Gender variance in spirituality: Difference between revisions

Gerald Gardner, the founder of Gardnerian Wicca in the 1950s and 60s, emphasized heterosexual approaches to Wicca. As Jan Van Cleve, former practitioner of traditional Wicca, wrote, "Much of Gardnerian magic is based on this notion that physical interaction between male and female is not only desirable, but also necessary."<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?id=12197|title=Gender and Paganism|last=Van Cleve|first=Janice|date=27 January 2008|website=WitchVox|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200124020359/http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?id=12197|archive-date=24 January 2020|access-date=11 September 2019}}{{Self-published source|date=June 2020}}</ref> Gardner said that a witch could only be initiated by one of the other gender, with exceptions for parents initiating children, and otherwise would be cursed by the Goddess.<ref name=":9">[[Gerald Gardner (Wiccan)|Gardner, Gerald]]. ''Witchcraft Today'' (1954) London: Rider. p. 69</ref> According to Lois Bourne, one of the High Priestesses of the Bricket Wood coven, Gardner said that all witches had to be heterosexual men and women.<ref>{{cite book|author=Bourne, Lois|title=Dancing with Witches|year=2006|isbn=0-7090-8074-3|page=38}}(Hardback edition first published 1998).</ref>