Sacred Texts Index Previous Next
Internet Book of Shadows, (Various Authors), [1999], at sacred-texts.com
PERSECUTION: ANCIENT AND MODERN
This is the text of a talk entitled PERSECUTION: ANCIENT AND MODERN.
Written by Julia Phillips, it was presented by Julia and Matthew
Sandow at the Wiccan Conference, Canberra, September 1992, and was
illustrated with slides of medieval woodcuts, paintings and documents.
To begin, an example of religious persecution:
I am told that, moved by some foolish urge, they consecrate and
worship the head of a donkey, that most abject of all animals. This
is a cult worthy of the customs from which it sprang! Others say that
they reverence the genitals of the presiding priest himself, and adore
them as though they were their father's... As for the initiation of
new members, the details are as disgusting as they are well-known. A
child, covered in dough to deceive the unwary, is set before the
would-be novice. The novice stabs the child to death with invisible
blows; indeed, he himself, deceived by the coating of dough, thinks
his stabs harmless. Then - it's horrible! - they hungrily drink the
child's blood, and compete with one another as they divide his limbs.
Through this victim they are bound together; and the fact that they
all share the knowledge of the crime pledges them all to silence. Such
holy rites are more disgraceful than sacrilege. It is well-known too
what happens at their feasts.... On the feast day they forgather with
all their children, sisters, mothers, people of either sex and all
ages. When the company is all aglow from feasting, and impure lust has
been set afire by drunkenness, pieces of meat are thrown to a dog
fastened to a lamp. The lamp, which would have been a betraying
witness, is overturned and goes out. Now, in the dark so favourable to
shameless behaviour, they twine the bonds of unnameable passion, as
chance decides. And so all alike are incestuous, if not always in
deed, at least by complicity; for everything that is performed by one
of them corresponds to the wishes of them all... Precisely the secrecy
of this evil religion proves that all these things, or practically
all, are true. (Minucius Felix: Octavius)
Although the language is not modern, the description of the practices
could have come straight from last week's "Picture" magazine! And this
is the point that I wish to make; the facts of persecution have not
changed in almost 2,000 years, for that piece was written in the 2nd
century AD. Moreover, the religion it condemns is Christianity, not
Paganism, for Paganism at that time was the dominant state religion.
In fact the author is a Christian apologist, and is attempting to
rebuke what he sees as unfair criticism, by parodying the offences
which Pagans accuse Christians of perpetrating.
Persecution of religious minorities is quite simply that; it is
persecution by a large body of people - generally those who represent
"society" - against a smaller one; generally comprised of those who
have either rejected, or for one reason or another, fall outside of
the social "norm".
1628
Let us look at the medieval picture of the witch; society's scapegoat
par excellence: here we see her - for it is most often "her" - an old,
ugly woman, most likely poor, and most likely on the fringe of the
society in which she lives. This is the stereotype of the witch. We
know it is false; we know it has no basis in fact; however, it became
an integral part of the mindset of medieval Europe, and through fairy
tales, drama and literature, and more latterly, cinema, the media and
television, it has remained an integral image in modern society. One
has only to look to Roald Dahl's "Witches", or Frank Baum's "Wizard of
Oz", for proof of this. It came as a surprise to me to learn that
"The Wizard of Oz" was in fact a deliberate propaganda exercise,
released just at the beginning of World War II. If you remember, the
magic words are: "There's no place like home"; and where was "home"?
Kansas! that epitome of the WASP culture.
When looking at medieval persecution of heresy, the waters are muddied
by the many different causes and effects which permeate the whole
matter. There was no single cause, and no single victim. It is a fact
that far more women than men were persecuted; there are a number of
reasons for this, not least that throughout this period, Europe was
engaged in one war after another - most notably The Crusades - and men
were in rather short supply. There were also several epidemics of the
plague, not to mention other diseases such as dysentery and cholera,
which in the Middle Ages were sure killers. Another reason is the
rampant misogyny which, begun with the earliest Christians, has
permeated their theology ever since:
"What else is woman but a foe to friendship, an
inescapable punishment, a necessary evil, a nat-
ural temptation, a desirable calamity, a domestic
danger, a delectable detriment, an evil of nature,
painted in fair colours... The word woman is used
to mean the lust of the flesh, as it is said: I
have found a woman more bitter than death, and a
good woman more subject to carnal lust... [Women]
are more credulous; and since the chief aim of the
devil is to corrupt faith, therefore he rather
attacks them [than men]... Women are naturally
more impressionable... They have slippery tongues,
and are unable to conceal from their fellow-women
those things which by evil arts they know....
Women are intellectually like children... She is
more carnal than a man, as is clear from her many
carnal abominations... She is an imperfect animal,
she always deceives.... Therefore a wicked woman
is by her nature quicker to waver in her faith,
and consequently quicker to abjure the faith,
which is the root of witchcraft.... Just as th-
rough the first defect in their intelligence they
are more prone to abjure the faith; so through
their second defect of inordinate affections and
passions they search for, brood over, and inflict
various vengeances, either by witchcraft or by
some other means.... Women also have weak mem-
ories; and it is a natural vice in them not to be
disciplined, but to follow their own impulses
without any sense of what is due... She is a liar
by nature... (Malleus Maleficarum, edited by
Jeffrey Russell).
1629
It is easy to comprehend the persecution of women when one is con-
fronted with such obvious hatred and fear of the sex. But perhaps the
most powerful impetus of the witch trials era is one which is subtly -
and sometimes not so subtly! - present in all the trials; that of a
pursuit of power or wealth. For an example we can look to Gilles de
Rais, who as the wealthiest man in Europe (as well as Joan of Arc's
military Captain), was a prime victim for a charge of heresy. Found
guilty, his lands, properties and wealth were confiscated by his
accusers. Curiously though he was buried on consecrated ground in the
Churchyard; normally forbidden to heretics. In "The Encyclopaedia of
Witchcraft and Demonology", Russell Hope Robbins says:
"At first, Gilles dismissed their accusations as
"frivolous and lacking credit", but so certain
were the principals of finding him guilty that on
September 3, fifteen days before the trial began,
the Duke disposed of his anticipated share of the
Rais lands. Under these circumstances, it is
difficult to place any credence in the evidence
against him, among the most fantastic and obscene
presented in this Encyclopaedia."
Charges included the now obligatory conjurations of devils and demons
- Satan, Beelzebub, Orion and Belial are mentioned by name - and the
practice of that dreadful art: geomancy! And of course the charges
included human sacrifice and paedophilia; no self-respecting Christian
could exclude these crimes from charges against a confirmed heretic!
There were not many who had the wealth of Gilles de Rais, but in
a small parish, even the meanest property was eagerly seized, and
the witch hunts became a profitable business. The victims were even
required to pay for the fuel upon which they were burnt. But the laws
were not consistent throughout Europe, and in some areas, if the
victim confessed, then his or her property could not be confiscated,
but was inherited by the next of kin. However, many of these victims
were in fact devout Christians, who would be loath to confess to
heresy just so that their family could inherit their land! Of course
many were tortured to the point were they would admit to being any-
thing demanded of them, although technically, they were only allowed
to be tortured once. This is why you will read in trials records that
the torture was "continued", which, of course, gets round the problem
of the poor torturer missing out on his lunch and dinner.
Although most heretics were women, a great many men were also taken,
tortured, and put to death. This is a letter from one such victim at
the notorious Bamberg in Germany; a poignant epitaph to one of Eur-
ope's most hideous crimes:
Many hundred thousand good-nights, dearly beloved
daughter Veronica. Innocent have I come into pris-
on, innocent have I been tortured, innocent must I
die. For whoever comes into the witch prison must
become a witch or be tortured until he invents
something out of his head - and God pity him -
bethinks him of something.
I said: "I have never renounced God, and will
never do it - God graciously keep me from it. I'll
rather bear whatever I must."
1630
And then came also - God in highest heaven have
mercy - the executioner, and put the thumbscrews
on me, both hands bound together, so that the
blood spurted from the nails and everywhere,
so that for four weeks I could not use my hands,
as you can see from my writing. Thereafter they
stripped me, bound my hands behind me, and drew me
up on the ladder. Then I thought heaven and earth
were at an end. Eight times did they draw me up
and let me fall again, so that I suffered terrible
agony.
All this happened on Friday June 30th and with
God's help I had to bear the torture. When at last
the executioner led me back into the cell, he said
to me: "Sir, I beg you, for God's sake, confess
something, whether it be true or not. Invent some-
thing, for you cannot bear the torture which you
will be put to; and, even if you bear it all, yet
you will not escape, not even if you were an earl,
but one torture will follow another until you say
you are a witch."
The author of this letter, Johannes Junius, did indeed confess to
being a witch, and in August of 1628, was burned at the stake. He
managed to send his final letter to his daughter, which ended by
saying:
Dear child, keep this letter secret, so that peo-
ple do not find it, else I shall be tortured most
piteously and the jailers will be beheaded. So
strictly is it forbidden... Dear child, pay this
man a thaler... I have taken several days to write
this - my hands are both crippled. I am in a sad
plight. Good night, for your father Johannes Jun-
ius will never see you more.
This letter describes more accurately than any historical treatise
just how uncompromising the ecclesiastical courts were in their
hunt for heretics. Witches, of course, were only one kind of heretic.
I mentioned earlier that there are many causes, and many effects, to
the period which is commonly referred to as "The Burning Times", or
the Great Witch Hunt. It is often assumed by many people today that
Christianity has been the dominant western religion for 2,000 years.
This is not so. The death of Christ, which probably occurred in the
year AD 30, may have heralded the new religion, but there was cert-
ainly not an immediate conversion of the world to Christianity. Parts
of Scandinavia remained wholly Pagan until as late as the 12th cen-
tury. The British Isles and mainland Europe were converted to Chris-
tianity over a lengthy period covering mainly the 4th to 9th cen-
turies. Some parts have never truly been converted, and with the
opening up of the Eastern bloc countries, we are now re-discovering a
wealth of Pagan tradition and folklore that has been hidden for
hundreds of years: initially from the invading Christian mission-
aries, and then later from the various communist regimes.
1631
As the new religion of Christianity began to spread, many different
sects and cults appeared within its ranks. The Pope in Rome was the
nominal head, but rarely was the Pope a person of spiritual purity and
ascetic tastes; the political scene in Rome has always been cut-throat
and devious. A truly spiritual person would have lasted approximately
two seconds amongst the clever and calculating politicians who in-
fested the Papal See! The enormous wealth and power controlled by the
Pope was an incentive to the most grasping and corrupt of men at that
time to aspire to the Papacy. Pope Alexander VI (1492) is a superb ex-
ample of the type who made it to Europe's foremost political seat of
power: otherwise known as Rodrigo Borgia; father (yes, we all know
Catholics practise celibacy!) of Cesare, Juan, Lucrezia and Jofre,
and supreme commander of a private army of which any modern dictator
would be proud.
Because of their sumptuous lifestyle, their obvious disregard and
contempt for vows of poverty and chastity, and their abuse of the
spiritual authority invested in them, many spiritually inclined
Christians rejected the Catholic Church, and instead followed
leaders who lived simple, ascetic lives in accordance with the
teachings of Christ. Some of these sects became very popular,
and were soon perceived by the Pope as a threat to his status and
power. It has been suggested that the witch trials were a direct
result from the persecution of these sects. Rather than incorporate a
discussion of the different sects within this talk, handouts are
available which very briefly describe the main ones.
The main thrust was against the Cathars or Albigensians, and the
Waldensians (Vaudois), and it was their persecution which gave rise to
the legal machinery which developed into the Inquisition, and the
so-called witch hunts. It began with Pope Lucius III and the emperor,
Frederick I Barbarossa; they met at Verona in 1184, and issued the
decree "Ad abolendam", which excommunicated sects like the Cathars and
Waldensians, and laid down the procedures for ecclesiastical trial,
after which the accused would be handed over to the secular author-
ities for punishment. The punishment decreed was confiscation of
property, exile, or death. By the 12th century, burning had already
become the established means of execution for heretics, and so this
became enshrined in law.
