Book: Witchcraft Today by Gerald Gardner
In this book Dr. Gardner states that he has found in various parts of England groups of people who still practise the same rites as the so-called 'witches' of the Middle Ages, and that the rites are a true survival and not a mere revival copied out of books. In his easy pleasant style he gives a sketch of similar practices in Ancient Greece and Rome, and his wide personal experiences in the Far East enable him to show that there are many peoples, whether in the Far East or in Great Britain, who still perform acts of worship to the Almighty Giver of Life according to ancient ritual. Though the ritual of Europe is now consonant with modern civilisation, the feeling which underlies both the primitive andthe civilised is the same: gratitude to the Creator and hope for the Constance of His goodness.
Dr. Gardner has shown in his book how much of the so-called 'witchcraft' is descended from ancient rituals, and has nothing to do with spell-casting and other evil practices, but is the sincere expression of that feeling towards God which is expressed, perhaps more decorously though not more sincerely, by modern Christianity in church services. But the processional dances of the drunken Bacchantes, the wild prancings round the Holy Sepulchre as recorded by Maundrell at the end of the seventeenth century, the jumping dance of the mediaeval 'witches', the solemn zikr of the Egyptian peasant, the whirling of the dancing dervishes, all have Their Origin in the desire to be 'Nearer, my God, to Thee',
and to show by their actions that intense gratitude which the worshippers find them selves incapable of expressing in words.
Downloadable books (free):
Louise Huebner - Witchcraft For AllAnonymous - Witchcraft Dictionary
Gerald Gardner - Witchcraft Today
