Solitary self-directed practice describes a religious or spiritual life pursued individually, without membership in a congregation, coven, order or group, the practitioner setting their own devotions, study and discipline according to their own conscience and reading. It has become especially visible in contemporary Paganism and Wicca, where the "solitary practitioner", one who worships, marks the festivals and works ritual alone, often self-initiated and drawing on published sources rather than trained within a coven, has grown from an exception into perhaps the most common form the traditions take, enabled by the wide availability of once-secret material in print and online. But the solitary path is far older and broader than any modern movement: the hermit and the anchorite of the Christian, Hindu and Buddhist traditions, the lone seeker and the unaffiliated believer have always existed alongside the communal forms of religion.
The solitary path carries recognised strengths and recognised risks. Its freedom allows the practitioner to shape a practice authentic to their own needs and to proceed without the constraints of a group; its cost is the absence of the correction, accumulated knowledge, shared energy and accountability that a tradition and a community provide, and traditional teachers across the religions have often warned of the dangers of the unguided path, self-deception, imbalance, and the lack of anyone to test one's experience against. The rise of self-directed practice is also part of a wider modern religious trend toward individualised, unaffiliated spirituality, in which people increasingly assemble their own beliefs and practices outside institutional membership, a development that has reshaped the religious landscape of much of the contemporary world.