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THE SECRET HISTORY OF MODERN WITCHCRAFT
Copyriht qqy hy T Allen Greenlield All rihts reserved.
By Allen H. Greenlield, Bishop in the Gnosis
The Leend ol Witchcralt and the Oriin ol Wicca
The lact is that the instincts ol inorant people invariahly lind expression in some lorm
ol witchcralt. It matters little what the metaphysician or the moralist may inculcate, the
animal sticks to his suhconscious ideas... Aleister Crowley The Conlessions
Gather toether in the covens as ol old, whose numher is eleven, that is also my numher.
Gather toether in puhlic, in son and dance and lestival. Gather toether in secret, he
naked and shameless and rejoice in my name.
Liher q, The Book ol Bahalon, ack Parsons, q6
Il you are on the Path, and see the Buddha walkin towards you, kill him. Zen sayin,
paraphrased slihtly
Previously I never thouht ol douhtin that there were many witches in the world, now,
however, when I examine the puhlic record, I lind mysell helievin that there are hardly
any... Iather Iriedrich von Spee, S.. , Cautio Criminalis, 6
| This monoraph has a lon history. The earliest puhlished dralt appeared in a small,
independent radical journal durin my sojourn in Ilorida in the middle q8cs. I was at
that time closely associated with the OTO, hut was not then an initiate memher. I had
heen in close contact with Wiccan and other Neopaan roups at that time lor over a
decade. I had heen a welcome uest in many Neopaan circles, and was widely, althouh
inaccurately, descrihed as a Neopaan writer (as in Marot Adler's Drawin Down the
Moon). I was lrequently puhlished in the journal ol the Church ol All Worlds, Green E.
Several years later, a revised and updated version appeared in the lirst issue ol LAShTAL,
the journal ol Eulis Lode OTO, which hy then I had joined. Since that time, the essay has
heen repeatedly updated and revised. Alter I lost my hid lor it, the copy ol Ye Book ol Ye
Arte Maical in the Ripley Collection was sold to a private collector with pro Wiccan
sympathies (or so I have heard) and has disappeared lrom view. But not helore I ot a
VERY ood look at it. The present revision includes new insihts into the early claims
concernin Gerald Gardner relative to his status in the OTO. Several letters puhlished hy
Bill Heidrick, Treasurer General ol the OTO, exchaned hetween Lady Ireida Harris and
hoth Karl Germer and Irederic Melliner immediately alter Aleister Crowley's death add
new insiht. Br. Heidrick was kind enouh to provide me with copies ol these letters in
my preparations lor this puhlication. The is also an important letter hy Gerald Gardner to
Vernon Symmonds, written durin the same period. A copy ol the latter was kindly
provided hy Sahazius X, the present U.S. Grand Master General ol the OTO. I have also
had occasion to closely examine the writins ol ohn Whiteside Parsons on the suhject ol
modern witchcralt, written durin that same period. It is ol more than passin interest
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that Ye Book ol Ye Arte Maical, the OTO Charter ranted to Gerald Gardner hy
Aleister Crowley, the writins hy Parsons on witchcralt, the puhlication ol Hih Maic's
Aid and the puhlic emerence ol Wicca all date lrom the same period, circa q-qc.|
Havin spent the day musin over the oriins ol the modern witchcralt, I had a vivid
dream. It seemed to he a cold anuary alternoon, and Aleister Crowley was havin Gerald
Gardner over to tea. It was q, and talk ol an early end to the war was in the air. An
atmosphere ol optimism prevailed in the lree world , hut the wheezin old Maus was
havin none ol it.
Nohody is interested in maick any more' Crowley ejaculated. My lriends on the
Continent are dead or in exile, or rown old, the movement in America is in shamhles.
I've seen my hest candidates turn aainst me....Achad, Reardie -- even that entleman out
in Calilornia, what's - his - name, AMORC, the one that made all the money..
O, hosh, Crowley, Gardner waved his hand impatiently, all thins considered, you've
done pretty well lor yoursell. Why, you've heen called the `wickedest man in the world'
and hy more than a lew. And you've not, il you'll pardon the impertinence, done too
hadly with the ladies.
Crowley couhed, tued on his pipe rellectively. You know he linally ventured, it's
like I've heen tryin to tell this hoy Grant. A restrictive Order is not enouh. Il I had it all
to do over aain, I would've huilt a reliion lor the unwashed masses instead ol just a
secret society. Why, the opportunities' The women' Poor dimwit kid, he just doesn't et
the point. I helieve he reads Lovecralt or Poe or one ol those other unsavory American
lantasists too much. But you, Brother Gardner, you et what is needed.
Gardner smiled. Precisely. And that is what I have come to propose to you. Take your
BOOK OI THE LAW, your GNOSTIC MASS. Add a little razzle-dazzle lor the country
lolk. Why I know these occultists who call themselves `witches'. They dance around lires
naked, et drunk, have a ood time. Rosicrucians, I think. Proper Enlish country squires
and dames, mostly. Il I could persuade you to draw on your lon experience and talents,
in no time at all we could invent a popular cult that would have heautilul ladies
clamorin to let us strip them naked, tie them up and spank their hehinds' Il, Mr.
Crowley, you'll excuse my explicitness.
Ior all his inlirmity, Aleister Crowley almost spran to his leet, a little ol the old enery
llashin throuh his loins. By Geore, Gardner, you've ot somethin there, I should
think' I could license you to initiate people into the O.T.O. today, and you could lorm the
nucleus ol such a roup'
He paced in aitation. Yes, yes, he mused, hall to Gardner, hall to himsell. The Book.
The Mass. I could write some rituals. An 'ancient hook' ol maick. A 'hook ol shadows'.
Priestesses, naked irls. Yes. By ove, yes'
Great story, hut merely a dream , created out ol hits and pieces ol rumor, history and
imaination. Don't he surprised, thouh, il a year or live years lrom now you read it as
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ospel (which is an ironic synonym lor `truth') in some new learned text on the lahled
history ol Wicca. Such is the way all mytholoies come into hein.
Please don't misunderstand me here, I use the word `mytholoy' in this context in its
ahoriinal meanin, and with considerahle respect. History is more metaphor than lactual
accountin at hest, and there are myths hy which we live and others hy which we die.
Myths are the dreams and visions which parallel ohjective history.
To arrive at some perspective on what the modern mythos called, variously, Wicca, the
Old Reliion, Witchcralt and Neopaanism is, we must lirstly make a lirm
distinction, witchcralt in the popular inlormally delined sense may have little to do with
the modern reliion that oes hy the same name. It has heen arued hy delenders ol and
lormal apoloists lor modern Wicca that it is a direct lineal descendent ol an ancient,
indeed, prehistoric worldwide lolk reliion.
Some proponents hede their claims, callin Wicca a revival rather than a continuation
ol an ancient cult. Oddly enouh, there may never have heen any such cult' The lirst time
I met someone who thouht she was a witch, she started oin on ahout hein a hlue ol
the cloak. I should've heen warned riht then and there.
In lact, as time has passed and the reliion has spread, the claims ol lineal continuity have
tended to he heded more and more. Thus, we lind Dr. Gardner himsell, in q, statin
unamhiuously that some witches are descendants ... ol a line ol priests and priestesses ol
an old and prohahly Stone Ae reliion, who have heen initiated in a certain way
(received into the circle) and hecome the recipients ol certain ancient learnin. (Gardner,
WITCHCRAIT TODAY, pp. -.)
Stated in its most extreme lorm, Wicca may he delined as an ancient paan reliious
system ol heliels and practices, with a lorm ol `apostolic' succession (that is, with
knowlede and ordination handed on linearly lrom eneration to eneration), a more or
less consistent set ol rites and myths, and even a secret holy hook ol considerahle
antiquity (The Book ol Shadows).
More recent writers, as we have noted, have heded a ood deal on these claims,
particularly the latter. Thus we lind Stewart Iarrar in qy musin on the purported
ancient text thusly. Whether, therelore, the whole ol the Book ol Shadows is post-8qy
is anyone's uess. Mine is that, like the Bihle, it is a patchwork ol periods and sources, and
that since it is copied and re-copied hy hand, it includes amendments, additions, and
stylistic alterations accordin to the taste ol a succession ol copiers...Parts ol it I sense to
he enuinely old, other parts suest modern interpolation... (Iarrar, WHAT WITCHES
DO, pp. -) As we shall discover presently, there appear to he no enuinely old copies
ol the Book ol Shadows.
