Contemporary Witchcraft - who practises this

[artemis]

Contemporary Witchcraft is mostly associated with Wicca, however there are other religions and traditions that practise Witchcraft alongside their religion.

This thread will list all the contemporary witchcraft groups, traditions and religions.

• Stregheria
  
• Wicca
  
• Feri Tradition
  
• Jewitchery
  
• Reconstructionism
  
• Hedge Witchcraft
  
• Kitchen Witchcraft
  
• Ásatrú
  

[artemis]

Stregheria

Stregheria or Strega tradition (“strega” is just Italian for “witch”) follows ancient Italian traditions of witchcraft, known as “la Vecchia Religione”, or “the Old Religion”. Some people trace Strega teachings back to a semi-mythical woman named Aradia in the 14th Century, as reported in the work of the 19th Century folklorist Charles G. Leland. It has been rapidly gaining popularity in the United States, following a revival by Raven Grimassi, and not only individuals from Italian heritage can learn the Strega traditions. Stregheria has both similarities and differences with Wicca, and in some ways resembles other culturally-based Neopagan religions. Practices include the celebration of seasonal holidays, ritual magic, and reverence for Gods, ancestors and tradition-specific spirits. Stregheria itself has variant traditions, and individual practices may vary considerably.

From www.witchcraftandwitches.com/contemporary_non_wicca.html

[artemis]

Feri Tradition

Also spelled as Fairy, Faery or Faerie, the Feri tradition is an oral, initiatory tradition of modern Neopagan witchcraft. It is separate from Wicca (although there are Wiccan groups and traditions sometimes calling themselves Fairy, Faerie, Faery, etc), and was brought to the United States by Cora and Victor Anderson, who had been teaching in the San Francisco area since the 1960s. It is an ecstatic (rather than a fertility) tradition, and strong emphasis is placed on sensual experience and awareness, including sexual mysticism. It also tends to be a more eclectic tradition, as Feri teachers often add something of their own in their teachings. Feris are usually solitary or work in small groups.

From: www.witchcraftandwitches.com/contemporary_non_wicca.html

[artemis]

Jewitchery

Also known as Judeo-Paganism, Jewish Paganism or Jewish Witchcraft, this is a syncretism (or merging) between classical Jewish mysticism and modern witchcraft. Practitioners either borrow from existing Jewish magical and Kabbalistic traditions or reconstruct rituals based on Judaism and Neopaganism. Important references include Ellen Cannon Reed's book "The Witches Qabbala: The Pagan Path and the Tree of Life" and Raphael Patai’s "The Hebrew Goddess".


A ceremony of the Greek Polytheistic Reconstructionist group, the Supreme Council of Ethnikoi Hellenes (2006) (from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Polytheistic_reconstructionism)


From: www.witchcraftandwitches.com/contemporary_non_wicca.html

[artemis]

Reconstructionism

Reconstructionism (or Polytheistic Reconstructionism) is a strong movement to recreate various historical forms of witchcraft (where the old forms have been lost for various reasons) which have their roots in pre-Christian Pagan cultural practices, including practices such as Divination, Seid (a type of sorcery or witchcraft practiced by the pre-Christian Norse) and various forms of Shamanism. This approach to Neopaganism first emerged in the late 1960s to early 1970s, and has gathered momentum in the 1990s and 2000s.

From: www.witchcraftandwitches.com/contemporary_non_wicca.html

[artemis]

Hedge Witchcraft

Hedge Witchcraft (or Hedgecraft), is loosely based on traditional European witchcraft and its traditions of the old wise women (and men), cunning folk, herbalists, healers and witches. It emphasizes solitary working based around nature, as well as shamanic practices and herbalism. It has many similarities with Wicca (often including the worship of the Triple Goddess and the Horned God and the celebration of the eight Sabbats of the Wheel of the Year), although without the formality of Wiccan ritual, and without the initiation into the tradition or a coven, hedgecraft being practised almost exclusively as a solitary. Variations include Hearth Witchcraft (where the household hearth is a focal point for practising magic) and Green Witchcraft (where the practice revolves around the natural world, including trees, herbs, wildflowers, wildlife and the cycle of the seasons).

