Abbreviation for “family tradition”, referring to instances of Wiccan belief apparently passed down through family lines, in secret, since the Burning Times. Such traditions are generally rather fragmentary and incoherent, much like the practices of the New Forest coven before Gerald Gardner and Doreen Valiente filled in the material with newer liturgy. Family traditions also tend to have picked up a lot of Christian, folkloric, and superstitious contamination.
However, their often-fragmentary nature doesn’t deny that they are a valid survival of pre-Christian beliefs. Indeed, fam-trad practitioners often look at modern Wiccans as Johnny-come-latelies with no understanding of their own roots or knowledge of their craft – and this attitude has some justification.
The first claim to a family tradition in the modern era was by Alex Sanders, who (in)famously claimed to have been initiated by his grandmother at age eight in a rite with sexual overtones, after discovering her naked practicing a ritual. However, Sanders’ claim is not generally believed by most people; it’s generally thought that he was looking for attention and copied most of his material from the Gardnerian tradition.
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