The term Wicca appear to have developed within the Pagan Witchcraft community during the early 1960s , as increasing numbers of Pagan Witches learned of the Old English term wicca , the etymological origin of the Modern term witch . This etymological fact had been referred to five times in Gerald Gardner 's book The Meaning of Witchcraft ( 1959 ) , as well as in other early texts propagating Pagan Witchcraft , such as Doreen Valiente 's Where Witchcraft Live ( 1962 ) and Justine Glass ' Witchcraft , The Sixth Sense – and Us ( 1965 ) . None of these specifically referred to the Pagan Witchcraft religion as Wicca .