At the beginning of the 13th century, the Dominican Order of Friars
was established, and its members were instructed by the Pope to
investigate and prosecute heresy. From this simple beginning grew the
awesome machinery of the Inquisition, which although never aimed
particularly at witches, became a byword for terror in parts of
Europe.
As you can see, the motives for the heresy persecutions were not to
stamp out Paganism - although that was certainly a by-product - but
to remove the threat of any competition to the power of the Church
(and thus to the Pope), in Rome. And the greatest threat came from
other "Christian" sects, not the Pagans. The change from an accusatory
to an inquisitorial process became established, and the legal mach-
inery which allowed - indeed encouraged - individual psychopaths and
religious maniacs to persecute at will, was in place.
1632
Have you got a neighbour who annoys you? plays loud music, or who
keeps their smelly refuse next to your garden fence? Now your recourse
is to the local council or the police; in the Middle Ages, you simply
denounced the offender as a witch or heretic, and let the Church deal
with them for you. Not only did it cost you nothing, if you were
lucky, you might also inherit their property!
For once you were taken as a witch or a heretic, there was little
chance of escape. Certainly some victims were pardoned and released,
but the vast majority were not so lucky. When you consider the style
of questioning, this is not surprising:
1 How long have you been a witch?
2 Why did you become a witch?
3 How did you become a witch and what happened on that occasion?
4 Who is the one you chose to be your incubus? What was his name?
5 What was the name of your master among the evil demons?
6 What was the oath you were forced to render to him?
21 What animals have you bewitched to sickness and death, and
why did you commit such acts?
22 Who are your accomplices in evil...?
24 What is the ointment with which you rub your broomstick
made of...?
This set of questions came from Lorraine, and was used consistently
throughout the three centuries of the main persecutions. Bearing in
mind that the accused HAD to answer - no answer at all, or a denial,
was tantamount to guilt - you can see how easily the composite picture
of the witch evolved. As Rossell Hope Robbins says: "The confessions
of witches authenticated the experts, and the denunciations ensured a
continuing supply of victims. Throughout France and Germany this
procedure became standardised; repeated year after year, in time it
built up a huge mass of "evidence", all duly authorised, from the
mouths of the accused. On these confessions, later demonologists based
their compendiums and so formulated the classic conceptions of witchc-
raft, which never existed save in their own minds."
As the new religion of Christianity began to spread, many different
sects and cults appeared within its ranks. The Pope in Rome was the
nominal head, but rarely was the Pope a person of spiritual purity and
ascetic tastes; the political scene in Rome has always been cut-throat
and devious. A truly spiritual person would have lasted approximately
two seconds amongst the clever and calculating politicians who in-
fested the Papal See! The enormous wealth and power controlled by the
Pope was an incentive to the most grasping and corrupt of men at that
time to aspire to the Papacy. Pope Alexander VI (1492) is a superb ex-
ample of the type who made it to Europe's foremost political seat of
power: otherwise known as Rodrigo Borgia; father (yes, we all know
Catholics practise celibacy!) of Cesare, Juan, Lucrezia and Jofre,
and supreme commander of a private army of which any modern dictator
would be proud.
1633
It is also rather disturbing to discover just how important individual
religious maniacs appear to have been in the persecutions. Rather like
today, where a crusading tele-journalist, or evangelical vicar, can
cause untold harm to innocent people. Without exception, these accus-
ations are by those with an unhealthy mania against anyone whose
theology or practices differ from their own. In the words of one
modern evangelist: "if you're not fighting and winning, you're los-
ing.".
Conrad of Marburg, described by Norman Cohn as, "a blind fanatic", was
a severe and formidable persecutor. As confessor to the young 21
year-old Countess of Thuringia, he would trick her into "some trivial
and unwitting disobedience, and then have her and her maids flogged so
severely that the scars were visible weeks later". (Cohn). Conrad
became Germany's first official Inquisitor, and his zeal in denouncing
heretics was unsurpassed. Another Conrad, a lay-Dominican Friar, and
his sidekick Johannes, were also vigorous in denouncing heretics. As
they moved from village to village, they claimed to be able to iden-
tify a heretic by his or her appearance, based on nothing but their
own intuition. They were responsible for the burnings of many people,
and said, "we would gladly burn a hundred if just one among them were
guilty". (Annales Wormantiensis).
Their comment about appearance is an important one; as we saw earlier,
the stereotype of the witch hasn't changed much in hundreds of years.
We know it is false; we know that it exists only in the imagination of
the persecutors, and yet how powerful and enduring this stereotype has
proven to be.
If we think about this stereotype, what images do we conjure up? An
old woman - occasionally an old man; or perhaps a young and alluring
temptress? Flying through the air on a broomstick; worshipping a
devil, often in the form of a goat; trampling upon the sacred symbols
of Christianity; and of course our old friend the Sabbat, with its
practices of sexual license, debauchery, drunkenness and ritual
murder; the latter often of children.
But persecution does not restrict itself to witches; the similarities
between this stereotype and that of the Jew are obvious: Jews have
been persecuted throughout their history, but it is interesting to
compare some aspects of their persecution with that of witches.
In the 12th century, the word "Synagogue" was used for the first time
to describe the meeting place of heretics. Professor Russell says
that: "This usage, obviously designed to spite the Jews, was common
throughout the Middle Ages, being replaced only towards the end of the
15th century by the equally anti-Jewish term 'sabbat'.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica says on the subject of Jewish persecution
that: "To reinforce racial and religious prejudice, the preposterous
ritual murder accusation became common from the 12th century." The
third and fourth Lateran Councils had already prohibited gentiles from
entering Jewish service, or being employed by Jews, and further
ordered that Jews should wear a distinctive badge, and live only in
Jewish settlement areas. This of course was the beginning of the
ghetto.
1634
As we have seen though, the ritual murder accusation was already over
a thousand years old, before it was used against either the Jews or
the heretics and witches. Most people know of the expulsion of Jews
from Spain in the 15th century, but perhaps not so commonly known is
that for about 200 years prior to the expulsion, the Jews had been
massacred and persecuted. Indeed, it was against the Jews that the
infamous Spanish Inquisition of the 15th century was directed. The
persecution of Jews in 20th century Europe is too well-known to
require further comment here, but perhaps a few comments about its
encouragement would be useful.
We are discussing persecution in this talk, and how persecution is
manifested. Throughout history, the written word has been invaluable
as a means of spreading propaganda. Even in the Middle Ages the
"crimes" of the heretic were publicised by records of trials, where
the "confessions" were made known to the general public. The infamous
"Malleus Maleficarum" became highly influential in Europe mainly
because its publication coincided with the introduction of mass
printing. It had little effect in England because no English transla-
tion was available until 1928. This fact alone demonstrates the power
of the written word.
In medieval Europe, a pamphlet describing the crimes of a convicted
heretic would be pinned to a post in the town square, and those who
could not read had it read to them. In 20th century Europe, pamphlets
were still used by one group to spread lies about another. As we
approach the 21st century, this technique is still used with very
great success; for the persecutor needs to make only a glancing nod to
the truth, and the lies which are published (or more frequently broad-
cast) are far more scandalous than the reality!
An example: soon after the launch of the Pagan Alliance, Sydney radio
2MMM broadcasted a news story about the sexual abuse of children by
occultists and witches. Matthew responded immediately, and provided
the station with copy documents and news clippings from Britain,
proving the story to be without foundation, and a scheme by the Chris-
tian fundamentalists to discredit Pagans. The news editor and chief
journalist were impressed by the material, and agreed that they had
been used by the fundies. However, they refused to broadcast a retrac-
tion because it would be "old news". So, the damage had been done,
and the fundamentalists achieved their objective.
This technique was used with very great effect in the early part of
the 20th century, with the circulation of a pamphlet called, "The
Protocols of the Elders of Zion". This purported to be, "an account
of the World Congress of Jewry held in Basel, Switzerland in 1897,
during which a conspiracy was planned by the international Jewish
movement and the Freemasons to achieve world domination." (M Howard).
German nationalists made very great use of the Protocols, which it
was claimed were "smuggled out of Switzerland by a Russian journalist
who had placed the documents in the safe keeping of the Rising Sun
Masonic Lodge in Frankfurt." (ibid) They were widely disseminated, and
writing in "Mein Kampf", Hitler "denounced the Jews as agents of an
international conspiracy devoted to world domination...". (ibid) We
all know what happened next.
1635
The point is that although the Protocols were confirmed as a fraud in
1921, they continued to have an effect, and once published, could not
effectively be retracted. This is the aim of today's fundamentalist
Christian, who believes that if he or she throws enough dirt at their
opponents (basically anyone who does not agree with their uncomprom-
ising version of Christianity), then some will stick, and the battle
will be won. This is the strategy which has been used for thousands of
years to persecute minorities, and has always been successful. The
formula is simple: discover what most people fear most, and then
accuse your enemies of practising it. It is an interesting comment on
humanity that those things which occur time and time again are consis-
tent: conspiracy, buggery, paedophilia, sacrifice (human and animal)
sexual license, drunkenness and feasting. More specific charges
relating to a pact with a devil or desecrating sacred objects are
additions to these core accusations.
A further interesting aspect is that many of the accusations were
made by children; interesting parallels can be drawn to modern accusa-
tions by children "encouraged" to reveal information about occultism
and witches. It has been widely recorded that Hitler's "Youth Army"
required children to spy upon their parents, and report any indiscre-
tions; modern social workers use an identical process for identifying
Pagan parents - children are asked about what their parents do, and
leading questions are commonly used. And of course there have always
been children who, for one reason or another, tell the most fantastic
tales. It is unlikely today that the victims of these child fantasies
will be burned at the stake, but there have been families torn apart,
children placed in detention centres, and untold misery for parents
and children alike, based upon no more than the verbal report of a
child.
Commentators on this aspect of persecution have suggested that the
children wish to be the centre of attention; or to direct punishment
for their own misdeeds elsewhere; or are simply reacting in a hyperac-
tive manner to the onset of puberty. Whatever the cause, the effects
are dramatic, and have caused severe suffering, and in the middle
ages, loss of life, on many occasions.
In medieval England, there were many occasions where children's "evid-
ence" (sic) was used to convict witches. "The Leicester Boy", "The
Burton Boy" and "The Bilson Boy" were a few of many who claimed to be
bewitched by witches. Eventually proven to be a fraud, at least ten
women died as a result of the accusations of The Leicester Boy, and
the Burton Boy caused the death of at least one of the women whom he
accused. In the 17th century a number of women were executed on the
allegations of hysterical children, even though fraud was often
discovered during the course of the trial. It is a fact that the
delusions of delinquent or disturbed children were often used by
judges to confirm their own prejudices; how little things have chang-
ed!
1636
Salem (1692) is probably the best known of all the cases where child-
ren were the chief accusers. Although in fact, the "children" were
more like young adults, with only one under the age of ten, and most
in their late teens or early twenties. However, as the panic grew, a
great many more were sucked into the web of lies, and Martha Carrier
was hanged on the "evidence" (sic) of her 7 year-old daughter. At the
height of the hysteria almost 150 people were arrested; thirty-one
were convicted, and nineteen hung. Some died in jail, and others were
reprieved. As was common in Europe, the accused were required to pay
their expenses whilst in jail, even if they were subsequently found
innocent. Sarah Osborne and Ann Foster both died in jail, and costs of
.1 3s 5d and .2 16s 0d respectively were demanded before the bodies
would be released for burial.
The chief of the accusers, Ann Putnam, confessed fourteen years later
that the whole thing was a fraud. In 1697 the jurors publicly con-
fessed they had made an error of judgement, and ten years after the
executions, Judge Samuel Sewall "confessed the guilt of the court,
desiring to take the blame and shame of it...". By then of course it
was too late for those who were dead, or whose lives had been dest-
royed by the accusations.
But we are getting ahead of ourselves here, for Salem is the last of
the great witch trials, coming as it does towards the end of the 17th
century.
