Gerald Brosseau Gardner

Gerald Gardner badge on his former home

Gerald Brosseau Gardner (born June 13, 1884 in Blundellsands , Merseyside ; † February 12, 1964 at sea, coming from Lebanon ) was an English colonial official, author, occultist and the founder of the Wicca religion.

Biography and work

As a child, Gardner traveled regularly through Germany because of his asthma problem. As an adult he settled in Ceylon and ran a tea plantation there. He later moved from Ceylon to Malaysia and studied the country's ancient cultures. He was particularly interested in the magical rites and the use of magical weapons.

In 1936 he published the book Keris and other Malay Weapons , which dealt with his earlier studies of ancient cultures. In the same year he moved to England with his wife Donna .

He got to know Cyprus on one of his trips . He was fascinated by this island and thought he knew it from a previous life. He also dedicated his second book, A Goddess Arrives , to Cyprus , which he published in 1939 under the pseudonym Scire . When Gardner moved to the New Forest area , he came across the Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship , became a member and met Dorothy Clutterbuck. Dorothy Clutterbuck was (later next to Gardner) head of a secret group of hereditary witches, the so-called New Forest Coven . Gardner was initiated into this coven in 1939 . In the same year he also became a member of the Folklore Society and got in touch with Margaret Murray . He later met Edith Rose Woodford-Grimes (also known as Dafo ).

With the permission of Dorothy Clutterbuck or the permission of her coven, he published his second novel High Magic's Aid in 1949 . This book describes the main features of the Gardnerian tradition , but in a purely fictional form. This book was also published under the pseudonym Scir . The content of the novel should also promote and transform the general public's understanding of witchcraft. Allegedly under the influence of the book, the Witchcraft Acts , which prohibit the practice of witchcraft, were repealed in the UK in 1951 . In 1951 Edith Woodford-Grime founded the first proven coven, the Northern Coven. The Northern Coven, which was later called Bricket Wood Coven, was the counterpart of the Southern Coven (New Forest Coven). These foundations represent the hour of birth of the modern witch cult.

Before the start of the Second World War, Gardner met Arnold Crowther. This introduced Gardner to Aleister Crowley in 1946 . Gardner met Crowley three times and was initiated in his Ordo Templi Orientis for the VII °. After Crowley's death, Gardner had frequent contact with his student Kenneth Grant . He was known to Austin Osman Spare , from whom he occasionally had talismans and amulets made, and made friends with Ross Nichols , who later founded the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids .

In 1953, Gardner met Doreen Valiente , who was later initiated in his coven. With her, Gardner revised the book of shadows , which he said he originally received from Dorothy Clutterbuck. She replaced a large part of the passages in the Book of Shadows, which were influenced by Aleister Crowley , with texts influenced by the goddess cult and supplemented the book with numerous prosaic texts. Gardner and Valiente developed a practice now known as the Garderian Wicca .

Gardner laid the foundation for the modern witch religion Wicca in the magazine Witchcraft Today in 1954 (Gardner himself used the spelling Wica ). Gardner worked with Cecil Williamson at the Museum of Witchcraft on the Isle of Man , which later moved to Boscastle , Cornwall . Many of Gardner's letters, notes, and pictures are on display in the museum.

The fact that Gardner did not shy away from the limelight and had extreme views on the ritual nudity, which he celebrated through regular performance of sex magic rites, led to a falling out with his coven. In 1957, Doreen Valiente and other members left this coven. Gardner continued the coven and published his last book, The Meaning of Witchcraft , in 1959 .

A year later he initiated Patricia Dawson, who in turn initiated Gardner's old friend Arnold Crowther. Patricia Dawson married Arnold Crowther and continued his tradition under the name Patricia Crowther after Gardner's death. Gardner's wife, Donna, died in 1960. Most recently Gardner initiated Raymond Buckland. It was he who brought the Wicca religion to the USA through his then high priestess Monique Wilson .

Gerald Gardner died on February 12, 1964 while on a voyage. His grave is in Tunis .

Fonts

• Keris and Other Malay Weapons. Progressive, Singapore 1936.
• A Goddess Arrives. A novel. AH Stockwell, London 1939.
• High Magic's Aid . 1949. Published: Weiser, New York 1975. New edition: Aurinia Books, 2010, ISBN 978-0-9566182-0-7 .
• Witchcraft Today . Introduction by Margaret Murray . Rider and Co., London et al. 1954. New edition: Citadel Press, New York NY 2004, ISBN 0-8065-2593-2 .
  • German edition: Origin and Reality of Witches. Translated by Ursula von Mangoldt . OW Barth, Weilheim 1965.
  • New edition: The Wisdom of Wicca - The legendary book "Witchcraft Today" . Aurinia Verlag, Hamburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-937392-87-5 .
• The meaning of witchcraft. Aquarian Press, London 1959. New edition: Weiser, Boston 2004, ISBN 1-57863-309-5 .
• The Museum of Magic and Witchcraft. The story of the famous witches mill at Castletown, Isle of Man. Self-published, 1957.

literature

• Ronald Hutton: The Triumph of the Moon. A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2001, ISBN 0-19-285449-6 .
• Hugh B. Urban: Magia Sexualis: Sex, Magic, and Liberation in Modern Western Esotericism. University of California Press, Berkeley 2006, ISBN 0-520-24776-0 , pp. 162-190.

Web links

• www.geraldgardner.com (English)
• Morgan Davis: From Man to Witch (PDF; 287 kB)
• Gardner, Gerald B. (1884-1964) , short biography on themystica.com (Engl.)
• Biography Gardner