Originally posted by DaddyBare
RetinoidReceptor is partly right... Gardner was the first to use the word Wicca in his 1947 published book.. however he learned it from someone else...
June 1938, he joined the
newly opened Rosicrucian Theatre at Christchurch where it is
said he met Old Dorothy Clutterbuck.
Gerald Gardner claims he was initiated by Old
Dorothy into a practising coven of the Old Religion, that met
in the New Forest area of Britain.
In his own words, ""I realised that I had stumbled upon something interesting;
but I was half-initiated before the word, "Wica" which they
used hit me like a thunderbolt, and I knew where I was, and
that the Old Religion still existed. And so I found myself in
the Circle, and there took the usual oath of secrecy, which
bound me not to reveal certain things."
This quote is taken
from The Meaning of Witchcraft, which was published in 1959.
So RetinoidReceptor is partly right in that Gardner is credited with the word. but to say he invented Wicca is like saying Newton invented gravity... is was there long before he came along and is still there long after he turned to dust
Funny how you pick things up from your wife who also happens to be an archivist and academic for the local college
[edit on 16-7-2009 by DaddyBare]
Gardner may have claimed that. But all evidence points to this NOT being the truth. Here are some other things he did not mention at the time.
He was very good friends with Ross Nichols. Ross turned an old Druidic Fraternal Order (think Masons who like stone Circles despite historical accuracy) into something else, It was the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, today it is the largest Neopagan/Mesopagan Druid Order in the World. The OBOD. Anyway, Gardner and Nichols were avid Naturalists. Yeah Nudists. They talked ideas over, and the names for the various “high days” are a bastardized mix of Irish (Lughnasa, Samhain, Beltane, Imbolc), Welsh, and Anglo Saxon. Gardner was also talking with the Great Beast himself. Alester Crowley. Crowley wanted Gardner to take over the OTO, and continue it on when he died. Much of the early Ritual and Magical workings of Wicca owe more to Crowely (Great Uncle Al) than Gardner (Uncle Gerry). Indeed today many of the ritual tools are similar to that of the OTO.
Wicca was invented by Gerald Gardner. Old Dorothy Clutterbuck and the New Forrest Coven” are a nice story.
) as evangelicals are against their perceived threats. 