We mentioned earlier that in Continental Europe, the heresy trials
appeared to arise from the persecution of the Christian sects of the
Bogomils, Cathars, Albigensians, and others such as the Jews, Walden-
sians, and even the Knights Templars. The stereotype of the witch was
compounded from many different sources, and gradually became the
composite figure of the shape-shifting hag, who flew through the air
on a broom, and flung her curses at all and sundry.
The concept of the pact with the devil existed as early as the 8th
century, and as we have seen, sexual license, buggery and ritual
sacrifice have long been seen as activities supposed to be practised
by those outside of society's norm, whether they be Christian or
Pagan. During the 9th century, shape-shifting, maleficia and the
incubus/succubus became more commonly reported, and by the 10th cen-
tury, the idea of nocturnal flight was established. Published in 906,
the Canon Episcopi described how some women were deluded in the belief
that at night they could fly behind their Goddess, Diana (Holda or
Herodias):
"Some wicked women are perverted by the Devil and
led astray by illusions and fantasies induced by
demons, so that they believe they ride out at
night on beasts with Diana, the pagan goddess, and
a horde of women. They believe that in the night
they cross huge distances. They say that they obey
Diana's commands and on certain nights are called
out in her service..."
1637
Echoes here to Maddalena's story recounted by Leland in Aradia: Gospel
of the Witches:
"Oncein the month, and when the moon is full, ye
shall assemble in some desert place, or in a for-
est all together join to adore the potent spirit
of your Queen, my mother, great Diana".
Carlo Ginzburg has also published a remarkable book about the Witches'
Sabbath, and the night flight, where he suggests that these are in
fact based on genuinely ancient shamanic practices; nothing new in
this concept to modern Witches, but a novel observation in the acad-
emic circles in which Ginzburg moves.
In 1012, Burchard's Collectarium was published: the first attempt to
assemble a book of Canonical Law. Book number 19 of this vast collec-
tion was called the Corrector, and chapter five deals with various
sins, and their respective penances. As we might suppose, Maleficia is
prominent in this chapter! It enshrines in law the notion of night
flight, together with murder, and the cooking and eating of human
flesh. Although both the Canon Episcopi and Burchard's Corrector are
specific in attributing the powers of flight to Witches, it is not
until 1280 that the first picture of a witch riding upon a broom
appears. This is found in Schleswig Cathedral.
In 1022, the first burning occurred: at Orleans, the victims were
accused of, "holding sex orgies at night in a secret place, either
underground or in an abandoned building. The members of the group
appeared bearing torches. Holding the torches, they chanted the names
of demons until an evil spirit appeared. Now the lights were extin-
guished, and everyone seized the person closest to him in a sexual
embrace, whether mother, sister or nun. The children conceived at the
orgies were burned eight days after birth, and their ashes were
confected in a substance that was then used in a blasphemous parody of
holy communion."
Strange how these charges appear to have changed so little in so many
years! Compared with our first example, and indeed with the accusa-
tions of modern day fundamentalists, one would be forgiven for believ-
ing that time is a figment of our imagination, and that nothing ever
really changes; certainly not human nature.
The 14th century saw a steady growth in the number of accusations and
trials, and by the 15th century, the idea of the Devil's (or Witch's)
mark had become established. So too was the idea of a flying ointment,
and a consistent image of The Devil became common in trials liter-
ature.
The Papal Bull of 1484, Summis Desiderantes Affectibus, and then two
years later, publication of the Malleus Maleficarum, further establis-
hed the "crime" of witchcraft as a heresy, and confirmed Papal support
for its eradication. This infamous work - The Hammer of the Witches -
was incredibly influential in establishing a code of practice by which
witches were to be denounced, tried, convicted and executed. There was
no escape from this dreadful fate. The third part of the book desc-
ribes how to deal with one who will not confess to the charges:
"But if the accused, after a year or other longer
period which has been deemed sufficient, continues
1638
to maintain his denials, and the legitimate wit-
nesses abide by their evidence, the Bishop and
Judges shall prepare to abandon him to the secular
Court; sending to him certain honest men zealous
for the faith, especially religious, to tell him
that he cannot escape temporal death while he thus
persists in his denial, but will be delivered up
as an impenitent heretic to the power of the sec-
ular Court.
It is also in this section that our friendly Dominican monks refer to,
"witch midwives, who surpass all other witches in their crimes... And
the number of them is so great that, as has been found from their con-
fessions, it is thought that there is scarcely any tiny hamlet in
which at least one is not to be found."
Despite its incredible influence in Europe, the Malleus had little
effect in England, Wales or Ireland, where witchcraft accusations
and trials were very different to those of the continent and Scotland.
In fact Wales and Ireland seemed to escape from the witch persecutions
almost entirely, with very few trials, and even fewer executions.
Although many laws have been enacted in England against witchcraft,
there has never been anything like the hysteria about witches common
in mainland Europe. The earliest known person accused of sorcery in
England was Agnes, wife of Odo, who in 1209 was freed after choosing
trial by ordeal of grasping a red-hot iron.
Until 1563, commoners accused of witchcraft in England met light (if
any) punishment. Those of noble birth were treated rather more severe-
ly, as the crime could easily be one of treason, and any action which
implied a threat to the monarch was treated very seriously indeed.
This resulted in the charge of witchcraft being used to remove polit-
ical opponents with great expediency. There were certainly laws
against the practice of witchcraft or sorcery: Alfred the Great
(849-899 AD), King of Wessex and overlord of England, decreed the
death penalty for Wiccans (that was the word he actually used), and
Aethelstan - perhaps one of the most compassionate of Saxon Kings,
ordered those who practised Wiccecraeft to be executed, but only if
their activities resulted in murder.
Under Henry VIII's Act of 1546, the penalty for conjuration of evil
spirits was death, and the property of the accused was confiscated
by the King. However, this was in effect for only one year, being
repealed by Edward VI in 1547, and only one conviction under this
Act is recorded. In 1563, the statute of Queen Elizabeth I was es-
tablished, which also made death the penalty for invoking or conjuring
an evil spirit, but those who practised divination, or who caused harm
(other than death) by their sorceries, were sentenced to a year's
imprisonment for a first offence. Subsequent offences could be punish-
able by death, and in some cases, the confiscation of property as
well.
1639
However, even though laws against the practice of witchcraft had
been established for hundreds of years, the first major trial was not
until 1566, at Chelmsford, and was typical of the English style of
witchcraft: no pact with the devil, no gathering at Sabbats, but
simple and direct acts of maleficia, and the introduction of witches'
familiars. It was an important trial, for it set the precedent in
English law for accepting unsupported, and highly imaginative, stories
from children as evidence. It also accepted spectral evidence (sic),
witch's marks, and the confession of the accused.
There are some very distinctive aspects to English witchcraft, which
set it apart from its Continental and Scottish counterparts, and which
are worth noting. There was a relative lack of torture, and, this may
come as a surprise to some people, but witches were never burned in
England. Traitors and murderers were burned; witches were hung. Of
course, a traitor or a murderer could also be a witch, but this was
actually quite rare. The torture used in England - when it was used at
all - was typically swimming, pricking, enforced waking, and a diet of
bread and water. Unpleasant, but when compared to squassation, being
skinned alive, the strappado, the rack, and such delights as the
thumbscrews and the iron maiden, hardly in the same class. The focus
of English witchcraft was more towards simple, personal, acts of
maleficia than a perceived conspiracy against the power of the Chris-
tian Church. As one of Britain's foremost folklorists says: "Trad-
itions of an organised, pagan witch-cult were never very plentiful in
England, although they did exist occasionally, especially in the later
years of the witch belief. They were never really strong, and after
the end of the persecution in the early 18th century, they disappeared
altogether." (Christina Hole) This is interesting, because it has
been suggested that the witch trials phenomena was largely inspired by
the heretical Christian sects; this would seem to be born out by the
type of accusations made in England, which were largely neighbour
against neighbour rather than Church and State against an organised
conspiracy of heretics.
What is also interesting is that it was commonly believed in England
that if the bewitched victim could draw blood from the witch, then
they would be cured, and the witch's power made ineffective. This
belief has persisted in folk traditions to modern times. In 1875, at
Long Compton, the body of an old woman, one Ann Turner, was discov-
ered. She had been pinned to the ground by a pitchfork through her
throat, and across her face and chest had been carved the sign of a
crucifix. James Heywood, a local farmer, had once claimed: "It's she
who brings the floods and drought. Her spells withered the crops in
the field. Her curse drove my father to an early grave!". Heywood
maintained that the only way to destroy her power was to spill her
blood, and so after her murder, he was taken and tried for the crime.
He was convicted, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Long Compton has
always been associated with the practice of witchcraft, and is located
only a short distance from the magical Rollright Stones, and near to
the aptly named Wychwood Forest. The derivation of this name is from
the curiously named tribe of THE HWICCE, who lived in the area at the
time of King Penda of Mercia, and who seemed always to be ruled by two
brothers. But back to Long Compton:
1640
In 1945, Charles Walton, a local labourer, set out one morning to do
some hedging on nearby Meon Hill. That evening, his mutilated body was
found in a field - pinned to the ground by his pitchfork, which had
been stuck through his throat. There were cuts to his arms and legs,
and local police were baffled as to the motive for the crime, and who
the likely culprit might have been. But gradually locals began to talk
about Mr Walton; they said he was a solitary and vindictive old man,
who was concerned more with searching out the secrets of nature than
in taking company with his neighbours. They said that he harnessed
toads, using reeds and pieces of ram's horn, and then sent them across
fields to blight the crops. They also remembered that he kept a
witch's mirror - a piece of black stone polished in a mountain stream
- concealed in his pocket-watch, which he used for weaving spells and
seeing into the future. The police never discovered the culprit, but
it was accepted locally that Mr Walton was murdered because he was a
witch. His wounds were a result of the belief that a victim could be
freed from enchantment if he or she were able to draw the blood of
the witch.
We could not leave English witchcraft without mention of that infamous
gentleman, Matthew Hopkins; self-styled Witchfinder General. For all
his fame, his activities were restricted to a relatively small area,
and a relatively short period of time. However, his boundless energy,
and boundless enthusiasm for the collection of large amounts of money,
ensured that his name has not been forgotten.
Matthew Hopkins used the unrest of the Civil War to prey upon the
fears of the common people. Little is known of his early life, except
that he became a lawyer "of little note", and failing to make a living
at Ipswich in Suffolk, moved to Manningtree in Essex - an area of
Civil War tension.
With virtually no knowledge of witchcraft, but armed with a couple of
contemporary documents (including James I's "Demonology"), Hopkins set
himself up in business as a witchfinder. And a very profitable bus-
iness it was too. At a time when the average daily wage was 6d,
Hopkins received .23 for a single visit to Stowmarket, and .6 for a
visit to Aldeburgh.
His approach was consistent: James I mentioned that witches had
familiars, and suckled imps; therefore, anyone who kept a familiar
spirit or imp must be a witch! Bearing in mind the English partiality
to keeping pets, and you begin to see just how very successful this
technique could be. For example, Bridget Mayers was condemned for
entertaining an evil spirit in the likeness of a mouse, which she
called "Prickears"; another (unnamed) woman was rescued by her neigh-
bours from a ducking, where she confessed to having an imp called
"Nan". When she recovered she said: "she knew not what she had con-
fessed, and she had nothing she called Nan but a pullet that she
sometimes called by that name...".
Hopkins moved from Essex to Norfolk and Suffolk, and by the following
year, had operations in Cambridge, Northampton, Huntingdon and Bed-
ford, with a team of six witch finders under his control. "In Suffolk
alone it is estimated that he was responsible for arresting at least
124 persons for witchcraft, of whom at least 68 were hanged." (RHR)
However, Hopkins moved too far too quickly, and public opinion began
to go against him. In 1646, a clergyman in Huntingdon preached against
him, and judges began to question both his methods of locating wit-
1641
ches, and the fees that he charged for the service. In 1647 Hopkins
published a pamphlet called "Discovery of Witches", in which he sup-
ported his methods in sanctimonious and pseudo legal language. Howev-
er, it was to no avail, for later that year he died, "in some dis-
grace" according to most authorities. Witchcraft legend has it that he
was drowned by irate villagers in one of his own ducking ponds, but
this has no recorded evidence to support it. However, it would be a
fitting end to such an evil man, and I hope it was true.
