~Why I'm not Wiccan~
"Do what ye will shall be the whole of the law..."
Wicca: The World's Oldest Religion?
Wiccans have told me over and over again that Wicca is the world's oldest religion and that Wicca is older than Christianity. Problem is, that is a lie! Aidan Kelly, Ph.D., founder of two of the largest witchcraft organizations in America exposes this myth. The write up for his book, Crafting the Art of Magic - book 1 puts it this way, "Kelly himself wanted to believe that Wicca was the rediscovering of ancient Goddess-worshipping people. However, his research proved that this is not the case." In fact, Gerald Gardner (1884-1964) is the inventor of the cult of Wicca. In his book, At the Heart of Darkness, John Parker says, "retired (British) civil servant Gerald Brosseau Gardner, inventor of a witch cult (was) an old fraud." But why would Parker say that? I'll tell you why. "There is much evidence suggesting that Gardner concocted most of his rituals and legends from his own furtile imagination and that he promoted witchcraft for economic and sexual reasons." The article goes on to say that any witchcraft group that claims roots prior to 1950 is highly suspect. In short, today's Wicca or witchcraft is a modern cult originating in the 1950's and can not legitimately claim to be older than Christianity.
Guiley has observed, "It is difficult to say whether Gardner intended to create a new religion or whether it grew spontaneously from public interest in his writings" (Ibid.). However, Frank Smyth writes in Man, Myth and Magic, "In the absence of any evidence except hearsay, there is a strong case in favour of the suggestion that Gardner invented the cult of Wicca to satisfy his own sense of the esoteric" (Richard Cavendish, Editor, Vol. 14, p. 1869). Other authors have indicated that Gardner's revival of Witchcraft also "centered mainly around discreet sexual frolics in the nude, aided by drugs" (Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology, Leslie Shepard, Vol. 1, p. 366)
Although many pagan and witchcraft traditions can be traced back to pre-historic times, the religion known as Wicca began in the UK in the 1950's from the teachings of Gerald Gardner. This earliest form of Wicca, known as Gardnerian Wicca, is a system based on individual groups, known as covens, all of which can trace their lineages back to Gardner. Other forms of traditional Wicca that have evolved from the Gardnerian tradition include Alexandrian and Seax traditions.
Wiccan History
Important links to follow to learn more...
Comments from other Writers about Gerald Gardner:
Julia Phillips [1991] points out that:
It seems to me quite clear that even if Gardner received a traditional set of rituals from his coven, they must have been exceptionally sparse, as the concepts that we know of as Wicca today certainly derive from ceremonial magic and Freemasonry to a very great extent. Indeed, Gardner always claimed that they were sparse.
It could be argued that all derive from a common source. That the appearance of a phrase, or technique in one tradition does not automatically suggest that its appearance elsewhere means that the one was taken from the other. However, Gardner admits his sources in many cases, and Doreen confirms them in others, so I think it is safe to presume that the rituals and philosophy used by Wicca descends from the traditions of Freemasonry and Ceremonial magic, rather than from a single common source.
The next is Firehouse interviewing Doreen Valiente:
FH: Maybe it's karma or the threefold return, and they're saying, "We'll give it to her one way or the other."
DV: I don't believe this stuff about the threefold return, you know. I've always been very skeptical about that, but I'm a lot more skeptical than I used to be. The older I get, the more skeptical I get. I don't believe in all sorts of things that I used to believe in
FH: Where do you think the threefold idea came from?
DV: I think old Gerald cooked it up in one of his rituals, and people took it terribly literally. Personally, I've always been skeptical about it because it doesn't seem to me to make sense. I don't see why there has to be one special law of karma for Witches and a different one for everybody else. I don't buy that. But there's an awful lot of things I don't buy.
Misc info
In 1947, his friend Arnold Crowther introduced Gardner to Aleister Crowley. Their brief association would later lead to controversy over the authenticity of Gardner’s original “Book of Shadows”. Crowley had allegedly been a member of one of Old George Pickingill’s original Nine Covens in the New Forest, and Gardner was especially interested in the rituals used by that coven, so to augment the fragmented rituals used by his own. He asked Crowley to write down what he could remember and implement them with other magical materials. Crowley by this time was in poor health and only months away from death, but he acquiesced to Gardner’s request. He also made Gardner an honorary member of the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO), a Tantric sex magic order at one time under his leadership, and granted him a charter to operate his own lodge. Crowley was also an acquaintance of Cecil Williamson.
In 1953 Gardner met “Doreen Valiente”, and initiated her into his coven. Doreen proved to be his greatest asset, it was she who helped Gardner rewrite and expand his existing “Book of Shadows”. Collaborating together, they embellished the numerous text and rituals he had collected and claimed to have been passed down to him from the New Forrest Coven. Doreen also weeded out much of Aleister Crowley’s materials on account of his black name, and put more emphasis onto Goddess worship. So it was between them, that Doreen and Gardner established a new working practice, which evolved into what is today one of the leading traditions of the Wicca movement, “Gardnerian Wicca”.
Gardner became difficult to work with, his egotism and publicity seeking tried the patience of his coven members, even that of Valiente, by now his High Priestess. Splits began to develop in his coven over his relentless pursuit of publicity. He also insisted on using what he claimed were “ancient” Craft laws that gave dominance to the God over the Goddess. The final revolt happened when he declared that the High Priestess should retire when he considered her to old. In 1957, Doreen Valiente and others members having had enough of the gospel according to Gardner, left and went their separate ways. Undaunted, Gardner continued on, he wrote and had published his last book “The Meaning of Witchcraft” in 1959.