In postwar England the appearance of the Gardnerian myth--that there really were surviving covens of the type presented in the writings of Margaret Murray after the First World War--might be seen as expressing a dissatisfaction with the world as it had become.  It was the same type of dissatisfaction that was expressed in Orwell's novel 1984, published at about the same time Gardner's original group was being developed.

The Gardnerian covens might have been seen as just another cult (secretive, exclusive and controlled by a charismatic figure), but the publicity they received encouraged rivals and allowed a new source of revenue for individuals with shops offering occultist wares.  One result was the expansion of the movement in such a way that, as one researcher described it, it became a "countercult."  At this point much of its appeal was its existence as an alternative to the institutional churches.  It quickly blended in with other "countercultural" movements--especially feminism  and ecology.

The point of this history lesson is that those of you now opting to spend more time studying the Pale Horse teachings need to understand how unimportant it is to have fixed beliefs or even fixed practices.  That Wicca actually is only about half a century old is of interest to the historian of religion more than it is to us.  What matters is that it provides a means of relating to ourselves and our universe that is quite correctly "timeless."

So at the very beginning the initital task I set you is this: examine carefully what you expect of what we are doing.  There are no secrets in the sense of magical words or formulas that will make you rich or famous.  There is a truth here that can be considered a teaching in a rather paradoxical sense (I call it the Blue Lake Doctrine), because in a way it is an antidote to other teachings.  While its imagery is based on Wicca, much of what lies behind it is based on still other traditions.  A main goal of these lessons is to present these connections more fully.

In these lessons I will suggest more things to read, both from what you might find in a bookstore or library and what is there on the Internet.

For books, I strongly recommend Margot Adler's Drawing Down the Moon.  Margot has not been involved with a coven for quite a while, but she remains one of the most articulate and sensible writers about our tradition.  She is also a major contributor to the website beliefnet.com.

For something more about the lineage of the original Gardnerian tradition, I would suggest this website: English Traditional Witchcraft