Wiccan followers are members of either one of the oldest or one of the newest religions in the world. The determination would be in how you look at it.

Wicca can actually trace is origins all the way back to the celtic druids. Unfortunately, the druids did not keep writings of their religions. In fact, any writings that do exist of those early druids and their religion were accountings of it created by the Greeks and the Romans.

The Druid Religion was similar to that of the Native American Religious Beliefs in that both religions were very much centered on the earth, sun, moon and all the plants & animals. These religions were lived and verbalized as a part of daily life. There were not many writings, but there were ceremonies, traditions, and the living of the religion as the essence of living life itself. There was a way of looking at life that involved all of the universe in its many separate forms as a part of life. There were rituals, and traditions to honor and support this life.

Some of this has traveled to more current times. Yet, much of today's Wiccan history and accounts of its traditions in written form can only be traced back to the early 1800's. Still, these are not actual writings by members of the Wiccan Faith. They are authors of the time beginning to shed light on who the witches really were, the fact that they did have gods and goddesses, and that perhaps the Roman Catholics and Protestants burning of witches was actually a burning of an earlier and even more dominant religion than the Christian Religion of the time.

It wasn't until 1939 that an actual member of the Wiccan faith wrote down some of the Old Religion's beliefs and historical persecutions. However, even that book was presented as a novel. Not as a book of religious teachings.

Interestingly, all these works have played a role in the formation of the written word for this religion.

In 1998: Silver RavenWolf wrote, "Wicca, as you practice the religion today, is a new religion, barely fifty years old. The techniques you use at present are not entirely what your elders practiced even theirty years ago. Of course, threats of "what was" weave through the tapestry of "what is now."

The Wiccan Religion has been (like so many other religions) grossly misunderstood and its members have suffered greatly, many have heard the stories of the burnings of the witches. On all accounts, for a period of time, while it seemed that Christianty reigned, the Wiccans had all but been wiped out.

Many of the Wiccan and other Neopagan beliefs and practices were in fact absorbed by Christianty as well.

A Neopagan religion is a modern faith which has been recently reconstructed from beliefs, deities, symbols, practices and other elements of an ancient religion which had been abandoned. Wicca is one of the largest Neopagan religions. Other neopagan religions include Hellenismos (ancient Greek Religion), Religio Romana (ancient Roman Religion), and Kemetism (ancient Egyptian Religion), for example.

Today, however, Wicca has been making a strong come back. It is a duotheistic religion, ie, a religion that believes in a Goddess and a God. Much of the confusion about Wicca comes from the fact that the God is a horned God, who got dubbed by the Christians as their "Satan". This, of course, was quite false. The Wiccan Belief did not even have an equivalent of Satan as a part of its structure.

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