witchcraft, how far? Options

how far back can someone trace witchcraft? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif)

Arcangle You have opened up a can of worms when you brought Gardner into this. Gerald Gardner probably was initiated into the New Forest Coven in 1939. Philip Hesselton is probably the best informed writer on this period and in his last two books he explains that to the best of anyone's knowledge Gardner was initiated in 1939 and there was a New Forest Coven which contained three or more family trad members. That is the short answer.
But early Gardnerian history is clouded and controversial. For some years it was claimed that Gardner was the successor in an unbroken line of pagan priests/esses that stretched back to the stone age. Now that claim isn't taken seriously. But he was initiated into a group of magic workers (who probably didn't think of themselves as witches) and was taught a skeletal framework for working magic. Also supposedly, the New Forest Coven was one of George Pickensgill's nine covens. George Pickingsgill was probably the last of the traditional cunning men. Bill Liddell, a grand nephew of Pickingsgill is the author of a book called the Pickingsgill Papers. He made many claims in the book which are disputed and some of which he himself knows now were mistakes. I'm on another forum in which he is giving his side of things in an ongoing thread. There are a number of books out which deal with these issues with varying successes and people will have to make up their own minds on what to believe. But we seem to be closer to the truth now than we were 20 or even five years ago.

This post has been edited by Goibniu: Aug 30 2006, 09:03 PM