Phillip Emmons Isaac Bonewits was an American Neo-Druid who published a number of books on the subject of Neopaganism and magic. Bonewits was a public speaker, liturgist, singer and songwriter, and founder of the Neopagan organizations Ár nDraíocht Féin (ADF) and the Aquarian Anti-Defamation League.
Wicca, also known as "The Craft", is a modern pagan, syncretic, earth-centered religion. Considered a new religious movement by scholars of religion, the path evolved from Western esotericism, developed in England during the first half of the 20th century, and was introduced to the public in 1954 by Gerald Gardner, a retired British civil servant. Wicca draws upon ancient pagan and 20th-century hermetic motifs for theological and ritual purposes. Doreen Valiente joined Gardner in the 1950s, further building Wicca's liturgical tradition of beliefs, principles, and practices, disseminated through published books as well as secret written and oral teachings passed along to initiates.
The Wheel of the Year is an annual cycle of seasonal festivals, observed by a range of modern pagans, marking the year's chief solar events and the midpoints between them. Modern pagan observances are based to varying degrees on folk traditions, regardless of the historical practices of world civilizations. British neopagans popularized the Wheel of the Year in the mid-20th century, combining the four solar events marked by many European peoples, with the four midpoint festivals celebrated by Insular Celtic peoples.
Celtic Wicca is a modern form of Wicca that incorporates some elements of Celtic mythology. It employs the same basic theology, rituals and beliefs as most other forms of Wicca. Celtic Wiccans use the names of Celtic deities, mythological figures, and seasonal festivals within a Wiccan ritual structure and belief system, rather than a traditional or historically Celtic one.
Raymond Buckland, whose craft name was Robat, was an English writer on the subject of Wicca and the occult, and a significant figure in the history of Wicca, of which he was a high priest in both the Gardnerian and Seax-Wica traditions.
Thomas deLong, better known as Gwydion Pendderwen, was an American musician, writer, poet, conservationist and witch.
Rev. Paul Beyerl, born 1945 in Owen, Wisconsin, was known as an author and educator, and particularly as a Wiccan priest, in Wiccan and neopagan circles.
A covenstead is a meeting place of a coven. The term relates specifically to the meeting place of witches within certain modern religious movements such as Wicca that fall under the collective term Modern Paganism, also referred to as Contemporary Paganism or Neopaganism. It functions to provide a place for the group to conduct rituals, undertake lessons and recognise festivals. It can also be referred to as the home of the coven.
Selena Fox is a Wiccan priestess, interfaith minister, environmentalist, pagan elder, author, and lecturer in the fields of pagan studies, ecopsychology, and comparative religion.
Pagan Spirit Gathering (PSG) is a nature spirituality festival organized by Circle Sanctuary. First held in 1980, it has grown into one of the oldest and largest such events in the United States. The gathering is held Sunday to Sunday during the week near the summer solstice, forming a temporary Pagan town each year.
Patrick Dana Stewart was a soldier in the United States Army. He died in combat in Afghanistan when his Chinook helicopter was shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade while returning to base. Patrick Stewart was a resident of Fernley, Nevada, United States and a practicing Wiccan.
In the neopagan religion of Wicca a range of magical tools are used in ritual practice. Each of these tools has different uses and associations and are commonly used at an altar, inside a magic circle.
Modern paganism in the United States is represented by widely different movements and organizations. The largest modern pagan religious movement is Wicca, followed by Neodruidism. Both of these religions or spiritual paths were introduced during the 1950s and 1960s from Great Britain. Germanic Neopaganism and Kemetism appeared in the US in the early 1970s. Hellenic Neopaganism appeared in the 1990s.
The Dynion Mwyn tradition is said by its adherents to be derived from Welsh and Pictish religious sources as well as Druidic and witchcraft magical practices.
Amber K is an author of books about magick, Wicca and Neopaganism, and a third-degree priestess of the Wiccan faith. She was initiated at the Temple of the Pagan Way in Chicago, Illinois, and served on the Council of Elders there, and has taught the craft throughout the United States for over 30 years. She has served as National First Officer of the Covenant of the Goddess for three terms, and is a founder of Our Lady of the Woods and the Ladywood Tradition of Wicca. She has worked with various Neopagan organizations such as Circle Sanctuary and the Re-Formed Congregation of the Goddess, and a Grey Council member of the online Grey School of Wizardry founded by Oberon Zell Ravenheart in 2004. She is the executive director of Ardantane, a non-profit Wiccan and pagan school and seminary in northern New Mexico.
Kirk White is an American neopagan author and politician. Prior to serving the Windsor-Addison district in the Vermont House of Representatives, he was founder and president of Cherry Hill Seminary. White's multidisciplinary education includes a master of arts in mental health and addictions counseling, as well as training in acupuncture.
The Panthean Temple, abbreviated as PTC as the Panthean Temple of Connecticut, is located in New Haven County, Connecticut and was the first Pagan and Wiccan church to incorporate in the state of Connecticut under its first name of the "Pagan Community Church," and is a non-profit 501(c)3 religious organization. It was founded by Rev. Alicia Lyon Folberth, in 1995.[1]
Minnesota's Twin Cities region is home to a large community of Wiccans, Witches, Druids, Heathens, and a number of Pagan organizations. Some neopagans refer to the area as "Paganistan". In the Handbook of Contemporary Paganism, Murphy Pizza characterizes the Minnesota Pagan community as "eclectic" and comprising "many different groups - Druid orders, Witch covens, legal Pagan churches, ethnic reconstructionist groups, and many more solitaries, interlopers and poly-affiliated Pagans".
Pierre Claveloux Davis, also known as Pete Pathfinder, was a religious figure in modern Paganism. He founded the Aquarian Tabernacle Church (ATC) in 1985, in Index, Washington, and served as its archpriest. He was also involved with several publications and related organizations. Davis advocated for Wicca and Paganism as an expert witness, and was part of a group of people who successfully petitioned for the pentacle to be available as a symbol used on U.S. veteran's headstones.
