Charles Cardell

Charles Cardell
Born	1892 East Sussex, England
Died	1977 (aged 85)
Occupation	Wiccan Priest

Charles Cardell (1892–1977) was an English Wiccan who propagated his own tradition of the Craft, which was distinct from that of Gerald Gardner. Cardell's tradition of Wicca venerated a form of the Horned God known as Atho, and worked with a coven that met in the grounds of his estate in Surrey. His tradition of Wicca was continued through Raymond Howard's Coven of Atho. Indeed it was Cardell who coined the term "Wicca", and referred to its followers as "Wiccens".

Cardell was born in 1892, in East Sussex, as Charles Maynard. He went on to join the British army, serving in India where he became a major. After this, he went on to become a stage conjurer (using the stage name Cardi) and also a professional psychologist, dealing especially in people's bad experiences with the occult, during the 1950s and 1960s.

When he changed his name to Cardell, he was joined by a woman known as Mary Edwards, and the two from then on claimed to be siblings. They lived together on a large estate, Dumbledene, in Charlwood, Surrey, from where they ran Dumblecott Magick Productions, which sold various potions and charms.

Cardell was initially friendly with Gerald Gardner and his Bricket Wood coven. Cardell fell out with Gardner in 1958, citing Gardner's excessive publicity seeking as the reason. This is suspect, however, as shortly after Gardner's death in 1964 he, himself, published a pamphlet under the pseudonym of Rex Nemorensis, entitled "Witch", in which he insulted both Gardner and Doreen Valiente, and included sections from the Gardnerian Book of Shadows, which he may been given by Gardner when the two had been friendly, or may have come to him through a woman he had introduced into Gardner's circle.

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