Still, as to the mythos , Iarrar inlorms us that the two personilications ol witchcralt are
the Horned God and the Mother Goddess... (ihid., p aq) and that the Horned God is not
the Devil, and never has heen. Il today `Satanist' covens do exist, they are not witches hut
a sick lrine, delayed-reaction victims ol a centuries-old Church propaanda in which
even intellient Christians no loner helieve... (ihid., p a).
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Il one is then to protest, `very well, some case miht he made lor the Horned God hein
mistaken lor the Christian Devil (or should that he the other way around:), hut what
record, prior to the advent c years ao ol modern Wicca via Gerald Gardner, do we have
ol the survival ol a mother oddess imae lrom ancient times:
Wiccan apoloists lrequently reler to the (apparently isolated) tenth century Church
document which states that some wicked women, perverted hy the Devil, seduced hy
the illusions and phantasms ol demons, helieve and proless themselves in the hours ol the
niht to ride upon certain heasts with Diana, the oddess ol paans, or with Herodias, and
an innumerahle multitude ol women, and in the silence ol the dead ol niht to traverse
reat spaces ol earth, and to ohey her commands as ol their mistress, and to he summoned
to her service on certain nihts. (Quoted in Valiente, WITCHCRAIT IOR
TOMORROW, Hale, qy8, p a. and hy Kramer and Sprener in the Montaue Summers'
translation ol THE HAMMER OI WITCHES ) This document dates lrom early post-
Roman Europe. Some lorm ol intact quasi paan lolk heliels did survive throuh this
period, even as late as the Hih Middle Aes it survived amon the Vikins ol Northern
Europe. Human Sacrilice was practiced at Old Upsala well into the Hih Middle Aes.
There has, however, never heen any evidence ol a link to modern Wicca, other than a
literary one.
Iarrar, lor his part, explains the lack ol relerences to a oddess in the testimony at the
inlamous witch trials hy assertin that the judes inored the Goddess, hein preoccupied
with the Satan-imae ol the God.. (WHAT WITCHES DO, p ). But it is the evidence
ol that rein ol terror which lasted lrom rouhly 8 to 6qa which hrins the whole idea
ol a survivin reliious cult into question. Authorities such as Dr. Mararet Murray to the
contrary, the conventional wisdom on the witch hurnin mania which swept like a plaue
over much ol Europe durin the transition lrom medieval world to modern is that it was
UST that, a mania, a delusion in the minds ol Christian clerymen and state authorities,
that is, there were no witches, only the innocent victims ol the witch hunt. Iurther, this
humanist arument oes, the `witchcralt' ol Satanic worship, hroomstick ridin, ol Sahats
and Devil-marks, was a rather late invention, horrowin hut little lrom remainin
memories ol actual pre Christian paanism. We have seen that the inlamous inquisitors
Kramer and Spriner knew lull well the early account mentioned ahove, and classical
paanism as a literary knowlede has never heen lorotten. We have seen a resurrection ol
this mania in the q8cs llurry over `Satanic sacrilicial' cults, with as little evidence. The
story still ets retold in the 'qcs on occasion, in lresh lorm.
The concept ol the heresy ol witchcralt was lrankly rearded as a new invention, hoth hy
the theoloians and hy the puhlic, writes Dr. Rossell Hope Rohhins in THE
ENCYCLOPEDIA OI WITCHCRAIT 8 DEMONOLOGY, (Crown, qq, p.q)Havin
to hurdle an early church law, the Canon Episcopi, which said in ellect that heliel in
witchcralt was superstitious and heretical, the inquisitors caviled hy aruin that the
witchcralt ol the Canon Episcopi and the witchcralt ol the Inquisition were dillerent...
The evidence extracted under the most ruesome and repeated tortures resemhle the
Wiccan reliion ol today in only the most cursory lashion. Thouh Wicca may have heen
lramed with the conlessions extracted hy victims ol the inquisitors in mind, those
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conlessions --- which are more than suspect, to hein with, hespeak a cult ol devil
worshipers dedicated to evil.
One need only read a lew ol the accounts ol the time to realize that, had there heen at the
time a reliion ol the Goddess and God, ol seasonal circles and The Book ol Shadows,
such would likely have heen hlurted out hy the victims, and more than once. The aonies
ol the accused were, almost literally, heyond the imaination ol those ol us who have
heen lortunate enouh to escape them.
The witch mania went perhaps unequaled in the annals ol crimes aainst humanity en
masse until the Hitlerian hrutality ol our own century. But, no such conlessions were
lorthcomin, thouh the wretches accused, helore the torture was done, would also he
compelled to condemn their own parents, spouses, loved ones, even children. They
conlessed, and to anythin the inquisitors wished, anythin to stop or reduce the pain.
A Priest, prohahly at risk to his own lile, recorded testimony in the 6ccs that rellected
the reality underlyin the lorced conlessions ol witches. Rev. Michael Stapirius
records, lor example, this comment lrom one conlessed witch. I never dreamed that hy
means ol the torture a person could he hrouht to the point ol tellin such lies as I have
told. I am not a witch, and I have never seen the devil, and still I had to plead uilty
mysell and denounce others.... All hut one copy ol Iather Stapirius' hook were destroyed,
and little wonder.
A letter smuled lrom a German huromaster, ohannes unius, to his dauhter in 6a8,
is as tellin as it is painlul even to read. His hands had heen virtually destroyed in the
torture, and he wrote only with reat aony and no hope. When at last the executioner
led me hack to the cell, he said to me, `Sir, I he you, lor God's sake, conless somethin,
whether it he true or not. Invent somethin, lor you cannot endure the torture which you
will he put to, and, even il you hear it all, yet you will not escape, not even il you were an
earl, hut one torture will lollow another until you say you are a witch. Not helore that,'
he said, `will they let you o, as you may see hy all their trials, lor one is just like
another...' (ihid., pp. a-)
Ior the raspers at straws, we may lind an occasional line in a conlession which is
intriuin, as in the notations on the conlession ol one woman lrom Germany dated in
late 6y. Alter days ol unspeakahle torment, wherein the woman conlesses under pain,
recants when the pain is removed, only to he moved hy more pain to conless aain, she is
asked. How did she inlluence the weather: She does not know what to say and can only
whisper, Oh, Heavenly Queen, protect me'
Was the victim callin upon the Goddess: Or, as seems more likely, upon that
alorementioned transliuration ol all ancient oddesses in Christian mytholoy, the Virin
Mary. One more quote lrom Dr. Rohhins, and I will cease to parade late medieval history
helore you.
It comes lrom yet another priest, Iather Cornelius Loos, who ohserved, in qa that
Wretched creatures are compelled hy the severity ol the torture to conless thins they
have never done, and so hy cruel hutchery innocent lives are taken..... (ihid., p 6). The
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evidence ol the witch trials indicates, on the whole, neither the Satanism the church and
state would have us helieve, nor the paan survivals now claimed hy modern Wicca,
rather, they suest only lear, reed, human hrutality carried out to hizarre extremes that
have lew parallels in all ol history. But, the hrutality is not that ol `witches' nor even ol
`Satanists' hut rather that ol the Christian Church, and the overnment.
What, then, are we to make ol modern Wicca: It must, ol course, he ohserved as an aside
that in a sense witchcralt or wisecralt has, indeed, heen with us lrom the dawn ol time,
not as a coherent reliion or set ol practices and heliels, hut as the lolk maic and
medicine that stretches hack to early, possihly Paleolithic trihal shamans on to modern
China's so-called hareloot doctors.
In another sense, we can also say that ceremonial maick, as I have previously noted, has
had a place in history lor a very lon time, and hoth these ancient systems ol heliel and
practice have interminled in the lore ol modern Wicca, as apoloists are quick to claim.
But, to an extent, this misses the point and skirts an essential question anyone has the
riht to ask ahout modern Wicca -- namely, did Wicca exist as a coherent creed, a distinct
lorm ol spiritual expression, prior to the qcs, that is, prior to the meetin ol minds
hetween the old maus and venerahle prophet ol the occult world Aleister Crowley, and
the lirst popularizer, il not outriht inventor ol modern Wicca, Gerald Brosseau Gardner:
There is certainly no douht that hits and pieces ol ancient paanism survived into modern
times in lolklore and, lor that matter, in the very practices and heliels ol Christianity.
Iurther, there appears to he some evidence that `Old Geore' Pickinill and others were
practicin some lorm ol Satanic lolk maick as early as the latter part ol the last century,
thouh even this has recently heen hrouht into question. Wiccan writers have made
much ol this in the past, hut just what `Old Geore' was into is suhject to much dehate.
