It has been suggested that New Forest coven be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

The cover of Witchcraft Today, in which Gardner claimed to have encountered religious witchcraft survivals in England.

Gerald Brosseau Gardner (June 13, 1884 - February 12, 1964) was an English civil servant, amateur anthropologist, writer, and occultist who published some of the definitive texts for modern Wicca, which he was instrumental in founding. Image File history File links Please see the file description page for further information. ... The New Forest coven was a witchcraft coven that met in Englands New Forest region. ... Image File history File links Witchcraft_Today_book_cover. ... Image File history File links Witchcraft_Today_book_cover. ... Witchcraft Today is a Non-fiction book written by the inventor of the Wicca religion, Gerald Gardner. ... June 13 is the 164th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (165th in leap years), with 201 days remaining. ... 1884 (MDCCCLXXXIV) is a leap year starting on Tuesday (click on link to calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Thursday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... February 12 is the 43rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Capital London (de facto) Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2006 est. ... Initiation rite of the Yao people of Malawi Anthropology (from the Greek word , man or person) consists of the study of humanity (see genus Homo). ... The term writer can apply to anyone who creates a written work, but the word more usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, or those who have written in many different forms. ... For other uses of this term, see occult (disambiguation). ... The pentagram within a circle, a symbol of faith used by many Wiccans, sometimes called a pentacle. ...

Life

Gardner was born in Crosby, near Liverpool, England to a well-off family who had in their service Josephine "Com" McCombie, an Irish nursemaid^[1]. The family business was Joseph Gardner & Sons, the Empire's oldest and largest importer of hardwood. Gardner had been suffering asthma at the time, bearing the illness from a young age, and his nursemaid had offered to take him to the warmer climates of the Continent. They both eventually settled in Asia, where Gardner stayed for a large portion of his young-adult life. Antony Gormleys Another Place on Crosby Beach Crosby is a suburban area and Parliamentary Constituency of Sefton, Merseyside, North West England. ... Liverpool is a major city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Capital London (de facto) Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2006 est. ...

Beginning in 1908 he was a rubber planter, first in Borneo and then in Malaya. After 1923 he held civil service posts as a government inspector in Malaya. In 1936, at the age of 52, he retired to England. He published an authoritative text, Keris and other Malay Weapons (1936), based on his field research into southeast Asian weapons and magical practices. 1908 (MCMVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Latex being collected from a tapped rubber tree Rubber is an elastic hydrocarbon polymer which occurs as a milky colloidal suspension (known as latex) in the sap of several varieties of plants. ... Borneo (left) and Sulawesi. ... Map of Peninsular Malaysia Peninsular Malaysia (Malay: Semenanjung Malaysia) is the part of Malaysia which lies on the Malay Peninsula, and shares a land border with Thailand in the north. ... 1923 (MCMXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... Map of Peninsular Malaysia Peninsular Malaysia (Malay: Semenanjung Malaysia) is the part of Malaysia which lies on the Malay Peninsula, and shares a land border with Thailand in the north. ... 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Capital London (de facto) Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2006 est. ... World map showing the location of Asia. ... The Sorceress by John William Waterhouse Magic and sorcery are the influencing of events, objects, people and physical phenomena by mystical or paranormal means. ...

Apparently on medical advice, he took up naturism on his return to England, and also pursued his interest in the occult. Those who knew him within the modern witchcraft movement recalled how he was a firm believer in the theraputic benefits of sunbathing.^[2] ... The word occult comes from the Latin occultus (clandestine, hidden, secret), referring to the knowledge of the secret or knowledge of the hidden and often popularly meaning knowledge of the supernatural, as opposed to knowledge of the visible or knowledge of the measurable, usually referred to as science. ...

Gardner published two works of fiction, A Goddess Arrives (1939) and High Magic's Aid (1949) under the pen name of Scire. These were followed by two books, Witchcraft Today (1954) and The Meaning of Witchcraft (1959), in which Gardner claimed that he had been initiated into a surviving tradition of English witchcraft. He claimed that High Magic's Aid had been an attempt to portray the tradition under the guise of fiction, without revealing oath-bound material, but that following the repeal of the Witchcraft Act in 1951 he had received permission from others in the coven to discuss the tradition more openly in the two non-fiction books. 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ... Witchcraft Today is a Non-fiction book written by the inventor of the Wicca religion, Gerald Gardner. ... Year 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Witchcraft, in various historical, religious and mythological contexts, is the use of certain kinds of alleged supernatural or magical powers. ... In England, a succession of Witchcraft Acts have governed witchcraft and provided penalties for its practice. ...

