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Comment by Annetta Clingan on June 13, 2010 at 5:13pm

Amber K
Amber K is a third degree priestess of the Wiccan faith. She was initiated at the Temple of the Pagan Way in Chicago and served on the Council of Elders there. Her books on magick and the Craft have been widely circulated in the United States and Europe, and for nearly 25 years she has traveled across the U.S. teaching the Craft. She has worked with Circle and the Re-Formed Congregation of the Goddess, and served as National First Officer of the Covenant of the Goddess for three terms. She is a founder of Our Lady of the Woods and the Ladywood Tradition of Wicca, and currently is Executive Director of Ardantane, a Wiccan/Pagan seminary is northern New Mexico.
Titles by Amber K: Heart of Tarot: An Intuitive Approach, Candlemas: Feast of Flames, True Magick: A Beginner's Guide, Coven Craft: Witchcraft for Three or More

Ted Andrews
Ted Andrews is a full-time author, student, and teacher in the metaphysical and spiritual fields. He conducts seminars, symposiums, workshops, and lectures throughout the country on many facets of ancient mysticism, focusing on translating esoteric material to make it comprehensible and practical for everyone. This includes resynthesizing ancient scriptures, literature, and teachings for use by the modern spiritual student.

Ted is certified in basic hypnosis and acupressure, and is involved in the study and use of herbs as an alternative path in health care. He is active in the holistic healing field, focusing strongly on esoteric forms of healing with sound, music, and voice. Trained in piano, Ted also employs the use of the Celtic harp, bamboo flute, shaman rattles, Tibetan bells, Tibetan Singing Bowl, and quartz crystal bowls to create individual healing therapies and induce higher states of consciousness. Ted is a clairvoyant and also works with past-life analysis, aura interpretation, dreams, numerology, and Tarot.

Andrews is the author of The Healer's Manual; Animal-Speak, How to See & Read the Aura; Dream Alchemy; Crystal Balls & Crystal Bowls; How to Develop & Use Psychic Touch; How to Heal with Color; Sacred Sounds; Magickal Dance; and many other titles.
Titles by Ted Andrews: The Healer's Manual: A Beginner's Guide to Energy Therapies, Animal Speak: The Spiritual & Magical Powers of Creatures Great and Small, How to Uncover Your Past Lives, Simplified Qabala Magic, How to See and Read the Aura, How to Meet & Work with Spirit Guides, Enchantment of the Faerie Realm: Communicate with Nature Spirits & Elementals, How To Do Psychic Readings Through Touch, Sacred Sounds: Magic & Healing Through Words & Music, How to Heal with Color, Crystal Balls & Crystal Bowls: Tools for Ancient Scrying & Modern Seership
D.J. Conway
A native of the Pacific Northwest, author D.J. Conway has studied the occult fields for over 35 years. Her quest for knowledge has covered every aspect of Paganism and Wicca to New Age and Eastern philosophies; plus history, the magical arts, philosophy, customs, mythologies and folklore. In 1998, she was voted Best Wiccan and New Age author by Silver Chalice, a Pagan magazine. She lives a rather quiet life, with most of her time spent researching and writing.
Titles by D.J. Conway: Norse Magic. Celtic Magic, The Celtic Dragon Tarot Kit, By Oak, Ash, & Thorn: Modern Celtic Shamanism, Animal Magick: The Art of Recognizing and Working with Familiars, Shapeshifter Tarot, Moon Magick: Myth & Magic, Crafts & Recipes, Rituals & Spells, Magickal, Mystical Creatures: Invite Their Powers into Your Life, Dancing with Dragons: Invoke Their Ageless Wisdom & Power, Maiden, Mother, Crone: The Myth & Reality of the Triple Goddess
Website: http://www.djconway.com
Kerr Cuhulain
A former Air Force officer, Kerr Cuhulain (Vancouver) has been a police officer for the past twenty years, and a Wiccan for thirty. He's served on the SWAT team, Gang Crime Unit, and hostage negotiation team. He travels throughout North America as a popular speaker at writers' conferences and Pagan festivals, and

Comment by Annetta Clingan on June 13, 2010 at 5:12pm

Scott Cunningham (1956-1993)
Written and compiled by George Knowles.
Scott Cunningham was a Wiccan and popular author of more than thirty books, these he wrote fluently using both fiction and non-fiction genres. More than fifteen of his books were written on Wicca and its related subjects, he also wrote scripts for occult videos. Scott was a key player in opening up Wicca to solitary practice, and by making a great deal of information available to the public he helped to influence many newcomers entering the craft.
Scott was born on the 27th June 1956 in Royal Oak, Michigan. In 1961 he moved to San Diego where he lived until his death in 1993. His introduction to the craft came through a book he read in 1971, one purchased by his mother called 'The Supernatural by Douglas Hill and Pat Williams'. Scott had always shown an interest in plants, minerals and other natural earth products and this book furthered his interest. It also showed diagrams of Italian hand gestures used to ward of the evil eye and these particularly fascinated him.
Later in high school he used some of these gestures to attract the attention of a female classmate, for he knew her to be involved with an occult and magical work group. When she inquired if he was a Witch, he replied saying 'No, but I’d sure like to know more'. The classmate introduced Scott into Wicca and the training he received further intensified his interest in the powers of nature. Over the next few years he took initiation into several covens of varying traditions gaining experience but really he preferred to practice as a solitary practitioner.
In 1974 he enrolled at San Diego State University were he studied creative writing, inspired to do so by his father Chet. His father was a prolific and professional writer who had authored some 170 non-fiction and fiction books. Scott started writing truck and automobile articles for trade publications, he also wrote advertising copy on a freelance basis. After only two years on his University course, he had collected more published credits than most of his professors, so he decided to drop out on the rest of the course and started writing full-time. The first book he had published was an Egyptian romance novel called Shadow of Love (1980).
Scott’s writing style was easy to understand being simple and direct, his teachings focused on encouraging people to: "employ whatever works for them in their religious, spiritual, and magickal endeavours". He was a fine herbalist and produced several books dealing with herbs, including: Magickal Herbalism (Llewellyn Publications, 1982) and Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magickal Herbs (Llewellyn Publications, 1985). His books on Wicca led to a steady rise in his popularity and he soon became one of the best-read Wiccan authors of his time. Sales of his most popular book Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner (Llewellyn, 1988), reached over 400,000 copies by the year 2000.
His prominence was instrumental in influencing the changes that took place in the Wicca movement during the eighties. Due to his influence the Wiccan religion shifted primarily from the hands of initiates into the public arena and many eclectic traditions were formed as a result. While essentially a self-styled Wiccan and a solitary practitioner, he was initiated into several established Craft Traditions. In 1980 he entered into the Aridian Tradition where he undertook a course of study on Witchcraft and Magick from Raven Grimassi. Then in 1981 he entered the Reorganized Traditional Gwyddonic Order of Wicca, an Ancient Pictish Gaelic Tradition. Additionally he was also an initiate of the American Traditionalist Wicca.
Scott travelled around the country giving lectures and occasionally making media appearances on behalf of the craft. He viewed the craft as a modern religion created in the 20th century, and thought that Wicca while containing pagan folk magic derived of ancient times, should be stripped of it’s quas

