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Witchcraft, revived and reimagined in the modern world most influentially as Wicca, carries a live tie of four distinct bodies each holding a variant, differently-accounted, stance toward it in this atlas: Dianic Wicca, Eclectic Solitary Wicca, Reclaiming and Seax-Wica. What the four actually disagree about is not whether witchcraft is real practice, all four affirm that, but what it structurally requires.

A Line, a Gender, or Neither

Dianic covens work a goddess-only theology and, in the older lines, admit women only, which sets their witchcraft apart from the god-and-goddess polarity the initiatory traditions are built on. Seax-Wica was published complete with its own rituals and admits self-initiation, so it is witchcraft transmitted by no initiatory line at all, and the older initiatory lines expressly deny that self-initiation is possible.

A Book, or a Class, in Place of a Coven

Eclectic Solitary practice takes its material from published books and holds that a practitioner may initiate themselves, again against the older lines' denial. Reclaiming works witchcraft as a public and political practice with no oath-bound line at all, taught in open classes and joined to direct action rather than conferred in a coven. Set against each other, the four agree only that witchcraft is a real, living practice; on everything that would make someone a witch inside it, a lineage, a gender, a book, a class, they hold four different answers.

Where To Read More

• WitchcraftMagical DisciplinesThe discipline itself, four bodies holding a distinct account of it
• Dianic WiccaWiccaGoddess-only theology, older lines admitting women only
• Eclectic Solitary WiccaWiccaBook-derived practice; holds a practitioner may initiate themselves
• ReclaimingWiccaPublic, political practice, no oath-bound line, taught in open classes
• Seax-WicaWiccaPublished complete with its rituals; self-initiation, no initiatory line at all