-----Original Message-----
>From: David Green <[log in to unmask]>
>
>I think that simply Ronald meant that Wicca was 'created' by Gardner in
>England and, as an indigenous spirituality of sorts, the context was
>that this is the only religion that the English have bequeathed to the
>world (as opposed to English developments of Christianity, e.g.,
>Anglicanism, Methodism, etc.). It's less ambiguous when seen in the
>original context.
Thanks for your clear explanation, David. I am in my
office, and my copy of TRIUMPH is at home, but I think
you paraphrased it correctly.
Remember too, as Philip Heselton demonstrated (quite in
contrary to his original thesis), Gerald Gardner was quite a
spiritual seeker in the late 1930s and 1940s. He joined or
visited several esoteric groups, of which Crowley's OTO was
only one of the last.
The novel he wrote about Witchcraft in the 1940s, HIGH MAGIC'S AID, describes something totally unlike Gardnerian Wicca. It is more
like ceremonial magic filtered through Robert Louis Stevenson.
Wicca as we know it suddenly appeared about 1951, in conjunction
with his partnership with Cecil Williamson in the Isle of Man
witchcraft museum.
Personally, I think the most parsimonious explanation was that
if one is going to have a Witchcraft Museum, it helps to be able
to exhibit articles, books, etc. from contemporary Witches --
even if those articles, etc., were created the week before.
Chas Clifton
http://www.chasclifton.com
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