Author: Scorplett
Title: What Gardner Said

Sources are all public domain and are:
Works Cited:
Gardner, Gerald. Witchcraft Today. Lakemont, GA: Magickal Childe, 1954; 1988 edition.

Gardner, Gerald. The Meaning of Witchcraft. Lakemont, GA US: Copple House Books, 1959; 1988 edition.

Bracelin, J. L. Gerald Gardner: Witch, Great Britain, Octagon Press, 1960


I would include comments by academic Authours, but I don't have notes to hand at the moment to do that.

Page numbers provided are appropriate to the editions noted above. The quoted passages support the basic requirements and definitions of what Wicca is as used on these fora.

This is a collection of things Gardner said:

Quote:
"Gerald Gardner, Witchcraft Today - pages 28-29 "

Being initiated into the witch cult does not give a witch supernatural powers but instructions are given, in rather veiled terms, in processes which develop various clairvoyant and other powers, in those who naturally possess them slightly. If they have none they can create none. Some of these powers are akin to magnetism, mesmerism and suggestion, and depend o the possibility of forming a sort of human battery, as it were, of combined human wills working together to influence persons or events at a distance.

They have instructions in how to learn to do this by practice.edit: bold text to highlight orthopraxy It would take many people a long time, if I understand the directions aright. If these arts were more generally practised nowadays, we should call most of them spiritualism, mesmerism, suggestion, E.S.P., Yoga or perhaps Christian Science; to a witch it is all MAGIC, and magic is the art of getting results. To do this certain processes are necessary and the rites are such that these processes may be used.edit: bold text to highlight orthoprxy In other words, they condition you. This is the secret of the cult.


This passage highlights that the practices of Wicca are orthopraxic and that this orthopraxy is taught after initiation.

Quote:

"Gardner, Gerald. The Meaning of Witchcraft - page 126"

Gomme, in Folklore as a Historical Science (p. 201 et seq), stresses the importance of the act of initiation as applied to the witch cult. "It emphasizes the existence of a cast apart from the general populace. The existence of this caste long before, where they did practise their powers, carrying back this act of initiation age after age. It is clear that the people who were from time to time introduced into the witch caste carried on the practices and assumed the functions of the caste even though they came into it as novices and strangers. We thus arrive at what might be termed as an artificial means of descent into a peculiar group of superstitions.
This was influenced in the Middle Ages by beliefs of the carrying on of traditional practices by certain families and groups of people who could only acquire such practices by initiation and family teaching."
This is, of course, exactly what happened. It is a family group, if you like; but not all of the family belongs to it, only those who are initiated,


This passage points to the importance of initiation. Without initiation you are not Wiccan, even if you are by blood part of a family who's members happen to be Wiccan. It is not membership of a family or group that it important, but initiation into the particular caste or sect, that caste or sect being Wicca as opposed to any other witchcult.

Quote:
"Gardner, Gerald. Witchcraft Today - page 69 "


The witches tell me: "The law has always been that power must be passed from man to woman or from woman to man,[...]"


Initiation must flow from Man to Woman to Man. This creates a clear initiatory lineage.

Quote:
"Gardner, Gerald. Witchcraft Today - page 42"

Before an initiation a charge is read beginning:

[...]

I am forbidden to give any more; but if you accept her rule you are promised various benefits and admitted into the circle, introduced to the Mighty Dead and to the cult members. There is also a small "frightening", an "ordeal" and an "oath"; you are shown certain things and receive some instruction. It is all very simple and direct


This is a brief description of some of the elements of an initiation ceremony. The stand out aspect of this passage is that of oath. That an oath is taken at initiation which forbids Wiccan's from revealing the content of the rituals.

Quote:
"Gardner, Gerald. The Meaning of Witchcraft - page 118"

I think the only answer is that the Church practised this kind of magic itself, and it knew that witchcraft practised a different form of magic because it was a separate religion, and that it involved the carrying on of a tradition of practices by certain families and groups of people who could only obtain knowledge of these practices by secret initiations

This highlights that teachings are passed via initiation into the religion of Wicca


Quote:
"Gardner, Gerald. The Meaning of Witchcraft - page 120"

Being forced to write their names, I take simply to mean that they were told, "If you want to come again, you must be one of us, that is, be initiated, initiation is a requirement for membership and then you will be a fairy". Now in France, as in Scotland, a large number of people spoke of 'fairies" when they obviously meant witches. It was a more polite term, and in Scotland any communication with "fairies" was taken as an admission of dealing with witches, that is, with the "heathen", the People of the Heaths, who practised the Old Religion and worked magical rites.

Highlighting that initiation is nescessary.


Quote:
"Gardner, Gerald. Witchcraft Today - page 24"

If I were permitted to disclose all their rituals, I think it would be easy to prove that witches are not diabolists; but the oaths are solemn and the witches are my friends. I would not hurt their feelings. They have secrets which to them are sacred. They have good reason for this secrecy.


This highlights that Wiccans are oathbound to keep secret their practices.

Quote:
"Bracelin, J. L. Gerald Gardner: Witch - page 199, in quoting Gardner"
"The witches worship the old gods of the land of Britain, whose tradition is rooted deep in British soil. The old gods are not dead, as I know by experience."


This highlights that Wiccan's worship specific God's of the British Isles. They are not any God and Goddess a person chooses.


