Gerald Gardner: "Britain's Wicca Man" and "Witchfather" and, cue Apulieus’ hating on Hutton in three, two, one… Cat C-B Given the rather dreadful copy (“Gardner’s story and the story of Wicca itself is a bizarre one. Born of a nudist colony…naked witches casting spells…a…religion based on magic, sex…and ritual…”) I’m not sure I can entirely blame him this round. Not that the statements are false, but, wow–way to decontextualize and emphasize the sensationalistic! Nice work, whoever wrote the copy; I can only hope the documentary itself is a little less turgid. Lady GreenFlame I agree. How many titillating buzzwords can you have in one passage? Gareth Of course it’s going to be all buzzwords and sensationalism it’s an advertisement. Apuleius Platonicus Ronald Hutton himself has written that Wicca “closely resembles”, has been “certainly influenced by”, and possesses “linear connections” with forms of Pagan religion going back at least 18 centuries.

That modern Wicca differs in many ways from its ancient spiritual progenitors does not make it an “invented” religion. In fact, every modern religion of any sort, including every variety of Christianity, is radically different from the forms it took centuries ago. In fact, unbeknownst (apparently) to his fans, Hutton has all along conceded that Wicca has “a distinguished and very long pedigree stretching back to … Hellenistic Egypt.” AnonGuest I think most modern Wiccans pretend their traditions got nothing but a passing nod from Gardner kenneth True, but if you think Gardner is the red-headed stepchild of the movement, you ought to see the look on the face of the trad-coven HPs when you tell them that some of our ritual rootstock also traces back to Aleister Crowley! AnonGuest But it takes 20 minutes to read, say, Liber al vel legis and Liber XV online for free and see if any passages they’ve been using are Crowley quotes AnonGuest Nobody gets ashamed if their [musical] (as example) roots were still influenced and inspired by people who did too many drugs and were sometimes poorly behaved.

I guess someone could try spending days going through to weed out which music and songs were done by anyone who ever took cocaine or laudanum – as a research project. Probably avoiding said groups wouldn’t make them better talented, though. What is the goal? (also married to a former red-head, who is now a silver fox, no complaints about that ) Jhamm77 Yes, Apuleius! When will Gardner actually be taken at his own words? He was a deeply flawed man, and yes, he made a lot of things up. But he drew from history and surviving folklore immensely……and he never even claimed that Wicca was “pure” or that there was a direct line of descent from ancient times. I’m SO tired of the SAME people making the SAME generalized statements, using the SAME straw dolls and obscurantist tactics! Star Foster I’m excited to see this film simply because it appears to have interviews I’ve never seen before. Just for the rare footage alone it looks worthy of watching.

Chas Clifton My sources in the UK tell me that footage about some of the hard historical questions, such as whether Dorothy Clutterbuck was a Witch loaned one of her houses to the coven in 1939, was cut from the original, so I suppose that that myth will be perpetuated. Reading Hutton’s praise for Heselton, I am reminded of a passage that I read in an old household-management book about how to write a letter of recommendation for an inept servant who was leaving one’s employ. Various seeming-complimentary phrases were suggested, with the understanding that a prospective employer could read between the lines and get the message: “She can’t boil water without supervision.” I do not, of course, suggest that Heselton is an inept writer, but ask yourself, what adjectives are missing? Jhamm77 Read Dorothy Clutterbuck’s diary, and then tell me she wasn’t a pagan! Apuleius Platonicus One wonders why Ronald Hutton never thought of that! Moma Fauna Sensationalism aside, this is good.

As an older Pagan (relative to many Pagan/Wiccan folk), I had to read *books* in the early days. Those books were by Gardner, Valiente, the Farrarrs, et. al. There was no internet, no vapid publishing boom, no “New Age” aisle at B & N. I am aghast at the number of people I have met who look at me blankly when I mention Gardner or Valiente. Who? Seriously. Know your roots. You don’t have to like them, but know them. What I wish, however, is that Valiente would get proper credit for her contribution to Gardner’s Craft. She, IMHO, was the true creatrix. Jhamm77 Valiente is SO underrated. Can’t even find her books anymore. It’s a shame Hectuba Try the internet. They are probably on there. I have seen alot of Scott Cunningham’s work online but not being referenced to him. As someone who is a staunch supporter of Wiccan Ethics, it gets my goat seeing that. Moma Fauna If you are missing something from your library, I recommend Alibris or ABEBooks.

I have been able to get all of my missing books there. Also, if you haven’t seen it, some of her poetry was recently published post-humously by The Centre for Pagan Studies: They sold out the first run, but I am hoping they will re-print it again as mine was water damaged in transit. It has some truly incredible writing. Each poem is shown in her own handwriting with a typeset version on the opposite page. Just lovely. They also re-released a hardcover edition of “Where Witchcraft Lives” in a limited run & they still have a few left. About the poetry book (“Charge of the Goddess”): Eric S. A feature length Ronald Hutton helmed documentary about the history of Wicca I have to admit that as a huge Ronald Hutton fan I’m quite excited… The one thing I will say and its not Ronald Hutton’s fault… why does every single documentary about neopaganism have to use spooky music and “they walk among us” type dialogue, eerie slow motion and horror movie camera angles?

Even from something by Ronald Hutton who is so inured in neopaganism, speaks at our events and is such a part of our culture having been raised in it the BBC has still chosen to take that tone. Its like the can’t talk about Wicca without othering us, making us seem strange and eerie and alien and frightening… I wonder how the public would react to an actual pagan folk soundtrack, an earthy natural tone slightly less reminiscent of a pulp horror movie from the ’70s, and language that comes out and says “these are normal people like you or me practicing a lively, relevent, and highly important modern religion” rather than “these weirdos could be walking next to you in the streets, watch out.” Overall this documentary looks like a huge step forward, and I know it is going to be amazing at least in terms of content. But the style and tone does absolutely nothing to help the public image of neopagan religions… Why is this sensationalism such a necessary part of any approach to paganism in the public media?

Obsidia “Its like the can’t talk about Wicca without othering us, making us seem strange and eerie and alien and frightening… I wonder how the public would react to an actual pagan folk soundtrack, an earthy natural tone slightly less reminiscent of a pulp horror movie from the ’70s, and language that comes out and says “these are normal people like you or me practicing a lively, relevent, and highly important modern religion” ” I agree completely, and I even think we shouldn’t even be labeled as “normal people.” I mean, what IS “normal,” these days. Each person is unique and also a part of an interest group or another….we’re just people. People of the Earth. Baruch Dreamstalker The point is not to classify us as normal but to quit treating us as a fringe. We are a subculture; we are not a fringe; music and dialogue that makes us seem like one does us a gratuitous disservice. Eric S. Right, normal is the wrong word.