Comment by Annetta Clingan on June 13, 2010 at 5:12pm

Laurie Cabot (1933 - )
Written and compiled by George Knowles.
The ‘Official Witch of Salem’.
Laurie Cabot is an American Witch, author, artist and businesswoman. She is the founder of the ‘Cabot Science Tradition of Witchcraft’ and the ‘Witches League for Public Awareness (WLPA)’. As a prominent civil rights activist she founded the WLPA as a watchdog to act as an anti-defamation organization aimed at correcting many misconceptions about Witchcraft.
As an only child Laurie was born on the 6th of March 1933 in Wewoka, Oklahoma, at a time when her businessman father was in the process of moving the family from Boston to Anaheim in California. Cabot her maiden name, she claims is descendant from a long line of Cabot’s based in Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands situated off the southwest coast of England and the northwest coast of France, a place steeped in the lore of witchcraft.
By the time she was six years old Laurie was aware of her psychic gifts and was constantly was in trouble for discussing alledged information she picked up through extrasensory perception. Laurie felt an affinity for witches and made claims that she possessed the genetic memory of a mysterious witch, one from her Jersey lineage, who had lived some 4,000 - 5,000 years ago.
Later in her life Laurie wrote in her book ‘Power of the Witch’ about the magical and mystical experiences she had felt as a child: "The Magical experiences in childhood and adolescence that both confused and excited me fell into four categories: receiving knowledge not available to other people through the normal channels of information; healing others with herbs, spells and touch, going into altered states of consciousness and communicating with spirits". Laurie was originally raised in the Catholic Church and says it was in such a Church that she first experienced an altered state of consciousness: "Mary, the mother of Jesus also fascinated me and I wondered how she could give birth to someone divine without being divine herself?"
In 1947 accompanied by her mother, Laurie returned to Boston in order to finish her high school education. At the same time in an effort to understand her psychic gifts, she started on a comprehensive study of religion. Spending much of her time alone at the library, she soon caught the attention of a friendly member of staff, a woman who encouraged and advised her to look beyond Christianity into other belief systems for more information on psychic paranormal phenomena. Later the woman revealed herself to be a witch.
Over time as her studies continued the lady introduced Laurie to two other witches, one of whom was an elder. Together the three witches helped to school Laurie in craft practices. At the age of 16 when they deemed she had learned sufficient knowledge, they initiated Laurie into a craft coven proper. It was during the ceremony of initiation that Laurie underwent a profound transformational experience. After being anointed with oil and dubbed with a sword, she took up the sword herself and impaled it in the ground saying, “I return to earth my wisdom and henceforth call myself a witch”, and so began her life long association with witchcraft.
From her father, a science orientated man who did not believe in witchcraft; Laurie retained a keen interest in science, and used it as a base to her approach on witchcraft, the occult and the paranormal. However, after leaving high school Laurie decided not to continue on to college as her father would have liked, but instead started a career as a dancer in the Latin Quarter of Boston.
Through the 1950’s, early 60’s Laurie was twice married, first to an Italian and then to a Greek, each marriage producing a daughter, Jody in 1963 and Penny in 1965. After her second marriage broke down and they divorced in the late 1960’s, Laurie with a friend and her two daughters moved to the northern end of Boston. It was here that Laurie made a vow that she would live the res

Comment by Annetta Clingan on June 13, 2010 at 5:11pm

Raymond Buckland (1934 - )
Raymond Buckland was born in London, England, on the 31st August 1934. His father came from a line of Gypsies, which means Buckland himself is a half-blooded Gypsy or in their terminology a "poshrat". He was brought up in the Church of England but when he was 12 years old, an uncle introduced him into Spiritualism and the occult. Over time this interest would evolve to include Witchcraft and Magic.

Educated at King’s College School in London, Buckland then studied at Brantridge Forest College in Sussex, earning a doctorate in anthropology. In 1955 he met and married his first wife, Rosemary, before serving a short term in the Royal Air Force (RAF) from 1957 to 1959. In 1962, he and Rosemary immigrated to the United States. They settled in Brentwood, Long Island, where Buckland went to work for British Airways, then known as BOAC.
Buckland’s discovery of Gardner’s book, Witchcraft Today and Margaret Murray’s The Witch Cult in Western Europe changed America forever. Finally, the questions he had regarding spiritualism and the occult were answered. He began a correspondence by phone and mail with Gardner, then at the Isle of Man. As their friendship matured, Buckland became Gardner’s American representative. Any questions Gardner received from America, he referred to

Buckland. Buckland was responsible for introducing Gardnerian Witchcraft into America in 1964. The two met physically for the first and only time in 1963, at the home of Monique Wilson, Gardner’s then-HP, in Perth, Scotland. Buckland was initiated by Monique; his wife, Rosemary, was initiated separately a short time later. Very soon thereafter, Gardner left for that winter vacation in Lebanon from which he would never return.

