Backwoodman, "this phenomenon" it is - I'll endevour to restrain myself from further messy use of language! But I can't promise to do so, never was very good at editing. Or decent sentence structure for that matter!

Bluesman, I already covered that inaccuracy - Wicca is an entirely modern syncretic (good word for this thread M) religion whose founders fabricated it's 'history'. While there have been forms of folk magic practiced both here and all over the world throughout history, in the UK at least, such practicioners would NOT have considered themselves to be 'witches', or indeed Wiccans, which has more to do with Masonry than anything identifiable as witchcraft.

In fact traditional folk magic would have been fully *openly* practiced by what were known as "Cunning Men" (and Women). Far from being persecuted during the collective madness of Europes witchcraze, these individuals (while if a little awe inspiring) safely practiced their trade, while others innocent of any magical activity (any activity actually provable via means other than torture at least), were being branded as 'witches' by their paranoid neighbours.

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