First they came to take our land and water, then our fish and game. Then they wanted our mineral resources and, to get them, they tried to take our governments. Now they want our religions as well.” Janet M^cCloud, Z Magazine, December 1990.

Building on the work of the Farrars in identifying influences upon Gardner,1 Hutton has demonstrated that many elements of Traditional Wicca relate to cultural events in the 18^th, 19^th and early 20^th Centuries.2 He largely left open the question of what influences from before that period were at work, though has certainly leant more support to the sceptical positions on the question, whether that was his intent or not.

Almost all of the sources are among those to which Gardner could, either as a British person or as a European, make some degree of claim. Similarly, when the Farrars gave an exposition of the manner in which they introduced local, i.e. Irish, elements into their Sabbat celebrations,3 they were doing so as residents of Ireland, and as such as people with a claim to the experience it drew on.

Many people feel drawn towards a culture that they cannot make such a direct claim on. Many other such claims are made on different grounds to others making the same claim. Consider that a US-born US citizen with Irish ancestors may feel “Irish,” though he not only does not have the same claims as an Irish-born Irish citizen, and further that the claims he does have are not shared by all Irish citizens. Other people feel drawn towards a variety of cultures, or just towards a variety of artefacts of different cultures.

It is notable that Traditional Wiccans will often also work with gods from a variety of cultures, as well as those of the Wicca, and have often explained aspects of their Craft in terms of practices from around the world, (especially, but not exclusively, from Europe), whether claiming they are doing the same, or merely drawing analogy. It is also notable that some have agreed with, or at least paid some respect to, the soft polytheism of Dion Fortune,4 with the justification for extreme levels of syncretism this implies. Finally, often referring to other cultures offers a mechanism by which one can talk about aspects of Traditional Wicca, while staying clear from matters that they may feel it would impinge upon their oaths to raise more directly.

Innovative Witchcraft inherits much of this, but often not as much of the original cultural background of Traditional Wicca, especially for practitioners outside of England, and more so outside of Western Europe. Often within these practices what is considered Wicca is taken to be a framework, around which cultural borrowings can be attached, producing a practice that would then be labelled, Irish Wicca, Pictish Wicca, Norse Wicca, or in the case of more deeply syncretistic practices, Eclectic Wicca.5 The tendency for syncretism in the New Age Movement would be another influence, encouraging this latter eclectic use of cultural borrowings from a variety of cultures, though by the same token, the disdain for the New Age Movement that is common within much of Neopaganism, particularly in the wake of the anti-fluffy backlash, serves as a disincentive with growing impact.

That one not only can, but should, combine Wiccan-derived techniques with such cultural borrowings, is so commonly stated as to be part of many of the orthodoxies I have suggested have emerged within Innovative Witchcraft. In introductory books, it is often suggested that deciding upon which culture, or cultures, to borrow from, is the first step in developing a practice. This decision is a key factor in what is seen to define a particular Innovative Tradition.6

With a variety of cultures being so used, there is hence a desire for information not only on Wicca, and on the cultures in question, but on how any particular culture may be combined with Wicca. This creates an automatic market diversification, which perhaps could lead publishers to favour this approach to magic and religion, and has certainly led to criticism that such practice treats cultures as little more than consumer choices. Certainly the similarity between the two following quotes, the first pertaining to explain Celtic magic, the second Norse, seems to indicate no difference more profound than branding:

