Like many other religions, Wicca contains a variety of sects, AKA denominations.
Within Wicca, there is a common deceptive meme of calling wiccan sects "traditions".
That serves to give the false impression that the practices of those sects are older than they are,
and derived from a more primitive time.
Wiccan sects can be grouped into emerging sects and established sects, with either having a lineage or not. An emerging sect is considered to be one in which the group is younger than 5 years, and may not yet be a parent coven. An established sect is one which is older than 5 years, may have published works by it's founder, and has members who have passed through all of the levels of training in order to move on and establish their own coven.
early sects, pre-1970[]
New Forest Wicca[]
New Forest Wicca was the first and original form of Wicca.
It has been defunct for a long time.
Gardnerian Wicca[]
Gardnerian Wicca is the second-oldest sect of Wicca, and is the oldest surviving sect of Wicca.
It was created out of New Forest Wicca by Gerald Gardner.
Central Valley Wicca[]
The so-called "Central Valley Wicca" is characterized by its extreme vagueness.
It was allegedly started in California's central valley, with no geographical specificity given,
at some time in "the early 1960s", with no specific year given,
and by a woman whose real name is unknown, and whose craft-name is kept secret.
That woman was a first-degree or second-degree initiate in Gardnerian or early-Alexandrian Wicca
(which was more similar to Gardnerian Wicca than is mature Alexandrian Wicca) in Britain,
and relocated to California.
Because she was not third-degree, she did not have the authority, under Gardnerian rules,
to create her own coven, but Central Valley Wicca and its derivatives are nonetheless
typically considered to be equal with the third-degree-lineaged covens.
It is unclear what differences there are between Central Valley Wicca and its predecessors.
The only things that are said about it is that there is some difference in the so-called "lore",
and some difference in "interpretation".
The word "lore" implies that there is some difference in the myth in the second-degree
initiation ritual, and/or some difference in the sabbats.
The word "interpretation" is so vague as to be completely uninformative.
With such extreme vagueness, and no clear indication that Central Valley Wicca is
substantially distinct from Gardnerian Wicca, it should not be classified as its own sect,
but rather as a branch of Gardnerian Wicca.
Central Valley Wicca, despite its vague origin, has managed to spawn at least four
different named wiccan sects.
Alexandrian Wicca[]
Alexandrian Wicca is the third-oldest sect of Wicca, and is the second-oldest surviving sect of Wicca.
Alexandrian Wicca was invented by Alex Sanders, at some time within the timespan of 1963 to 1970.
Alexandrian Wicca was created out of Gardnerian Wicca, by making modifications to it.
Like Gardnerian Wicca which it is derived from, it is a bondage-and-discipline sect.
Pseudo-Wicca: The Church and School of Wicca[]
The so-called "church and school of Wicca" was created in the U.S.,
in Saint Louis Missouri, in 1968, by an immigrant from England named Gavin Frost.
This paradigm is not wiccan, because it has abrahamic-style monotheism instead of
the masculine-feminine duotheism that is a defining trait of Wicca,
nor does this paradigm have practice in covens, nor secrecy, nor some other important wiccan traits.
Aside from the paradigm's logo, which is very wiccan-looking,
there is little about this paradigm that is distinctly wiccan, and Gavin Frost had in fact
created this paradigm out of his own anti-occult sentiment.
Thus, the so-called "Church and School of Wicca" is both pseudo-wiccan and anti-wiccan,
but it nonetheless deserves mention here because of its historical significance to Wicca,
and to educate the reader so that they do not falsely assume that this paradigm is wiccan
because of its name.
This paradigm is historically important to Wicca in large part because,
being a non-wiccan group that calls itself "wiccan",
it inspired the creation of independent and radically divergent forms of Wicca,
most notably Dianic Wicca, which was created three years later in 1971.
later sects, post-1970[]
Ara Wicca[]
African Wicca[]
Although it has yet to become a widely recognized term, some authors have published books making the arguement for the importance of incorporating local culture into Wiccan practice. Some authors are of the opinion that Wiccans who live and practice in Africa should become more comfortable with traditional African rituals, such as the slaughter of cattle as part of their rites.
Algard Wicca[]
This sect, which was established in the U.S., is based upon a fusion of Gardnerian Wicca and Alexandrian Wicca. It is therefore a bondage-and-discipline sect.
American Traditional Wicca[]
This is a general term to describe early forms of Wicca which started in about the 1970s but have no direct links to Gardnerian or Alexandrian Wicca.
American Welsh Wicca[]
Founded by Ed Buczynski, an initiate of a coven in New York, who fell out with his coven and went on to form his own. He met his partner, Herman Slater, and together they ran an occult bookshop and ran the first coven. It is loosely based on Gardnerian practises. It is considered to be American Traditional.
