Movement

Gardnerian Wicca

The initiatory witchcraft tradition Gerald Gardner founded — the root of modern Wicca.

Movement · Founded 1,954 · England · Active today

Founded by Gerald Gardner

3 teachers in the Atlas

What it was

Gerald Gardner publicly launched modern witchcraft in the 1950s through his Bricket Wood coven and books such as Witchcraft Today (1954), building its rituals partly on Golden Dawn and Crowleyan material with his priestess Doreen Valiente. Gardnerian Wicca became the founding lineage of the worldwide Wiccan religion.

Its place in the lineage

The point where the Western ceremonial-magic lineage flowered into a popular nature religion — heir to the Golden Dawn and O.T.O. by way of ritual.