The Word of Welsh Witchcraft

Chapter One - Part II

THE MODERN WITCHCRAFT MOVEMENT

By Taliesen Enion Vawr and Rhuddlwm Gawr"

There is nothing permanent except change." Heraclitus 540-475 B.C.

Some people confuse the words Witchcraft and Wicca.  Wicca is a modern neo-Witchcraft religious movement founded by Gerald Gardner between 1939 and 1959, which adopted elements of Masonry, Ceremonial Magick, new age belief, and part of the religion of Witchcraft.

Because there are a great number of people who have "self-initiated" themselves and claim to be Wiccans, the word has lost a great deal of meaning over the last thirty years.  Where Traditional or Hereditary Witchcraft has historically required members to be initiated or to work as an apprentice within a particular family, modern Wicca adherents seldom undergo formal initiation and tend to be attracted to "eclectic" Wicca.

Most "eclectic" Wicca is mixture of new age philosophy and nature worship.  It's members are what most Witches call "fluffy-bunny-pagans".

As you shall see in the following pages, if one calls oneself a Wiccan, their tradition is by necessity descended from a Gardnerian coven in England.   Gerald Gardner coined the word Wicca and before he used the term, it was not used as a description for the craft since the middle ages.

Modern Wiccans claim that the word Witchcraft means "the craft of the wise" and attempt to support this argument by claiming that the Witch was the 'wise one' of his or her village and served as a resident healer and counselor.  When humans lived in tribes, the tribal shaman or "man-in-black" or herb woman probably did fill this function; however, when man moved out of tribes to live in inter-tribal communities (towns and villages), the worker of magic often became an outcast from the normal social order, feared and reviled by the majority.  It was common for such people to live on the edge of their village if not out of it altogether, and to be consulted only with trepidation in times of dire need or great desire.   I believe that the modern attempts by Wiccans to give old Witchcraft a meaning and history with which they are more comfortable has led to what some researchers would call a whitewash.  

It is reported by Aidan Kelly in Crafting the Art of Magic, and Jeffrey B. Russell in A History of Witchcraft, that Gardner created what has come to be known as Gardnerian Wicca, from his own research and belief.  That may or may not be true, but we do know that Gardner's view of Witchcraft was derived from several sources, among them Ancient Pagan Religions, Masonic Philosophy, Rosicrucianism, Theosophy, Charles Leland's Aradia, the Gospel of the Witches, Mather's The Key of Solomon, and Golden Dawn Ceremonial Magick.

In the 1800's, England saw a general rise in the interest in magick.  A number of magickal societies were formed and helped to collect and disseminate the knowledge of magick to a wider audience.  Far and away the greatest of these was the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (founded in 1888).  The Golden Dawn collected a vast amount of occult information together into a coherent synthesis in its nine major rituals, and admitted both men and women as members (unlike many other orders of the time).  The Golden Dawn and its offshoots had hundreds of members, including many scientists, physicians, ministers, and writers, the most famous of whom was W.B. Yeats, William Blake and Dion Fortune.  A large number of Rosicrucians and Masons joined the Order.  The Golden Dawn's most infamous and successful initiate was Aleister Crowley, who probably had a hand in founding a new Witchcraft religion called Wicca.

In Britain, hereditary and traditional covens generally did not use the terms 'craft' or 'witch' or 'wicca' or 'coven', they used terms like 'cunning man' or 'wise woman' and 'circle' or 'family' or 'clan.' They also did not use different degrees -- either you were one of them or you weren't. They usually did have an initiation ritual after years of being an apprentice, and they followed the ancient festivals of sun and moon.

One of the earliest English covens we hear about in modern times was the Canewdon Coven of George Pickingill, who died in 1909.  His coven was a type of village witchcraft that was in existence as early as the beginning of the 1800's. The best evidence of genuine hereditary English covens comes from the New Forest.  Four hereditary covens were operating in the New Forest area of England in the 1930's.  There were also several Witchcraft covens that existed in Northern Wales during this time period. (SEE HERE)

The New Forest covens were allegedly created by English travelers to France, where covens were said to have been operating since the time of the invasion and occupation by the Moors of Africa.  Certainly the inclusion in the witchcraft lore of Berber words such as 'athame' and the 'Eco, eco' chant, point to African origins, and cults similar to witchcraft are known to have existed in northern Africa since the 9th century.

The best known of the New Forest Covens was the Horsa Coven near Burley, whose famous initiate, Sybil Leek, wrote several books on Witchcraft.  Sybil was initiated into the coven at Gorge de Loup outside of Nice in the south of France.   Her family reportedly was there visiting the coven from which the New Forest covens had descended.  After moving to America, Sybil Wiccanized her teachings.

MODERN WICCA

The ancestry of modern Wicca and Witchcraft contains the names of many well known as well as obscure Pagans: Gerald Gardner, Dorothy Clutterbuck, Cecil Williamson, Doreen Valiente, Rae Bone, Prudence Jones, Vivianne and Chris Crowley, John and Kathy (Caitlen) Matthews, George Pickingill, Jack Bracelin, Monique and Campbell Wilson, Robert Cochrane, Joe Wilson, John Score, Pat and Arnold Crowther, Janet and Stewart Farrar, Lois Bourne (Hemmings), Maxine and Alex Sanders, Seldiy Bate and Nigel Bourne, Raymond and Rosemary Buckland, Sybil Leek, and Taliesin einion Vawr.  These teachers, authors and elders have been instrumental in the growth of the Witchcraft Movement over the last hundred and fifty years.

GEORGE PICKINGILL

There is a legend that states that George Pickingill was a Witch Master at Canewdon, where witches have been known since the early 1800's.  Two of the well known witches were Lady Eliza Lodwick and Mary Ann Atkinson, wife of the local vicar; the two were sisters originally named Kerstemans. 

A former Witch Master there, Cunning Murrell, died in 1860, and there were six witches at Canewdon in the 1880's. Like Murrell, Pickingill possessed a wooden whistle which legend says he used to call the witches to a Meet. 

Local tradition has it that there will always be at least six witches in Canewdon, "three in silk, three in cotton" (that is, three high born and three lower class).

In 1959, a 94 year old gardener from Canewdon named Arthur Downes stated that his great, great grandfather had been a Pickingill and a witch in Canewdon, and that he himself had been initiated into the Pickingill tradtion at Beltane 1950 in Essex near the River Crouch, at which time there were nine witches in Canewdon.

According to Cecil Williamson, Aleister Crowley had sent Gerald Gardner to Canewdon to investigate George Pickingill, who was said to be the master of nine covens throughout Britain, and to have held witch meets in the graveyard of St. Nicholas' church. Since the witches of Canewdon have a sinister reputation, modern witches have tried to distance themselves from the tradition.

There are some Witches who claim they are descended from one of "George Pinkingill's Covens",  but it is e xtremely unlikely that he was connected with Gardner, or any other modern Wiccan in any way.  Pickingill died in 1909 at the age of 93, whilst Gardner was still in Malaysia.

