A tradition is a particular way of practicing that is passed from teacher to student. A path is a looser word for the direction a person's practice takes. This guide is a map of the main ones, so that the names you meet in books and conversations have somewhere to land.
Wiccan traditions
Gardnerian Wicca
The oldest Wiccan tradition, named for Gerald Gardner, who made the religion public in the 1950s. It is initiatory and coven-based. Members trace their lineage, initiation by initiation, back to Gardner's own covens, and much of the ritual is kept private under oath. There are three degrees of initiation.
Alexandrian Wicca
Founded in England in the 1960s by Alex Sanders. It is closely related to Gardnerian Wicca and shares its structure of covens, degrees, and lineage, with a somewhat greater emphasis on ceremonial magick. The Gardnerian and Alexandrian lines, along with a few close relatives, are often grouped together as British Traditional Wicca.
Dianic traditions
Goddess-centered traditions that emerged from the women's movement in the United States in the 1970s. Dianic groups honor the Goddess alone or give her clear priority, and many are for women only. Their rituals often focus on the experiences and stages of women's lives.
Eclectic Wicca
The largest group by far. Eclectic Wiccans keep the recognizable frame of Wicca, including the Goddess and the God, the eight sabbats, the circle, and the Rede, and fill in the details from many sources. Most are solitary, and most are self-dedicated and not initiated.
Witchcraft outside Wicca
Traditional witchcraft
A broad term for forms of witchcraft that do not derive from Wicca. Practitioners draw on the folk magick, folklore, and historical records of a particular region. The work is often rooted in the local landscape and its spirits, and it does not follow the Wiccan ritual format or the Rede.
Folk magick
The everyday magical customs of ordinary people: charms, cures, protections, and weather lore. Every culture has its own. In the British Isles, its historical specialists were the cunning folk. Many modern witches are reviving the folk practices of their own ancestors and regions.
Hedge, green, and kitchen witchcraft
These are styles more than traditions. A hedge witch works alone and is concerned with trance, dreams, and crossing the boundary, or hedge, between this world and the spirit world. A green witch centers the practice on plants and wild places. A kitchen or hearth witch works through cooking and the care of the home. See our guides to herbal magick and kitchen witchcraft.
Secular witchcraft
Witchcraft practiced without deities or religious belief. Secular witches treat the Craft as a set of practical and psychological techniques.
Other Pagan religions
Druidry
A path inspired by the Druids, the learned priestly class of the ancient Celtic peoples. Very little is known of what the original Druids taught, and modern Druidry dates from a revival that began in the eighteenth century. Today it is a nature spirituality that values poetry, wisdom, and seasonal ceremony. Druids may be Pagans, members of other religions, or neither.
Heathenry
The modern practice of the pre-Christian religions of the Germanic and Norse peoples. Heathens honor gods such as Odin, Thor, Frigg, Freya, and Tyr, together with ancestors and the spirits of the land. Values such as hospitality, honesty, and loyalty are central. Heathenry is open to people of every background, and the great majority of Heathens firmly reject attempts by racist groups to claim its symbols.
Reconstructionist religions
Reconstructionists aim to revive a specific ancient religion as accurately as the evidence allows. The best known are Hellenism (Greek), Roman religion, Kemetic religion (Egyptian), and Celtic reconstructionism. There are also revivals of Slavic and Baltic religion. These paths lean heavily on scholarship and generally do not use the Wiccan calendar or ritual form.
Traditions that are not open to all
Some religions and magical systems are sometimes listed alongside Pagan paths and should not be. Vodou, Santeria, and the ceremonies of Indigenous peoples are living religions with their own communities, priesthoods, and rules of entry. Hoodoo is a folk magick tradition created by African Americans and rooted in their history.
These are not styles of witchcraft for outsiders to adopt. They can be learned about with respect, and they can be entered only through the communities that hold them.
How to choose
You do not need to choose quickly, and many people never choose formally at all. These questions may help.
- Do you want a group and a teacher, or do you prefer to work alone? See covens and solitaries.
- Do you want clear structure and a shared liturgy, or freedom to build your own?
- Are you drawn to the gods and myths of a particular culture?
- Is your interest mainly religious, mainly practical, or both?
Read widely, practice the basics, and notice what you keep returning to. That is usually your path. And if it changes in five years, that is common too. A tree puts out more than one branch.