Witchcraft, or the craft of the wise, has many strands within history.

As a belief it was feared by the druids, Romans and other civilizations. As a religion it was persecuted and hundreds of thousands of people killed just on the suspicion of being a witch. It has been misunderstood, practiced in secret and various strands have gone in a Varity of directions some later joining again.

It has been documented by people who fear what they do not understand, by those opposed to it, and reported at points throughout history by those who have come across some secret meeting or ceremony or other. A few people at a variety of points have done there best at studying and documenting what they have found, and more recently some who know very little have cashed in by writing books on it, or running conferences or producing products or in other ways.

If you were to look back a few hundred years to the period when everyone by law had to attend church, you would have found the village wise woman or man, in her or his pew each Sunday and not amongst those fighting the system. Other days they would be dispensing herbal cures or providing help to members of the community in other ways. There were no doctors, and even after there were many chose to use the country remedies or had to as they could not afford any other. Many of these practices are of course continued by hedgewitches, who aaare as often still practicing Christians as not.

Before 1950 in Britain witchcraft was still illegal, so other names had to be used, or the craft practiced in secret. Not as difficult as you would imagine as communications were not so wide scale and people at that time tended to stay in their own communities and relied upon each other.

Today most of the traditional groups still operate in secret in Britain, and people may belong to all sorts of organizations that you find within country areas that are a cover for the craft. The media are still portly informed and often very biased, as are many other sections of the community so few traditional craft members would allow a teacher to find out the children came from a craft family, or inform anyone when going into hospital of their beliefs, as neither would be considered safe.

In the 1950's a new type of witchcraft was developed, which grew into Wicca, over time this has continued to grow as a section of the craft and today it encompasses a range of paths, including Power Wicca.

Virtual Wicca is a part of Power Wicca, and the home of many wiccans from around the world