Aspects of this topic are discussed in the following places at Britannica.
...No cult of the “Goddess” played a significant role in Western culture between late antiquity and the mid-20th century. Wicca, in fact, originated about 1939 with an Englishman, Gerald Gardner, who constructed it from the fanciful works of the self-styled magician Aleister Crowley; the fake “ancient” document Aradia (1899); the Hermetic...
in Wicca: Origins and beliefs )Although there were precursors to the movement, the origins of modern Wicca can be traced to a retired British civil servant, Gerald Brousseau Gardner (1884–1964). Gardner spent most of his career in Asia, where he became familiar with a variety of occult beliefs and magical practices. He also read widely in Western esoteric literature, including the writings of the British occultist...
Link to this article and share the full text with the readers of your Web site or blog-post.
If you think a reference to this article on "Gerald Brousseau Gardner" will enhance your Web site,
blog-post, or any other web-content, then feel free to link to this article,
and your readers will gain full access to the full article, even if they do not subscribe to our service.
You may want to use the HTML code fragment provided below.
We welcome your comments. Any revisions or updates suggested for this article will be reviewed by our editorial staff. Contact us here.
Regular users of Britannica may notice that this comments feature is less robust than in the past. This is only temporary, while we make the transition to a dramatically new and richer site. The functionality of the system will be restored soon.