Anecdotes about Gerald Gardner

Isn't the picture of Gardner with Lois Bourne just the darlingest thing ever?

Gardner is one of my heroes. This may seem strange, since there is no historical evidence that stands up to scrutiny for the old witch religion he devoted such a chunk of his life to (incidentally you may read the web pages this post is referenced from & think there is lots of evidence for an old witch religion - there is at best only anecdotal evidence, completely unsupported by the other testimony you would expect to be left by the death of an entire religion). He actually almost perfectly embodies my conceptualisation of the witch figure - people see him in wildly contradictory ways & not infrequently unhesitatingly arrogate him to the support of one point of view or another. I will no doubt appear to be trying to have my cake & eat it when I say that while there can't have been an ancient witch religion, nonetheless there have always been people who have done the things that we modern witches do. These are the true forebears of the modern witchcraft movement, & my conviction is that they are recognised when we meet them. Gardner is certainly among these people for me - when you read his books, if you ignore the historical fallacies, you are left with the impression that here was a man who knew magic, who could really do it, & who therefore was the kind of person on the (h)edge that other people pick up. I don't think the account of him as a complete fraud who invented Wicca is true, but if it was this would still force me to respect him greatly as a man who invented a completely new religion from nothing & established it in the last couple of decades of his life. That would be magic!

These anecdotes are all culled from the same source: I have pulled them out to embody my meet-the-witch-not-the-rumour approach.

'During the 1940s Gardner was a regular visitor to Ward's Ancient British Church and his signature appears on one of its documents.  He used to attend the services at the abbey wearing, to the amazement of those who knew of his involvement in the Craft, a clerical dog collar!  Gardner was later to use the term 'Ancient British Church' to legally register his covenstead at Brickett Wood in Hertfordshire as a legal place of worship.' (http://www.thewica.co.uk/MH1.htm These anecdotes are all from this & succeeding pages on the same site, from articles by Michael Howard, published originally in The Cauldron in the 1990s)

'It has been said that the account of the famous Lammas ritual in the New Forest in 1940 to stop the Nazi invasion was one of Gerald Gardner's 'fireside stories'.'

'Gardner's membership of the Folklore Society still causes unease today, nearly sixty years later.  Writing in the Folklore Society News (July 1992), Jacqueline Simpson says that Gardner was regarded by other members as 'flamboyant and sinister'.  Doubts were cast on his scholarship and the doctorate he fraudulently claimed from the University of Singapore.  One leading member of the Society in the 1950s, Christina Hole, described him as having 'a curious personality'.  When he was elected to the ruling Council the question was raised as to whether or not his presence was advantageous to the Society's image.'

'In 1954 Gardner gave a-lecture on Manx fishing craft to the International Conference on Maritime Folklore in Naples, Italy. one delegate described him as 'a strange man who wore a copper snake bracelet on one wrist'.  When Gardner crossed the road to the bus stop on the harbour the local fishermen crossed themselves and made the sign to ward off the Evil Eye.'

'Locals [in Accra]  told [Ralph Merrifield] of 'the white master' who had visited two years before.  He was known to the natives as 'he who never sleeps' because he stayed up all night 'talking to devils'.  Apparently this strange visitor was Gardner who, because of his asthma, had spent all night propped up on pillows.

'Gardner gave a talk on witchcraft at of all places, the YMCA in Accra.  This was so popular that a riot nearly broke out when people were refused entry to the overflowing hall.  During his visit Gardner met some of the local obeah men and witch doctors and he was also consulted by the natives for spells and charms.  One day he was walking through the village market place when a young native woman demanded to have his babies.  Gardner replied: " I'm too old, dear".' (On a side note, I know how he feels, I get that all the time, only I'm too gay: I suspect women recognise a primeval urge to have sorcerers' babies -Hound)

'Merrifield asked Gardner how he had discovered witchcraft and received a strange reply.  Gardner said: "I fell in love with a witch when we were fire-watching during the war" This reply was either a Gardner leg-pull or concealing the facts, or there may have been some truth in it.  Cecil Williamson has told us of a wartime encounter Gardner had with the high priestess of an coven from Epping in Surrey.  They met while he was filling sandbags as an ARP Warden in Parliament Square.  This suggests there were other people around during the war who claimed to be witches and had no connection with Old Dorothy Clutterbuck's lot in the New Forest.'

'Williamson has informed us that in fact Gardner paid Crowley £25 a time for a course of instruction.  One day Gardner turned up for the next installment and Crowley began to cross-examine him on the previous documents he had supplied.  Gardner, a typical Gemini, had only glanced at them and could not answer the questions.  Apparently, Crowley became very angry and the two men parted on bad terms.'

'Gardner had [the witch's cottage] transferred brick by brick to its new site and re-assembled.  The original altar inside it was an old Morrison air-raid shelter, which resembled a large metal table, covered by ex-Army mattresses for comfort during the Great Rite!  Gardner tried to tell Williamson that the cottage had been George Pickingil's in Canewdon, until WiiIiamson checked out the story with the local council in Essex and found out that the old cunning man's house had been demolished years before.'

'Shortly after the opening [of the witchcraft museum] Gardner turned up on 'a flying visit' with his overnight things stuffed in an old music case.  He liked what he saw and was keen to offload a large number of unsold copies of his novel.  An agreement was reached to sell the books in the museum on a commission basis.  The 'flying visit' became more permanent when Gardner rented a terraced cottage at 77 Malew Street, Castletown.  He became the 'resident witch' at the museum during the summer season and entertained old and young ladies in the teashop with colorful stories of his adventures in the Far East.'

------------------