Doreen Valiente, an astute Wiccan writer and one-time intimate ol the late Dr. Gardner
(and, in lact, the author ol some rituals now thouht hy others to he ol ancient oriin),
says ol Pickinill that so lierce was `Old Geore's dislike ol Christianity that he would
even collahorate with avowed Satanists... (TOMORROW, p ac). What Geore Pickinill
was doin is simply not clear.
He is said to have had some interaction with a host ol liures in the occult revival ol the
late nineteenth century, includin perhaps even Crowley and his teacher Bennett. It seems
possihle that Gardner, ahout the time ol meetin Crowley, had some involvement with
roups stemmin lrom Pickinill's earlier activities, hut it is only AITER Crowley and
Gardner meet that we hein to see anythin resemhlin the modern spiritual communion
that has hecome known as Wicca.
Witches, wrote Gardner in q, are consummate le-pullers, they are tauht it as part
ol their stock-in-trade. (WITCHCRAIT TODAY, p ay) Modern apoloists hoth ol
Aleister Crowley AND Gerald Gardner have taken on such serious tones as well as
pretensions that they may he missin places where tonues are lirmly juttin aainst
cheeks.
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Both men were helievers in lleshly lullillment, not only as an end in itsell hut, as in the
Tantric Yoa ol the East, as a means ol spiritual attainment. A certain prudishness has
crept into the practices ol postGardnerian Wiccans, especially in America since the q6cs,
alon with a certain leminist revisionism. This has succeeded to a considerahle extent in
convertin a lihertine sex cult into a rather staid Neopuritanism.
The oriinal Gardnerian current is still well enouh known and widely enouh in voue
(in Britain and Ireland especially) that one can venture to assert that what Gardnerian
Wicca is all ahout is the same thin Crowley was attemptin with a more narrow, more
intellectual constituency with the maical orders under his direct inlluence.
These Orders had llourished lor some time, hut hy the time Crowley` ollicially' met
Gardner in the qcs, much ol the lormer's lilelon ellorts had, il not totally disinterated,
at least were then operatin at a diminished and diminishin level.
Throuh his lon and lascinatin career as Maus and oranizer, there is some reason to
helieve that Crowley periodically may have wished lor, or even attempted to create a
more populist expression ol maical reliion. The Gnostic Mass, which Crowley wrote
lairly early-on, had come since his death to somewhat lill this lunction throuh the OTO-
connected hut (lor a time) semi-autonomous Gnostic Catholic Church (EGC).
As we shall see momentarily, one ol Crowley's key lollowers was puhlishin manilestos
lorecastin the revival ol witchcralt at the same time Gardner was hein chartered hy
Crowley to oranize an OTO encampment. The OTO itsell, since Crowley's time, has
taken on a more popular imae, and is somewhat less elitist and more oriented towards
international oranizational ellorts, thanks larely to the work under the Caliphate ol the
late Grady McMurtry. This contrasts sharply with the very internalized OTO that harely
survived durin the McCarthy Era, when the late Karl Germer was in chare, and the
OTO turned inward lor two decades. (On the other hand, Germer when seen less as an
active Grand Master and more as a Conservator ol ideas and rites in a dark ae comes oll
a ood deal hetter.)
The lamous Ancient and Mystic Order ol the Rose Cross (AMORC), the hihly
successlul mail-order spiritual lellowship, was an OTO ollsprin in Crowley's time. It has
heen claimed that Kenneth Grant and Aleister Crowley were discussin relatively radical
chanes in the Ordo Templi Orientis at approximately the same time that Gardner and
Crowley were interactive. Indeed, Crowley's correspondence and conversations with his
eventual successor Grady McMurtry suest that in his last years the old Maus
envisioned the need lor a new eneration ol leaders with new ideas.
Thouh Wiccan writers ive some lip service (and, no douht, some sincere credence) to
the notion that the validity ol Wiccan ideas doesn't depend upon its lineae, the
suestion that Wicca is -- or, at least, started out to he, essentially a late attempt at
popularizin the secrets ol ritual and sexual maick Crowley promulated throuh the
OTO and his writins, seems to evoke nervousness, il not hostility.
One notes ross animosity or a certain culpahle nervousness. We hear lrom Wiccan writer
and leader Raymond Buckland that one ol the suestions made is that Aleister Crowley
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wrote the rituals . . . hut no convincin evidence has heen presented to hack this assertion
and, to my mind, it seems extremely unlikely . . . (Gardner, ihid., introduction) The
Wiccan rituals I have seen DO have much ol Crowley in them. Yet, as we shall see in
presently, the explanation that `Crowley wrote the rituals lor Gardner' turns out to he
somewhat in error. But it is on the riht track.
Doreen Valiente attempts to invoke Crowley's alleed inlirmity at the time ol his
acquaintance with Gardner.
It has heen stated hy Irancis Kin in his RITUAL MAGIC IN ENGLAND that Aleister
Crowley was paid hy Gerald Gardner to write the rituals ol Gardner's new witch
cult...Now, Gerald Gardner never met Aleister Crowley until the very last years ol the
latter's lile, when he was a leehle old man livin at a private hotel in Hastins, hein kept
alive hy injections ol drus... Il, therelore, Crowley really invented these rituals in their
entirety, they must he ahout the last thin he ever wrote. Was this enleehled and
practically dyin man really capahle ol such a tour de lorce:
The ohvious answer, as the late Dr. Israel Reardie's introduction to the posthumous
collection ol Crowley's letters, MAGICK WITHOUT TEARS, implies, would seem to he
yes. Crowley continued to produce extraordinary material almost to the end ol his lile,
and much ol what I have seen ol the Wiccan Crowley is, in any case, ol earlier oriin.
Gerald Gardner is himsell not altoether silent on the suhject. In WITCHCRAIT
TODAY (p y), Gardner asks himsell, with what deree ol irony one can only uess at,
who, in modern times, could have invented the Wiccan rituals. The only man I can think
ol who could have invented the rites, he ollers, was the late Aleister Crowley....possihly
he horrowed thins lrom the cult writins, or more likely someone may have horrowed
expressions lrom him.... A lew les may he hein pulled here, and perhaps more than a
lew.
As a prophet ahead ol his time, as a poet and dreamer, Crowley is one ol the outstandin
liures ol the twentieth (or any) century. As an oranizer, he was almost as much ol a
calamity as he was at manain his own linances...and personal lile. As I understand the
liheratory nature ol the maical path, one would do well to see the dillerence hetween
Crowley the prophet ol Thelema and Crowley the insolvent and awkward administrator.
Crowley very much lacked the common touch, Gardner was ahove all thins a
popularizer. Both men have heen reviled as lecherous dirty old men -- Crowley, as a
seducer ol women and a homosexual, a dru addict and `Satanist' rolled toether.
Gardner was, they would have it, a voyeur, exhihitionist and hondae lreak with a
`penchant lor ritual' to horrow a line lrom THE STORY OI O. Both were, in reality,
spiritual lihertines, ceremonial maicians who did not shy away lrom the awesome lorce
ol human sexuality and its potential lor spiritual translormation as well as physical
ratilication.
I will not say with linality at this point whether Wicca is an outriht invention ol these
two divine mountehanks. Il so, more power to them, and to those who truly lollow in
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their path. I do know that, around q, Crowley met with Gardner , and ave him license
to oranize an OTO encampment. This was, as it turns out, a serious ellort hy Crowley to
estahlish a new OTO presence in Britain. As late as May ol qy we have seen letters lrom
Crowley to one ol his key associates urin the latter to send his lollowers in London to
Dr. Gardner so that they miht receive proper initiation in OTO throuh Gardner's OTO
Camp, which Crowley anticipated hein in operation in a matter ol weeks. Alter
Crowley's death his close collahorator, Lady Harris, thouht Gardner to he Crowley's
successor as head ol the OTO in Europe. Gardner claimed as much himsell. See helow.
Shortly therealter, the puhlic lace ol Wicca came into view, and that is what I know ol
the matter. I presently have in my possession Gardner's certilicate ol license to oranize
said OTO camp, sined and sealed hy Aleister Crowley. The certilicate and its import are
examined in connection with my personal search lor the oriinal Book ol Shadows in the
next section ol this narrative.
Ior now, thouh, let us note in the years since Crowley chartered Gardner to oranize a
maical encampment, Wicca has hoth rown in popularity and hecome, to my mind,
somethin lar less REAL than either Gardner or Crowley could have wanted or loreseen.
