Drawing Down the Moon (20 page)

“A year later, Robert Graves came out with
The White Goddess,
and by then I knew what he was talking about and I agreed. From then, it was a long odyssey in search of . . . my people, I suppose . . . and believe me, I found some of them in pretty peculiar places. And we were always surprised to meet each other, because each of us thought we were somehow singular.

“I found the Goddess worshipped in a lot of places, under a lot of different names. And I sometimes found lip service being given Her when it was actually the same old patriarchal image that was being perpetuated. In Vedanta, for example, the great Sri or saint is Ramakrishna, a man who had been an intense devotee of the Divine Mother all of his life. He was drunk with Her! But his so-called followers do not pay homage to the Goddess. They worship a good old patriarchal image, Sri Ramakrishna.

“I began candle meditations and began to get flashes of pictures. I was led step by step. One time I saw a tall figure in the distance. It was a woman in a long cloak. The cloak hid everything but her face, and from that face there was a brightness so that I couldn't see her features. Often, I felt I had little choice in my direction. I fought against it, but was drawn back again.

“One day, a fellow sent me a book called
The Divine Mother.
It was like the top of my head came off. There were other worshippers. Not just one or two, but groups. I heard about a Witchcraft magazine called
The New Broom,
and then an organization called Nemeton. Suddenly everything seemed to blossom, and I moved into the mainstream of the Craft.”

Carolyn Clark, a priestess from St. Louis, also described her process of entry:

“I got interested in Witchcraft when I was twelve. When I was a little kid, about nine or ten, I had the good fortune to live on the outskirts of a small town, surrounded by woods, and I used to go out in the woods and take a candle with me and find a tree stump and put the candle up, light it, bring flowers, and pour out a little honey, usually, because I didn't have any wine, to make an offering to Apollo and Diana.

“I read everything I could about Witchcraft and the paranormal. I took the School of Wicca's correspondence course, but since I was primarily interested in goddess worship, I ended up creating my own tradition.

“It was difficult. I had to find the sources. I raided the St. Louis public library to find books on Celtic mythology. I tried to track down the Tain and the Mabinogion. I picked up a little here and there. I had a few contacts and I began to put together a tradition and some rituals.

“I was turned on to the Goddess. It was the religion. I didn't care if I acquired any personal power. The Goddess just sort of flicked her finger and said, ‘Hey!' ”

These stories, more than any of the traditions, reveal the nature of the Craft. The people I meet rarely enter a tradition out of deliberate choice. They seek “the Craft.” They get in contact, perhaps, with whatever group they run into. This group or coven gives them a plan of study, often lasting a year, sometimes more or less. Then, if they seem to mesh with the people of that group, they enter it. Usually that coven has a particular practice and tradition, but often that's the least important thing that's going on. Obviously, the tradition
can
matter. A person may respond to a particular myth cycle or a particular set of rituals, but often these are not the essentials. Often a person may enter a Wicca
in spite of
a particular tradition, like this woman who spent a number of years with a Welsh-oriented group:

“I am a Witch. A Witch is a person who uses one set of tools—gods, rituals, and objects—to do the same things other Pagans do. For me, the Craft is my way of actualizing myself, my life; I am constantly exploring why this is so. The only real answer I can give is that there is an affinity between me and the Craft. But I do not know why that affinity and not some other. Perhaps it is because my anima has been rising and in rising has met the Goddess. But there are forms of goddess worship other than the Craft, and other crafts than goddess worship.

“The Craft is home to me. Not to say I do not have problems with it, and by ‘it' I mean my own particular ‘tradition.' I do not like hierarchical structure and some of its means of expressing itself via dualities which may or may not be part of nature. There are aspects of my tradition that institutionalize things I do not find institutionalized in myself. These are real problems.

“But I name myself Witch. I am named Witch, and Witch I am and I like it. But both me and my craft are
always
changing. It is discovering what will endure.

“I do not believe Witches are different from other people, or that they have different powers. The Craft has helped me actualize these aspects of my being. I have allowed them in me.”

 

Although the Craft is eclectic by nature, there are some useful distinctions that can be made about each “tradition” within it.

Despite Farrar's humorous remark that the only thing he knows about “traditionalist” Witches is that they wear robes (which actually isn't necessarily true), there
are
many covens in the United States that call themselves “traditionalist,” but that can mean several different things. Some covens follow the myths and folk traditions of a particular country and regard those traditions as more important than the forms of the Wiccan revival. For example, a “Welsh traditionalist” coven that I knew of used the Welsh Mabinogion myth cycle as the prime source for its rituals, poetry, and the names of its deities. The “tradition” of this coven was really the heritage of literature and scholarship related to the pre-Christian beliefs of the Welsh people. Besides groups defining themselves by a particular country—Irish traditionalists, Greek traditionalists, Scots traditionalists, etc., there are hundreds of covens in this country and in Europe that consider themselves British Traditional Wicca, or Traditional Craft Wicca, or similar names. This is a complex group of traditions and coven lines, many of which have links to the Gardnerian and Alexandrian traditions, but which have important histories of their own. A few of the groups listed below fall into this category.

As we have seen, many Wiccans use this word to describe those covens in the United States that descend in a line of “apostolic succession” from Gardner's coven on the Isle of Man. Of the Witches quoted in this book, several came to Wicca through this route, including Rosemary and Ray Buckland, who started a Gardnerian coven in the United States in 1964; Theos and Phoenix of Long Island, who took over the Buckland coven in 1972; the late Donna C. Schultz; and Athena, the priestess and scientist.

