We want to run a competition: just for fun, but with a serious purpose. The winner will receive a copy of Margaret Murray’s God of the Witches. It’s very simple: Document a single case of the word Wicca being used to name a spiritual path–meaning a religion or a spiritual way of thinking. Whoever finds the earliest use, apart from use by Frost, wins.
Note that Gerald Gardner used “wi(c)ca”* only once, and he did not use it in the meaning we delineate here.
The earliest use by ourselves was in our booklet “Witchcraft the Way to Serenity”, the first copy was sold on 4 November 1968. In the back of the booklet there was an advertisement for the School of Wicca’s course in Wicca. Therefore we were using Wicca at least a month prior to the sale we can justly claim a documented** date for first use of 1 October 1968.
The Articles of Association for the Church of Wicca are notarized 13 December 1971.
Okay, troops. Have at it. The winner’s name will be announced in six (6) months.
* We have been told that in early copies of Gardner’s book it is spelt with one C and in later editions with two Cs.
**Documented does not mean a quote from Wikipedia.
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