 Although pronounced differently , Wicca is related to the Old English word wicca , which referred to <unk> in Anglo @-@ Saxon England . In the early 1950s , English Wiccan Gerald Gardner , founder of the Gardnerian tradition , referred to the Pagan Witchcraft community as the Wica . He claimed to have learned the term during his initiation into the New Forest coven in 1939 . By the late 1950s , Gardner 's rival Charles Cardell , founder of his own tradition , had begun referring to the religion 's followers as Wiccens , and possibly used Wicca in reference to the religion itself . 
