#gardnerianwicca

[judd051]

The Goddess & the God

People make a lot of assumptions.  Everybody knows that Gardnerian Wica has a Goddess and a God.  But...

* Just because we refer to them in public as “the Goddess” and “the God” doesn’t mean they don’t have names.  In fact, they have SPECIFIC names, which are initiatory secrets, so we don’t use them in public.

* Just because we have a Goddess and a God doesn’t mean that they are somehow universal Deities that encompass and absorb all others.  They aren’t.  They have unique identities.  They are OUR Goddess and OUR God.

* Just because we have a Goddess and a God as tutelary deities of OUR  Tradition doesn’t mean that these are the only Gods.  There is a vast multitude of Deities out there, and we often address them in our practice.  It’s just that two of that vast multitude of Deities are special to our Tradition.  That’s all.

* Just because we have a Goddess and a God doesn’t mean that we all believe that the cosmos can be reduced to a dyad of all things.  Some of us do; many of us don’t.

* Just because we have a Goddess and a God doesn’t mean that our theology is biased towards heterosexuality.  It isn’t.  At the risk of giving away a Traditional secret, nowhere in our texts are the Goddess and God referred to as a couple - as Hera & Zeus are, for example.

* Just because we have a Goddess and a God doesn’t mean that our theology is gender binary.  Both of these Deities have complex relationships with gender.

I admit that there are those within my Tradition who make some of these assumptions, often as  a result of Rücklauf - the folk process by which information flows out of a group, changes, and then flows back in.  Popular assumptions about the beliefs of Gardnerian Craft have shaped the beliefs of many Gardnerians.  “Common knowledge” is often actually “common ignorance”, but that doesn’t stop it from spreading.

#gardnerian tradition #Gerald Gardner #wicca #gardnerianwicca #Gardnerian

[matheus-gurgel]

#wicca #alexandrian #alexandrianwicca #alexandrian witchcraft #alexandrian wicca #gardnerianwicca #gardnerian wicca #coven #witches #witch coven #witchcraft #witchcult #sabbat

[deporodh]

#idiopathicpulmonaryfibrosis #IPF #disabledelder #wicca #GardnerianWicca #BritishTraditionalWicca #NewWiccanChurch #PaganDawn #TheWiccan #RSCDS #CalPolyHumboldt #SCA #StrokeSurvivor

[wiccaipatinga]

🌸🍃🌸🍃🌸🍃 . . . #bruxas #bruxosebruxas #chapeudebruxa #magia #frases #amorproprio #bruxariamoderna #bruxasnoinstagram #magiadodia #wicca #repost #via #wicca #gardneriana #gardnerianwicca 🌸🍃 (em Ipatinga) https://www.instagram.com/p/CO85l3Wnb5_/?igshid=mf3n95crmy34

#bruxas #bruxosebruxas #chapeudebruxa #magia #frases #amorproprio #bruxariamoderna #bruxasnoinstagram #magiadodia #wicca #repost #via #gardneriana #gardnerianwicca

[fafaweng]

" 關於 Witch Mass 專輯，

前段英文專輯簡介；後段官方網站挪威文介紹。

其 Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches

皆為英文介紹，謝謝 "

˙

Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches

( Published : 1899 (David Nutt) )

( Grex Vocalis - Witch Mass )

˙

˙

❖ Influence on culture. Classical Music :

The Norwegian classical composer Martin Romberg wrote a Mass for mixed choir in seven parts after a selection of poems from Leland's text. This Witch Mass was premiered at the Vestfold International Festival in 2012 with Grex Vocalis. In order to create the right atmosphere for the music, the festival blocked of an entire road tunnel in Tønsberg to use it as a venue. The work was released on CD through Lawo Classics in 2014.

˙

( Grex Vocalis - Witch Mass - Romberg，Martin )

❖ Produktbeskrivelse :

Komponist Martin Romberg gir ut sin andre solo-CD på LAWO Classics – «Witch Mass» – denne gang med musikk for kor.

