Pagan

To be Pagan, literally means to be neither Jew, nor an offshoot of Judaism. The very term "Pagan" is defined in the American Heritage Dictionary as..."pa-gan (pa-gún) n. One who is not a Christian, Muslim, or Jew," as these were the organized religions of the time. Pagans [and Neo-Pagans] are students and practitioners of the Old Ways; the Ancient Traditions of Old. You do not have to be a Wiccan or a Witch to be Pagan, but you do have to be Pagan to be a Witch or a Wiccan.

Witch

To be a Witch is to be a Magick User; which means to manipulate the energies within the Earth to affect a physical change within your or another's life.

Witches generally follow a set Tradition.

Witches are generally aligned to the Right Hand Path; ie, that of love and light, although there are dark Witches out there, just as there are MEAN Christians. I myself am a Kitchen Witch in my daily Magick. I employ different methods of herbology/herbolatry, candleburning, geomancy, and the like; however, I am eclectic in My daily Magick, as I call many Gods/Goddesses to My SpellWork. Although, for the major celebrations and rites, and in High Magick, I am heavily Draconite (a Magick User who "works" with Dragons), though I do also call Deities to assist Me.

You do not have to be Wiccan to be a Witch, but you must be a Witch to be Wiccan.

Now, before I am deluged in email, let me reiterate that a Witch is a Magick User, NOT a Satanist; although there are Satanic Witches. And if you are Wiccan, following Gerald Gardner's teachings - for to follow any other, you are studying an offshoot of Wicca which makes you more an Eclectic [Ecclectic] than a Wiccan - you ARE a Magick User, and therefore, a Witch. Although not all Magick Users embrace the term, "Witch," due to the Satanic/Negative connotations, most do.

Wiccan

Gerald Gardner invented and developed the path of Wicca; therefore, if you are not following his path, you are not following the teachings of the one who created this path. Hence, you are not encompassing the beliefs of others concerning Gardner's Path, that of Wicca. In order to be a "purist" Wiccan, you must follow the Path of Gerald Gardner, the one who created it. There are "Gardenarian" Wiccan Covens out there who are the purists among the Wiccan Community. They embrace Gardner's invention of Wicca, but they view it more as a revivance of the Old Ways, but all branches of Wicca ultimately came from Gardner. He spawned the thousands [literally] of Neo-Pagan paths which incorporate Wicca. There is Faerie Wicca, Full Contact Wicca, Northern Wicca [Viking culture], Dragon Wicca, Alien Wicca [scientologist Wicca], Catholic Wicca [this one's redundant], Green Wicca, Gardenarian Wicca, Streghian Wicca, Shamanic Wicca, British Tradtional Wicca, Seax Wicca, Druidic/Bandrui Wicca, Kitchen Wicca, Taoist Wicca, Buddhist Wicca, Voodoo Wicca, Santarian Wicca, Thelemic Wicca, Enochian Wicca, Gnostic Wicca...and the list does go on.

Example: When the Catholic Church split in two, both factions were not called simply Catholics. They were different, had differences in belief, doctrine and such. Therefore the offshoot group took the name of Irish Catholics, as the movement began in Rome. Therefore, if you proclaim yourself to be Wiccan, without following Gardner's teachings you are Wiccan in doctrine or belief perhaps, but you follow an offshoot branch of Wicca. I personally know many who claim Wicca out of ignorance of what Wicca is....they come from a bloodline of Witches and know nothing of their heritage and so mistakenly claim to be Wiccan. The word, "Wicca," has become associated with all forms of Paganism and Neo-Paganism, and even Magick and Witchcraft. For some odd reason over the last twenty years or so, these terms [Pagan and Wiccan] have become interchangable...synonymous with one another.

Wicca itself is an earth-based religion utilizing the forces in the universe to effect a change. As most other pagan religions do, it follows a belief in the Goddess and the Horned God. Gardenarian Wiccans refer to them as the "Lady and the Lord." Celtic [and some Green] Wiccans refer to them as Danu and Bel, Welsh Wiccans refer to them as Gwydion and Brighid, Greek Wiccans would call them Zeus and Hera, while Roman Wiccans would embrace Jupiter and Juno...and so on.

A Wiccan adheres to Gerald Gardner's version of Witchcraft and Magick as the "set" path of their choice. And while its roots go far back, predating Christianity, most other Pagan religions do as well. Wicca is not the only "Old Path" as Wicca itself did not exist before Gerald Gardner's attempt to "organize" Witchcraft all those years ago. Before him, there simply WAS no religion known as Wicca.

There are literally thousands of other "Old Paths" which are culturally structured much more firmly than Wicca; such as Asatru, Stregheria, Hinduism, Buddhism, Druidism, Ancestor Worship of the far East, the Native belief systems from every corner of the world, and the Egyptian, Roman and Greek belief systems. Even those who call themselves British Traditional Wiccans adulterate their own Ways by naming it after something which was only just invented in the 50's. And, indeed, I find that some of Gardner's teachings are seeping into these once elitist groups little by little.

Wicca is, however, a bonafide Pagan religion, and will probably be the catalyst for the American Government to recognize Paganism as a whole as a genuine religion due to the large numbers gathering to the Wiccan fold. Furthermore, many Wiccans reject the terms Witchcraft and Witch, due to the negative Christian dogma associated with these words. However, a Witch who is NOT Wiccan may embrace them as a part and definition of who and what they are.

Summary

Therefore, a Pagan is anyone who is not Christian, a Wiccan is a follower of Gerald Gardner's principles and ideals, and a Witch is one who uses Magick associated with one or more of the Old Paths; the Old Ways.

A Word on Eclectics

A true eclectic Pagan is usually well-read and well-versed in the different traditions and has chosen to make their own path using what they have learned. I have discovered that true Eclectic Pagans are usually more open-minded where other beliefs are concerned, as they have studied and exposed themselves to these different beliefs already and therefore understand more about the mindset of these paths. It is possible to call the Hindi Goddess of Love, Diana, Hecate, Aphrodite, and Cerridwynn all to the same rite. Eclectics will do just that, and make their rite of love just that much stronger, as they have not limited themselves to one set pantheon nor one set path, but they have instead chosen all paths to enrich their Magick and their lives.