WICCA

a predominantly Western movement whose followers practice witchcraft and nature worship and who see it as a religion based on pre-Christian traditions of northern and western Europe. It spread through England in the 1950s and subsequently attracted followers in Europe and the United States. John Gordon Melton Additional reading J. Gordon Melton and Isotta Poggi, Magic, Witchcraft, and Paganism in America, 2nd ed. (1992), provides an overview of Wiccan literature. The best survey of the movement is Margot Adler, Drawing Down the Moon, rev. and expanded ed. (1986, reissued 1997); and entries on the major Wiccan groups in North America appear in J. Gordon Melton, Encyclopedia of American Religions (1999). On the British phase of the movement, see J.L. Bracelin, Gerald Gardner (1960); and Doreen Valiente, The Rebirth of Witchcraft (1989). Helpful volumes on North American Wicca include Aidan A. Kelly, Crafting the Art of Magic (1991 ); and the several volumes published in the series Witchcraft Today and from Llewellyn Publications, the major publisher of Wiccan literature in America.