Moving away from England; Scottish and Continental witchcraft shared a
great many similarities; Mary Queen of Scots, and her son, James VI,
were both educated in France, and this ensured that continental
attitudes towards witches were enshrined in Scottish law at the
highest level. In fact the concepts of witchcraft were introduced into
Scotland by Mary in about 1563. Before then, trials for witchcraft had
been few, and there were no recorded burnings of witches. In "The
Encyclopaedia of Witchcraft and Demonology" Rossell Hope Robbins says:
"Scotland is second only to Germany in the bar-
barity of its witch trials. The Presbyterian cler-
gy acted like inquisitors, and the Church sessions
often shared the prosecution with the secular law
courts. The Scottish laws were, if anything, more
heavily loaded against the accused. Finally, the
devilishness of the torture was limited only by
Scotland's backward technology in the construction
of mechanical devices."
It is well known that James VI was an ardent prosecutor of witches,
and it was under his authority that the Bible was translated to
include the word "witch" (Exodus 22:18) to provide Biblical sanction
for the death penalty for witches. The original Hebrew word - kashaph
- meant either a magician, diviner or sorcerer, but was definitely not
a witch. In the Latin Vulgate (4th century version of the Bible) the
word had been translated as "maleficos", which could mean any kind of
criminal, although in practice often referred to malevolent sorcerers.
Similarly, the so-called Witch of Endor, consulted by King Solomon:
the original Hebrew was "ba'alath ob": "mistress of a talisman". In
the Latin Vulgate she became a "mulierem habentem pythonem": a women
possessing an oracular spirit. It was only in the version of the Bible
authorised by King James that she became a witch.
By the time that James acceded to the English throne in 1603, his
attitude towards witches had undergone a subtle transformation. In
fact, he was directly responsible for the release and pardon of
several accused "witches", and personally interfered in trials where
he believed that fraud or deception was being practised. However,
Lynn Linton writing in 1861 says of him:
"Whatever of blood-stained folly belonged special-
ly to the Scottish trials of this time - and here-
after - owed its original impulse to him; every
groan of the tortured wretches driven to their
fearful doom, and every tear of the survivors left
blighted and desolate to drag out their weary days
in mingled grief and terror, lie on his memory
with shame and condemnation ineffaceable for all
time."
1642
But it was under Charles II that perhaps the most famous - and endur-
ing - of Scottish witches was tried, and most probably executed
(although records of her punishment have not survived). Isobel Gowdie
of Auldearne, on four separate occasions during 1662 testified that
she was a witch, and gave what Russell Hope Robbins describes as: "a
resum. of popular beliefs about witchcraft in Scotland.". He says that
Gowdie "appeared clearly demented", but that "it is plain she believed
what she confessed, no matter how impossible...".
From Gowdie are derived some of the concepts of today's Wicca, incl-
uding the idea of a coven, comprised of 13 people. Gowdie said that a
coven was ruled by a "Man in Black", often called "Black John". He
would often beat the witches severely, and it seemed their main tasks
were to raise storms, change themselves into animals, and shoot elf
arrows to injure or kill people. Coming as she does right at the end
of the witchcraft persecutions, it is difficult to establish how much
of Gowdie's confession is based upon real, traditional folk practices
of Auldearne, and how much she is simply repeating the standard
accusations against witches. The Coven of 13 is probably the single
aspect of her confessions which does not appear elsewhere in records
of witchcraft trials, and my own feelings are that she was probably as
genuine a witch as was ever taken and tried.
We have already commented how terrifying it is to consider the impact
that a single person can have upon the lives of so many people. We
have looked at a number of these - King James, Kramer and Sprenger,
Matthew Hopkins, Conrad of Marburg - and their latter day successors
are no less dangerous. Let us consider some of the 20th century
persecutors. We have already mentioned Adolf Hitler; what about
Stalin? his great purge in the period following 1936 saw charges of
treason, espionage and terrorism brought against anyone who showed the
least inclination to oppose him. Using techniques which would not have
been out of place during the great witch hunts, Stalin's henchmen
enforced "confessions", and effectively exterminated any threat to his
political power.
We could look too at McCarthy, whose fame for persecution was such
that his name is now used to describe "the use of unsupported accusa-
tions for any purpose". It is no accident that his activities were
referred to as a "witch hunt", nor that Arthur Miller's play about the
Salem witch trials, "The Crucible", was more a comment about McCar-
thyism than a comment about 17th century American life.
In 20th century Australia we are heirs to a European history, which
maintains that witches are servants of the devil, and should be
prosecuted for their crimes against humanity. In some States these
laws actually remain upon the Statute Books; in others, the legal
machinery has been removed, but often public opinion hovers around the
middle ages, believing that the only good witch is a dead witch.
Our latter-day inquisitors play upon these fears, in much the same
way as Matthew Hopkins played upon the fears of the people during the
Civil War. Christian Fundamentalists have no hesitation in using every
dirty trick in the book to ensure that public opinion remains opposed
to witchcraft. If this means that some of them have to stand up and
say: "Yes, I was a witch: I sacrificed my babies to the devil, and
copulated with a goat; I took part in drunken orgies, and drank the
blood of the sacrifice"; but then I found Jesus, and was born again,
1643
and now I'm a really nice person; well so be it. Some of them are so
psychiatrically unbalanced they may even believe it themselves.
Listen to a sample of the claims made by Audrey Harper, who achieved
notoriety in Britain as an ex-HPS of a Witches' Coven. This extract
is from an article by Aries, which appeared in Web of Wyrd #5:
Sent to a Dr Barnado's home by her mother, she
grew up with deprivation and social stigma. In
time she becomes a WRAF, falls in love, gets preg-
nant, boyfriend dies, she turns to booze, gives up
her baby and becomes homeless. Wandering to Pic-
cadilly Circus she meets some Flower Children with
the killer weed, and her descent into Hell is
assured. By day she gets stoned and eats junk
food; by night she sleeps in squats and doorways.
Along comes Molly; the whore with a heart of gold
who teaches Audrey the art of streetwalking. She
flirts with shoplifting, gets into pills, and then
gets talent spotted and invited to a Chelsea par-
ty, where wealth, power and tasteful decor are
dangled as bait. At the next party she is hooked
by the "group", which meets "every month in Vir-
ginia Water". She agrees to go to the next meeting
which is to be held at Hallowe'en.
Inside the dark Temple lit by black candles and
full of "A heady, sickly sweet smell from burning
incense", she is "initiated" by the "warlock",
whose "face was deathly pale and skeletal... his
eyes ... were dark and sunken" and whose "breath
and body seemed to exude a strange smell, a little
like stale alcohol." She signs herself over to
Satan with her own blood on a parchment scroll,
whereupon a baby is produced, its throat cut, and
the blood drank. Following this she gets dumped
on the "altar" and screwed as the "sacrifice of
the White Virgin". The meeting finishes with a
little ritual cursing and she's left to wander
"home" in the dark.
Her life falls into a steady routine of meetings
in Virginia Water, getting screwed by the "war-
lock", drug abuse, petty crime, and recruiting
runaways for parties, where the drinks are spiked
-"probably with LSD" - and candles injected with
heroin release "stupefying fumes into the air";
the object being sex kicks and pornography. She
falls pregnant again, gets committed to a psychia-
tric hospital, has the baby, and gives it away
convinced that the "warlock" would sacrifice it.
Things then become a confusion of Church desecra-
tion, drug addiction, ritual abuse, psychiatric
hospital, and falling in with Christian folk who
try vainly to save her soul. For rather vague
reasons the "coven" decide to drop her from the
team, and she dedicates herself to a true junkie's
lifestyle with a steady round of overdosing, jaun-
dice, and detoxification units. The "warlock"
1644
drops by to threaten her, and she makes her way
north via some psychiatric hospitals to a Chris-
tian Rehabilitation farm. She gets married, has a
child which she keeps, and becomes a regular chur-
chgoer. But beneath the surface are recurring
nightmares, insane anger and murderous feelings
towards her brethren. At the Emmanual Pentecostal
Church in Stourport she asks the Minister, Roy
Davies, for help. He prays, and God tells him that
she was involved with witchcraft. An exorcism has
her born again, cleansed of her sin. She gets bap-
tised and has no more nightmares, becoming a gen-
erally nicer person. She becomes the "occult ex-
pert" of the Reachout Trust and Evangelical Al-
liance, and makes a career out of telling an edi-
ted version of her tale.
Geoffrey Dickens MP persuades her to tell all on
live TV; "Audrey, to your knowledge is child sacr-
ifice still going on?" To this she replies, "To my
knowledge, yes." After this the whole thing ram-
bles into an untidy conclusion of self-congratula-
tion, self-promotion, and self-justification; and
for a grand finale pulls out a list of horrendous
child abuse, which is shamelessly exploited in
typically journalistic fashion, and by the usual
fallacious arguments which links it to anything
"occult"; help-lines, astro predictions in news-
papers, and even New Age festivals.
And so we are left with a horrifying vision of hordes of Satanists
swarming the country, buggering kids, sacrificing babies, and feeding
their own faeces to the flock."
Whilst all this seems incredible to any rational person, unfortunat-
ely, in the age old tradition, it confirms the worst fears of the man
and woman in the street, and so they swallow it whole. After all, it
was on telly, so it MUST be true!
As a direct result of people like Audrey Harper publicising their lies
and fantasy, children in England and Scotland were forcibly removed
from their homes, and subjected to the type of questioning that we had
previously believed had died out at the end of the Middle Ages.
A consultant clinical psychologist scrutinised the interview trans-
cripts and audio records of the recent Orkney child abuse case,
and in her summing up said: "[the Social Workers] told the children
they knew things had happened to them and were generally leading all
the way. When the children denied things, the questions were con-
tinually put until the children got hungry and gave them the answers
they wanted."
Who says that torture is no longer legal in the British Isles?
The father of four of the children who were taken into care said:
"At first I thought the allegations were laughable, but I found out
how serious the police were...". Just to remind you of the words of
Gilles de Rais some 500 years ago: [the accusations] are frivolous
and lack credit...".
1645
One 11 year-old described being asked to draw a circle of ritualistic
dancers. He said: "They got me to draw by saying, 'I am not a drawer.
Can you draw that?' It was meant to be a ring with children around and
a minister in the middle wearing a black robe and a crook to pull
children in."
The boy said he had been promised treats such as a lesson on how a
helicopter worked if he co-operated, and was told that he could
go if he gave one name. How remarkably similar to medieval witch
trials, where the victims were always pressed to name their accomp-
lices - for is it not said, "thou canst not be a witch alone?"!
In 1990, journalist Rosie Waterhouse commenting upon the Manchester
child abuse case said: "After three months of questioning by the
NSPCC, strange stories began to come out and other children were
named. The way the children began telling "Satanic" tales in this case
is remarkably similar to the way such stories first surfaced in
Nottingham. As "The Independent on Sunday" revealed last week (23/9/-
90), the Nottingham children began talking about witches, monsters,
babies and blood only after they had been encouraged, by an NSPCC
social worker, to play with toys which included witches' costumes,
monsters, toy babies, and a syringe for extracting blood."
Believe it or not, the parents of these children had no access to
them whatsoever. Why? Because our modern, scientifically trained,
20th century social workers believed that, "[the parents] would try
to silence the children, using secret Satanic symbols or trigger
words".
By March 1991, senior Police spokesmen were publicly claiming that
"police have no evidence of ritual or satanic abuse inflicted on
children anywhere in England or Wales". Scotland has a different
legal system, which is why it was not included in the statement -
not because the police have evidence there, for they do not.
