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 Gerald Gardner(1884-1964) In 1954 retired British civil servant, Gerald Gardner, released the book Witchcraft Today. In this book he detailed a Cult of Witches that he claimed to have been in contact with and the religious practices that they purported to follow. This was the public’s first official introduction to the religious ways of Wicca. Gardner claimed that these witches, located in the region of England’s New Forest, were part of a religious group that had existed in secret since the times of the European Witch Trials. Evidence supporting this claim is scarce and investigations indicate that Gardner himself was most likely the source of this religion and its rites, and that they began to be compiled no earlier than around the 1930’s. Regardless, it is the religion that he handed to us that is practiced today. Gerald Gardner named this religion Witchcraft and the priesthood of Witches that follows it were named “Wica”. The Creation of Wicca Gardner reports that he was initiated into the Witch Cult in Christchurch, England and by all accounts it would appear that this would have occurred (if true) no earlier than 1940. However, we can see that Gardner was obviously thinking about Witchcraft and its rituals at the very least, all through 1939. We see this as evident in two places: firstly an article about a box of “witchcraft items” that was written by the Gerald Gardner for the Folklore Society in 1939, and secondly from scenes depicted in Gerald Gardner’s first book, A Goddess Arrives, which was also published in 1939. These scenes depict rituals that bear a striking resemblance to those of Wicca and essentially appear to be evidence of Gardner’s early thoughts for the form of the rituals that he would later implement into Wicca. However, although these early inklings of Wicca may appear to be a mix of truth and half-truth (as was often Gardner’s style), it is still fair to say that they represent a genuine emergence of a spiritual tradition, as opposed to any kind of direct deceit. From 1936-37 Gardner experienced a series of dreams which he was convinced were the result of past life memories. This conclusion was cemented when, from 1937-38, Gardner began a series of visits to Cyprus in which he came to recognise the places he had seen in his dreams. It is these experiences that fed the motivation to write A Goddess Arrives. The Rosicrucian Theatre The years between 1938 and 1940 appear to be particularly significant for Gardner and his connection to the formation of modern Wicca seems to begin with Gardner’s involvement in the Rosicrucian Theatre, at Christchurch. It is through this group that Gerald Gardner became involved with the Crotona Fellowship – an occult group that formed out of the Co-Masons movement. In turn, Gardner appears at this time to have become friends with a small group of people within the Crotona Fellowship. It cannot be proven with any certainty, but this group, consisting of many esoteric characters, may well have been very influential in the development of Wicca. Present int he Fellowship at the time was Mabel Besant-Scott, who was a leading member of the Crotona Fellowship, as well as having a significant background in Co-Masonry, Theosophy and the Rosicrucians. Some have considered that she may have been an influence upon Gardner. However, Gardner says that it was a small group of outsiders within the Fellowship that introduced him to Witchcraft. Notable contenders for this small group include members of the Mason family (notably Susie and Ernie Mason), who were also involved in esoteric groups like the Rosicrucians and many people speculate that they may have also been hereditary witches and part of a pre-existing coven that they themselves discovered around the same time. Possible candidates for the originator of this theoretical coven have been sugested, such as Rosamund Sabine (aka "Mother Sabine"). However, although there is strong evidence to support these ideas, they ultimately cannot be proven with complete certainty at this time. Though we can say with fair certainty that Gerald Gardner formed and shaped the rites and rituals of the religion, it can be theorised that perhaps certain elements of Wicca came to Gardner through these sources and that it is very likely that there was a form of "proto-Wicca" in existence before Gardner co-defined it in the religion we know today. But reardless of whether Wicca began entirely with Gardner or whether it began a few years earlier with the Masons or Sabine, it remains most likely that the larger bulk of the theology was adopted into Wicca from popular themes present in the literary tradition of the time, such as The Golden Bough and Aradia: Gospel of the Witches, as well as the imagery portrayed through the works of Margaret Murray. No matter the degree of infuence from people like the Mason family upon Gardner, we can say (again, with fair certainty) that there is one member of the Crotona Fellowship that was most certainly involved in Gardner’s early Witchcraft: Edith Woodford-Grimes. Otherwise known as ‘Dafo’, Edith Woodford-Grimes was a neighbour to the Mason family and most likely became involved in the Crotona Fellowship through them. It is not known when she became involved in Witchcraft, but she and Gardner obviously had very close relationship (he even gave away her daughter at her wedding). It has been suggested by some that Edith (Dafo) was really Gardner’s High Priestess and Initiator at the time of his initiation, but this is merely conjecture at this time. However, it is most certainly true that if Gardner did have an initiation, then Dafo would have been a likely candidate for his initiator. Gardner’s Initiation Whether or not Gardner was really initiated into the Witch Cult is a matter that can be left open to opinion at this point. It is most certainly true that it was Gardner that created the Wicca that we know today, but whether or not he was also inspired by a simpler witchcraft tradition belonging to the Mason family and/or Woodford-Grimes cannot be said. Though neither can it be dismissed out of hand. Gardner’s claim of his initiation goes thusly: “[I] was taken to big house in the neighbourhood. This belonged to “Old Dorothy”
– a lady of note in the district, “county”
and very well-to-do. She invariably
wore a pearl necklace, worth some £5,000
at the time.” “…stripped naked and brought into a place “properly prepared” … It was half way through when the
word Wica was mentioned: “and I knew
that which I had thought burnt out hundreds
of years ago still survived.” |
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Beyond the Basics           |