The History of Wicca: Some of its Key Personalities and Traditions

The history of Wicca used to be terribly controversial, and in the past there have been some heated debates among Wiccans over this topic. The division lay between those who believed that Wicca was an ancient religion dating from pre-history, to those who saw that it was a modern synthesis of a number of pagan practices and beliefs created in the twentieth century.
The first argument made a case for the Craft dating back into the mists of pre-recorded history and asserted that it was widespread across the whole of Europe, and had survived into the twentieth century. This argument was based on the now discredited thesis of Margaret Murray, a well regarded expert of Egyptology. Such a definition was terribly appealing as it gave Wicca an extremely ancient provenance and an air of mystery. It also gave a sense of survival against terrible odds in the form of the "Burning Times" and the supposed general hounding at the hands of the Catholic Church. Attractive as it may have been, Murray's thesis was comprehensively dismantled by academics and there are none today who uphold it [2]. Historians now generally conclude that there is plenty of evidence for the practice of magic throughout European history, there is also evidence of many diverse survivals of pagan practice, but, if an organised Witchcraft existed, then all Murray's evidence would point towards it being of the Satanic and demonic variety that has nothing whatsoever to do with modern Wicca [3]. That said, within Wiccan literature there are a number of very famous and widely used books on modern pagan Witchcraft that generally follow Murray's ideas and, even though her historical inaccuracies have been well known for some time, no-one has seen fit to revise their editions accordingly [4]. In general, though, there are fewer witches than there were who would support this unhistorical analysis, indeed many in the Craft see such a view as giving ammunition to its detractors and actively promote the idea that Wicca is a consciously created synthesis, but none the worse or invalid for that.
Let us explore some of the key figures and organisations that have shaped Wicca from the twentieth century to today. It should be stated that this list is not exhaustive as it would be possible to write an entire book on a complete survey, but it will provide those that are interested with a solid basis for further exploration of the history of the Craft.

Footnotes
[1] As well as being widely available on the internet this summary is also published in Raymond Buckland, Buckland's Complete Book of Witchcraft, Llewellyn, 2003 pp.12-13.
[2] Perhaps the best criticism has been by Norman Cohn, Europe's Inner Demons, Sussex University Press, 1975, pp. 102-35.
[3] See JB Russell, A History of Witchcraft, Sorcerers, Heretics and Pagans, Thames and Hudson, 1991, p. 41.
[4] There are many that could be mentioned, see, for example, the 1989, 10th anniversary edition of Starhawk's, The Spiral Dance, A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess, Harper, pp. 17-22.