« counter Gerald Gardner and the Birth of Modern Witchcraft »


Gerald Gardner is perhaps one of the best known and talked about figures in modern witchcraft to date. An English hereditary Witch, he was the founder of contemporary Witchcraft practiced as a religion. The form that modern witchcraft has taken today is largely due to Gardner’s imagination and creative flair.

Some consider him a man of great vision and creativity who had the courage to try outrageous things during difficult times. Others look on him as a con man, deceitful and manipulative. He authored the now famous books “Witchcraft Today” and “The Meaning of Witchcraft”, both he wrote in the 1950’s. These two classic books inspired the growth and development of many traditions of modern Witchcraft throughout the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States.


Gardner had a keen interest in magic, and at various tiomes in his life was involved in Freemasonry, spiritualism, Buddhism, and other magical practices. His grandfather is reputed to have married a witch, and he claims others of his distant family had psychic gifts. Gardner believed himself to be a descendant of “Grissell Gairdner”, who was burned as a witch at Newburgh in 1610.


After much travelling in his early years, Gerald settled in Malaysia. There with his interest in history and archaeology, Gardner became fascinated with the local culture and its religious and magical beliefs. Gardner also had a keen interest in all things occult and was particularly drawn to ritual knives and daggers, especially the Malay “Kris” (a dagger with a wavy blade). He made a name for himself in academic circles with his pioneering research into Malaya’s early civilizations. He also gained respect as an Author, and had some of his writings published in the journal of the Malayan branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. After 20 years of study he wrote his first book on the history and folklore of the Malay called "Keris and other Malay Weapons – Singapore, 1936", and became the world's foremost authority on Malaya's indigenous people and their weapons.


After retiring in Malaysia, Gardner returned to England and settled in the New Forrest area of Hampshire, one of the oldest forests in England, Gardner began to explore its history. He soon found that local folklore was steeped in Witchcraft, and curiosity ignited he began to seek out involvement. Through neighbors he became acquainted with a local group of occultist Co-masons, a fraternity that called themselves “The Fellowship of Crotona”. A “Mrs. Besant-Scott” the daughter of “Annie Besant” a Theosophist, and founder of the women’s Co-Masonry movement in England, had established it. (The order was affiliated to the Grand Orient of France, and therefore not recognized by the Masonic Grand Lodge of England.). They had built a small community theatre called “The First Rosicrucian Theatre in England”, and there they used to meet. Gardner joined them and helped to put on amateur plays with occult and spiritual themes.


Within the fellowship another but secret group operated, a member of which spoke to Gardner and claimed to have net him in a previous life, he went on to describe the places Gardner had found in Cyprus. Soon after they drew Gardner into their confidence, claiming to be a group of hereditary Witches practicing a craft passed down to them through the centuries. The group met in the New Forest where he was introduced to “Mrs. Dorothy Clutterbuck”. Old Dorothy as she was affectionately known, accepted Gardner for initiation and in September 1939 at her own home, a big house in the neighborhood, and he was initiated into the old religion. Old Dorothy’s coven was believed to have been the last remains of a coven directly descendant from one of the famed “Nine Coven’s” founded by “Old George Pickingill” some forty years earlier. It was through this group that Gardner met “Dafo”, with whom he later formed his own coven.


In 1947, Gardner was introduced Gardner to Aleister Crowley, the now famous occusltist. Their brief association would later lead to controversy over the authenticity of Gardner’s original “Book of Shadows”. Crowley had allegedly been a member of one of Old George Pickingill’s original Nine Covens in the New Forest, and Gardner was especially interested in the rituals used by that coven, so to augment the fragmented rituals used by his own. He asked Crowley to write down what he could remember and implement them with other magical materials. Crowley by this time was in poor health and only months away from death, but he acquiesced to Gardner’s request. He also made Gardner an honorary member of the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO), a Tantric sex magic order at one time under his leadership, and granted him a charter to operate his own lodge.