Wherever they came lrom, the rites and practices which came lrom or throuh Gerald
Gardner were stron, and tapped into that archetypal reality, that level ol consciousness
heneath the mask ol polite society and conventional wisdom which is the lunction ol
True Maick.
At a popular level, this was the Tantric Sex Maick ol the West. Whether this primordial
access has heen lost to us will depend on the awareness, the awakenin or lack thereol
amon practitioners ol the near to middle-near luture. Carried to its end Gardnerian
practices, like Crowley's maick, are not merely exotic, they are, in the truest sense,
suhversive.
Practices that WORK are ol value, whether they are two years old or two thousand.
Practices, myths, institutions and ohliations which, on the other hand, may he inlinitely
ancient are ol no value at all UNLESS they work.
The Devil, you say
Belore we move on, thouh, in liht ol the luror over real and imained Satanism that
has overtaken parts ol the popular press in recent years, I would leel a hit remiss in this
account il I did not take momentary note ol that other strain ol lelt-handed occult
mytholoy, Satanism. Wiccans are correct when they say that modern Wicca is not
Satanic, that Satanism is reverse Christianity whereas Wicca is a separate, non Christian
reliion.
Still, it should he noted, so much ol our society has heen rounded in the repressiveness
and authoritarian moralism ol what passes lor Christianity that a liheral dose ol
counterChristianity is to he expected. The Pat Rohertsons ol the world make possihle
the Anton LeVays. In the lon history ol repressive reliion, a certain lahle ol Satanism
has arisen. It constitutes a mythos ol its own. No douht, misuided `copycat' lanatics have
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sometimes misused this mythos, in much the same way that Charles Manson misused the
music and culture ol the q6cs.
True occult initiates have always rearded the Ultimate Reality as heyond all names and
description. Named `deities' are, therelore, larely symhols. Isis is a symhol ol the lon-
denied lemale component ol deity to some occultists. Pan or The Horned God or Set
or even Satan are symhols ol unconscious, repressed sexuality. To the occultist, there is
no Devil, no od ol evil. There is, ultimately, only the Ain Sol Aur ol the Qahala, the
limitless liht ol which we are hut a lrozen spark. Evil, in this system, is the mere ahsence
ol liht. All else is illusion.
The oal ol the occult path ol initiation is BALANCE. In Ireemasonry and Hih Maick,
the symhols ol the White Pillar and Black Pillar represent this halance hetween conscious
and unconscious lorces.
In Gardnerian Wicca, the Goddess and Horned God - and the Priestess and Priest,
represent that halance. There is nothin, nothin whatever ol pacts with the Devil or
the worship ol evil in any ol this, that helons to misuided ex Christians who have heen
iven the ahsurd lundamentalist Sunday school notion that one must choose the exoteric
Christian version ol God, or choose the Devil. Islam, udaism and even Catholicism have
at one time or another heen thouht Satanic, and occultists have merely played on this
hioted symholism, not suhscrihed to it.
As we have seen, Wicca since Gardner's time has heen watered down in many ol its
expressions into a kind ol mushy white-liht `New Ae' reliion, with lar less ol the
stron sexuality characteristic ol Gardnerianism, thouh, also, sometimes with less
pretense as well.
In any event, Satanism has popped up now and aain throuh much ol the history ol the
Christian Church. The medieval witches were not likely to have heen Satanists, as the
Church would have it, hut, as we have seen, neither were they likely to have heen
witches in the Wiccan sense, either.
The Helllire Cluhs ol the Eihteenth Century were mockinly Satanic, and roups like
the Process Church ol the Iinal udment do, indeed, have Satanic elements in their (one
should rememher) essentially Christian theoloy.
Aleister Crowley, ever theatrical, was prone to use Satanic symholism in much the same
way, tonue juttin in cheek, as he was iven to sayin that he sacriliced hundreds ol
children each year, that is, that he was sexually active . Crowley once called a press
conlerence at the loot ol the Statue ol Liherty, where he announced that he was hurnin
his British Passport to protest Britain's involvement in World War One. He tossed an
empty envelope into the water.
The most popular lorm ol counter Christianity to emere in modern times, thouh, was
Anton Szandor LaVey's San Irancisco-hased Church ol Satan, lounded April c, q66.
LaVey's Church enjoyed an initial hurst ol press interest, rew to a suhstantial size, and
appeared to maintain itsell durin the cultural drouht ol the qycs. But LaVey's hooks,
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THE SATANIC BIBLE and THE SATANIC RITUALS, have remained in print lor many
years, and his ideas seem to he enjoyin a renewal ol interest, especially amon youner
people, punks and heavy metal lans with a death-wish mostly, heinnin in the middle
years ol the q8cs. By that time the Church ol Satan had heen larely succeeded hy the
Temple ol Set. This is pure theater or psychodrama, more in the nature ol psychotherapy
than reliion.
It is interestin to note Irancis Kin's ohservation that helore the Church ol Satan hean
LaVey was involved in an occult roup which included, amon others, underround lilm
maker Kenneth Aner, a Person well known in Crowlean circles. Ol the rites ol the
Church ol Satan, Kin states that ...most ol its teachins and maical techniques were
somewhat vularized versions ol those ol Aleister Crowley's Ordo Templi Orientis .
(MAN MYTH AND MAGIC, p ac.) To which we miht add that, as with the OTO,
the rites ol the Church ol Satan and Temple ol Set are manilestly potent, hut hardly
criminal or murderous.
LaVey, like Gardner and unlike Crowley, appears to have had the common touch --
perhaps rather more so than Gardner. This attraction was, however, cauht up in the
hedonism ol the qycs, and has little to say at the end ol the acth Century.
I determined to trace the Wiccan rumor to its source. As we shall see, in the very year I
lell into hein a Gnostic Bishop, I also lell into the oriinal charters, rituals and
paraphernalia ol Wicca.
THE CHARTER AND THE BOOK
Bein A Radical Revisionist History ol the Oriins ol the Modern Witch Cult and The
Book ol Shadows.
G. B. Gardner . . . is head ol the O.T.O. in Europe. Lady Ireida Harris, letter to Karl
Germer, anuary a, q8
It was one ol the secret doctrines ol paanism that the Sun was the source, not only ol
liht, hut ol lile The invasion ol classical heliels hy the reliions ol Syria and Eypt which
were principally solar, radually allected the conception ol Apollo, and there is a certain
later identilication ol him with the sullerin God ol Christianity, Ireemasonry and similar
cults
Aleister Crowley in Astroloy, qy
il GBG and Crowley only knew each other lor a short year or two, do you think that
would he lon enouh lor them to hecome such ood lriends that ilts ol personal value
would he exchaned several times, and that GBG would have heen ahle to acquire the
vast majority ol Crowley's ellects alter his death:
Merlin the Enchanter, personal letter, q86
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...On the lloor helore the altar, he rememhers a sword with a llat crucilorm hrass hilt,
and a well-worn manuscript hook ol rituals - the hereditary Book ol Shadows, which he
will have to copy out lor himsell in the days to come... Stewart Iarrar in What Witches
Do, qy
...the Gardnerian Book ol Shadows is one ol the key lactors in what has hecome a lar
hier and more sinilicant movement than Gardner can have envisaed, so historical
interest alone would he enouh reason lor delinin it while lirst-hand evidence is still
availahle...
anet and Stewart Iarrar in The Witches' Way, q8
It has heen alleed that a Book ol Shadows in Crowley's hand-writin was lormerly
exhihited in Gerald's Museum ol Witchcralt on the Isle ol Man. I can only say I never saw
this on either ol the two occasions when I stayed with Gerald and Donna Gardner on the
island. The lare, handwritten hook depicted in Witchcralt Today is not in Crowley's
handwritin, hut Gerald's... Doreen Valiente in Witchcralt lor Tomorrow, qy8
Aidan Kelly. . . lahels the entire Wiccan revival `Gardnerian Witchcralt . . . ' The
reasonin and speculation in Aidan's hook are intricate. Brielly, his main arument
depends on his discovery ol one ol Gardner's workin notehooks, Ye Book ol Ye Art
Maical, which is in possession ol Ripley International, Ltd...... Marot Adler in Drawin
Down the Moon, qyq



WAITING IOR THE MAN IROM CANADA
I was, lor the third time in lour years, waitin a hit nervously lor the Canadian executive
with the oriinal Book ol Shadows in the ramshackle ollice ol Ripley's Believe It or Not
Museum.
They're at the jail, a smilin secretary-type explained, hut we've called them and they
should he hack over here to see you in just a lew minutes.