From: www.witchcraftandwitches.com/contemporary_non_wicca.html

[artemis]

Kitchen Witchcraft

Kitchen Witchcraft, or Kitchen Witchery, is a form of witchcraft where the substitution of mundane items for magical items is actively encouraged, and only the intent is believed to be required. For example, a kitchen knife may be substituted for the sacred ritual athame of Wicca. This practice claims to date back to Medieval times, when magic was shunned, but was largely resurrected in the 20th Century by Robert Cochrane with his "1734 Tradition" and the Clan of Tubal-Cain.

From: www.witchcraftandwitches.com/contemporary_non_wicca.html

[artemis]

Ásatrú

The northern tradition of the “Ancient Way” stays close to the original religion of the Norse people and loyalty to the “Aesir” (Norse gods), based on surviving historical records of the old Pagan religions of Scandinavia. Since the 1970s it has expanded rapidly in Scandinavia, northern Europe and North America, and has state recognition in Iceland.

From: www.witchcraftandwitches.com/contemporary_non_wicca.html

[artemis]

Wicca


Wicca is a contemporary Neopagan Nature-based (or Earth-based) religion or spiritual tradition with a specific assemblage of beliefs, as well as a set of practices with distinctive ritual forms, seasonal observances and religious, magical and ethical precepts. It generally honours a deity that is divided into male and female spirituality (known as the God and Goddess), it gives reverence to the Earth and sees the divine in all things, especially the natural world. It is one of the fastest-growing religions in the Western world today, especially in the United States (the Church of Wicca is estimated to have over 400,000 members in the USA alone).

Wiccans are witches in that they practice a kind of witchcraft, but not all witches are Wiccans (other forms of witchcraft, folk magic and sorcery exist within many cultures). Similarly, most Wiccans call themselves pagans, though the umbrella terms Paganism and Neopaganism also encompass many faiths that have nothing to do with Wicca or witchcraft.

Wicca was largely popularized during the 1950s by Gerald Gardner, a retired British civil servant, who at the time called it Witchcraft and referred to its adherents "the Wica”. Gardner claimed that the religion, of which he was an initiate, was a modern survival of an old witchcraft mystery religion that had existed in secret for hundreds of years, originating in the pre-Christian Paganism of Europe (although some claim that Wiccan theology began to be compiled no earlier than the 1920s). The authenticity of Gardner’s work has been questioned, however, and the fragmentary ancient rites that he claimed to have rewritten may actually have come largely from the writings of earlier occultists such as Aleister Crowley, along with elements from the writings of Margaret Murray, Sir James Frazer and even Rudyard Kipling.

Although Gardnerian Wicca became the most popular and influential tradition within Wicca, it is by no means the only one. As witchcraft became more popular and more accepted during the 1960s, several offshoots and alternative traditions developed, incoporating to a greater or lesser extent the beliefs and practices of Gardner and other Pagan and Neopagan philosophies. Each tradition has its own focus and its own brand of ritual and magic, although they are generally agreed on the overriding reverence for life, nature and the environment, as seen through the Goddess and God.


From: www.witchcraftandwitches.com/contemporary_wicca.html

[artemis]

Related Beliefs

These practises are not Witchcraft however often go hand in hand or related to Witchcraft

• Alchemy
  
• Animism
  
• Ariosophy/Armanism
  
• Astrology
  
• Clairvoyance
  
• Demonlogy
  
• Divination
  
• Druidism
  
• Esotericism
  
• Herbalism
  
• Hermeticism
  
• Mysticism
  
• Neopaganism
  
• Occultism
  
• Paganism
  
• Quabalah
  
• Rosicrucianism
  
• Satanism
  
• Shamanism
  
• Spiritualism
  
• Tarot
  
• Theosophy
  
• Theurgy