Wicca is a new composite religion formed arguably between 1932 and 1952. The 1952 date coincides with the repeal of the Anti-witchcraft Laws in England and the publishing of a Doctoral Thesis by Gerald Gardner. Gardner was an initiate of a witchcraft organization in the New Forest area of England which had been in existence for a couple of decades. As an initiatory mystery school, Wicca was a religion of priests and priestesses and had no laity.

The general tenets of this priestly caste were: a dualistic understanding of deity with a male hunter God and a feminine agricultural Goddess; a belief in magick as a means to create change for the better good; an understanding of spiritual connectedness amongst all living things; a understanding of social ethics embodied in the Wiccan Rede ("If you harm none, do as you will"); and an assumptive transcendence of soul during life and after death. Things have been evolving ever since Wicca came to the States with Ray Buckland. America has that effect on anything that it touches. There are now over 800 verifiable Traditions in Wicca. Isaac Bonewits says that Wicca has an eye on the future and has its roots in the Ancient Past.

Most Wiccan covens have rituals based on either shamanistic or alchemical mechanics. It is not odd to see invocations and evocations of Deific archetypes along side of creative visualizations, and conjuration of spirits. Wicca tends to be syncretic (a combination of different beliefs) and psychological. Wicca is above all a personal relationship between Deity and the practitioner. There is no one true way to develop this relationship. It is up to the individual to seek their divine truths along their own path. Guides can be helpful as we construct new realities.

Magick works on a level of ourselves known as the astral plane or casual body. The higher self responds best to thought and emotion and understands complex ideas through symbols. The magician seeks to ritually use corresponding symbols to construct an energy battery based on intentioned will. These empowered symbols are called mental keys. An example of a battery construct is an altar.

A standard altar in Wiccan practice has mental keys for the four elements (Earth, Air, Fire and Water), mental keys for magical purpose and Deific structure, and physical tools (pentacle, chalice, wand and athame, bell and censer) to work within the sacred space. The altar is a model of our bodies, a model of our understanding of the world, a model of the sacred space and a model of our astral Temple. All are linked during the creation of such a battery. The circle in Wicca is used to focus and contain energy for a specific purpose.

Although most Wiccans today are urban dwellers, Wicca is an agricultural religion based on timing of farming folk. The major holidays of Wicca are eight in number, based on the Wheel of the Year starting after Samhain:

• Samhain (pronounced Sov-en in the Irish Gaelic and Sow-en in the Welsh Gaelic) is a 3 day period at the end of the year which constitutes a 13 month in the Celtic lunar year. Anything left in the fields is left to fallow as winter begins. During this time in between, it was easy to communicate with the Ancestral spirits.
• Yule is Midwinter and represents the return of the sun to the world particularly in the Northern hemisphere. Gifts were offered and families would gather for many of them would not live to see the next Yule.
• Imbolc is the beginning of Spring and celebrated the warming trends of the Earth and the quickening of sheep and cattle. Oimelc, another title for the day, actually means ewe's milk. It is all about celebrating domestication of animals and tool use/creativity.
• Mid spring comes with Ostara and the Equinox. It is a time of balance and a time of prep work for gardens. Sea birds were harvested as delicacies and Eagles make their way out of eggs.
• Beltane or May Day is the beginning of Summer and constitutes the fertility season, a time of planting, a time of nurturing. Marriage rites were performed at this time to promote fertility in the population based on agricultural standards.
• Midsummer or Litha represents the high tide of growth and the fattening of livestock. It served also as a connection to Ancestors (as does Beltane) in the form of fairies and a celebration of the Southward facing nature of the sun.
• Lughnassadh (pronounced lew-nas-a in the Irish Gaelic) is the beginning of Fall. It is a time to hone skills, prepare for and conduct initial harvests, drive cattle to market and consider the commonality of heroic actions. Great displays of athletic prowess were enacted to engender a sense of team work and pride for the coming harvest season.
• And finally The Fall Equinox or Mabon (pronounced May-ven in the Irish Gaelic) is the major harvest. Breads and meat pies, canning and cheese are what the holiday is all about. The late fall also marks the end of campaign season and the return to school to learn new skills. Great dances were held at Grange Halls after the laborers were done in the fields.

Wiccans call these major holidays Sabbats and have liturgical correspondences to the nature of Deity denoted in each. Many also celebrate esbats - services for the New and full Moons.

The group with which I am associated, the Schenectady Pagan Cluster, follows a Wiccan format and is congregational. This allows for rank and file members who do not have a calling to be clergy and also assumes that services/circles are held on a weekly basis. We witness a change in mechanics as we witness the turning of the Wheel of the year and also one during the waxing or waning of the moon. We work with a different cultural or archetypal paradigm every month; so a circle with us may also include education on cross-cultural ideas and themes. We also have been experimenting with new forms of elemental grounding. As with all Wiccan Traditions, we are expanding our liturgical and mechanical repertoire to meet the needs of the practitioners who circle with us.