Carry the burner around the circle clockwise, beginning in the east. Return it to the altar.	Carry the burner around the circle clockwise, beginning in the east. Return it to the altar.
Go to the eastern quarter of the circle. Light the red (yellow) candle7 and hold your hand up in greeting. You may also salute the Element with your dagger, sword or wand instead of your hand:	Go to the eastern quarter of the circle. Light the yellow candle and hold your hand up in greeting. You may also salute the Element with your dagger, sword or wand instead of your hand:
I call upon you, Powers of Air, to witness this rite and to guard this circle.	I call upon you, Powers of Air, to witness this rite and to guard this circle.
In the southern quarter, light the white (red) candle and greet the Element:	Move to the south; light the red candle and greet the Element:
I call upon you, Powers of Fire, to witness this rite and to guard this circle.	I call upon you, Powers of Fire, to witness this rite and to guard this circle.
Move to the west; light the grey (blue) candle and hold your hand in greeting:	In the western quarter you light the blue candle and hold your hand in greeting:
I call upon you, Powers of Water, to witness this rite and to guard this circle.	I call upon you, Powers of Water, to witness this rite and to guard this circle.
End by going to the north; light the black (green) candle and greet the Element:	End by going to the north; light the green candle and greet the Element:
I call upon you, Powers of Earth, to witness this rite and to guard this circle.	I call upon you, Powers of Earth, to witness this rite and to guard this circle.
Move back to the central altar, and stand facing east. Raise your arms in greeting:	Move back to the central altar, and stand facing east. Raise your arms in greeting:
This circle is bound, With power all around. Between the worlds, I stand With protection at hand.	This circle is bound, With power all around. Within it I stand With protection at hand.
Proceed with your planned spellworking or ceremony. When everything is completed, hold you hand or dagger over the altar and say:	Proceed with your planned spellworking or ceremony. When everything is completed, hold you hand or ritual tool over the altar and say:
By the powers of the ancient Gods, I bind all power within this circle Into this spell. So mote it be.	By the powers of the ancient Gods, I bind all power within this circle Into this spell. So mote it be!
When you are ready to end the ritual, go to the east and extinguish the red(yellow) candle. Say:	When you are ready to end the ritual, go to the east and extinguish the yellow candle. Say:
Depart in peace, O Powers of Air. My thanks and blessings.	Depart in peace, O Powers of Air. My thanks and blessings.
Go to the south, extinguish the white (red) candle. Say:	Go to the south, extinguish the red candle. Say:
Depart in peace, O Powers of Fire. My thanks and blessings.	Depart in peace, O Powers of Fire. My thanks and blessings.
Go to the west and put out the grey (blue) candle. Say:	Go to the west and put out the blue candle. Say:
Depart in peace, O Powers of Water. My thanks and blessings.	Depart in peace, O Powers of Water. My thanks and blessings.
Finish by going to the north and extinguishing the black (green) candle. Say:	Finish by going to the north and extinguishing the green candle. Say:
Depart in peace, O Powers of Earth. My thanks and blessings.	Depart in peace, O Powers of Earth. My thanks and blessings.
Return to the altar in the center and say:	Return to the center to stand before the altar. Raise your arms and say:
To all beings and powers of the visible and invisible, depart in peace. May there always be harmony between us. My thanks and blessings. Cut the circle with a backwards movement of your dagger or sword to release all remaining traces of power for manifestation. Say: The circle is open, yet ever it remains a circle. Around and through me always flows its magical power. Put away all magical tools and clear the altar. Leave any candles or object which must remain either to burn out or be empowered for a stated period of time.	To all beings and powers of the visible and invisible, depart in peace. May there always be harmony between us. My thanks and blessings. Cut the circle with a backwards movement of your dagger or sword to release all remaining traces of power for manifestation. Say: The circle is open, yet ever it remains a circle. Around and through me always flows its magical power. Put away all magical tools and clear the altar. Leave any candles or object which must remain either to burn out or be empowered for a stated period of time.
You have completed a ritual. Practice will make the power flow easier and more freely. You will become more self-confident. Soon you will be looking forward to the time you spend between the worlds with the Ancient Ones.8	You have completed a ritual. Practice will make the power flow easier and more freely. You will become more self-confident. Soon you will be looking forward to ritual and spellworking.9

This could be viewed as a cynical exercise on the part of the author, but it is also quite possible that she genuinely views culture in this way, and considers this to be completely valid and useful, and to truly reflect something of the culture in each book’s title.

Those with different attachments to the culture in question may see things differently. One major point of criticism, is the cultural and historical material presented is often of questionable accuracy to begin with. Joanna Hautin-Mayer’s critique, “When is a Celt not a Celt?”10 examines six works examining Celtic history and culture in different ways, and her verdict of four of them is rather condemnatory. Of these four, all could be considered to be Neopagan in some manner, and two of them, Witta,11 and Faery Wicca,12 describe forms of post-Gardnerian witchcraft. Hautin-Mayer’s critique pretty firmly established that these books were of little value in terms of what they portrayed themselves as providing. The essay being widely circulated help fuel several debates, not just about cultural borrowing, but the state of scholarship in Pagan publications, the value of syncretism generally, the anti-fluffy backlash, and the general quality of works published by Llewellyn Worldwide, (which published both those volumes, and some of the others Hautin-Mayer examined).