In America interest in Witchcraft was catching on quickly, but Buckland built his coven slowly and with caution. There were many that wanted to become Gardnerian Witches who felt that Buckland was being overcautious. Those who didn’t want to wait for initiation simply went away and started their own covens. Buckland persisted; he wanted only those with a genuine interest in the craft as a religion. Initially Buckland was secretive, and kept his name and address from the press, but eventually it was published and this focused attention on him as a leading authority and spokesman of the craft.

He began to collect artifacts and pieces for his own museum, like the one Gardner had on the Isle of Man. He called it the First Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in the United States. His collection started in a bookcase, and then as it grew it took over the basement of their house, and eventually had to be housed in a separate building.

Buckland started to write about witchcraft in 1968, and in 1969 he published his first book, A Pocket Guide to the Supernatural. He followed it in 1970 with Witchcraft, Ancient and Modern and Practical Candleburning Rituals. (Note: the first edition and the second are miles apart; in the original Buckland used some of the traditional literature material.) That same year he wrote his first novel, Mu Revealed under the pseudonym "Tony Earll", an anagram for "Not Really". Writing became a passion for Buckland and he wanted more time to devote to it. By 1973, his collection of artifacts had grown large enough for him to occupy a rented building. He quit his job with BOAC and opened the museum proper, running it himself while at the same time writing full-time.

That same year his marriage to Rosemary broke up and they handed the leadership of their coven over to "Theos and Phoenix", who became the local Gardnerian high priest and priestess of Long Island. It is interesting to note that both continued to be active in the Craft, although Rosemary was much less in the public eye.

Buckland moved to New Hampshire where he reopened his museum and later married Joan Taylor. At about the same time he decided to leave the Gardnerian tradition, feeling it no longer met his religious needs. He was also fe

Comment by Annetta Clingan on June 13, 2010 at 5:11pm

Dion Fortune (1890 - 1946)
Written and compiled by George Knowles.
Behind the shadows of Gerald B. Gardner, lurks Dion Fortune. Unappreciated during her own time she was perhaps his lesser-known equal, working quietly behind the scenes she developed her own tradition and was unconcerned with the need for publicity. Dion was a respected psychiatrist, occultist and author who approached magick and hermetic concepts from the perspectives of Jung and Freud. She was a prolific occult writer of novels and non-fiction books, an adept in ceremonial magick and a pioneer psychiatrist on religious thought in occultism. Dion was born “Violet Mary Firth” on the 6th January 1890 in Bryn-y-Bia, Llandudno, Wales. She showed mediumistic abilities at an early age and was reputed to have had visions and dreams of “Atlantis” as early as four years old. Later she claimed to have been a priestess there in a past life. She was a bright and intelligent child who wrote her first book at the age of 13, a book of poems entitled Violets in 1904. Her family were fair to do Christian Scientists with a family motto that reads: “Deo, non Fortuna”, meaning “By God, not by chance”. In 1906 after the death of her grandfather, the family moves to London and live on they’re inheritance. There she joined the local Theosophical Society and in 1908 had another poem published called Angels. In 1910 she started work at St Georges Secretarial Collage, while continuing her studies in psychology. She worked as an assistant to the collage principal, a strong minded and domineering woman with a violent temper. After a number of clashes with the woman, Dion decided to leave. Reporting her intentions to leave, the woman subjected her to a diatribe of incompetence and lack of self-confidence, that she later suffered a near mental breakdown. She later attributed this to the principal, believing she had used “psychic attacks” to try and control her, a technique allegedly learned on visits to India.
As a result of these attacks and during the following three years it took to recover, Dion delved deeper into Psychology, focussing her studies on the theories of Freud and Jung. In 1913 she took up a position as a lay-psychoanalyst at the Medico-Psychological Clinic in London. There she concluded that neither Freud nor Jung adequately addressed the subtleties and complexities of the mind. There was something they had missed, and she felt the answers might lie in occultism. Through the war years 1914-1918 Dion joined the “Women’s Land Army”, during which time she maintained her links with the “Theosophical Society”. Towards the end of the war she met with and worked with the head of the society “Theodore Moriarty”, an occultist and freemason. Moriarty encouraged her interest in the occult, and in 1919 after the war, she was initiated into the “Alpha and Omega Lodge of Stella Matutina”, an outer order of the hermetic “Order of the Golden Dawn” situated in London. She studied under “J.W.Brodie-Innes” but came under conflict with “Moina Mathers” the wife of S.L. MacGregor-Mathers, one of the original founders of the Golden Dawn. Feeling symptoms of “psychic attack” similar to her past experience, she later quit and formed her own order “the Fraternity of the Inner Light”. Initially the order was part of the Golden Dawn, but based on esoteric Christianity. It later separated and distanced itself, removing all connections with witchcraft.
After the death of her friend and mentor Theodore Moriarty in 1923, Dion took over the Theosophical Society and renamed it the “Christian Mystic Lodge”. In 1924 she bought a property in Glastonbury called the Chalice Orchard. This she would use as a retreat from the pressures of work and living in the city. While visiting at Glastonbury, Dion became deeply interested in Arthurian legends and the magical-mystical folklore centred on the area. She later formed a pilgrim centre there known as the “Chalice Orchard Club”, which she dedicated to the

Comment by Annetta Clingan on June 13, 2010 at 5:11pm

Sybil Leek (1923[1917]-1982)
Those who knew her privately called her "Dame" Sybil, honoring her with the title the Queen of England gives to honored women. But some called her "That Damn Sybil", because this colorful, talented woman was nothing if not controversial. She was an English witch, gifted psychic, accurate astrologer and prolific author, writing more than 60 books on witchcraft, astrology, numerology, and reincarnation.

She was born with a witch’s mark and claimed to be a hereditary witch of Irish and Russian Descent. Her flamboyant trademarks—perfectly at home in the 1960s world—were a cape, loose gowns, and a pet jackdaw named "Mr. Hotfoot Jackson" perched on her shoulders. She always wore a crystal necklace that she claimed had been passed down to her from a psychic Russian grandmother. Sybil claimed to be able to trace her mother’s ancestry back to the witches of southern Ireland in 1134, and her father’s ancestry to occultists close to royalty in czarist Russia.

