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Christianity was becoming more widespread and Pagans were beginning to be asked or forced to convert. This caused major upset among the pagans which accumulated into multiple rebellions, including one that "destabilized" the Kingdom of Poland -
Similar to Poland, Russia was becoming Christian which caused many pagans to form rebellions. my understanding of the event is that the pagans lost this fight and Christianity set in. -
from the 1300s to the 1700s a series of witchcraft trials swept through Europe leading to an estimated 40,000 to 100,000 deaths.
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1780-1880 The Romantic Movement emerged in Europe. "Its members loved nature and were influenced by folklore and mythology. Several of the Romanticists including Thomas Love Peacock, Thomas Jefferson Hogg, Edward Calvert, and Algernon Swineburne wrote poetry praising the old gods, built altars to Pan, and began to identify as Pagan." -
Rider-Waite tarot deck first published -
Margaret Murray was a feminist folklorist who wrote several books on medieval religion. Her book, The Witch-Cult in Eastern Europe contained similar rituals to those that became Wiccan. Her books inspired many British people to create covens, and worship what she described. -
Gerald Gardener met Aleister Crowley in 1947. When writing his book on Wiccan rituals, he got a lot of his inspiration from Crowley's own rituals dating back to 1912. -
Gardener Published a fantasy novel in 1949 called High Magic's Aid. But his Book of Shadows, a collection of rituals and spells is central to the Wiccan religion. Wiccan initiates were required to make their own copy by hand. -
Gerald Gardener was born in 1884 and is considered the founder of Wicca. He was a traveler in the 1930s interested in the occult when he became involved in a coven in Highcliffe, England where he first heard the term "Wica." Gardener used this new term in his book Witchcraft Today which was soon used by all those who accosted with the craft -
According to Gardener, the word Wica is derived from Scots-English and means "wise people"
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Interest in Paganism and new age philosophy explodes.