Etymology of Wicca Pagan Witchcraft community. The author's name was not printed, although it had probably been produced by one of the figures involved in editing "Pentagram", such as Gerard Noel or Doreen Valiente. In July 1968, a group of British Gardnerians began publishing a magazine titled "The Wiccan", while Welshman Gavin Frost founded the Church of Wicca in the United States that same year. In the 1960s, the Gardnerian initiate Alex Sanders founded his own tradition, which became known as Alexandrian Wicca; he used the terms "Wicca" and "the Wicca" in reference to the entire Pagan Witchcraft religion. One of Sanders' initiates,
Wicca have referred to it as a "magico-religion". Wicca is also a form of Western esotericism, and more specifically a part of the esoteric current known as occultism. Although recognised as a religion by academics, some evangelical Christians have attempted to deny it legal recognition as such, while some Wiccan practitioners themselves eschew the term "religion" – associating the latter purely with organised religion – instead favouring "spirituality" or "way of life". Although Wicca as a religion is distinct from other forms of contemporary Paganism, there has been much "cross-fertilization" between these different Pagan faiths; accordingly, Wicca has both influenced and