When the Rochdale case finally came to court, after the children
had been in care (sic!) for about 16 months, the judge delivered a
damning indictment upon those who were responsible for it, and said:
"the way the children had been removed from their parents was par-
ticularly upsetting." He saw a video of the removal of one girl from
her home during a dawn raid, and commented that, "It is obvious from
the video tape that the girl is not merely frightened but greatly
distressed at being removed from home. The sobbing and distraught girl
can be seen. It is one of my most abiding memories of this case."
Let us return briefly to Salem, where, in 1710, William Good petit-
ioned for damages in respect of the trial and execution of his wife
Sarah, and the imprisonment of his daughter, Dorothy, "a child of four
or five years old, [who] being chained in the dungeon was so hardly
used and terrified that she hath ever since been very chargeable,
having little or no reason to govern herself.".
1646
Today's Christian Fundamentalist, like his vicious and self-righteous
predecessors, will use anything in his or her power-including innocent
children - to destroy the evils of Paganism and the occult. Sometimes
I wonder if we are becoming paranoid, or the subjects of a persecution
complex, but in writing this lecture it was brought home to me more
strongly than ever before: the witch trials of the Middle Ages are not
a bloody stain on the history of Christianity; they are the source
from where today's fundamentalists draw their power, and are just as
terrifying today as they were hundreds of years ago. Bigotry and
persecution have changed in only one respect: 20th century mankind has
far more efficient and effective means of spreading lies and propa-
ganda than was available to our ancestors.
PERSECUTION: ANCIENT AND MODERN
Appendix A
The subject of the European Witch Trials has been written about ad
infinitum (and nauseam!), and there are a great many useful books
which the student will find of interest. There follows a short bib-
liography of those to which I referred when writing this lecture.
Select Bibliography
Bradford, Sarah Cesare Borgia (1981)
Cohn, Norman Europe's Inner Demons (1975)
Ginzburg, Carlo Ecstasies: Deciphering The
Witches' Sabbath (1990)
Hole, Christina Witchcraft in England (1977)
Howard, Michael The Occult Conspiracy (1989)
Kieckheffer, Richard European Witch Trials (1976)
Larner, Christina Enemies of God: The Witch Hunt in
Scotland (1981)
Larner, Christina Witchcraft and Religion (1985)
Maple, Eric The Complete Book of Witchcraft and
Demonology
(1966)
Radford, Kenneth Fire Burn (1989)
Ravensdale & Morgan The Psychology of Witchcraft
(1974)
Robbins, Rossell Hope The Encyclopaedia of Witchcraft and
Demonology (1984)
Russell, Jeffrey A History of Witchcraft (1980)
Scarre, Geoffrey Witchcraft and Magic in 16th and 17th
century Europe (1987)
Stenton, Sir Frank Anglo-Saxon England (1971)
Summers, Montague (Trans) Malleus Maleficarum (1986)
Thomas, Keith Religion and the Decline of Magic
(1971)
Trevor-Roper, H R The European Witch-Craze of the 16th
and 17th Centuries (1988)
Walsh, Michael Roots of Christianity (1986)
Worden, Blair (Ed) Stuart England (1986)
Encyclopaedia Britannica (1969 edition)
Collins Dictionary of the English Language (1980)
Newspapers: The Times, The Guardian, The Independent (Britain)
1647
PERSECUTION: ANCIENT AND MODERN
Appendix B - Historical Periods
Anglo-Saxon: broadly 550 AD to 1066 AD (the Norman invasion).
Middle Ages: broadly the period from the end of classical
antiquity (476 AD) tothe Italian Renaissance (or
fall of Constantinople in 1453). More specifically
the period from 1000 AD to the 15th century.
Medieval: of, or relating to, the Middle Ages.
Tudor: the Royal House, descended from Welsh Squire Owen
Tudor (d.1461), which ruled in England between 1485
AD - 1603 AD
Stuart: the Royal House which ruled in Scotland between
1371 ADand 1714,and inEngland between1603 AD-
1714 AD.
Jacobean: relating to the period of James I's rule of England
(1603-1625).
Reformation: a 16th century religious and political movement
which beganas anattempt toreform theCatholic
Church, but actually resulted inthe establishment
of the Protestant Church.
Renaissance: usually considered as beginning in Italy in the
14th century,this isthe period whichmarked the
transitionfromtheMiddleAges tothemodern
world.Itis characterisedbyclassicalscholar
ship,scientific andgeographicaldiscovery,and
the exploration of individual human potential.
Civil War: 1640-1649, between the Royalists under Charles I,
and the Parliamentarians ledby Oliver Cromwell.
Charles I was executed in 1649.
Crusades: a series of wars undertaken by the Christians of
western Europe with the authorisation of the Papacy
from1095untilthe mid-15thcenturyforthe
purpose of recoveringthe HolySepulchre atJerus
alemfrom theMuslimsand defendingpossessionof
it. (Enc. Britannica)
Thirty Years' War: a major conflict involving Austria, Denmark,
France, Holland,Germany, Spain andSweden that
devastated central Europe, but especially Germany.
It beganas awarbetween Protestantsand Catholics
but developedintoa generalpowerstruggle (1618
1648).
Lateran Councils: Five ecumenical councils held at the Lateran Palace
(the official residence ofthe Pope) between 1123
AD and 1512 AD.
1648
PERSECUTION: ANCIENT AND MODERN
Appendix C - Gnostic and Christian sects
Manichaeism: a dualistic Gnostic religion first preached by Mani
(q.v.)in the 3rdcentury AD. Itsearly centrewas
Babylonia,then partofthePersianempireanda
meeting place of faiths. (EB)
The basic theology of Manichaeism is that good and evil are
separate and opposed principles, which have become mixed in the world
through the action of the evil principle. There is a complicated
mythology which describes the creation of the world and the elements,
and a set of complex correspondences by which the seeker can return to
a state of salvation. Manichaeism spread across a huge area, including
the Roman Empire. However, by the 6th century it had virtually been
eradicated from Spain, France and Italy, although was strong in the
eastern Mediterranean until the 9th century, when it was absorbed into
the neo-Manichean sects of the Bogomils, Cathars, etc.
Bogomils: a religious sect which flourished in the Balkans
between the 10th and 15th centuries.
Their central teaching was strictly dualistic; that the visible,
material world was created by the Devil, and that everything within it
was therefore evil. They rejected many of the trappings of Chris-
tianity, and their condemnation of anything to do with the flesh -
including eating and drinking! - has rightly earned them the nickname,
"the greatest puritans of the middle ages".
Cathars: a heretical Christian sect that flourished in
western Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries.
They believed that goodness existed only in the spiritual world
created by God, and that the material world, created by Satan, was
evil. Their theology bore a great resemblance to that of Manichaeism
and the Bogomils, and they were closely connected with the latter.
Waldensians: also known as Valdenses or Vaudois. The sect was
founded in southern France in the 12th century, and
emphasised poverty, abstinence from physical labou
r, and a life devoted to prayer.
They were influenced by other "heretical" sects, and rejected a
number of the basic tenets of the Catholic faith. They were stern
opponents to the acquisition of wealth and power within the Church,
and thus came into direct opposition to the Papacy,which thrived on
both. They were fiercely persecuted, and by the end of the 15th
century, confined mainly to the French and Italian
valleys of the Cottian Alps. During the 16th century, the Waldensians
were transformed into a Protestant church, but suffered heavy persecu-
tion throughout the 17th century from the Dukes of Savoy. This ceased
only after Oliver Cromwell intervened personally on their behalf with
the duke, Charles Emmanuel II. In the latter part of the 17th century
the Waldensians returned to their original homeland, and in 1848 the
Waldensians were given civil rights, and are today members of the
World Presbyterian Alliance.
1649
PERSECUTION: ANCIENT AND MODERN
Appendix D - A calendar of events connected with the persecution of
heretics
640 AD Eorcenberht succeeds Eadbald as King of Kent, and
becomes the firstEnglish king toorder the destr
uction of pagan idols throughout his kingdom;
663 AD Council of Whitby determines the date of Easter to
be inaccordance withRomanpractice, andso ends
Celtic Christianity in Northumberland;
668-690 AD Liber Poenitentialis by Theodore, Archbishop of
Canterbury. Probably the first legislation against
witches. Itadvised penances (eg, fasting)for
those who"sacrificedto devils,foretold the
futurewiththeiraid,atefoodthathadbeen
offeredin sacrifice,orburnedgrainafter aman
was deadforthewell-beingofthelivingandof
the house."
735-766 AD the Confessional of Ecgberht, Archbishop of
York, which prescribed a 7-year fast for a woman
convicted of "slaying by incantation";
871-899 AD reign of King Aelfred (brother of Aethelred), who
declared the death penaltyfor those who practise
Wicca;
925-939 AD reign of King Aethelstan, where murder - including
murderbywitchcraft -waspunishablewith the
death penalty;
936 AD Otto elected King of the Germans, whereupon he
declaredit hisintention to drivethe pagans out
of his land;
951 Otto crowned King of Lombardy;
955 Otto defeated the Magyars and proclaimed himself
"Protector of Europe";
962 Otto crowned Holy Roman Emperor;
1022 the first burning (at Orleans) for heresy;
1066-1087 AD reign of William the Conqueror in England; he
reduced Aethelstan'ssentence ofdeath forcon
victed murderers to banishment;
1118 King Baldwin II of Jerusalem suggested to Sir Hugh
dePayensthat heorganiseachivalric orderof
knightsto defendtravellersto theHolyLand, and
grantedpartofhispalace,which stoodonthesite
ofSolomon'soriginaltemple, fortheirheadquar
ters.Asaresultof thisgesture,HughdePayens
calledhisOrdertheTempliMilitia,andthenlater
1650
changedthisto KnightsoftheTempleofSolomonin
Jerusalem;
1162 Pope Alexander III issued a special papal bull
releasing Templars from spiritual obedience to any
butthe Popehimself,gavethemexemption from
paying tithes, andallowed themtheir own chaplains
and burial grounds;
12/13th cent the Cathar heresies: introduction of the obscene
kiss and ritual adoration of the devil;
1243-44 Siege of Montsegur;
1244 225 Cathars burned at the stake at Montsegur;
1259 relationships between the Knights Templars and the
Hospitallers ofKnights ofStJohn deteriorated
into open warfare;
1291 the Saracens took Jerusalem, and the Knights
Templars were expelled, and lost their headquarters
on the site of Solomon's Temple;
1301 Walter Langton, bishop of Coventry, tried by
ecclesiastical court for diabolism and acquitted;
1302 trial in Exeter for defamation of a man who called
a woman a "wicked witch and thief";
1307 King Philip of France ordered the arrest of every
member ofthe KnightsTemplar in France:this was
followed bya papalbull toall rulersin Christian
Europe that all Templars were to be arrested;
1311 investigation in London by episcopal authority into
sorcery, enchantment, magic, divination and
invocation;
1312 the Pope officially disbanded the Knights Templars;
1314 Jaques de Molay (last Grand Master of the Knights
Templars) burned as a relapsed heretic;
1321 last Cathar burned at the stake;
1324 Alice Kyteler tried in Kilkenny by secular and
ecclesiastical authorities for diabolism, invoca
tion and sorcery;
1347 the Plague spreads over the whole of Italy, and
arrives in France by the end of the year;
1348 the Plague reaches Paris, then the Low Countries,
and then via the Channel to southern England;
1349 Britain ravaged by the Plague, which passes into
Germany, Austria and Scandinavia;
1651
1360 the Plague, complicated by influenza reappears in
Europe, continuing in waves until 1441, and finally
ending around 1510;
1390 woman tried in Milan for attending an assembly led
by "Diana", "Erodiade" or "Oriente";
1408 the Plague, still rampant in Europe is complicated
by an epidemic of Typhus and Whooping Cough;
1409 trial of Pope Benedict XIII at Pisa for divination,
invocation, sorcery and other offences;
1428-47 Dauphine: 110 women and 57 men executed by secular
court for witchcraft, especially diabolism;
1431 Joan of Arc tried for heresy and burnt at the
stake: the trial decision was annulled in 1456, and
in 1920 shewas canonised byPope Benedict XVwith
the date of her execution (May 30) becoming a
national holiday in France;
1440 Gilles de Rais tried on 47 charges including con
juration of demons and sexual perversions against
