Virtually all rituals in Wicca include the lighting of altar candles, where two main candles are often used to represent the God and the Goddess ; and the lighting of candles is a central theme at the Wiccan holiday of Brigid or Imbolc, which is also known as Candlemas or the Feast of the Waxing Light.

Founding a Wiccan group known as the Bricket Wood coven, he introduced a string of High Priestesses into the religion, including Doreen Valiente, Lois Bourne, Patricia Crowther and Eleanor Bone, through which the Gardnerian community spread throughout Britain and subsequently into Australia and the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

The pioneers of the various Wiccan or Witchcraft traditions, such as Gerald Gardner, Doreen Valiente and Robert Cochrane, all claimed that their religion was a continuation of the pagan religion of the Witch-Cult following historians who had purported the Witch-Cult's existence, such as Jules Michelet and Margaret Murray.

Originally written by Wiccan High Priestess Doreen Valiente in the mid-1950s, Harvey noted that the recitation of the Charge in the midst of ritual allows Wiccans to gain wisdom and experience deity in " the ordinary things in life ".

Doreen Edith Dominy Valiente ( 4 January 1922 – 1 September 1999 ), who also went under the craft name Ameth, was an influential English Wiccan who was involved in a number of different early traditions, including Gardnerianism, Cochrane's Craft and the Coven of Atho.

Doreen Valiente, Witchcraft for Tomorrow, 1978, pages 41, 72-74 ( also as noted at The Wiccan Rede: A Historical Journey ); see also The Witches Creed at controverscial. com.

The Laws do not appear in earlier known Wiccan documents, including Gardner's Ye bok of Ye Art Magical, Text A or B, or in any of Doreen Valiente ’ s notebooks including one commonly referred to as Text C.

Gardner responded with the sudden production of the Wiccan Laws which led to some of his members, including Valiente, leaving the coven.

For their time, Gardner and Valiente advocated a fairly feminist ideal of priestess authority in service to the Wiccan God and Goddess.

The current view held by many Wiccans is seen in this poem by Wiccan poet Enadus:

The law is not a universal article of faith among Wiccans, and " there are many Wiccans, experienced and new alike, who view the Law of Return as an over-elaboration on the Wiccan Rede.

After her identity was revealed, she became well known in Wiccan circles, for instance the Neopagan bard Francis Cameron delivered a prose interpretation of her life and involvement with the Craft, written as if from her own point of view, entitled " Dafo's Tale ", at The Charge of the Goddess conference 2010, held at Conway Hall in London.

Most traditional Wiccans worship the god and goddess, and a central part of Wiccan liturgy involves the Great Rite ; an act of actual or symbolic ritual sexual intercourse between the two deities.

Stregheria honors a pantheon centered around a Moon Goddess and a Horned God regarded as central, paralleling Wiccan views of divinity.

The Wiccan afterlife is most commonly described as The Summerland.

Externally, political activity on the part of Ásatrú organizations has surrounded campaigns against alleged religious discrimination, such as the call for the introduction of an Ásatrú " emblem of belief " by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs to parallel the Wiccan pentacle granted to the widow of Patrick Stewart in 2006.

Among the Wiccan Sabbats, Beltane is a cross-quarter day ; it is celebrated in the northern hemisphere on 1 May and in the southern hemisphere on 1 November.

Fire is one of the five elements that appear in most Wiccan traditions influenced by the Golden Dawn system of magic, and Aleister Crowley's mysticism, which was in turn inspired by the Golden Dawn.

This is still a matter of debate within the esoteric and Wiccan community.

Air is one of the five elements that appear in most Wiccan and Pagan traditions.

This is still a matter of debate within the esoteric and Wiccan community.

Water is one of the five elements that appear in most Wiccan traditions.

Earth is one of the five elements that appear in most Wiccan and Pagan traditions.

Several different versions of a Wiccan Charge of the God have since been created to mirror and accompany the Charge of the Goddess.

However, there is also a ditheistic theme within traditional Wicca, as the Horned God has dual aspects of bright and dark-relating to day / night, summer / winter-expressed as the Oak King and the Holly King, who in Wiccan myth and ritual are said to engage in battle twice a year for the hand of the Goddess, resulting in the changing seasons.

Dianic Wiccans as " positive path " practitioners do neither manipulative spellwork nor hexing because it goes against the Wiccan Rede ; other Dianic witches ( notably Zsuzsanna Budapest ) do not consider hexing or binding of those who attack women to be wrong.

Like other Wiccans, Dianics may form covens, attend festivals, celebrate the eight major Wiccan holidays, Samhain, Beltane, Imbolc ( or Imbolg ), Lammas, the solstices and equinoxes ( see Wheel of the Year ) and the Esbats, which are rituals usually held at the full moon or dark moon.

Some other Wiccan covens are composed of women and men, and worship the God and Goddess, while Dianics generally worship the Goddess as Whole Unto Herself.

A hereditary witch, Budapest is frequently considered the mother of modern the Dianic Wiccan tradition.

Earlier publishing: Women's Rites, Women's Mysteries: Creating Ritual in the Dianic Wiccan Tradition.

On June 2, 1993, Hutcheson told police that about two weeks after the murders were committed, she, Echols and Misskelley attended a Wiccan meeting in Turrell, Arkansas.

Hutcheson claimed that, at the Wiccan meeting, a drunken Echols openly bragged about killing the three boys.

Hutcheson was unable to recall the Wiccan meeting location, and did not name any other participants of the purported meeting.

The Neopagan religion of Wicca publicly appeared in the 1940s, and Gerald Gardner introduced the Book of Shadows as a Wiccan Grimoire.

For this reason, Gardnerian Wicca is usually considered to be the earliest extant tradition of Wicca, from which most subsequent Wiccan traditions are derived.

In the UK and most Commonwealth countries someone self-defined as Wiccan is usually understood to be claiming initiatory descent from Gardner, either through Gardnerian Wicca, or through a derived branch such as Alexandrian Wicca or Algard Wicca.

Gardnerian Wicca and other forms of British Traditional Wicca operate as an initiatory mystery cult ; membership is gained only through initiation by a Wiccan High Priestess or High Priest.

Moreover, the Bricket Wood coven today is well known for its many members from academic or intellectual backgrounds, who contribute to the preservation of Wiccan knowledge.

She was worshipped as Ancharia at Faesulae, where an altar belonging to her has been discovered.

Suddenly, ghostly hands, belonging to Kayako, emerge from behind and drag the kicking and screaming Izumi into the altar as the three ghosts continue to approach.

They are divided into 108 arranged panels, displaying the auspicious symbols by which Buddha can be identified like flowers, dancers, white elephants, tigers and altar accessories.