The boline has been adopted by several other modern forms of witchcraft including Eclectic Wicca.

Along with tarot divination, astrology is one of the core studies of Western esotericism, and as such has influenced systems of magical belief not only among Western esotericists and Hermeticists, but also belief systems such as Wicca that have borrowed from or been influenced by the Western esoteric tradition.

Some also denounce non-Christian religions such as Islam, Wicca, Paganism, New Age groups, Buddhism, Hinduism, and other polytheistic religions.

In the tradition of Gardnerian Wicca, the Horned God is sometimes specifically referred to as Cernunnos, or sometimes also as Kernunno.

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.

See also Dianic Wicca.

Over the years Bonewits also had varying degrees of involvement with mystical organizations such as Ordo Templi Orientis, Gardnerian Wicca, and the New Reformed Orthodox Order of the Golden Dawn ( a Wiccan organization not to be confused with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn ) as well as others.

Because mandrake contains deliriant hallucinogenic tropane alkaloids such as atropine, scopolamine, apoatropine, hyoscyamine and the roots sometimes contain bifurcations causing them to resemble human figures, their roots have long been used in magic rituals, today also in neopagan religions such as Wicca and Germanic revivalism religions such as Odinism.

Similarly, there are also groups for lesbians, like certain forms of Dianic Wicca and the Minoan Sisterhood.

Other forms of Wicca have also attracted queer people, for instance, the theologian Jone Salomonsen noted that there was an unusually high number of LGBT, and particularly bisexual individuals within the Reclaiming tradition of San Francisco when she was doing her fieldwork there in the 1980s and 1990s.

Following the line of visibility that the Wiccan Religious Confession, Celtiberian Tradition, imposed throughout the institution, this Tradition Wicca also established in Portugal has taken the first step and once applied for registration in the relevant Register, has just been registered and is therefore has become the first Confession Pagan recognized as religion in the history of Portugal ( source ).

An exception is Dianic Wicca ( also known as Feminist Witchcraft and / or Feminist Spirituality ), a branch of Wicca practiced almost exclusively by women, most of whom are heterosexual, preferring to practice their spirituality with other women in pursuit of Women's Mysteries.

As such, various modern scholars have begun to apply the term to three groups of separate faiths: Historical Polytheism ( such as Celtic polytheism, Norse Paganism, the Cultus Deorum Romanorum and Hellenic Polytheistic Reconstructionism also called Hellenismos ), Folk / ethnic / Indigenous religions ( such as Chinese folk religion and African traditional religion ), and Neopaganism ( such as Wicca and Germanic Neopaganism ).

Wicca, another Neopagan movement, also applies the term " mythology " to its stories.

" Faery Wicca " may also refer to a specific tradition of Wicca, recently founded by author Kisma Stepanich.

Faery Wicca is not related to the late Victor Anderson's Feri Tradition of witchcraft, which is sometimes also spelled Faery or Fairy, nor is it directly related to the gay men's group, the Radical Faeries.

Due to the word's association with witches, a gathering of Wiccans, followers of the witchcraft-based neopagan religion of Wicca, is also described as a coven.

In Wicca this may also occur when a newly made High Priest or High Priestess, also called 3rd Degree ordination, leaves to start their own coven.

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.

* Persons of Pagan and Neopagan faiths ; including, but not limited to, Wicca ; also often take new names.

It is the main ritual implement or magical tool among several used in the religion of Wicca, and is also used in various other neopagan witchcraft traditions.

Fire and water are also the elements most associated with Sun and Moon, and thus the Horned God and the Goddess within Wicca.

There are various ways of accomplishing ritual purification and consecration, depending on the specific tradition of Wicca being followed, and also whether the individual Wiccan is practicing with a coven or as a solitary witch.

The Charge of the Goddess is a traditional inspirational text often used in the neopagan religion of Wicca.

