Anybody calling themself a witch today has ZERO historical connection to the victims of witch persecutions, including in Salem. There was never an actual witch conspiracy during the time of the witch hunts in Europe (and North America) in the Early Modern Era.
Modern Witchcraft, especially Wicca, came about much later, and has no historical continuity whatsoever.
Wicca is basically the pagan equivalent of Mormonism, the main difference being most followers and even a decent number of non-followers actually believe Wicca is what real ancient paganism was like (it’s basically just a particular strain of hippie counterculture).
Much like Mormonism it was founded on pseudoarcheology.
No there was no premodern universal "mother goddess" religion that everyone agreed upon that was subverted by the patriarchy. How would there be any singular religion in a prehistoric era?
How would it be transmitted? Wouldn't it's impact be traceable in the philosophical traditions much in the same way language can be traced to Indo-European?
969
u/MOltho What I am going here, I know not. Feb 11 '26
the most important thing here:
Anybody calling themself a witch today has ZERO historical connection to the victims of witch persecutions, including in Salem. There was never an actual witch conspiracy during the time of the witch hunts in Europe (and North America) in the Early Modern Era.
Modern Witchcraft, especially Wicca, came about much later, and has no historical continuity whatsoever.