Aquarian Tabernacle Church[]
This sect was founded in around 1979, although it was only considered to have offically been recognized in 1985. It was created on the popularity of Wicca in the 1970s, but is not based upon any previous wiccan sects. It is entirely self-styled, but is still self-proclaimed to be Wiccan. It does away with many of the basic practices of Wicca, such as initiation, and is instead based upon what could be described as a "romanticized" version of the founder's conception of what Wicca was.
Blue Star Wicca[]
Caledoni Wicca[]
Celtic Wicca[]
Celtic Wicca is a broader term which applies to a number of unrelated groups, but who have similar practises. The earliest progenitor of this sect is Jessie Bell in the 1970s, but more recently Gavin and Yvonne Frost of the Church and School of Wicca have referred to their practises as "Celtic Wicca". This sect is often frowned upon, and often completely disregarded, by other wiccan sects, due to it's highly romanticized conception of Celtic beliefs and practises, and is often in direct conflict with historical fact.
Ceremonial Wicca[]
Some sources purpose a sect called Ceremonial Wicca where there is a huge influence of ceremonial, or high, magick infused with the more folk-based practices of Wicca.
Central Valley Wicca[]
Chalice Well Wicca[]
Correllian-Nativist Wicca[]
This sect is the only American group that claims a family tradition that can be traced back to Scotish Ancestors, while at the same time arguing for Native American influences that were brought into the family tradition through inter-marriage when the family moved to America. These claims are hotly disputed by the Wiccan community at large, as the sect claims that it was founded in the 1800s. In 2006, following internal pollitics, the sect split into two groups - Correllian Nativist Church International (Nativist Wicca) and Correll Mother Temple (Correllian Wicca).
Church and School of Wicca[]
(see Celtic Wicca)
Dianic Wicca[]
Dianic Wicca was founded by Zsuzsanna Budapest in the United States, in the 1970s. Dianic wiccans focus upon the worship of the goddess, and upon feminine aspects. Originally, the majority of dianic wiccans were lesbians. However, modern dianic groups may be all-lesbian, all-heterosexual, or mixed. Generally, if they worship the god, then it is as a consort to the goddess, rather than as an equal to the goddess.
The three main branches of Dianic neopaganism are:
- Dianic Wicca, a feminine sect of Wicca.
- McFarland Dianic, a neopagan Fairy lineage sect.
- The Living Temple of Diana, an emerging shamanic witchcraft sect.
Draconian Wicca[]
Draconian Wicca is a branch of Wicca that utilizes what is believed to be the power of dragons or dragon spirits.
EarthGuard Wicca[]
Eclectic Wicca[]
This is a term that is used to describe practitioners of Wicca, either solitary or in groups, who take inspiration from various sources which they mold into their own form of "Wicca".
Faery Wicca[]
Faery Wicca (not to be confused with the Feri Tradition, which is not Wiccan) was founded by Kisma Stepanich in 1994. She is an American with distant links to Ireland on her mother's side. Her inspiration for Faery Wicca came from her claim that she was visited by the Fae as a child. There is no information regarding her introduction to Wicca, other than through the sudden explosion of material on the subject that became popular online in the 1990s.
Georgian Wicca[]
Green Wicca[]
The Green Wicca was first named by Ann Moura in her book "Green Witchcraft" (1996), where she claims it is more a sect of solitary Wiccans who put a heavy emphasis upon herbalism for spells and healing.
Kingstone Wicca[]
Minonian Brotherhood[]
A sect that was formed for gay males to explore their spirituality without the historical inclusion of women
Mohisian Wicca[]
Moon River Wicca[]
New Reformed Orthodox Order of the Golden Dawn[]
Notrenlim Phoenix Wicca[]
Pictish Witta[]
Progressive Witchcraft[]
While not a formal sect, it is still an important part of Wiccan movements to be included here. The first book to be written on the subject was "Magick without Peers: A Course in Progressive Witchcraft for the Solitary Practioner" by David Rankine and Ariadne Rainbird. It is described as an approach which is more universal than the sects of Garnerian and Alexandrian Wicca. It draws upon each of these sects, but is a system that is suited to solitary practitioners who wish to incorporate a wider variety of influences into their beliefs and practices.
Roebuck Wicca[]
Seax-Wica[]
Seax-Wica was the invention of Raymond Buckland who was also the first person in the US to openly admit to being Wiccan. He was initiated in the Garderian sect, and Gerald Gardner was present at his initiation. He eventually went on to found this, his own sect, with a heavily Anglo-Saxon influence.
Shamanic Witchcraft[]
Scottish Wicca[]
Stregheria[]
Teutonic Wicca[]
Thelemic Wicca[]
A path of Wicca that was influenced by the religious philosophy of Thelema ("Will").
Trinitarian Wicca[]
This is an American sect which uses primarily a Christian pantheon within a Wiccan form of pactice.
Welsh Faerie Wicca[]
This is a family tradition of witches and bards that had an ancestor who was initiated into Gardnerian Wicca, and thus combined the two to form their own sect of Wicca.
Y Tylwyth Teg[]
See Welsh Faerie Wicca