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•  What is 'Gardnerian' Witchcraft?

If you're not sure exactly what Gardnerian Witchcraft is, you could perhaps start off by reading this article which I wrote as a handout for the 2005 conference of the Transpersonal Psychology Section of the British Psychological Association. It introduces the main characters involved in the early, Modern Witchcraft movement, and gives a brief history with regards to the Crafts subsequent propagation and diversification.

 

Essentially, Gardnerian Witchcraft is the name given to the spiritual path that initiates of Gerald Gardner follow. Gardner's book 'Witchcraft Today' was integral to this movement and other influences included the work of Dr Margaret Murray, Charles Leland, Aleister Crowley, and various other writers and occultists are also known to have influenced both Gardner and the development of the 'Book of Shadows', an online version of which can be found here. This particular version draws heavily on the Weschcke Documents, the name commonly given to a set of documents, typed up by Gardner, which were sent to Carl Weschcke, CEO of Llewellyn, by Charles Clark in 1969. In actuality, there were several different versions of the Book of Shadows around in the 1950s and 60s. This is because the Book of Shadows was a work in progress and some people received pieces that others did not; there are also some commonly shared sections which help to define them as 'Gardnerian'.

◉ You can find a nice little article about Witches, featuring a picture of Dr Margaret Murray, taken from Everywoman (November 1963) here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.

 

◉ You can also check out my Gerald Gardner page, Gardnerian History as well as my Links page for other sites with information about modern Witchcraft.

•  Why Wica with one 'c'?

In his books, Gerald Gardner used the one 'c' form, Wica, to describe the people involved in the tradition of Witchcraft that he was initiated into. If you check out  the newspaper articles on my Gerald Gardner page, you will see him continuing to use the one 'c'  spelling in interviews that he gave throughout the 1950s. Similarly, Charles Clark insisted on using Wica and considered the two 'c' form Wicca to be connected with the members of another tradition, associated with the magician and conjurer Charles Cardell, who was linked to hostilities against Gardner.

 

The term 'Gardnerian' was originally coined in the Witchcraft Research Association's newsletter, Pentagram, in an attempt to derogatorily describe the people that were coming into the Craft via Gerald Gardner. 'Gardnerian' was a never a term used by Gardner himself. Consequently, I prefer to use the term 'the Wica' when talking about Gardnerian Crafters.

 

Gardner's Usage of Wica versus Wicca 

 

I have looked at the usage of 'Wica' and 'Wicca' in Gardner's writings and it is clear that Gardner mainly used one 'c' Wica.

Here is a list of the various occurrences of 'Wica' and 'Wicca' in Gardner's own books:-

High Magics Aid  (1949) - Wica = 0 Wicca = 0

Witchcraft Today (1954) - Wica =  3 Wicca = 0

The Meaning of Witchcraft (1959) - Wica =  17  Wicca = 5 (all instances being used in a section where Gardner is talking specifically about etymology.)

Gerald Gardner -Witch (1960), Gardner's biography written by Idries Shah, but attributed to Jack Bracelin. Wica = 21 Wicca = 0.

Gardner's preference for Wica seems clear and it is interesting to see its increasing usage by him, over time.

Additionally, I have an assortment of newspaper cuttings, some of which go back to the 1950's. Whilst this collection is not complete there is not one single incident of Gardner using 'Wicca'. Usually, he refers to himself as a witch and there are a couple of instances where he clarifies this further; in one article he says 'there are men and women witches, each is called a Wica.' (see the Daily Dispatch article under 'Gerald Gardner'). The same is also true of Gardner's personal correspondence, he never used 'Wicca' and tends to refer to the Craft as the 'Witch Cult'. A title almost certainly inspired by the title of Margaret Murray's book, The Witch Cult In Western Europe.
 

Read my article which takes a look at how Wica came to be more popularly spelt as Wicca.

 

Here is a useful word document compiled by 'Season' which provides a good guide to things that Gardner actually said about various Craft matters, in his published books. It starts off with some examples of Gardner's usage of Wica. (Season used to have a website but it appears to be currently offline or it has moved, if anyone knows where it has gone, please let me know.)

•  Initiatory Lineage's

'Gardnerian' Witchcraft is an initiatory tradition and as such there are various lineages. I have attempted to make a family tree depicting many of the early 'lines'.

 

beaufort.bravepages.com/ - Website about the various traditions and lineages focusing mainly on the USA and Canada. There is now far more diversity amongst the Witchcraft groups of North America, something that has almost certainly been the result of having a much greater population than the U.K.