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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 .
He was instrumental in bringing the modern pagan religion of Wicca to public attention, writing some of its definitive religious texts and founding the tradition of Gardnerian Wicca. Born into an upper-middle-class family in Blundellsands, Lancashire, Gardner spent much of his childhood abroad in Madeira. In 1900, he moved to colonial Ceylon.
The history of Wicca documents the rise of the Neopagan religion of Wicca and related witchcraft-based Neopagan religions. [a] Wicca originated in the early 20th century, when it developed amongst secretive covens in England who were basing their religious beliefs and practices upon what they read of the historical witch-cult in the works of such writers as Margaret Murray.
The Witches' Cottage in 2006. Close up of door. End view. The Witches' Cottage, where the Bricket Wood coven met to celebrate the sabbats and esbats. The Bricket Wood coven, or Hertfordshire coven [1] is a coven of Gardnerian witches founded in the 1940s by Gerald Gardner.
Gardnerian Wicca Lois Bourne (10 April 1928 – 22 December 2017) who also went under the craft name Tanith , was an influential figure in the Neopagan religion of Wicca , having been involved in it from the early 1960s, and wrote a number of books on the subject.
The New Forest coven was an alleged group of pagan witches who met around the area of the New Forest in Southern England during the early 20th century. According to his own claims, in September 1939, a British occultist named Gerald Gardner was initiated into the coven and subsequently used its beliefs and practices as a basis from which he formed the tradition of Gardnerian Wicca.
In 1953, Doreen Valiente joined Gardner's Bricket Wood coven, and soon rose to become its High Priestess.She noticed how much of the material in his Book of Shadows was taken not from ancient sources as Gardner had initially claimed, but from the works of the occultist Aleister Crowley, from Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, from the Key of Solomon and also from the rituals of Freemasonry. [8]
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.