But, as we have also seen, the term
Gardnerian
can be used to describe covens that use Gardnerian rituals, many of which are publicly available. Occasionally these covens call themselves Neo-Gardnerian or Gardnerian eclectic.
¹⁹
Some of the more well-known external elements of Gardnerian Witchcraft include: the 162 (more or less) Craft Laws, now accepted by many covens; ritual nudity; a circle of nine feet; the symbolic use of the scourge to purify; a quasi-ceremonial form of casting the circle with similarities to rituals in the
Key of Solomon;
the use of the “Great Rite,” either symbolically or actually; the Charge of the Goddess, written by Doreen Valiente, but derived from
Aradia;
three degrees of advancement; and the ritual known as the Drawing Down of the Moon.

C. A. Burland, the English writer and ethnographer, wrote of this tradition in
The Magical Arts:

Although it was back in 1939 that Gardner met the Fellowship of Crotona and was initiated into a coven, Fred Lamond, a long-time British Gardnerian and the author of
Religion Without Beliefs
(1997) and
Fifty Years of Wicca
(2004), asserts that Gardnerian Wicca really took off in 1953, when Gardner initiated Doreen Valiente and Valiente rewrote Gardner's Book of Shadows, transforming it into the version that has become authoritative today.

Most Gardnerian covens in the United States have a matrilineal system that passes leadership through successive priestesses. Each coven is autonomous. Most covens stress a balance between male and female principles. Some are quite flexible. The late priestess Donna C. Schultz, who led a Gardnerian coven in Chicago, told me that her group often wore robes, had abandoned the use of the scourge, and played down much of the sexual symbolism. Instead, they stressed more general forms of occult practice. Other covens are quite rigid and “by the book.”

Many Gardnerian covens spend more time with their “family of covens”
²¹
than in ecumenical activities with other Neo-Pagan/Craft groups.

Many Gardnerian rituals can be found in
The Witches' Way
by Janet and Stewart Farrar. Some of the rituals have also been published in
Lady Sheba's Book of Shadows.
Three of Gardner's books are also relevant:
High Magic's Aid, Witchcraft Today,
and
The Meaning of Witchcraft.
²²

Many different traditions and “lines” have come out of the original Gardnerian covens, including the Sheffield Line, begun by Pat Crowther, one of Gardner's initiates, although apparently she would never name it such, as well as the Whitecroft Line, begun by Eleanor Rae Bone, another initiate. Gardner's last high priestess was Monique Wilson. Wilson initiated Ray Buckland. The Long Island Gardnerians began when Ray Buckland and his wife, Rosemary, brought the Gardnerian Tradition to America.

The Alexandrian tradition comes out of the coven started by Alex Sanders in England, the same coven into which “Jane” was initiated.
^j
In the 1970s and 1980s it often seemed as if half the photos of Witchcraft rituals in the media depicted Alex and Maxine. Alex claimed he was initiated into the Craft by his grandmother in 1933. But, according to Ronald Hutton, in
The Triumph of the Moon,
Sanders was initiated into what seems to have been a Gardnerian coven, by a priestess named Medea, in 1963.
²³
Alex told his story at a time when many Witches were creating fabulous tales about their origins. Many Alexandrian rituals are almost identical to Gardnerians ones, but there is more of a sense of theatrics and more emphasis on ceremonial magic.

Whatever the truth, Sanders did much to popularize the Craft. Perhaps one of his most astute acts was to initiate the English journalist Stewart Farrar, whose books are among the better introductory books on modern Wicca. Farrar later formed his own coven and went his own way.

Many Alexandrian covens formed in the United States. Very few maintained any connection with Sanders.

Mary Nesnick, an American who was initiated into both Gardnerian and Alexandrian traditions, combined them in 1972 and created a new tradition called Algard.

A number of vibrant traditions in the United States have combined Gardnerian and Alexandrian Wicca. Many simply call themselves British Traditional Wicca, or in Europe, Traditional Craft Wicca. Among the many traditions that have come out of the Gardnerian and Alexandrian fulcrum are the Kingstone, Greencraft, Mohsian, and Silver Crescent. Others, like the 1734 tradition, have added more shamanic and mystical elements.

The 1734 tradition is based on the philosophy of Robert Cochrane, a British Witch whom Doreen Valiente once called “perhaps the most powerful and gifted personality to have appeared in modern witchcraft.” According to an article on the tradition, by Chas Clifton, written for
The Witches' Voice,
Valiente joined Cochrane's circle after she left Gerald Gardner's coven.
²⁴

Cochrane became involved in the Craft in the early 1950s, and eventually formed a coven called The Clan of Tubal Cain. He was known to love poetry and riddles, and the name 1734 is apparently a riddle that involves the name of the Goddess. During the 1960s, Cochrane corresponded with Joseph Wilson, who published one of the earliest American Wiccan journals,
The Waxing Moon.
While Joseph Wilson and Cochrane never met, and Cochrane died in 1966, Wilson later went to England and met several members of Cochrane's coven. The correspondence between Wilson and Cochrane led to the 1734 tradition.

It is only recently that 1734 has been considered a tradition. It is said that no two covens in the 1734 tradition are exactly alike, and all of them are autonomous. There is no central authority, no common liturgy or Book of Shadows, although Cochrane's letters and articles have been passed around and are currently available on Web sites. Clifton writes in an article in
The Witches' Voice
that the letters between Wilson and Cochrane have been so widely circulated that many of the people who had them just thought that they were “traditional Craft.”