Short History on the Roots of Modern Wicca

[Myst]

In England, where Gardner resided, the anti Witchcraft laws were repealed in 1951. He and Valiente put together a book, "Witchcraft Today", in 1954. In 1959 he published "The Meaning of Witchcraft". Interestingly in this book he wrote "I think we must say good-bye to the witch. The cult is doomed, I am afraid, partly because of modern conditions, housing shortage, the smallness of families, and chiefly by education. The modern child is not interested. He knows witches are all bunk..." suggesting that Witchcraft was to die with the old ones who practiced it, *and* that he considered it a cult (a fact which many people argue). Not exactly a book meant to spur a revival of the Old Religion, was it?

In 1963 Raymond Buckland was initiated into the coven, and he's the one who brought the Craft to America.

From Gardnerian came Alexandrian, and so on. Various groups took what they could from those Wiccan trads and made their own between 1954 and the present in England, and 1964 to the present in America.

It should also be noted that Gardner claimed to be initiated into a coven of "hereditary Witches" that existed in New Forest and who's people had somehow survived the witch hunts of Middle Ages and the Renaissance in 1939. This claim has not been substantiated, which is why several people claim that Wicca may have nothing to do with The Old Religion, if it even existed before that at all.

[Dolphin's Eye]

It should also be noted that Gardner claimed to be initiated into a coven of "hereditary Witches" that existed in New Forest and who's people had somehow survived the witch hunts of Middle Ages and the Renaissance in 1939. This claim has not been substantiated, which is why several people claim that Wicca may have nothing to do with The Old Religion, if it even existed before that at all.

Well from what I resurched I found that Gardner kinda re-built Wicca, turned it into this new Neo-Pagan religion, but I don't think he did so without resurches or invented it all himself. Though he may not have been in a traditional coven (even if he was most chances are that coven focused more on magick and less on the Goddess and God!), his first ideas about Wicca do have a solid base in early pre-christian history.

True, he edited stuff from many resurces (druid, witchcraft and pure paganism), and he did add to it some of his own brand new ideas (like practicing skyclad, that is not mentioned anywhere before), but he did have some solid grounds, and he did alot of sitting around in libraries pulling all this info together.

Also, today's Wicca is not Gardner's original idea of Wicca (except ofcourse his tradition who stills follows soley him), and that is in my opinion a result of a few things:
When people first heard about Wicca they started 'remembering' and 'reclaiming', or in other words- saying "oh yeah! now I know what my granny was doing all this time! I like that!". :-)
Also, opinionated people like ourselves couldn't just let Wicca be as it originaly was, we are always moving forward, questioing, looking around, and basically- still growing!

Well please let me know if you understand any of what I've just written here, I have this awaful feeling there are more mistakes in my sentenses then there are words! :-)

Blessed Be!

[Krom]

A good book on this topic is Wiccan Roots by Heselton. It is a UK only book so you will have to probably go to Amazon UK.

MP B*B
Krom

[Myst]

Originally posted by Dolphin's Eye
Well from what I resurched I found that Gardner kinda re-built Wicca, turned it into this new Neo-Pagan religion, but I don't think he did so without resurches or invented it all himself. Though he may not have been in a traditional coven (even if he was most chances are that coven focused more on magick and less on the Goddess and God!), his first ideas about Wicca do have a solid base in early pre-christian history.

True, he edited stuff from many resurces (druid, witchcraft and pure paganism), and he did add to it some of his own brand new ideas (like practicing skyclad, that is not mentioned anywhere before), but he did have some solid grounds, and he did alot of sitting around in libraries pulling all this info together.


Well this thread somehow made it back up here so I thought I'd finally comment on your response. It is claimed that he built upon pre-Christian beliefs, and you've reiterated that, however it still has NOT been proven. There are those, particularily hereditary Witches of lineage, that scoff at this new modern stuff, because in fact some of it is based on beliefs they've been handed from their ancestors, but a great lot of it also hasn't. For example, the ceremony of Wicca, the Rede, a lot of the spellwork, etc. wouldn't be part of hereditary witchcraft. Certainly none of us were there to follow the man to the library :)

And of course it has evolved, and all that. And of course, I'm not saying Wicca is any less of a religion because I don't believe it's been proven that it's based well on pre-Christian beliefs, or any of that stuff... just that at the time there was a discussion going on wherein I felt people needed to know a bit of the history of Wicca.

[Dolphin's Eye]

I agree totally... it's a good thing Wicca is still growing and I am not saying Wicca is a less good religion because it's not all historical based, on the other hand! It's just that I thought I should ampethize that point that's all... :-)

[IOLO]

I suggest that Margaret Alice Murray's "The Witch Cult in Western Europe" (1921) and also her "The God of Witches" are the principal sources of Gardner's works ( and Sybil Leek's and Doreen Valiente's) and "legitimization" of his religion, and subsequently Wicca.

Murray's works can be read on-line @ http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/murray.htm

Murray was an anthropologist.

Merry Be!!!

IOLO

[Haruka2077]

Well, this seems as good a place to ask as any, so- can anyone point me to some web resources dealing with the origins of the terms "Blessed Be" and "Merry Meet"? I'm supposed to be researching these for a class but I've discovered it's very hard to search the internet with those words! LOL I did a search of this forum and this was more or less the closest thread I found. Thanks for the help!

[TYRRHENUS]

can anyone point me to some web resources dealing with the origins of the terms "Blessed Be" and "Merry Meet"?I don't know where "Blessed Be" comes from, but as for the "Merry Meet," the first time it seems to appear in print was in a book by Joseph Glanvill (1636-1680) entitled Saducismus Triumphatus.
The book was supposed to be about a group of witches in Somerset who would say "A boy! Merry meet, Merry part" when they would leave their meetings.
Ronald Hutton gives the caveat that it may have been an expression in the popular vernacular of the time.
You can get the full text of Saducismus Triumphatus here (http://dewey.library.upenn.edu/sceti/printedbooksNew/index.cfm?TextID=glanvill_1&PagePosition=2).

[Haruka2077]

Thank you! And that is a very cool resource, by the way! :D