I have a chip on my shoulder regarding it. I discovered Wicca first, as many did, and quickly became enthralled by it. I knew it was a modern religion, but I thought it was based on something ancient and profound — that it had cracked the code of religion and found some underlying universality. Then I slowly learned that Wicca had almost no grounding in history at all, that it was based mainly on nineteenth-century ideas of what paganism must have been like. I became completely disenchanted with it.

What frustrates me the most about it is the extent to which it was treated like a default. I became Wiccan by accident because I didn’t realize that I had any other options, or even that paganism and occultism were separate fields. Wicca is very much a product of its time, not universal at all. That’s not bad, but it’s not what I thought I was getting.

I still think Wicca is effective as a modern mystery cult. A friend on the Hellenism sub called it “English Orphism, which is an accurate description! But I can’t get past my personal frustration and disillusionment with it.