Nature & Cycles

Lesson 1 of 10 ยท 5 min

Nature and Wicca

Modern Wiccan practice

A nature-centred religion

Many Wiccans describe the natural world as sacred in itself rather than as a symbol of something else. Seasonal festivals, moon observances and outdoor ritual all follow from that.

Not the same as being outdoorsy

Nature observation happens wherever you already are. City pigeons, weeds in pavement cracks and the changing angle of light through a window are all the real thing.

Historical context

Where the idea came from

The strong nature-reverence in modern Wicca owes a great deal to nineteenth-century Romanticism and to the twentieth-century environmental movement, as well as to earlier folk custom. Historians generally read it as a modern religious response to industrial life.

In plain English

Wicca treats nature as the thing itself, not a backdrop, and 'nature' includes the bit outside your window.

Worth remembering

Nature reverence is central to Wicca, and it's practised wherever you already are.

Where this comes fromShow

Ronald Hutton, The Triumph of the Moon (2nd ed., 2019)

On Romanticism, folklore and the making of modern pagan witchcraft.

Where reliable evidence is limited, we say so rather than filling the gap.

Next: The four classical elements

Where historians disagree, this app says so. Where traditions differ, no single one is presented as the correct Wicca. Our approach

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