Her most notable ancestor was "Molly Leigh", an Irish witch who died in 1663. On her death, the vicar allowed her body to be buried at the very edge of the local church graveyard well away from others. A short time after her burial, the vicar and others went to open her cottage and retrieve her jackdaw. When they arrived they were shocked to see Leigh (or an apparition of her), sitting in an armchair with her pet jackdaw perched on her shoulders, just as she had often been seen in real life. Frightened, the group returned to the graveyard and reopened her grave. They drove a stake through her heart and threw the living jackdaw in the coffin and reburied it. Sybil took special pride in being descendant from Molly Leigh, and on a visit to Ireland she visited Molly’s grave. Later she was seen about town with her own pet jackdaw perched on her shoulders, following the same custom that old Molly had done before her.

Sybil was born on the February 22, 1923 in Straffordshire, England. She grew up in the New Forrest area of Hampshire, were she demonstrated an early gift for writing. The New Forrest is one of the oldest forests in England, steeped in folklore and witchcraft associations. This is the same area where Gardner reportedly was initiated by a descendant of one of Pickingill’s famous "Nine Covens". Sybil said that, during her time in the area, there were still four old covens that had survived from the days of King William Rufus. Her entire family was involved in astrology and some of the guests who visited her home included H.G. Wells, Lawrence of Arabia, and Aleister Crowley, who became a frequent visitor. She claims to have spent time with him climbing the mountainsides and wondering through forests near to her home. In her autobiography (Diary of a Witch, New York: Signet, 1969), Sybil wrote that he talked to her about witchcraft and recited his poetry, encouraging her to write her own. He also instructed her on the use of certain magickal words used for their vibratory qualities when used in magick.

Sybil’s family was relatively well-to-do and she grew up as a young lady of society. Her mother was related to the Masters family, well-known in high society. In their New Forest home, her mother and friends regularly met for tea, and called themselves the "Pentagram Club". When she was fifteen years old, during one of the family's regular trips to the south of France, Sybil was initiated into a French coven at "Gorge du Loup" in the hills above Nice. According to Sybil, she was initiated to replace an elderly Russian aunt who had been High Priestess of the coven, from which the New Forest covens in England were derived.


Returning home, Sybil met a well-known pianist-conductor who was 24 years her senior. Despite the age difference they fell in love and were married shortly after her 16th birthday. During the relative quiet of the pre-war years they toured and traveled about England and Europe. He died two years later and she returned home to

Comment by Annetta Clingan on June 13, 2010 at 5:11pm

Stewart Farrar (1916-2000)
Stewart Farrar was born in London in 1916 and brought up in a middle-class family with a Christian Science background. A journalist and an author, he had several novels published before he joined the Army for the duration of World War II. As a Captain and an antiaircraft gunnery instructor, Stewart was asked to write the instruction manual for the 30mm Bofors gun, his first taste of serious writing.

After the war Stewart decided to stay on in Germany. He worked for the Allied Control Commission as liaison officer for the German Coal Board. His experiences in post-war Germany and the things he saw in the immediate aftermath of war (he was one of the first British officers to enter Auschwitz) greatly influenced his personal and political beliefs.
Returning to England he again took up journalism, and in the 1950s he joined the British Communist Party as editor of their periodical. He remained a member of the Communist Party until the Hungarian uprisings, during which time he became disillusioned with the force the Soviets were using and left the party.

In 1969, while working as a reporter for the Reveille, Stewart was sent to review a film called "Legend of the Witches". His assignment was to write an article on Alex Sanders, the so-called "King of the Witches" and his wife Maxine. Alex Sanders was gaining notoriety in the news of that time. Stewart's editor therefore felt there might be a story to tell. Stewart succeeded in gaining an interview with Alex and wrote a two-part feature. Due to the success of this feature, Alex then invited Stewart to write a new book to compliment his biography King of the Witches written sometime earlier by June Johns. The new book was be about modern witches, “What they do, Believe, and Why”. The result was the writing of Stewart's most famous book and a classic in its own time, What Witches Do.

While writing it, Stewart decided that in order to write a true account of what witches do, he would need to become a witch himself. Maxine Sanders initiated Stewart on Feb. 21,1970. While training with the Sanders' coven, Stewart met another initiate called Janet Owen, who would later become his wife.

Stewart and Janet working together earned their second degree later that year and they decided to leave Alex and Maxine's coven and set up on their own. They founded their own coven during the Yule festivities of 1970. On the April 24, 1971, they were granted with their third degree and so became independent. While indebted to the Sanders' for their induction and initial training in the craft, both Stewart and Janet felt that much of Alex's teachings were sparse in content. From the start of their own coven in 1970, they both worked diligently to develop and structure their own rituals and training methods for use within their own covens. They were married at Woking Registry Office in 1972.

In April 1976, fed-up with the pace and toil of life in the crowded streets of London, they moved to the peace and quiet of the fields and mountains situated in County Mayo in the Republic of Ireland. There they live in a two-bedroom cottage on the bog, and continued to expand and found new covens. The structure and method of their workings had by this time developed and had changed radically from their original Alexandrian beginnings. Today some seventy five percent of Wiccans, both in the Republic and Northern Ireland, can trace their roots back to the Farrars.

Living in peaceful surrounding they each collaborated on writing some of the most influential books on modern witchcraft published to date. Such books as:
Eight Sabbats for Witches and The Witches Way (jointly published as The Witches Bible), also The Witches Goddess, The Witches God, and Spells and How They Work. Their writings, some of which have now reached classic status, are an influence to both practitioners and future craft writers alike. They have also lectured in the United States, as well as Europe and the Nether

Comment by Annetta Clingan on June 13, 2010 at 5:10pm

THE GREAT BEAST:
ALEISTER CROWLEY (1875-1947)
Can true witches say Crowley was a spiritual grandparent? Most would not like to do so in light of the insanity of his latter years. He is easily the most controversial figure in ceremonial magic, a field that has attracted nothing else. Known in the tabloid press of his time as “The Wickedest Man in the World,” he was the most flamboyant, and possibly the most misunderstood, personality to contribute to the Craft as we know it today. Sybil Leek, who knew him, said, “Aleister forgot part of the Rede: he made it to be, ‘Do what thou wilt shall be the extent of the law.’ People who forget love are to be pitied.” There is no doubt, however, that he was a very powerful magician,
occultist, and ceremonialist.

