Editing Gerald Gardner (section)

===Doreen Valiente and the Museum of Magic and Witchcraft: 1950–1957===

Gardner also came into contact with [[Cecil Williamson]], who was intent on opening his own museum devoted to witchcraft; the result would be the [[Museum of Witchcraft|Folk-lore Centre of Superstition and Witchcraft]], opened in [[Castletown, Isle of Man|Castletown]] on the [[Isle of Man]] in 1951. Gardner and his wife moved to the island, where he took up the position of "resident witch".{{sfn|Heselton|2012b|pp=410–442}} On 29 July, the ''[[Sunday Pictorial]]'' published an article about the museum in which Gardner declared "Of course I'm a witch. And I get great fun out of it."<ref name="Andrews-1951">{{cite news |url=https://ae2e239b-0e00-4bec-b154-cc5dce6f5f85.filesusr.com/ugd/4f0e4f_abf1237751904b1a8dc38efe4acd8d51.pdf?index=true |title=Calling All Covens |work=[[Sunday Pictorial]] |first=Allen |last=Andrews |date=29 July 1951}}</ref>

The museum was not a financial success, and the relationship between Gardner and Williamson deteriorated. In 1954, Gardner bought the museum from Williamson, who returned to England to form the rival [[Museum of Witchcraft]], eventually settling it in [[Boscastle]], [[Cornwall]]. Gardner renamed his exhibition the Museum of Magic and Witchcraft and continued running it up until his death.{{sfn|Heselton|2012b|pp=474–478, 480–483}}

He also acquired a flat at 145 Holland Road, near [[Shepherd's Bush]] in West London, but nevertheless fled to warmer climates during the winter, where his asthma would not be so badly affected, for instance spending time in France, Italy, and the [[Gold Coast (British colony)|Gold Coast]].{{sfn|Heselton|2012b|pp=450–455, 457, 470–473, 478–480}} From his base in London, he would frequent Atlantis bookshop, thereby encountering a number of other occultists, including [[Austin Osman Spare]] and [[Kenneth Grant (occultist)|Kenneth Grant]], and he also continued his communication with Karl Germer until 1956.{{sfn|Heselton|2012b|pp=505–515}}

In 1952, Gardner had begun to correspond with a young woman named [[Doreen Valiente]]. She eventually requested initiation into the Craft, and though Gardner was hesitant at first, he agreed that they could meet during the winter at the home of Edith Woodford-Grimes. Valiente got on well with both Gardner and Woodford-Grimes and having no objections to either ritual nudity or scourging (which she had read about in a copy of Gardner's novel ''High Magic's Aid'' that he had given to her), she was initiated by Gardner into Wicca on Midsummer 1953.

Valiente went on to join the Bricket Wood Coven. She soon rose to become the High Priestess of the coven and helped Gardner to revise his [[Book of Shadows]], and attempting to cut out most of Crowley's influence.{{sfn|Heselton|2012b|pp=490–494}}

In 1954, Gardner published a non-fiction book, ''[[Witchcraft Today]]'', containing a preface by [[Margaret Murray]], who had published her discredited theory of 'witchcraft' being a surviving pagan religion in her 1921 book, ''The Witch-Cult in Western Europe''. In his book, Gardner not only espoused Murray's theory, but also his theory that a belief in [[fairy|faeries]] in Europe was due to a secretive pygmy race that lived alongside other communities, and that the [[Knights Templar]] had been initiates of the Craft.{{sfn|Heselton|2012b|pp=494–503}}

Alongside this book, Gardner began to increasingly court publicity, going so far as to invite the press to write articles about the religion. Many of these turned out very negatively for the cult; one declared "Witches Devil-Worship in London!", and another accused him of whitewashing witchcraft in his luring of people into covens. Gardner continued courting publicity, despite the negative articles that many tabloids were producing, and believed that only through publicity could more people become interested in witchcraft, so preventing the "Old Religion", as he called it, from dying out.{{sfnm|Valiente|2007|1p=67|Heselton|2012b|2pp=517–520}}