Antiquity
177-463: Doreen Edith Dominy Valiente (4 January 1922 – 1 September 1999) was an English Wiccan who was responsible for writing much of the early religious liturgy within the tradition of Gardnerian Wicca . An author and poet, she also published five books dealing with Wicca and related esoteric subjects. Born to a middle-class family in Surrey , Valiente began practising magic while a teenager. Working as
354-525: A Triple Goddess , thereby being a triadic deity comprising a Maiden goddess, a Mother goddess , and a Crone goddess, each of whom has different associations, namely virginity, fertility, and wisdom. Other Wiccan conceptualisations have portrayed her as a Moon Goddess and as a Menstruating Goddess. According to the anthropologist Susan Greenwood, in Wicca the Goddess is "a symbol of self-transformation - she
531-540: A deist entity who had created the "Under-Gods", among them the God and Goddess, but who was not otherwise involved in the world; alternately, other Wiccans have interpreted such an entity as a pantheistic being, of whom the God and Goddess are facets. Although Gardner criticised monotheism, citing the Problem of Evil , explicitly monotheistic forms of Wicca developed in the 1960s, when the U.S.-based Church of Wicca developed
708-626: A magic circle . The five elements are air , fire , water , earth , and aether (or spirit), where aether unites the other four elements. Various analogies have been devised to explain the concept of the five elements; for instance, the Wiccan Ann-Marie Gallagher used that of a tree, which is composed of earth (with the soil and plant matter), water (sap and moisture), fire (through photosynthesis ) and air (the formation of oxygen from carbon dioxide ), all of which are believed to be united through spirit. Traditionally in
885-545: A mystery religion . However, given that Wicca also incorporates the practice of magic , several scholars have referred to it as a "magico-religion". Wicca is also a form of Western esotericism , and more specifically a part of the esoteric current known as occultism . Academics like Wouter Hanegraaff and Tanya Luhrmann have categorised Wicca as part of the New Age , although other academics, and many Wiccans themselves, dispute this categorisation. Although recognised as
1062-800: A religion by academics, some evangelical Christians have attempted to deny it legal recognition as such, while some Wiccan practitioners themselves eschew the term "religion" – associating the latter purely with organised religion – instead favouring " spirituality " or "way of life". Although Wicca as a religion is distinct from other forms of contemporary paganism, there has been much "cross-fertilization" between these different pagan faiths; accordingly, Wicca has both influenced and been influenced by other pagan religions, thus making clear-cut distinctions between them more difficult for religious studies scholars to make. The terms wizard and warlock are sometimes discouraged altogether. Wizard can represent an emphasis on wisdom and insight-based practices, and it
1239-462: A sacred circle , Wiccans cast spells or "workings" intended to bring about real changes in the physical world. Common Wiccan spells include those used for healing , for protection, fertility, or to banish negative influences. Many early Wiccans, such as Alex Sanders , Sybil Leek and Alex Winfield, referred to their own magic as " white magic ", which contrasted with " black magic ", which they associated with evil and Satanism . Sanders also used
1416-455: A "realistic view of living in the real world" replete with its many problems and do not claim that the gods "have all the answers" to these. She suggested that Wiccans do not claim to seek perfection but instead "wholeness" or "completeness", which includes an acceptance of traits like anger, weakness, and pain. She contrasted the Wiccan acceptance of an "interplay between light and dark" against
1593-522: A 19th-century Sri Lankan Buddhist activist who founded the Maha Bodhi Society , and D.T. Suzuki , a Japanese scholar and Zen Buddhist . A synonymous term for this broad understanding is nondualism . This mutual influence is also known as the pizza effect . The notion of "experience" has been criticised. "Religious empiricism" is seen as highly problematic and was – during the period in-between world wars – famously rejected by
1770-786: A Wiccan may regard the Germanic Ēostre , Hindu Kali , and Catholic Virgin Mary each as manifestations of one supreme Goddess and likewise, the Celtic Cernunnos , the ancient Greek Dionysus and the Judeo-Christian Yahweh as aspects of a single, archetypal god. A more strictly polytheistic approach holds the various goddesses and gods to be separate and distinct entities in their own right. The Wiccan writers Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone have postulated that Wicca
1947-590: A banner for her local branch. Valiente's biographer Philip Heselton suggested that the party's nationalistic outlook may have appealed to her strongly patriotic values and that she might have hoped that the Front would serve as a political equivalent to the Pagan movement. At the same time she also became a member of another, more extreme far right group, the Northern League . However, she allowed her membership of
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#17327810983952124-473: A basement flat in Lewes Crescent, Kemptown, in the southern coastal town of Brighton , although in 1968 they moved into a flat nearer to the town centre. She befriended another Kemptown resident, the journalist Leslie Roberts, who shared her interest in the supernatural. He attracted much attention to himself in the local press through his claims that practitioners of black magic were also operating in
2301-585: A belief from the Theosophy-inspired Huna movement , Kabbalah , and other sources, that the human being has three souls. Although not accepted by all Wiccans, a belief in reincarnation is the dominant afterlife belief within Wicca, having been originally espoused by Gardner. Understandings of how the cycle of reincarnation operates differ among practitioners; Wiccan Raymond Buckland for instance insisted that human souls would only incarnate into human bodies, whereas other Wiccans believe that
2478-675: A believer enters into a relationship with, or gains an awareness of, the sacred within the context of a particular religious tradition. Religious experiences are by their very nature preternatural ; that is, out of the ordinary or beyond the natural order of things. They may be difficult to distinguish observationally from psychopathological states such as psychoses or other forms of altered awareness . Not all preternatural experiences are considered to be religious experiences. Following Habel's definition, psychopathological states or drug-induced states of awareness are not considered to be religious experiences because they are mostly not performed within
2655-551: A book of poetry to Hale, although they declined to publish it, believing that there would not be sufficient market for such a publication. In 1982 she then submitted a book of short stories, The Witch Ball , to Hale, but again they declined to publish it. In 1978, Valiente struck up a friendship with the Alexandrian Wiccans Stewart Farrar and Janet Farrar , who were then living in Ireland. With
2832-514: A broomstick known as a besom , a cauldron , candles , incense and a curved blade known as a boline . An altar is usually present in the circle, on which ritual tools are placed and representations of the God and the Goddess may be displayed. Before entering the circle, some traditions fast for the day, and/or ritually bathe. After a ritual has finished, the God, Goddess, and Guardians are thanked,
3009-589: A charitable trust, the Doreen Valiente Foundation, in 2011. Having had a significant influence in the history of Wicca , she is widely revered in the Wiccan community as "the Mother of Modern Witchcraft", and has been the subject of two biographies. Valiente was born Doreen Edith Dominy on 4 January 1922 in the London outer suburb of Colliers Wood , Mitcham , Surrey . Her father, Harry Dominy,
