The Meaning of Witchcraft

by Gerald B. Gardner

Thought to be the father of modern witchcraft, Gerald Gardner published The Meaning of Witchcraft in 1959, not long after laws punishing witches were repealed. It was the first sympathetic book written from the point of view of a practicing witch.

"The meaning of witchcraft is to be found, not in strange religious theories about God and Satan, but in the deepest levels of the human mind, the collective unconscious, and the earliest developments of human society. It is the deepness of the roots that has preserved the tree."

Genres: Wicca, Witchcraft, Nonfiction, Magic, Occult, Spirituality, Paganism

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1959

About the author

Gerald Brousseau Gardner was an influential English Wiccan, as well as an amateur anthropologist and archaeologist, writer, weaponry expert and occultist. He was instrumental in bringing the Neopagan religion of Wicca to public attention in Britain and wrote some of its definitive religious texts. He himself typically referred to the faith as "witchcraft" or "the witch-cult", its adherents "the Wica", and he claimed that it was the survival of a pre-Christian pagan Witch cult that he had been initiated into by a New Forest coven in 1939.
Gardner spent much of his life abroad in southern and south-eastern Asia, where he developed an interest in many of the native peoples, and wrote about some of their magical practices. It was after his retirement and return to England that he was initiated into Wicca by the New Forest coven. Subsequently fearing that this religion, which he apparently believed to be a genuine continuance of ancient beliefs, would die out, he set about propagating it through initiating others, mainly through the Bricket Wood coven, and introduced a string of notable High Priestesses into Wicca, including Doreen Valiente, Lois Bourne, Patricia Crowther and Eleanor Bone.
He also published two books on the subject of Wicca, Witchcraft Today (1954) and The Meaning of Witchcraft (1959), along with a couple of novels, and ran the Museum of Magic and Witchcraft on the Isle of Man, which was devoted to the subject. For this, he has left an enduring legacy on the modern Wiccan and Neopagan movement, and is frequently referred to as "the Father of Wicca".

Reviews

[TM · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm very glad that I finally had the chance to read through this book in its entirety. While I had heard a lot about Gerald Gardner from other witches, I had avoided his works as I hate to be a "band wagon" person. Needless t say, not having a coven to call my own, I've finally gone without hearing "Gardner this" or "Gardner that" long enough to feel like I'm not following the crowd reading it. He makes some very solid arguments against the false ideas of what witchcraft is and is not. He's also one of the few authors on witchcraft that I have read that does not confuse it for Paganism. I'll definitely be keeping this around as a resource, reference, and a re-read.

[Sable · Rating 3 out of 5]

Every witch should read this to understand the roots of modern witchcraft and Wicca, but it's not a well-written book. I first groaned at the whole "Black Mass" material in it, but I did learn a few things as a result of that which I didn't know. Goes to show you the discrediting has been going on forever, too. Add it to your list as a bathroom or doctor's office reader because you really should read it, but it's probably not going to be quick.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book, fascinating that it's over 60 years old now. It was surprisingly easy to read, but it still reads like a history book. There is a lot on the history of witchcraft, but Gardner doesn't provide a lot of sources, so I wouldn't treat it as an actual history book. It's still a good read for Wiccans.

[Luna Seranova · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gardner’s blatant homophobic rhetoric and puritanical views of sexuality are just two examples of his gross distillation of witchcraft into pseudo-Christianity (Wicca). Other than the problematic and outdated views (I get it, it’s an old book), this was a pretty slow and dry experience.

However, it is a seminal text for those interested in the birth of Wicca and provides some interesting context in the rise of witchcraft in modernity.

Gardner wrote this book as an affluent Englishman for the everyday person (non-pagan) of the time. With that, I don’t think I was his target audience.

There were definitely some good moments in this book.

Shout out to Gerald Gardner for introducing and normalizing witchcraft to the extent that he could in the 20th century. That part was cool!

[Yvonne Aburrow · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was alternately fascinating and frustrating. Fascinating when he stuck to the facts; frustrating when he strayed into the realms of conjecture, like the idea that there was an organized witch cult and witch districts in the early medieval period. Certainly there was witchcraft (mostly folk magic with a bit of grimoire magic thrown in), but the idea that there was an organized and widespread cult has been fairly comprehensively shown to be wrong. Nevertheless the book is fascinating because there’s a lot of information about attempts by newspapers to discredit witchcraft in the early 1950s. Anyone who remembers the “satanic panic” of the late 1980s will recognize the tropes described. The chapter on the witch persecutions is very good and refers to trial records and contemporary accounts. I would advise people to read Ronald Hutton’s “Triumph of the Moon” before reading GBG’s “The Meaning of Witchcraft”.

[Carolina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Comprei este livro na Feira do Livro de Lisboa, em 2020 (não assim há tanto tempo ;) ). Trata-se de um dos livros de referência mais importantes no universo do neopaganismo e Wicca, cuja edição se encontrava esgotada há muitos anos. Assim, tive de o trazer assim que o vi!

Infelizmente desapontou-me um pouco. O livro é extremamente denso, com uma escrita por vezes confusa e não-cronológica que infere que o leitor tenha de imediato um conhecimento mais profundo sobre arqueologia. Isto torna a leitura difícil e demorada, não sendo de todo um livro acessível para aqueles que queiram conhecer mais sobre a história do paganismo e a sua prática actual.