I just get tired of having my family call and say “hey, we saw a special about your religion the other day on a show called “Taboo,” there were a bunch of people dancing naked around a big bonfire and we learned all about the sorts of things you do and we all had a good laugh and said that’s our son” and have to sit down and patiently listen to and debunk stereotype after stereotype (especially the ever-popular pagan orgy polemic). It took me 2 years of convincing my family that my becoming Neopagan wasn’t all that different from becoming Hindu or Buddhist before I could even begin to start tackling the part about being something other than Christian (convincing them that that’s ok has been a continuing battle for 4 years now but it’s been an uphill battle). Before I could even be treated with the usual treatment a normal apostate receives though, I had to go through a lengthy period of defending my very sanity largely due to media portrayals of Neopagans. Not only was I now not Christian, I was a very specific sort of crazy, strange not-Christian who performed strange rituals in the dead of night, practiced orgies, communed with demons and all kinds of things.

It’s not just that we get labeled as a subculture, it’s that we get tossed in the pool of subcultures that belong on shows like “Taboo.” I’d been looking forward to this documentary since hearing about it, and still am. I am a huge admirer of Ronald Hutton… But I’m disappointed with the BBC for continuing to make Wiccans look like something straight out of a pulp horror movie from the 1970s. I hope that the documentary itself manages to dispel some of these stereotypes (and perhaps explains the culture and philosophy behind Gerald Gardner’s naturism rather than using it as another tool to make pagans completely Inseparable from sex). Hutton’s Triumph of the Moon did a great deal to celebrate Wicca as a significant, relevant, and respectable religion worthy of note. I hope that that the documentary manages to take the same tone. And even if the editors and marketers can’t help themselves I’m sure that Hutton’s words will speak for themselves.

But some of the music and imagery in this us uncomfortably reminiscent of some of those sensationalist clips that seem to be the only mainstream press I ever run across… Joanne Dunster I bought the e-book of WitchFather the very minute I heard about it and I am loving it. Every person that has thoughtlessly repeated the endless “Gerald Gardner Myths” out there should be given a copy, a nice place to sit for a while, a good cup of tea and be made to read it. This book shows, contrary to popular belief that Gerald was a human being, with all the nonsense and flaws that come along with it. I feel like over the course of the book I have gotten to know him almost personally. He is portrayed calmly and realistically not as Wicca’s creator/inventor so much as it’s wealthy and eccentric benefactor. There is a fantastic amount of detail and research with no trace of hysterics or hyperbole. Where the research can’t fill the gaps and the author makes guesses as to events his guesses are the most reasonable and likely ones. There are no wild assertions here. Overall it it gives the most complete, down-to-earth and therefore probably the most accurate, account of Gerald Gardner’s life I have read.

On a slightly more obtuse note I also enjoyed the biography style because for the first time I got to read about Gerald’s life in chronological order :). It all makes so much more sense and gives events more context. Please go and buy this book so that Phillip Heselton will keep writing them Ben Gruagach I bought the ebook version of Heselton’s “Witchfather” and recommend it wholeheartedly. It helped clarify a lot of details about Gardner’s sources and inspiration for what he passed on as Wicca that I had been wondering about after reading his previous books on the topic. In particular there’s more information about the connection with Aleister Crowley that proved to be quite interesting reading. Daniel SnowKestral Another pivotal book I highly recommend is Frederic Lamond’s “50 Years of Wicca.” It is a well-worth reading that, I think, is an intrinsic book to the insights of the history of the formation of Wicca, when Lamond was initiated into Gardner’s Coven, and also when Doreen Valiente was the High Priestess in the latter part of the 50’s.

In addition, Lamond discusses the reality of cultural appropriation that lies at the center of some elements of new age Neo-Wicca. It is my utmost hope that Doreen Valiente gets her due recognition as the Mother of Modern Witchcraft, for all her valuable insights, work, and key contributions in the formation of Wicca. Kilmrnock With Hutton involved i have a fair amount of confidance the first documentery will be well done , and not sensationalised . The last thing the pagan community needs is more crap about us circulated by the media.i don’t think this is going to be the case this time .I’m hoping the the second one will be just as good , well see . Kilm Kilmrnock I agree Eric , but this seems to be the state of things now . At least we are getting exposure in a favorable light in these two programs . The media others us as a matter of fact these days . But getting facts about a large number of us out in the light will eventualy lessen fear of us as a whole .

Besides I for one always prided myself for having the courage to be Not normal,Diffferent .People fear what they don’t understand , we seem odd to them b/c of a general lack of understanding of what we do/who we really are . Not to mention we have to overcome centuries of false information /propaganda . Programs /books like this are a good start ,torwards that goal. Kilm Moon Priestess Ronald Hutton maybe a professor but he did not educate himself about ALL the roots of Witchcraft.He is only covering the English branch & so CANNOT speak for ALL Witches! He ignores the fact that the Greeks centuries before Gardner wrote about Witches calling down the moon ,casting spells and raising the dead.Also how about Charles G. Leland who 100yrs. before Gardner researched Witches in Italy!! Hutton tries to convince people that Witchcraft as a religion was a modern invention of Gardners.It is not and so Hutton needs to go back to school!

Jason Pitzl-Waters Modern Witchcraft Modern Witchcraft / Wicca Witchcraft and Wicca are one of many Pagan paths that could be classified under the umbrella term ï¿½Paganismï¿½ along with things like Druidry and Asatru. It is a nature-based, mystery religion that honours the Goddess and the Horned God in their many guises, which can be viewed as psychological archetypes. The terms Witchcraft and Wicca are often used interchangeably and seen as synonymous, although not everyone would agree with this definition. It is perhaps truer to say that Wicca is a form of Witchcraft but not all Witches practice Wicca. There are now many forms, branches and traditions of Witchcraft, with rituals and beliefs that can vary quite widely, the main ones are summarised below. Probably the most well-known manifestations of modern Witchcraft are often referred to as ï¿½Gardnerianï¿½ and ï¿½Alexandrianï¿½ Witchcraft; so-called due to the people who are seen as being mainly responsible for their growth, namely one Gerald Gardner and Alex Sanders.

Although Alexandrian Witchcraft could also be considered to be a slightly later variation on Gardnerian Wicca, with its main distinguishing feature being its greater use of ceremonial magic. It tends to be these two branches that are more readily identified with the terms ï¿½Wiccaï¿½ and ï¿½The Wicaï¿½. People following these paths tend to be a member of a Coven that meets regularly to celebrate the festivals and work magic. Rituals are often performed ï¿½skycladï¿½ (naked), and ideally there should be a balance of male and female members, though this is often not achieved in practice. There is an overall emphasis on fertility, and the natural cycles of the year. ï¿½Traditionalï¿½ Witchcraft is thought to have a link to an older tradition. Members are more likely to wear robes during ceremonies and usually work outside. Like the Gardnerian and Alexandrian Craft, Traditional Witchcraft observes the cycles of nature and is woven together with native, British folklore and customs. Robert Cochrane, a contemporary of Gardnerï¿½s, is the name generally associated with the resurgence of interest in Traditional Witchcraft.

