question about the Gardenarian Tradition...

[greenwitch]

what is the Gardenarian Tradition? if i spelled it right. i've heard a lot about it, but i've never figured out what it actually means.

let me know soon,

merry meet, merry part, and merry meet once more!!

Adra

[Jenett]

I'm assuming you mean Gardnerian (if you don't, disregard this)

The Gardnerian tradition is the Wiccan tradition which was created by Gardner, and where there's a direct line of lineage for initates back to Gardner. It jumped the Atlantic to the US in the 60s (The most well known was Raymond and Rosemary Buckland, who ran what's known as the Long Island Coven in Long Island, NY, but there's another two Gardnerian lines I've heard of which sprung up at about the same time, through different sources).

The Gardnerian tradition is oathbound - while there have been books of shadows published which claim to be Gardnerian, my understanding from Initiated Gardnerians is that all the published ones are missing at least some material (as well as the oral teaching that is a significant part of the tradition). It's also an initiatory tradition, which among other things means that initiation ties you into the group energy and the *tradition's* energy as well.

Gardnerians tend not to be very public or advertise their presence a great deal (though some Gardnerians do do public intro classes, take part in local networking things, and such.) Both the tradition and the training methods tend to be fairly formalised. While there's some option for additions to the traditional material, most of the comments I've heard suggest that such changes tend to be pretty conservative (thought through carefully and indicated as additional material, or kept entirely separate from someone's Gardnerian practices)

I hope this helps - I'm not Gardnerian, but I'm working in an Alexandrian derivative coven, and currently read an email list open to non-initiates interested in the traditions sometimes referred to as British Traditional Wicca (basically anything that traces back to Gardner or the New Forest coven he was trained in, through a line of initiation.)

If anyone's interested in more info about that list, feel free to PM me.

[Kaylara]

That's a pretty good explaination Jenett. I am an Eclectic Gardnerian (how's that for an oxymoron?) so if you have any specific questions, shoot away!