The Craft: An Overview
Three words get used interchangeably by newspapers and by nervous relatives: witchcraft, Wicca and paganism. They overlap, but they are not the same thing, and most of us at the Hearth sit in a slightly different place on the map. This page is the map.
Three circles that overlap
Paganism is the widest circle. It is an umbrella word for the modern religious movements that draw on the pre-Christian traditions of Europe and the Near East, and on a reverence for nature that those traditions shared. Druids are pagans. Heathens who honour the Norse gods are pagans. People who keep the Greek, Roman, Egyptian or Slavic gods are pagans. Most Wiccans would call themselves pagans. Read more about paganism.
Witchcraft is a practice rather than a religion. It is the art of working with the unseen: with intention, with herbs and candles and knots and words, with the tides of the moon and the turning seasons, to bring about change in oneself and in the world. A witch may be a pagan, a Christian, an atheist or something stranger. Many of the old cunning folk whose charms we still use went to church on Sunday. Read more about witchcraft.
Wicca is the place where the two circles overlap most completely. It is a specific modern religion of witchcraft, with a Goddess and a God, eight seasonal festivals, a ritual structure, an ethic, and a history that can be traced through named people and dated books. Not all witches are Wiccan. All Wiccans are, in some sense, witches. Read more about Wicca.
Where the Hearth stands
The Hearth of Brighid is rooted in Wicca and warmed by Irish and British folk tradition. Our circle is cast the Wiccan way and our year turns on the eight Sabbats. But our members include a Druid, two Heathens, several people who simply call themselves witches, and at least one who insists she is "just here for the bread." Nobody is asked to believe anything in particular. We are held together by practice, by ethics, and by the fire.
Where to begin
- Read What is Witchcraft?, What is Wicca? and What is Paganism? in that order. They are short.
- Read Beliefs and Ethics. If the Rede sits well with you, carry on. If it does not, that is useful to know early.
- Skim Traditions and Paths so you recognise the names when you meet them.
- Then stop reading and go outside. Notice the moon. Notice what is flowering. That is the first practice, and everything in the Practice section grows from it.
A note on the word "witch"
Some of us use it proudly, some use it carefully, and a few of our older members still flinch at it because of what it cost people in living memory. We use it on this site because it is honest. We are the heirs of the village charmers, the midwives, the herb-wives, the cunning men, and also the heirs of the thousands who were killed for a word that was flung at them and that they never claimed. We claim it now so that it can never again be used as a weapon in quite the same way. If you are not ready to use it for yourself, you do not have to. Nobody checks at the door.