The connection with nature is an exceptionally strong theme running through what is considered to be another form of modern Witchraft, namely the more Goddess-orientated, Eco-Witchcraft which has been popularised by American authors like Starhawk (nee Miriam Simos), and Zsuzsanna Budapest. Generally speaking, this form of Witchcraft has tended to attract more women than men, and those women tend to be older than those attracted by the previously mentioned traditions. You also get individual Witches / Wiccans, often called ï¿½solitariesï¿½ or ï¿½hedge witchesï¿½ who practice alone by choice. Rae Bethï¿½s book Hedge witch was particularly influential in this movement. Hedgewitches tend to be more shamanic and are akin to the cunning folk of traditional England. Alternatively, ï¿½solitariesï¿½ may work alone as their geographical location means they are unable to attend a Coven.

I should also mention ï¿½Hereditary Witchcraftï¿½, whose adherentï¿½s claim that their tradition of Witchcraft has been passed down through their family - hence the term ï¿½hereditary.ï¿½ Quite a few of these also tend to be solo practitioners. The last ten years has also seen an upsurge in interest in Witchcraft from young people. I think it would be fair to say that the success of the Harry Potter books, as well as the influence of ï¿½magicalï¿½ TV shows such as Buffy, Charmed, and Bewitched has been a significant contributory factor. This has given rise to eclectic Covens of young people casting spells and performing rituals from the numerous books on the subject that are now readily available. Brief History of Modern Witchcraft with regards to the last 50 years One of the key factors that influenced the resurgence of interest in Witchcraft in the second half of the last century was the repeal of the 1736 Witchcraft Laws, in 1951. A pivotal role was then played by the British civil servant, Gerald Gardner.

Gardner could be considered a somewhat eccentric character sporting a shock of unruly white hair in his later years. Over the years he had travelled extensively, working as a customs officer, anthropologist and archaeologist, something that combined well with his great love of swords and weaponry. Gardnerï¿½s interests also extended to folklore and magic, he was a member of the Folklore Society, a Freemason, and was also involved with various magical orders which themselves had been experiencing a resurgence of interest since the late 19th century. In 1939, after Gardner returned to England following the years he had spent in the Far East, he claims to have been initiated into a Coven in the New Forest. Initially he was forbidden to speak about, or publish anything in connection with their rituals and practices, although they appear to have subsequently relented, allowing him to mention a few things in his second novel High Magic's Aid (1949), which is peppered with extracts of ritual material ï¿½disguisedï¿½ in this work of fiction. Gardner was fearful that Witchcraft, which he often referred to as the ï¿½Cultï¿½, was going to die out.

So, bolstered by the change in law, he published his classic non-fiction book Witchcraft Today in 1954, with an introduction by the noted Egyptologist and folklorist Margaret Murray. Throughout the 1950ï¿½s people started to contact the likes of Gerald Gardner and Cecil Williamson, an acquaintance of Geraldï¿½s, who owned the Museum of Magic and Witchcraft on the Isle of Man. This resulted in Gerald initiating various people, including Doreen Valiente, who is generally considered to be the ï¿½Motherï¿½ of ï¿½Gardnerianï¿½ Witchcraft due to her involvement in the writing of some of its rituals. So began the rise of ï¿½Gardnerianï¿½ Witchcraft, which has now spread all over the world, with initiates in over 66 countries. Today, Gardnerian Witchcraft consists of various ï¿½linesï¿½, dependant on which one of the first generation initiates brought in by Gardner, is responsible for a particular persons lineage, with the idea being that a certain ï¿½powerï¿½ is passed at initiation.

A ï¿½Book of Shadowsï¿½ which contains various rituals and spells is passed down to every initiate, although itï¿½s contents are generally kept secret as it is considered to contain oath-bound material which is not meant for discussion outside the Gardnerian Craft. However, much of it has now been published and is freely available on the internet. Much of the popularity of Gardnerian and Alexandrian witchcraft can be attributed to the changing socio-political climate of that era. With the Second World War over, the process of moving away from the depressing ramifications of it began. The UK and USA started to move towards the hippy and ï¿½free loveï¿½ movement of the 1960ï¿½s where liberation seemed to be the order of the day. Gardner himself had been involved with naturism since the 1930ï¿½s so the shift in cultural ideologies suited him well, which in turn, also suited ï¿½Gardnerianï¿½ Witchcraft with its skyclad rituals and accompanying sexual liberation.

Alexandrian Craft in particular, went down well with students and young people of the time who wanted to ï¿½make love not warï¿½. Another leading figure of the time, with respect to Traditional Witchcraft, was Robert Cochrane (also known as Roy Bowers) who formed the ï¿½Clan of Tubal Cainï¿½ in the late 1950ï¿½s. Its later export to the USA, through Joe Wilson, led to it being known over there as the ï¿½1734 Traditionï¿½ though its most popular and well known form today is referred to as ï¿½The Roebuckï¿½ tradition. Once British Witchcraft had spread to America, it started to metamorphose into various forms including the strongly Goddess-orientated Witchcraft promoted by Starhawk and Zsuzsanna Budapest. These traditions have more of an ecological, feminist slant and tend to be quite political. Starhawk was influenced by Gardnerian Wicca, as well as Victor Andersonï¿½s ï¿½Feri Traditionï¿½, of which she is an initiate.

With the publication of her first book Spiral Dance, which was very successful and highly influential in both America and Britain, Starhawk's idea of Witchcraft (called the ï¿½Reclaimingï¿½ tradition), really started to wave a banner of its own and continues to be a leading light in the Goddess movement. Today Witchcraft attracts many people, and in the 1990ï¿½s it was suggested by the prominent American Witch Silver Ravenwolf, that it was one of the fastest growing religions in America. Indeed, it seems to have also experienced a prolific propagation throughout the UK, Australia and Europe as indicated by its extensive presence on the internet, and the popularity of sites such as ï¿½Witchvoxï¿½ which is dedicated to uniting Witches and Pagans from all over the world. Figures Gerald Gardner - Famous Witches - Witchcraft Famous Witches - Gerald Gardner (1884 - 1964) Gerald Gardner, founder of modern Wicca, undated photo (from Gerald_Gardner ) Gerald Brousseau Gardner was an English civil servant, amateur anthropologist, writer and occultist .

He was instrumental in founding Wicca and Neopaganism , published some of its definitive texts, and is perhaps the best known and most talked about figures in modern witchcraft, dubbed by the press as �Britain�s Chief Witch� and described by others as the �Father of Modern Wicca �. He was born in Blundellands near Liverpool, England, on 13 June 1884 to a well-off family who made their money as hardwood importers. From a young age, he suffered from asthma, and he spent most of the winter months on the Continent with his Irish nanny, Josephine "Com" McCombie, in an attempt to alleviate his condition. When his nanny married and went to live with her husband in Ceylon, Gardner went with her and he spent much of his early adult life in Asia. Beginning in 1908, he worked as a rubber planter, first in Borneo and then in Malaya, and then, after 1923, he held various civil service posts as a British government inspector in Malaya. In 1927, he met and married an English woman called Donna, who remained his loyal companion for 33 years.

