Wicca is frequently marketed as an ancient, unbroken pagan religion stretching back to pre-Christian Celtic times, but it was actually invented in the 1950s by a British retired civil servant named Gerald Gardner.

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Wicca is frequently marketed as an ancient, unbroken pagan religion stretching back to pre-Christian Celtic times, but it was actually invented in the 1950s by a British retired civil servant named Gerald Gardner. He combined elements of ceremonial magic, amateur folklore, and a very strong personal preference for nudism to create what he claimed was the surviving remnants of a persecuted witch cult. Millions of modern practitioners genuinely believe they are following the ancient ways of the earth goddesses, completely ignoring the fact that their sacred rituals were largely brainstormed by a quirky nudist in a mid-century English cottage