3186-623: A clerk and typist at the Unemployment Assistance Board . During the Second World War , she became a Foreign Office Civilian Temporary Senior Assistant Officer, in this capacity working as a translator at Bletchley Park . In relation to this work, she was also sent to South Wales , and it was there, in the town of Barry , that she met Joanis Vlachopolous, a Greek seaman in the Merchant Navy . Entering
3363-419: A co-worker; she came to believe that it had worked. Her early knowledge of magical practices may have derived from books that she found in the local library. Her parents were concerned by this behaviour and sent her to a convent school. She despised the school and left it at the age of 15, refusing to return. She had wanted to go to art school, but instead gained employment in a factory, before moving on to work as
3540-755: A coven of the Murrayite witch-cult. There was a young lady called Freeman Who had an affair with a demon She said that his cock was as cold as a rock Now, what in the Hell could it be, man? "An Unsolved Problem of Psychic Research", an example of Valiente's poetry. In 1997 Valiente discovered the Centre for Pagan Studies (CFPS), a Pagan organisation based in the Sussex hamlet of Maresfield that had been established in 1995. Befriending its founders, John Belham-Payne and his wife Julie Belham-Payne, she became
3717-501: A different deity who were seen as children of the primary Horned God and Goddess. The five elements are symbolised by the five points of the pentagram , the most-used symbol of Wicca. The Wiccan high priestess and journalist Margot Adler stated that Wiccan rituals were not "dry, formalised, repetitive experiences", but performed with the intent of inducing a religious experience in the participants, thereby altering their consciousness. She noted that many Wiccans remain skeptical about
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#17327810983953894-476: A discussion of what she believed to be the magical usages and associations of the weather, stones, plants, and other elements of the natural world. In 1978 Hale then published Witchcraft for Tomorrow , in which Valiente proclaimed her belief that Wicca was ideal for the dawning Age of Aquarius and espoused James Lovelock 's Gaia hypothesis . It also explained to the reader how they could initiate themselves into Wicca and establish their own coven. In 1978 she offered
4071-413: A false notion of duality between "experiencer" and "experienced", whereas the essence of kensho is the realisation of the "non-duality" of observer and observed. "Pure experience" does not exist; all experience is mediated by intellectual and cognitive activity. The specific teachings and practices of a specific tradition may even determine what "experience" someone has, which means that this "experience"
4248-425: A form of modern paganism. Wicca has been cited as the largest, best known, most influential, and most academically studied form of modern paganism. Within the movement, it has been identified as sitting on the eclectic end of the eclectic to reconstructionist spectrum . Several academics have also categorised Wicca as a form of nature religion , a term that is also embraced by many of its practitioners, and as
4425-638: A friend, "Zerki", at his flat. She had obtained the magical regalia and notebooks of a recently deceased doctor, who had been a member of the Alpha et Omega , a splinter group of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn , and attempted to learn Hebrew , a language with uses in various forms of ceremonial magic. It was at this point that she selected "Ameth" as her magical name . She was particularly interested by John Symonds ' book The Great Beast , which
4602-441: A headlong plunge back into magic" and that it was a reactionary religion which would soon die out. This view was heavily criticised in 1999 by the historian Ronald Hutton who claimed that the evidence displayed the very opposite: that "a large number [of Wiccans] were in jobs at the cutting edge [of scientific culture], such as computer technology". Identification as a witch can[…] provide a link to those persecuted and executed in
4779-508: A hereditary family of witches, she was impressed by his charisma, his desire to avoid publicity, and his emphasis on working outdoors. Valiente was invited to join Cochrane's coven, the Clan of Tubal Cain , becoming its sixth member. However, she became dissatisfied with Cochrane, who was openly committing adultery and constantly insulting Gardnerians, even at one point calling for "a Night of
4956-472: A human soul can incarnate into any life form. There is also a common Wiccan belief that any Wiccans will come to be reincarnated as future Wiccans, an idea originally expressed by Gardner. Gardner also articulated the view that the human soul rested for a period between bodily death and its incarnation, with this resting place commonly being referred to as " The Summerland " among the Wiccan community. This allows many Wiccans to believe that mediums can contact
5133-621: A lot of sections that had come from Crowley, fearing that his infamous reputation would sully Wicca. In 1953 she wrote "Queen of the Moon, Queen of the Stars", an invocation for use in a Yule ritual which was inspired by a Hebridean song found in the Carmina Gadelica . With Gardner she also wrote "The Witches Rune", a chant for use while dancing in a circle. She rewrote much of the Charge of
5310-543: A majority follow a code known as the Wiccan Rede , which states, "an it harm none, do what ye will". This is usually interpreted as a declaration of the freedom to act, along with the necessity of taking responsibility for what follows from one's actions and minimising harm to oneself and others. Another common element of Wiccan morality is the Law of Threefold Return which holds that whatever benevolent or malevolent actions
5487-459: A necessary presence to balance each other out. This may have derived from Gardner's interpretation of Murray's claim that the ancient witch-cult was a fertility religion. Thus, many practitioners of British Traditional Wicca have argued that gay men and women are not capable of correctly working magic without mixed-sex pairings. Although Gerald Gardner initially demonstrated an aversion to homosexuality , claiming that it brought down "the curse of
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5664-529: A person performs will return to that person with triple force, or with equal force on each of the three levels of body, mind, and spirit, similar to the eastern idea of karma . The Wiccan Rede was most likely introduced into Wicca by Gerald Gardner and formalised publicly by Doreen Valiente , one of his High Priestesses. The Threefold Law was an interpretation of Wiccan ideas and ritual, made by Monique Wilson and further popularized by Raymond Buckland , in his books on Wicca. Many Wiccans also seek to cultivate
5841-435: A practising Wiccan, but as an interested scholar of witchcraft. It contained her own research into the history and folklore of witchcraft in her county of Sussex, which she had collected both from archival research and from the published work of the historian L'Estrange Ewen . It interpreted this evidence in light of the discredited theories of Margaret Murray, which claimed that a pre-Christian religious movement had survived to
6018-689: A relationship, they were married in East Glamorgan on 31 January 1941. However, in June 1941 he was serving aboard the Pandias when it was sunk by a U-boat off of the West African coast; he was declared missing in action and presumed deceased. Widowed, during 1942 and 1943 Valiente had a number of short-term jobs in Wales, which were possibly a cover for intelligence work. After October 1943 she
6195-563: A set of eight virtues mentioned in Doreen Valiente 's Charge of the Goddess , these being mirth, reverence, honour, humility, strength, beauty, power, and compassion. In Valiente's poem, they are ordered in pairs of complementary opposites, reflecting a dualism that is common throughout Wiccan philosophy. Some lineaged Wiccans also observe a set of Wiccan Laws , commonly called the Craft Laws or Ardanes , 30 of which exist in
