{"id":1643,"date":"2010-05-27T18:55:36","date_gmt":"2010-05-28T00:55:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1643"},"modified":"2010-05-27T20:04:04","modified_gmt":"2010-05-28T02:04:04","slug":"donna-gardner-a-wiccan-unlikely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1643","title":{"rendered":"Donna Gardner a Wiccan? Unlikely."},"content":{"rendered":"

In the current issue of The Cauldron<\/em>,<\/a> a writer known only as “Tof” tells us that Donna Gardner, wife of Gerald, chief founder of Wicca, was lying when she said that she was not involved in the Craft.<\/p>\n

First, though, Tof tells us, “In all this [biographical summary] there is not evidence of Donna Gardner’s involvement, even occasionally, in the witchcraft practised by her husband.”<\/p>\n

And then s\/he proceeds to “find” some. Examples:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 Donna was supposed to have been photographed “in witch vestments and posing with a ceremonial sword in her hand.”<\/p>\n

But we all know that that Gerald Gardner’s idea of “witch vestments” for women consisted of a necklace and nothing else.<\/p>\n

Thanks to Philip Heselton’s legwork, we know that Gardner was involved in other esoteric and magical groups in the 1940s before the founding of Wicca circa 1950. Could not these vestments pertain to one of them?<\/p>\n

2. Donna apparently “knew some details of Wica [Gardner’s spelling] rituals at a time when they were known only to insiders.” But the time period is not given, and there is no source for this statement\u2014it is just asserted.<\/p>\n

3. There is allegedly a high priestess’s symbol on her gravestone. That is interesting, if true, but no photographic proof is offered.<\/p>\n

Sloppy speculation like this article is just one more reason why I wish that someone would write a critical biography of Gardner\u2014I would love to see it in Equinox’s<\/a> Pagan Studies series, which I co-edit.<\/p>\n

Aidan Kelly, who started the biographical ball rolling back in 1991 with Crafting the Art of Magic<\/a>, <\/em>assumed that Gardner and Edith Woodford-Grimes<\/a> (“Dafo”) were lovers and that she was, at least for a time, the first high priestess of Wicca in the early 1950s. (I have some concerns with the Wikipedia entry, but at least it has her photo.)<\/p>\n

She certainly seemed to be on the scene much more than Donna did. And new religious movements often start under messy circumstances that later followers try to clean up and sanitize.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the current issue of The Cauldron, a writer known only as “Tof” tells us that Donna Gardner, wife of Gerald, chief founder of Wicca, was lying when she said that she was not involved in the Craft. First, though, Tof tells us, “In all this [biographical summary] there is not evidence of Donna Gardner’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21,117,6],"class_list":["post-1643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-england","tag-gerald-gardner","tag-wicca"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-qv","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":586,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=586","url_meta":{"origin":1643,"position":0},"title":"1939 and All ThatJason Pitzl-Waters\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 31, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"1939 and All ThatJason Pitzl-Waters draws attention to a 2001 interview with Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone recently re-published in the online zine The Wiccan-Pagan Times.Janet Farrar, who came to the Craft in the late 1960s, seems to dancing around a more skeptical position as regarding Gerald Gardner's finding a\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5032,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5032","url_meta":{"origin":1643,"position":1},"title":"Mouse’s Way: Philip Heselton’s Biographies of Gerald Gardner","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 12, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"A serious scholarly biography of Gerald Gardner, the effective founder of the Wiccan religion, remains to be written. Philip Heselton has now written four books on Gardner's life, but his vision is near-sighted and close to the ground, like a mouse seeking food in the grass, unaware that there are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"England\"","block_context":{"text":"England","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=england"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3910,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3910","url_meta":{"origin":1643,"position":2},"title":"“Wicca Man” Trailer","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 6, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the trailer for the new British documentary on Gerald Gardner, theatrically introduced by Ronald Hutton rather like an episode of the archaeology program Secrets of the Dead. Britain's Wicca Man - (C) Matchlight from Matchlight on Vimeo. I am happy to hear Professor Hutton say that Wicca was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"England\"","block_context":{"text":"England","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=england"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12980,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12980","url_meta":{"origin":1643,"position":3},"title":"How about Museum of Witchcraft Version 4.0?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 6, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"You can buy the former mill (built 1828) in Castletown, Isle of Man, that once housed housed Cecil Williamson and Gerald Gardner's \"Folklore Centre of Superstition and Witchcraft,\" whose name went through various permutations, even as its little restaurant went from being \"The Folklore Restaurant\" to \"The Witches' Kitchen.\" All\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Gerald Gardner\"","block_context":{"text":"Gerald Gardner","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=gerald-gardner"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tindle-web-prod.brightsites.co.uk\/tindle-static\/image\/2022\/06\/28\/11\/newFile.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tindle-web-prod.brightsites.co.uk\/tindle-static\/image\/2022\/06\/28\/11\/newFile.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tindle-web-prod.brightsites.co.uk\/tindle-static\/image\/2022\/06\/28\/11\/newFile.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10607,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10607","url_meta":{"origin":1643,"position":4},"title":"‘The Goddess Doesn’t Want Any More Prophets’ and Other Observations by ‘Robert’","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 8, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"First of all, \"Robert\" is Frederic Lamond, one of Gerald Gardner's early coveners\u2014his mundane name is not exactly oathbound material these days, now that he has written books and has his own Wikipedia page. But this screenshot is from the documentary Robert: Portrait of a Witch, made by Malcolmn Brenner\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Gerald Gardner\"","block_context":{"text":"Gerald Gardner","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=gerald-gardner"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":375,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=375","url_meta":{"origin":1643,"position":5},"title":"Helen Duncan, accidental godmother of Wicca","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 5, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"A movement is underway in Britain to clear the name of Helen Duncan, a Scottish Spiritualist medium sent to prison during World War II under the Witchcraft Act of 1735.She was convicted of faking mediumistic abilities, but as this reviewer says, some people thought she was a true medium at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"England\"","block_context":{"text":"England","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=england"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1643"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1648,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1643\/revisions\/1648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}