Within Neopaganism, the strongest criticisms tend to come from reconstructionist religions, like Celtic Reconstructionism, and Hellenicism. Since cultures which have continued unbroken into the current age, particularly the cultures indigenous to the Americas, have also been used in this manner, and given that the people belonging to these cultures have often experienced very severe oppression from people of the white Anglo ethnicity from which Wicca came, that continues to this day, much of the harshest criticism has been from those quarters. Other cultures that have not received as much attention from Innovative Witches are often of interest to the New Age Movement, which makes it likely to cross along overlap between the New Age Movement and Innovative Witchcraft in the near future.

The more extreme cases of, “plastic shamans,” whose statements can be demonstrated to be factually incorrect in much the same the manner that Hautin-Mayer did with Witta and Faery Wicca are one thing. More contentious are arguments that indigenous culture, or at least some aspects of it, should not be used in this manner at all.

Between these two complaints, lies that which argues that the form of adoption of such cultural elements is not wrong in itself, but not possible with the frameworks that they are being used in: All of the New Age Moment, and much of Innovative Witchcraft, places a high regard on personal development, to the extent that this is seen as the very point of such practice. Traditional Wicca, and much of the rest of Innovative Witchcraft, does not place such personal development in the position of a goal in itself, though Traditional Wiccans will still often talk of the personally transformative effect that working Wicca can bring about.13 The larger religions with global reach also contain elements of personal importance, in regards to their own concepts of Salvation (Christianity), or Enlightenment (Buddhism). While such traditions as vision quests are promoted as similarly of personal benefit to the participant, originally, “the context was a belief that the person’s individual life and calling was a gift for the whole group, and their connection to the spirit world would bring them into deeper connection with the community, bringing life to the community.”14 Here, the criticism does not necessarily go so far as to criticise all borrowings, nor complain that the borrowing is necessarily inaccurate, but rather that the context it has been borrowed into brings inaccuracies and disrespect for the original.

A final stream of criticism, rests upon the degree of effort taken to approach the culture in question on its terms. Lora O’Brien’s advice to those with an interest in Irish forms of witchcraft, starts with suggesting that people learn at least the modern form of the Irish language.15 While she does not insist that this would be absolutely necessary, the difference in the degree of effort required, and the level of understanding of the culture that any practice would then be rooted in, stands in stark contrast to the works mentioned so far.

The debates on this matter will probably never be resolved. The motives of those involved on both sides can be earnest, the more extreme cases aside. There is no absolute means by which cultural boundaries can be drawn to allow for any absolute resolution, unless extreme forms of segregation become the norm, leading to members of some cultures viewing as “theirs” what members of another see as having been appropriated, including from one indigenous tribe to another, such as the Hopi have accused the Navajo of doing.16

It is hard to imagine Italian cuisine today existing without tomatoes or pasta, though the use of both as foods are cultural borrowings, from the Americas and the Middle East, with the latter in turn being an Arab borrowing from further East. While such simple borrowings may seem trivial and obvious, (one doesn’t often care much about the ethnobotany of one’s ragu, though the ethnobotany of possibly patentable medicines is a much more contentious issue17), the lines of “trivial” and “obvious” can be difficult to draw, since such matters as culinary use of plants and other technological developments with obvious advantages, (especially to people now sharing the environment in which they developed), can be of great cultural significance. Indeed, borrowings can develop great cultural significance in the cultures into which they were borrowed. The national and regional cuisines, for example, of Europe are more heavily defined by differences in adoptions from the New World, than any earlier distinctions. While claims that potatoes were used in ancient Irish rites is one of the grounds on which Hautin-Mayer criticised both Witta and Faery Wicca, the fact remains that it has been a staple of the Irish diet for centuries; more than long enough to establish a place in the culture, as well as the diet, not least in the wake of the Great Hunger of the 1840s. Similarly cultures are not static, colcannon may be attested no earlier than late 18^th Century,18 which makes claims of it being used for divination in ancient times infeasible, but its use in a divination game, albeit one not taken very seriously,19 is certainly an Irish tradition today.

