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Correspondence from Gerald Gardner to Cecil Williamson
The only address I can give is Co Barklys Bank Gibralta Marked To await arrival
Feb 8th 50
My dear Mr Williamson
Donna sent me on the Cuttings. They are very funny. The first one, Sunday Dispatch, is Awfull [sic], nearly everything is wrong. I told him that the Goddess had to do with the moon & the God seemed to have to do with Horned cattle. He makes them Sun Gods, I told him the Rites were performed nude, he says the main object of the Rites is to put into a frenzy & tear off all your clothes, etc, etc. I told him things on condition that no address was given & not even to mention that I lived in London & he publishes this address. His name is Meyor (?), if he ever comes to you please refuse to see him, & tell him why. Now this is very secret, there is a Row on at the Club where I took you that day & one section say sell the damned place. There are supposed to be 5 acres there & another 2 acres for £200/- some income from parts leased to people who own the Huts. A good Club House, which you saw. I’d value the land at £100/- per acre, Club House at say £300/-/- say £800/- more or less for the place & an additional 2 acres for £200/- the Club House would make a lovely museum & Refreshment Room, caretaker in adjacent Hut. Leave the Witch Cottage where it is this year. Take people to museum first, then to Cottage by the entrance they came in, move Witch Cottage next year. We then could have the centre for a study group, who could stay out there in Huts if they liked. Being a Nudist Club no one could object to nude dances & Rites only the actual ceremonies would have to be kept secret. But this is all in the air & any breath of it would make them refuse to sell & no mention of my name, or there’d be trouble but think it over & see how it strikes you. I go to Valencia in a weeks time, then to Grondeur Gib in England at the beginning of March. Yes, Gerald York [Gerald Yorke], is a strange man. By the way Aleister Crowley was in the Cult, but left it in disgust. He could not stand a High Priestess having a superior position & having to kneel to Her & while he highly approved of the Great Rite, he was very shocked at the nudity. Queer man, he approved of being nude in a dirty way, but highly disapproved of it in a clean and healthful way. Also he disapproved of the use of the scurge to release power for the practiced reason if you teach a pupil the use of the scurge, he can get a mate & do it on his own. If you have a highly paying pupil, if you teach them the concentration & meditation method they go on paying you for years. But he didn’t samply pinch lots of the witches ritual & incorporate it in his works. He claimed that he rewrote the Rituals for them but I doubt this. He did re write some Masonic rituals, and made an awfull hash of them.
It was good of you to go down and hold vigil on Feb 2nd. Ime [sic] awfully bucked. The cold weather has come down Here, & its not as it should be, wet instead of sun, but its lovely all the same, no trace of witches here, the Church is master here OK.
I do hope you got some good results from your enquires. Ime sure theres lots of knowledge about, if could only get in touch. By the way the Cult are very angry about my talking to the reporter.
Thanking you again for all you have done & intend to do.
Yours ever
G.B. Gardner
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