“I do not by any means agree with all that Gerald Gardner said or did; but I recognise his great qualities of heart and mind, as did all who knew him. He was a personality and a character, and we shall remember him with affection.”
She also mentions the Rede:
“I think we have earned the right to proclaim the old teaching of tolerance and freedom, and mutual respect, which is contained in the saying called the Wiccan Rede. "Wiccan" is the AngloSaxon plural of "wicce"; and "Rede " means counsel or teaching:
Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfil: An' it harm none, do what ye will.
This is a simple, positive moral code.”
Is this the alleged “lie” that Walsh was referring to in his so-called critique of implying that the Rede was “ancient“?
The words the Valiente actually used were “old teaching”. What did she mean by this? The newsletter was published in 1964 and Valiente’s involvement with Gardner was from 1953 to 1957.
Alternatively, in providing meaning to the words “Wiccan” and “Rede”, had Walsh interpretated this as Valiente implying that the Rede was Anglo-Saxon?
As Valiente passed through the veil in 1999, we probably will never know.
Following on from my initial post, a scanned copy of “Pentagram” can be found here where it includes Doreen Valiente’s speech: https://www.thewica.co.uk/_files/ugd/4f0e4f_ee2b49b033eb43888910a95e89e7d230.pdf?index=true.
In her speech, Valiente makes mention of Gardner:
“I do not by any means agree with all that Gerald Gardner said or did; but I recognise his great qualities of heart and mind, as did all who knew him. He was a personality and a character, and we shall remember him with affection.”
She also mentions the Rede:
“I think we have earned the right to proclaim the old teaching of tolerance and freedom, and mutual respect, which is contained in the saying called the Wiccan Rede. "Wiccan" is the AngloSaxon plural of "wicce"; and "Rede " means counsel or teaching:
Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfil: An' it harm none, do what ye will.
This is a simple, positive moral code.”
Is this the alleged “lie” that Walsh was referring to in his so-called critique of implying that the Rede was “ancient“?
The words the Valiente actually used were “old teaching”. What did she mean by this? The newsletter was published in 1964 and Valiente’s involvement with Gardner was from 1953 to 1957.
Alternatively, in providing meaning to the words “Wiccan” and “Rede”, had Walsh interpretated this as Valiente implying that the Rede was Anglo-Saxon?
As Valiente passed through the veil in 1999, we probably will never know.