In 1936, at the age of 52, he and Donna retired to Highcliffe, Hampshire, England, and it was only then that he became seriously interested in the occult . He published an authoritative text, �Keris and other Malay Weapons�, in 1936, based on almost 20 years of field research as an amateur anthropologist into South-East Asian weapons and magical practices. He also took up naturism (or nudism), apparently on medical advice, and he was a firm believer in the therapeutic benefits of sunbathing. The New Forest area of Hampshire where he had settled was steeped in folklore and witchcraft, and Gardner threw himself into research and study. He became a member of the Folklore Society in 1939, making his first contribution to its journal �Folklore� in June 1939 (a description of a box of witchcraft relics). Later, in 1946, he became a member of the society's council, claiming spurious doctoral degrees from the Universities of Singapore and Toulouse in order to achieve academic acceptance.

Gardner discovered the Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship, which was active in the Christchurch area of Dorset, and he helped them to put on amateur plays with occult and spiritual themes. It was through this theatre (possibly though its Co-Freemasonry members) that Gardner claims he first met members of the New Forest coven , a surviving tradition of English witchcraft that he believed to be a continuation of European Paganism . He was initiated him into the group by the coven �s leader, Dorothy Clutterbuck (affectionately referred to as �Old Dorothy�), or possibly by a mysterious figure with the craft name of Dafo (identified by some sources as Edith Woodford-Grimes) in 1939.

A younger Gerald Gardner shown in his Museum of Magic and Witchcraft (from Gerald%20Brosseau%20Gardner.htm ) Under the pen name or craft name of Scire, Gardner published two works of fiction, �A Goddess Arrives� (1939, a story about worship of Aphrodite in Cyprus in the year 1450 BC) and �High Magic's Aid� (1949, a portrayal under the guise of fiction of the basic ideas of the witchcraft tradition that was later to become known as � Gardnerian Wicca �, although without revealing secret oath-bound material). In 1947, Gardner�s friend Arnold Crowther introduced him to Aleister Crowley (who had allegedly also been a member of one of Old George Pickingill �s original �Nine Covens� in the New Forest), and Gardner was initiated into Crowley 's Ordo Templi Orientis. Their brief association would later lead to controversy over the authenticity of Gardner�s original � Book of Shadows �. Gardner moved to Bricketts Wood, outside St Albans, where he had bought a cottage on the grounds of a nudist club, which is where he ran his own lodge.

Cecil Williamson, a mutual friend of both Gardner and Crowley , described performances held in the lodge of the �Great Rite�, which involved sexual intercourse (although many of the women who joined his lodge did not favour the sexual rites, and sometimes London prostitutes had to be hired to play-act the role of High Priestess). Following the repeal of the last antiquated witchcraft laws in England in 1951, Gardner was now free to go public and to break away from the New Forest coven , and he began to establish his own, as well as taking over the running of Cecil Williamson�s famous Museum of Magic and Witchcraft at Castletown in the Isle of Man.� In 1953, Gardner met Doreen Valiente , and initiated her into his coven . She was to become his greatest asset, and helped him rewrite and expand his existing Book of Shadows , embellishing the numerous text and rituals he had collected (and which he claimed to have been passed down to him from the New Forest coven ), as well as borrowing from other identifiable and unidentifiable sources, weeding out much of Aleister Crowley �s materials on account of his black name, and putting more emphasis onto Goddess worship.

So, Valiente and Gardner between them established a new working practice and coherent system, which evolved into what is today one of the leading traditions of the Wicca movement, Gardnerian Wicca .� Cover of Gerald Gardner's influential 1954 book "WitchCraft Today" (from wiki/Witchcraft_Today ) After the Witchcraft Act of 1951, Gardner was also able to discuss the tradition more openly, resulting in two classic books, �Witchcraft Today� (1954) and �The Meaning of Witchcraft� (1959), which inspired the growth and development of many traditions of modern witchcraft and Wicca throughout the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States. �Witchcraft Today� also supported the theories of anthropologist Margaret Murray who claimed that modern witchcraft is the surviving remnant of an organized Pagan religion that had existed before the witch hunts and trials of the Early Modern Period . The book was an immediate success on its release and new covens practising its dictates sprang up all over England: the Gardnerian tradition had been born. Gardner soon became a media celebrity, and he was dubbed �Britain�s Chief Witch� by the British press.

He loved being in the spotlight and made numerous public appearances. Gardner felt that one of his missions was to attract young people to the Old Religion, rather than older people who would let the craft die with them. In addition to Doreen Valiente , he initiated some of the most influential Wiccans into his covens, including Eleanor Bone , Patricia Crowther , Monique Wilson and Raymond Buckland , who were to go on to spread Wicca to a whole new generation. Many witchcraft practitioners, however, believed that he was wrong to make public what had always been considered by them to be secret, and many believed that so much publicity would eventually harm the craft. There was also conflict between Gardner�s penchant for ritual nudity and other hereditary witches who claimed that they had always worked robed. His egotism and publicity-seeking even tried the patience of his own coven members (including that of Valiente , who was by now his High Priestess), and splits began to develop over his relentless pursuit of publicity. In 1957, Doreen Valiente and others members, having had enough of "the gospel according to Gardner", left and went their separate ways.

In 1960, Donna, his devoted wife and loyal companion of 33 years (although she had never taken part in the craft or his activities within it), died. Gardner was devastated and began to suffer once more from his childhood affliction of asthma. After suffering a heart attack, Gardner died on 12 February 1964, while at sea on a ship returning from Lebanon. He was buried on the shore of Tunisia, his funeral attended only by the Captain of the vessel he was travelling on. In 1968, his one-time High Priestess Eleanor Bone arranged for his remains to be removed to a more fitting place, close to the ancient city of Carthage. White Witches: Historic Fact and Romantic Fantasy (Excerpts from "Magical Religion and Modern Witchcraft" by James Baker) James Baker writes..........When I became interested in Wicca or modern witchcraft in the early1960s, it was Gerald Gardner's Witchcraft Today and Margaret Murray's The Witch-Cult in Western Europe that formed my impression of the subject.

The idea of the continuous survival of England of an ancient, universal cult until the time of the witch persecutions -- or even to the present -- seemed well demonstrated. By the time I was able to visit Gardner's witch museum at Castleton and meet Alex Sanders (Alexandrian) in 1979, I was fully convinced of the historical veracity of these claims. It was at this time, while characteristically buying up every book that might shed some light on the subject that I found Power through Witchcraft (1969) by Louise Hebner, "The Official Witch of Los Angeles." It was a disappointment. A quick reading caused me to dismiss her as an ignorant practitioner of some sort of folk magic, who was not part of or even aware of the real witch tradition that I was so fascinated with. (Later, I was to realize that I was wrong and I apologized to Louise Heubner.) It was writers such as Gardner, Doreen Waliente, Justine Glass, Sybil Leek, June Johns and Paul Hudson (after a fashion) who had the real dope! Together, their books constructed what I came to call "The Witch Party Line," the foundational myth and orthodoxy of Wiccan origins.