The jail : Ah, St. Auustine, Ilorida. The Old ail, was the `nation's oldest city's' second
most tasteless tourist trap, complete with cae-type cells and a mock allows. Ior a
moment I allowed mysell to play in my head with the vision ol Norm Deska, Ripley
Operations Vice President and ohn Turner, the General Manaer ol Ripley's local
operation and the uy who'd houht the Gerald Gardner collection lrom Gardner's niece,
Monique Wilson, sittin in the slammer. But no, Turner apparently had just heen showin
Deska the town. I straihtened my ice cream suit lor the liltieth time, and suppressed the
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comment. We were talkin BIG history here, and hi hucks, too. I ulped. The oriinal
Book ol Shadows. Mayhe.
It had started years helore. One ol the last people in America to he a lan ol carnival
sideshows, I was anxious to take another opportunity to o throuh the almost
archetypally seedy old home that housed the oriinal Ripley's Museum.
I had known that Ripley had, in the nineteen seventies, acquired the Gardner stull, hut as
lar as I knew it was all located at their Tennessee resort museum. I think I'd heard they'd
closed it down. By then, the social liheralism ol the early seventies was over, and
witchcralt and sorcery were no loner in keepin with a `lamily style' museum. It leatured
a man with a candle in his head, a Tantric skull drinkin cup and lreak show stull like
that, hut, that, apparently, was deemed suitahle lamily lun.
I was a hit surprised, then, when I discovered some ol the Gardner stull - includin an
important historical document, lor sale in the ilt shop, in a case just opposite the little
alliators that have St. Auustine, Ilorida - America's Oldest City stickered on their
plastic hellies lor the lolks hack home to use as a paper-weiht. The price tas on the
occult stull, however, were way out ol my rane.
Back aain, three years later, and I decided, what the hell, so I asked the cashier ahout the
stull still atherin dust in the lass case, and it was like I'd pushed some kind ol hutton.
Out comes Mr. Turner, the manaer, who whisks us oll to a store room which is lilled,
IILLED, I tell you, with parts ol the Gardner collection, much ol it, il not lor sale as
such, at least availahle lor neotiation. Mr. Turner told us ahout acquirin the collection
when he was manaer ol Ripley's Blackpool operation, how it had one over well in the
U.S. at lirst, hut had lost popularity and was now releated lor the most part to storae
status.
Visions ol suarplums danced in my head. There were many treasures here, hut the
hiest plum ol all, I thouht, was not surprisinly, not to he seen.
I'd heard all kinds ol rumors ahout the Book ol Shadows over the years, many ol them
conllictin, all ol them intriuin. Rumor , ol course, is that which accompanied the
hirth (or, dependin on how one looked at it, the revival) ol modern Wicca, the
contemporary successor ol ancient lertility cults.
It revolved around elemental rituals, secret rites ol passae and a mythos ol oddess and
od that seemed attractive to me as a psycholoically valid alternative to the austere,
antisexual moralism ol Christianity. The Book ol Shadows, in this context, was the `holy
hook' ol Wicca, copied out hy hand hy new initiates ol the cult with a history stretchin
hack at least to the era ol witch hurnins.
Rumor a, which I had tended to credit, had it that Gerald Gardner, the `lather ol
modern Wicca' had paid Aleister Crowley in his linal years to write the Book ol Shadows,
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perhaps whole cloth. The rumor's chiel exponent was the respected historian ol the
occult, Irancis Kin.
Rumor had it that Gardner had written the Book himsell, which others had since
copied and/or stolen.
To the contrary, said rumor , Gardner's Museum had contained an old, even ancient
copy ol the Book ol Shadows, provin its antiquity.
In more recent years modern Wiccans have tended to put some distance hetween
themselves and Gardner, just as Gardner, lor complex reasons, tended to distance himsell
in the early years ol Wicca (circa q-q) lrom the hlatant sexual maick ol Aleister
Crowley, the wickedest man in the world hy some accounts, and lrom Crowley's
oranization, the Ordo Templi Orientis . Why Gardner chose to do this is speculative, hut
I've ot some idea. But, I'm ettin ahead ol mysell.
While Turner showed me a hlasphemous cross shaped lrom the hody ol two nude
women (created lor the 8th century inlamous Helllire Cluhs in Enland and depicted
in the MAN MYTH AND MAGIC encyclopedia,I houht it, ol course) and a statue ol
Beelzehuh lrom the dusty Garderian archives, a thouht occurred to me. You know, I
suested, il you ever, in all this stull, happen across a copy ol The Book ol Shadows in
the handwritin ol Aleister Crowley, it would he ol considerahle historical value.
I understated the case. It would he like lindin The Book ol Mormon in oseph Smith's
hand, or lindin the oriinal Ten Commandments written not hy God Himsell, hut hy
Moses, pure and simple. (Better still, eleven commandments, with a marin note, lirst
dralt.) I didn't really expect anythin to come ol it, and in the months ahead, it didn't.
In the meantime, I had manaed to acquire the interestin document I lirst mistook lor
Gerald Gardner's (lon acknowleded) initiation certilicate into Crowley's Thelemic
maical Ordo Templi Orientis . To my eventual surprise, I discovered that, not only was
this not a simple initiation certilicate lor the Minerval (prohationary-lowest) deree, hut,
to the contrary, was a Charter lor Gardner to hein his own encampment ol the O.T.O.,
and to initiate memhers into the O.T.O.
In the document, lurthermore, Gardner is relerred to as Prince ol erusalem --that is, he
is acknowleded to he a Iourth Deree Perlect Initiate in the Order. This, needless to say,
would usually imply years ol dedicated trainin. Thouh Gardner had claimed Iourth
Deree O.T.O. status as early as puhlication ol Hih Maic's Aid,(and claimed even hiher
status in one edition' ) this runs somewhat contrary to hoth enerally held Wiccan and
contemporary O.T.O. orthodox understandins that the O.T.O. was then lallow in
Enland.
At the time the document was written, most maintained, Gardner could have known
Crowley lor only a hriel period, and was not himsell deeply involved in the O.T.O. The
document is undated hut prohahly was drawn up around q.
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As I said, it was once understood that no viahle chapter ol the O.T.O. was supposed to
exist in Enland at that time, the only active chapter was in Calilornia, and is the direct
antecedent ol the contemporary authentic Ordo Templi Orientis. Karl Germer, Crowley's
immediate successor, had harely escaped death in a Concentration Camp durin the War,
his mere association with Crowley hein tantamount to a death sentence. But Crowley
himsell clearly expected Gardner to estahlish an OTO Camp, and was relerrin lollowers
to Gardner lor initiation as late as qy.
The German OTO had heen larely destroyed hy the Nazis, alon with other Ireemasonic
oranizations, and Crowley himsell was in declinin health and power, the Enlish OTO
virtually dead. A provincial Swiss hranch existed, hut was hihly insular and tendin
towards schism. The Charter also displayed other irreularities ol a revealin nature.
Thouh the sinature and seals are certainly those ol Crowley, the text is in the decorative
hand ol Gerald Gardner' The complete text reads as lollows. Do what thou wilt shall he
the law. We Baphomet X Deree Ordo Templi Orientis Soverein Grand Master General
ol All Enlish speakin countries ol the Earth do herehy authorise our Beloved Son Scire
(Dr.G,B,Gardner,) Prince ol erusalem to constitute a camp ol the Ordo Templi Orientis,
in the deree Minerval. Love is the Law, Love under will. Witness my hand and seal
Baphomet X o Leavin aside the misquotation lrom The Book ol the Law (Do what
thou wilt shall he the Law instead ol Do what thou wilt shall he the whole ol the Law),
which ot hy me lor some months and prohahly ot hy Crowley when it was presented to
him lor sinature, the document is delinitely authentic. It hun lor some time in
Gardner's museum, possihly ivin rise, as we shall see, to the rumor that Crowley wrote
the Book ol Shadows lor Gardner. Accordin to Doreen Valiente, and to Col. Lawrence as
well, the museum's descriptive pamphlet says ol this document.
The collection includes a Charter ranted hy Aleister Crowley to G.B. Gardner (the
Director ol this Museum) to operate a Lode ol Crowley's lraternity, the Ordo Templi
Orientis. (The Director would like to point out, however, that he has never used this
Charter and has no intention ol doin so, althouh to the hest ol his heliel he is the only
person in Britain possessin such a Charter lrom Crowley himsell, Crowley was a personal
lriend ol his, and ave him the Charter hecause he liked him. This was prohahly written
well alter Wicca was developed in the lorm it is today identilied with, at least in Britain.