Eric Maple is largely responsible for the Pickingill legend, which was expanded by Bill Liddell writing under the pseudonym Lugh, in "The Wiccan" and "The Cauldron" throughout the 1970s. It is said that Mike Howard still has some of Liddell's material which he has never published, and there is nobody in the British Craft who has given any credence to Liddell's claims.

In the book, "The Dark World of Witches", published in 1962, Maple tells of a number of village wise women and cunning men, one of whom is George Pickingill.

Accompanying the article is a photograph of an old man with a stick, holding a hat, which Maple describes as Pickingill. This photograph has subsequently been reused many times in books about witchcraft and Wicca.

Many claims have been made by Liddell; some were questionable, and others can, by a great stretch of the imagination, be accepted.  For information concerning the Pickingill controversy from Liddells viewpoint, see http://www.fortunecity.com/roswell/angelic/361/page1.htm

GERALD BROUSSEAU GARDNER

Gerald Gardner was born June 13, 1884 in Blundellands near Liverpool, England.  Because of his asthma, Gerald was sent to travel in Europe during the winter with his nurse.  Eventually, they traveled to Ceylon, Borneo and Malaysia.  Although Gerald spent much time working on tea plantations, he was fascinated with archeology and local customs, and eventually published an acclaimed book titled Kris and Other Malay Weapons.  He eventually obtained a position with the British government as a rubber plantation inspector, customs official and inspector of opium establishments.

Gardner made a great deal of money in rubber, retired, and returned to England in 1936. He eventually financed a series of archeological trips throughout Europe and Asia Minor and joined the British Folklore Society.  In June 1938, he joined the newly opened Rosicrucian Theater at Christchurch. (JP)

Gardner stated that late in 1939, he was initiated into the Crotona Fellowship and its inner Witchcraft core by Dafo, whose real name we believe was Mrs. Edith Woodford-Grimes, who was the Maiden of 'New Forest.'  But he seemed to have received his training from Dorthy Clutterbuck who you will hear about later.   Dafo and Dorothy are the only tangible links between Wicca and The New Forest coven. 

Dafo could have been either Edith Woodford-Grimes or Dorothy Clutterbuck.  Whomever was the initiator, she evidently used the pseudonym of Dafo because it was was still a criminal offence to be a Witch (the Witchcraft Act of 1735 was repealed in 1951).  Dafo seemed to have been the leader or at the very least, a key member of the original New Forest Coven.

Dorothy Clutterbuck was born in India on 19 January 1880.  Her father was a soldier with the 14th Sikhs. As a young woman, she returned to England to be educated and eventually married a wealthy gentleman named Fordham, settling in a large house in the New Forest. Her husband's interest in the Masons and Rosicrucians led her to attend meetings and become interested in the occult.  Although an educated woman, she fit right in with local women and evidentally became a member of one of four covens in the area.  Clutterbuck died in 1951.

Gardner stated of his initiation:  "I realized that I had stumbled upon something interesting; but I was half-initiated before the word, "Wica" which they used, hit me like a thunderbolt, and I knew where I was, and that the Old Religion still existed. And so I found myself in the Circle, and there took the usual oath of secrecy, which bound me not to reveal certain things."

In this quote, Gardner spells Wicca with only one "c". In the earlier "Witchcraft Today" (1954) and "High Magic's Aid" (1949), the word Wicca is not used.  His own explanation of  the words meaning was given in "The Meaning of Witchcraft" as follows:

"As they (the Dane and Saxon invaders of England) had no witches of their own they had no special name for them; however, they made one up from "wig" an idol, and "laer", learning, "wiglaer" which they shortened into "Wicca". "It is a curious fact that when the witches became English-speaking they adopted their Saxon name, "Wica"."  We know now that this explanation is not historically correct.

In "An ABC of Witchcraft Past and Present", Doreen Valiente does not have an entry for Wicca, but when discussing Witchcraft, does mention the Saxon derivation from the word Wicca or Wicce. In The Rebirth Of Witchcraft, however, she accepts Prof. Russell's derivation from the Indo-European root "Weik", which relates to things connected with magic and religion.

Doreen Valiente strongly supported Gardner's claim of traditional initiation, and published the results of her attempt to prove the existence of Dorothy Clutterbuck in an appendix to "The Witches' Way" by Janet and Stewart Farrar. It is a very good piece of investigation proving that Old Dorothy actually existed. In the recently published "Crafting the Art of Magic", Aidan Kelly makes the outrageous claim that Gardner, Dorothy, et al, created Wicca one night following a social get together! Of one thing we can be certain: whatever its origin, modern Wicca derives from Gardner and because of Gardners efforts, traditional hereditary traditions such as Y Tylwyth Teg, have been able to "go public."

In 1946 Gerald published a distinctly craft-oriented novel, A Goddess Arrives.  This was a novel about the worship of Aphrodite in ancient times. 

In 1947 Gerald met Aleister Crowley, who, after three more meetings gave Gerald a charter to revive the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO) in Britain.   The fact that Gardner's OTO charter was hand written by Gardner but signed by Crowley may have led some who saw both the charter and Gardner's workbook to believe that Crowley had written the Witches workbook himself.  Ye Book of Ye Art Magical was on display at Ripley's Witchcraft Museum at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco and later stored in their vaults until it was purchased by  Tamara James, a Gardnerian Witch in 1987.  Sometime after he started his cult, Gardner started using the term 'Book of Shadows' to refer to the Witches' workbook.  He rewrote his Witches' workbook several times in the early days of his cult, and Doreen Valiente said the earliest book she saw had no title.

Crowley was a member of both the Golden Dawn and the O.T.O. (Ordo Templar Orientalis or The Order of the Oriental Templars)  The influence of Crowley upon Gardner was considerable, and drawing heavily from the Golden Dawn material, Gardner created a Grimoire in his own handwriting around 1948.  This Grimoire, still in existence in the Gardner collection in Toronto, Canada, was begun during the Second World War.  It is clear from this manuscript that the coven which initiated him in 1939, had given him almost no information at all.  His ideas of the Craft at that time were very fragmentary, but he turned those ideas into a cult of secret inner teachings about magic and goddess worship.  These ideas gradually evolved into an outer religion for the masses that emphasized the erotic and added nudity (working skyclad), from Roman initiatory mysteries, to the magic. 

The manuscript material gradually changed as Gardner's own views shifted from the elite ceremonial magick of the Golden Dawn, that improved the fragmentary workings of hereditary groups (techniques later taken up by almost all Witches), to elements of outer pagan religions that would make Witchcraft more appealing to the masses fed up with institutionalized religion -- a more natural magic, transforming the intellectual rituals of the Order into simpler rituals that could be performed by ordinary people.  Gardner claimed that he didn't want to see Witchcraft die out, and that his efforts at recruiting members and starting covens to practice his form of Witchcraft was directed at that goal.

Gradually new ideas - ideas which would later become the teachings, laws, and rituals of the Wicca religion - worked their way into the material. He added neo-pagan ideas derived from Margaret Murray and Charles Leland.  He also adopted ideas from Robert Graves, E. O. James, and other writers.  Gardner taught many influential pupils, and many of these later created their own branches of Wicca.  

