Wicca emerged in the mid 20th century as an esoteric anomaly that was thought to be a surviving remnant of an ancient religion. In fifty years it grew to become Britain’s largest new religious movement, with a significant following across the globe. This paper charts the development of Wicca. It discusses how its mythos changed as it grew, how it spread, and how its adherents changed, and continue to change, their religious traditions within the overall parameters of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. It discusses how contemporary Pagan Witches no longer hark to an imagined past for inspiration, but see themselves as embracing the choice of a religion that is congruent with concerns of late modernity, and offers an inviting vision for the future. The paper concludes by examining factors which caused the rapid growth of Wicca, and discussing whether these will continue to help the religion grow, or may naturally curb further expansion.

Running alongside the acccepted history of western consciousness there is another current which should have pride of place but which has been relegated to a shadowy, inferior position, somewhere underground. In the seventeenth century this other current – known variously as the western esoteric tradition, the western inner tradition, and the Hermetic tradition – fell victim to a coup d’etat enacted by one side of our brain against the other.

Why is psychiatry such big business? Why are so many psychiatric drugs prescribed, and why, without solid scientific justification, has the number of mental disorders risen from 106 in 1952, to around 370 today? In this talk, Dr James Davies takes us behind the scenes of how the psychiatrist’s bible, the DSM, was actually written – did science drive the construction of new mental disorder categories like ADHD, major depression and Aspergers? ‘ or were less-scientific and unexpected processes at play? His exclusive interviews with the creators of the DSM reveal the answer.