In 1960, he was honored with an invitation to a garden party at Buckingham Palace, recognizing his exceptional civil service in the Far East.
That same year, his wife, who had never been involved in the Craft, passed away, and he began to struggle with asthma once more.
In 1963, just before his winter trip to Lebanon, he encountered Raymond Buckland, an Englishman who had relocated to America and would later introduce the Gardnerian tradition there.
Gardner’s high priestess, Monique Wilson, also known as Lady Olwen, initiated Buckland into the Craft.
On Gardner’s return voyage from Lebanon in 1964, he experienced heart failure and passed away at the breakfast table on February 12th.
He was laid to rest in Tunis on February 13th.
Wilson and her husband managed the museum briefly and held weekly coven meetings in Gardner’s cottage. (
They eventually closed the museum and sold much of its contents to the Ripley organization, which distributed the items to its various museums.
Some of these artifacts have since been sold to private collectors.
Valiente described Gardner as a man “utterly without malice,” generous to a fault, and possessing some genuine, though not extraordinary, magical abilities.
His intentions were fundamentally good, and he genuinely wished for “the Old Religion” to endure.
Others, like Williamson, viewed him as manipulative and deceitful, willing to fabricate to achieve his goals: creating an acceptable outlet for his interests in naturism and voyeuristic sex.
Gardner was a nudist, and the ritual nudity in the Craft is likely one of his innovations; hereditary Witches claim they practiced while clothed.
Regrettably, Gardner’s personal papers from before 1957 no longer exist.
He destroyed them at Valiente’s suggestion during a period of negative publicity.
From the 1960s onward, Witchcraft as a religion continued to expand globally.
Initially, new Witches accepted Gardner’s claim of an ancient and unbroken lineage, but this was soon debunked.
The Gardnerian tradition has inspired other traditions, and Witchcraft has evolved into a predominantly Goddess-centered mystery religion, part of a broader revival and reconstruction of Paganism.
