Gerald Gardner

I'm thinking the founder of Wicca, Gerald Gardner, was a Mason. Or was at least privy to Masonic secrets. Many Neopagans use a lot of Masonic language and symbolism in their ritual. If not Gardner, people with interests in Masonry and such symbolism must be incorporating such things into their rituals. Anyone here an expert on this?

I think that gardner was involved in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, or one of its splinter groups, and that that might be the source for any masonic similarities (assuming that there aren't similarities because they were working with similar source materials).

Or, perhaps I have it wrong and he wasn't in the Golden Dawn, but some of the people that helped him found wiccanism were.

Originally posted by randee83
I'm thinking the founder of Wicca, Gerald Gardner, was a Mason. Or was at least privy to Masonic secrets. Many Neopagans use a lot of Masonic language and symbolism in their ritual. If not Gardner, people with interests in Masonry and such symbolism must be incorporating such things into their rituals. Anyone here an expert on this?

I can't personally vouch for the accuracy of it, but the following link may be of interest on this subject:

freemasonry.bcy.ca...

Nygdan, a ingenius analogy. But in the world of Paganism, its either Good or Bad, so in a sense they all have the same boss. Alot of prominent men are Masons, some we would never expect, such as Tony Blair, who in my theory is the anti-christ. I know I'm not the first to protest that.

Originally posted by randee83
I'm thinking the founder of Wicca, Gerald Gardner, was a Mason. Or was at least privy to Masonic secrets. Many Neopagans use a lot of Masonic language and symbolism in their ritual. If not Gardner, people with interests in Masonry and such symbolism must be incorporating such things into their rituals. Anyone here an expert on this?

Gardner was initiated into Masonry as an Entered Apprentice, but did not continue in Masonry because he did not care for its Judeo-Christian overtones. His Masonic influence was largely indirect, coming through Aleister Crowley and the O.T.O.

It is sometimes said, although not proven, that Gardner paid Crowley to write the the rituals for the three degrees of Wicca, which Crowley based both on the degrees for Masonry and the O.T.O.

Originally posted by Masonic Light
It is sometimes said, although not proven, that Gardner paid Crowley to write the the rituals for the three degrees of Wicca, which Crowley based both on the degrees for Masonry and the O.T.O.

Masonic Light Excellent Post!

A good source of information on this topic and on Gardner in particular, if anyone is truly interested in it, and can find a copy is the now out-of-print book is:

Crafting the Art of Magic: A History of Modern Witchcraft, 1939-1964

by

Aidan A. Kelly

A quick scan of Amazon.com turned up 5 copies starting at $50.00

Originally posted by Masonic Light

Originally posted by randee83
It is sometimes said, although not proven, that Gardner paid Crowley to write the the rituals for the three degrees of Wicca, which Crowley based both on the degrees for Masonry and the O.T.O.

Wow! I'll definitely have to check this out!

Thanks ML.

Originally posted by Masonic Light

Gardner was initiated into Masonry as an Entered Apprentice, but did not continue in Masonry because he did not care for its Judeo-Christian overtones. His Masonic influence was largely indirect, coming through Aleister Crowley and the O.T.O.

It is sometimes said, although not proven, that Gardner paid Crowley to write the the rituals for the three degrees of Wicca, which Crowley based both on the degrees for Masonry and the O.T.O.

Gardner was a member of the O.T.O., and Crowley gave him a charter to start an O.T.O. lodge. As it turns out Gardner never did anything with the charter but it does look like he was interested in starting one because after Crowley's death he was asking for copies of the O.T.O. rituals to get things going. IMHO he was just too busy with Wicca to devote any time to the O.T.O.

As for Crowley writing the Wiccan rituals, that seems unlikely as they are missing a certain style that Crowley's rituals had (Speaking as a fan of his rituals.).

There are also stories about how Crowley wanted Gardner's new witch group to be a kind of an O.T.O. light for the common man and teach about Thelema... But he wanted that for every group

Here is a pretty good article about Crowley and Gardner.
www.sacred-texts.com...