Oh, yes, the alleged "coven", so-called only by GG. Isn't there some
conjecture GG was in fact referring to the Rosicrucian Order
of Crotona Fellowship's Christchurch Garden Theatre group?
Here's what the University of Southampton Library (which has owned the
ROCF's library since 1977) has to say on their website:
"The Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship was established in Liverpool
in 1924 by Gerald Alexander Sullivan (1890-1942). In 1935 the
Fellowship moved to Dorset, and built the Ashrama Hall and the
Christchurch Garden Theatre at Somerford in Christchurch. Members
studied occult sciences and esoteric subjects under the leadership of
Sullivan and performed in the mystical plays he wrote as Alex Mathews
and staged at the Garden Theatre. Gerald Gardner (1884-1964), who
became known as the father of modern Wicca, was a member during the
late 1930s and claimed to have been initiated into a New Forest coven
by another member of the Crotona Fellowship. The Fellowship survived
for only a few years after the death of Gerald Sullivan in 1942."
Mogg,
In all the research data I've seen and heard presented by SF Bay Area
CalGards who made the trek to look through everything of Gardner's
which was made available to them (by Ripley's when they bought the
collection?) and all the microfilmed documents I've viewed of the Yorke
collection in the Warburg, I've seen nothing at all to suggest that
either Aleister Crowley or Gerald Gardner were ever in possession of
Jack Parsons' writings regarding witchcraft. Nor has Allen Greenfield
offered any evidence to support such conjecture. Thus, I am curious...
who is it that suggests Gardner was influenced by Parsons and what
evidence do they present to support their claim?
Thanks,
Felicia Swayne-Heidrick
Ty Falk wrote:
> I think the crux of the British influence thing stems from Gardner's
> alleged trucking about with the coven in Burley.
>
>> Mandrake wrote:
>>
>> > Ken et al
>> >
>> > really - I'd assumed that Wicca (in the sense of the Gardner's
>> > reconstruced witchcraft cult) was originally a British
>> > phenomenon - although Gardner was supposedly inspired by Jack
>> Parsons??
>> > Any chance of a quick summary
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