Wicca White Goddess", and pre-existing modern Pagan groups such as the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry and Druidism. It was during the 1930s that the first evidence appears for the practice of a pagan Witchcraft religion (what would be recognisable now as Wicca) in England. It seems that several groups around the country, in such places as Norfolk, Cheshire and the New Forest had set themselves up as continuing in the tradition of Murray's Witch-Cult, albeit with influences coming from disparate sources such as ceremonial magic, folk magic, Freemasonry, Theosophy, Romanticism, Druidry, classical mythology, and Asian religions. The history of Wicca starts
Wicca Wiccans do not claim to know how magic works, merely believing that it does because they have observed it to be so. Some spell it "magick", a variation coined by the influential occultist Aleister Crowley, though this spelling is more commonly associated with Crowley's religion of Thelema than with Wicca. During ritual practices, which are often staged in a sacred circle, Wiccans cast spells or "workings" intended to bring about real changes in the physical world. Common Wiccan spells include those used for healing, for protection, fertility, or to banish negative influences. Many early Wiccans, such as Alex Sanders, Sybil