Father of the witch

Wicca is one of the fastest growing religions in the world with followers announcing themselves as witches and worshippers of the power of nature. The story of wicca is extremely interesting although it appears to be a traditional folk religion, wicca was actually developed as recently as the 1940s by a nudist called Gerald Gardner. So what is the real truth about witchcraft? Witches in the British isles are very real, they exist and cast spells and do infact worship nature but unless the common folk are talking about cat weasel or harry potter the subject suddenly becomes taboo. The public view of wicca is as a whole secretive and dangerous and yes infact covens and witchcraft in general is a secrective society how dangerous actually is it? Statistics also show a large majority of Wiccans are city and town dwellers and not as depicted folk from the out back of nowhere using the rural settings as a secondary cover. Many wiccans claim that practicing their belief system makes them feel connected to all life via the earth magic that is all around. So the question is are wiccan ceremonies real or simply a release from the anger and stress of modern life by connecting with nature? Common sense show that chanting and casting spells is not going to turn your enemy into a frog but does it actually have any physical effect on the real world? or is it purely spiritual?... Modern ceremonies feel ancient and somewhat connected to witchcraft of old and the claims stated that sent many to there deaths during the witch trials but we would be wrong, the wicca of today that had its babsis in the 1930 in Dorset is vastly different and has little connection. In 1938 then aged 52 years old Gardner retired to highcliff a dream village almost somewhat like hollywood would depict on the silver screen but Gardner soon found out that Highcliff was a more liberal place than he expected and that a large amount of the population like gardner himself was infact nudists and Gardner would often thow nudist parties in his own garden even to the extent he built a dark room so he could take and develope photos of the people roaming around the grounds of his home playing tennis or simply standing as naked as the day they was born talking about mundane topics like the price rises in shops. It is also know that Gerald Gardner was into flagulation the act of harming yourself most commonly by whipping for sexual purposes. 1939 it is said in his own home gardner was said to of been initiated as a witch. In his diary he wrote " i was stripped naked and blindfolded and walked through a door into a circle and given details of a ancient religion called wicca" gardner put two and two together and realised wicca meant witchcraft, witches are real...... It was from this point til his death in 1964 that Gardner devouted himself to a life of witchcraft even to the point of becoming a author,tv and radio celebrity and on to being the most famous witch in british history. Born into a rich family Gardner at a young age was sent abroad by his parent due to health issues, Gerald had severe Asthma. So unwanted and uneducated he was sent of with his nanny who where at this point tales cross. It in some cases says the nanny met a man and left a young 5 year old gardner to fend for himself and other stories say she was taken ill and died. Either way Gardner grew up alone abroad away from his parent who never attempted to get him to return he was left alone and forgotten. Gerald as he grew began to travel making his money in the tea trade and rubber trade all the while being fascinated and learning about native traditions and religious aspect and tribal magic caught his attention most and this was further extended with his interest of western occultism. Sir Authur Conan Doyle became a big part of gardners life, Conan Doyle was know to have a deep interest and practice in the occult and spiritualism even using his knowledge to write tales such as HOUNDS OF THE BASKERVILLE. Gardner began to practice with seances and even spiritualism. Rituals that Gardner saw in Malaya confirmed his belief that magic was a very real thing. By the time Gardner retired to highcliff he had been studying the occult for decades and easily found other occultists. Gardner soon found a group of freemasons with the same beliefs or similar beliefs to himself and soon ingraciated himself with them and it is from here the modern depiction of the pentangle/pentagram that we know now adays comes from. Talking to his newly found freemason friends Gerald learnt of local folk lore and local legends and noted that the western occult practices shared aspects of the rituals he had witnessed abroad and Gardner deperately wanted to be part of this.. In 1939 great britain the common folk was either ignorant of witchcraft, had no knowledge of it at all or the little most knew was from silver screen adaptations and fictional stories, and oit is this route that Gerald Gardner later took to seep witchcraft into the open. Back in 1939 if people had known of Gardners practices he would of ever been arrested and jailed or simply thought of as the village nut case, the question arises here was gardner a devotee of a ancient belief system trying to adapt it for more modern public consumption or was he in fact a mad man?..... Britain does have a long history of witchcraft dating from the middle ages where back then they was known as the cunning folk and was openly consulted for help with curing ill health and bring towns and villages luck, although modern wicca created by Gardner has a basis in this religion his changes and adaptations have taken it as far away from the origin as sea water is to fresh. These old cunning folk rituals held great power for gardner but he had bigger ambitions for magic, planning to adapt the old with the new and not using magic to cure ill health and disease but to cure the world of the human disease..... It was around this time that Adolf Hitler and the power of the german army was declaring world dominance and invasion and Gardner and his coven intended to use their knowledge of the occult to help defend he british isles even if it meant certain death. Gardner joined the home gaurd and in 1940 it is said that the coven set about doing just that with a ritual to stop the mighty german war machine from setting ground on british shores by way of magic. Gardner in his diary wrote " we was taken at night to a place in the forest where a great circle had been erected" and it is here that Gerald said "we then created the largest cone of power we had ever attempted. A thought form of power to damage and block those intent on harm and focused it on the german high command and focused it even on Hitler himself" Gardner felt a German invasion was the ideal way to show the true power of magic. Gardner continues" The great cone of power was raised and directed towards Hitler" it is claimed that this cone of power for those with mediumistic and psychic abilities could actually be physically seen. 2the command was given, you can not cross, you can not cross you will not cross the sea and hands joined the coven rushed towards the blazing fire sending the cone of power over to Germany" Can you imagine the sight of a group of middle aged and old people naked in the pitch black naked as the day they was born dancing and chanting around a blazing fire? In later interviews Gardner said that several from that night with in days of the ritual became ill with pnuemonia and died sacrificing their lives for the belief in the power of magic and the belief it could defend the country from the approaching German war machine. Gardner described the cone of power as literally the life force of those in the circle that night and had willingly given their lives to help the british troops defend blighty and up and down the country other unrelated covens it is said also did similar rituals..In more modern times the concept of a group of old people naked and chanting to stop a on coming army feels somewhat like a fairy story and totally improbable to the point of stupidity. The idea of witches using magic to defend the country from invasion even to the point of a unaccounted amount losing their lives is ridiculous,but Hitler never did make landfall in the u.k even the British government seemed to fear the power of magic. Soon after this ritual a spiritualist named Helen Duncan was prosecuted and jailed for practicing her spiritualist belief systems. In 1944 Helen Duncan had put naval officers on edge and this attracted the attention of local authorities after conducting seances for people that had lost loved ones on the frontline. Helen Duncans problems stemmed from the fact her mediumistic abilities was seen to be extremely accurate and this alarmed the armed forces. This however did not sto Gardner with his belief in witchcraft and it is this dedication that drew Gardner to Britains most famous occultist Aleister Crowley. The belief in Crowleys black magic had earned him the title of Britains most wicked man and those that know of crowley and read my blog on him know this wasn't completely accurate..

