 The earliest known published reference for the word Wicca is within an advertisement published in a 1962 issue of Fate magazine ; in this , a Cardiff @-@ based group of Pagan Witches advertised a tradition as " Wicca – <unk> and <unk> " . The advert may have been linked to Charles and Mary Cardell because Mary was allegedly born in Wales and <unk> Witchcraft had apparently venerated a goddess under the name of Diana . However , many Pagan Witchcraft groups would have adopted the deity name Diana and <unk> , these being the goddesses featured in the American <unk> Charles <unk> 's supposed account of a <unk> witch tradition , <unk> , or the Gospel of the Witches ( 1899 ) . Another early use could be found from December 1965 , in the penultimate issue of Pentagram , the <unk> of the Witchcraft Research Association . Here , a small column on Halloween made reference to " the Craft of the Wiccan " , apparently referring to the entire Pagan Witchcraft community . The author 's name was not printed , although it had probably been produced by one of the figures involved in editing Pentagram , such as Gerard Noel or <unk> <unk> . In July 1968 , a group of British <unk> began publishing a magazine titled The Wiccan , while <unk> Gavin Frost founded the Church of Wicca in the United States that same year . 
