Gardnerian Witchcraft in Germany written by Uta and Theo How the Craft came to Germany Wicca reached Germany in 1984, when the Ordo Saturni invited  Alex Sanders to give a workshop  in a small Westphalian village. As Alex wanted to meet a working German coven, some people practising Gardnerian Wicca out of books (without any connection to British Gardnerians) were also  invited. Later Alex initiated one of them into  Alexandrian Wicca. The Gardnerian Connection In 1988 one of that line met Vivianne Crowley at Alex´s funeral and invited her to give a workshop  in Germany. As Vivianne and Chris hold both Alexandrian and  Gardnerian initiations, you could say Gardnerian Wicca reached Germany then. The German Wiccan Network was founded in 1990 during a Pan European Wiccan Gathering,  and has met twice a year since then. It includes both covens and solitaries  spread all over Germany and keeps them in touch with each other. As Wiccans don´t proselytise the Network is growing slowly but is stable and keeps  its members happy. As in all other countries, there is a wide spectrum of opinion about  Wicca in Germany. Most of us feel, however, that we have to adapt this originally British tradition to German circumstances and  married to the land, so to speak. That doesn´t mean recreating "Old German" traditions, since the Germanic tribes  of two millenia ago had as many different traditions as the Native American tribes of two centuries  ago, and had very little contact with each other until they had to make common cause against the Roman invaders. What we mean by ´the land´ are  the landscapes, forests, rivers, lakes and seas that have become interwoven with  our history and culture. We have to open our eyes and become attuned to them. Wicca is about worshipping Life, because Life is the Goddess and the Goddess is  Life. Every priestess and priest have their own way of  worshipping the Goddess, but fortunately the Gardnerian tradition has given us a common form, which enables us to celebrate together in our twice yearly grand sabbats. Most of our covens  are also still close to that common  form in their own full Moon esbats, but over the years we may evolve different forms which will be a touchstone of our progress in marrying Wicca to the German land. Document: GGRDTRAD © 1998, Uta and Theo Written by: Uta and Theo, August 31, 1998 HTML conversion: November 17, 1998   You may also wish to look at: Gardnerian contacts in Germany You may return to: The Genealogical Index of English Craft Traditions