Wicca.

 Going back to this Wicca subject. I did some digging and found out that this religion was developed by a man named Gerald Brousseau Gardner. 

Now remember I said the reason why I believed that witches still exist is because of the whispers I hear about cults still existing till today? Well, I wasn't wrong. 

Apparently, Gerald was a retired civil servant who spent most of the duration of his career in Asia, where he learnt a lot of magical practices and he was even a fan of esoteric literature—(Intended for or likely to be understood by only a small number of people with a specialized knowledge or interest, or an enlightened inner circle) and read widely on it. 

He came back to Britain and became a member of the British occult society and later on went on to develop a new movement based on magical practices and worship of numerous deities which is known as Wicca today. After the abolishment of England's old witchcraft laws, he published Witchcraft Today in 1954 and founded his first coven. 

In time, word of this religion that seemed out of the ordinary got out and spread to the United States in the 1960s. 

It's also good to note that Wiccans refer to themselves as witches and as such gained a lot of backlash from people who associate their religion with satanism. As a result, there has been a lot of denial in the bid to sever any ties with devil worship. 

Some believe in a horned god and a triple goddess. Some believe in a nature goddess. Others are agonists or atheists. From this, it is clear that there is no central authority, and this religion has a lot of variations to it. It is the largest pagan worship of today with the estimate of about 1.5 million members. 

Now my question is what led to its acceptance?

For it is known that humans fear what they do not understand and can't control and will seek to destroy it before it gets a chance to grow. 

According to my research, in the United States, several legal decisions validated the status of Wicca. An example is the case of Dettmer V. Landon in 1986. 

The plaintiff, Herbert Daniel Dettmer, was a Virginia prisoner and a member of the School of Wicca. Dettmer desired access to ritual objects, including several varieties of knife, with which to practice Wiccan rituals. Knives, of course, are not available to prisoners. When the State would not provide him these ritual objects, he sued Robert Landon, the Director of the Virginia Department of Corrections in federal court to get access to objects he claimed were necessary for his religious practice. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia decided in Dettmer's favor, finding that Wicca was a religion, rejecting the argument put forward by the Department of Correction that it was merely a "conglomeration" of occult practices. 

Although it wasn't a full victory for Dettmer, it was the first time a court of law would recognise Wicca as a legitimate religion. 

Seems we've all gotten enlightened on this subject. It's safe to conclude that paganism itself isn't just in places like African or Asian countries, but actually exists in both European and American countries as well. Although, in my own view, it is a religion that will always be at the receiving end of criticism, however legal it becomes. Why? Like I said earlier, "people fear what they do not understand."

XOXO

Sources:

Britannica

Wikipedia