[codeword]

The religion known today as "WICCA" is not "pre-Christian."

The worship of Woden/Wotan/Odin and Frig of the old Germanic and Anglo Saxon peoples is what I am referring to by "Wicca." This religion still has its remnants in the names of the days of the week (e.g., Wednesday) and in seasonal celebrations, e.g, Yule, May Day and Haloween. It was reconstructed in the 20th Century by such people as Johan Jacob Bachofen. But the origin of the word "Witch" is "wicca" meaning "wise" and referred to a practictioner of the old pre Christian religion. So called witches were persecuted by Christians hundreds and hundreds of years ago. In much the same way, Christians presecuted the old Greek religion. Every new religion turns the old gods into demons.

[ppaul]

Modern Wiccans like to think of themselves as being practioners of the "old" earth religions. They are not. Wicca, as it is generally practiced today, with its many covens, is generally a very modern phenomenon which has no set doctrines or rituals. It is basically a "make-it-up-as-we-go-along "religion - folks re-creating God in their own image to suit whatever their own tastes dictate, borrowing from s smorgasbord of pagan teachings from antiquity and modern "new age" mumbo-jumbo. Many respected reliious scholars and historians have dismissed the modern Wicca movement as a 20th century fad (which apparently is still in full swing).

[Styria]

That's not what my dictionary says. Wicce (feminine) and wicca (masculine) just meant witch and wizard back then, not wise. It does come close, but only in terms of an evil wisdom, and words in other languages coming from the same route translate into craftiness, cunning, and guile. In Latin the root ends up coming back to us as victim.

You know, hardly the sort of behavior that the pagans themselves wouldn't distrust before conversion....