The most well known version is that written by Gerald Gardner, and includes material paraphrased works by Aleister Crowley, primarily from Liber ALThe Book of the Law ( particularly from Ch 1, spoken by Nuit, the Star Goddess ), and from his Liber XV: the Gnostic Mass as well as Liber LXV ( Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente, or the Book of the Heart Girt with the Serpent ), thus linking modern Wicca irrevocably to the cosmology and revelations of Thelema.

This is rather different to the modern version known in Wicca, though they have the same premise, that of the rules given by a great Mother Goddess to her faithful.

In Wicca and other forms of Neopaganism a Horned God is revered ; this divinity syncretises a number of horned or antlered gods from various cultures, including Cernunnos.

One well-known example of a bitheistic or duotheistic theology based on gender polarity is found in the neopagan religion of Wicca, which is centered on the worship of a divine couple-the Moon Goddess and the Horned God-who are regarded as lovers.

Dianic Wicca, a largely feminist form of the practice, is named for her.

Today there is a branch of Wicca named for her, which is characterized by an exclusive focus on the feminine aspect of the Divine.

Dianic Witchcraft and Dianic Feminist Witchcraft, is a tradition, or denomination, of the Neopagan religion of Wicca.

Dianic Wicca itself is named after the Roman goddess of the same name.

Much of the history of Dianic Wicca is closely intertwined with " traditional " Wicca, though Dianic Wicca's feminist views stem largely from second wave feminism.

Dianic Wicca is a female born religion based upon Women's shared Blood Mysteries.

An esbat () is a coven meeting other than one of the Sabbats within Wicca and other Wiccan-influenced forms of Neopaganism.

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.

It combines elements of British Traditional Wicca, Italian folk-magic recorded in Charles Leland's Aradia, feminist values, and ritual, folk magic, and healing practices Budapest learned from her mother.

Some Wiccans believe there are many goddesses, and in some forms of Wicca, notably Dianic Wicca, the Goddess alone is worshipped, and the God plays very little part in their worship and ritual.

Concepts of magic and ritual at the center of contemporary traditions, such as Wicca and Thelema, were inspired by the Golden Dawn.

In Gardnerian Wicca, the Dryghten prayer is recited at the end of every ritual meeting contains the lines referring to the Horned God:

* Athame: A typically black-handled and double-edged ritual knife used in Wicca and other derivative forms of Neopagan witchcraft.

The Brotherhood and Sisterhood are oath-bound, initiatory mystery religions which use a ritual framework descended from Gardnerian Wicca.

In Wicca and Paganism / Neo-paganism, the term skyclad is used to refer to ritual nudity.

" Chartowich argues that the ritual nudity of Wicca was based upon Leland's mistranslation of these lines by incorporating the clause " in your rites ".

Major faiths that incorporate ritual washing ( ablution ) include Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Rastafari movement, Shinto, Taoism, and Wicca.

An athame, used in Wicca n ritual practices.

On the other hand, the athame stands as one of the four elemental tools in Wicca ; traditionally standing for fire, as does the ritual sword.

There are obvious risks associated with an entire group of people all wielding swords, while confined within a small ritual circle space nine feet in diameter ; this safety factor, as well as ease of use, may explain why the emphasis within Wicca is more on each witch's personal athame, rather than the ritual sword.

The athame is the most important ritual tool in Wicca, and like other ritual tools it is generally purified and consecrated to the Gods before being used for ritual and magical purposes.

Touching another person's athame without permission is considered a ritual faux pas in almost all traditions of Wicca.

* The Malay kris is a ritual knife regarded as having magical powers, and Gerald Gardner was a recognised authority on these knives prior to his involvement in Wicca.

This version of the ritual, written by both Gardner and Valiente, but containing sections adopted from various sources, such as Aleister Crowley, Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, and even Rudyard Kipling, went on to become the traditional text for Gardnerian Wicca.

Other common names for the main ritual text of certain traditions, Such as Eclectic, Gardnerian, or Devotional Wicca, are " Codex Vias ", " Codex Wicce ", or simply " The Book ".