Editing Gardnerian Wicca (section)

===Gardner and the New Forest coven===
{{Main|New Forest coven}}

In the early 20th century, [[Margaret Murray]] promoted [[Witch-cult hypothesis|the hypothesis]] that persecuted [[Witchcraft|witches]] had actually been followers of a surviving pagan religion, but this theory is now rejected by academia.<ref name="Hutton witch-cult">{{Cite book |last=Hutton |first=Ronald |title=The Witch: A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to the Present |date=2017 |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |page=121 |author-link=Ronald Hutton}}</ref> Nevertheless, it was an influence on some neo-pagans. On retirement from the British Colonial Service, Gerald Gardner moved to London but then before [[World War II]] moved to [[Highcliffe]], east of [[Bournemouth]] and near the [[New Forest]] on the south coast of England. After attending a performance staged by the [[Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship]], he reports meeting a group of people who had preserved their historic occult practices. They recognised him as being "one of them" and convinced him to be initiated. It was only halfway through the initiation, he says, that it dawned on him what kind of group it was, and that witchcraft was still being practised in England.<ref name="Gardner, Gerald 1954">Gardner, Gerald (1954). ''Witchcraft Today'' London: Rider and Company</ref>

The group into which Gardner was initiated, known as the [[New Forest coven]], was small and utterly secret as the [[Witchcraft Act 1735]] ([[9 Geo. 2]]. c. 5) made it illegal to claim to predict the future, conjure spirits, or cast spells; it likewise made an accusation of witchcraft a criminal offence. Gardner's enthusiasm for the coven led him to wish to document it, but both the witchcraft laws and the coven's secrecy forbade that, despite his excitement. After World War II, Gardner's High Priestess and coven leader relented sufficiently to allow a fictional treatment that did not expose them to prosecution, "High Magic's Aid":<ref>Gerald Gardner (1949). ''High Magic's Aid'' London: Michael Houghton</ref>

{{blockquote|Anyhow, I soon found myself in the circle and took the usual oaths of secrecy which bound me not to reveal any secrets of the cult. But, as it is a dying cult, I thought it was a pity that all the knowledge should be lost, so in the end I was permitted to write, as fiction, something of what a witch believes in the novel High Magic's Aid.<ref name="Gardner, Gerald 1954" />}}

After the witchcraft laws were repealed in 1951, and replaced by the Fraudulent Mediums Act, Gerald Gardner went public, publishing his first non-fiction book, "Witchcraft Today" (1954). Gardner continued, as the text often iterates, to respect his oaths and the wishes of his High Priestess in his writing.<ref name="Gardner, Gerald 1954"/> Gardner said that the "Witchcraft" religion was dying out, and he pursued publicity and welcomed new initiates during the last years of his life. Gardner even courted the attentions of the tabloid press, to the consternation of some more conservative members of the tradition. In Gardner's own words: "Witchcraft doesn't pay for broken windows!"<ref name="Gardner, Gerald 1954"/>

Gardner knew many famous occultists. Ross Nichols was a friend and fellow Druid (until 1964 member of the [[Druid Order]], when he left to found his own Druidic [[Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids]]). Nichols edited Gardner's "Witchcraft Today" and is mentioned extensively in Gardner's "The Meaning of Witchcraft". Near the end of [[Aleister Crowley]]'s life, Gardner met with him for the first time on 1 May 1947 and visited him twice more before Crowley's death that autumn; at some point, Crowley gave Gardner an [[Ordo Templi Orientis]] (OTO) charter and the 4th OTO degree—the lowest degree authorising use of the charter.<ref>"Gardner & Crowley: the Overstated Connection" [[Don Frew]] Pantheacon 1996</ref>

[[Doreen Valiente]], one of Gardner's priestesses, identified the woman who initiated Gardner as [[Dorothy Clutterbuck]], referenced in "A Witches' Bible" by [[Janet Farrar|Janet]] and [[Stewart Farrar]].<ref>Farrar, Janet & Stewart (2002). "A Witches' Bible". Robert Hale. {{ISBN|0-7090-7227-9}}</ref> Valiente's identification was based on references Gardner made to a woman he called "Old Dorothy" whom Valiente remembered. Biographer [[Philip Heselton]] corrects Valiente, clarifying that Clutterbuck (Dorothy St. Quintin-Fordham, née Clutterbuck), a Pagan-minded woman, owned the Mill House, where the New Forest coven performed Gardner's initiation ritual.<ref>Heselton, Philip (2012). "Witchfather: A Life of Gerald Gardner. Volume 1: Into the Witch Cult." Loughborough, Leicestershire: Thoth Publications.</ref> Scholar [[Ronald Hutton]] argues in his ''Triumph of the Moon'' that Gardner's tradition was largely the inspiration of members of the [[Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship]] and especially that of a woman known by the magical name of "[[Edith Woodford-Grimes|Dafo]]".<ref name=Hutton01>Hutton, Ronald (2001). ''The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft''. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-285449-6}}</ref> Dr. [[Leo Ruickbie]], in his ''Witchcraft Out of the Shadows'', analysed the documented evidence and concluded that [[Aleister Crowley]] played a crucial role in inspiring Gardner to establish a new pagan religion.<ref>[[Leo Ruickbie|Ruickbie, Leo]](2004). ''Witchcraft out of the Shadows: A Complete History''. Robert Hale Limited. {{ISBN|0-7090-7567-7}}</ref> Ruickbie, Hutton, and others further argue that much of what has been published of Gardnerian Wicca, as Gardner's practice came to be known, was written by Blake, Yeats, [[Doreen Valiente|Valiente]] and [[Aleister Crowley|Crowley]] and contains borrowings from other identifiable sources.<ref name=Hutton01/>{{rp|237}}

The witches Gardner was originally introduced to were originally referred to by him as "the Wica" and he would often use the term "[[Witch-cult hypothesis|Witch Cult]]" to describe the religion.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}} Other terms used, included "Witchcraft" or "the Old Religion." Later publications standardised the spelling to "Wicca" and it came to be used as the term for the Craft, rather than its followers. "Gardnerian" was originally a pejorative term used by Gardner's contemporary Roy Bowers (also known as Robert Cochrane), a British [[cunning man]],<ref>''Pentagram'' magazine 1965</ref> who nonetheless was initiated into Gardnerian Wicca a couple of years following Gardner's death.<ref>Doyle White, Ethan (2011). "Robert Cochrane and the Gardnerian Craft: Feuds, Secrets, and Mysteries in Contemporary British Witchcraft". The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies 13 (2): 205–224.</ref>