Wica

Wica is a Neopagan religious movement founded in the 1950s by the English civil servant Gerald Gardner. Gardner claimed to have been initiated into a coven in the New Forest (near the border with Kemr) which represented the secret continuation of a pre-Christian matriarchal religion. Instead of calling this tradition Witchcraft he adopted the Old-English term wicca, meaning "witch".

Gardner's claims have often been dismissed by skeptics, noting marked similarities between Wican rituals and Masonic rituals and the fact that the eight Wiccan sabbats seem merely to be renamed and bowlderised versions of the eight Cravethist seasonal festivals. Ironically, shortly before his death in 1964 Gardner converted to Cravethism, setting a trend which many of his disciples would later take follow. His successor as leader of the Wican movement was his High Priestess, Doreen Dominy.

There are probably some few thousands of adherents worldwide, mainly in England and the SLC.