Well, some pagans, anyway. The East Bay Express has posted a brief “primer” on [Neo]Paganism which muddies the issues up more than explicate them. The brief article obviously means to describe neopagans, but inappropriately uses the broader term Pagan, an broad category which includes many pre-Wiccan faiths with little or no relationship to modern Neopaganism. I also have to take issue with the notion that witchcraft is a ‘subcategory’ or Neopaganism, when there are again many witchcraft traditions that have little relationship with the modern notion of an ‘earth-based’ Wiccan/Neopagan witch. The truth is, the majority of the world’s ‘witches’ are not Wiccans and are not likely to have any Wiccan influence at all- and the same can also be said for the majority of the world’s pagans. 

I don’t mean to pick on this writer in particular, who is but one in a growing body who tend to follow a very modern, Western notion of witchcraft and Paganism, one which is not only at odds with traditional pagan religions, but with the founders of many modern Neopagan traditions. I doubt very much that Gerald Gardner would have classified spellwork as ‘prayer,’ especially given that one of the most significant tenets of the magical movement from which Wicca emerged was that the practitioner of magic was taking on divine power of their own to accomplish their will, rather than asking “the divine” to grant favors- taking rather than asking.

Source: Time to Let Go of “Witchcraft?