Magus #13: Gerald Gardner

This month on Magus, for our final episode of the series, we're casting a circle and exploring the life of the last great name in British magic, Gerald Gardner!

Suffering with crippling asthma all his life, we begin with Gardner's youth and young manhood overseas where, accompanied by his nurse, nanny, and personal tutor, he explored Europe and parts of North Africa and the Middle East, developing an interest in folklore, paganism, and ethnography.

After a career working on tea and rubber plantations, spending his free time digging into the mysteries of Malay cultures, he then became a colonial administrator, controlling the British opium monopoly during the interwar years.

It is only on his return to England, alongside his wife Donna, that Gerald's magical life really begins. Through his membership of an obscure Rosicrucian order and then the New Forest Coven, he became certain that it was his task to revive an ancient British mystery cult close to extinction.

How did he do this? Well, by cobbling together a lot of occult learning from yesteryear, often as presented by Aleister Crowley - an aspect of his new, duotheistic nature religion that did not sit comfortably with its High Priestesses...

From his relationships with the likes of Cecil Williamson and Doreen Valiente to his boastful courting of the tabloid press, we then follow the downward trajectory of his life - as well as his legacy, as in part embodied in the hundreds of thousands of people who identify as Wiccan today.

From his books to his anthropological studies, his preoccupations with flagellation and nudism to his fiction and non-fiction books, we're digging into it all.

And at the end of it, bearing in mind what we've explored across the thirteen episodes of Magus, are we to believe he was really magical at all, or whether he himself believed in the things that have since become a full-blown religious faith...

We really hope you enjoy the episode, and will speak with you again on Thursday for our special episode on the literary context into which the Lang's coloured fairy books were published, changing the worlds of children's fiction and folklore forever!

Three Ravens is an English myth and folklore podcast hosted by Eleanor Conlon and Martin Vaux.

Released on Mondays, each weekly episode focuses on one of England's 39 historic counties, exploring the history, folklore and traditions of the area, from ghosts and mermaids to mythical monsters, half-forgotten heroes, bloody legends, and much, much more. Then, and most importantly, the pair take turns to tell a new version of an ancient story from that county - all before discussing what that tale might mean, where it might have come from, and the truths it reveals about England's hidden past...

Bonus Episodes are released on Thursdays plus Local Legends episodes on Saturdays - interviews with acclaimed authors, folklorists, podcasters and historians with unique perspectives on that week's county.

With a range of exclusive content on Patreon, too, including audio ghost tours, the Three Ravens Newsletter, and monthly Three Ravens Film Club episodes about folk horror films from across the decades, why not join us around the campfire and listen in?

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