Witchcraft Today

Folklore Wicca

Witchcraft Today is a non-fiction book written by Gerald Gardner. Published in 1954, Witchcraft Today recounts Gardner's thoughts on the history and practices of the theoretical witch-cult, and his claim to have met practising witches in 1930s England. It is based on the discredited Witch-cult hypothesis which argued that persecuted witches had actually been followers of a surviving pagan religion. It also deals with his theory that the Knights Templar had practised the religion, and that the belief in faeries in ancient, mediaeval and early modern Europe is due to a secretive pygmy race that lived alongside humans. Witchcraft Today is one of the foundational texts for the religion of Wicca, along with Gardner's second book on the subject, 1959's The Meaning of Witchcraft.

Gerald Gardner in the foreword to Witchcraft Today:

Whilst by the time of writing, Gardner had been initiated into the religion, and had formed his own coven, he did not state this in the book. Instead he "posed as a disinterested anthropologist". The introduction to the book was written by Margaret Murray, the main proponent of the discredited witch-cult hypothesis in the 1920s and 1930s. In her introduction, she stated:

In the book Gardner also repeats the claim, which had originated with Matilda Joslyn Gage, that 9 million victims were killed in the European witch-hunts." Current scholarly estimates of the number of people executed for witchcraft during this time period vary between about 40,000 and 100,000.

The book contains seven photographs; one depicting the author, another a magician's circle at the Museum of Magic and Witchcraft, a memorial to those killed in the witch hunts, two further images of rooms in the museum, a statue of a horned god, and a painting of a male witch."