6372-548: A slight stoop and a friendly twinkle in her eye". Throughout her life, Valiente remained a believer in the Murrayite Witch-Cult theory despite its having been academically discredited by the 1970s. Valiente had a strong dislike of unexpected visitors, and would often refuse to answer the door to those who knocked unannounced. She was an avid fan of football , and closely followed the World Cup , refusing to open
6549-590: A state of almost complete confusion". In 2009, the CFPS organised "A Day for Doreen", an event in central London dedicated to Valiente. Sixteen speakers from within the Wiccan and Pagan community came to talk at the event, which was a sell-out. On 21 June 2013, the Centre For Pagan Studies unveiled a blue plaque at the Tyson Place tower block, Valiente's final home. Julie Belham-Payne performed
6726-444: A synonym for "Wicca" is "Pagan witchcraft", although there are also other forms of modern paganism—such as types of Heathenry —which also use the term "Pagan witchcraft". From the 1990s onward, various Wiccans began describing themselves as " Traditional Witches ", although this term was also employed by practitioners of other magico-religious traditions like Luciferianism. In some popular culture, such as television programs Buffy
6903-432: A theology rooted in the worship of what they described as "one deity, without gender". In the 1970s, Dianic Wiccan groups developed which were devoted to a singular, monotheistic Goddess; this approach was often criticised by members of British Traditional Wiccan groups, who lambasted such Goddess monotheism as an inverted imitation of Christian theology. As in other forms of Wicca, some Goddess monotheists have expressed
7080-595: A timeless, transcendent reality. Another example can be seen in Paul Brunton's A Search in Secret India , which introduced Ramana Maharshi to a western audience. The interplay between western and eastern notions of religion is an important factor in the development of modern mysticism. In the 19th century, when Asian countries were colonialised by western states, a process of cultural mimesis began. In this process, Western ideas about religion, especially
7257-707: A translator at Bletchley Park during the Second World War , she also married twice in this period. Developing her interest in occultism after the war, she began practising ceremonial magic with a friend while living in Bournemouth . Learning of Wicca, in 1953 she was initiated into the Gardnerian tradition by its founder, Gerald Gardner . Soon becoming the High Priestess of Gardner's Bricket Wood coven , she helped him to produce or adapt many important scriptural texts for Wicca, such as The Witches Rune and
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7434-648: A wide range of people within the Pagan and esoteric communities. Through this, she met the American Wiccan Starhawk – whom she greatly admired – on one of the latter's visits to Britain. She also communicated with the American Wiccan and scholar of Pagan studies Aidan A. Kelly during his investigations into the early Gardnerian liturgies. She disagreed with Kelly that there had been no New Forest coven and that Gardner had therefore invented Wicca, instead insisting that Gardner had stumbled on
7611-538: Is a modern pagan , syncretic , earth-centered religion . Considered a new religious movement by scholars of religion , the path evolved from Western esotericism , developed in England during the first half of the 20th century, and was introduced to the public in 1954 by Gerald Gardner , a retired British civil servant . Wicca draws upon ancient pagan and 20th-century Hermetic motifs for theological and ritual purposes. Doreen Valiente joined Gardner in
7788-608: Is a foundational aspect of religious experience in Christianity. Transcendentalism was an early 19th-century liberal Protestant movement, which was rooted in English and German Romanticism , the Biblical criticism of Herder and Schleiermacher , and the skepticism of Hume . The Transcendentalists emphasised an intuitive, experiential approach of religion. Following Schleiermacher, an individual's intuition of truth
7965-436: Is able as it were to lose itself. Then it may see God, the foundation of life, the source of being, the origin of all good, the root of the soul. In that moment it enjoys the highest indescribable bliss; it is as it were swallowed up of divinity, bathed in the light of eternity. Porphyry tells us that on four occasions during the six years of their intercourse Plotinus attained to this ecstatic union with God. The twelfth step of
8142-593: Is an evolved feature of the human brain amenable to normal scientific study. The commonalities and differences between religious experiences across different cultures have enabled scholars to categorize them for academic study. Psychologist and philosopher William James (1842–1910) described four characteristics of mystical experience in The Varieties of Religious Experience (1901/1902). According to James, such an experience is: The German philosopher and theologian Rudolf Otto (1869–1937) argues that there
8319-525: Is becoming more polytheistic as it matures, tending to embrace a more traditionally pagan worldview. Some Wiccans conceive of deities not as literal personalities but as metaphorical archetypes or thoughtforms , thereby technically allowing them to be atheists . Such a view is held by the High Priestess Vivianne Crowley , herself a psychologist , who considered the Wiccan deities to be Jungian archetypes that existed within
8496-405: Is no religion in which it [the numinous] does not live as the real innermost core and without it no religion would be worthy of the name". Otto does not take any other kind of religious experience such as ecstasy and enthusiasm seriously and is of the opinion that they belong to the 'vestibule of religion'. Biblical scholar Norman Habel defines religious experiences as the structured way in which
8673-467: Is not the proof of the teaching, but a result of the teaching. A pure consciousness without concepts, reached by "cleansing the doors of perception", would be an overwhelming chaos of sensory input without coherence. The American scholar of religion and philosopher of social science Jason Josephson Storm has also critiqued the definition and category of religious experience, especially when such experiences are used to define religion . He compares
8850-480: Is one common factor to all religious experience, independent of the cultural background. In his book The Idea of the Holy (1923) he identifies this factor as the numinous . The "numinous" experience has two aspects: The numinous experience also has a personal quality to it, in that the person feels to be in communion with a holy other. Otto sees the numinous as the only possible religious experience. He states: "There
9027-500: Is possible to become close to God and to experience this closeness while one is alive. The tariqa , the 'path' on which the mystics walk, has been defined as 'the path which comes out of the Shariah, for the main road is called shar, the path, tariq.' No mystical experience can be realized if the binding injunctions of the Shariah are not followed faithfully first. The tariqa however, is narrower and more difficult to walk. It leads
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#17327810983959204-496: Is seen to be constantly changing and a force for change for those who open themselves up to her". Gardner stated that beyond Wicca's two deities was the "Supreme Deity" or " Prime Mover ", an entity that was too complex for humans to understand. This belief has been endorsed by other practitioners, who have referred to it as "the Cosmic Logos ", "Supreme Cosmic Power", or " Godhead ". Gardner envisioned this Supreme Deity as
9381-479: Is still a higher attainment; it is not enough to be sinless, one must become "God" (see henosis ). This is reached through contemplation of the primeval Being, the One ;– in other words, through an ecstatic approach to it. It is only in a state of perfect passivity and repose that the soul can recognize and touch the primeval Being. Hence the soul must first pass through a spiritual curriculum. Beginning with