˙

Komposisjonene er basert på urgamle, magiske formler og hymner til naturgudene, ritualer som etter sigende ennå praktiseres i skjul på landsbygden i Italia. Månegudinnens datter Aradia, Pan, blod-offeret og boblende heksegryter er noen av elementene. Men alltid er det er den hvite magien, ikke den sorte, som står i sentrum.

˙

Verkene «Aradia, or the gospel of the witches» og «Streghe»(hekser) blir etterfulgt av en komposisjon fra vår egen mytologi: «Rúnatal», eller «Odins runesang», omhandler historien om når den Norrøne guden hengte seg i Yggdrasil og ofret et øye for å oppnå evig visdom. Verket er en energisk hyllest til førkristen norsk kultur, og blir sunget på gammelnorsk.

˙

Verkene på denne CD-en blir fremført av tre av Norges fremste kor: Grex Vocalis, Det Norske Jentekor, og Kammerkoret NOVA.

˙

Martin Romberg er en norsk, klassisk komponist utdannet i Wien, som tidlig interesserte seg for «å omsette magi til musikk».

˙

Fra sin base i Frankrike har han allerede jobbet med kjente solister, kor og nærmere tyve symfoni-orkestre rundt om i Europa. Alltid er det temaer rundt mystisisme, fantasy, og til og med tegneserier som danner bakgrunnen for musikken.

˙

❖ Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches :

Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches is a book composed by the American folklorist Charles Godfrey Leland that was published in 1899. It contains what he believed was the religious text of a group of pagan witches in Tuscany, Italy that documented their beliefs and rituals, although various historians and folklorists have disputed the existence of such a group. In the 20th century, the book was very influential in the development of the contemporary Pagan religion of Wicca.

˙

The text is a composite. Some of it is Leland's translation into English of an original Italian manuscript, the Vangelo (gospel). Leland reported receiving the manuscript from his primary informant on Italian witchcraft beliefs, a woman Leland referred to as "Maddalena" and whom he called his "witch informant" in Italy. The rest of the material comes from Leland's research on Italian folklore and traditions, including other related material from Maddalena. Leland had been informed of the Vangelo's existence in 1886, but it took Maddalena eleven years to provide him with a copy. After translating and editing the material, it took another two years for the book to be published. Its fifteen chapters portray the origins, beliefs, rituals, and spells of an Italian pagan witchcraft tradition. The central figure of that religion is the goddess Aradia, who came to Earth to teach the practice of witchcraft to peasants in order for them to oppose their feudal oppressors and the Roman Catholic Church.

˙

Leland's work remained obscure until the 1950s, when other theories about, and claims of, "pagan witchcraft" survivals began to be widely discussed. Aradia began to be examined within the wider context of such claims. Scholars are divided, with some dismissing Leland's assertion regarding the origins of the manuscript, and others arguing for its authenticity as a unique documentation of folk beliefs. Along with increased scholarly attention, Aradia came to play a special role in the history of Gardnerian Wicca and its offshoots, being used as evidence that pagan witchcraft survivals existed in Europe, and because a passage from the book's first chapter was used as a part of the religion's liturgy. After the increase in interest in the text, it became widely available through numerous reprints from a variety of publishers, including a 1999 critical edition with a new translation by Mario and Dina Pazzaglini.

˙

❖ Origins :

Charles Godfrey Leland was an American author and folklorist, and spent much of the 1890s in Florence researching Italian folklore. Aradia was one of the products of Leland's research. While Leland's name is the one principally associated with Aradia, the manuscript that makes up the bulk of it is attributed to the research of an Italian woman whom Leland and Leland's biographer, his niece Elizabeth Robins Pennell, referred to as "Maddalena". According to folklorist Roma Lister, a contemporary and friend of Leland's, Maddalena's real name was Margherita, and she was a "witch" from Florence who claimed a family lineage from the Etruscans and knowledge of ancient rituals. Professor Robert Mathiesen, as a contributor to the Pazzaglini translation of Aradia, mentions a letter from Maddalena to Leland, which he states is signed "Maddalena Talenti" (the last name being a guess, as the handwriting is difficult to decipher).

