Gerald Gardner--

Gardner was able to trace his roots back to Grissell Gairdner, who was burn at the stake in 1610, for accusation of being a witch, in Newburgh. Some of Gardners distant relitives were supposed pagan or magick followers, and his grandfather ended up marrying a putative witch.

In his travels to Europe with his nurse, Gardner became familiarized with some of the locals, where the study of their beliefs affected his life. In 1923-36, his work in the Far East allowed him to work a bit in archaeology and ancient cities.

Gardner married his wife Donna in 1927, an english woman, and ended up returning back back to England in 1936. He began travling again. This time he taveled to Asia Minor, where is learned past lives and reincarnation.

Gardner was introduced to people of similar beliefs, who claimed to also worship the craft, becoming involved with a number of covens and groups. Days before WWII he was initiated into a coven by the High Priestess, Dorothy Clutterbuck. Gardner left his New forest coven, forming his own, after witchcraft was now considered a legal practise, in 1951. In this coven, Gardner put into it his ideas of the craft, found on his archeological ventures,many years of study and experience, and the knowledge he gained from Aleister Crowley, former leader of the Ordo Temli Orientis.

In 1953 he initiated a woman named Doreen Valiente into his coven. Gardner and Valiente cooperated on the writing of ritual and non-ritual material, which came to be known as the Gardnerian tradition of Witchcraft. In 1963, he had met Raymond Buckland. Buckland moved to America and ended up introducing the Gardnerian tradition to the USA.