Take Crowley into account in view of the dictates of society in his time: stuffy, pompous, Victorian England. He was born on October 12, 1875, in the town of Leamington Spa in Warwickshire, England. His parents, Emily and Edward, were wealthy brewers and thoroughly respectable, devout Christians, members of the strict and narrow-minded Plymouth Brethren. He rebelled from the beginning against the religion of this parents. Aleister Crowley can be understood well as a life-long rebel against his parents’ regime. When he was 11, his father died and he inherited the family fortune. He went to be educated at Cambridge, in Trinity College, where he wrote poetry. In 1898 he published his first book of poetry called “Aceldama, A Place to Bury Strangers In. A Philosophical Poem. By a Gentleman of the University of Cambridge, 1898”. In the preface he describes how God and Satan had fought for his soul and states: “God conquered – and now I have only one doubt left – which of the twain was God”? He loved mountain-climbing and attempted some of the highest of the Himalayan mountains.

At Trimity, Crowley encountered an entrée to the occult and, with his roommate, Allan Bennett, became fascinated with the grimmer aspects—fascinated by blood sacrifice and degradation by the “Scarlet Woman”—a sort of Edwardian reversal dominatrix concept, the exact opposite of the pious and prudish females of his childhood. One of the books he read about this time was by the author Arthur Edward Waite, entitled The Book of Black Magic and of Pacts. It hinted at a secret brotherhood of occultists, and Crowley became even more intrigued. He wrote to Waite for more information and was referred to The Cloud upon the Sanctuary by Carl von Exkartshausen. This book tells of the Great White Brotherhood, and Crowley determined he wanted to join this group and advance to its highest levels. Later that year on the 18th November 1898, he and Bennett both joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. A. E. Waite is the occultist who devised the most-used form of Tarot cards, the “Waite Deck”.

Crowley reportedly became a member of one of George Pickingill’s hereditary covens in 1899, although apparently he was not welcome for long. It is alleged that he obtained his "Second Degree" before being dismissed due to his contemptuous attitude toward women, failure to attend rituals with regularity, his personal ego and sexual perversion (Crowley had a bias toward homosexuality and the bizarre, shocking during his time even amongst witches). The priestess of his coven later described him as “a dirty-minded, evilly-disposed, and vicious little monster!”

As well as being dismissed and outcaste by the New Forrest witches, all was not well within the Golden Dawn. He moved out of Trinity Collage without earning his degree, and took a flat in Chancery Lane, London. There he renamed himself “Count Vladimir” and began to pursue his occult studies on a full-time basis. Crowley had a natural aptitude for magic and advanced
quickly through the ranks of the Golden Dawn, but the London lodge leaders considered him unsuitable for advancement into the second order. Crowley went to Paris in 1899 to see S. L. McGregor Mathers, the head of the

Comment by Annetta Clingan on June 13, 2010 at 5:10pm

Arnold Crowther (1909-1974)
If someone had told Arnold Crowther that he would one day be remembered as one of the newer grandparents of a neo-Pagan religion, he might have laughed out loud—and then been immensely flattered. Crowther was a skilled stage magician and ventriloquist with interests in paganism and witchcraft. He co-authored two books and a radio series on witchcraft with his wife Patricia Crowther, and wrote numerous articles for a variety of magazines. His greatest claim to fame though comes as the connection from Gardner to Crowley. Born in Chatham, Kent, on the 6th October 1909, Crowther was one of twin brothers. His mother was Scottish and his father, an optician, came from Yorkshire. From an early age, he was fascinated with sleight-of-hand magic, ventriloquism, and puppets. From the age of eight he began practicing tricks and perfecting his technique in the secrecy of his bedroom. By the time he was twenty he was a professional magic act, working in cabaret, touring around the country and overseas. In the late 1930s, he was invited to entertain Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret at Buckingham Palace. This led him to numerous opportunities entertaining the landed gentry of England, and brought him into contact with many of the leading occultists and magicians. At this time, Crowther’s religious creeds were that of Freemasonry with interests in Buddhism.

Before the start of World War II, Crowther met Gerald and Donna Gardner when they of his lectures on curios. He and Gardner became good friends, sharing many similar interests. Crowther soon became a frequent visitor at the Gardners’ London flat, and from there they would venture out together and browse the many antique stalls at the nearby Caledonian Market. Rubbing shoulders with Gardner, Crowther soon became interested in the craft. However, Gardner’s coven was still wary of adverse publicity. They felt that Crowther might use craft information in his act, and refused to accept him. Gardner predicted that “a very special person with fair hair” would initiate him when the time was right.

For a time during the war Crowther was stationed in Paris, and there he first learned of his past life as a Tibetan beggar monk. He visited a palmist, “Madame Brux”, who invited them to a séance. After introductions the medium went into a trance and began to communicate with a masculine spirit. The spirit claimed to have been Crowther’s teacher in a previous life, and was his guide in this present one. The spirit reported that Crowther had been a student in a Tibetan lamasery, he mentioned the name “Younghusband” and that he had been killed in a battle. “Your possessions will be returned to you,” said the medium, and an object fell onto the séance table. It was a Tibetan prayer wheel used by a homeless medicant class of Yogi regarded as saints who believed they would attain Nirvana after death and not have to be reborn
again. This led Crowther to wonder why he was in the present incarnation. The spirit explained that if Crowther, as a monk, had killed someone he would have to be reincarnated. Later, Crowther learned at an exhibition of Tibetan curios in London, a “Colonel Younghusband” led a military attack against Tibet in 1904. During the attack, the colonel killed before he himself was killed.

Crowther returned to the public stage after the war, and continued to tour about the country. During his travels he met Aleister Crowley. Soon he introduced his friend Gardner to Crowley (May 1, 1947). An entry in Crowther’s dairy for that date reads: “Dr. G.B.Gardner Ph.D. Singapore and Aleister Crowley Prof, a magician, came to tea…” (That PhD may or may not
have been accurate!)

