In this book Dr. Gardner states that he has found in various parts
of England groups of people who
still practice the same rites as the so-called 'witches' of the Middle Ages, and that the rites are a true
survival and not a mere revival copied out of books. In his easy pleasant style he gives a sketch of
similar practices in ancient Greece and Rome, and his wide personal experiences in the Far East
enable him to show that there are many peoples, whether in the Far East or in Great Britain, who still
perform acts of worship to the Almighty Giver of Life according to ancient ritual.
Dr. Gardner has shown in his book how much of the so-called 'witchcraft' is descended from ancient
rituals, and has nothing to do with spell-casting and other evil practices, but is the sincere expression
of that feeling towards God which is expressed, perhaps more decorously though not more sincerely,
by mode Christianity in church services. But the processional dances of the drunken Bacchantes, the wild prancings round the Holy Sepulchre as recorded by Maundrell at the end of the seventeenth
century, the jumping dance of the medieval 'witches', the solemn zikr of the Egyptian peasant, the
whirling of the dancing dervishes, all have their origin in the desire to be 'Nearer, my God, to Thee',
and to show by their actions that intense gratitude which the worshippers find them selves incapable
of expressing in words.
still practice the same rites as the so-called 'witches' of the Middle Ages, and that the rites are a true
survival and not a mere revival copied out of books. In his easy pleasant style he gives a sketch of
similar practices in ancient Greece and Rome, and his wide personal experiences in the Far East
enable him to show that there are many peoples, whether in the Far East or in Great Britain, who still
perform acts of worship to the Almighty Giver of Life according to ancient ritual.
Dr. Gardner has shown in his book how much of the so-called 'witchcraft' is descended from ancient
rituals, and has nothing to do with spell-casting and other evil practices, but is the sincere expression
of that feeling towards God which is expressed, perhaps more decorously though not more sincerely,
by mode Christianity in church services. But the processional dances of the drunken Bacchantes, the wild prancings round the Holy Sepulchre as recorded by Maundrell at the end of the seventeenth
century, the jumping dance of the medieval 'witches', the solemn zikr of the Egyptian peasant, the
whirling of the dancing dervishes, all have their origin in the desire to be 'Nearer, my God, to Thee',
and to show by their actions that intense gratitude which the worshippers find them selves incapable
of expressing in words.