In the Summer of 1947 Gerald sailed for the United States and met with Jack Parsons, an OTO official in California.   Parsons was one of the founders of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and inventer of the fuel that took the Apollo astronauts to the moon; in 1972, a crater on the dark side of the moon was named in his honor.

Magickally, Parsons had been deposed as acting Head of the Agape Lodge of the OTO in California (the only active OTO Lodge at the time) by Crowley.  Apparently, Parsons had neglected the Lodge because he was obsessed with manifesting the power of Babalon on earth; he and L. Ron Hubbard (say Scientology) had been spending time in the desert invoking BABALON of the Stars to appear in the flesh.

Parsons was very interested in the idea of witchcraft and invoked spirits so regularly that he constantly had others banishing the results of his work at the Lodge.  Parsons had written about what he thought would be a coming resurgence of witchcraft on several occasions.

Upon his return from America, Gerald abandoned his plan to become the OTO head in Britain, and wrote "Ye Boke of ye Arte Magickal as a compendium of rituals for a revived witchcraft." He then founded a nudist club in Bricket Wood, Hertfordshire, as a cover for witchcraft activities.

In 1949, he published a more detailed novel, High Magic's Aid, under his magickal name in the OTO, Scire.   Scire was the name Gardner took as a member of Crowley's branch of the OTO.   Gardner was given his O.T.O. degree and Charter by Aleister Crowley in 1946.  This book, like Gardner's own religious beliefs, combined the more natural forms of magic with high ceremonial. In his introduction to the book, Gardner says that: 

"The Magical rituals are authentic, partly from the Key of Solomon (MacGregor Mathers' translation) and partly from Magical MSS. in my possession."

In the novel, witches worship a horned god but no goddess.   By late 1949, when Gardner participated in an OTO ritual with Kenneth Grant to invoke extraterrestrial entities using some of A.O. Spare's methods, he had a working group of Witches.

Gardner and Crowley had been in the process of discussing Gardner's OTO Charter and how he was going to make changes that Crowley felt were needed in the OTO.  One of the changes Crowley wanted was the setting up of many small groups of initiates instead of centrally located main temples.  After his death, Crowley was cremated at Brighton, England and his ashes were sent to the Agape Lodge.

Gardner returned to the US in 1950 to confer further with Parsons, who had written instructions for creating a Thelemic Order based on paganism and witchcraft.

In 1951 the Witchcraft Act was repealed in Britain.  Gardner began to publicly promote Wicca as an old religion which had as some of it's precepts, a love of life and a belief in the sanctity of nature.   He claimed that it's deity was "The Lady" or Goddess, and her consort "The Lord" or Horned God.   Cecil Williamson transferred his Museum of Witchcraft to the Isle of Man and Gerald became his "resident witch" and started giving interviews.

In 1952, Dafo is said to have introduced a raven-haired lady of thirty years to Gerald Gardner.  (other sources said she wrote to Cecil Williamson who put her in touch with Gardner)  So began Doreen Valiente's first footsteps along the path of Wicca.   A year later, in 1953,   Doreen received the first degree initiation into the Craft, given (as tradition demanded) by a member of the opposite sex.  Gardner conducted the initiation himself on Midsummer's Eve.  He had just travelled from his witchcraft museum on the Isle of Man to attend the Druid Solstice gathering at Stonehenge where he was to loan the Ancient Druid Order his ritual sword.   On this journey he dropped by the home of Dafo and initiated the young Doreen, whom he had met the previous summer.

Gardner used his Book of Shadows from the late forties up until 1953 when he initiated Doreen.  He claimed the material was taken directly from the New Forest Coven and was the remnants of the Old Religion, which had been passed down through the ages.    His astute student Ameth (the name given to Doreen) noticed that one passage read out by Gardner was taken from Aleister Crowley's Gnostic Mass.  On this point, Doreen took Gardner to task and he replied that the Wicca rites he had received were fragmentary and he had filled them in the best he could.  He gave Doreen his Book of Shadows saying "Can you do any better?"  She did, replacing much of the Crowley and Masonic material with her own verse. She reconstructed the documents into a logical, practical and workable system, leaving us with what we know today as "Wicca".  Thus most scholars identify 1953 as the true date of the commencement of Gardnerian Wicca in England.

In 1953 Gerald also bought the Museum of Witchcraft from Cecil Williamson, who returned to England and founded another museum at Boscastle in Cornwall (which he sold in 1997.) 

In 1954, Gardner wrote Witchcraft Today, his first non-fiction account of witchcraft. In this book he supported the theories of Margaret Murray of an ancient organized religion of witchcraft in Europe. This book started a rush of  new recruits for Gerald's coven and new covens began to arise all over Britain.

He proclaimed that Witchcraft was to have a new beginning as Wicca.  Wicca would be the new and correct way to address Witchcraft and a Witch would now be called a Wiccan.  Gardner created a way of thinking that soon spread all over the United States and Britain.  He adopted laws for Wiccans to emulate, but one and only one became the standard: "Do what you will, and it harm none."   

For several years, after 1957,  Doreen severed contact with Gerald because of his willingness to be interviewed by the press and his attempt in her opinion to subvert her authority.   In The Rebirth of Witchcraft, she explains that as the coven's High Priestess, she felt that by speaking to the press, Gardner was compromising the security of the group and the sincerity of his own teachings.  Doreen   introduced a set of rules called the "Proposed Rules for the Craft" which would prevent any members of the Craft from speaking to journalists or writers without permission from the Elders.   Gardner was fully expected to follow these rules but retaliated with the claim that the Craft already had a set of traditional laws.  He then sent the members of the coven "The Old Laws" - documents containing practical advice and theology.   Doreen didn't believe these "Old Laws" were authentic and parted company with Gardner.   However they did later restore their friendship but never to the same degree as before.

Older coven members went with Doreen, but she dropped Gardnerian rituals after a year, looking instead for more "authentic" country witchcraft. Younger members stayed with Gerald.  Dayonis, who had previously been the coven's Maid, became Gerald's new High Priestess. 

Sometime between 1952 and 1961: Gerald initiated Pat and Arnold Crowther; this was the start of the Sheffield line.  Dayonis has said that Pat was present at her initiation in 1954.   In her books, Pat Crowther claims to have been initiated in 1961.  In 1962 her maid Pat Kopinski left her "because Pat refused to give her her 2nd degree." Pat Kopinski in turn initiated Alex Sanders who founded the Alexandrian tradition.

In 1959, Gardner wrote The Meaning of Witchcraft. 

In 1960 Gerald raised Rae Bone to 2nd and 3rd degree.  Rae is the ancestress of the Whitecroft line in England.

His wife died in 1960, and in 1963 Gardner's niece Monique Wilson initiated an Englishman named Ray Buckland who introduced Gardner's form of witchcraft to the US.

Gardner died in 1964 while on a Mediterranean cruise and returning from Lebanon.  He is buried in Tunis.

