"Witchcraft Today" is Gardner's 4th book & his1st non-fiction book dealing specifically with Wicca. First publishedin 1953 it supports Margaret Murray's theory that witchcraft was a pre-Christian pagan religion in Britain. It then takes the theory one step farther as Gardner makes claim to having found & joined a coven of witches whom he believed to be the last remnants of this old religion. Sworn to secrecy, Gardner finds himself in the difficult position of wanting to explain the details without breaking his oath. The end result is rather disappointing. While this is indeed the 1st book on Wicca & has become the founding text for most Wiccans, the book actually contains very little Wiccan material. Those seeking actual Wiccan rituals described in detail must look elsewhere. Gardner omits any such step by step instructions & gives us only tantalizing hints, glimpses & references instead. Critics like Aidan Kelly often claim this is because Gardner was making up the material as he went & at this point much of the material had yet to be written. Other, more friendly, critics like Doreen Valiente say Gardener's vagueness comes from his vow of secrecy & is evidence that he truly did discover a pre-existing coven. They argue that if Gardner did fabricate the whole thing himself he would have publicized the material as much as possible & his hesitation shows that the material wasn't his to freely disperse. Either way, the book remains required reading to most Wiccans today & is an interesting study of pagan ideas through time & space. Like his predecessor, Margaret Murray, Gardner tries to show that "the old religion" is indeed old, possibly even an echo of pre-Christian druidic beliefs. He seeks for evidence of the cult in all time periods from the Neolithic to modern England. Not only does he scour the whole of time but he also circles the globe, pulling in hints & traces from nearly every continent in his desire to show that Wicca is a continuation of ancient pagan religious ideas. Whether or not you believe Gardner's claim, it's clear that "Witchcraft Today" is the catalyst that touched off the Wiccan movement that has grown to dominate the modern pagan community.

Learning Gardner's ways is one of the best ways to learn where true wicca began. The history is interesting and the ideas are wonderful to read. Eventhough, this book is out of print, its not that hard to find if you know where to go to look.

These days it seems the fashion to be a dabbler in the occult. People who are followers of the fashion, and not the religion, need not waste their money on anything by Gardner. If you want to don your "mystical" robe, flap your hands and recite "all-powerful" spells and incantations, *please* do NOT buy this book. There are too many serious students out there who need it more than you. You would do much better to buy a book of spells that has a really "cool" cover that your friends can Oooh and Ahhh over while you whisper that you're a *Witch*.

Meanwhile, if you are a serious student of the Craft, this book is for you. Many people say that it's a let-down because it doesn't spell out the how-to's of Wiccan ritual, or that its best quality is its historical importance. Yes, that's all true. It's also true that Gardner had a rather dry (if intriguing) writing style. However, better than giving the ABCs of writing a spell or ritual, GBG gives you an *understanding* of Witchcraft. This book makes you flex your gray matter and actually *think* about Witchcraft as more than just a Hollywood stereotype. There is a reason "Witchcraft Today" is on almost every recommended reading list for Groves and Covens: it is fundamental preparation for insights yet to come...

Kelly's work has perhaps one useful function; as a test of an ability to read critically. Further critique beyond that provided by Frew is probably unnecessary; his detailed examination of Kelly's errors in logic, the unnecessary anti-Catholic commentary and lack of familiarity with academic standards are clear and concise. These points added to the mysteriously-disappearing "Weschcke documents" that Kelly uses as his source material make this an inauspicious beginning to a textual examination of a new religious movement. Fortunately the work by Heselton and Hutton demonstrates that there is room to expand the inquiry into historical research.

Kelly's book is a pretty well researched history of neo-pagan Gardnerian witchcraft. He documents and discusses Gerald Gardner's creation of Wicca in the 1950s. The contributions of several other people are also credited. The one drawback is that he blurs all his data to support his premise that Gardner (and friends) invented the Wicca as a whole new religion. Kelly hypothesizes that Gardner, Dorothy Clutterbuck, and some other friends formed their first coven in 1939 as a new creation. He insists that there was no prior witchcraft from which they drew workings, beliefs, morality or rituals. Every part of Gardnerian Wicca documents that do not appear to have come from an identifiable source he credits to Gardner himself. Overlooks the fact that there was a witch museum before Gardner took it over. The reader may be tempted to ask, if Gardner invented it all what was in the museum before Gardner? Kelly stretches logic to deny possible connections to prior magical or pagan sources. If you want a book on the development and progression of Gardnerian Wicca during the 1950s, this is a good source. If you're looking for hard evidence about Gardner's sources and prior connections this is probably not your book.

Q: How many Alexandrian Witches does it take to change a light bulb?

A: Wait while we go see what Gardner's Book of Shadows says.

In Wicca, many people have been exposed to "ancient" and "hereditary" traditions while the ink in the spellbook was still drying--often on materials that had been lifted from another craft or magical tradition. Much of the Craft today, in its diverse forms, owes its existence to the original work of Gerald Gardner.

Aidan Kelly takes a critical look at the source material for Gerald Gardner's teachings about the craft. This is an excellent textual criticism of the Gardnerian materials. I cannot fault him for his work with "original" documents. I doubt we will ever learn more about when things were written, and from where they were lifted, than Dr. Kelly has presented in his book.

One of the most interesting evolutions is that of the Charge of the Goddess. On p. 52 he presents Gardner's original, a redacted bit of Leland & Crowley. It reads like a hack. This was its state between 1949 & 1953. On p. 114 he presents the Charge, essentially as we know it today, after Doreen Valiente (see my review of her The Rebirth of Witchcraft) had helped him rewrite it. On p. 162 he presents a verse form of of the Charge from 1961, a quintain adaptation of Dorreen's quatrain form (not included).

Kelly argues that nothing in the Craft pre-existed Gardner. He attempts to explain the creation of the Craft as Gerald's way of manipulating strong women into spanking him for sexual gratification. While I find his critical analysis compelling, his theory about Gardner's sexuality seems to be a long reach.

This book is required reading for anybody interested in the history of the Craft. If nothing else it helps decrease the number of times Wannabe Witch utters "Yes, our traditions go back for =THOUSANDS= of years..." While the Goddess may have been worshipped since time immemorial, Kelly makes a good case that She has only been worshipped in this particular Wiccan way since the late 1930's at best.

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I have NEVER seen a more poorly constructed book in my entire life...and I've been alive 30 years. Perhaps the publisher could not afford to pay proofreaders? Don't waste your money on these "Gardnerian secrets" when the designer/publisher didn't even take the time or make the effort to put the book together correctly. YUCK!

I've seen this material on the web. It's certainly not worth buying. Some folks will print anything. It's all stuff that Kelly dreamed up years ago in his others books.

I have to agree with the High Priestess who also reviewed this book that it is highly accurate and well put-together. People who tell you that the internet version of Gardner's Book of Shadows is better, either because it's free or because it's "more accurate" or reveals more "Gardnerian secrets" is deceiving you or deceived themselves. First of all, let's be clear on this, there are no grand "Gardnerian Secrets" waiting to be revealed or anything, the Book of Shadows by Gardner is about coven ritual and cult mythology. And yes, it is free on the internet, but an internet version is subject to the possibility of endless tampering, and who wants to keep going back to the computer screen or printer paper to review the content? I for one prefer an attractive book like this one to open when I need to refer to the material within, and haven't found a parallel to this book anywhere. Some will say it is poorly laid-out, but they are probably complaining about the first section of the book, a poorly typed and poorly researched internet discussion on Gardner's works, I recommend you ignore that section as it offers nothing positive, just dive right in to the content of the book itself. I enjoyed this book greatly and intend to hold onto it.