Gerald Gardner (1884–1964) was an English civil servant and amateur archaeologist who engineered the mid-20th-century revival of British witchcraft. A prominent occult practitioner, he became known as the father of modern Wicca. He spent much of his young life in East Asia, working on tea and rubber plantations. It was here that he first became acquainted with rituals and seances.
Towards the end of his working life, he was working in Malaysia as a civil servant. After returning to England at the request of his wife, he became involved in nudism to alleviate longstanding ill-health issues caused by the temperate climate.
Introduction to Witchcraft
In 1939, Gardner claimed to have been initiated into a pagan New Forest coven of witches. It was this same coven that later performed the ‘Operation Cone of Power’ ritual on one Lammas Eve during WW2. Sheltered inside the New Forest, the witches summoned a powerful cone of energy to thwart the imminent Nazi invasion across the English Channel. Did it work? Well, the Nazis never came.
This was much like the witches’ ritual performed in 1588 against the invading Spanish Armada, and which led to dozens of Spanish ships becoming wrecked on the rocks along the Scottish and Irish coasts.
I have read a biography of Gerald Gardner by one of his fellow coven members, Barrington Roy Schiller: ‘Gerald Gardner and the Bricket Wood Coven.’ The book might have done with a little professional editing and formatting, but it does include many interesting nuggets about Gardner’s life up to 1936, when he discovered the village of Bricket Wood, just north of London. Here, he founded his famous coven, which still exists today.
Following the repeal of the British Witchcraft Act in 1951, Gardner published his two most influential works: Witchcraft Today (1954) and The Meaning of Witchcraft (1959). They chronicle the bedrock of the modern religion known as Wicca, the only organised religion to originate in the U.K.
Witchcraft Today
I have read Witchcraft Today, and I’m looking forward to reading the other book shortly. I gained a good grounding in the origins of British witchcraft. The author also touches on the subject’s global reach, particularly its use in Africa. Gardner based this book on material he gathered from his initiation into the New Forest coven in the 1940s. Nobody has confirmed the existence of this coven, though certain members, such as occult author Margaret Murray, are real.
It’s often believed that Gardner may have padded his newly acquired New Forest knowledge with whatever other source material he could find. With the repeal of the Witchcraft Act occurring three years before, few witches would have been ready to disclose the secrets of their rituals.
With no internet, Gardner would need to rely on other sources, perhaps like John Holden from Night of the Demon, visiting the British Museum to peruse the old occult tomes locked away. This didn’t mean Gardner made stuff up, but the shortage of available data would have disadvantaged him.
Gardner reckoned to see auras on bare flesh caused by the electromagnetic fields surrounding living humans. He also believed that some people are born with clairvoyant powers. Ritualistic witchcraft was born from the need to increase these occult powers.
Witchcraft Persecution
In Chapter 4, Gardner observes that it was chiefly the ‘intelligent classes’ attracted to witchcraft: ‘craftsmen, soldiers, merchants, doctors, sailors, farmers and clerks.’ These weren’t your typical dropouts or insiders, but people seeking adventure – ‘the bright young things of the period.’
Witches often possessed skills which were useful to the community. This could make persecuting them economically unviable. Usually, it was the wealthier citizens who were under suspicion for being witches and dabblers in the occult. Gardner writes: “If they got drunk and beat their wives, they were free from suspicion.”
It was the persecution of witches that led to covens going underground, a coerced retreat that remains largely true today, despite it being illegal to burn or hang a witch in today’s more liberal-thinking Britain.
Downsizing
Witchcraft went from holding huge Sabbats outdoors with thousands in attendance and many circles drawn on fields and the like, to small gatherings in private rooms, significantly reducing the magickal energies raised. The more initiates shrieking and dancing about wildly, the greater the number and size of circles, the more magical energy raised. As Gardner put it, the blood must be ‘stirred and quickened, for truly the Blood is the Life’. (Gardner, Gerald B. Witchcraft Today (p. 153). Kindle Edition.)
Credit: Ruhrgur
Skyclad
Most rituals aim to invoke a spirit and command it to perform a service. This is the very essence of magic. The circle offers protection for the initiates involved in the summoning.
There would usually be thirteen inside each circle: one high priestess and six couples. The participants would arrive already naked so they could flee in an instant if necessary. Clothes were only an encumbrance should the enemy lay an ambush. Better to flee like nymphs into the forest.
Those gathered would rub their bare skin with an oil, maybe vervain, to keep them warm – essential with England’s often inclement weather. When dancing, this oil would heat up and give off fumes, exciting the general frenzy of the dance further.
A common charge against witches was that they possessed invisibility powers. Often, witches would rub soot into the oil, allowing their skin to blend into the night. Less a spell than a cunning piece of camouflage.
In Chapter 8, Gardner tells of his time in New Orleans where all ethnic groups would attend the Voodoo festivals, including even the Irish police who would feign ignorance but often ‘strip off their uniforms and join in the revelries. This indeed is a common joke in New Orleans.’ Later, in the same chapter, Gardner writes, ‘The tribal rites of most primitive peoples include purification, tests of fortitude, instruction in tribal lore, sexual knowledge, charms, religious and magical knowledge, and often a ritual of death and resurrection.’ (Gardner, Gerald B. Witchcraft Today (p. 100). Kindle Edition.)
The Wida
Witches call themselves the Wida, or the ‘wise people.’ They braved horrific persecution – often through immolation – to preserve their age-old rites and herbal knowledge. Often, they would sacrifice themselves to save others under suspicion. After Pope Innocent III denounced ancient faiths as Christian heresy, a staggering nine million people, Gardner alleges, were tortured to death for their practice of witchcraft (historians have reduced this figure to 100,000 – still far too many). Before torture, ‘the accused was forced to drink the witch-broth, a disgusting concoction mixed with the ashes of burnt witches, and supposed to protect the torturers against the evil influence of witchcraft.’ (Gardner, Gerald B. Witchcraft Today (p. 113). Kindle Edition.
Gerald Gardner gave himself a distinctive demonic appearance, combing his beard into a narrow barbiche and his hair into two horns. He also boasted several tattoos of magical symbols and wore a heavy bronze bracelet denoting the three degrees of witchcraft. He engraved his witch name, Scire, in magical letters on a large silver ring.
While returning from a sea voyage to Lebanon in 1964, Gerald Gardner died of a heart attack, aged 79. His grave lies in Tunisia.