9558-453: Is that God, the perfect goodness, is known or experienced at least as much by the heart as by the intellect since, in the words of 1 John 4:16: "God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him." Some approaches to classical mysticism would consider the first two phases as preparatory to the third, explicitly mystical experience; but others state that these three phases overlap and intertwine. Based on Christ's injunction in
9735-466: Is that Wicca's deities are viewed as forms of ancient, pre-Christian divinities by its practitioners. Most early Wiccan groups adhered to the duotheistic worship of a Horned God and a Mother Goddess , with practitioners typically believing that these had been the ancient deities worshipped by the hunter-gatherers of the Old Stone Age , whose veneration had been passed down in secret right to
9912-543: Is the rescension of Doreen Valiente , who developed it from Gardner's version. Gardner's wording of the original "Charge" added extracts from Aleister Crowley's work, including The Book of the Law , (especially from Ch 1, spoken by Nuit, the Star Goddess) thus linking modern Wicca irrevocably to the principles of Thelema . Valiente rewrote Gardner's version in verse, keeping the material derived from Aradia , but removing
10089-527: Is typically duotheistic , venerating both a Goddess and a God, traditionally conceived as the Triple Goddess and the Horned God , respectively. These deities may be regarded in a henotheistic way, as having many different divine aspects which can be identified with various pagan deities from different historical pantheons. For this reason, they are sometimes referred to as the "Great Goddess" and
10266-752: Is understood to be essential for a Believer to enter Heaven upon death. The effect is life-changing, and can also be called a conversion experience. Noting that religious experience should not be separated from care for one's neighbour, Pope Francis has observed that "there can be no true religious experience that is deaf to the cry of the world". Christian doctrine generally maintains that God dwells in all Christians and that they can experience God directly through belief in Jesus, Christian mysticism aspires to apprehend spiritual truths inaccessible through intellectual means, typically by emulation of Christ. William Inge divides this scala perfectionis into three stages:
10443-503: Is used by modern feminist witches as an aid in their struggle for freedom from patriarchal oppression. — Religious studies scholar Joanne Pearson Historian Wouter Hanegraaff noted that the Wiccan view of witchcraft was "an outgrowth of Romantic (semi)scholarship", especially the 'witch cult' theory . It proposed that historical alleged witches were actually followers of a surviving pagan religion, and that accusations of infanticide, cannibalism, Satanism, etc., were either made up by
10620-414: Is used by some interchangeably with the term witch for their common roots in the meaning of gaining wisdom and being wise . In Wicca, denominations are referred to as traditions , while non-Wiccans are often termed cowans . When the religion first came to public attention, its followers commonly called it "Witchcraft". Gerald Gardner —the man regarded as the "Father of Wicca"—referred to it as
10797-529: The Charge of the Goddess , which were incorporated into the early Gardnerian Book of Shadows . In 1957, a schism resulted in Valiente and her followers leaving Gardner in order to form their own short-lived coven. After investigating the Wiccan tradition of Charles Cardell , she was initiated into Raymond Howard 's Coven of Atho in 1963. She went on the following year to work with Robert Cochrane in his coven,
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#173278109839510974-562: The Christchurch area. Before she left the meeting, Gardner gave her a copy of his 1949 novel, High Magic's Aid , in which he describes a fictionalised account of Wiccan initiates in the Middle Ages ; he allegedly did so in order to gauge her opinion on ritual nudity and scourging , both of which were present in his tradition of Gardnerian Wicca . Gardner invited Valiente again to Woodford-Grimes's house on Midsummer 1953, and it
11151-624: The Clan of Tubal Cain , although she later broke from this group. Eager to promote and defend her religion, she played a leading role in both the Witchcraft Research Association and then the Pagan Front during the 1960s and 1970s. That latter decade also saw her briefly involve herself in far right politics as well as becoming a keen ley hunter and proponent of Earth mysteries . As well as regularly writing articles on esoteric topics for various magazines, from
11328-495: The Gospel of Matthew to "go into your closet to pray", hesychasm in tradition has been the process of retiring inward by ceasing to register the senses, in order to achieve an experiential knowledge of God (see theoria ). The highest goal of the hesychast is the experiential knowledge of God. In the 14th century, the possibility of this experiential knowledge of God was challenged by a Calabrian monk, Barlaam , who, although he
11505-534: The Inquisition or were misunderstandings of pagan rites. This theory that accused witches were actually pagans has now been disproven using archive records of witch trials. Nevertheless, Gardner and other founders of Wicca believed the theory was true, and saw the witch as a " positive antitype which derives much of its symbolic force from its implicit criticism of dominant Judaeo-Christian and Enlightenment values". Pearson suggested that Wiccans "identify with
11682-520: The Isle of Man , it mentioned the museum's director, Cecil Williamson , and its "resident witch", Gerald Gardner . Intrigued by the article, Valiente wrote a letter to Williamson in 1952, who in turn put her in contact with Gardner. Valiente and Gardner wrote several letters back-and-forth, with the latter eventually suggesting that she meet him at the home of his friend and fellow Wiccan Edith Woodford-Grimes ("Dafo"), who lived not far from Bournemouth, in
11859-880: The Modern English term "Wicca" is borrowed from the Old English wicca [ˈwittʃɑ] and wicce [ˈwittʃe] , the masculine and feminine term for witch , respectively, that was used in Anglo-Saxon England . By adopting it for modern usage, Wiccans were both symbolically linking themselves to the ancient, pre-Christian past, and adopting a self-designation that would be less controversial than "Witchcraft". The scholar of religion and Wiccan priestess Joanne Pearson noted that while "the words 'witch' and 'wicca' are therefore linked etymologically, […] they are used to emphasize different things today". In early sources, "Wicca" referred to
12036-735: The Perennial philosophy , Transcendentalism , Universalism , the Theosophical Society , New Thought , Neo-Vedanta and Buddhist modernism . According to the Perennial philosophy, the mystical experiences in all religions are essentially the same. It supposes that many, if not all of the world's great religions, have arisen around the teachings of mystics, including Buddha , Jesus , Lao Tze , and Krishna . It also sees most religious traditions describing fundamental mystical experience, at least esoterically. A major proponent in
12213-610: The cycles of the Moon , known as Esbats and commonly associated with the Triple Goddess, alongside the cycles of the Sun, seasonally based festivals known as Sabbats and commonly associated with the Horned God. The Wiccan Rede is a popular expression of Wiccan morality, often with respect to the ritual practice of magic . Scholars of religious studies classify Wicca as a new religious movement , and more specifically as
12390-684: The idea of a pre-Christian witch-cult surviving into the modern period through the works of Charles Godfrey Leland , Margaret Murray , and Robert Graves , although believed that the religion was extinct. It was in autumn 1952 that she read an article by the reporter Allen Andrews in Illustrated magazine titled "Witchcraft in Britain". Discussing the recent opening of the Folklore Centre of Superstition and Witchcraft in Castletown on
12567-446: The " purgative " or ascetic stage, the " illuminative " or contemplative stage, and the third, " unitive " stage, in which God may be beheld "face to face." The third stage, usually called contemplation in the Western tradition, refers to the experience of oneself as united with God in some way. The experience of union varies, but it is first and foremost always associated with a reuniting with Divine love. The underlying theme here