SOURCES OF WITCHCRAFT PHILOSOPHY

Gardner used a variety of literary and magical sources to "revive" the Wicca religion. He had membership in a number of magical and spiritualist organizations, including the Fellowship of Crotona, of which Annie Besant was also a member, The Society of Rosecrucians in Anglica (S.O.R.A.), The OTO, and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (H.O.G.D.).

Gardner had a large collection of MSS, which were purchased with the rest of his goods by Ripley's Museum after his death.  Gardner was called a fraud by some of those claiming hereditary roots because his Book of Shadows seemed to have been created out of whole cloth. 

In fact, Gardner received only a small amount of information from Clutterbuck, and the rest was added over the years from several sources.   Gardner was a Mason who had studied the folklore and magic of various cultures and made the acquaintance of several persons knowledgeable in magick.  He combined information from these sources, particularly from the Masons, the Golden Dawn, and magical grimoires such as the Key of Solomon, to create his Witches' workbook.  Words such as 'the Craft' and 'So mote it be!' came directly from the Masons, casting the Circle with pentagrams, the elements and the watchtowers at the quarters came directly from the Golden Dawn, and the sigils on the handle of the athame, or ritual knife, came from the Key of Solomon.

Crowley died in 1947, therefore their association was short lived, but one of Gardners initiates, Arnold Crowther, confirms that the two men enjoyed each other's company.  According to Crowley's personal dairy, he met Gardner with Arnold Crowther on May 1, 1947, and Gardner immediately began making weekly visits to Crowley.  Crowley sold Gardner a charter to run his own chapter of the Ordo Templi Orientis ( the OTO, a sex magick magickal order). 

Gardner was secretly working on a Witches' workbook he called Ye Book of Ye Art Magical; this had many long passages taken directly from Crowley's published works.  These included Crowley's poetry in the Charge of the Goddess and Invocation of the Horned One, as well as his Gnostic Mass as a Third Degree sex rite.

The author, Ithell Colquhoun states that Gardner introduced material from the O.T.O., and less directly from the Golden Dawn, into "...the lore of his covens".  As Doreen Valiente also admits, "Indeed, the influence of Crowley was very apparent throughout the (Wiccan) rituals." This, Gardner explained to her, was because the rituals he received from Old Dorothy's coven were very fragmentary, and in order to make them workable, he had to supplement them with other material. An example of lines by Crowley which are rather familiar to modern Wiccans:

"I give unimaginable joys on earth; certainty, not faith, while in life, upon death; peace unutterable, rest, ecstasy; nor do I demand aught in sacrifice. I am Life, and the giver of Life, yet therefore is the knowledge of me the knowledge of death."

Not only poetry, but also magical practices in Wicca are also derived from Golden Dawn sources.  For example: the way of casting the circle: that is, the visualization of the circle, and the pentagrams at the quarters, are both based upon the standard Golden Dawn Pentagram Ritual; both the concept and word "Watchtowers" are of course from the Enochian system of Magic, passed to Wicca via the Golden Dawn, although their use within Wicca bears no relation to the use within Enochia - the only similarity is in the name; the Elements and colors generally attributed to the Quarters are those of the Golden Dawn; the weapons and their attributions are a combination of Golden Dawn, Crowley and Key of Solomon.

Gardner said, "The people who certainly would have had the knowledge and ability to invent (the Wiccan rites) were the people who formed the Order of the Golden Dawn about seventy years ago...".

The Golden Dawn was not the only influence upon Gardner; Freemasonry had a tremendous impact upon Wicca. Not only were Crowley and A.E. Waite members, but Gardner and at least one member of the first Gardnerian coven were both Co-Masons.

Gardner was also a friend of J.S.M. Ward, who had published a number of books about Masonry.  Doreen describes Ward as a "leading Mason", but Francis King says only that Ward had, "...written some quite good but far-fetched books on masonry, and ran a peculiar religious-cum-occult community called The Abbey of Christ the King..."

Whether the books were far-fetched or not, we can assume that some of the many similarities between Wicca and Masonry are partially due to Ward's influence. These include: The Three Degrees, The Craft, So Mote It Be, The Challenge, Properly Prepared, The 1st Degree Oath (in part), Presentation of the Working Tools at 1st degree, and so on. In fact, the concepts that we know as modern Wicca derived from ceremonial magic and Freemasonry to a very great extent. Indeed, Gardner always claimed that the fundamental precepts that he received were sparse.

Because Gardner never worked in a magical Lodge or Coven, we must assume that his knowledge came from the written form of the rites, not from the actual practice of them. This leads us to look at the literary sources associated with the birth of Wicca. From reading Gardner's books, it is apparent that Margaret Murray had a tremendous impact upon him. Her book, "The God of the Witches" was published in 1933, and twelve years previously, "The Witch Cult in Western Europe" had appeared. "The God of the Witches" has been tremendously influential on a number of people, and certainly inspired Gardner.

In fact, "Witchcraft Today", published by Gardner in 1954 contained a foreword by Margaret Murray. At this time, Murray's work was still taken seriously, and she remained the contributor on the subject of witchcraft for the Encyclopedia Britannica for a number of years. In later years her work has been seriously questioned, but her books remain a source of inspiration, if not historical accuracy. There were of course other sources than Murray. In 1899, "Aradia: Gospel of the Witches" had been published by Charles Leland.

Most of Crowley's work was available to Gardner during the pre and postwar years, as were the texts written and translated by MacGregor Mathers and A.E. Waite, both members of the Golden Dawn. Also readily available were works such as The Magus, and of course the classics, from which Gardner drew much inspiration.

Of paramount importance was "The White Goddess", by Robert Graves, which is still a standard reference book on any Wiccan's bookshelf. This was published in 1952; three years after High Magic's Aid appeared, and two years before Gardner's first nonfictional book about Witchcraft. Graves has taken some very unfair criticism in respect of this book. The White Goddess was written as a work of poetry, not history, and to criticize it for being historically inaccurate is to miss the point.

Another book which has had a profound influence on many Wiccans, and was well known by Gardner is Frazer's, "The Golden Bough". Although the entire book was based on secondary research, it is still an extensive examination of many pagan practices from the Ancient World. The emphasis of the male sacrifice could have been taken from here just as easily as from Murray. Certain of the Gardnerian ritual practices were derived from The Golden Bough, or from Frazer's sources.

In "Witchcraft Today" Gardner mentions a number of authors when speculating where the Wiccan rites came from. He says that, "(One) man I can think of who could have invented the rites was the late Aleister Crowley."

He continues to say, "The only other man I can think of who could have done it is Kipling...". He also mentions that, "Hargrave Jennings might have had a hand in them..." and then suggests that "Barrat (sic) of The Magus, circa 1800, would have had the ability to invent or resurrect the cult."

As mentioned previously, Gardner also had a large collection of unpublished MSS, which he used extensively, and one has only to read his books to realize that he was a very well read man, with wide-ranging interests. Exactly the sort of man who would be able to draw together a set of rituals if required.

