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Why do historians reject the claim that Wicca survived unchanged from a pre-Christian European religion?

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Oil painting The Witches' Sabbath by Francisco de Goya shows a group of figures in dark robes gathered around a crouching person, with eerie creatures flying in a moonlit sky. — Witchcraft *El conjuro* or *Las brujas* (“The Conjuring” or “The Witches”), oil on canvas by Francisco Goya, 1797–98; in the Museo Lázaro Galdiano, Madrid.

Historians reject the claim that Wicca is an unbroken survival of a pre-Christian European religion because extensive research conducted during the 1960s and 1970s found no evidence to support this narrative.1

While early practitioners, influenced by the work of Egyptologist Margaret Murray, believed they were reviving an ancient, clandestine faith, modern scholarship has largely dismissed this theory as unfounded. Instead, historical evidence traces the origins of Wicca to Gerald Brosseau Gardner in the 1930s and 1940s. Gardner, who was deeply involved in the British occult community and familiar with the writings of Aleister Crowley, developed the religion by synthesizing various esoteric traditions and modern influences.12345

Historians also question the existence of the specific "New Forest" group that Gardner claimed provided the basis for his teachings. Consequently, Wicca is recognized by scholars as a modern religious movement that draws inspiration from pre-Christian history rather than a direct, surviving descendant of it.4125