sltr

some people seem to believe that Gardner's coven's rites and doctrines can be traced in a virtually pure form back to the pre-Christian era. But most credible researchers don't buy this. They have found many twentieth-century influences on Gardner: Aleister Crowley; Charles Godfrey Leland, an American who wrote a book called Aradia about his encounters with the Witches of Tuscany.
Even woodcraft, a movement started by the Canadian writer Ernest Thompson Seton.

While it might be that Gardner's coven may have had ancient roots, he felt free to create and adapt new rituals and prayers, much as Neopagans do today.