As I point out elsewhere, Crowley clearly took the Charter seriously, even openly
envisionin it extendin to a Lode to do the entire Man ol Earth Series ol OTO
initiations eventually. Gardner, lor his part, places a dillerent connotation on the Charter
at an earlier time, ivin out the impression that it makes him the Grand Master ol the
OTO in Europe.
Col. Lawrence (Merlin the Enchanter), in a letter to me dated 6 Decemher, q86, adds
that this appeared in Gardner's hooklet, The Museum ol Maic and Witchcralt. The
explanation lor the curious wordin ol the text, takin, as Dr. Gardner does, reat pains to
distance himsell lrom Crowley and the OTO, may he hinted at in that the hooklet
suests that this display in the new upper allery (pae a) was put out at a relatively
late date when, as we shall discover, Gardner was makin himsell answerahle to the
demands ol the new witch cult and not the lon-dead Crowley and (then) relatively
morihund OTO.
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Now, the my lriend Aleister ploy miht explain the whole thin. Perhaps, as some
includin Ms. Valiente helieve, Aleister Crowley was desperate in his last years to hand on
what he saw as his leacy to someone. He recklessly handed out his literary estate, perhaps
ave contradictory instruction to various ol his remainin lew devotees (e.. Kenneth
Grant, Grady McMurtry, Karl Germer), and may have iven Gardner an accelerated
advancement in his order.
There is, however, certainly reason to dispute this. I have read Crowley's letters to ack
Parsons and to Karl Germer, and others, includin the more lamous letters puhlished as
MAGICK WITHOUT TEARS, and his now celehrated authorizations to Grady
McMurtry -- all very late writins indeed, as well as his Last Will and Testament dated
une q, qy, only six months prior to his death, and Crowley seems intent upon an
orderly process ol transition ol his minor linancial estate and, more importantly, his
suhstantial literary estate, to the OTO leadership which, he leaves no douht in his Will,
lalls to Germer, then Grand Treasurer General ol the OTO. To the end he continues to
critique what he sees as unsound thinkin (letters to Parsons and Germer in q6), and to
speak ol movin to Calilornia to he with Aape Lode, hy then the remainin centerpiece
ol the OTO, hut also relerrin to Gardner's Camp in London as a virtual accomplished
lact.
Ms. Valiente, a devoted Wiccan who is also a dedicated seeker alter the historical truth,
mentions also the claim made hy the late Gerald Yorke to her that Gardner had paid
Crowley a suhstantial sum lor the document. In a letter to me dated a8th Auust, q86,
Ms. Valiente tells ol a meetin with Yorke ...in London many years ao and mentioned
Gerald's O.T.O. Charter to him, whereon he told me, `Well, you know, Gerald Gardner
paid old Crowley ahout (Scc) or so lor that...' This may or may not he correct... Money
or lriendship do not explain the Charter.
I used to have a Thelemic acquaintance who, havin advanced well alon the path ol
Kenneth Grant's spurious version ol the OTO, went hack to square one with the
unquestionahly authentic Grady McMurtry OTO. Over a period ol years ol suhstantial
ellort, he made his way to the IV `plus' status implied hy Gardner's Prince ol erusalem
desination in the charter, and has since one heyond.
I can tell you ol my own knowlede that hecomin a Companion ol the Royal Arch ol
Enoch, Perlect Initiate, Prince ol erusalem and Chartered Initiator is, ordinarily, a lon
and arduous task in the OTO.
Gardner was in the hahit, alter the puhlic career ol Wicca emered in the qcs, ol
downradin any Crowleyite associations out ol his past, and, as anet and Stewart Iarrar
reveal in The Witches' Way (q8, p) there are three distinct versions ol the Book ol
Shadows in Gerald Gardner's handwritin which incorporate successively less material
lrom Crowley's writins, thouh the last (termed Text C and cowritten with Doreen
Valiente alter q) is still heavily inlluenced hy Crowley and the OTO.
Ms. Valiente has recently uncovered a copy ol an old occult maazine contemporary with
Hih Maic's Aid and lrom the same puhlisher, which discusses an ancient Indian
document called The Book ol Shadows hut apparently totally unrelated to the Wiccan
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hook ol the same name. Valiente acknowledes that the earliest text hy Gardner known
to her was untitled, thouh she relers to it as a Book ol Shadows.
It seems suspicious timin, did Gardner take over the title lrom his puhlisher's maazine:
Ms. Valiente ohserved to me that the ...eastern Book ol Shadows does not seem to have
anythin to do with witchcralt at all....is this where old Gerald lirst lound the expression
The Book ol Shadows and adopted it as a more poetical name lor a maical manuscript
than, say `The Grimoire' or `The Black Book'....I don't proless to know the answer, hut I
douht il this is mere coincidence....
The claim is lrequently made hy those who wish to `salvae' a preGardnerian source ol
Wiccan materials that there is a `core' ol `authentic' materials. But, as the Iarrars' recently
asserted, the portions ol the Book ol Shadows ..which chaned least hetween Texts A, B
and C were naturally the three initiation rituals, hecause these, ahove all, would he the
traditional elements which would have heen carelully preserved, prohahly lor centuries....
But what does one mean hy traditional materials: The three initiation rites, now much-
descrihed in print, all smack heavily ol the crypto-Ireemasonic ritual ol the Hermetic
Order ol the Golden Dawn, the OTO, and the various esoteric NeoRosicrucian roups
that ahounded in Britain lrom ahout 88 on, and which were, it is widely known, the
lountainhead ol much that is associated with Gardner's lriend Crowley.
The Third Deree ritual, perhaps Wicca's ultimate rite, is, essentially, a nonsymholic
Gnostic Mass, that heautilul, evocative, erotic and esoteric ritual written and puhlished hy
Crowley in the Equinox, alter attendin a Russian Orthodox Mass in the early part ol this
century. The Gnostic Mass has had lar-reachin inlluence, and it would appear that the
Wiccan Third Deree is one ol the most hlatant examples ol that inlluence.
Take, lor example, this excerpt lrom what is perhaps the most intimate, most secret and
most suhlime moment in the entire repertoire ol Wicca rituals, the nonsymholic (that is,
overtly sexual) Great Rite ol the Third Deree initiation, as related hy anet and Stewart
Iarrar in The Witches' Way (p.).
The Priest continues. `O Secret ol Secrets, That art hidden in the hein ol all lives, Not
thee do we adore, Ior that which adoreth is also thou. Thou art That, and That am I. |Kiss
I am the llame that hurns in the heart ol every man, And in the core ol every star. I am
lile, and the iver ol lile. Yet therelore is the knowlede ol me the knowlede ol death. I
am alone, the Lord within ourselves, Whose name is Mystery ol Mysteries.'
Let us he unamhiuous as to the importance in Wicca ol this ritual, as the Iarrars' put it
(p.) Third deree initiation elevates a witch to the hihest ol the three rades ol the
Cralt. In a sense, a third-deree witch is lully independent, answerahle only to the Gods
and his or her own conscience... In short, in a manner ol speakin this is all that Wicca
can oller a devotee.
With this in mind, ohserve the lollowin, lrom Aleister Crowley's Gnostic Mass, lirst
puhlished in The Equinox over 8c years ao and routinely perlormed (alheit in the
symholic lorm) hy me and hy many other Bishops, Priests, Priestesses and Deacons in the
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OTO and Ecclesia Gnostica (EGC) today. The lollowin is excerpted lrom Gems Irom
the Equinox, p. ya, hut is widely availahle in puhlished lorm. The Priest. O secret ol
secrets that art hidden in the hein ol all that lives, not Thee do we adore, lor that which
adoreth is also Thou. Thou art That, and That am I. I am the llame that hurns in every
heart ol man, and in the core ol every star. I am Lile, and the iver ol Lile, yet therelore is
the knowlede ol me the knowlede ol death. I am alone, there is no God where I am.
So, then, where, apart lrom Ireemasonry and the Thelemic tradition ol Crowley and the
OTO, is the traditional material some Wiccan writers seem to seek with near
desperation: I am not tryin to he sarcastic in the least, hut even commonplace sell -
relerences used amon Wiccans today, such as the Cralt or the relrain so mote it he
are lilted straiht out ol Ireemasonry (see, lor example, Duncan's Ritual ol Ireemasonry).
And, as Doreen Valiente notes in her letter to me mentioned helore, ...ol course old
Gerald was also a memher ol the Co-Masons, and an ordinary Ireemason... as well as an
OTO memher.
THE REAL ORIGIN OI WICCA
We must dismiss with some respect the assertion, put lorth hy Marot Adler and others,
that Wicca no loner adheres to the orthodox mythos ol the Book ol Shadows.
