GERALD GARDNER:
MODERN PAGAN WITCHCRAFT
Pop culture has inundated our brains with an endless amount of Wiccan stories, movies, and well, culture. Oh, you bet I’m a fan of The Craft! Come on, we all wanted to be Nancy Downs, right?
Well, disregarding my obsession with this 90s classic, everything this movie preaches about Wicca is wrong. You might have thought it was centuries upon centuries old, but guess what? Wrong! Believe it or not, this religion was born of a nudist colony in the 1930s with a small coven who named themselves New Forest. No, they weren’t praying to the mighty god named “Manon,” who controls the elements. They helped Wicca rapidly grow in just a span of 70 years.
In the mid-1930s, Gerald Gardner—an amateur anthropologist and archaeologist, returned to Britain for his retirement. Gardner felt that the climate here was making him sick and sought treatment. His doctor recommended he’d try nudism. Reluctant at first, Gerald gave it a try by visiting several nudist clubs. Positive nudity was the cure to his ailment; he created the New Forest Coven.
NEW FOREST COVEN
To understand Gardner’s obsession with the occult, you have to dig a bit into his past. His family made a fortune in the timber trade which allowed them to send him abroad with his nanny. Left alone to fend for himself, Gardner found a passion for learning.
He enjoyed studying about tribals rituals in the many countries he visited, mostly in the far east. His fascination: tribal magic. It was said that between his infatuation with magic and Arthur Conan Doyle—who delved in spiritualism, Gerald began to experiment with seances and finding what he considered to be his spiritual haven.
Arriving back in Britain, it was here he found many freemasons who felt the same passion and indulged in the new English ritual tradition: witchcraft.
The Witches’ Cottage, where Gardner and his coven performed their rituals via Wikipedia Common
MAGIC
“Great Circle” was erected at night, with a “great cone of power”—a form of magical energy—being raised and sent to Berlin with the command of “you cannot cross the sea, you cannot cross the sea, you cannot come, you cannot come.” – Gerald Gardner
He knew this was the place and time where he could convince others that magic was real.
Gardner’s Book of Shadows via Wikimedia Commons
BOOK
Many people say this book is what lead to Britain banning their hate and laws against witchcraft.
RIPLEY COLLECTION
Take a look for yourself:
Ripley’s Gerald Gardner Wax Figure
Talisman of Gerald Gardner. Brass plate on four legs. It is engraved with 7 astrological symbols.
WICCA LIVES ON
The Magicians Room at his museum via geraldgardner.com
Do you believe in Gerald Gardner’s Wiccan religion? Let us know if the comments below!
source ripleys
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