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The Wicca I practice is the Wicca that has it's roots in ancient rituals that have been evolving all the way back to crude stone age fertitilty and hunting rites. I do NOT claim, nor would I want any association with the wica or "wicca" of the Gardenean Tradition. Gardenean "wicca" is more of a man made cult that stole heavily from the roots of Wicca when it was created in the 1950s by a man named Gerald Garnder. Before I am asked to cite sources to back my claim: Just do web search on Gerald Gardner. Any site that comes up will show evidence that Gardner simply filled in gaps in his research of the history of witchcraft and Pagan rituals with his own made-up details, labeled it wica and then published "Witchcraft Today" in 1954 to publisize his newly created cult. The validity of "Withcraft Today" can be called questionable at best simply based on the fact that it is prefaced by the HIGHLY dicredited Margeret Murray, and appaerntly made liberal use of her "witch cult" theory, that was scoffed as incomplete, sloppy research even in it's own time. The same sources will show that Gardner never used the spelling WICCA in his book but rather WICA, which he identified as the old English word for witchcraft. The Wikipedia article on Gardner does a fairly good job covering all this without having to look further, or you can have a look at this.
http://www.whitedragon.org.uk/articles/hoax.htm

Today his followers claim sole right to misappropriate and use the word Wicca, depite the fact that, while there has been speculation, no evidence has ever conclusively shown a connection between the two words. This claim of sole right fails to take into account that while it may be an accepted rule of there cult, it does bind anyone that is not a member, therefore the argument invalidates itself. I have always found this circular argument to be confusing, as Gardeneans are very protective of the details of there cult. The few I have met seem to have an almost paranoid fear that the whole world is trying to pry into and steal there secrets. This "Give me it. It's mine!' stance always seemed to me to be in conflict with the "but follow our rule" stance.

A further paradox that I find confusing is that while Gardeneans are very clear that Gardner CREATED the cult, they cling to their opinion that it some how holds some validity that over-rides centuries of true worship and religious practice in a vain attempt to support their false claim of being true Wiccans. This point gets more convoluded by the fact that they admit proudly that their cult is has no connection to ancient practices that are the roots if Wicca. But I digress. I am by no means an expert on Gardenean tradition. No one but an initiated member of that cult can claim that right. As I said, they are very protective of the secrets that their founder published in 1954. I am simply trying to draw a distinction between them and true Wicca.

Of course, no one has sole claim to the word, including TRUE Wiccans. I am not aware of any copy right or patent on it. To the best of my knowledge it was coined somewhere in the late 50s or earlty 60s. It is currently commonly accepted to refering to, among other things, the practice of the ancient and ever-evolving rites and rituals I mentioned in the beginning. Obviously there is no historical use of the word Wicca, as it has only exsisted for about seven decades. Language, like religion and culture has a process of evolution.

My thanks to a member (who has ask to remain anonymous), who is a lineaged Gardenian. I had incorrectly believed the Gardenian tradition to be a vaild Wiccan tradition and had always respected it as such. Her willingness to share some of the details of her "secret" cult with me helped me see it for what it is and amend my views accordingly.

Thanks for reading.