Many, il not most ol those who have heen drawn to Wicca in the last three decades came
to it under the spell (il I may so term it) ol the leend ol ancient Wicca. Il that leend is
lalse, then while relormists and revisionist apoloists (particularly the peculiar hyhrid
spawned in the late sixties (under the name leminist Wicca) may seek other valid
rounds lor their practices, we at least owe it to those who have operated under a
misapprehension to explain the truth, and let the chips lall where they may.
I helieve there is a core ol valid experience lallin under the Wiccan-Neopaan headin,
hut that that core is the same essential core that lies at the truths exposed hy the dreaded
hoey-man Aleister Crowley and the` wicked' pansexualism ol Crowley's Law ol
Thelema. That such roots would he not just uncomlortahle, hut intolerahle to the
orthodox traditionalists amon the Wiccans, hut even more so amon the hyhrid leminist
Wiccans may indeed he an understatement.
Neopaanism, in a now archaic hippie misreadin ol ecoloy, mistakes responsihle
stewardship ol nature lor nature worship. Ancient paans did not `worship' nature, to a
lare extent they were alraid ol it, as has heen pointed out to me hy lolk practitioners.
Their nature rites were to propitiate the caprice ol the ods, not necessarily to honor
them. The lirst Neopaan revivalists, Gardner, Crowley and Dr. Murray, well understood
this. Neopaan Wiccans usually do not.
In introducin a oddess element into their theoloy, Crowley and Gardner hoth
understood the yin/yan, male/lemale lundamental polarity ol the universe. Radical
leminist Neopaans have taken this halance and altered it, however unintentionally, into a
political leminist aenda, centered around a near-monotheistic worship ol the lemale
principle, in a hizarre caricature ol patriarchal Christianity.
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I do not say these thins lihtly, I have seen it happen in my own time. II this he truth, let
truth name its own price. I was not sure, until Norm and ohn ot hack lrom the Old ail.
A couple ol months earlier, scant days alter hearin that I was to hecome a Gnostic
Bishop and thus an heir to a corner ol Crowley's leacy, I had punched on my answerin
machine, and there was the unexpected voice ol ohn Turner sayin that he had located
what seemed to he the oriinal Book ol Shadows in an inventory list, locatin it at Ripley's
ollice in Toronto.
He said he didn't think they would sell it as an individual item, hut he ave me the name
ol a top ollicial in the Ripley oranization, who I promptly contacted. I eventually made a
suhstantial oller lor the hook, siht unseen, liurin there was (at the least) a likelihood
I'd he ahle to turn the story into a hook and et my money hack out ol it, to say nothin
ol the historical import.
But, as I researched the matter, I hecame more wary, and conlused, Gardner's texts A
B and C all seemed to he accounted lor. Possihly, I hean to suspect, this was either a
duplicate ol the deThelemicised post - q version with sements written hy Gardner
and Valiente and copied and recopied (as well as distorted) lrom hand to hand since hy
Wiccans the world over.
Mayhe, I mused, Valiente had one copy and Gardner another, the latter sold to Ripley
with the Collection. Or, perhaps it was the curious notehook discovered hy Aidan Kelly
in the Ripley liles called Ye Book ol Ye Art Maical, the meanin ol which was unclear.
While chattin with Ms. Deska, Norm returned lrom his mission, we introduced in
husinesslike lashion, and he told me he'd et the hook, whatever it miht he, lrom the
vault.
The vault:' I sat there thinkin God knows what . Recently, I'd otten a call lrom
Toronto, and it seems the Ripley lolks wanted me to take a look at what they had. I had
made a considerahle oller, and at that point I liured I'd had at least a nihhle. As it so
happened Norm would he visitin on a routine inspection visit, so it was arraned he
would hrin the manuscript with him.
Almost lrom the minute he placed it in lront ol me, thins hean to make some kind ol
sense. Clearly, this was Ye Book ol Ye Art Maical. ust as clearly, it was an unusual piece,
written larely in the same hand as the Charter I had ohtained earlier -- that is, in the
hand ol Gerald Gardner. Ol this I hecame certain, hecause I had handwritin samples ol
Gardner, Valiente and Crowley in my possession. Ms. Valiente had heen mindlul ol this
when she wrote me, on Auust 8th, q86.
I have deliherately chosen to write you in lonhand, rather than send a typewritten reply,
so that you will have somethin hy which to jude the validity ol the claim you tell me is
hein made hy the Ripley oranisation to have a copy ol a Book ol Shadows in Gerald
Gardner's handwritin and mine. Il this is...Ye Book ol Ye Art Maical, ....this is
delinitely in Gerald Gardner's handwritin. Old Gerald, however, had several styles ol
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handwritin....I think it is prohahle that the whole MS. was in lact written hy Gerald, and
no other person was involved, hut ol course I may he wron....
At lirst lance it appeared to he a very old hook, and it suested to me where the rumors
that a very old, possihly medieval Book ol Shadows had once heen on display in Gardner's
Museum had emered lrom.
Any casual onlooker miht see Ye Book in this liht, lor the cover was indeed that ol an
old volume, with the oriinal title scratched out crudely on the side and a new title tooled
into the leather cover. The oriinal was some mundane volume, on Asian knives or
somethin (an interest ol Gardner's), hut the inside paes had heen removed, and a kind
ol notehook -- almost a journal -- had heen suhstituted.
As lar as I could see, no dates appear anywhere in the hook. It is written in several
dillerent handwritin styles, althouh, as noted ahove, Doreen Valiente assured me that
Gardner was apt to use several styles. I had the distinct impression this note-hook had
heen written over a considerahle period ol time, perhaps years, perhaps even decades. It
may, indeed, date lrom his days in the qcs when he linked up with a NeoRosicrucian
perlormance theatrical troupe, that could have included amon its memhers the leendary
Dorothy Clutterhuck, who set Gardner on the path which led to Wicca.
Thinkin on it, what emeres lrom Ye Book ol Ye Art Maical is a developmental set ol
ideas. Much ol it is straiht out ol Crowley, hut it is clearly the puhlished Crowley, the
old Maus ol the OTO and A. . . A. . .
Somewhere alon the line it hit me that I was not exactly lookin at the oriinal Book ol
Shadows hut, perhaps, the outline Gardner prepared over a lon period ol time,
apparently in secret (since Valiente, a relatively early initiate ol Gardner's, never heard ol
it nor saw it, accordin to her own account, until recent years, ahout the time Aidan Kelly
unearthed it in the Ripley collection lon alter Gardner's death).
Dr. Gardner kept many odd notehooks and scraphooks that perhaps would reveal much
ahout his character and motivations. Turner showed me a Gardner scraphook in Ripley's
store room which was mostly cheesecake maazine photoraphs and articles ahout
actresses. Prohahly none are so evocative as Ye Book ol Ye Art Maical, discovered
hidden away in the hack ol an old sola.
I have the impression it was essentially unknown in and alter Gardner's liletime, and that
hy the Summer ol q86 lew had seen inside it, I knew ol only Kelly and my own party.
Perhaps the cover had heen seen hy some alon the line, accountin lor the rumor ol a
very old Book ol Shadows in Gardner's Museum.
Il someone had seen the charter unquestionahly sined hy Crowley (Baphomet) hut
written hy Gerald Gardner, and had otten a look, as well, at Ye Book, they miht well
have concluded that Crowley had written BOTH, an honest error, hut mayhe the source
ol that lon-standin accusation. There is even a notation in the Ripley catalo attrihutin
the manuscript to Crowley on someone's say-so, hut I have no indication Ripley has any
other such hook. Iinally, il the notehook is a source hook ol any reliious system, it is not
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that ol medieval witchcralt, hut the Twentieth Century shinin sanity ol the lamous
Maus Aleister Crowley and the Thelemic/Gnostic creed ol The Book ol the Law.
As I sat there I read aloud lamiliar quotations or paraphrases lrom puhlished material in
the Crowley-Thelemic canon. This is not the ancient reliion ol the Wise hut the
modern sayins ol the Beast 666 as Crowley was wont to style himsell.
But, does any ol this invalidate Wicca as an expression ol human spirituality: It depends
on where one is comin lrom. Certainly, the loundations ol Ieminist Wicca and the
modern cult ol the oddess are challened with the lact that the oddess in question is
Nuit, her manilestation the sworn whore, Our Lady Bahalon, the Scarlet Woman.
Translorm what you will shall he the whole ol history, hut THIS makes what Marx did to
Heel look like slavish devotion.