The extensive bibliography to "The Meaning of Witchcraft" published in 1959, demonstrated this rather well. This bibliography includes: Magick in Theory and Practice and The Equinox of the Gods by Crowley; The Mystical Qabalah by Dion Fortune; The Goetia; The White Goddess (Graves); Lady Charlotte Guest's translation of The Mabinogion; English Folklore by Christina Hole; The Kabbalah Unveiled and the Abramelin by Mathers; both Margaret Murray's books and Godfrey Leland's Gypsy Sorcery, as well as a myriad of classic texts, from Plato to Bede!

Although this bibliography postdates the creation of Gardnerian Wicca, it certainly indicates from where Gardner draws his inspiration from. There are also several books listed which are either directly, or indirectly, concerned with sex magic, Priapic Cults, or Tantra.

Many of the Gardnerian rituals we are familiar with today were later additions by Doreen Valiente, and these have been well documented by both her and the Farrar's, in a number of books. Doreen admits that she deliberately cut much of the poetry by Aleister Crowley, and substituted either her own work, or poems from other sources, such as the Carmina Gadelica.

DOREEN VALIENTE

Doreen Valiente was born in 1922 as Doreen Dominy in London, England. After she began experiencing psychic episodes when she was young, her Christian family placed her in a convent school, which she walked away from at the age of fifteen.  By her late teenage years, Doreen was manifesting clairvoyant abilities.  In 1944, she married Cosimo Valiente, a refugee from the Spanish Civil War.  In 1952, she says she wrote to Cecil Williamson, who put her in touch with Gardner. 

She is best known as being Gerald Gardners first High Priestess.  She also rewrote his magickal workbook into what has become known as the Gardnerian Book of Shadows.

After the death of both her mother and Gerald Gardner in the same year, Doreen cast off her Gardnerian mantle and was initiated by Robert Cochrane into a traditional, hereditary branch of Witchcraft. The 1960's brought fresh public perceptions. The sexual revolution, contraception, peace movements and social upheaval led to old-fashioned ideals being swept away. Witchcraft was no exception.

Suddenly Witches, in particular Sybil Leek and Alex and Maxine Sanders, became media personalities and actively courted the publicity. The Old Guard of Wicca still refused to yield and come forward, shunning all contact with anyone outside the Craft.

Doreen was one of the few who managed to find a middle-ground; never denying paganism or fearing to speak out in its defence, yet still maintaining the traditional low-key approach to Wicca. The Cochrane initiation only strengthened this position and allowed Doreen to move away from internal politics which were beginning to emerge within Gardnerianism.

However, Doreen soon became disillusioned by Cochrane and noted his obsession with ‘witch potions’ that eventually led to some unfortunate consequences. Cochrane died at Midsummer, 1966.

Doreen was the author of ABC of Witchcraft Past and Present, Witchcraft For Tomorrow, Natural Magic, and The Rebirth of Witchcraft.

When Doreen addressed the National Conference of the Pagan Way in 1997, she stated her opinion that "organized religion is nothing but a curse to humanity." She died at Brighton Sept 1, 1999.

CECIL WILLIAMSON

Cecil Williamson also played an important part in the development of Wicca in England.  Cecil Hugh Williamson was born 18 September 1909 at Devon, England and raised at Picadilly in London.  His father was a naval officer and Cecil was often sent to the home of relatives during his fathers absence.

During his life he claimed to have met several village witches, who taught him craft basics.  He also encountered Aleister Crowley, Sir Wallace Budge and Margaret Murray.  His grandmother was an astrologer and Cecil worked for a medium as a young boy.  He later worked as a tobacco farmer in Rhodesia, Africa, and for the Home Office in England during World War II; there, he was asked to set up the Witchcraft Research Centre to monitor the threat from occult activities of Nazi astrologers and occultists.  He says he witnessed a large scale magical ceremony designed to undermine Hitler's power, which involved 40 Canadian airmen draped in blankets embroidered with symbols from the Key of Solomon. (This might be where the rumour of Witches doing a ritual to ward off a German invasion, might have come from.)

After the war, he tried to open a witchcraft museum in Stratford-on-Avon, but resistance from local people made him move it to Castletown, Isle of Man, where he opened the Folklore Centre of Superstition and Witchcraft.  There wasn't much money to be made from this endeavor, and he funded it with money from his wife's restaurant, the Witches' Kitchen. A few years later, Williamson sold this museum to Gerald Gardner (who named it the Witches' Mill - See Gerald Gardner Above) and then opened another witchcraft museum at Windsor.

It was here he claimed to have met a hereditary witch named Rosa Woodman.   She is said to have bestowed the position of Witch Protector of the Royal House of Windsor, before she died.   However, Cecil's high profile brought him to the notice of the royal household, who convinced him to move away. 

Cecil moved to his museum in the Cotswolds, where local Christians burned down part of it.  He then moved to Boscastle in Cornwall and opened his witchcraft museum there.  He retired in 1996 and turned over the Museum to Graham and Liz Crow; he died in 1999.  By his own account, Williamson had worked with over 80 wise women and participated in over a thousand magical workings during his life.   He died in 1999.

RAE BONE

Rae Bone was one of Gardner's High Priestesses, and her background has been important in establishing the roots of modern Wicca.  She was featured in "Man Myth and Magic" series and once lead two covens: one in Cumbria, and one in South London.   Rae also claims to have a hereditary initiation. 

Rae lives in Cumbria, England and she is no longer active in the craft. Her initiates, Madge and Arthur, initiated Prudence Jones, Vivianne & Chris Crowley as well as authors John and Kathy (Caitlen) Matthews. 

Prudence was for many years the president of the Pagan Federation, and editor of its newsletter.  Prudence also has been active in the Pagan Anti-Defamation League (PADL), and is an astrologer and therapist.  She has also edited a book on astrology, and with Caitlin Matthews, edited "Voices from the Circle", published by Aquarian Press.  Although Prudence has a degree in Philosophy, her main interests lie in the areas of the Grail mysteries.  She is also a very highly respected astrologer, who lectures extensively in Britain.

Vivianne Crowley, author of "Wicca - The Old Religion in the New Age", is a founding member of the Pagan Federation.  She has a Ph.D. in Psychology, and is perhaps the only person to have been a member of both Gardnerian and Alexandrian Covens simultaneously. Vivianne is very active in the Craft, and has initiated people in Germany, Norway, and Brazil. She organized the first ever Pan-European Wiccan conference, held in Germany in 1990.

John and Kathy (Caitlin) Matthews, are well-known to most pagans for their excellent books on the Grail and Celtic Mysteries; but their Gardnerian initiations are not such common knowledge.  The story that John Matthews relates in "Voices from the Circle" is essentially the one which he told the HPS who initiated him.