Over time Gardner accumulated a vast amount of knowledge on Folklore, Witchcraft, and Magic, and had collected many artifacts and materials on magical procedures and ceremonial magic. Much as he wanted to write about and pass on this knowledge, he was prevented from being too public. Witchcraft was still against the law in England and he was cautioned by Old Dorothy to remain secretive and not to write. Later she reluctantly allowed him to write in the form of fiction. The result was an occult novel called “High Magic’s Aid”. It was published in 1949, by “Michael Houghton” who was also known as “Michael Juste”, the proprietor of the famous Atlantis Bookshop in London. The book contained the basic ideas for what was later to become “Gardnerian Wicca”.


In 1951 there was a resurgence of belief and new interest shown in the Old Religion, brought on by the repeal of the last antiquated witchcraft laws still being enforced in England. Gardner was now free to go public and breaking away from the New Forest coven, he began to establish his own. This change in the law also made it possible for Cecil H. Williamson to open the famous “Museum of Magic and Witchcraft”, (formerly called the Folklore Center) at Castletown in the Isle of Man, where Gerald became known as the “Resident Witch”.


In 1953 Gardner met “Doreen Valiente”, and initiated her into his coven. Doreen proved to be his greatest asset, it was she who helped Gardner rewrite and expand his existing “Book of Shadows”. Collaborating together, they embellished the numerous text and rituals he had collected and claimed to have been passed down to him from the New Forrest Coven. Doreen also weeded out much of Aleister Crowley’s materials on account of his black name, and put more emphasis onto Goddess worship. So it was between them, that Doreen and Gardner established a new working practice, which evolved into what is today one of the leading traditions of the Wicca movement, “Gardnerian Wicca”.


In 1954 Gardner wrote and had published his first non-fiction book on witchcraft, “Witchcraft Today”, which quickly became the foundation text of modern witchcraft. Gardner soon became a media celebrity and courted their attention. He loved being in the spotlight and made numerous public appearances, dubbed by the press as “Britain’s Chief Witch”. However not all the publicity was beneficial. Gardner was a keen naturist and his penchant for ritual nudity was incorporated into the new tradition. This caused conflict with other hereditary witches who claimed that they had always worked robed. Many also believed he was wrong to make so much public, what had always been to them considered secret. They believed that so much publicity would eventually harm the craft.

Gardner became difficult to work with, his egotism and publicity seeking tried the patience of his coven members, even that of Valiente, by now his High Priestess. Splits began to develop in his coven over his relentless pursuit of publicity. He also insisted on using what he claimed were “ancient” Craft laws that gave dominance to the God over the Goddess. The final revolt happened when he declared that the High Priestess should retire when he considered her to old. In 1957, Doreen Valiente and others members having had enough of the gospel according to Gardner, left and went their separate ways. Undaunted, Gardner continued on, he wrote and had published his last book “The Meaning of Witchcraft” in 1959.


In 1962, Gardner started to correspond with an Englishman in America, “Raymond Buckland”. Buckland would later be responsible for introducing the Gardnerian tradition into the United States. They met 1963 in Perth, Scotland, at the home of Gardner’s then High Priestess, “Monique Wilson” (Lady Olwen). Monique initiated Buckland into the craft, just shortly before Gardner left to vacation the winter months in the Lebanon. Gardner would never get to see the impact of his tradition in America. Returning by ship from his vacation, Gardner suffered a fatal heart attack. On the 12th February 1964, he died at the breakfast table on board ship. The following day he was buried on shore in Tunis, his funeral attended only by the Captain of the vessel he had traveled on.

In his will, Gardner bequeathed the museum in Castletown to his High Priestess, Monique Wilson, together with all its artifacts, his personal ritual tools, notebooks, and copyrights to his books. Monique and her husband continued to run the museum, and hold weekly coven meetings in Gardner’s old cottage, - but only for a short time. When they could, they closed the museum down and sold its contents to the “Ripley’s, Believe It Or Not” organization in America. They in turn dispersed the many artifacts amongst its various museums, some they sold on to private collections. Many of Gardner’s supporters were dismayed, even angered by these events and Monique was forced from grace as High Priestess.


Gerald Gardner remains to this day an important figure in Paganism and perhaps the most famed of all Pagans. He has achieved everlasting fame in the legacy of the Gardnerian Tradition he left behind.


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