In 1958 while travelling to perform on the Isle of Wite, Crowther met a lady “with fair hair”, Patricia Dawson. She was performing in the same show as he, and they soon discovered a mutual interest in witchcraft. Crowther offered to introduce her to his friend Gardner. Over the following two yea

Comment by Annetta Clingan on June 13, 2010 at 5:09pm

Alex Sanders (*1926*-1988) *Please see update at end.
Alex Sanders, the man who had himself crowned “King of the Witches”, founded what is known now as Alexandrian witchcraft. He was born in Manchester, England—the same place that has given us the Beatles and many other musicians—the oldest of six children of a music-hall entertainer/alcoholic. According to Sanders, at age 7he happened upon his grandmother, Mary Bibby (sometimes erroneously called Biddy), performing a ritual. Surprised, she immediately swore him to secrecy and initiated him on the spot (yes, third-degree with your Grandmother—oh, shut up, you whippersnappers!) (Uni screams AGH! TMI!), saying “Now you are one of us.” Whatever the truth of that, there is no doubt that he was a natural psychic. He claimed that the Book of Shadows, rites, and magic he later published were from her BOS. At nine, his parents had him confirmed an Anglican. According to Sanders, he spent the time of preparation apologizing to Jesus and saying he meant no blasphemy, but he was being coerced. When his grandmother died, he tried to find other witches. When no one answered his ad, he continued to haunt libraries, reading all he could about (primarily) ceremonial magic.

Working as an analytical chemist at a laboratory in Manchester, he met and married a co-worker called "Doreen". He was 21 at the time, she was 19, and together they had two children "Paul and Janice". Five years later the marriage deteriorated’ Doreen took the two children and left him. Depressed, Sanders began drinking; he drifted from one low- paid job to another and indulged in sex with both men and women. He started on the left-hand path, worshiped the devil and studied "Abra-Melin" magic, hoping to use it to gain wealth and fame. He regularly boasted about his feats of magic and made some amazing claims. One of these was that he and a fellow adept, Paul, created a magical child. This seems to have been Sanders’ attempt to rationalize an “evil twin personality” named Michael who created havoc “through” him.
Eventually, the spirit calmed and Sanders could control it, he said. When channeling, his contact was an entity named “Nick Demdike” who claimed to be a persecuted witch from the Lancaster trials of the 17th century.

What woke him up from this giddy career was the announcement of his favorite sister, Janice, that she had cancer. In remorse, he abjured his negative working and vowed that, from then on, he would be devoted to the work of theurgia, or “white” magic as it is erroneously called.

In the early 60s, Sanders reportedly sought entrance to some Gardnerian covens, including the one run by Patricia and Arnold Crowther, who refused to accept him. The actual material that he published as a BOS is probably a compilation of a poor copy of the Gardnerian BOS he obtained and copied (badly from all accounts), embellishing it with a few of his own amendments. He then used this to found his own coven, claiming it to be a copy of his grandmother’s Book of Shadows. Probably, the actual deviation of his material will never be fully known, but this is the origin of the joke, WWAD (what would an Alexandrian do? Go find out whatever the Gardnerians are doing, and copy it!)

Sanders was a born showman who avidly courted publicity. He soon attracted a large following. One of his initiates was "Maxine Morris", a Roman Catholic 20 years his junior. After her initiation, they handfasted and she became his High Priestess. They were married in a civil ceremony in 1967 and moved into a basement flat near Nottinghill Gate, London. Later that same year, Maxine bore him a daughter they called "Maya". From the new home Sanders ran his coven and taught training classes, he claims to have initiated 1,623 witches, all practicing what had become known as the Alexandrian Tradition. At one meeting, a gathering of sixteen of his covens, Sanders was bestowed with the title of “King of the Witches”. In 1968-69 Maxine appeared in and gave te

Comment by Annetta Clingan on June 13, 2010 at 5:09pm

Doreen Valiente (1922-1999)
“The Great Priestess” shown here with her antique scrying mirror, frame in the shape of a witch

Doreen Valiente was perhaps one of the most respected English witches to have influenced the modern day movement of Witchcraft. She was an early initiate and High Priestess of Gerald Gardner, and wrote in poetry the basic rituals and other materials that changed and shaped the modern day Witchcraft Movement. She was born Doreen Dominy in London, 1922. Little is known of her family except that they were Christian and very religious. In her early childhood they lived near to Horley in Surrey, where Doreen began to experience psychic episodes. Her family was far from happy, and placed Doreen in a convent school. She left the convent when she was fifteen years old.

By her late teens and early twenties, Doreen was aware of her own psychic abilities. She began to read and study all the occult material she could lay her hands on, including the works of Charles Godfrey Leland, Aleister Crowley and Margaret Alice Murray, whom she particularly admired. As we know now, Murray’s passionate belief in the traditional survival of Wicca from ancient times, intact, displaced her scientific research ethic. There is no doubt that Valiente believed this, too, but what she did with it was magnificent and has given us some of the deepest, most powerful rhymed texts extant in modern wicca.

During World War 11, Doreen met and married Cosimo Valiente, a refugee from the Spanish Civil War. While fighting with the Free French Forces, Cosimo had been wounded and sent back to England as an invalid. They were married in London in 1944, and remained together for the next 28 years. Cosimo died in 1972. For sometime after the war, Doreen and Cosimo live in Bournemouth, not to far from the New Forrest area where Gerald Gardner was first initiated into Witchcraft. Remember, Gardner credited George Pickingill as the source of much of his knwoedge, but he also wrote about a coven in the New Forest (which is actually the oldest forest in England).

In 1952, just after the repeal of the old witchcraft laws. Doreen read an article about Cecil Williamson, and the opening of the Folklore Center of Superstition and Witchcraft based on the Isle of Man. The article mentioned a coven still operating in the New Forrest. Doreen wrote to Williamson seeking further information, and Williamson passed her letter on to Gerald Gardner. After corresponding back and forth, Doreen expressed her interest in joining a coven. Gardner invited Doreen to tea at a friend’s house near the New Forrest. On this occasion he didn’t invite her to join his coven, but presented her with a copy of his book “High Magic’s Aid”. This he did to all potential initiates, to gauge their reactions to ritual nudity and scourging. She was later initiated into the coven in 1953.

