Gerald Gardner

Known as the “father of modern witchcraft,”1 Gerald Gardner (1884-1964), a retired British civil servant, popularized Wicca through his writings. Gardner claimed the content of his writings is based on the practices and beliefs of the New Forest Coven he allegedly discovered in 1939.2 Gardner went on to develop the tradition of Gardnerian Wicca with the help of Doreen Valiente. Through Gardner’s writings, the public’s interest in witchcraft was piqued, and by the time of his death in 1964, Wicca had spread worldwide with roughly 100,000 to 800,000 members.3

  1. Roz Tappenden, “Gerald Gardner: Legacy of the ‘Father of Witchcraft,’” BBC News, June 13, 2014, https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-27782244. ↩︎
  2. Ethan Doyle White, “Wicca | History & Beliefs,” in Encyclopædia Britannica, October 8, 2018, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Wicca. ↩︎
  3. Tappenden, “Gerald Gardner: Legacy of the ‘Father of Witchcraft.” ↩︎