Does Witchcraft come from times long ago? Where did it start, and when?

Wicca is a neo-pagan religion based on the pre-Christian traditions of England,
Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Its origins can be traced even further back to Paleolithic
peoples who worshipped a Hunter God and a Fertility Goddess. Cave paintings found
in France (and dated at 30,000 years old) depict a man with the head of a stag,
and a woman with a swollen, pregnant belly. They stand in a circle with eleven
mortals. These archetypes of the divine are worshipped by Wiccans to this very
day. By these standards, the religion that is now called Wicca, is perhaps the
oldest religion in the world.

In 1951, the laws against Witchcraft were repealed in England. A man named Gerald
Gardner was the first to come into the public eye with a description of what modern
witches were practicing. His information came from the traditions of a coven called
the New Forest Witches, and from Ceremonial Magick and the Cabballah. He began
what is now called the Gardnerian Tradition of Wicca. From Gardnerian came Alexandrian
Tradition, and a host of other offshoots that today number in the hundreds.