A New and Greater Pagan Cult

Gerald Gardner is generally considered the "father" of Wicca. We might therefore say that Aleister Crowley is the granddaddy of Wicca, or at least the strange uncle of Wicca. Gerald Gardner was initiated into the Ordo Templi Orientis by Aleister Crowley, and much of Gardner's Wiccan rituals contained Crowley material. The third degree initiation ceremony, which includes the Great Rite, is derived almost completely from Crowley's Gnostic Mass. Some say that this is flagrant plagarism. Others say Gardner was simply carrying out Crowley's plan for a new pagan religion.

The rituals of the Ordo Templi Orientis were derived mostly from Freemasonry, with influence from Theosophy, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Yoga, Buddhism, and Rosicrucianism. The main public ritual of the OTO was the Gnostic Mass, written in 1911. A priest bears a Sacred Lance, a priestess bears a sword, paten and cakes. The priestess mixes water and salt in a font, with which she consecrates the priest, followed by incense. The priestess is entrhoned upon the altar, and the priest consecrates her. He approaches the altar saying: "O circle of Stars whereof our Father is but the younger brother, marvel beyond imagination, soul of infinite space, before whom Time is Ashamed, the mind bewildered, and the understanding dark, not unto Thee may we attain, unless Thine image be Love. Therefore by seed and root and stem and bud and leaf and flower and fruit do we invoke Thee." You will recognise some of these phrases in the Wiccan Charge of the Goddess.

The priestess disrobes and says: "But to love me is better than all things; if under the night-stars in the desert thou presently burnest mine incense before me, invoking me with a pure heart, and the serpent flame therein, thou shalt come a little to lie in my bosom.... I love you! I yearn to you! Pale or purple, veiled or voluptuous, I who am all pleasure and purple, and drunkenness of the innermost sense, desire you. Put on the wings, and arouse the coiled splendour within you: come unto me! To me! To me! Sing the rapturous love-song unto me! Burn to me perfumes! Wear to me jewels! Drink to me, for I love you! I love you. I am the blue-lidded daughter of sunset; I am the naked brilliance of the voluptuous night-sky. To me! To me!" 

The priest approaches the altar further, saying: "O secret of secrets that art hidden in the being of all that lives, not Thee do we adore, for that which adoreth is also Thou. Thou art That, and That am I. I am the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the core of every star. I am Life, and the giver of Life; yet therefore is the knowledge of me the knowledge of death.... Make open the path of creation and of intelligence between us and our minds. Enlighten our understanding. Encourage our hearts. Let thy light crystallize itself in our blood, fulfilling us of Resurrection."

The priestess picks up the cup and paten. The priest touches the host with the lance. He then touches the cup with the lance. The priest says: "Lord most secret, bless this spiritual food unto our bodies, bestowing upon us health and wealth and strength and joy and peace, and that fulfilment of will and of love under will that is perpetual happiness." The priestess holds the lance and the priest holds the cup. The lance is dipped into the cup. The priest consumes the host and the wine and says: "There is no part of me that is not of the Gods." The consecration of wine and cakes would become one of the most prominent rituals of Wicca.


Gerald Gardner met Aleister Crowley in 1947. Gardner was initiated into the IV° of OTO by Crowley in May that year. Gardner purchased a copy of The Equinox of the Gods (an expanded edition of Crowley’s Book of the Law which OTO had recently published) and Crowley’s Blue Equinox which contained much OTO material, as well as several other works of Crowley. Gardner was issued a charter to allow him to initiate new members to the introductory Minerval Degree of OTO. On the 30th May, Crowley wrote to W.B. Crow: "I suggest that you refer all your following in the London district to Dr.Gardner so that he may put them properly through the Minerval degree, and some of them at least might help him establish the camps for the higher degrees up to Perfect Initiate or Prince of Jerusalem." A couple of weeks later, Crowley initiated Gardner into the VII° of OTO. On the 1st December 1947, Crowley passed away, leaving Gardner in charge of the Order in England.

Gardner authored several rituals for his Bricket Wood coven in 1949 which are clearly derived from Crowley's work. This was the same year that he published his work of fiction, High Magic's Aid, which described the rituals used by his coven. At this time Gardner acted as High Priest and Dafo (Edith Woodford-Grimes) was High Priestess. In December 1950, Gardner wrote to John Symonds, Crowley’s literary executor: "He [Crowley] was very interested in the witch cult & had some idia of combinding it in with the Order, but nothing came of it, he was fascinated with some snaps of the Witches Cottage….I enclose a Copy of my book, High Magics Aid, A.C. read part of the M.S. & highly approved, he wanted me to put the Witch part in full." Which suggests that Crowley was aware of Gardner's Bricket Wood Coven, and that Wicca was conceived as a combination of OTO and Witchcraft.

Crowley had been advocating the use of lunar, solar, and seasonal nature-based rituals for many years. As far back as 1914 he had written to Frater Achad of the North American OTO about a ritual of Isis that his Lodge had performed: "I hope you will arrange to repeat this all the time, say every new moon or every full moon, so as to build up a regular force. You should also have a solar ritual to balance it, to be done at each time the Sun enters a new sign, with special festivity at the Equinoxes and solstices.  In this way you can establish a regular cult; and if you do them in a truly magical manner, you create a vortex of force which will suck in all the people you want. The time is just ripe for a natural religion. People like rites and ceremonies, and they are tired of hypothetical gods. Insist on the real benefits of the Sun, the Mother-force, the Father-force, and so on, and show that by celebrating these benefits worthily the worshippers unite themselves more fully with the current of life. Let the religion be Joy, but with a worthy and dignified sorrow in death itself, and treat death as an ordeal, an initiation… In short, be the founder of a new and greater Pagan cult." The way I see it, Crowley's vision of a neopagan religion was fulfilled in Wicca, which Gardner presented to the world in his 1954 publication Witchcraft Today.

References:
http://rodneyorpheus.com/writings/occult/gerald-gardner-o-t-o/
http://www.eocto.org/article/101