Liber ab Quattuor (Book of Four)^95
you that you are wrong. So be prepared for criticism if you vary from the accepted
norm. But here is some fuel for your rebuttal.
You might have noticed that when I spoke about the blending of Native American
spirituality with Wicca to form the four Quarters, I did not say the European influence
was Celtic in nature but that it is reportedly Celtic in nature. You also may have noted
that the system of assigning Elements to the Quarters most often used in Wicca corre-
sponds best to the system that is perpetuated by Hebrew-based ceremonial magicians.
Here we see something truly interesting about Wicca. While I firmly believe the modern
movement began in the late eighteen hundreds along with many other Neo-Pagan move-
ments, the idea that Wicca is an ancient Celtic religion seems to have come about with
the introduction of the Gardnerian tradition and those who created similar ‘traditions.’
In my opinion, Gardner was divinely guided to make a boob of himself as were the
folk who later claimed to be following traditional Celtic Wicca. You see, like the eight
Sabbats that we will discuss later, there is virtually no reference outside of Neo-Pagan
books to a Celtic set of four Quarters with the modern Wiccan Elemental associations.
You see, not only did the Celts not keep clear records of their traditions, those tradi-
tions were as diverse as the Celts themselves. Saying any one thing is Celtic is difficult
because even if one does discover a set tradition in one of the Celtic tribes, the next
Celtic tribe over probably did it completely differently.
Now, one might argue that as a result of the invading Norse, a quasi-Celtic tradi-
tion may have been formed in which the four Quarters and eight Sabbats were in-
cluded, but stating that quasi-Celtic tradition was practiced by all Celts is just downright
silly. Here we again see clear proof that Wicca is not a Celtic religion. Gardner simply
borrowed the associations from the Ceremonial magicians when he and his friends
invented his ‘tradition.’ From there, the so-called traditional Celtic Wiccans either lied
or gullibly accepted and spread misinformation about the origin of their four Quarter
mythos.
But in all that borrowing, misinformation, and lies, I believe there was divine inter-
vention. When Gardner took the principle of the four Quarters specifically from He-
brew traditions of ceremonial magick, I doubt he or those who would later insist the
principles were Celtic could have known just how universally important those prin-
ciples were. In all the talk of how much research Gardner conducted, very little of it
shows in any of his writings. If he or anyone else knew that these principles are found in
as many Pagan cultures as are available to the seeker, they certainly did a good job of
hiding that knowledge. So why did Gardner take the four Quarters from ceremonial
magick and incorporate them into this modern religion? Why did so many people just
blindly accept the idea that the tradition originated with the Celts? Because our Lord
and Lady needed this concept to be present in our religion such that years later it
would be explored and discovered to be an almost universal concept.
You see, the what of the matter is not nearly as important as the why of the matter.
It is nice to be able to point at a specific historic cite (the what), but it is why those
ancients conducted themselves in that manner and why our modern Pagan religion
continues to do so. In modern Wicca, the four Quarters are drawn in as an act of union;k WB Chap 04.p65 95 7/11/2003, 5:50 PM