Such a place of an American crop in Irish culture, stands at a considerable distance from claims to be able to represent a spiritual inheritance from either Ireland or the Americas, but as long as nits are their to pick, they will be picked. Are moccasins part of Native American culture, (and if so, which tribes), or are they merely a comfortable way to make shoes from soft leather? Is wearing them to a powwow different to wearing them to the office? If borrowing moccasins is okay, then is it okay to borrow dreamcatchers, if your culture lacks any alternative metaphysical technology for preventing bad dreams? If dreamcatchers are okay, then why not medicine drums? If one determines that use of sweatlodges outside of their American context crosses the line, what of looking to them for possible insight into what may have been once part of the Northern European use of sweating, such as evolved into the saunas of Scandinavia? And if that is acceptable, precisely how can such insights be used without insult either or both cultures?

Michael F Brown discusses approaches based on adapting existing concepts of Intellectual Property laws to better deal with such issues,20 but notes many potential problems which suggest that such an approach could perhaps cause more harm than good. One immediate problem with an IP-based approach, is that such Intellectual Property cannot be defended unless it is identified. To keep the details of ceremonies and religious practice secret, remains the best guarantee that such practices are not used in ways the originating community would not approve, but to do so means that false claims cannot be easily refuted, and leaks are harder to deal with after the fact. Brown also notes that Lawrence Lessig, and others, have criticised the extent of existing Intellectual Property laws, as most use of information is, “nonrivalrous”; my use of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity does not deplete your ability to use it too. Given that such opposition to current concepts of Intellectual Property is common amongst young people with liberal views today, it is likely that many people that will be forming the Innovative practices of the near-future, would see such an approach analogously to media corporations that they view as stymieing their own culture, through copyright and patent laws. Certainly the rhetoric that Intellectual Property should be shared has been borrowed into defences of the most controversial marketers of Native American spirituality.21 However, some in the hacker subculture, probably the group most strongly at odds with existing Intellectual Property practices, have come to view their own approach to informational resources as based on innate concepts of ownership,22 an insight which may reduce the degree of absolutism in any such position.

These issues will continue to affect both Traditional and Innovative practices. As well as their importance in themselves, they provide strong rhetorical ammunition to the anti-fluffy backlash, that if nothing else will make raising these issues an easy means of scoring points. Unease about the ethics of borrowing from cultures other than one’s own, especially living cultures, may narrow the cultural sources that are frequently use by many witches. Meanwhile, those Traditional Wiccans who are critical of Innovative Witchcraft, may find parallels between their experience of having their practice used as the basis for an identically-named practice they consider foreign, and the experiences of these cultures; even viewing the very existence of post-Gardnerian witchcraft outside of Traditional practice, to in itself be a form of cultural appropriation.

1

[Farrar & Farrar 1981] & [Farrar & Farrar 1984]

2

[Hutton 1999]

3

[Farrar & Farrar 1981]

4

“All gods are one God, all goddesses are one Goddess, and there is one Initiator.” [Fortune 1938].

5

As noted in the first chapter, Eclectic is often used within Traditional Wicca to describe all Innovative Witchcraft. The disparity between that use, and how it is used within Innovative Witchcraft, being my reason for coining the latter term.

6

[Grimassi 2008]

7

Earlier in this text she had described associations between colours and directions in which yellow, red, blue and dark green (deosil, starting from the East) were “Wiccan” and red, white, grey and black were “Celtic.”

8

[Conway 1990a]

9

[Conway 1990b]

10

[Hautin‑Mayer]

11

[McCoy 1993]

12

[Stepanich 1994] & [Stepanich 1998]

13

[Crowley 1989b]

14

[Johnson 1995]

15

[O’Brien 2004]

16

[Brown 2003b]

17

ibid.

18

[Brewer 1899]

19

Any man growing up with the tradition will have had a life as a spinster foretold at some point, and any woman a life as a bachelor, so neither are likely to pay it much heed.

20

[Brown 2003b]

21

[Red Road 1993]

22

[Raymond 2001]