Gardnerian Wicca
Gardnerian Wicca is a tradition of the
Neopagan religion of
Wicca. Gardnerian Wicca is named after
Gerald Gardner (1884-1964), a British
civil servant and scholar of
magic, among other topics. He knew and worked with many famous occultists, not the least of which was
Aleister Crowley (1875-1947). After his retirement Gardner moved to Christchurch near the
New Forest on the south coast of
England, where he says he met a group of people who had preserved certain traditional practices. As an amateur
folklorist, Gardner was fascinated, and set about reconstructing what he described as an ancient, ancestral religion whose remnants he had come upon. He apparently had little ritual material to work with and had to create a good deal of it himself.
Gardner seems not to have been confident writing original poetry, and instead borrowed and wove together appropriate material from other artists and occultists, most notably Crowley,
Charles Godfrey Leland's
Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, the
Key of Solomon as published by
S.L. MacGregor Mathers,
Masonic ritual, and
Rudyard Kipling, Queen Victoria's Poet Laureate. One of Gardner's High Priestesses,
Doreen Valiente (1922-1999) wrote much of the most well-known poetry, including the much-quoted
Charge of the Goddess.
The core group grew slowly and in utter secrecy as Witchcraft was illegal in Britain at the time. When the Witchcraft Laws were replaced, in
1951, by the Fraudulent Mediums Act, Gerald Gardner went public, initially somewhat cautiously, but during the late 1950's and early 1960's (up until his death in
1964) even courting the attentions of the tabloid press, to the consternation of some of the other members of the tradition. The question of publicity and Gardner's sudden production of the
Wiccan Laws in 1957 led to
Doreen Valiente breaking from Gardner for a period. Nevertheless, the increased publicity seems to have allowed Gardnerian Wicca to grow much more rapidly. Certain intiates such as
Alex Sanders and
Raymond Buckland started off their own traditions allowing further expansion.
The oldest known Gardnerian Wiccan coven is the
North London coven, which originally met in the Witch's Cottage near the Five Acres
naturist club in
Bricket's Wood near London; it has operated continuously for over 50 years, since shortly after the end of
World War II, and has included many leading lights of Gardnerian Wicca including
Gerald Gardner,
Doreen Valiente,
Lois Bourne, and
Jack Bracelin.
The most well known covens of the original Gardnerian lineage are: New Forest, Bricket Wood, Rainbow Wood, Isle of Man, Oak Tree, Sparrow, Isis Urania and Druid Oak.
Some American neopagans regard Gardnerian Wicca as a "fundamentalist" path, in that, at least as often practiced in America, it demands fairly strict adherence to the procedures and principles laid down by Gardner, as well as stringent requirements for
initiation. As practiced in England, on the other hand, Gardnerian Wicca is often regarded as a mainstream Wiccan tradition, albeit an old-school one, and as less formal than
Alexandrian Wicca.
The form of witchcraft to which Gardner was introduced was originally referred to as "Wica", or more commonly "witchcraft" or "the Old Religion". Later publications standardised the spelling to "Wicca". "Gardnerian Wicca" was originally a pejorative coined by Gardner's contemporary
Roy Bowers, a British
cunning man.
*
Gerald Gardner - The History of Wicca*
The Gardnerian Book of Shadows*
The Gardnerian Tradition*
Gardnerian History