12744-600: The "Craft of the Wise", "Witchcraft", and "the Witch-cult " during the 1950s. Gardner believed in the theory that persecuted witches had actually been followers of a surviving pagan religion, but this theory has now been proven wrong. There is no evidence that he ever called it "Wicca", although he did refer to its community of followers as "the Wica" (with one c ). As a name for the religion, "Wicca" developed in Britain during
12921-513: The "Great Horned God", with the honorific "great" connoting a personification containing many other deities within their own nature. Some Wiccans refer to the goddess as "Lady" and the god as "Lord" to invoke their divinity . These two deities are sometimes viewed as facets of a universal pantheistic divinity, regarded as an impersonal force rather than a personal deity. Other traditions of Wicca embrace polytheism , pantheism , monism , and Goddess monotheism . Wiccan celebrations encompass both
13098-447: The 1950s, further building Wicca's liturgical tradition of beliefs, principles, and practices, disseminated through published books. Many variations of the religion have grown and evolved over time, associated with a number of diverse lineages, sects , and denominations , referred to as traditions , each with its own organisational structure and level of centralisation . Given its broadly decentralised nature, disagreements arise over
13275-405: The 1960s onward she authored a number of books on the subject of Wicca, as well as contributing to the publication of works by Wiccan friends Stewart Farrar , Janet Farrar , and Evan John Jones . In these works also she became an early advocate of the idea that anyone could practise Wicca without requiring initiation by a pre-existing Wiccan, while also contributing to and encouraging research into
13452-428: The 1960s, she began producing articles about Wicca and other esoteric subjects on a regular basis, for such esoteric magazines as Light , Fate , and Prediction . In this capacity, she also began to make appearances on television and radio. She also involved herself in the newly formed Witchcraft Research Association (WRA), becoming its second President after the resignation of Sybil Leek . Valiente's letter of welcome
13629-488: The 1960s. It is not known who first used this name for the religion, although one possibility is that it might have been Gardner's rival Charles Cardell , who was calling it the "Craft of the Wiccens" by 1958. The first recorded use of the name "Wicca" was in 1962, and it had been popularised to the extent that several British practitioners founded a newsletter called The Wiccan in 1968. Although pronounced differently,
13806-709: The 1980s, there were two competing definitions of the word "Wicca" in use among the pagan and esoteric communities, one broad and inclusive, the other narrow and exclusionary. Among scholars of pagan studies , it is the older, broader, inclusive meaning which is preferred. Alongside "Wicca", some practitioners still call the religion "Witchcraft" or "the Craft". Using the word "Witchcraft" in this context can result in confusion with other, non-religious meanings of "witchcraft" as well as other religions—such as Satanism and Luciferianism —whose practitioners also sometimes describe themselves as "Witches". Another term sometimes used as
13983-409: The 20th century was Aldous Huxley , who "was heavily influenced in his description by Vivekananda's neo-Vedanta and the idiosyncratic version of Zen exported to the west by D.T. Suzuki . Both of these thinkers expounded their versions of the perennialist thesis", which they originally received from western thinkers and theologians. Søren Kierkegaard argued that dying to the world and possessions
14160-610: The Alcoholics Anonymous program states that "Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs". The terms "spiritual experience" and "spiritual awakening" are used many times in The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous which argues that a spiritual experience is needed to bring about recovery from alcoholism. In Evangelical Christianity , becoming "Born Again"
14337-507: The Book and identified many of the older sources that it drew upon. Hutton believed that later scholars such as himself had to be "profoundly grateful" to the trio for undertaking this task, while Doyle White opined that these publications, alongside Witchcraft for Tomorrow , helped contribute to "the democratisation of Wicca" by enabling any reader to set themselves up as a Wiccan practitioner. As an appendix to The Witches' Way she also published
14514-417: The Craft from being the hobby of a handful of eccentric Brits into being an international religious movement". Describing her as "a major personality in the development" of Wicca, Hutton also expressed the view that "her enduring greatness lay in the very fact that she was so completely and strong-mindedly dedicated to finding and declaring her own truth, in a world in which the signposts to it were themselves in
14691-456: The Craft's emphasis on individual expression in one's spiritual/magical path. Many rituals within Wicca are used when celebrating the Sabbats , worshipping the deities, and working magic. Often these take place on a full moon , or in some cases a new moon, which is known as an Esbat . In typical rites, the coven or solitary assembles inside a ritually cast and purified magic circle . Casting
14868-578: The Farrars, she agreed to publish the original contents of the Gardnerian Book of Shadows, in order to combat the garbled variants that had been released by Cardell and Lady Sheba . The original Gardnerian material appeared in the Farrars' two books, Eight Sabbats for Witches and The Witches' Way (1984), both published with Hale at Valiente's recommendation. In these works, Valiente and the Farrars identified differences between early recensions of
15045-553: The Gardnerian Craft, each element has been associated with a cardinal point of the compass; air with east, fire with south, water with west, earth with north, and the spirit with centre. However, some Wiccans, such as Frederic Lamond , have claimed that the set cardinal points are only those applicable to the geography of southern England, where Wicca evolved, and that Wiccans should determine which directions best suit each element in their region. For instance, those living on
15222-512: The Gardnerian tradition and 161 of which are in the Alexandrian tradition. Valiente, one of Gardner's original High Priestesses, argued that the first thirty of these rules were most likely invented by Gerald Gardner himself in mock-archaic language as the by-product of inner conflict within his Bricket Wood coven. In British Traditional Wicca, "sex complementarity is a basic and fundamental working principle", with men and women being seen as
15399-755: The Goddess , with Hutton characterising this act as "her greatest single contribution to Wicca", for her version of the Charge became "the principle expression of Wiccan spirituality" in coming years. Gardner spent his summers at the Museum of Magic and Witchcraft on the Isle of Man, and thus often relied on Valiente to deal with his affairs in Southern England. He sent her to meet the occult artist Austin Osman Spare when he wanted some talismans produced by
15576-666: The Gospel according to St. Gerald; but we still believed that the real traditional witchcraft lived". According to Pagan studies scholar Ethan Doyle White, "Wicca had experienced its first great schism". After breaking from Gardner's Bricket Wood coven, Valiente formed her own coven with Grove as High Priest, still following the tradition of Gardnerian Wicca, albeit without the Wiccan laws, which she believed to be entirely an invention of Gardner's. However, this coven failed to last, breaking up amid arguments between its founders. In 1956, Valiente, along with her husband and her mother, moved into
15753-472: The Great Witch Hunt, which can then be remembered as a holocaust against women, a repackaging of history that implies conscious victimization and the appropriation of 'holocaust' as a badge of honour — 'gendercide rather than genocide'. An elective identification with the image of the witch during the time of the persecutions is commonly regarded as part of the reclamation of female power, a myth that