children: nearlyall evidence washearsay, none of
his servantswascalled totestify,and theprocee
dingswerehighlyirregular: hewasstrangledand
thensenttothe pyre,buthisfamilyweregiven
permissionto removehisbodybefore theflames
reached it for burial at a nearby Carmelite Church;
1441 Margery Jourdain ("the Witch of Eye") convicted of
plottingtokillKingHenry VI,andburnedasa
traitor;
1458 first recorded use of the word "sabbat" (Nicholas
Jacquier). "Synagogue" was the word commonly used
todescribethemeeting placesofhereticsand
witches;
1470 trial before Royal Court in England for defamation
- man had accused the Duchess of Bedford of image
magic;
1479 Earl of Mar executed for employing witches
to kill James III of Scotland;
1484 Papal Bull of Pope Innocent VIII officially
declaring witchcraft a heresy;
1486 first publication of the Malleus Maleficarum;
1488 Metz: 31 women and 4 men tried by secular court for
weather magic: 29 burned;
1492 expulsion of Jews from Spain;
1521 Martin Luther excommunicated by Pope Leo X, and so
begins the Reformation;
1652
1532 the Constitutio Criminalis Carolina: the criminal
code for the HolyRoman Empire which specified how
witches, fortunetellers, etc wereto be tried,and
punished;
1542 first statute against witchcraft in England passed
by Parliament (revoked 1547);
1557 first list of prohibited books issued by the Roman
church;
1562 statute enacted in Scotland under Mary Queen of
Scots declaring the death penalty for witchcraft,
sorceryand necromancy:theAct wasconfirmed in
1649 and repealed in 1736;
1563 statute against witchcraft by Elizabeth I in
Englandordering the deathpenalty for witches,
enchantersand sorcerers(undercivil, notecc
lesiastical law);
1566 first major trial under statute of 1563: Elizabeth
Francis, Agnes Waterhouseand JoanWaterhouse at
Chelmsford: Agneshanged,Elizabethreceived a
light sentence and Joan was found not guilty;
1584 "Discoverie of Witchcraft" by Reginald Scot
published - a Protestant argument against belief in
witchcraft;
1590-92 North Berwick trials by James VI;
1595 Nicholas Remy publishes "Demonolatreiae" where he
boasted on the title page that he had condemned 900
witches in 15 years;
1596 John Dee as Warden of a Manchester College acts as
an advisor for cases of witchcraft and demonology;
1597 "Daemonologie" by King James VI published;
1600 Giordano Bruno burnt at the stake in Rome
as an "impenitent heretic";
1603 ascension of James VI to the English throne as
James I;
1604 new statute against witchcraft by James I
which established pact, devil-worship and other
continental ideas in English law;
1611 King James authorises a new translation of
the Bible to include the word "witch";
1612 twenty witches tried together at Lancashire
(the Pendle witches);
1628 in Massachusetts, an English lawyer, Thomas
Mortonordered amaypoleto beerectedin the
colony which he founded (Merrymount), and celebrat
1653
ed MaywithlocalIndians andrefugeesfromthe
Puritans,withstag antlers,bellsandbrightly
coloured clothes, under an elected "Lord and Lady"
to ruleover thecelebrations; He wasarrested
under charges ofpractising witchcraft,but was
released;
1633 the public exorcisms of the nuns of Loudun as part
ofa plotby CardinalRichelieu to revengehimself
upon Urban Grandier: Grandier arrested and tried by
investigating committee;
1634 Grandier tortured then burned alive;
1644 maypoles made illegal in England;
1644-5 Matthew Hopkins active in Chelmsford;
1646 Matthew Hopkins retired - he died the following
year;
1647 first witch hung in the USA, in Connecticut;
1649 first newspaper astrology column by Lilly;
1662 at Bury St Edmunds women were accused and convicted
ofwitchcrafton thetestimonyof hysterical
children;
1662 the trial of Isobel Gowdie in Auldearne, Scotland:
Gowdie introduces the idea of a coven of thirteen;
1663 the Licensing Act determined that books could not
be published without priorconsultation with the
Church or State;
1679-82 the Chambre Ardente affair: a star chamber court
admittingof noappealarraigned totry Madame
Bosse, her daughter and sons; Madame Montvoisin (La
Voisin)and La DameVigoreux. Duringthe courseof
the trial,severalhundredsofthehighestcour
tiersofKing LouisXIVwereimplicatedinthe
poisoningscandal.Theaffairdegeneratedintoa
searchforheresyandwitchcraft,andeventually
CatholicPriestsDavot, Gerard,Deshayes,Cotton,
Tournet,Guibourg andMariettewere alsodrawnin,
accused ofperforming theBlackMass. Evidencewas
collectedto showthat Madamede Montespan(Louis'
former mistress)attempted to poisonLouis andhis
new mistress, andwas the leader ofthe Satanic
cult. In all, 319 peoplewere arrested and 104
sentenced: 36 to death,4 to slavery in the gal
leys, 34 to banishmentand 30 acquitted. In 1709
Louis attempted to destroy the records of the
affair, but failed;
1684 Alice Molland was the last person executed as a
witch in England (at Exeter);
1654
1689 Cotton Mather (New England) publishes "Memorable
Providences Relating to Witchcraft and Possessions"
supporting belief in witchcraft;
1692 Salem witch trials: 19 hung and more than 100
jailed; thelast personexecutedin theUSA for
witchcraft;
1727 last execution in Scotland for witchcraft;
1731 last trial for witchcraft in England: Jane Wenham,
who was convicted, then pardoned and released;
1736 the repeal of the statutes against witchcraft of
Mary Queen of Scots(1562), Elizabeth I (1563) and
JamesI &VI(1604): replacedwith astatutewhich
statedthat,"no prosecution,suitor proceeding
shallbe commencedorcarriedoutagainstany
personorpersonsforwitchcraft, sorcery,inchant
ment (sic),orconjuration."Itprovided forthe
prosecutionof thosepretendingtopossessmagical
powers, but it denied reality to those powers;
1745 last execution in France for witchcraft;
1775 last execution in Germany for witchcraft;
1829 Lamothe-Langan fabricated and published documents
represented to berecords of trialsof witches in
Toulouse andCarcassonne, probably in an attempt to
provethe continuingexistenceof theworship of
the old religion;
1830 in "Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft" Sir
Walter Scott argues thatalleged witches had been
misunderstood and mistreated;
1862 Jules Michelet argues in his book "La Sorcerie"
that witchcraftwas aprotest bymedieval serfs
against a crushing social order;
1865 Pope Pius X again attacked secret societies,claim
ing that Freemasonry was anti-Christian, satanic,
and derived from paganism;
1899 publication of Aradia: Gospel of the Witches by
Leland;
1928 first English translation of the Malleus Malefic
arum (tr Summers);
1951 repeal of the 1736 Witchcraft Act with the Fraud
ulent Mediums Act;
1963 demand made for reinstatement of the Witchcraft
Laws in England following desecration of churches
and graveyards;
1655
1966 the Index (of prohibited books) abolished;
1991 Anti-occult amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill
had its third reading in Parliament. Presented by
Geoffrey Dickens, this prescribed imprisonment for
not morethan five yearsagainst one who,"permits,
entices orencourages aminorto participatein, or
bepresentataceremonyorotheractivityofany
kindspecifiedinsub-section3...".Subsection3
says:"Theceremoniesoractivitiestowhichthis
sectionappliesare thoseof,orassociated with,
Satanism andotherdevilworshipping, blackmagic,
witchcraft, oranyactivity towhich Section1 of
the Fraudulent Mediums Act (1951) applies.
The Bill was rejected for a number of reasons, not
least because it made newspaper/magazine editors culpable if
minors should read the astrology column!
1656
HISTORY OF WICCA IN ENGLAND: 1939 - present day
This talk was given by Julia Phillips at the Wiccan Conference in
Canberra, 1991. It is mainly about the early days of the Wicca in
England; specifically what we now call Gardnerian and Alexandrian
traditions. The text remains "as given", so please remember when you
read it that it was never intended to be "read", but "heard" and
debated.
Text begins:
There are three main strands I intend to examine: one, Gardner's claim
of traditional initiation, and its subsequent development; two,
magical traditions to which Gardner would have had access; and three,
literary sources.
As we look at these three main threads, it is important to bear in
mind that Gardner was 55 years old at the time of his claimed initia-
tion; that he had spent many years in Malaya, and had an enormous
interest in magic, Folklore and Mythology. By the time he published
High Magic's Aid, he was 65, and 75 when "The Meaning of Witchcraft"
appeared. He died in 1964, at the age of 80.
Gardner was born in 1884, and spent most of his working adult life in
Malaya. He retired, and returned to the UK in 1936. He joined the
Folklore Society, and in June 1938, also joined the newly opened
Rosicrucian Theatre at Christchurch where it is said he met Old
Dorothy Clutterbuck.
I chose 1939 as my arbitrary starting point as that was the year that
Gerald Gardner claims he was initiated by Old Dorothy into a practis-
ing coven of the Old Religion, that met in the New Forest area of
Britain. In his own words,
"I realised 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." This
quote is taken from The Meaning of Witchcraft, which was published in
1959.
It is interesting that 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 even used. His own derivation for
the word, given in "The Meaning of Witchcraft", is 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 shor-
tened into "Wicca".
"It is a curious fact that when the witches became English-speaking
they adopted their Saxon name, "Wica"."
1657
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 more recent-
ly published The Rebirth Of Witchcraft, however, she rejects this
Saxon theory in favour of Prof. Russell's derivation from the Indo-
European root "Weik", which relates to things connected with magic and
religion.
Doreen Valiente strongly supports Gardner's claim of traditional
initiation, and published the results of her successful attempt to
prove the existence of Dorothy Clutterbuck in an appendix to "The
Witches' Way" by Janet and Stewart Farrar. It is a marvellous piece of
investigation, but proving that Old Dorothy existed does nothing to
support Gardner's claims that she initiated him.
In his book, "Ritual Magic in England", occultist Francis King does
offer some anecdotal evidence in support of Gardner's claims. However,
it is only fair to point out that in the same book, he virtually
accuses Moina Mathers of murder, based upon a misunderstanding of a
story told by Dion Fortune! With that caveat, I'll recount the tale in
full:
King relates that in 1953, he became acquainted with Louis Wilkinson,
who wrote under the pen-name of Louis Marlow, and had contributed
essays to Crowley's Equinox. He later became one of Crowley's literary
executors. King says that in conversation, Wilkinson told him that
Crowley had claimed to have been offered initiation into a witch
coven, but that he refused, as he didn't want to be bossed around by a
bunch of women. (This story is well-known, and could have been picked
up anywhere.)
Wilkinson then proceeded to tell King that he had himself become
friendly with members of a coven operating in the New Forest area, and
he thought that whilst it was possible that they derived their exis-
tence from Murray's "Witch Cult in Western Europe", he felt that they
were rather older.
King draws the obvious conclusion; that these witches were the very
same as those who initiated Gardner. King claims that the conversation
with Wilkinson took place in 1953, although "Ritual Magic in England"
was not published - or presumably written - until 1970. However, on
September 27 1952, "Illustrated" magazine published a feature by Allen
Andrews, which included details of a working by, "the Southern Coven
of British Witches", where 17 men and women met in the New Forest
to repel an invasion by Hitler. Wilkinson had told King of this
working during their conversation, which King believes to be proof
that such a coven existed; there are some differences in the two
stories, and so it is possible that two sources are reporting the same
event, but as Wilkinson's conversation with King came after the
magazine article, we shall never know.
In the recently published "Crafting the Art of Magic", Aidan Kelly
uses this same source to "prove" (and I use the word advisedly - the
book "proves" nothing") that Gardner, Dorothy, et al created Wicca one
night following a social get together! Of one thing we can be certain
though: whatever its origin, modern Wicca derives from Gardner. There
may of course be other traditional, hereditary witches, but even if
they are genuine, then it is unlikely that they would have been able
to "go public" had it not been for Gardner.
