Witchcraft

=== Modern paganism ===
{{anchor|Neopagan witchcraft}}
{{Main|Neopagan witchcraft|Semitic neopaganism}}
During the 20th century, interest in witchcraft rose in English-speaking and European countries. From the 1920s, [[Margaret Murray]] popularized the '[[witch-cult hypothesis]]': the idea that those [[Witch trials in the early modern period|persecuted as 'witches' in early modern Europe]] were followers of a benevolent [[Paganism|pagan]] religion that had survived the [[Christianization]] of Europe. This has been discredited by further historical research.{{r|AdlerDrawing|p=45–47, 84–85}}{{r|HuttonFear|p=121}}<ref>Rose, Elliot, ''A Razor for a Goat'', [[University of Toronto Press]], 1962.</ref><ref name=HuttonBritish>Hutton, Ronald, ''The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles'', [[Cambridge, Massachusetts|Cambridge, Mass.]]: [[Blackwell Publishers]], 1993. </ref><ref name=HuttonTriumph>Hutton, Ronald, ''The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft'', [[Oxford University Press]], 1999.{{ISBN?}}</ref> 

From the 1930s, [[occult]] [[neopagan]] groups began to emerge who called their religion a kind of 'witchcraft'. They were [[initiation|initiatory]] [[secret society|secret societies]] inspired by Murray's 'witch cult' theory, [[ceremonial magic]], [[Aleister Crowley]]'s [[Thelema]], and historical paganism.{{r|HuttonTriumph|p=205–252}}<ref>Kelly, A.A., ''Crafting the Art of Magic, Book I: a History of Modern Witchcraft, 1939–1964'', Minnesota: [[Llewellyn Publications]], 1991.{{ISBN?}}</ref><ref>Valiente, D., ''The Rebirth of Witchcraft'', London: Robert Hale, pp. 35–62, 1989.{{ISBN?}}</ref> The biggest religious movement to emerge from this is [[Wicca]]. Today, some Wiccans and members of related traditions self-identify as "witches" and use the term "witchcraft" for their [[magico-religious]] beliefs and practices, primarily in [[Western world|Western]] [[Anglosphere|anglophone countries]].<ref name="Doyle White 1">{{cite book |last=Doyle White |first=Ethan |title=Wicca: History, Belief, and Community in Modern Pagan Witchcraft |publisher=Liverpool University Press |pages=1–9, 73 |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-84519-754-4 }}</ref>