The term fluffy bunny originated within the Wiccan community and is generally used in a derogatory manner to refer to someone who self-identifies as a Wiccan or a witch but does not seem serious enough or knowledgeable enough to other, more experienced members of the community.
Generally, the "fluffy bunnies" have based their practice on only the most delightful aspects of their spiritual path or romanticized, fictional Hollywood or literary accounts of witchcraft or Wicca. The name fluffy bunny is generally pinned to individuals with a very high level of enthusiasm, but a low level of experience. Folks who see Wicca or magick as a fashionable adventure, rather than a serious craft or religion.
In many cases, the fluffy bunny is a newbie. Someone who really wants to be Wiccan, or a witch, for whatever reason, but doesn't know how and is trying based on poor information sources and unknowingly embarrassing themselves by eagerly bringing up the pet peeves of the more experienced folks around her/him.
Since most people get their magical education from books or the internet these days, many folks some time in their lives as fluffy bunnies.
Alternatively, particularly among Wiccans, the term fluffy bunny may be applied to someone who self-identifies as Wiccan and uses Wicca to further their own agenda, for selfish purposes or in violation of Wiccan laws. Generally, folks who make Wiccans "look bad".
The term fluffy bunny is not a politically correct one and the magical community at large has grown more tolerant of newcomers and eclectic paths and less tolerant of elitism. Folks are now more likely to attempt to correct misconceptions than to insult the ignorant.
Although the above usage of the term has largely died out, fluffy bunny has enjoyed something of a revival of late among non-Wiccan magickal practitioners, this time to insult Wicca in general and its practitioners as a whole. There are those who consider Wicca to be a softer, gentler form of magick, that rejects or ignores the deeper, darker aspects of magick explored by other paths.
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Wow, has usage of this term changed a bit in the 30 or so years that I've been aware of it. In the 80's, it was not used in reference to Newbies. The original term was "White light & fluffy bunnies". We used it to refer to practitioners who were all enamored of Unicorns & Fairy Folks, & "Oh, the Goddess Earth is all full of white light & fluffy bunnies." This was LONG before the days of Charmed. Those of us who had a more balanced view of "Nature, red of tooth & claw" rather just rolled our eyes at the enforced childlike cheer of such practitioners & muttered between ourselves about white light & fluffy bunnies…
I can't really say who coined this phrase. Suddenly, around 1985-86 everyone was using it. I guess it spread because we were a pretty well networked group, even in those days before common internet use at home. We travelled across states to attend festivals & actually WROTE SNAIL MAIL. So it could as easily have originated here in Ohio, where I first heard it, as in New York or California.
I hope this helps to clarify. Wikipedia articles (or even Witchipedia), are perfectly fine but SOME of us were actually THERE. I can say that this phrase was more common, at first, among those of us who were in our early to mid-twenties then!
I don't think it started in NY, I grew up in NY and the first time I heard it was in Michigan in the '90s describing people who called themselves "white witches" because they refused to curse or manipulate another's "will". My bet is that it originated somewhere in the Midwest, Ohio's as good a guess as any.
It's still used pretty heavily in Ohio, in and out of the festival circuit. Ohio's a really good guess as to its origin, although my mother is from Tennessee, and was in her twenties in the 80's and 90's and says it was used there at that time as well.