JACK BRACELIN (IDRES SHAH)

Jack Bracelin is the author of Gardner's biography, "Gerald Gardner, Witch", (published 1960) now out of print, although still available 2nd hand, and in libraries. (In Crafting the Art of Magic, Kelly claims that this book was actually written by Idries Shah, and simply published under Bracelin's name. Kelly offers no evidence of this)

Bracelin claims that his Book of Shadows dates from 1949, although in The Rebirth Of Witchcraft, Doreen says that Bracelin was a "relative newcomer" in the mid-1950s.  Two sources claim that Bracelin helped Gardner write "The Laws".  In The Rebirth Of Witchcraft, Doreen states that she did not see The Laws until the mid 1950s, when she and her partner Ned Grove accused Gardner of concocting them in order to reassert control over the coven.  Bracelin was in the Gardner led coven during the break up of the group, and it seems reasonable that he did in fact help with their composition.  Although Doreen claims that the reason for the coven break up was the fact that Gardner and Bracelin were publicity crazy, there was another reason, which was the installment of a new lady into the coven, effectively replacing Doreen as HPS. This is also the main reason for Gerald's Law which states that the HPS will, "...gracefully retire in favor of a younger woman, should the coven so decide in council." Needless to say, Doreen was not impressed, and she and Ned left the coven under very acrimonious circumstances. It was quite some time before Doreen had contact with Gardner again, and they never quite regained the degree of friendship that had previously existed.

MONIQUE AND CAMPBELL WILSON

After Gardners death, Monique and Campbell Wilson were named as his heirs.   They eventually sold Gardner's magical equipment and possessions to Ripley's-Believe-It-Or-Not Museums, in the US. Monique was the last of his Priestesses, and many Wiccans today still spit when her name is mentioned. Pat Crowther was rather scathing about her in a recent interview, and in The Rebirth Of Witchcraft.

Although Doreen tells of the sale of Gardner's magical possessions to Ripleys, she doesn't ever mention the Wilsons by name. In effect, the Craft closed ranks against them, and they became outcasts. Eventually, in the face of such opposition they had to sell the Museum in Castletown, and they moved to Torremolinos, where they bought a cafe. Monique died nine years after selling the Museum. It is rumored that Campbell Wilson moved to the USA, and met with a car accident. This is only hearsay though - we really do not know for sure what happened to him.

However, Monique was influential in a way that even she could not have imagined, when in 1965 she initiated Ray Buckland, who with his wife Rosemary (later divorced), was very influential in the development of the Wicca in the USA. (See Below)

Fortunately, Richard and Tamarra James in Canada managed to buy the bulk of Gardner's collection back from Ripleys in 1987, for the sum of $40,000, and it is now back within the Craft, and available for initiates to consult and view.

ROBERT COCHRANE (ROY BOWERS)

Roy Bowers (aka Robert Cochrane) was born 26 January 1931 in London, England.   It is said by some that Bowers'  immediate family members practiced some form of witchcraft, and some ancestors were hanged for being Witches. 

Robert Cochrane's origins are obscure, but we know he was initiated into the Gardnerian tradition and met Doreen Valiente through a mutual acquaintance in 1964. When he met Doreen, however, he claimed to be a hereditary witch, from a different tradition to Gardner's, and as Doreen confirms, was contemptuous of what he called "Gardnerian" witches.

Bowers was trained as a blacksmith, and in his early twenties he formed a coven he called the Clan of Tubal Cain.  This was around the same time as Gerald Gardner started his first coven.

Indeed, Doreen believes Bowers coined the term, "Gardnerian".  Doreen said she was completely taken in by Cochrane and for a while, worked with him and the "Clan of Tubal-Cain" as he described his tradition, which was also known as "The Royal Windsor Cuveen", or 1734.   Later Doreen claims she found out Bowers was a fraud and left.

The figures "1734" have an interesting history.   Doreen gives a rather strange account of them in The Rebirth Of Witchcraft, which contradicts what Bowers himself describes in a letter to Joe Wilson, dated "12th Night 1966", where he says, "...the order of 1734 is not a date of an event but a grouping of numerals that mean something to a witch.  One that becomes seven states of wisdom - the Goddess of the Cauldron.  Three that are the Queens of the Elements - fire belonging alone to Man, and the Blacksmith God.  Four that are Queens of the Wind Gods.  The Jewish orthodoxy believe that whomever knows the Holy and Unspeakable name of God has absolute power over the world of form.  Very briefly, the name of God spoken as Tetragrammaton ... breaks down in Hebrew to the letters YHVH, or the Adam Kadmon (The Heavenly Man).  Adam Kadmon is a composite of all Archangels - in other words a poetic statement of the names of the Elements.  So what the Jew and the Witch believe alike, is that the man who discovers the secret of the Elements controls the physical world. 1734 is the witch way of saying YHVH." (Cochrane, 1966)

Bowers' early coven or tradition was a recreation of his understanding of Celtic mysticism welded to the Witchcraft philosophy he learned from his first teacher.  Bowers taught in the manner of the Druids, with poetic riddles and oral teachings.  He and his wife Jean successfully combined traditional Witchcraft elements of the sacred landscape with Druidic methods of training and practice, and a guided meditation for creating an astral temple as a magickal tower sanctuary (from one of the sources for his philosophy, magician William Gray).  His followers called his teachings the '1734 Tradition' after one of his training puzzles concerning the name of the Goddess.

In the mid 1960's Bowers corresponded with American witch Joe Wilson, who brought Bowers' teachings to the US. Bowers used the term '1734' as one of his puzzles to be unravelled; this is the name of the Goddess.  As a result, Bowers' tradition is often called the 1734 Tradition.  The followers of Bowers do not use a Book of Shadows; his teachings are embodied in a series of articles he wrote in early British Witchcraft publications such as Pentagram, and in the many letters he wrote to Joe Wilson.   Bowers believed that different types of vision contained the various approaches to and
apprehensions of truth: Poetic Vision -- inward access to dream images and symbols; Vision of Memory -- remembers past existences and past pefections; Magical Vision -- undertakes part of a Triad of services and contacts certain levels; Religious Vision -- admission to the True Godhead, part of true Initiation; Mystical Vision - divine union with the Godhead, with no form only energy present.  He died in 1966.

In The Rebirth Of Witchcraft, Doreen elaborates upon the circumstances surrounding the death of Bowers: the bald facts are that he died at the Summer Solstice of 1966 of an overdose. Craft tradition believes that he became in fact, and of his own choice, the male ritual sacrifice which is sometimes symbolically enacted at the height of Summer.

Although Doreen says that Cochrane's group was small, it still proved to be remarkably influential. There were several others, as well as Cochrane and Doreen herself, who are well-known today, among them Ronald White, who very much wanted to bring about a new age in England, with the return of King Arthur.  

The Royal Windsor Cuveen disbanded after Cochrane died, only to be reborn from the ashes at Samhain that year under a new name - The Regency. All of its early members were from the Royal Windsor Cuveen, and they were under the leadership of Ronald White. The Regency proved to be of great importance to the development of the Wicca, although its existence was kept a closely guarded secret, and even today, there are relatively few people who have ever heard of it.

Meetings were held in North London, at Queens Wood. Members included Ron White, Doreen Valiente, John Math, founder of the Witchcraft Research Association in 1964, and editor of Pentagram magazine, and Tony Kelly, founder of the Pagan Movement. At its height, more than 40 members frequently attended rituals, which tended to be the dramatic, pagan kind rather than the ceremonial associated with high ritual magic. Some of the rites have been incorporated into modern Wiccan rituals. The Regency operated fairly consistently for over twelve years, finally disbanding in 1978.  The Membership roll reads like a who's who of British Wicca. 