15930-475: The Horned God, he is most often associated with animals and the natural world, but also with the afterlife, and he is furthermore often viewed as an ideal role model for men. The Mother Goddess has been associated with life, fertility, and the springtime, and has been described as an ideal role model for women. Wicca's duotheism has been compared to the Taoist system of yin and yang . Other Wiccans have adopted
16107-469: The Isle of Man, he responded that this was not necessary for a series of rules already existed—at which point he produced the Wiccan Laws . These laws limited the control of the High Priestess, which angered Valiente, who later realised that Gardner had simply made them up in response to her own Proposed Laws. In summer 1957, the coven split. According to Valiente, she and her followers "had had enough of
16284-650: The Long Knives of the Gardnerians", at which point Valiente openly criticised him and then left his Clan. In her own words, she "rose up and challenged him in the presence of the rest of the coven. I told him that I was fed up with listening to all this senseless malice, and that, if a 'Night of the Long Knives' was what his sick little soul craved, he could get on with it, but he could get on with it alone, because I had better things to do". Shortly after, Cochrane committed ritual suicide on Midsummer 1966; she authored
16461-543: The National Front to lapse, sending a letter to her local branch stating that although she respected its leader John Tyndall and had made friends within the group, she was critical of the party's opposition to women's liberation , gay rights , and sex education , all of which she lauded as progressive causes. Heselton has also suggested that Valiente may have joined these groups in order to investigate them before reporting back to Britain's intelligence agencies. It
16638-526: The New Age focus on "white light". Similarly, the scholar of religion Geoffrey Samuel noted that Wiccans devote "a perhaps surprising amount of attention to darkness and death". Many Wiccans are involved in environmentalist campaigns. Many traditions hold a belief in the five classical elements , although they are seen as symbolic representations of the phases of matter . These five elements are invoked during many magical rituals, notably when consecrating
16815-583: The Sussex countryside, and went on several holidays to Glastonbury , further considering moving there. She also joined a coven that was operating in the local area, Silver Malkin, after it was established by the Wiccan High Priestess Sally Griffyn. During the early 1970s, Valiente became a member of a far right white nationalist political party, the National Front , for about eighteen months, during which she designed
16992-613: The Theosophical Society ... It has been the major force in the dissemination of occult literature in the West in the twentieth century. The Theosophical Society searched for 'secret teachings' in Asian religions. It has been influential on modernist streams in several Asian religions, notably Hindu reform movements , the revival of Theravada Buddhism , and D.T. Suzuki , who popularized the idea of enlightenment as insight into
17169-599: The Threefold Law ye should – three times bad and three times good ... Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfill – an it harm none, do what ye will. Lady Gwen Thompson Wicca has been characterised as a life-affirming religion. Practitioners typically present themselves as "a positive force against the powers of destruction which threaten the world". There exists no dogmatic moral or ethical code followed universally by Wiccans of all traditions. However,
17346-667: The Vampire Slayer and Charmed , the word "Wicca" has been used as a synonym for witchcraft more generally, including in non-religious and non-pagan forms. Theological views within Wicca are diverse. The religion encompasses theists , atheists , and agnostics , with some viewing the religion's deities as entities with a literal existence and others viewing them as Jungian archetypes or symbols. Even among theistic Wiccans, there are divergent beliefs, and Wicca includes pantheists , monotheists , duotheists , and polytheists . Common to these divergent perspectives, however,
17523-408: The appeal to experience to define religion to failed attempts to defend an essentialist definition of art by appeal to aesthetic experience , and implies that each category lacks a common psychological feature across all such experiences by which they may be defined. Traditions offer a wide variety of religious practices to induce religious experiences: Religious experiences may also be caused by
17700-494: The area. Valiente remained a good friend to Roberts until his death from heart disease in 1966. She also got back in touch with Gardner, and mended their friendship, remaining on good terms until his death in 1964, when he left her £200 in his will. During the early 1960s she also developed a correspondence with two Gardnerian initiates in Sheffield , Patricia Crowther and her husband Arnold Crowther , finally meeting them when
17877-403: The beliefs, stating: "it's a religion of ritual rather than theology. The ritual is first; the myth is second". Similarly, Adler stated that Wicca permits "total skepticism about even its own methods, myths and rituals". The anthropologist Susan Greenwood characterised Wiccan rituals as "a form of resistance to mainstream culture". She saw these rituals as "a healing space away from the ills of
18054-425: The body in a manner unimpeded by clothes. Some also note that it removes signs of social rank and differentiation and thus encourages unity among the practitioners. Some Wiccans seek legitimacy for the practice by stating that various ancient societies performed their rituals while nude. One of Wicca's best known liturgical texts is "The Charge of the Goddess ". The most commonly used version used by Wiccans today
18231-446: The boundaries that define Wicca. Some traditions, collectively referred to as British Traditional Wicca (BTW), strictly follow the initiatory lineage of Gardner and consider Wicca specific to similar traditions, excluding newer, eclectic traditions. Other traditions, as well as scholars of religion, apply Wicca as a broad term for a religion with denominations that differ on some key points but share core beliefs and practices. Wicca
18408-540: The centre's patron and gave several lectures for the group. In 1997 Cooke died, leaving Valiente grief-stricken. Her final public speech was at the Pagan Federation's annual conference, held at Croydon 's Fairfield Halls in November 1997; here she praised the work of early twentieth-century occultist Dion Fortune and urged the Wiccan community to accept homosexuals. Valiente's health was deteriorating as she
18585-435: The circle may involve the invocation of the "Guardians" of the cardinal points, alongside their respective classical elements; air, fire, water, and earth. Once the circle is cast, a seasonal ritual may be performed, prayers to the God and Goddess are said, and spells are sometimes worked; these may include various forms of 'raising energy', including raising a cone of power to send healing or other magic to persons outside of
18762-488: The concept. In some religions, this is said to sometimes result in unverified personal gnosis . Many religious and mystical traditions see religious experiences (particularly the knowledge which comes with them) as revelations caused by divine agency rather than ordinary natural processes. They are considered real encounters with God or gods, or real contact with higher-order realities of which humans are not ordinarily aware. Skeptics may hold that religious experience
18939-553: The contemplation of corporeal things in their multiplicity and harmony, it then retires upon itself and withdraws into the depths of its own being, rising thence to the nous , the world of ideas. But even there it does not find the Highest, the One; it still hears a voice saying, "not we have made ourselves." The last stage is reached when, in the highest tension and concentration, beholding in silence and utter forgetfulness of all things, it