Gardner was married once to a woman named Donna who remained his loyal companion for 33 years during which she never took part in the craft or his activities within it. Gardner was devastated by her passing and began to suffer once more his childhood affliction of asthma.

In 1964, after suffering a heart attack, Gardner died at sea on a ship returning from Lebanon. He was buried on the shore of Tunisia. 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ...

Wicca

Gardner claimed to have been initiated in 1939 into a tradition of religious witchcraft that he believed to be a continuation of European Paganism. The group he supposedly joined is known as the New Forest coven. Doreen Valiente, one of Gardner's priestesses, later identified the woman who initiated Gardner as Dorothy Clutterbuck based on references Valiente remembered Gardner making to a woman he called "Old Dorothy".^[3] Scholar Ronald Hutton instead argues that Gardner's witchcraft tradition was largely the inspiration of members of the Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship and especially a woman known by the magical name of "Dafo".^[4] Dr. Leo Ruickbie concluded that Aleister Crowley played a crucial role in inspiring Gardner to establish a new pagan religion.^[5] Ruickbie, Hutton, and others further argue that much of what has been published of Gardnerian Wicca, as Gardner's practice came to be known by, was written by Doreen Valiente and Aleister Crowley and also contains borrowings from other identifiable sources.^{[citation needed]}. Gerald Gardner was an initiate of the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO) under Crowley, and sections of Gardner's third degree Wiccan initiation ritual are lifted directly from Crowley's "Gnostic Mass," written for the OTO in 1913. This is consistent with Gardner's claims that the rituals he had received were fragmentary, and that he had incorporated other material to make a coherent system.^[6] Heathen redirects here. ... The New Forest coven was a witchcraft coven that met in Englands New Forest region. ... Doreen Valiente (1922 - 1999) was a co-creator of Wicca, together with Gerald Gardner. ... Dorothy Clutterbuck (January 19, 1880–January 12, 1951), also known as Old Dorothy, was a well-to-do woman who lived near Christchurch, England, whom Gerald Gardner claimed had initiated him into witchcraft. ... Ronald Hutton is Professor of History at the University of Bristol and is an occasional commentator on British television and radio on the history of paganism in the British Isles. ... The Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship was a supposedly-Rosicrucian group founded by George Alexander Sullivan in about 1924. ... Dafo is the magical name (an occultists pseudonym) for an otherwise anonymous woman that researchers such as Ronald Hutton and Philip Heselton have come to view as an important contributer to the development of Gardnerian Witchcraft, and therefore Wicca. ... Aleister Crowley, born Edward Alexander Crowley, (12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947; the surname is pronounced // i. ... This article or section contains information that has not been verified and thus might not be reliable. ... Doreen Valiente (1922 - 1999) was a co-creator of Wicca, together with Gerald Gardner. ... Aleister Crowley, born Edward Alexander Crowley, (12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947; the surname is pronounced // i. ... Lamen of Ordo Templi Orientis Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.) (Order of the Temple of the East, or the Order of Oriental Templars) is an international fraternal and religious organization. ...

There is a claim that Gardner founded an order of Wicca called the Wiccan Order in 1959.^[7] There is disagreement as to whether there is sufficient evidence for the existence of any such order. A religious order may mean any of the following: // In Buddhist societies such as Sri Lanka, Thailand, Korea and Tibet, a religious order is one of the strikingly large number of monastic orders of monks and nuns. ... The pentagram within a circle, a symbol of faith used by many Wiccans, sometimes called a pentacle. ... Year 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Bibliography

• 1936: Keris and Other Malay Weapons
• 1939: A Goddess Arrives (fiction)
• 1949: High Magic's Aid (fiction)
• 1954: Witchcraft Today
• 1959: The Meaning of Witchcraft

Notes and references

1. ^ Themystica.com: Gardner, Gerald B.
2. ^ Valiente, Doreen (1989). Rebirth of Withcraft. Phoenix Publishing. ISBN 0-919345-39-5
3. ^ Farrar, Janet & Steward (2002). A Witches' Bible. Robert Hale. ISBN 0-7090-7227-9
4. ^ Hutton, Ronald (2001). The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-285449-6
5. ^ Ruickbie, Leo (2004). Witchcraft out of the Shadows: A Complete History. Robert Hale Limited. ISBN 0-7090-7567-7
6. ^ Gardner, Gerald. Witchcraft Today. 
7. ^ [1] Facsimile of this Charter in Geoffrey Basil Smith: "Knights of the Solar Cross", 1983

External links

• GeraldGardner.com an online reference resource
• Biography at Controverscial.com
• Biography at About.com