JOE WILSON (TO BE EXPANDED)

As a result of Joe Wilson sharing his letters from Bowers with others, several lines of the 1734 Tradition have sprung up in the US. Two of the better known are Coven Ashesh-Hekat in California and Coven Dragonstar Rising in the Midwest. Through contact with one of Bowers' initiates in 1976, Evan John Jones, the Americans Ann and David Finnin recreated an experimental form of this tradition, which they called the Roebuck, and later, the Ancient Keltic Church.

JOHN AND JEAN SCORE

John Score was the partner of Michael Houghton (mentioned earlier), and the founder of the Pagan Federation, which is very active today. Houghton died under very mysterious circumstances, which is briefly mentioned in "The Sword of Wisdom" by Ithell Colquhoun. This was actually a ritual that went badly wrong, and Houghton ended up on the wrong end of some fairly potent energies.

There is an interesting anecdote about Houghton in The Rebirth Of Witchcraft, which is taken from "Nightside of Eden" by Kenneth Grant, and agrees in some respect to a similar story that we learned about some years ago. Doreen suggests in The Rebirth Of Witchcraft that the story may relate to a magical working involving Kenneth Grant and his wife, Gerald Gardner, Madeline Montalban, and Olive Green.

They were all to perform a ritual together, supposedly to contact an extraterrestrial being. The material basis for the rite, which took place in 1949, was a drawing by AO Spare. Apparently soon after the rite commenced, Michael Houghton turned up and interrupted proceedings. On hearing that Kenneth Grant was within, he declined to enter, and wandered off. The rite was disrupted, and the story goes that everyone just went home.

Kenneth Grant claims that as a result of disturbing their working, Houghton's marriage broke up, and that Houghton died in mysterious circumstances. In fact, the Houghton divorce was a cause celebre, with her suing him for cruelty because he boasted of being a Sagittarian while sneering at her because she was only a Capricorn!

Madeline was the ex-wife of Aleister Crowley and had a flat near the famous Atlantis Bookstore. She knew both Grant and Houghton. She was also acquainted with Gerald, but her opinion of both him and Wicca was rather poor. One of Madeline's older students said that Madeline thought Gardner was a fraud, and ritually inept. She also had a very low opinion of Wiccans, and refused to allow her own students to participate in Wiccan rites. Why? The story goes that Madeline agreed to participate in a rite with Gerald, which turned out to involve Madeline being tied up and tickled with a feather duster! The great lady was not amused.

PAT AND ARNOLD CROWTHER AND THE ALEXANDRIAN CONNECTION

Patricia Crowther was born Patricia Dawson in Sheffield. Her grandmother, Elizabeth Machon, was a herbalist and clairvoyant, and a palmist who lived next door predicted Patricia would also possess clairvoyant abilities. When she was 30, a hypnotist regressed Patricia to a former life when she revealed she was a witch named Polly in 1670. She was trained as a stage performer and toured the United Kingdom as a perfomer. In 1956 a fortuneteller predicted Patricia would meet her future husband two years later over water and his name would be Arnold. Two years later on a flight to perform on the Isle of Wight, she met a stage magician and ventriloquist named Arnold Crowther. Arnold introduced Patricia to Gerald Gardner, who initiated her on 6 June 1960 at Castletown.  She in turn initiated Arnold. On 8 November 1960, Arnold and Patricia were Handfasted and the next day they had a civil wedding. When Patricia was initiated to the 3rd degree on 11 October 1961, the local press reported she was looking for new recruits for her coven. The Crowthers embarked on a mission to spread the word about witchcraft, and gave many interviews to the media and started many new covens throughout Great Britain. Together they wrote The Witches Speak and The Secrets of Ancient Witchcraft. Patricia also wrote Witchcraft in Yorkshire, Witch Blood, The Witches Speak and Lid Off the Cauldron. They also produced the first radio series on witchcraft in Britain, A Spell of Witchcraft.

Arnold Crowther was born 7 October 1909 in Chestham, Kent, one of a pair of fraternal twins. His father was an optician, but the young Arnold refused to follow in his father's footsteps. Instead, he was fascinated by stage magic, and by his early twenties was a very successful stage performer. He even entertained Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret at Buckingham Palace. Arnold was also a master puppeteer, making over 500 of his own puppets for his ventriloquism act. He also collected unusual puppets and other oddities from around the world, and he lectured at his Mason's Hall on curios of the world.  Crowther met Gerald Gardner shortly before WW II and frequently visited him. After Gardner got into witchcraft he predicted to Arnold that he would meet a fair-haired woman who would bring him into witchcraft also. While performing in Paris after the war, Arnold learned from a medium that in a former life he had been a Tibetan monk and that his possessions would be returned to him. Over the years since, he acquired piecemeal various original implements of a Tibetan monk. Arnold had also met Aleister Crowley, whom he introduced to Gardner in 1946. In 1960, Crowther met a fair-haired woman who brought him into the Craft just as Gardner had predicted , and she soon became his wife. Together they became prominent spokespersons for witchcraft. Arnold died 1 May 1974.

ALEX AND MAXINE SANDERS

Alex Sanders was born in Manchester, the oldest of six children. His year of birth is variously listed as 1926 or 1929. His father was a dance-hall entertainer and suffered from alcoholism. Alex became an analytical chemist and married nineteen-year-old Doreen, when he was 21. They had two children, Paul and Janice, but the marriage quickly deteriorated and Doreen took the children and left Sanders when he was 26. After this, Sanders spent time studying magick and he became involved with satanism and homosexuality.

In the early '60's, Sanders was initiated by a Gardnerian Witch and ran off to start his own coven, using the Gardnerian Book of Shadows with some changes.  It is no secret that Alex, far from being initiated by his grandmother when he was seven, was in fact turned down by Pat Crowther in 1961, but was later accepted by one of her ex-coven members, Pat Kopanski, and initiated to 1st Degree.    Doreen says that Alex later met Gardner, and was allowed to copy from the Book of Shadows. Craft tradition alleges that he stole what he could from Pat Kopanski before leaving the group, and that the main differences between the Alexandrian and Gardnerian Books of Shadows occur where Alex misheard, or miscopied something.

There are certainly significant differences between the two Books; some parts of Gardnerian ritual are quite unknown within the Alexandrian tradition, and the ritual techniques are different. It is usually very easy to spot whether someone is an Alexandrian, or Gardnerian initiate.

He then married a woman much younger than himself, Maxine Morris.  Alex needed a HP.S., and chose Maxine for the role.  Maxine is a striking Priestess, and made an excellent focus for the movement which grew in leaps and bounds.   In the late 1960s, Alex and Maxine were prolific initiators, and a number of their initiates have become well known.  There are still a number of covens in the UK today whose HP and/or HPS was initiated by Alex or Maxine.  Sanders had a daughter named Maya in 1967.    

