Wicca

Oldest and largest of the Neopagan religions. Wicca in its modern form was essentially started by Gerald Gardner, whose publication of Witchcraft Today in 1954 brought public attention to his system, now called Gardnerian Wicca. Other systems such as Alexandrian, Dianic, and Eclectic Wicca eventually sprang up as well, but all are still quite recognizably “Wicca,” and generally distinguishable by the following characteristics:

• emphasis on dual Deity ("the God and the Goddess", or "the Lord and the Lady") as opposed to a larger, more polytheistic, pantheon;
• organization in autonomous "covens" of up to 13 people;
• frequent hetero-normative assumptions in theology and magickal theory (despite being otherwise accepting of queerfolk);
• an eight-step liturgical calendar (the “Wheel of the Year”) using both the solstices and equinoxes and the four Celtic-derived “cross-quarter” days;
• lack of emphasis on scholarship or historical rigor;
• frequent borrowing from geographically diverse source cultures.

Wicca also has strong components of environmentalism, fertility- and nature-orientation, and feminism.

The adjective for “relating to Wicca” is Wiccan, which is also the word for a practitioner of Wicca. Wiccans may also call themselves “Witches,” especially when they’re looking to shock. Wiccans are guided ethically by the Wiccan Rede: "If it harms none, do as you will," and also tend to believe in the Law of Threefold Return (“What you put out will return to you, multiplied by three”).

The precise origin of the term “Wicca” is still open to some debate, but it likely stems either from a word meaning “wise” or “to bend or shape” (in the sense of bending and shaping reality via magick).

Wicca also seems to contain the highest proportion of flakes in the Neopagan community, but this should not be considered Wicca's fault; it's likely that this simply results from Wicca's being the largest and best-known among Pagan religions, and the problem would likely afflict whichever subset had those attributes of size and fame. See “Wiccan” for analysis of attitudes towards Wiccans by other occultists.

Major works of "source material" for Wicca include: Starhawk's The Spiral Dance; Margot Adler's Drawing Down the Moon; and various works by Gerald Gardner, Janet and Stewart Farrar, and Doreen Valiente.