Ch.1 - Emergence (WMB 1.f)
Extract from: Wicca: Magical Beginnings written by d’Este & Rankine, 2008 (Avalonia.) PB / Kindle @ https://amzn.to/3Ay4HJr. Shared here with the intention to inspire and inform the now and future generations interested in Wicca and other Pagan traditions inspired by it.
In the years from 1936-1954, Gardner was at different times a member of the Ancient Druid Order, the Ordo Templi Orientis, the Ancient British Church, the Folklore Society and possibly the Orthodox Catholic Church in England. This diversity points to a man seeking knowledge, and trying to fulfil a spiritual need. This can also be seen in the many significant figures in the magickal revival that Gardner would have contact with, such as Aleister Crowley, W.B. Crow, Margaret Murray, Ross Nichols, Madeline Montalban, Idries Shah, Kenneth Grant and Austin Osman Spare.
Gardner also had assistance from other magickians in making his important works presentable. The angel magician Madeline Montalban (Dolores North) tidied up High Magic’s Aid for Gardner (acknowledged in a letter to Cecil Williamson from June 1951). Ross Nichols, editor of the translation of Paul Christian’s classic nineteenth century History and Practice of Magic, was said to have edited Witchcraft Today with a firm hand.
“It’s very funy. Mrs North is ‘Delores’. She used to work at the Atlantis Bookshop, + she typed + put the spelling right in High Magics Aid.”<1>
Gardner was the self-appointed father of this new movement, with the many high priestesses he initiated and worked with during this period of his life, the mothers who would in turn birth many covens and initiates in the decades to follow.
The 1960’s, with its newfound sexual and spiritual freedom, provided the backdrop for the establishment of Wicca as a worldwide tradition, primarily through the work of Alex and Maxine Sanders. They would further promote the ideals and practices to the public arena through their involvement with the mass media and through their arduous work to establish a community. Their work would continue for many decades and it is particularly the work they did in providing training and facilitating initiations that would in turn lead the way in the worldwide pagan revival.
<1> Letter from Gardner to Cecil Williamson, June 1951 (also showing Gardner’s bad spelling)
Extract from: Wicca: Magical Beginnings written by d’Este & Rankine, 2008 (Avalonia.) PB / Kindle @ https://amzn.to/3Ay4HJr. Shared here with the intention to inspire and inform the now and future generations interested in Wicca and other Pagan traditions inspired by it.