19116-481: The context of a particular religious tradition. Moore and Habel identify two classes of religious experiences: the immediate and the mediated religious experience. In his book Faith and Reason , the philosopher Richard Swinburne formulated five categories into which all religious experiences fall: Swinburne also suggested two principles for the assessment of religious experiences: The notion of "religious experience" can be traced back to William James , who used
19293-418: The coven, Jack L. Bracelin and his girlfriend 'Dayonis', stating that "a more qualid pair of spivs it would be hard to find indeed". Two factions emerged within the coven; Valiente led a broadly anti-publicity group, while Gardner led a pro-publicity one. In 1957, Valiente and Grove drew up a list of "Proposed Rules of the Craft" which were partly designed to curtail Gardner's publicity-seeking. From his home in
19470-531: The directions are dismissed and the circle is closed. A central aspect of Wicca (particularly in Gardnerian and Alexandrian Wicca), often sensationalised by the media is the traditional practice of working in the nude, also known as skyclad . Although no longer widely used, this practice seemingly derives from a line in Aradia , Charles Leland 's supposed record of Italian witchcraft. Many Wiccans believe that performing rituals skyclad allows "power" to flow from
19647-643: The door to any visitors while she was watching the competition on television. She also enjoyed betting on horse races. Within the Wiccan community, Valiente has become internationally known as the "Mother of Modern Witchcraft" or "Mother of Wica", although she herself disliked this moniker. Heselton believed that Valiente's influence on Wicca was "profound and far-reaching", while Ruickbie characterised her as Gardner's "most gifted acolyte". Doyle White stated that an argument could be made that Gardner would "never have been anywhere near as successful" in promoting Wicca had he not had Valiente's help. In 2016, Heselton expressed
19824-491: The early modern period." In 1966, Valiente then produced a manuscript for a book titled I am a Witch! , a collection of poems with a biographical introduction; however, it was never published, publishers not believing that it would be commercially viable. Valiente learned of the non-Gardnerian Wiccan Charles Cardell from a 1958 article, and subsequently struck up a correspondence with him. Cardell suggested that they pool their respective traditions together, but Valiente declined
20001-478: The east coast of North America should invoke water in the east and not the west because the colossal body of water, the Atlantic Ocean , is to their east. Other Craft groups have associated the elements with different cardinal points, for instance Robert Cochrane 's Clan of Tubal Cain associated earth with south, fire with east, water with west and air with north, and each of which were controlled over by
20178-404: The existence of the supernatural but remain involved in Wicca because of its ritual experiences: she quoted one as saying that "I love myth, dream, visionary art. The Craft is a place where all of these things fit together – beauty, pageantry, music, dance, song, dream". The Wiccan practitioner and historian Aidan Kelly wrote that the practices and experiences within Wicca were more important than
20355-460: The first published biography of Valiente was written by Jonathan Tapsell and published as Ameth: The Life and Times of Doreen Valiente by Avalonia Books in 2013. Doyle White characterised this volume as being "all-too-brief". Belham-Payne initially considered writing a biography of Valiente, but feeling that he was not academically qualified to do so, he commissioned Heselton – who had previously published several books on Gardner – to do so, publishing
20532-779: The goddess", it is now generally accepted in all traditions of Wicca, with groups such as the Minoan Brotherhood openly basing their philosophy upon it. Nonetheless, a variety of viewpoints exist in Wicca around this point, with some covens adhering to a hetero-normative viewpoint. Carly B. Floyd of Illinois Wesleyan University has published an informative white paper on this subject: Mother Goddesses and Subversive Witches: Competing Narratives of Gender Essentialism, Heteronormativity, Feminism, and Queerness in Wiccan Theology and Ritual . The scholar of religion Joanne Pearson noted that in her experience, most Wiccans take
20709-423: The growing scientific and secular critique, and defend the view that human (moral and religious) experience justifies religious beliefs . The notion of "religious experience" was adopted by many scholars of religion, of which William James was the most influential. A broad range of western and eastern movements have incorporated and influenced the emergence of the modern notion of "mystical experience", such as
20886-471: The individual has mystical experience , can be experienced regardless of the culture. The origins of the use of this term can be dated further back. In the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, several historical figures put forth very influential views that religion and its beliefs can be grounded in experience itself. While Kant held that moral experience justified religious beliefs , John Wesley in addition to stressing individual moral exertion thought that
21063-557: The journalist Justine Glass, who was then conducting research for her book Witchcraft, the Sixth Sense, and Us . Valiente began visiting local libraries and archives in order to investigate the history of witchcraft in Sussex . On the basis of this research, the esoteric press Aquarian published her first book, Where Witchcraft Lives , in 1962. Just as Gardner had done in his book Witchcraft Today , here Valiente did not identify as
21240-542: The latter couple visited Brighton in 1965. After her mother's death in August 1962, Valiente felt that she could be more open about being a Wiccan herself. Eager to spread information about Wicca throughout Britain, she also began to interact with press, sending a 1962 letter to the Spiritualist newspaper Psychic News , and in 1964 being interviewed for her involvement with Wicca by Brighton's Evening Argus . During
21417-556: The latter. Spare subsequently described Valiente as "a myopic stalky nymph... harmless and a little tiresome" in a letter that he wrote to Kenneth Grant . At Gardner's prompting, she also met with the occultist Gerald Yorke , who was interested in learning about Wicca; Gardner insisted that she lie to Yorke by informing him that she was from a longstanding family of hereditary Wiccan practitioners. She also aided him in preparing his second non-fiction book about Wicca, The Meaning of Witchcraft , focusing in particular on those sections refuting
21594-576: The local council decided that her home was unfit for human habitation; she was relocated into council accommodation in the mid-1960s tower block of Tyson Place in Grosvenor Square, Brighton. Her flat was described by visitors as cramped, being filled with thousands of books. It was there that she met Ronald Cooke, a member of the apartment block's residents' committee; they entered into a relationship and she initiated him into Wicca, where he became her working partner. Together they regularly explored
21771-473: The material from Crowley. Spiritual experience Medieval Early modern Modern Iran India East-Asia A religious experience (sometimes known as a spiritual experience , sacred experience , mystical experience ) is a subjective experience which is interpreted within a religious framework. The concept originated in the 19th century, as a defense against the growing rationalism of Western society . William James popularised
21948-529: The material in Gardner's Book of Shadows was taken not from ancient sources as Gardner had initially claimed, but from the works of Crowley. She confronted Gardner with this; he claimed that the text he had received from the New Forest coven had been fragmentary, and he had had to fill much of it using various sources. She took the Book of Shadows, and with Gardner's permission, rewrote much of it, cutting out
