Part One: King Pausole and the Wican Rede in Wican Ethics by David Richard Jones.

“The other possibility is that Gardner was following his formula for composing spells” [via]

Consider also:

  1. “Strangely on Gardner’s O.T.O. charter (signed by Crowley as Baphomet), Gardner miscopies this phrase as ‘Do what thou wilt shall be the law.'”
  2. “This is often asserted to be the root of the Wican rede because Gardner borrowed so much from Crowley and The Book of the Law in his formulation of the rituals of Gardnerian Wica.”
  3. “As influential as all these sources may be, Gerald Gardner tells us quite clearly what the direct predecessor actually is”
  4. “From the standpoint of Wican ethics it is clear that Gerald Gardner came across this story in his wide and varied exposure to culture, but it is far from clear exactly how this exposure happened.”
  5. “His style was heavily influenced by Rabelais which probably accounts for the inclusion of the maxims that eventually became the Wican rede, as The Adventures of King Pausole borrows many themes and ideas from Gargantua and Pantegruel; the variant of the thelemic dictum being but one among many.”