1658
There have been many claims of "hereditary" origin (other than Gard-
ner's own!) One of the most famous post-Gardner claimants to "heredi-
tary" status was actress Ruth Wynn-Owen, who fooled many people for a
very long time before being exposed. Roy Bowers, who used the pseud-
onym Robert Cochrane, was another: Doreen Valiente describes her
association with him in "The Rebirth of Witchcraft", and The Roebuck,
which is still active in the USA today, derives directly from Coch-
rane, via Joe Wilson. "Witchcraft: A Tradition Renewed" by Evan John
Jones with Doreen Valiente describes a tradition derived from Robert
Cochrane. Alex Sanders, of course is another who claimed hereditary
lineage, and like Cochrane, deserves his own place in this history,
and we'll get to both of them later.
Many people have been suspicious of Gardner's claims, and have accused
him of making the whole thing up. They suggest that the Wicca is no
more than the fantasy of an old man coloured by a romantic imagina-
tion. One particularly virulent attack upon Gardner came from Charles
Cardell, writing under the pseudonym of Rex Nemorensis.
One of Gardner's initiates who is still active in the Wicca today has
an interesting tale to tell about Cardell, whom he knew:
"Cardell claimed to be a Witch, but from a different tradition to
Gardner's. Cardell was a psychopathic rat, with malevolent intent
toward all and sundry. He managed to get a woman called Olive Green
(Florannis) into Gardner's coven, and told her to copy out the Book of
Shadows so that Cardell could publish it, and destroy Gardner. He
also contacted a London paper, and told them when and where the coven
meetings were held, and of course the paper got quite a scoop. Cardell
led people in the coven to believe that it was Doreen Valiente who had
informed on them.
Doreen had just left Gardner in a bit of a huff after a disagreement;
another coven member, Ned Grove, left with her. Anyway, the day the
paper printed the exposure, Cardell sent Gardner a telegram saying,
"Remember Ameth tonight". (Ameth was Doreen's Craft name, and as it
has now been published, I see no reason not to use it here)."
My informant also said that Olive Green was associated with Michael
Houghton, owner of Atlantis book shop in Museum Street, who was the
publisher of High Magic's Aid. Through this association, she also
encountered Kenneth Grant of the OTO, although their association was
not friendly.
Cecil Williamson, the original owner of the witchcraft museum on the
Isle of Man, and present owner of the Witchcraft Museum in Boscastle,
has also published a number of articles where he states quite categor-
ically that Gardner was an utter fraud; but, he offers only anecdotes
to support these allegations.
Although Gardner claimed his initiation occurred in 1939, we don't
really hear anything about him until 1949, when "High Magic's Aid" was
published by Michael Houghton.
1659
This book has very strong Solomonic leanings, but 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, party from the Key of Solomon (MacGreg-
or Mathers' translation) and partly from magical MSS in my posses-
sion)." Gardner did indeed have a large collection of MSS, which
passed with the rest of his goods to Ripleys in Toronto after his
death.
Scire (pseudonym) was the name Gardner took as a member of Crowley's
branch of the OTO; although it is generally agreed that his membership
was purely nominal, he was certainly in contact with people like
Kenneth Grant and Madeline Montalban (founder of the Order of the
Morning Star).
Gardner was given his OTO degree and Charter by Aleister Crowley, to
whom he was introduced in 1946 by Arnold Crowther. As Crowley died in
1947, their association was not long-lived, but Crowther confirms that
the two men enjoyed each other's company.
So, after that brief introduction we can have a look at the first of
the strands I mentioned.
In 1888, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was born, beginning a
renaissance of interest in the occult that has continued to the
present day. It is impossible to overstate the importance of the GD to
modern occultists; not only in its rituals, but also in its personal-
ities; and of course, through making available a large body of occult
lore that would otherwise have remained unknown, or hidden in obscur-
ity.
I will be looking at this body of occult lore with other literary
influences later, and will here concentrate on the rituals and per-
sonalities that have influenced Wicca.
We cannot look at the GD in isolation from its own origins. It is
descended from a myriad of esoteric traditions including Rosicrucian-
ism, Theosophy, and Freemasonry. The latter in its own right, as well
as via the SRIA - a scholarly and ceremonial association open to
Master Masons only.
Whether the German Lodge or Fraulein Sprengel actually existed is a
matter still under debate; but either in fact or in spirit, this is
the source for the "Cypher Manuscripts" which were used to found the
Isis-Urania Lodge in 1888.
As I'm sure everyone knows, Isis-Urania was founded by Dr Wynn-West-
cott, Dr Woodman, and MacGregor Mathers. Not only were all three
Master Masons; Wynn-Westcott and Mathers were also members of the
Theosophical Society. The most important thing though is the fact the
these three men were a ruling triumvirate that managed the affairs of
the SRIA. This is important, for the SRIA included Hargrave Jennings
in its membership, and Jennings is reputed to have been involved with
a Pagan group at the end of the 19th century, which drew its inspir-
ation from Apuleius - The Golden Ass.
1660
But back to the GD - whether the Cypher Manuscripts actually existed,
or Wynn-Westcott manufactured them is now irrelevant; Mathers was
commissioned to write-up the rituals into a workable shape, and thus
the Golden Dawn was born.
Members of the Isis-Urania Lodge at various times also included Allan
Bennett, Moina Mathers, Aleister Crowley, Florence Farr, Maud Gonne,
Annie Horniman, Arthur Machen, "Fiona Macleod", Arthur Waite and WB
Yeats. Also associated were Lady Gregory, and G W Russell, or AE,
whose "The Candle of Vision" was included in the bibliography of "The
Meaning of Witchcraft". The literary and Celtic influences within the
GD were immense.
From the Isis-Urania Lodge sprang all the others, including the
so-called Dissident Orders derived through Crowley. It is this line
that some commentators trace to modern Wicca, so it is the one upon
which we will concentrate.
Aleister Crowley was initiated into the Isis-Urania Lodge on 18
November 1898. As you most probably know, Crowley later quarrelled
with MacGregor Mathers, and in 1903 began to create his own Order, the
Argenteum Astrum, or Silver Star. In 1912, Crowley was initiated into
the OTO, and in 1921, succeeded Theodor Reuss as its Chief.
According to Arnold Crowther's account, it was in 1946, a year before
Crowley's death, that Crowley gave Gardner an OTO Charter. Ithell
Colquhoun says only that it occurred in the 1940s, and further states
that Gardner introduced material from the OTO, and less directly from
the GD, 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 ex-
plained 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.
To give an example of some of the 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.
And of course, the Gnostic Mass has been immensely influential.
Not only poetry, but also magical practices in Wicca are often derived
from GD sources. For example:
the way of casting the circle: that is, the visualisation of the
circle, and the pentagrams at the quarters, are both based upon the
standard GD Pentagram Ritual;
1661
both the concept and word "Watchtowers" are of course from the Eno-
chian system of Magic, passed to Wicca via the GD (although I would
like to make it very clear that their use within Wicca bears no
relation to the use within Enochia - the only similarity is in the
name);
the Elements and colours generally attributed to the Quarters are
those of the GD;
the weapons and their attributions are a combination of GD, Crowley
and Key of Solomon.
In "Witchcraft Today", Gardner says, "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 GD is not the only influence upon Gardner; Freemasonry has had a
tremendous impact upon the Wicca. Not only were the three founders of
Isis-Urania Temple Masons, so too were Crowley and Waite; Gardner and
at least one member of the first coven (Daffo) were both Co-Masons.
Gardner was also a friend of JSM Ward, who had published a number of
books about Masonry.
Doreen describes Ward as a "leading Mason", but Francis King says only
that Ward was, "a bogus Bishop... who had written some quite good but
far-fetched books on masonry, and who ran a peculiar religious-cum-oc-
cult 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 in some ways due to Ward's
influence.
Some of 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.
It seems to me quite clear that even if Gardner received a traditional
set of rituals from his coven, they must have been exceptionally
sparse, as the concepts that we know of as Wicca today certainly
derive from ceremonial magic and Freemasonry to a very great extent.
Indeed, Gardner always claimed that they were sparse.
It could be argued that all derive from a common source. That the
appearance of a phrase, or technique in one tradition does not autom-
atically suggest that its appearance elsewhere means that the one was
taken from the other. However, Gardner admits his sources in many
cases, and Doreen confirms them in others, so I think it is safe to
presume that the rituals and philosophy used by Wicca descends from
the traditions of Freemasonry and Ceremonial magic, rather than from a
single common source. However, as Hudson Frew points out in his
commentary upon Aidan Kelly's book, the phenomena of the techniques
1662
and practices of ceremonial magic influencing folk magic and trad-
itions is widely recognised by anthropologists, and certainly does not
indicate plagiarism. And of course there are many traditional witch-
craft aspects in the Wicca.
We have looked at the development of the magical orders which resulted
from the British occult revival of the 19th and 20th centuries, and
now we can see where this ties in with Wicca, and Gardner's claim of
traditional initiation.
I have here a "family tree" of the main branches of British Wicca. It
is by no means exhaustive, and is intended to provide an outline, not
a definitive history! I have included my own coven lines and develop-
ment as an indication of the kind of "cross-over" of tradition which
often occurs, not to suggest that these are the only active groups!
Also, it would not be ethical for me to include details of other
covens.
We have two possible "hereditary" sources to the Gardnerian Craft:
one, the Horsa Coven of Old Dorothy, and two, the Cumbrian Group which
Rae Bone claims to have been initiated into before meeting Gardner.
(NB: Doreen Valiente says that the Horsa Coven is not connected with
Old Dorothy, but is another group entirely.) There is also sometimes
mention of a St Alban's group that pre-dates Gardner, but as far as I
know, this is mistaken. The St Albans group was Gardner's own group,
which as far as research confirms, did not pre-date him.
To return to Rae Bone: she was one of Gardner's HPSs, and her "line"
has been immensely important to the modern Wicca; she was featured in
the magazine series, "Man Myth and Magic" if anyone has a copy of
that.
In her heyday she ran two covens: one in Cumbria, and one in South
London. Rae is still alive, and lives in Cumbria, although her last
coven moved to New Zealand many years ago, and she is no longer
active. No-one has ever been able to trace the coven in New Zealand.
At this point, I will just mention George Pickingill, although he is
not shown on the tree, as I think it extremely dubious that he had any
connection with Gardner, or any other modern Wiccan.
Pickingill died in 1909, whilst Gardner was still in Malaya. Eric
Maple is largely responsible for the beginnings of the Pickingill
myth, which were expanded by Bill Liddell (Lugh) writing in "The
Wiccan" and "The Cauldron" throughout the 1970s. Mike Howard still has
some of Liddell's material which he has never published, and I have
yet to meet anyone within the British Craft who gives 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. There is a photograph included of an old man
with a stick, holding a hat, which Maple describes as Pickingill. This
photograph has subsequently been re-used many times in books about
witchcraft and Wicca.
1663
Issue number 31 of "Insight" Magazine, dated July 1984, contains a
very interesting letter from John Pope:
"The photograph purporting to be Old George Pickingill is in fact a
photo of Alf Cavill, a station porter at Ellstree, taken in the early
1960s. Alf is now dead, but he was no witch, and laughed over the
photograph when he saw it."
A very respected Craft authority has told me that he believes the
photo, which is in his possession, to be of Pickingill, but like so
much to do with Craft history, there is no definitive answer to this
one.
Many claims were made by Liddell; some obviously from cloud-cuckoo
land, others which could, by a stretch of the imagination, be ac-
cepted. The very idea of Pickingill, an illiterate farm labourer,
co-ordinating and supervising nine covens across the breadth of the UK
is staggering. To accept - as Liddell avers - that he had the likes of
Alan Bennett and Aleister Crowley as his pupils bends credulity even
further.