What Crowley himsell said ol this kind ol witchcralt is not merely instructive, hut an
allront to the conceits ol an era.
The heliel in witchcralt, he ohserved, was not all superstition, its psycholoical roots
were sound. Women who are thwarted in their natural instincts turn inevitahly to all
kinds ol malinant mischiel, lrom slander to domestic destruction...
Ior those who neither worship nor are disdainlul ol the man who made sexuality a od
or, at least, acknowleded it as such, experience must he its own teacher. Il Wicca is a
sort ol errant Minerval encampment ol the OTO, one lar astray and lar alield since the
days Crowley ave Gardner a charter he didn't use hut seemed to value, and a whole
rane ol rituals and imaery that assault the senses at their most literally lundamental
level, il this is true or sort ol true Mythos has its place and role, hut so, too, does reality.
WICCA AS AN OTO ENCAMPMENT
It is ol more than passin interest that the late ack Parsons, one time Master ol Aape
Lode OTO in Calilornia, hean writin extensively ol a revival ol witchcralt lrom q6
on, that is, at ahout the time ol Crowley and Gardner's acknowleded association.
Crowley relerred to Dr. Gardner and his OTO encampment in private correspondence
almost to the time ol his death, and spoke ol it with optimism and enthusiasm.
When Lady Harris wrote Karl Germer that she helieved Gardner was the head ol the
OTO in Europe alter Crowley's death, Germer didn't relute her, he simply indicated he
hoped to see Gardner durin his U.S. visit, which he did. Iurthermore, as alluded to in the
previous section, Gardner himsell claimed in a letter written shortly alter Crowley's death
that he WAS, in lact, the head ol the OTO in Europe.
The letter to Vernon Symonds, sent lrom Memphis, Tennessee where Gardner was then
resident, and dated Decemher a, qy, asserts that . . . Aleister ave me a charter makin
me head ol the O.T.O. in Europe. Now I want to et any papers ahout this that Aleister
had, he had some typescript Rituals, I know. I have them, too, hut I don't want his to lall
into other people's hands . . . I am editin Gardner's spellin with reat kindness. This
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claim should he viewed with a rain ol salt, hut Lady Harris and Gardner were hoth
intimate Crowley associates, and this should he kept in mind. The Charter in question
relerred to hy Gardner is prohahly the one now in my possession. He almost certainly had
no other.
The question ol intent looms lare in the hackround ol this inquiry. Il I had to uess, I
would venture that Gerald Gardner did, in lact, invent Wicca more or less whole cloth, to
he a popularized version ol the OTO. Crowley, and his immediate successor Karl Germer,
who also knew Dr. Gardner, likely set old Gerald on what they intended to he a
Thelemic path, aimed at reestahlishin at least a hasic OTO encampment in Enland.
It is also possihle, hut yet unproved, that, upon expellin Kenneth Grant lrom the OTO
in Enland, Germer, in the early qcs, summoned Gardner hack to America to interview
him as a candidate lor leadin the British OTO. Gardner, it is conlirmed, came to
America, hut hy then Wicca, and Dr. Gardner had heun to take their own, watered-
down course.
Let me close this section hy quotin two interestin tidhits lor your consideration.
Iirst consider Doreen Valiente's ohservation to me concernin the Parsons connection. I
quote lrom her letter ahove mentioned, one ol several she was kind enouh to send me in
q86 in connection with my research into this matter.
...I did know ahout the existence ol the O.T.O. Chapter in Calilornia at the time ol
Crowley's death, hecause I helieve his ashes were sent over to them. He was cremated
here in Brihton, you know, much to the scandal ol the local authorities, who ohjected to
the `paan luneral service.' Il you are relerrin to the roup ol which ack Parsons was a
memher (alon with the ereious Mr. L. Ron Huhhard), then there is another curious
little point to which I must draw your attention. I have a remarkahle little hook hy ack
Parsons called MAGICK, GNOSTICISM AND THE WITCHCRAIT. It is unlortunately
undated, hut Parsons died in qa. The section on witchcralt is particularly interestin
hecause it looks lorward to a revival ol witchcralt as the Old Reliion....I lind this very
thouht provokin. Did Parsons write this around the time that Crowley was ettin
toether with Gardner and perhaps communicated with the Calilornia roup to tell them
ahout it: Parsons hean lorecastin the revival ol Witchcralt in the notorious Liher q -
The Book ol Bahalon written in q6. The timin ol the enesis ol The Book ol
Bahalon -- which lorecast a 'revival' ol witchcralt in covens hased on the numher eleven
(the Thelemic numher ol maick) rather than the traditional thirteen, seems to coincide
with Crowley's OTO Charter to Gardner, Gardner's U.S. visit, and also coincides rather
closely with the writin ol HIGH MAGIC'S AID hy Gardner.
We must rememher that Ms. Valiente was a close associate ol Gardner and is a dedicated
and active Wiccan. She, ol course, has her own interpretation ol these matters.
The other matter ol note is the question ol the lenth ol Gardner's association with the
OTO and with Crowley personally. My inlormant Col. Lawrence, tells me that he has in
his possession a ciarette case which once heloned to Aleister Crowley. Inside is a note
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in Crowley's hand that says simply. `ilt ol GBG, q6, A. Crowley'. (Personal letter, 6
Decemher, q86)
The inscription could he a mistake, it could mean q6, the period ol the Charter. But, as
Ms. Valiente put it in a letter to me ol 8th Decemher, q86.
Il your lriend is riht, then it would mean that old Gerald actually went throuh a charade
ol pretendin to Arnold Crowther that Arnold was introducin him to Crowley lor the
lirst time - a charade which Crowley lor some reason was willin to o alon with. Why:
I can't see the point ol such a pretense, hut then occultists sometimes do devious thins...
Gnosticism and Wicca, the suhjects ol ack Parsons' essays, repuhlished hy the OTO and
Ialcon Press in qqc, are the two most successlul expressions to date ol Crowley's dream
ol a popular solar-phallic reliion. Mayhe I'm wron, hut I think Aleister and Gerald may
have cooked Wicca up. The issues lor Thelemites AND Wiccans here are, as I see it, two
- lold.
Il Wicca is the OTO's prodial dauhter in lact, authorized directly hy Crowley, how
should they now relate to this:
Then too, what are we to make ol and inler ahout all this husiness ol a popular Thelemic-
Gnostic reliion: Were Crowley, Parsons, Gardner and others tryin to do somethin ol
note with reard to actualizin a New Aeon here which hears scrutiny: Or is this mere
speculation, and ol little sinilicance lor the Great Work today:
Il the Charter Crowley issued Gardner is, indeed, the authority upon which Wicca has
heen huilt lor hall a century, then it is perhaps no coincidence that I acquired that Charter
in the same year I was consecrated a Bishop ol the Gnostic Catholic Church. Iurther, it
was literally only days alter my lon search lor the oriinal ol Gardner's BOOK OI
SHADOWS ended in success that the Holy Synod ol T Michael Bertiaux's hranch ol the
Gnostic Church unanimously elected me a Missionary Bishop, on Auust aq, q86.
Sometimes, I muse, the Inner Order revoked Wicca's charter in q86, placin it, so to
speak, in my hands. Since I hold it in Trust, perhaps Wicca has, in symholic lorm,
returned home at last. It remains lor the Wiccans , literally (since the charter hans in my
temple space), to read the handwritin on the wall.

Persono| |eiiers re|erenceJ in i|is esso,
Aleister Crowley to W.B.C., May c, qy
Irieda Harris to Irederic Melliner, Decemher y, qy
Gerald Gardner to Vernon Symonds, Decemher a, qy
Irieda Harris to Karl Germer, anuary a, q8
Karl Germer to Ireida Harris, anuary q, q8
Doreen Valiente to Allen Greenlield, Auust 8, q86
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Doreen Valiente to Allen Greenlield, Auust a8, q86
Doreen Valiente to Allen Greenlield, Decemher 8, q86
' I am indehted to Irater Y.V. lor a rare, autoraphed copy ol the qq Michael Houhton
Edition ol HIGH MAGIC'S AID hy Scier (that is, Gardner) identilied as O.T.O. = y
on the title pae. This is likely a conlusion ol A. ' . A . ' . and OTO titles, it is douhtlul
that Gardner was a VIIo in the OTO. He was, however, at least a P.I. in OTO, and may
have heen a VII( as Crowley indicated in a late letter that he anticipated the Gardner
Lode ol OTO in London could he expected to initiate as hih as the P.I. Deree. )