˙

❖ Charles Godfrey Leland, Folklore research :

Leland returned to Europe in 1869, and travelled widely, eventually settling in London. His fame during his lifetime rested chiefly on his comic Hans Breitmann’s Ballads (1871), written in a combination of broken English and German (not to be confused, as it often has been, with Pennsylvania German). In recent times his writings on pagan and Aryan traditions have eclipsed the now largely forgotten Breitmann ballads, influencing the development of Wicca and modern paganism.

˙

In his travels, he made a study of the Gypsies, on whom he wrote more than one book. Leland began to publish a number of books on ethnography, folklore and language. His writings on Algonquian and gypsy culture were part of the contemporary interest in pagan and Aryan traditions. Scholars have found Leland had taken significant liberties with his research. In his book The Algonquin Legends of New England Leland attempts to link Wabanki culture and history to the Norse. It has also come to light that Leland altered some of those folk tales in order to lend credence to his theory. He erroneously claimed to have discovered "the fifth Celtic tongue": the form of Cant, spoken among Irish Travellers, which he named Shelta. Leland became president of the English Gypsy Lore Society in 1888.

˙

Eleven years later Godfrey produced Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, reportedly containing the traditional beliefs of Italian witchcraft as conveyed him in a manuscript provided by a woman named Maddalena, whom he refers to as his "witch informant." This remains his most influential book. Aradia's accuracy has been disputed, and used by others as a study of witch lore in 19th century Italy.

˙

▶︎ Further reading :

[http://www.grexvocalis.no/nb/]

[http://www.stregheria.com/aradia.htm]

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aradia]

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witches'_Sabbath]

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch-hunt]

▶︎ Other Further reading :

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bricket_Wood_coven]

˙

🎶 iTunes :

[https://itunes.apple.com/tw/album/witch-mass/1065006525]

🎶 Spotify :

[https://open.spotify.com/album/5IiIZn8Q7OkuVSx8chK2mo?si=z6QULoslTeyjkyEEEB5F4g]

🎶 amazon :

[https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0192V5YS0/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_5yV9BbCAGNK9E]

🎶 YouTube :

[https://youtu.be/o9WdRhLmxBM]

˙

#GrexVocalis #WitchMass #Witch #Mass #LawoMusic #LawoClassics #GrexVocalis #Classical #DetNorskeJentekor #KammerkoretNOVA #VestfoldInternationalFestival #CharlesGodfreyLeland #MartinRomberg #ElizabethRobinsPennell #Maddalena #Margherita #DavidNutt #RobertMathiesen #Aradia #RomaLister #MaddalenaTalenti #Folklore #Witchcraft #GardnerianWicca #Gardnerian #Wicca

[hunter-kids-kali-blog]

Gardnerian Wicca

A retired British civil servant named Gerald B. Gardner is the 'Grandfather', at the very least, of almost all Neo-Wicca. He was initiated into a coven of Witches in the New Forest region of England in 1939 by a High Priestess named 'Old Dorothy' Clutterbuck. In 1949 he wrote a novel [*High Magic's Aid*] about medieval Witchcraft in which quite a bit of the Craft as practiced by that coven was used. In 1951 the last of the English laws against Witchcraft were repealed (primarily due to the pressure of Spiritualists) and Gardner published *Witchcraft Today*, which set forth a version of the rituals and traditions of that coven. There is an enormous amount of disagreement about virtually every statement I have made in this paragraph.

Gardnerism is both a tradition and a family, and lineage is a family tree. The High Priestess rules the coven, and the principles of love and trust preside. We follow our handed down book more carefully than many others, but we are free to add and improvise, as long as we preserve the original.

We work skyclad, practice binding and scourging, are hierarchal and secretive, therefore we are controversial. We're also controversial because we were first - the first craft tradition in the U. S. and descended from the man largely responsible for starting the craft revival. So, we're called the snobs of the Craft, but I think we're as much fun as anyone else; our parties as good, our jokes as bad.

*Each Gardnerian coven is autonomous and is headed by a High Priestess who can turn to her queen (the High Priestess who trained her) for counsel and advice. This maintains the lineage and creates a pool of experienced and knowledgeable leaders and teachers.

*Reincarnation and the Wiccan Rede [An it harm none do what you will] are basic tenants of the tradition. Covens are as much as possible composed of male/female pairs for balance. Most working is accomplished with the energy raised by the interaction of the Lord and Lady as represented by the couples in the coven by dancing, chanting, etc.

