Wiccan Traditions: Gardnerian Wicca

This is a closed initiatory Tradition which was founded in England in 1953 by Gerald Gardner and further developed by Doreen Valiente and others. Gardner was allegedly initiated into a coven of Witches in the New Forest region of England in 1939 by a High Priestess named 'Old Dorothy' Clutterbuck.

In 1949 he wrote High Magic's Aid, a novel about medieval Witchcraft in which quite a bit of the Craft as practiced by the coven was used. In 1951 the last of the English laws against Witchcraft were repealed (primarily due to to the pressure of Spiritualists) and Gardner published Witchcraft Today, which set forth a version of rituals and traditions of that coven.

Gardner gave his Tradition a ritual framework strongly influenced by Freemasonry and Crowleyan ceremonial magic, as well as traditional folk magic and Tantric Hinduism. The Tradition was brought to the USA in 1965 by Raymond & Rosemary Buckland, who were initiated in 1964 by the Gardner's High Priestess, Lady Olwen. Since his "outing," it has been argued that whether he was initiated into an ancient coven or not, most of the Gardnerian system is not ancient at all (see Origins of Wicca). Rather, Gardner created his system from his work with ceremonial magick and Aleister Crowley, studies of the OTO and Golden Dawn, and literature by writers such as Charles Leland, Robert Graves, and Margaret Murray.

Nevertheless, he is responsible for bringing witchcraft back out of the broom closet and gave birth to the modern form we call "Wicca." Gardnerian covens are always headed by a High Priestess and have three degrees of initiation closely paralleling the Masonic degrees. Worship is centered on the Goddess and the Horned God. The tradition emphasizes polarity in all things, fertility, and the cycle of birth-death-rebirth. Eight seasonal Sabbats are observed, and the Wiccan Rede is the guiding principle. Power is raised through scourging and sex magick ("The Great Rite"), as well as meditation, chanting, astral projection, dancing, wine and cords. Designed for group/coven work, through solitary workings have been created. Covens work skyclad.