Gardnerian Wicca, or Gardnerian witchcraft, is a
tradition in the neopagan religion of Wicca, whose members can trace initiatory descent from Gerald Gardner. The tradition is itself named after Gardner (1884–1964), a British civil servant and amateur scholar of magic. The term "Gardnerian" was probably coined by the founder of Cochranian Witchcraft, Robert Cochrane in the 1950s or 60s, who himself left that tradition to found his own.
Gardner's Book of Shadows
Gerald Brosseau Gardner, also known by the craft name Scire, was an English Wiccan, author, and amateur anthropologist and archaeologist. He was instrumental in bringing the modern pagan religion of Wicca to public attention, writing some of its definitive religious texts and founding the tradition of Gardnerian Wicca.
Gerald Gardner
Gardner with his Irish nursemaid, Com, during the 1880s
While working in Borneo in 1911, Gardner eschewed the racist attitudes of his colleagues by befriending members of the Dayak indigenous community, fascinated by their magico-religious beliefs, tattoos and displays of weaponry.
A selection of kris knives; Gardner took a great interest in such items, even authoring the definitive text on the subject, Keris and Other Malay Weapons (1936).