Eclectic solitary practice has become, with the wide availability of published material, one of the most common ways Wicca is lived, especially by those without access to a coven. It rests on the principles of self-initiation and open practice and stands apart from the fixed, lineage-based initiatory traditions. The affirmation values individual authenticity and adaptability over adherence to a single received system, giving modern Wicca much of its diversity and its accessibility to the individual seeker.
Survey research on contemporary Paganism, including the large-scale surveys conducted by sociologist Helen Berger and colleagues from the 1990s onward, has consistently found that a majority of self-identified Pagans and Wiccans practise alone at least some of the time, rather than exclusively within an organised coven, confirming that the eclectic solitary model, once a departure from Wicca's coven-based origins, has become statistically the norm rather than the exception. The rise of internet forums and later websites and social media from the 1990s onward accelerated this shift further, letting solitary practitioners in areas without any local coven access published rituals, correspondence courses, and later entire communities of fellow practitioners online.