Para além disso, é uma escrita extremamente defensiva, existindo diversos capítulos em que o autor pega em notícias da época e as escrutina como falsidades. Isto pareceu-me desnecessário e rude, não abonando em nada para aqueles que ainda praticam a bruxaria. Tendo isto em conta, as notícias estão extremamente desactualizadas (50 anos?) e em nada ajudam a clarificar o "significado da bruxaria".

Assim, apesar de ser uma fonte de material de referência sobre a história da bruxaria e do paganismo, um assunto que me interessa, é um livro difícil e um pouco preconceituoso. Não recomendaria.

[Cypress Butane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Apparently a groundbreaking work, published in the 1950's and pioneering a pro-Wicca agenda, this book does a lot to advance knowledge of the history of witchcraft, based on the evidence available. The author is a member of a British coven that is said to have ties to generations of practitioners, but linking modern witchcraft to the traditions of the ancients is a more complicated story. The author does a good job, in a wide ranging style, and even though it seemed like he wandered a lot, I didn't mind in the least. Lots of great information and a fun read.

[St. Bartholomew Noir II]

The Inquisition is not over.

[Katie]

Didn't make it through all of it, but it did help me write my final paper for school!

[Rosa Ramôa · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Faça o que desejar, sem a ninguém prejudicar"
(Gerald Gardner)

http://mea--venus.blogspot.pt/2015/02...

[Ferenc · Rating 3 out of 5]

Weeell... hope my Wicca friends will not stone me but I don't think Gardner is a very good author. I heard somewhere that this book is a better read than Witchcraft Today but I disagree; it's faults are the same and overall it might be a bit less interesting. There's no focus, Gardner writes in a stream of consciousness kind of way... sometimes I feel that the chapters have no use at all either because the next one takes up where the previous ended, while they don't really follow the topics of the titles. This book mostly goes through some of the witch persecutions and accusations over the history, including some articles from the '50s. He has a few very interesting insights and notes here and there, but to me he's often very messy and it's hard to point out how we got to a topic from the previous one. The appendix could have easily been part of the previous chapters as they mostly pick up the same threads, while there's no conclusion or sum-up, the book just simply ends.

One of the known interesting things is that here Gardner mentions 8 sabbats instead of the 4 ones already mentioned in Witchcraft Today. Honestly, there's not much to know about Wicca from these books.

[Geoff Gander · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although some of the material is no doubt outdated in light of new research conducted since the book's publication in the late 1950s, and Mr. Gardner's social views are in some ways out of step with modern sensibilities, this is a very useful and accessible book on the history of witchcraft in Britain. He explores what was known at the time of writing about probable beliefs held by the indigenous people of the island, from the Stone Age up to the medieval era, who the deities of the time were, as well as the origins of certain rituals known to be practiced. The bibliography is also very extensive, so this book is a good start for any serious scholar.

I also appreciated his dry sarcasm in the later sections, when he addressed the misconceptions in his day about witchcraft.

[Tania · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd not completely heard great things about this book, considering that the book was actually rarely spoken about - I did not know it existed for a while - only ever heard of Gerry's High Magic's Aid and Witchcraft Today.
The history part was a bit all over the place - more assumptions than facts, but I very much enjoyed the three 'Some Allegations Examined' chapters at the end - noting the dramatic but pathetic behaviour of the British media in the 50s.
It took a while for me to start and continue with this book, I was reading other books in between it and convalescing from an operation etc, as it did not grab me straight away. But I persevered.

[Willow · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm embarrassed that I haven't read Gardner before now, but there it is. I found his voice to be conversational, humorous, and intelligent. While his interpretation of history certainly suits his point, I can pretty much say that about any author. obviously his bias is mine as well, so there's that. I particularly loved the idea that Robin Hood and Maid Marion are forest gods—it makes sense and opens up a whole new realm of thinking for me.

[Wren · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has some modest historical interest for modern practitioners of Wicca, which is why I read it. However the majority of the book is the questionable "history" of the Wica told by Gardner in a dense, rambling style without much in the way of citations or sources. It's valuable as a glimpse into the mind and thoughts of the man who brought the religion of Wicca into the world but not much else

[Mikal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Educational, but check the facts

Gardner offers more shaggy dog story than history of the witch cult here. Several chapters are devoted to responding to newspaper articles about modern witches. None of what Gardner presents here rests on solid historical scholarship though, so check the sources for yourself and don't just believe his summaries of them

[Shawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the digressions in this were a slog to get through but overall Gardner painted a solid picture of witchcraft and pulled good historical evidence. The thread linking old Pagan practices to the beginnings of the Church seems much stronger when viewed through the light of this book and the details Gardner points out

[Tina Chandler · Rating 5 out of 5]

From "the Father of Modern Witchcraft" interesting to read it from the beginning . If like to find his other book "High Magics Aid"

[Celeste · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gardner wasn't called the "Grand Old Man of Witchcraft" for nothing. I was long overdue for reading any of his work. His writing style is very readable. Tons of history - he DID do his research. Skimmed over the chapters on "Some Allegations Examined". Gardner looks at some sensationalist newspaper stories and tears them apart. I've read too much of the similar (and some of the same stories) in other early witchcraft books.

[Rosa Laguna · Rating 1 out of 5]

He did a great job at the time making Wicca public, but the book (all his books in fact) is not specially brilliant. He repeats the same facts over and over and makes up information with the excuse of "just because there is no evidence doesn't mean it didn't happen".

[Padhopper]

Didn't finish. This is a great reference book.

[Talissia Bates · Rating 2 out of 5]

It mentions the devil a lot. Also, its spicy. O_O