Where did Aleister Crowley’s Influence on Wicca Go?
Gerald Gardner was the founder of what today is referred to as Wicca. Specifically I speak of ‘Gardnerian Wicca’, an oath-bound and initiation required tradition that traces its lineage to Gerald Gardner and the New Forrest Coven. What is known commonly today as Wicca in the public is hardly what Gardner established in 1947. Gardner's tradition focused primarily on ritual and performing it, whereas today, what is known as Wicca generally is associated with a belief system. As for the arrival of Gardner's Wicca, shortly after the Witchcraft Act was abolished, one could speak freely about one’s associations to the craft without fear of legal persecution. Gerald Gardner was one of the first to write extensively and openly right after the political reformation. There is one particular work of Gardner’s that I want to address, namely the publication of The Gardnerian Book of Shadows and the evolution of it.
“The Book of Shadows” was a term coined mysteriously in the craft; the only tie to the title was a publication in an occult magazine called The Occult Observer, which had an advertisement for Gardner’s High Magic’s Aid within the same edition (Valiente 2007, 51) . The Gardnerian Book of Shadows is a publication with rituals dated as early as 1949 (Gardner 2008) . If you have read the early work, you would find it contained a great deal of Aleister Crowley’s writings, along with content of MacGregor Mathers’ Key of Solomon. All but eight years later, we see a second rendition of the same rituals but guess what’s missing; almost all of Crowley’s work and references to the Key of Solomon. So the question is, where did the references go and why?
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