As a historian by temperament and profession, it was my ambition to discover all of the links between contemporary Wicca (or "Wica," as Gardner invariably spelled it) and its roots in the past. This was not a search for the proof of Wiccan claims but rather a desire to know more of what had been so coyly hinted at by Gardner and other authors. Having a university library at my disposal, I diligently searched through every likely monograph and serial to find more about the early days of Witchcraft. I tracked down the majority of references cited in Witchcraft Today, those listed in the bibliography in The Meaning of Witchcraft, and any other source that might shed some light on Wicca before Gardner. Anthropology and archaeology, theological history and classical studies, everything was grist to the mill. But the result was most chaff! It became clear after two years or so that there wasn't much out there to be found, if one was strictly interested in Wiccan history. All of the material quoted by Garnder and the others, was neither new nor directly relevant to British Wicca.

There was a wealth of suggestive material from other times and other cultures, but there was no demonstrable pattern of white religious Witchcraft, as exemplified by contemporary Witchcraft. The ritual material in the Book of Shadows itself was skeletal in nature and quite inadequate as theology or exegesis. I searched for evidence and examples of a unified Horned God and Goddess cult, for the religious use of pentagrams, athames, cords, and the sigils in the Book of Shadows for casting Wiccan as opposed to Solomonic circles, for the application of Wiccan values, but to no avail. Alex Sanders was of no help. He just suggested various books I already knew about or occult ones which, while tangentially related, represented quite different mind-sets from Wicca as a religion. Robert Graves' White Goddess for example was evocative and inspirational, but its symbols did not really accord with Gardner at all. In addition, the "poetical truth" that Graves invoked was obviously quite a different matter from historical veracity. I had become a bit impatient with "poetical truth," by this point.

I had (and have) no quarrel with Wicca as a valid faith and religious practice, but the dawning realization that I had been deceived by its historical claims was galling. The final revelation came from Francis King's pioneering Ritual Magic in England (1970). As a schoolboy in 1953 he had interviewed novelist Louis Wilkinson (Louis Marlow) about Aleister Crowley. Wilkinson had offhandedly mentioned that Crowley had known of a coven of witches "in his youth" but had declined to join. Questions about this, Wilkinson asserted that he himself had met such a coven, possibly the same one that Gardner knew, in the late 1930s or early 1940s. He described their use of protective ointments and, taken orally, the hallucinogenic fly agaric mushroom. It was his impression that " . . . there had been a fusion of an authentic surviving folk-tradition with a more middle-class occultism". Here at last was independent testimony that there had actually been a quite different witch cult before Gardner. Wilkinson's evidence indicated that something was there before, but what?

As King said, Gardner apparently got bored with the simple ceremonies, and " . . . he consequently decided to found a more elaborate and romanticized with-cult of his own". After talking with King at the Warlock Shop in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1973, I decided to both fulfill my curiosity and assuage my annoyance at being bamboozled by tracing not only Witchcraft's past but the entire history of Western occultism. It seemed reasonable that this would make it possible to separate the occult introductions and inventions from the actual folk practices in Wicca. Now there is a wealth of material on the practice of folk magic in English history. Even the earliest books on Witchcraft, such as Gardner's works or Doreen Valiente's Where Witchcraft Lives, (1961) contain much historical folk magic unrelated to the rituals, practices, and beliefs of Wicca. From the sources liberally referred to by Sir Keith Thomas in Religion and the Decline of Magic (1971), George Lyman Kittredge in Witchcraft in Old and New England (1929), and the many English folklore studies, it is not difficult to observe a pattern of traditional magical belief and practice.

What it demonstrates, however, is that almost all of the characteristic elements of modern Witchcraft have an "occult" bookish rather than traditional origin. I came to the conclusion that there are in fact two separate "White Witchcraft" traditions in English history: one very old and fairly moribund (coming to an end) and another which is very active yet no older than the twentieth century. The latter is modern Witchcraft. The former is the tradition of the cunning men and wise women, the more or less beneficent practitioners of traditional folk magic and popular sorcery. Ironically, this was just what Louise Heubner was talking about, to whom I apologize. I eventually found that many of my observations and conclusions had been paralleled by Aidan Kelly when Crafting the Art of Magic was published in 1991. Another invaluable source which separates the "religion" element from the magical one with consideration of modern Paganism is Ronald Hutton, The Pagan Religions for the Ancient British Isles (1991).

I trust that this short chapter can serve as a useful adjunct to these books by casting some additional light on the sources of the Book of Shadows and by providing an outline of the actual white witches of English history. WHITE WITCHCRAFT - THEN AND NOW The criteria by which I hoped to separate the "middle-class occult"elements from the true folk traditions in Witchcraft was essentially thesame as Kelly's. I divided the Book of Shadows material into three possible categories. 1. Those elements that were characteristic of known English traditions of folk magic. 2. Those that were either clearly anachronistic in conception and/or representative of book learning and intellectualized occultism. The latter would have to be easily available in published sources in the period when Gardner (or some other innovator) was working. 3. Any element that could not be found in either type of historical source might be assumed to be new or a part of an unknown tradition. Only segments of the rituals in the Garden's Book of Shadows can be said to belong to the third category, and we have no reason to doubt that they are modern compositions, thanks to Aidan Kelly. I have no need to duplicate his excellent analysis of this material.

However, some other sources for borrowed material which I investigated may be of interest. Omitting details of the more obvious borrowing from Freemasonry (three degrees, ritual set ups) and ceremonial magic in interest of space, I have chosen to show the probably source for the following unique elements from the Book of Shadows: Obscure chants, the use of the term "athame," Drawing Down the Moon, the title Book of Shadows and the term "WICCA" or "WICA" itself. The assertion of a continuous British tradition of self-conscious Goddess/Horned God worship would appear to be quite historical, (meaning not related to or concerned with documented history) but I do not intend to develop that argument here. Suffice is to say that the generic Goddess cult resembles the Christian notion of a single universalistic theism far more that the localized deities and "pluricultural" approach to religion of ancient times. In his research from C.J.S. Thompson The Mysteries and Secrets of Magic (1927), Mr. Thompson said the use of a black-handled knife called an "athame" might be said to be a trademark of Gardnerian Witchcraft.