Quote:
"Gardner, Gerald. The Meaning of Witchcraft - page 260"

That which has influenced the Group-soul of this country once can do so again. I have already told of the belief of the Wica in the Ancient Gods of these islands. This not mere superstition or a figure of speech. Initiates will understand me when I say that the Gods are real


This points again to the fact that the God's of Wicca are specific God's and not pick 'n' mix any-God-you-like and any-Goddess-you-like. It also points to the fact that what God and Goddess they are is only known by initiates.

Quote:
"Gardner, Gerald. The Meaning of Witchcraft - page 260-261"

Nor is the worshippers' belief in vain; for though they may themselves have built the Magical Image, the Power which ensouls it is real and objective, if the building has been done in the right way.


This excerpt points to the orthopraxic nature of Wicca. It must be done the right way!

Quote:
"Gardner, Gerald. The Meaning of Witchcraft - page 260-261"

Of course, the Craft of the Wica is not the only group which seeks to contact the Gods. There are other occult groups which use a similar technique, and their aims are the same, namely to bring through the Divine power to help, guide and uplift mankind at this dangerous and exciting turning-point in human history.
But, so far as I know, these groups generally work with the Egyptian and Greek Gods and Goddesses, and I cannot think that these contacts are as powerful here as they would be upon their native soil; whereas the divinities of the Craft of the Wica are the Ancient Ones of Britain, part of the land itself.


This extract points again to the fact that the Gods of Wicca are specific God's of the British Isles. It also points that there are other groups who practice what might be similar rites with similar aims, but they are not Wiccan.


Quote:
"Gardner, Gerald. The Meaning of Witchcraft - page 165-166"

I must not, however give the impression that the people of Ancient Britain worshipped only one God and only one Goddess, who were exactly the same in all parts of the country. In early early times the country was split up into many different tribes, which, of course, lived in localities differing from each other as to the type of country the were.
For instance, the sea-faring people would conceive their God as a God of the Sea; those who depended upon agriculture would pay most reverence to that aspect of Divinity which manifested as the green and growing things of Nature returning each year, or the fertility of cattle; and the hunters would have a Hunting God. Also, these tribes had different dialects, and even different languages, and so the names of the gods would vary from one part of the country to another. Nor are the Great Ancient Ones mere concepts lingering in the leaves of old books and the minds of old scholars. The people remember, nay the very land itself remembers.


This excerpt points to the fact that Wicca allows for recognition of many God's and Goddesses. However, while Wiccan practice itself is Ditheistic, it allows for polytheistic understanding of Deity, as either hard or soft Polytheism.

Quote:

"Gardner, Gerald. Witchcraft Todayt - page 32"

My witches speak of him [the tribal god] as god of "Death and what lies beyond": by this they not only mean the life in the next world but resurrection (or reincarnation). He rules a sort of happy hunting ground, where ordinary folk go and foregather with like-minded people; it may be pleasant or unpleasant according to your nature.

According to your merits you may be reincarnated in time, and take your chance where and among whom this takes place; but the god has a special paradise for his worshippers, who have conditioned their bodies and natures on earth, who enjoy special advantages and are prepared more swiftly for reincarnation which is done by the power of the goddess in such circumstances as to insure that you will be born into your own tribe again. This is taken nowadays to mean into witch circles. It would seem to involve an unending series of reincarnations; but I am told that in time you may become one of the mighty ones, who are also called the mighty dead. I can learn nothing about them, but they seem to be like demigods -- or one might call them saints.


This paragraph points to one of the few 'beliefs' of Wicca. That of both an afterlife and reincarnation.

Quote:
"Gardner, Gerald. The Meaning of Witchcraft - pages 26-27"

They think that the God and the Goddess assist them in making their magic, as they assist the God and the Goddess in their turn by raising power from them by their dances and by other methods. In fact, they seem to consider the gods as being more like powerful friends than deities to be worshipped. To them the concept of an All-powerful God, one who could simply say, "Let there be peace. Let there be no sickness or misery", and all wars, sickness and misery would cease, and who for his own reasons will not say that word, and keeps men in fear and misery and want, is not fit to receive worship.
They quite realise that there must be some great "Prime Mover", some Supreme Deity; but they think that if It gives them no means of knowing It, it is because It does not want to be known; also possibly, at our present stage of evolution we are incapable of understanding It. So It has appointed what might be called various Under-Gods, who manifest as the tribal gods of different peoples; as the Elohim of the Jews, Isis, Osiris and Horus of the Egyptians, and the Horned God and the Goddess of the witches. They can see no reason why each people should not worship their national gods, or why anyone should strive to prevent them from doing so.



This points to the idea that the God's of Wicca are not all powerful, infallible nor omnipotent. That the God's are imminent and Wiccan's build a deep personal relationship with their God's.
There is also the possibility that there is some greater power than the Gods but because that being doesn't have the same means of making itself known it is beyond worship.
This excerpt also points to another interesting fact, if compatible, a Wiccan may work within other systems of worship.

Quote:
"Gardner, Gerald. Witchcraft Today - pages 139-140"

Our gods are not all-powerful, they need our aid. They desire good to us, fertility for man, beast and crops, but they need our help to bring it about; and by our dances and other means they get that help.
"When we die we go to the god's domain, where having rested a while in their lovely country we are prepared to be born again on this earth; and if we perform the rites correctly, edit: bold text to highlight orthopraxy by the grace of the Great Mother we will be reborn among those we loved, and will remember, know and love them again, while those who do evil will have a stern schooling in the god's domain before they are fit to be reborn again, and then it will be among strangers.


Again we're back to the orthopraxy. The rites MUST be done correctly.