Gardner gave Doreen free access to his “Book of Shadows” and other materials he had collected. Some he claimed had been passed down to him from the old coven, much of which was fragmentary. Doreen immediately recognized the work of Aleister Crowley among his material, but accepted Gardner’s assertion of how it came to be there. Working in collaboration with Gardner, she began to re-write his “Book of Shadows” using her considerable poetic gifts. Due to his unsavory reputation, she removed much of Aleister Crowley’s influence, and inserted the influence of Charles G. Leland, evident in her most famous piece “The Charge of the Goddess”. This revised version of the Book of Shadows served as the basis for what was to become known as “Gardnerian Wicca”, still today the dominant tradition of contemporary Witchcraft, and from which many other traditions evolved.

Doreen was also credited with increasing the emphasis on Goddess worship, and thus transforming the craft into a fully-fledged Religion. Grandmother Willow adds: There is no doubt that, whatever the origin of the material she crafted with her incredi

Comment by Annetta Clingan on June 13, 2010 at 5:09pm

Gerald Brosseau Gardner (1884-1964)
Gerald Gardner is perhaps one of the best known figures in modern witchcraft to date. An English hereditary Witch, he was the founder of contemporary Witchcraft as practiced as a religion. Some considers him a man of great vision and creativity, who had the courage to try outrageous things during difficult times. Others look on him as a con man, deceitful and manipulative. He wrote the now-famous books Witchcraft Today and The Meaning of Witchcraft, both he wrote in the 1950s. These two classic books inspired the growth and development of many traditions of modern Witchcraft throughout the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States.

Gerald Gardner was born on June 13, 1884, in Blundellsands, a small northern town near Liverpool, England. Born of Scottish descent into a well-to-do family, his father was a merchant and justice of the peace. His grandfather is reputed to have married a witch, and he claims others of his distant family had psychic gifts. Gardner believed himself to be a descendant of Grissell Gairdner, who was burned as a witch at Newburgh in 1610. Of his ancestors, several became Mayors of Liverpool, and one Alan Gardner, a naval commander, was later made a Peer of the Land, having distinguished himself as commander in chief of the Channel Fleet and helped to deter the invasion of Napoleon in 1807. Gardner was the second of three sons, but was kept distant from his two brothers because he suffered severely with bouts of asthma. As a result his parents employed a nanny Josephine “Com” McCombie, to raise him separately. Com persuaded his parents to allow her to take him traveling during the winter months to alleviate his condition. Traveling across Europe, Gardner was often left alone to his own devices, but was content to read and study academic subjects such as History and Archaeology. When he became a young man, his nanny married and went to live in Ceylon. Gardner went with her and started work on a tea plantation. He then moved on to Borneo and finally settled in Malaysia.

There, with his interest in history and archaeology, Gardner became fascinated with the local culture and its religious and magical beliefs. Gardner also had a keen interest in all things occult and was particularly drawn to ritual knives and daggers, especially the Malay “Kris” (a dagger with a wavy blade). He made a name for himself in academic circles with his pioneering research into Malaya’s early civilizations. He also gained respect as an author, and some of his writings were published in the journal of the Malayan branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. He wrote the first authoritative book on the history and folklore of the Malay "Kris", and other weapons of the indigenous peoples of Malaya. (Keris and other Malay Weapons – Singapore, 1936).

From 1923 until he retired in 1936, Gardner worked as a civil servant for the British government, first as a rubber plantation inspector, then as a customs official and inspector of opium establishments. Gardner made a considerable amount of money in his dealings with rubber, which allowed him to indulge in his favorite pastime, Archaeology. On one expedition he claimed to have found the site of the ancient city of Singapura. In 1927 he met and married an Englishwoman named “Donna”. After his retirement in Malaya in 1936, Gardner and his wife returned to England and settled in the New Forrest area of Hampshire. He continued to indulge his archaeological interests and spent much of his time traveling in Europe and Asia Minor. In Cyprus he found places he had previously dreamed about, and was convinced he had lived there in a previous lifetime. In 1939 he wrote and had published his second book, A Goddess Arrives. It was based in Cyprus and concerned the worship of Aphrodite in the year 1450 B.C.

By now the Second World War was looming and Gardner, anxious to do his piece for King and Country, turned his thoughts to Civil Defense. He wrote a letter pu

Comment by Annetta Clingan on June 13, 2010 at 5:09pm

Historical Characters

There is no question that the following people existed. Whether they actually were and did what they claimed to be and do is a conclusion best left to each reader. However true their claims, they were undoubtedly contributors to the body of custom and practice we now have and, therefore, significant to us.

We will begin with the “first known” in our day and time, “Old George” Pickingill. You will notice that in many of the stories you heard tonight from Grandmother, the men were called “cunning” and the women were called “dame”. Our terms for them today might be “sage and crone” or “wizard and witch”, respectively. One thing our religion is large on is the veneration of “spiritual ancestors”…because although our roots are lost in the misty vastness of ancient times, our current progenitors don’t go back very far! How much of what Gardner claimed is true? No one knows for sure; but what we do know is that Doreen Valiente, who became his high-priestess, was a remarkable witch with a deep understanding of how to pursue the Art Magical. We know that Alex Saunders, the “bad boy” of modern witchcraft revival, was
trained by Gardner. We know that Gardner was seriously influenced not only by the natural “wort-cunning” or “wort-kenning” (plant-knowing) witches like Pickingill, but also by ceremonial magicians (ritualists who may have derived about half of their method from Masonic Lodge principles and half from ancient texts by mystics of the past, which are linked to the Judaic book of mysticism, the Quabbalah (also spelled Caballa and Kaballa, and pronounced KAH-bah-lah).

“Old George” Pickingill (1816-1909)
Like Cunning Murrell, George Pickingill was a legend in his own time, and local residents feared his abilities. He was the oldest of the 9 childcren of
Charles and Susannah Pickingill of Hockley, a small village in Essex (East Anglia). Later, he moved to the nearby village of Canewdon, and lived there to the end of his life.