*Like many Wiccan traditions, Gardnerians have three degrees. An American Gardnerian must be of the 3rd degree before she can become a HPS. The HPS/HP are responsible for conducting services (circles), training their conveners, and preserving and passing on Gardnerian Craft. *[This material quoted from Converging Paths Newsletter, Kyril, Brita, & Hugh authors.]

A lot of the controversy surrounding Gardnerianism questions the sources of the rituals and other materials, particularly those appearing in print. It is true that Gardner presented these materials as if they were directly from his New Forest tradition. It is clear, however, that whatever materials the coven may have had when he was initiated, Gerald made a lot of changes and added a great deal. Literary sources of the published Book of Shadows include Blake, Kipling, Yeats and Crowley. Much of the published material was written by Doreen Valiente, a member of the coven for a time and later founder of her own groups and author of many excellent books on the Craft.

Gardnerian Witches without doubt do have many materials which have not appeared in print, however, their emphasis on secrecy has made them a punch line in the Wiccan social world. How many Gardnerians does it take to change a light bulb? That's a secret! Their High Priestess will usually be called 'Lady' Soandso and High Priest, 'Lord Whats-his-name'. [This is far more true in the U. S. than it is in England.]

#Hunter-Kids #KaliTherien #magick #wicca #gardnerianwicca #magic #variouswiccatraditions

[judd051]

The Gardnerian Tradition: “Common Knowledge” and “Appropriation” on Tumblr

Just a few points...

* Gardnerian Wicca is an initiatory tradition - a secret society.  Every secret society in the history of the world has done its best to hide from non-initiates the truth of its origins and the extent and nature of its teachings.  If you believe that Gerald Gardner made it all up, that everything has been published, and that what has been published is accurate… then we've succeeded.

* To define the Gardnerian Tradition by the texts that you read online is to ignore 70+ years of discussion within the Tradition – discussion in which those texts have been accepted, rejected, argued over, and re-interpreted.  This should be obvious to anyone who has been involved in any living religion.  Sure, texts are important, but so is the living community’s engagement with those texts.

* What an individual teacher says or does reflects that teacher’s interpretation of the Tradition. No one (including me) speaks for the Tradition as a whole, not even Gardner.  He was a reporter – a transmitter of information – not a prophet, and not our only source for information about the tradition he joined.  A LOT came through him, but not everything.

* From what I read on tumblr, exploiting material that is private to a “closed” tradition without that tradition’s permission is the very definition of appropriation; and it’s hard to be more “closed” than requiring training and initiation.  And yet Witches on tumblr are perfectly happy to incorporate Gardnerian material into their own public practice, while denouncing appropriation by others.  If it doesn’t matter in other cases that the material has been published (usually illicitly), then it shouldn’t matter in this case.  It also shouldn’t matter whether or not the material is truly and accurately Gardnerian, the intent to use material that is not yours is still there.  It just seems that ripping off Gardnerian material gets a free pass because it has been going on for so long, but that is not a justification either.  Obviously, in many respects, the cat is out of the bag, but it’s still hypocrisy.

#wicca #gardnerian tradition #Gardnerian #gardnerianwicca #geraldgardner #gerald gardner #traditional wicca

[judd051]

The origins & nature of Wicca

Every secret society since the dawn of time has done its best to confuse and mislead the public as to its origins and the true nature and extent of its teachings, and Wicca is no exception.  If you believe that Gerald Gardner made it all up, that what’s been published is correct, and that everything HAS been published... then we’ve succeeded.  Unfortunately, in an age of intense academic scrutiny and a proliferation of investigative papers, that very success means that we have to put up with the many slings and arrows of those who do not know.  

#Wicca #GeraldGardner #GardnerianWicca #Gardnerianism #GeraldBGardner #GardnerianBookofShadows #WiccanOrigins

[judd051]

"Common knowledge" about Wicca is usually wrong. (updated Feb 6, 2024)

I’m amazed at how much misinformation there is about Wicca on Tumblr. I don’t know if it’s coming from folks who assume that if they’ve read some published books they know all there is to know about an oath-bound SECRET society or if it’s coming from poorly trained Wiccans.