Knives have never played a central a role in British magic as wands or swords, so the presence of such a tool with its distinctive name would seem to be an important clue. There is no record in British folk tradition of such a knife before Gardner (who loved knives in general and wrote a book on the Malay kris). The chant Eko, Eko, Eko Azarak, Eko, Eko! Zomelak first originally appeared in the art magazine FORM in 1921 in an article, "The Black Arts" by J.F.C. Fuller. Thompson also points out that there is a picture of two Greek women Drawing Down the Moon and which has survived the modern Greek folk tradition. The Drawing Down the Moon is very definitely not a British tradition. Also, Gardner either employed the services of Aleister Crowley or Aleister Crowley did it as a friend, the latter being highly unlikely, to compose the Drawing Down the Moon. However, when Gardner wanted Witchcraft to be brought back, Doreen Valiente advised Gardner that people would never follow Witchcraft unless he did something about the words of Drawing Down the Moon, as most people back then recognized the flare of Crowley's writing.

So that is when Garner said "If you can do better, then you do it" to Valiente and that is what most people know today of her rewritten composition of Drawing Down the Moon. I would agree with Valiente that Gardner got the idea for the title "Book of Shadows" (which he never used in print) from Mir Bashir's account of a "Book of Shadows" found in Bombay in 1941, which he wrote about in an article in a magazine published by Gardner's own publisher Michael Houghton in 1949. " . . . The story ran that there was an ancient manuscript written on palm leaves, some thousands of years old in Sanskrit which tells you about your whole life by measuring your shadow." The final contribution by Garner is the choice of term "Wica" to indicate Witchcraft. While is quite correct that "Wicca" is the masculine form of the Anglo-Saxon term for "witch" which is noted in The Meaning of Witchcraft, it had been out of popular usage for centuries before Gardner adopted his variant spelling to denote his sect.

He apparently intended to make "witchcraft" mean "the craft of the wise" (as in "wise woman") as he dropped one "c" from the correct spelling to associate it with the root form was, and modified the pronunciation to a hard c, as in wicka. Later writers innocently corrected the spelling, but kept the hard c sound rather than adopting the correct ch, as wicha. Having discarded Gardner's attempted "wise" definition, Wiccans now tell us that a root meaning "to bend" is in some favorable way relevant to the use of the word when it was used to denote illicit practitioners of magic. This is philological nonsense. "Wicca," like "strega" or "hexe" was always pejorative (derogatory). The word "Wicce" is the feminine name for a female. So we now have many books entitled with the word "Wicca" or "Wiccan" which are both masculine names, when in actuality since it is a Goddess religion it should be "WICCE" or "WICCEN". Once again women are having to deal with the "he" concept in a Goddess religion!

Modern Witchcraft is not a survival of an ancient tradition but rather the modern syncretization of a number of old and new elements that never ever co-existed, much less were united before. A good example of this syncretic tendency are the eight yearly festivals. Far from being a single "traditional" pattern, they are a combination of the Celtic festivals of Samhain, Imbolic, Beltane, and Lughnasadh; the Angle-Saxon Yule and the Michaelmas-like September feast; the traditional Midsummers (not part of either system) and, as Hutton says, the vernal equinox (rather than Lady Day, 25 March) is added for symmetry (for a balance, a pleasing whole.) There is no historic recognition of the vernal equinox, nor for the orderly eight-part system itself, which is a transparent modern conceit. That is why the festivals seem to repeat themselves. To some Samhain is the first of the year; to some Yule is the first of the year; and others seem to think Candlemas as the first of the year.

And it only gets more confusing and very redundant in nature as if you take a close look at the Summer Solstice, Lammas, and Autumn Equinox, the Sun God keeps dying. How many times does He die? IF NOT WITCHCRAFT, WHAT? The wise women and cunning men were the real "wicca/wicce", the white witches in British history. Hundreds of documented examples survive from the Middle Ages to the end of the nineteenth century. Some were no more than local amateurs with a single spell or charm, while others were literate professional practitioners with a working knowledge of astrology and ceremonial magic who attracted clients from near and far. Although the witches shared a number of traditional practices and beliefs, true white witchcraft was never systematized i.e., form into a system. White witchcraft was never a self-conscious Pagan faith opposed to Christianity but rather an accommodation of traditional magical practices within popular religion. It was more a trade or calling than a faith and simultaneously traditional and continuously mutable.

Just as there is no reason to recapitulate Aidan Kelly's thorough work on Witchcraft, it is unnecessary to try to reproduce the masterful picture of British folk magic in Sir Keith Thomas's Religion and the Decline of Magic (1971). His chapters "Magical Healing", "Cunning Men and Popular Magic," and the section "Witchcraft" more than adequately demonstrates both the extent and practice of white witchcraft in early modern England. I would like to outline the most characteristic of these practices to create a composite picture of historic white witchcraft to set against the Gardnerian one. While the white witches used rituals, they were not the group oriented circles of the legendary medieval Sabbat or modern Witchcraft but the practical rites of the sorcerer or the priest. Some of their practices were survivors of what country people called "the old religion," Their deities invoked were not Pagan gods but planets (occasionally visualized as spiritual beings rather than satellites of the sun), the fairies and assorted imps or devils. Their dress was not a skyclad minimalism and seldom the quasi-monkish robes now associated with the occult. The setting for the consultation was often staged to impress as well.

Charts, books, wands, dried crocodiles and so forth were arranged to give the impression of magical authority. There was no call for nudity or flagellation and the occasional use of sex was incidental rather than central to the work at hand. There is little or no indication of any "Golden Bough" like seasonal fertility rites. The tools of the trade were not a standard set of ritual artifacts but simply regional British variations of the paraphernalia of sorcerers the world over. Scrying crystals, the divinatory "Bible and Key," and the sieve and shears were characteristically British as were wax, cloth or clay poppets; charms written on vellum, paper, or metal; divining or "mystical" rods, witch bottles and swords, wands and knives (not called athames). All sorts of animals (including human) parts, as well as vegetable, cloth, glass, pottery, metal or mineral fragments were employed in "receipts" for magical work. The white witches had no unifying Book of Shadows but they did use many books, even if only for effect when they themselves were illiterate.

Manuscript grimoires, miscellaneous collections of charms, books of formulae, astrological and pseudo-astrological handbooks, and works on occult subjects were a major means of transmitting magical knowledge among English white witches. These not only passed ideas between higher and lower culture, but provided a legitimating aid of learning in the shadowy underworld of the witch and wizard. Ritual initiations after Witchcraft, Masonic or secret society pattern were unknown. Instead some acted as apprentices to establish Cunningfolk while others were self-taught in the traditions of the countryside. The real death of the old tradition was not the result of a bourgeois revolution in rationalism but rather the defecting of the clientele to new and more modern, exotic forms of the same practices by Mesmerists, spiritualists, quacks and occultists. Astrological patterns and agricultural cycles governed traditional magic rather than a system of astronomical observances. The moon's cycles were more important than annual anniversaries, although May Eve, Midsummers' and All Hallow's Eve retained their traditional importance. Neither devotion to a God and Goddess, nor the social cohesion of group activity inspired traditional magical practices.