In 1971, Alex and Maxine went their separate ways. Sanders moved to Sussex, while Maxine remained in the London flat where she continued running the coven and teaching the Craft.  A son Victor was born in 1972.

Maxine and David Goddard, a Liberal Catholic Priest, worked in the Liberal Catholic faith for many years, and did not run a coven of any kind. Then in 1984, Maxine gathered together a group again, and started practicing a combination of Wicca, Qabalah and Liberal Catholicism. She and David separated in 1987, and since then her coven has been exclusively Wiccan. In 1989, she married one of her initiates, Vincent, and they are still running an active coven in London today.

Alex's history after the split was a little more sordid. He married Jill ...., who after leaving him, filled the press with stories about Alex being homosexual, claiming that he had defrauded her of all her money and spent it on his boyfriends.

Sanders lived in seclusion until his death on April 30, 1988, from lung cancer.

JANET AND STEWART FARRAR

Alex and Maxine's most famous initiates are almost certainly Janet and Stewart Farrar, who left them in 1971 to form their own coven, first in England, then later, in Ireland. Through their books, they have probably had the most influence over the direction that the modern Craft has taken. Certainly in Australia, the publication of "What Witches Do" was an absolute watershed, and with Janet and Stewart's consistent output, their form of Wicca is more likely to become the "standard" than any other type.

Stewart Farrar was born on June 28, 1916 in Highams Park, Essex. His father was   employed as a bank official and his Scottish mother was a school teacher. Stewart was raised as a Christian scientist and he attended University College, London, where he majored in journalism. He served in the Army from 1939 to 1946. Later he undertook a career as a journalist, author and scriptwriter, working for Reuters, the Communist Party's Daily Worker and A.B.C. Television. From 1969 to 1974 Stewart was a feature writer for the weekly Reveille, a job that got him his introduction into Witchcraft. Late in 1969 he met Alex and Maxine Sanders while on an assignment involving Witchcraft. Sanders got Stewart the contract to write a book on Witchcraft (What Witches Do) and Farrar got involved in the Craft. On February 21, 1970, Maxine Sanders initiated him into the coven, where he met his future wife, Janet Owen. On December 22, 1970 the Farrars formed their own London coven. In 1976, the Farrars moved to Ireland and formed a new coven there. They returned to England in 1988. Following nine years of running a coven, the Farrars coauthored two books of ritual and nonritual material: Eight Sabbats for Witches (1981) and The Witches' Way (1984).  In the United States both books were combined and published as A Witches Bible Compleat. The Farrars also coauthored The Witches' Goddess (1987); Life & Times of a Modern Witch (1987); and The Witches' God (1989), a companion to The Witches' Goddess. Stewart also wrote a number of fiction books, including seven occult novels; The Twelve Maidens (1974); The Serpent of Lilith (1976); The Dance of Blood (1977); The Sword of Orley (1977); Omega (1980); Forcible Entry (1986); and Blacklash (1988).

Janet Owens Farrar was born Janet Owen on June 24, 1950, in Clapton, London.   Her father was English and Welsh and her mother was an immigrant Irishwoman.  Both of them belonged to the Church of England and were hospital workers.  When Janet was five her mother died. Janet attended the Leyton Manor School in London and Royal Wanstead High School for Girls in Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire. Following her graduation, she worked as a model and receptionist.  In 1970 she was initiated into Alex and Maxine Sander's coven where she met Stewart Farrar. 

After Stewarts Death, Janet has continued to teach, write books and produce well done Videos on various elemens of the Craft, with Gavin Bone, one of her initiates.

Since their early days of undiluted Alexandrianism, they drifted somewhat towards a more Gardnerian approach, and today, tell everyone that there are no differences between the two traditions. In fact, despite the merging that has been occurring over the last few years, there are very distinct differences between the traditions; some merely external, others of a very significant difference of philosophy.

SELDIY BATE AND NIGEL BOURNE (TO BE EXPANDED)

Seldiy Bate was originally trained by Madeline Montalban, and then took an Alexandrian initiation from Maxine and Alex Sanders.  Her husband, Nigel, was also initiated by Maxine, and they have been "public" witches for a number of years now, often appearing on TV, radio and in the press. Their background in ritual magic is expressed in the type of coven that they run; a combination of Wicca and Ceremonial Magic.

SYBIL LEEK

Sybil Leek was born into a family of astrologers and Witches in Straffordshire on February 22, 1917. Her entire family was involved in astrology, and guests who visited her home included H.G. Wells, Lawrence of Arabia and Aleister Crowley. In their New Forest home, her mother and her mother's friends regularly met for tea, and they called themselves the Pentagram Club.

When she was fifteen years old, Sybil was initiated into the Horsa coven during one of the family's regular trips to the south of France to visit the French covens from which the English New Forest covens were derived.   

Sybil came from a relatively well-to-do family and grew up as a young society lady; her mother was of the Masters family, well-known in high society.   During World War II, she joined the Red Cross and worked as a nurse in a military hospital near Southhampton, then at Anzio Beach and finally, at a military barracks in the isolated Scottish Hebrides Islands.

Though she ended the War with a handful of medals for her efforts, the prosperity of her family was lost to the austerity of the War. Sybil spent several years living with a band of Gypsies in the New Forest. She became HPS of the Horsa Coven just before the witchcraft laws were repealed.

The coven later took up Gardner's idea of an equal number of men and women to increase the group's psychic power and establish a balance of power, plus a High Priestess. Another Gardnerian trait they adopted was the invocation of the Lords of the Watchtowers, which Gardner had taken from the Enochian magick of the Golden Dawn. Most of the members were healers, and they stressed developing psychic powers through visualization and shifting the center of consciousness in the body.   The Horsa taught that becoming was the secret to all magick.  All children of members have their horoscope done at birth.

Sybil ran an antique shop in England until her landlord discovered she was a Witch and evicted her. She then came to the US, where she teamed up with writer Hans Holzer to undertake a series of psychic investigations, with Holzer detailing them in his books.

Sybil was one of the first of the popular Witches to take up environmental causes. She was a master astrologer, a prolific author and a gifted psychic. Sybil died October 26, 1982 at the age of 65, in Melbourne, Florida USA, of cancer.  (The author was driving through Melbourne and heard the news on the radio the day it happened)

She wrote: Diary of a Witch, My Life in Astrology, The Night Voyagers, Numerology: The Magic of Numbers, Phrenology, Reincarnation: The Second Chance, Star Speak, Astrological Guide to Love and Sex, Astrological Guide to Financial Success, Astrology and Love, Driving Out the Devils, Sybil Leek's Book of Curses, Sybil Leek's Book of Fortune Telling, Moon Signs, ESP - The Magic Within You, Herbs, Medicine and Mysticism, Complete Art of Witchcraft, The Jackdaw & The Witch (Mr. Hotfoot Jackson), and How To Be Your Own Astrologer.

RAYMOND AND ROSEMARY BUCKLAND

TALIESIN EINION VAWR AND THE ORIGIN OF THE DYNION MWYN AND Y TYLWYTH TEG TRADITIONS.

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