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Gardnerian Wicca, or Gardnerian witchcraft, is a tradition in the neopagan religion of Wicca, whose members can trace initiatory descent from Gerald Gardner. [1] The tradition is itself named after Gardner (1884–1964), a British civil servant and amateur scholar of magic .
Founding a Wiccan group known as the Bricket Wood coven, he introduced a string of High Priestesses into the religion, including Doreen Valiente, Lois Bourne, Patricia Crowther and Eleanor Bone, through which the Gardnerian community spread throughout Britain and subsequently into Australia and the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
In Australia, Wicca "found a receptive social environment because of the long-standing presence and familiarity of Aboriginal culture with its 'pagan' (i.e. 'non-Christian') beliefs and practices". [43] Gardnerian Wicca came to the United States through an Englishman who had recently emigrated to the US, named Raymond Buckland, and his wife ...
A key belief in Wicca is that the gods are able to manifest in personal form, either through dreams, as physical manifestations, or through the bodies of Priestesses and Priests. Both deities are connected to all religion. Gardnerian Wicca as a denomination is primarily concerned with the priestess or priest's relationship to the Goddess and ...
Wicca (English: / ˈ w ɪ k ə /), also known as "The Craft", [1] is a modern pagan, syncretic, earth-centered religion.Considered a new religious movement by scholars of religion, the path evolved from Western esotericism, developed in England during the first half of the 20th century, and was introduced to the public in 1954 by Gerald Gardner, a retired British civil servant.
"Wicca is a religion whose beginnings go back to the UK in the 1930s," Berger tells TODAY.com. "There is a ritual calendar of the 8 sabbats that denote the beginning and height of each season."
A sword or a ritual knife, commonly known as Athame, is often used in Wiccan ritual. In Gardnerian Wicca these are symbolic of the element of fire. [4] Athame is elemental in nature while the sword is planetary in nature. [11] Athame is traditionally black-handled and usually inscribed (sometimes in the Theban alphabet).
Gerald Gardner, the "father of Wicca", first introduced the Book of Shadows to people that he had initiated into the craft through his Bricket Wood coven in the 1950s. He claimed that it was a personal cookbook of spells that have worked for the owner; they could copy from his own book and add material as they saw fit.