There’s also a lot of sloppy use of terms - especially "Wicca" - which I'll address in another pinned post.

Speaking as a Gardnerian who sometimes takes such ill-informed comments personally…

* Every version of the “Book of Shadows” that’s been published is both inaccurate and incomplete (on the order of hundreds of pages). The Gods protect their secrets.

* The “3-fold Law” or "Law of Three-fold Return" is not a part of the tradition I inherited. It’s part of the metaphysical context of the middle-twentieth century. It became popular and accepted by many people as a sort of shorthand for “what goes around comes around”.

* The "Wiccan Rede" was invented by Doreen Valiente. Some of us like it, some of us less so, but it wasn’t in the Tradition ‘til she wrote it - several months after Gardner died.

* Gardner was an excellent transmitter of information, but a crappy folklorist. We can usually trust what he passed along, but his observations are often bullshit. It’s important to distinguish between these.

* Saying “Blessed Be” has nothing to do with wishing someone fertility or invoking the blessing of a particular deity. The texts make this very clear. It’s a general well-wishing. If almost all of us can deal with “God bless you!” almost every day and accept the good will behind the words, the odd “Blessed Be” here and there should be a small thing, especially when understood correctly. (A friend who is a Catholic priest once said before an interfaith service: “It’s easy for us to bless each other. The challenge is in accepting the blessings.” Think about it.)

* Gardner was a homophobe (as were many in his day), but he also WASN’T a prophet! What he thought, said, or did personally has no influence on the rest of us. The material he transmitted reflected it’s times, but is not necessarily heterosexual (surprise!) and nowhere are the God and Goddess described as anything like a married couple. There’s plenty of room for interpreting the Tradition in other ways. Ask all the LGBTQ+ Gardnerians.

* The God & Goddess aren’t mushed together versions of all the other deities. They are specific deities with specific names who are OUR Gods, while we acknowledge the existence of all the other Gods. We can’t name our Gods publicly, so they are just called “the God” and “the Goddess” among outsiders. This was a common practice in antiquity. Outsiders got this muxed up with Dion Fortune's "All goddesses are one Goddess..." and assumed we were saying the same thing when we weren't. Unfortunately, through the folk process called rucklauf ("backflow"), this mistaken understanding has sometimes made its way back into some Gardnerian groups.

* There is a lot of traditional magic in the Tradition. Remember, everything hasn’t been published.

* The Tradition has a philosophy based on late-antique Neoplatonism.

* Not all Gardnerians are religious. I recently had an avowed atheist apply to work with my coven. I turned to an e-list of Gardnerian elders in the US, Canada, UK, and Australia and asked, "Can an atheist be Gardnerian?" After a chorus of responses saying "Absolutely not!" the other half of the list spoke up, saying "Why not? I'm an atheist!" A spirited discussion ensued, resulting in a broader understanding of what it means to be Gardnerian.

Before assuming you know all there is to know about Wicca (at least the Gardnerian version):

1) Understand that “common knowledge” is often bullshit.

2) Read Gardner’s books, paying attention to what he says the Witches told him vs. what he thinks.

3) In the end, recognize that there will be a lot you still don’t know because you aren’t an Initiate. Not only do you not have access to all the texts, you have know idea what goes on in the community of Initiates discussing those texts (and has been doing so for over 70 years); some will texts be accepted by all while others may have historical value, but be widely regarded as nonsense. Any text, no matter how central, is still only a PART of any living religious community.

I’d also like to offer the suggestion that one can always promote and sing the praises of one’s own Tradition or practice without dumping on those of others. So many times I’ve been brought up short in reading a beautiful description of someone’s Tradition by the words “unlike those Wiccans”, or words to that effect. It’s unnecessary and usually untrue.

"Common knowledge" is all too often actually common ignorance.

Sorry if that was a bit of a rant, but I hope it was still informative. I might update it as I run across more misinformation.

Blessed Be, Judd

#wicca #gardnerian #witchblr #blessed be #gardnerian tradition #gerald gardner #book of shadows #gardner #gardnerianwicca