It was instead the needs and desires of clients for healing, detection of theft, treasure hunting, fortunetelling, helping the "overlooked," removing curses, or charms for luck which motivated the activities of the witches. Public opinion about the witches was ambiguous, to say the least. The Puritans in fact deemed the white witches worse than the black satanic variety, as the latter were perceptibly evil while the white witches might easily fool a Christian into a damnable relationship by appearing beneficent and actually providing a useful service. Cunning women, wise men, blessers, conjurors, and currens (a few of the many names for the white witches) were regularly veiled from the pulpit and secretly supported by the populace -- unless of course the white witch did something to earn the enmity of his or her neighbors. While both sexes were represented in the trade, the most eminent of the white witches were usually men. The women nearly always labored under a more mixed reputation and were more liable to be suspected of (and persecuted for) black as well as white magic.

WITCHCRAFT: THE NEW RELIGION When Gardner dropped his revelatory bombshell in Witchcraft Today with, the implications that Wicca (male name) was or had been a pervasive secret sect in the English countryside, he was a member of the Folklore Society. I was able to ask Katherine Brigs, who remembered the event, about the impact of his book and his article in Folklore (private communication, 29 October 1973). The members of Folklore Society apparently quickly compared notes and, as none of them had ever found any indication of such a sect with their thorough knowledge of their own various regional areas, they dismissed his assertions.

Gardner, although recognized as possessing a wide if miscellaneous knowledge of anthropological literature, was notorious as a flamboyant crank who would bring imposing knives to meetings (which intimidated some people) and Miss Briggs was rather sharp about his influence on "young people." She was firm in her opinion that it was all "moonshine." Important: Here we come to the central paradox for the alleged "hereditary traditions." If religious Witchcraft was as old and widespread as would be necessary for even a minority of the English and American claimants to have been connected with families with such initiatory practices, then it is inconceivable that their beliefs and symbols would have no echo in the historical record which contains so many other Pagan and magical practices and symbols (Kelly 1991, xix). On the other hand, if traditional or "hereditary" Wicca (man) was so small and secret as to escape any detection (and any professional historian will recognize how ephemeral, insignificant, and localized a sect would have to be to escape all notice), then it is hardly possible that it could have been of any importance before Gardner and his successors blithely laid the whole thing open to the world.

Hutton and Kelly show quite convincingly that this was the case. I agree with Aidan Kelly that Gardner (or, less likely, an anonyms "proto-Gardner") was indirectly responsible for just about all modern witch activity. Some groups such as the Gardnerians and the Alexandrians are admittedly direct derivatives from his work. Other groups, either discerning that the Old man had (embarrassingly) feet of clay or desiring to modify his teachings, chose to disavow him as soon as they could and build independent traditions while retaining what they liked. It is revealing, for example, that no "hereditary" rivals to Gardner ( as opposed to jealous occultists such as Charles Cardell) publicly challenged Gardner in his lifetime. The most exotic of these attempts to depose Gerald Gardner was an extravagant hoax which first surfaced shortly after his death in February 1964. The gist of the matter was that the real witch tradition could be traced not to Gardner but rather to an Essex Cunning Man named George Pickingill who died in 1909. It was claimed that he had 9 covens underneath him.

Pickingill was a real old Cunning man, one of the last of the type, but quite illiterate and in his later years was more interested in caging beer and getting a rise out of the people than anything else. He was very much a practicing sorcerer but Pickingill was neither a witch king or a leading occultist with international connections was out of the question. Shrewder independent movements were careful to excise those elements which would easily connect them with Gardner (such as scourging, the use of the titles "high priest" and "high priestess," the emphasis on nudity and so forth), and anything else they suspected was anachronistic. Some became more bourgeois by adopting robes and downplaying the sexual element, while others swung in the opposite direction by increasing the orgiastic elements and addicting initiations with severe whippings and wooden dildos, as is shown in the Frost's School of Wicca (male) or in Francis King's discoveries about a Midland group in Sexuality, Magic and Peversion(1972). Still others, which had began quite independently, were swept up by the sheer popular attraction of the new Goddess movement and adopted many of its practices and tenets while claiming independence.

Witchcraft is what Eric Hobsbawm calls "an invented tradition." It was formulated in response to the psychic needs of modern people cut off from other traditions by cultural (how many people still live where this great-grandparents did?) and separation from nature. I realize that many people received the "Witch party Line" from their original "teachers" at face value and are reluctant to let it go. Yet, if Witchcraft is ever to achieve social acceptance, it must be prepared to relinquish myths which do little but offer Witchcraft opponents an excuse by which to deny public recognition Permission is needed for material taken from Hecate's Cauldron to be used for teaching purposes whether it be through a coven or website. A link must be provided back to this website! Personal use needs no permission. Wiccan Religion Started by a Freemason! Wiccan Religion Started by a Freemason! Photo to Left: Freemason, and founder of modern Wiccan witch revival, Gerald Gardner.

Gerald Brosseau Gardner (June 13, 1884 - February 12, 1964) was a Freemason, an English hereditary Witch and largely responsible for reviving Witchcraft in the modern Western world. Gardner claimed to trace his roots to a Witch named Grissell Gardner who had been burned at the stake in 1610 at Newburgh. Gardner suffered severely with asthma from an early age and required a nurse to attend to his needs. Nurse Josephine "Com" McCombie brought along young Gardner on her various trips to Europe and Ceylon, where he worked on a tea plantation. Gerald later worked and traveled to Borneo and Malaysia. In Ceylon between 1905 - 1908, Gardner became a Freemason, Sphinx Lodge 113, I.C., Colombo. Between 1920 and 1923 Gardner studies native lore, magic, and weaponry in Malaysia.

In 1926 through to 1932 Gardner takes up amateur Archaeology; proves the existence of a Malaysian civilization predating the coming of the Portuguese in 1687; returns to England and marries Donna Rosedale, a nurse; frequents the British Museum to research Welsh and Basque folklore; encounters a whole host of Spiritualist mediums; and visits an archaeological dig at Gaza in Egypt, prehistoric caves in France, and England. In England before the Second World War, Gerald was involved with the Fellowship of Crotona - an occult group of Co-Masons - and met people who introduced him into Witchcraft. The Fellowship of Crotona was a secret society within a secret society; the inner circle claimed to be hereditary Witches. In 1939, Gardner was initiated into the New Forest coven by high priestess Old Dorothy Clutterbuck.

It was in 1940 at a large gathering of many covens that a legendary event was to take place: ï¿½In June 1940 when England faced invasion from the Nazis, Gardner claims that the high priestess of his coven called a huge gathering of witches in the New Forest where the Great Circle was erected. This was a magical ritual only performed in cases of extreme emergency. Previously it had only been raised twice, in 1588 to combat the Spanish Armada, which was defeated not only by Drake and his ships but with the help of a great storm, and in the 1800s when it looked as if Napoleon would cross the Channel. The ritual in the forest involved raising a cone of psychic power and directing it towards the French coast with the command, ï¿½You cannot cross the sea. You cannot cross the sea. You cannot come.ï¿½ According to Gardner this ritual involved the use of the life force of the gathered covens and as a result several elderly witches died. The ritual was repeated four times and then the Elders said ï¿½We must stop.