He was a hereditary witch, claiming he could trace his ancestry back for centuries to the time of “Julia, The Witch of Brandon”, who had lived in a village north of Thetford in Norfolk. According to legend, Julia was hired to make magical chants for the troops of “Harewood the Wake”, inspiring them into battle against the Normans. In retaliation, Norman troops set fire to her village and burned her at the stake in 1071. Since that time, George claimed, each generation of the Pickingill family has served as priests in the Old Religion.

Like his father, George’s labor was that of humble farm worker, yet all who knew him held him in awe. Many of the local village folk were afraid of him and his mysterious magical abilities. In occult circles he was highly regarded, being consulted by people from all over the country, Europe and the United States. During his lifetime, George established a total of nine hereditary covens in Norfolk, Essex, Hertfordshire, Sussex, and Hampshire. When he started a new coven, he insisted that its leaders produce evidence indicating he or she came from hereditary witch lineage. Each coven he formed worshiped the “Horned God” and used a basic set of rites, though George was constantly changing, embellishing and introducing new concepts as they developed. All rituals were conducted by women and involved ritual nudity and sexual inductions.

Reportedly, Aleister Crowley was a member of one of his covens around 1899. He is though to have obtained his Second Degree before being dismissed due to his contemptuous attitude toward women and his deplorable behavior. Other pupils of note were two Master Masons by the names of “Hargrave Jennings” and “W.J. Hughan”. Both would later become founder members of the “Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia”—the Rosicrucians—from which the “Order of the Golden Dawn” would emerge. In her book, Witchcraft for Tomorrow, Doreen Valiente alleges that Jennings consulted with Old George and conspired with him to concoct a cipher manus

Comment by Annetta Clingan on June 13, 2010 at 5:08pm

Gran-cestors: Neopagan Progenitors

The Elders


What can we really know about them—the old ones, of song and story? What our heart knows, what our head knows, what the delvings of modern-day scientific historians (bows to Dr. Beagle) show us: these may be all the same, or not the same. Do you know the dream? Have you had it yourself? Sun falling on old stonework—a cottage, and you know it is yours, at the edge of a sleepy village in Old England, circa perhaps 1520…you are sitting on the rim of the
well in your herb garden, watching those peculiar new additions, the “love apples”, grow ripe in the sun. You know that they are good herbs because they have yellow flowers. But you are a little leery of the magical powers of these recent imports from the sunny land of Italia, for they are said to inflame passions! The scent of rosemary, sage, roses, mingles in a heady draught with the smell of the turned earth and your vegetable patch, the “kitchen garden”. Your pet nuzzles at your hand for attention, enjoying the warmth of late summer. Lugnassadh is past, soon it will be time for the grape harvest, the autumnal equinox, and the sun will lose its full warmth and potency…

All American witchcraft necessarily begins elsewhere, and it is no surprise that the most contributory “grand-cestors” to modern neopagans have been English. Even the first collector of the ways of Italian stregheria was Charles Leland, from good ol’ Mom. Raven Grimassi, a latter-day hereditary stregha, has enlarged and elaborated on the traditions of his native land.

Legends

History abounds with witch legends. Grandmother is going to tell some of the more fantastic ones tonight in the circle, but what you really need to read thoroughly and know is what follows: verifiable facts about the historical personages who shaped the neo-Pagan movement as you have encountered it, in the year 2001, in America. Some of them are every bit as colorful as the legends of characters in the distant past, too!

Comment by Annetta Clingan on June 13, 2010 at 5:04pm

Many years ago the Crone in our group Werfriends decided that we would do a topic on Grancestors (her topic name) It has grown over the years thanks to the beginning of her research. It is long, so I am not sure how it will handle being posted here. But I am going to try.
Uni

Comment by Rev.Theresa Helton (Moonraven) on May 30, 2010 at 5:20pm

2009: 8:3 Order of Peace Weavers receives its Charter from M.Rev. Donald Lewis High-Correll with its creator Rev. Theresa Helton (Moonraven) established as Order Head. The Order of Peace Weavers is one of the first voices of Peace within the Wiccan/Pagan community.

Comment by RowanIsis Coyote Woman on May 3, 2010 at 4:00pm

I live in Tucson Arizona and we have a wonderful resource called Tucson Area Wiccan Network, founded in 1987. It became a nonprofit educational corporation in 1996 and in 2003 received 501(c)3 IRS status. Open rituals and all beliefs are welcome. Education and community are top priorities.

Comment by RowanIsis Coyote Woman on April 24, 2010 at 8:08pm

I enjoy researching our history. Here are a few...
2007:4:23 Veteran's Affairs adds the Wiccan pentacle to the list of approved religious belief symbols on soldier's headstones. The pentacle is number 37 and is the latest symbol to be added to the list.
2006:11:18-19 The first Wiccan religious symbol is allowed on a veterans headstone after a long and hard battle with Veteran's Affairs . The soldier's name is Sgt. Patrick Stewart, killed in Afghanistan on September 25, 2005.
1982:10:26 Sybil Leek dies- English witch, astrologer, psychic, occult author and television personality. She was born February 22, 1917 in Normacot, Stoke-on Trent, Staffordshire, England. She lived in the United States for many years until her death.


2007:8:29 President George W Bush hosted a meeting with family members of those who had died in Iraq and Afghanistan, including members of Stewart's family. Although his widow Roberta Stewart was not invited, President Bush later called to aplogize. Roberta Stewart of Fernley, Nevada, widow of Sgt. Patrick Stewart (both Wiccans) who was killed in Afghanistan in September 2005 was not invited to a meeting President George W Bush held at the American Legion's National convention. Widow believes she was not invited due to discrimination and because she fought with the Department of Veteran's Affairs for more than a year to allow the pentacle to be displayed on her husband's headstone.

Comment by Emairelhd on April 20, 2010 at 5:44pm

1988:8:8 - The birth of the Crystal Web of the Correllian Tradition; enabling Correllian family to link energy webwide

Comment by Mistik on March 27, 2010 at 8:33am

Curious if "topic specific" dates are wanted as well. For example, numerology history, pagan history, etc. I have input on these, but want to be sure they are wanted before I gather them from research notes. Thanks!

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