| current historians, that the name "Wica" came from | | | | Since the early 1960s, a wide variety of new |
| the early English term "wicca," which is the | | | | incarnations of Wicca-based spiritual practice have |
| etymological forerunner of the contemporary term | | | | spread widely. Most of them have been the creations |
| "witch." | | | | of Gardner's own disciples who went on to start their |
| There is a good deal of debate about the reality of his | | | | own covens and developed their own pools of initiates. |
| idea that he was resurrecting an indigenous, original, | | | | Other widespread forms of Wiccan practice have |
| goddess-based European pagan religion. A couple | | | | derived from self-initiated practitioners and witches |
| historians have made the case that Gardner had | | | | who set up their own conceptions of Wiccan religion |
| simply invented the traditions of the Wica, compiling | | | | that center around the the works of Gardner and |
| features of a number of known archaic religions and | | | | those who followed after him. Today a number of |
| from modern occult practices as needed. Regardless, | | | | these descendants of Gardner's Wicca are in |
| most historians concur that Gardner made his | | | | widespread practice around the world. |