From:    Tim Maroney                            Area: Night Side
To:      Bobby Meizer                            7 May 92 13:16:44
Subject: RE: Re: Crowley and Wiccans            UpdReq 

Gardner did misrepresent the origins of his rituals and instructions; knowing
that he had written them hmself and borrowed heavily from ceremonial magick
sources, he claimed that they had been given to him by an ancient tradition
which had initiated him as a witch.  But he at least did not have the hateful
attitude towards Crowley and his other ceremonial magick sources that is so
evident in his followers, such as Doreen Valiente: Gardner actually makes
positive references to AC and Masonry in _Witchcraft_Today_, for instance.
Whether this qualifies him as a plagiarist is an open question.  My teacher
always says, "It's not plagiarism if you steal from more than one source!"  He 
was plainly a liar.  So are most people of high degree in the O.T.O., as far
as I can tell, so perhaps this should be considered one of Gardner's Thelemic
borrowings....
Timbo


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