We must not kill too many of our people.ï¿½ï¿½ Gerald Gardner: Legacy of the 'father of witchcraft' - BBC News BBC News Gerald Gardner: Legacy of the 'father of witchcraft' By Roz Tappenden BBC South 13 June 2014 Image copyright Doreen Valiente Foundation Image caption Gerald Gardner worked to ensure the survival of Wiccan culture, gaining worldwide attention A blue plaque is being unveiled in Dorset at the former home of Gerald Brosseau Gardner. He is regarded by many as the "father of modern witchcraft", but who was he and what was his legacy? Southridge, a comfortable 1920s house in Highcliffe, was bought by Gardner and his wife, Dorothea, in 1938 when they moved from London. Until then Gardner's life had been unremarkable for someone of his wealthy background in the colonial era. Born in 1884, he had been sent to the warmer climes of Madeira as a child in a bid to alleviate his asthma. Consequently he received little education and later claimed he had taught himself to read.

Wicca-pedia Gardnerian Wiccans are organised in covens, usually with 13 or fewer members Membership is gained through initiation by a High Priestess or High Priest There are no central authorities in Wicca There are eight festivals - two solstices and equinoxes, Imbolc, Beltane, Lammas and Samhain (also known as All Hallow's Eve) Wicca or witchcraft? Find out more with BBC Religion As a young man, he spent time working in Ceylon, Borneo and Malaya before returning to London in 1936. After arriving in Highcliffe, shortly before the outbreak of war, he became acquainted with a group claiming to be witches and was initiated into the New Forest Coven at nearby Mill House. It proved to be a turning point for Gardner who, from that time, devoted himself to promoting his new-found religion. Biographer and Wiccan initiate Philip Heselton said: "He wasn't a religious pioneer. What he did was to publicise it and write about it and he gradually became known through that and people made contact. "He initiated quite a lot of people into the Wiccan culture.

He felt it was important that it survived." Image copyright Winkworth Highcliffe Image caption Gardner said he was initiated into the New Forest Coven in Mill House, not far from his home in Highcliffe Image copyright John Belham-Payne Image caption Gerald Gardner's book of shadows - containing his rituals - was given to High Priestess Doreen Valiente After the war Gardner returned with his wife to London where he wrote a number of books, the best known being Witchcraft Today. Published in 1954, it offered readers an insight into the history and practices of the witch-cult and offered the press a feeding frenzy. Mr Heselton added: "There were headlines about lurid rites and evil black magic but, in actual fact, quite a lot of people saw through it. He got lots of letters as a result of that, which helped him enormously." Unreliable witch? Gardner's theories were drawn from numerous sources, including Freemasonry, magical orders such as the Golden Dawn and fellow occultists, including Aleister Crowley. He also formulated the Wicca calendar of eight festivals, bringing together existing festivals from different traditions.

By the time of his death in 1964, Gardnerian Wicca, as it became known, had spread to the United States and beyond. Estimates of the number of Wiccans worldwide range from 100,000 to 800,000. But while Gardner's legacy is virtually undisputed, details of his life continue to be scrutinised. Historian Prof Ronald Hutton said: "He was a man of extraordinary charm and mischief, generous and with warmth of heart, but something of a trickster. "Most of those who knew him found him fun but slightly unreliable when it came to witchcraft." He said Gardner often stretched the truth and encouraged coven members to claim they were from an ancient lineage of witches. "I think he encouraged people to tell the press things about themselves that weren't true," he said. The plaque is being unveiled on Friday, the 130th anniversary of Gardner's birth in 1884.

Gerald Gardner - The History of Wicca Gerald Brosseau Gardner (1884-1964) Introduction geraldgardner.com is an online resource for information on Gerald Brosseau Gardner (1884-1964) and his influence on modern Wicca. Since I started my research in 1997 and opened this site in 2001, historians and practitioners have explored Gerald Gardner's life in depth. The most exhaustive research has been preformed by Philip Heselton whose books, Wiccan Roots: Gerald Gardner and the Modern Witchcraft Revival and Gerald Gardner and The Cauldron of Inspiration, are widely available. Also, former publishers of Gardner's two nonfiction books have brought them back into print. I feel that, with the help of researchers and advocates like Philip Heselton, awareness of the historical influence of Britain's earliest Gardnerian covens and their significance to the entirety of Wicca has been increased. The mission of this site is to provide biographical information and resources on Gerald Gardner and to continue to serve to raise awareness of Wicca's modern history in general and Gardner's historical influence in specific.

Wicca, Witchcraft | Visual Paranormal Investigations Wicca and Witchcraft Most Wiccans feel they should concentrate on living their current lives to the fullest and not on the afterlife. Many Wiccans believe in magic which they consider to be a force of nature that is not well understood or accepted by conventional science. Magic is not supernatural, but as Wiccan author, Leo Martello wrote, magic consists of “super powers that reside in the natural”. The five senses are used in conjunction to produce astounding results that affect the natural world. The Wiccan religion does not contain specific dogma on morality, but most Wiccans abide by the Wiccan Rede, “an it harm none, do what ye will.” Wiccans believe in the freedom to act as one wishes, but that they must also accept responsibility for their actions. Most Wiccans believe in a form of karma and feel their actions done with malice or bad intent will come back to them with triple force. Wiccans do not worship Satan or believe in the concept of heaven or hell. These are constructs of Christianity which have no place in the Wiccan religion.

Wiccans love and revere nature and believe in the credo of “Live and let live”. They are accepting of other religions as long as they does not promote negativity or harm to others.Type your paragraph here. ~ Mary Jo VPI Wicca is a modern pagan witchcraft religion that was introduced in 1954 by Gerald Gardner, a British civil servant. He drew from the renewed interest in ancient pagan beliefs and witchcraft that existed in Britain in the early 20th Century for the basis of the Wicca religion. It is an earth-based religion that incorporates magic rituals, spells and witchcraft in its practice. The word witch comes from the Middle English word, wicche, and further back in Old English, wicce, the feminine word form for witch and wicca, the masculine word form for wizard. The use of the word Wicca increased in the the 1960’s and 1970’s. Prior to that the religion was known as Witchcraft. As with Witchcraft, the Wicca religion has no formal dogma or central authority figure.

Its believers follow different denominations or traditions though some Wiccans choose not to join a tradition and to go solitary in their beliefs. Each tradition has its own hierarchy and organization. Because there is no formal dogma or centralized authority, disputes about what is Wicca and what is not Wicca sometimes arise. The tradition Gardner established is known as British Traditional Wicca. Another prominent tradition is the Alexandrian Tradition founded by Alexander Sanders. New traditions continue to be formed to this day.

Question: What modern witchcraft religion was invented by Gerald Gardner?
Answer: Wicca