We recently had a discussion of Gerald Gardner’s involvement with Spiritualism, and it’s possible influence on the Craft. Robert Mathiesen made some very interesting observations about this issue, and not being an expert on Gardner, I contacted some who were. They in turn contacted Philip Heselton, author of Wiccan Roots and Gerald Gardner and the Cauldron of Inspiration, and who will soon be publishing a biography of Gardner, and who has made other important contributions to Craft history.
Philip Heselton:
Gerald encountered spiritualism at several points in his
life, but I think it would be fair to say that he never really got involved in
it.
His first encounter seems to have been his reading of “There
is no Death” by Florence Marryat when he was a boy. He says that was when he
first became convinced of survival beyond death of the physical body.
His encounters with the native peoples of Borneo and Malaya
and his invitation to their rituals gave him a more practical realisation of
the reality of survival.
Whilst his initial encounters with spiritualism on his trip
to England in 1927 did not impress him, he later on that trip did encounter
some mediums in London which convinced him by the accuracy of the messages they
gave to him, particularly from his own mother and from his friend, ‘G’, who had
died a few years before.
I have no evidence that he was involved in spiritualism
following his return to Malaya in 1927.
The next time spiritualism is mentioned is following his
retirement in 1936 when he makes contact with the members of a naturist club (‘Fouracres’)
who are interested in the occult, spiritualism, etc. He joins the club and I
get the impression that he gets involved in long discussions, but there is no
evidence that he was more actively involved in spiritualism that just talking
about it.
At this time, he becomes convinced that he had had a
previous lifetime in Cyprus, the result of which is his book “A Goddess Arrives”.
Reincarnation is not, I think, a common belief among spiritualists, who mostly
come from a Christian background, but it is a firm, and important, belief of
Gardner’s.
This is intensified when he becomes involved, or at least on
the periphery of, the Crotona Fellowship, but following his contact with the
witches, his focus become witchcraft. I have no evidence that he was involved
in any spiritualist groups when he was in Highcliffe.
After the war, when he was living in London, he became a
reasonably active member of both the Folklore Society and the Society for
Psychical Research. Particularly in the latter he would have met spiritualists
such as Dingwall and Cannon, and doubtless several more. His first initiate,
Barbara Vickers, was also a keen spiritualist. In the 1950s he gave several
talks to various spiritualist groups.
My conclusions are that he accepted the spiritualist premise
of survival of death, that he knew spiritualists throughout his life and that
he talked to spiritualist groups, but that he was never actively involved in
such groups – he was too busy with other things, and could never focus his time
sufficiently to do so.
Anyway, I think that’s my initial view, but I am willing to
change it at a moment’s notice if new evidence comes up – I am not addicted to
it in any way.
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