Born in 1884, Gerald Brosseau Gardner was a flamboyant and assertive personality and truly a cornerstone figure in the creation of modern paganism. He had developed an interest in anthropology and the occult ( meaning hidden or secret) while working in Malaya as a tea and rubber planter and a Customs officer, and on retiring to England in 1936 he made this his prime preoccupation. In Hampshire in 1939 he joined a witch coven preserving unbroken medieval traditions, and from 1951 onwards he publicly promoted a fertility religion we now call Wicca. He recruited members into an organized initiatory order of several grades, for which he composed rituals and spells under the title "A Book of Shadows" his system showed similarities to Freemasonry, and to ceremonial magic as practised by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and others in the early 20th century. His Witchcraft Today (1954) is the foundation of Wicca and he also set up a Museum of Witchcraft at Castletown (Isle of Man). He passed away on this day (1964) on the ship "Scottish Prince" while sailing off the North African coast.
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BOOKS BY GERALD B. GARDNER:
* Witchcraft Today
* The Meaning of Witchcraft
* Witchcraft and the Book of Shadows:
The Definitive Record of the Practises of Wicca
* Gardner's Book of Shadows
1 comment:
Thanks for this info. Kind of nice to transition on a ship voyage.
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