https://paranormaltruthand.wixsite.com/karlbland/single-post/2017/05/20/Oh-Mr-Crowley Crowley it is said to of said "i simply went over to satans side and found it easy to follow my new master" but crowleys intentions at the beginning had been closer to the ritual that gardner and his coven had undertaken with the cone of power. Gardner knew of crowley and his work and even stole and adapted many of crowleys rituals but the two men was very different. Crowley would use both positive and negative rituals where as Gardner only used positive aspects of the occult. The Atlantis bookshop became a safe haven for colorful characters like crowley and Gardner, a bookshop with a temple in the basement and selling books of rarity on how to summon the dead and summon angels. The Atlantis bookshop was a place that like minded people could meet for fear of arrest and prison but it was not just for witches but also occultists and numerologist. Gardner found the shop a good platform with his charisma and charm to initiate new members for his coven. It was around this time Aleister Crowley was getting towards the end of his life and wanted to be Gardner to be the heir to his secret cult but Gardner didn't want that Gardner wanted to introduce wicca to the masses and that is exactly what he did. In 1958 Gerald Gardner appeared on BBC tv on panorama and just a few years before he had been dancing naked in the new forest with his coven and now Gardner was in the limelight on British television. How did the "weirdo" from highcliff become a celebrity. Gardner had returned to London in the 1940s full of enthusiasm for wicca but he had to be careful of the witchcraft act set out by parliament.

In the 1940s Britain had a very strict christian belief system in place and any occult practice was highly illegal as stated earlier with the outcome of Helen Duncan but Gardner was unhappy with this so in 1949 under a false name wrote and self published a book called high magic's aid. T o save from being prosecuted the book was wrote as a piece of fiction although Gardner did lace within it's pages full details of wiccan rituals including spells.

The book sadly was a flop but it was a toe in the door for the public as a whole to learn about the secretive world of the witch and in 1951 a group of spiritualist m.p's with support from the PM Churchill himself repealed the witchcraft act and it was this repeal that allowed Gardner to openly practice witchcraft.

For his new religion even harking back to the cunning folk of the middle ages Gardner formulated his own baseline for spells and incantations.

Known wiccan symbols like the pentagram Gardner himself had adapted this from old freemason symbol a symbol often seen today on tv and in movies and most noticeably in the rock music industry although similar symbols had previously been used.

By now Gardner had amassed a large amount of occult objects that now reside in a private collection in the Costa Del Sol including one of the most important manuscripts in the wicca faith Gardner own BOOK OF SHADOWS.

In the collection is also two crowns one warn by the high priestess with three moons indicating the three phases of the moon and a horned crown said to depict Hern the horned god.

Gerald's own book of shadow a magical book full of experimental notes both of those that worked and those that failed and what would lead to molding modern wicca, and what modern witches lead from. In witchcraft terms this book is as important as the first ever hand written bible. "Draw a circle with a atheme and exorcise it with water and light candles" Gardner wrote and continued with "i call on the goddess to all who might be called within this circle" Gardner had his own Atheme made with a ebony handle shaped into a penis.

Gardners book of shadows was not only a basis for rituals and spells but a manifesto for a new religion and he was desperate to make it public and teach his decades of learnings across Britain.

In 1954 he opened Britain first museum of witchcraft in the isle of man and published his guide to witchcraft. It was after newspapers printing that Gardner and his coven partook in ceremonies that summon the devil and debauched sexual acts between men and women and even people of the same sex both male to male and female to female that Gerald decided to set the record straight when he was offered to be interviewed and it is this interview that sent wicca from the secret in to the general public eye as over 12 million viewers tuned in to watch Gardner being grilled.

As the social revolution of the 1960s began with free love and connection to nature, wicca became even more prominent. Even famous rock stars like the lead singer of the Doors, Jim Morrison became practitioners and by 1964 the religion had a firm foot hold and became a global phenomena.

In a recent census wicca was within the top 10 religions in Britain and activists are trying to bring wicca the same rights as other more commonly know beliefs, faiths and religions.