Gerald Gardner

Gerald Gardner, or Uncle Gerald as he is affectionately known to some, died on this date in 1964. I don't know about you, but there are certain historical figures who died when I was a child, and long before I'd ever heard of them, who I find it difficult to believe were actually alive during my lifetime. Gerald Gardner is one of those.

A controversial figure, both before and after his death, Gardner is in many ways largely responsible for the large interest in Wicca today. You can debate forever how much he "borrowed" from the Order of the Golden Dawn and whether he simply made public an ancient tradition or created a tradition out of scraps, but you can't debate his profound impact.

I imagine that Uncle Gerald would be gobsmacked to wander around the web today, seeing hundreds of web-based stores selling everything from mass-produced athames to bumper stickers that say "Pagan Clergy." I suppose that Dianic Wicca, which is what I practice, would disturb him quite a bit. I know he'd bemoan the failure of many of us to always practice skyclad.

One of the other things that always strikes me about Gardner's life is what amazing place names are associated with it. He was born was born at "The Glen, The Serpentine, Blundellsands," near Liverpool. He returned from Asia to live at Highcliffe, on the edge of "New Forest, Hampshire." The coven to which he claimed to have been initiated was the "New Forest Coven." He was a rubber planter in Malaysia and was buried in Tunisia.

So here's to Uncle Gerald, and to Dorothy Clutterbuck who may have had the most influential initiate in all of history, and to Doreen Valiente who did quite a bit to help make Uncle Gerald the man he is (remembered as) today. I'd likely be a wandering agnostic absent their lives and I'm grateful for all that they did.