The infamous photograph which Liddell claims shows Crowley, Bennett
and Pickingill together has conveniently disappeared, and no-one
admits to ever having seen it. Like most of Liddell's claims, nothing
has ever been substantiated, and when pushed, he retreats into the
time honoured favourite of, "I can't reveal that - you're not an
initiate"!
But to return to the family tree: the names of Doreen Valiente, Pat
and Arnold Crowther, Lois Bourne (Hemmings), Jack Bracelin and Monique
Wilson will probably be the most familiar to you.
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. As with every other claim, Kelly
offers no evidence of this)
I have seen a copy of Bracelin's Book of Shadows, which it is claimed
dates from 1949, although in The Rebirth Of Witchcraft, Doreen says
that Bracelin was a "relative newcomer" in the mid-1950s. I have also
been told by two different sources 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 re-assert control
over the coven. As Bracelin was in the Gardner camp during the breakup
of the group, it seems reasonable that he did in fact help with their
composition. (NB: Alex Sanders increased the number of "The Laws"
much later - these appeared in June Johns' book, "The King of the
Witches")
1664
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 instatement 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
favour 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 are infamous, rather than famous, as
Gardner's heirs who sold off his magical equipment and possessions
after his death, to Ripleys in the USA.
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 recently in an 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 rumoured
that Campbell Wilson moved to the USA, and met with a car accident
there: this is only hearsay though - I 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 1964 or 5 she initiated Ray Buckland, who with his
wife Rosemary (later divorced), was very influential in the develop-
ment of the Wicca in the USA.
Fortunately, Richard and Tamarra James managed to buy the bulk of
Gardner's collection back from Ripleys in 1987, for the princely sum
of US$40,000, and it is now back within the Craft, and available for
initiates to consult and view.
D and C S. are probably completely anonymous, and if it were not for
the fact that C initiated Robert Cochrane (briefly mentioned earlier)
they would probably stay that way!
Cochrane's origins are obscure, but I have been told that he was
initiated into the Gardnerian tradition by C S, and met Doreen Valien-
te 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. Indeed, Doreen believes he 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.
The figures "1734" have an interesting history. Doreen gives a rather
strange account of them in The Rebirth Of Witchcraft, which contra-
1665
dicts what Cochrane 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 Cauld-
ron. 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 Un-
speakable 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)
Although Doreen says that Cochrane's group was small, it still proved
to be remarkably influential. As well as Cochrane and his wife (whom
Doreen refers to as "Jean") and Doreen herself, there were others who
are well-known today, and a man called Ronald White, who very much
wanted to bring about a new age in England, with the return of King
Arthur.
In The Rebirth Of Witchcraft, Doreen elaborates upon the circumstances
surrounding the death of Cochrane: 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 sacri-
fice which is sometimes symbolically enacted at the height of Summer.
The Royal Windsor Cuveen disbanded after Cochrane died, only to be
re-born 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 fairly close secret, and even today, there
are relatively few people who have ever heard of it.
Meetings were held in North London, at a place called Queens Wood. As
well as Ron White and Doreen Valiente, members included "John Math",
founder of the Witchcraft Research Association in 1964, and editor of
Pentagram magazine, and the founder of the Pagan Movement, Tony Kelly.
At its height, there were frequently more than 40 in attendance at
rites, which tended to be of the dramatic, pagan kind rather than the
ceremonial associated with high ritual magic. The Regency operated
fairly consistently for over twelve years, finally disbanding in 1978.
The Membership roll reads like a who's who of the British Wicca! Some
of the rites have been incorporated into modern Wiccan rituals - in
fact, one was used at the Pan European Wiccan Conference 1991 with
very great success.
Moving back over to Rae Bone's line, there are a number of influential
people here, mainly through her initiates, Madge and Arthur, who
probably take the award for the most prolific pair in Wiccandom! Rae,
although initiated by Gardner, does of course also claim a hereditary
status in her own right.
1666
Madge and Arthur's initiates include:
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. My Craft
source told me that 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
Withcraft, which is taken from "Nightside of Eden" by Kenneth Grant,
and agrees in some respect to a similar story that I was told 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,
Gardner, Dolores North (Madeline Montalban), and an un-named witch,
who was probably Olive Green.
They were all to perform a ritual together, supposedly to contact an
extra-terrestrial being. The material basis for the rite, which took
place in 1949, was a drawing by AO Spare.
Apparently soon after the rite commenced, a nearby bookseller (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 dingy old Capricorn!
The interrupted ritual could well have taken place. Madeline had a
flat near to Atlantis (Houghton's shop), and would certainly have
known both Grant and Houghton. I know for a fact that Madeline was
acquainted with Gerald, although her opinion of both him and the Wicca
was rather poor. One of Madeline's older students told me that she
thought Gardner rather 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. The reason for this lies in an anecdote
which Doreen doesn't relate: the story goes that Madeline agreed to
participate in a rite with Gerald, which turned out to involve Made-
line being tied up and tickled with a feather duster! The great lady
was not amused.
Prudence Jones
Prudence was for many years the president of the Pagan Federation, and
editor of its newsletter. She inherited her role from John Score,
after he passed away. With Nigel Pennick, Prudence also runs the Pagan
Anti-Defamation League (PADL), and is an active astrologer and therap-
ist. She has edited a book on astrology, and with Caitlin Matthews,
edited "Voices from the Circle", published by Aquarian Press. Al-
though Prudence took her degree in Philosophy, her main interests lie
in the areas of the Grail and troubadour tales, and she has published
privately an excellent essay on the Grail and Wicca. She is also a
very highly respected astrologer, who lectures extensively in Britain.
1667
Vivianne and Chris Crowley
Vivianne Crowley, is author of "Wicca - The Old Religion in the New
Age", and also secretary of the Pagan Federation. She has a PhD in
Psychology, and is perhaps the only person to have been a member of
both a Gardnerian Coven and an Alexandrian one simultaneously!
Vivianne is very active at the moment, and has initiated people in
Germany (having memorised the ritual in German - a language she
doesn't speak!), Norway, and - on the astral - Brazil. As a result of
her book, she receives many letters from people from all around the
world, and organised the first ever pan-European Wiccan conference,
held in Germany 1990. The second conference was held in Britain at the
June solstice, and the third (1992) in Norway. In 1993, the Conference
will be in Scotland.
John and Kathy (Caitlin) Matthews, are probably well-known to every-
one, but possibly 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.
Pat and Arnold Crowther
I have left Pat and Arnold till last, as it is from their line that
the infamous Alex Sanders derives! It is no secret anymore 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.
In "The Rebirth of Witchcraft" Doreen says that Alex later met Gard-
ner, and was allowed to copy from the Book of Shadows; Craft tradition
is somewhat different! It has always been said (even by Alex's sup-
porters!) that he pinched what he could from Pat Kopanski before being
chucked out, and that the main differences between the Alexandrian and
Gardnerian Books of Shadows occur where Alex mis-heard, or mis-copied
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 often dif-
ferent. It is usually very easy to spot whether someone is an Alexand-
rian, or Gardnerian initiate.
Alex needed a HPS, and as we know, chose Maxine Morris for the role.
Maxine is a striking Priestess, and made a very good visual 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. Some came to Austra-
lia, and there are still a number of covens in the UK today whose HP
and/or HPS was initiated by Alex or Maxine.
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.
1668
Since their early days of undiluted Alexandrianism, they have 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 philos-
ophy.
Seldiy Bate was originally magically trained by Madeline Montalban,
and then took an Alexandrian initiation from Maxine and Alex. 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 Cerem-
onial Magic.
In 1971, Alex and Maxine went their separate ways. David Goddard is a
Liberal Catholic Priest, and for many years, he and Maxine worked in
the Liberal Catholic faith, and did not run a coven of any kind. Then
in 1984, Maxine gathered together a group again, and started pract-
ising 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, with one girl
he married, Jill, filling the gutter press with stories about Alex
being homosexual, and defrauding her of all her money to spend on his
boyfriends. Sally Taylor was initiated by Maxine and David, but then
transferred to Alex. She was trained by him, and then started her own
group.
I'd now like to focus upon the last of the strands which I believe has
been influential upon the birth and development of Wicca; that of the
literary traditions and sources to which Gardner would have had
access. To a certain extent these are contiguous with the magical
traditions described earlier, as nowhere is it ever suggested that
Gardner did in fact ever work in a magical Lodge, so we must assume
that his knowledge came from the written form of the rites, not from
the actual practise of them.
From reading Gardner's books, it is quite 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, remember, 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.
1669
Now of course her work has been largely discredited, although she
remains a source of inspiration, if not historical accuracy. In
Gardner's day, the idea of a continuing worship of the old pagan gods
would have been a staggering theory, and in the second article in my
series about Murray (published in The Cauldron), I made the point that
Murray may have had to pretend scientific veracity in order to get her
work published in such times. Don't forget that Dion Fortune had to
publish her work privately, as did Gardner with High Magic's Aid.
Carlo Ginzburg's excellent book, "Ecstasies", also supports Murray's
basic premise; although of course he regrets her historical decep-
tions.
There were of course other sources than Murray. In 1899, "Aradia:
Gospel of the Witches" was published. Most of Crowley's work was
available during the pre- and post-war years, as were the texts
written and translated by MacGregor Mathers and Waite. Also readily
available were works such as The Magus, and of course the classics,
from which Gardner drew much inspiration.
Of paramount importance would have been "The White Goddess", by Robert
Graves, which is still a standard reference book on any British
Wiccan's bookshelf. This was published in 1952; three years after High
Magic's Aid appeared, and two years before Gardner's first non-fict-
ional book about witchcraft. I would just like to say at this point
that 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 criticise it for being historically innaccurate is to miss the
point. Unfortunately, I agree that some writers have referred to it as
an "authority", and thus led their readers up the garden path. This is
not Graves's fault, nor do I believe it was his intention.
Another book which has had a profound influence on many Wiccans, and
would undoubtedly have been well known by Gardner is "The Golden
Bough"; although the entire book was written based upon purely secon-
dary research, it is an extensive examination of many pagan practices
from the Ancient World, and the emphasis of the male sacrifice could
certainly have been taken from here equally as well as from Murray.
Certain of the Gardnerian ritual practices were almost certainly
derived from The Golden Bough, or from Frazer's own sources.
In "Witchcraft Today" Gardner mentions a number of authors when
speculating where the Wiccan rites came from. He says that, "The only
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."
It's possible that these references are something of a damage control
operation by Gardner, who, according to Doreen, was not too impressed
when she kept telling him that she recognised certain passages in the
Witch rites! "Witchcraft Today" was published the year after Doreen's
initiation, and perhaps by seeming genuinely interested in where the
Rites came from, Gardner thought he might give the appearance of
innocence of their construction!
1670
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 realise that he was a very well-read man, with wide-rang-
ing 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, demonstrates this rather well. Gardner 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.
Hargrave Jenning, mentioned earlier, wrote a book called "The Rosi-
crucians, their Rites and Mysteries", which Francis King describes as
a book, "concerned almost exclusively with phallicism and phallic
images - Jennings saw the penis everywhere."
As I mentioned earlier, Hargrave Jennings, a member of the SRIA, also
belonged to a group, described as a coven, which met in the Cambridge
area in the 1870s, and performed rituals based upon the classical
traditions - specifically, from The Golden Ass. There is no evidence
to support this, except that there are often found references to a
"Cambridge Coven" linked to Jennings' name. Many of the rituals we
are familiar with today were of course later additions by Doreen
Valiente, and these have been well documented by both her and the
Farrars, 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.
Of course we can never really know the truth about the origins of the
Wicca. Gardner may have been an utter fraud; he may have actually
received a "Traditional" initiation; or, as a number of people have
suggested, he may have created the Wicca as a result of a genuine
religious experience, drawing upon his extensive literary and magical
knowledge to create, or help create, the rites and philosophy.
What I think we can be fairly certain about is that he was sincere in
his belief. If there had been no more to the whole thing than an old
man's fantasy, then the Wicca would not have grown to be the force
that it is today, and we would not all be sitting here in Canberra on
a Saturday morning!
1671