22125-441: The mid-1980s, Valiente began writing an autobiography in which she focused on her own place within Wiccan history. It would be published by Hale in 1989 as The Rebirth of Witchcraft . In this work she did not dismiss the Murrayite witch-cult theory, but she did undermine the belief that Wicca was the survival of it by highlighting the various false claims made by Gardner, Cochrane, and Sanders, instead emphasising what she perceived as
22302-494: The most of the present life, in all respects, then the next life is more or less certainly going to benefit from the process, and so one may as well concentrate on the present". It is nevertheless a common belief among Wiccans that human beings have a spirit or soul that survives bodily death. Understandings of what this soul constitutes vary among different traditions, with the Feri tradition of witchcraft, for instance, having adopted
22479-443: The natural world, for instance as genius loci , fairies , and elementals . In other cases, such beliefs are more idiosyncratic and atypical; Wiccan Sybil Leek for instance endorsed a belief in angels . Belief in the afterlife varies among Wiccans and does not occupy a central place within the religion. As the historian Ronald Hutton remarked, "the instinctual position of most [Wiccans] ... seems to be that if one makes
22656-586: The newly established the Doreen Valiente Foundation. A charitable trust, the Foundation was designed to prevent the collection being broken up and sold, moreover allowing for future Wiccans and researchers to start "delving into it, protecting it, making it accessible and available for people to research, learn from and enjoy." John Belham-Payne became the group's chairman, while Ashley Mortimer, Brian Botham, and Trish Botham were appointed as trustees. Aside from Valiente's autobiography, The Rebirth of Witchcraft ,
22833-776: The notion of "religious experience" were introduced to Asian countries by missionaries, scholars and the Theosophical Society, and amalgamated in a new understanding of the Indian and Buddhist traditions. This amalgam was exported back to the West as 'authentic Asian traditions', and acquired a great popularity in the west. Due to this western popularity, it also gained authority back in India, Sri Lanka and Japan. The best-known representatives of this amalgamated tradition are Annie Besant (Theosophical Society), Swami Vivekenanda and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan ( Neo-Vedanta ), Anagarika Dharmapala ,
23010-489: The offer, expressing some scepticism regarding Cardell's motives and conduct. In 1962, Valiente began a correspondence course run by Raymond Howard , a former associate of Cardell's; this course instructed her in a Wiccan tradition known as the Coven of Atho. At Halloween 1963 she was then initiated into the Coven of Atho in a ritual overseen by Howard, entering the lowest rank of the course, that of 'Sarsen', and beginning to copy
23187-738: The original Gardnerian God/Goddess duotheistic structure but have adopted deity forms other than that of the Horned God and Mother Goddess. For instance, the God has been interpreted as the Oak King and the Holly King , as well as the Sun God, Son/Lover God, and Vegetation God. He has also been seen in the roles of the Leader of the Wild Hunt and the Lord of Death. The Goddess is often portrayed as
23364-661: The poem "Elegy for a Dead Witch" in his memory. She remained in contact with his widow and other members of the Clan, as well as with Gray, and proceeded to work on occasion with The Regency, a group founded by former members of the Clan. Living in Brighton, Valiente took up employment in a branch of the Boots pharmacist. In 1971 she appeared on the BBC documentary, Power of the Witch , which
23541-408: The present, when it had emerged as Wicca. Hutton later related that it was "one of the first three books to be published on the subject" of Wicca, and that the "remarkable feature of the book is that it remains, until this date [2010], the only one produced by a prominent modern witch that embodies actual original research into the records of the trials of people accused of the crime of witchcraft during
23718-536: The present. This theology derived from Egyptologist Margaret Murray's claims about the witch-cult in her book The Witch-Cult in Western Europe published by Oxford University Press in 1921; she claimed that this cult had venerated a Horned God at the time of the Early Modern witch trials, but centuries before it had also worshipped a Mother Goddess. This duotheistic Horned God/Mother Goddess structure
23895-514: The public emergence of Wicca as a sign of the Age of Aquarius , arguing that the religion should ally with the feminist and environmentalist movements in order to establish a better future for the planet. In 1973, the publishing company Robert Hale brought out Valiente's second book, An ABC of Witchcraft , in which she provided an encyclopaedic overview of various topics related to Wicca and esotericism. In 1975, Hale published Valiente's Natural Magic ,
24072-622: The religion's early history. Living in Brighton during these years, she was a member of the Silver Malkin coven and worked with Ron Cook, who was both her partner and initiate. In her final years she served as patron of the Sussex-based Centre for Pagan Studies prior to her death from pancreatic cancer . Valiente's magical artefacts and papers were bequeathed to her last High Priest, John Belham-Payne , who donated them to
24249-441: The religion's value for the modern era. She also provided a foreword for Witchcraft: A Tradition Renewed , a book published in 1990 by Hale. It had been written by Evan John Jones , a former member of the Clan of Tubal Cain who also lived in Brighton. Heselton has expressed the view that Valiente likely did more than this, and that she wrote a number of the chapters herself. As Valiente became better known, she came to correspond with
24426-646: The religious experiences in the Methodist movement (paralleling the Romantic Movement ) were foundational to religious commitment as a way of life. Wayne Proudfoot traces the roots of the notion of "religious experience" to the German theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834), who argued that religion is based on a feeling of the infinite. The notion of "religious experience" was used by Schleiermacher and Albert Ritschl to defend religion against
24603-515: The result as Doreen Valiente: Witch through his Doreen Valiente Foundation in 2016. It held its launch party at the esoteric-themed bookstore, Treadwell's , in central London, in February 2016, shortly after Belham-Payne's death. Heselton's 2016 biography of Valiente includes a bibliography of her published work, as well as her contributions to other books. Wicca Wicca ( English: / ˈ w ɪ k ə / ), also known as " The Craft ",
24780-572: The result of her investigations into "Old Dorothy", the woman whom Gardner had claimed had been involved with the New Forest coven. The academic historian Jeffrey Burton Russell had recently suggested that Gardner invented "Old Dorothy" as an attempt to hide the fact that he had invented Wicca himself. Valiente sought to disprove this, discovering that "Old Dorothy" was a real person: Dorothy Clutterbuck . Valiente biographer Jonathan Tapsell described it as "one of Doreen's greatest known moments". In
24957-502: The sacred space. In constructing his ritual system, Gardner drew upon older forms of ceremonial magic, in particular, those found in the writings of Aleister Crowley. The classical ritual scheme in British Traditional Wicca traditions is: These rites often include a special set of magical tools . These usually include a knife called an athame , a wand , a pentacle and a chalice , but other tools include
25134-410: The sensationalist accusations of the tabloid press. However Gardner's increasing desire for publicity, much of it ending up negative, caused conflict with Valiente and other members of his coven like Ned Grove and Derek Boothby. She felt that in repeatedly communicating with the press, he was compromising the coven's security. She was also not enthusiastic about two young people whom Gardner brought into
25311-578: The similar terminology of " left-hand path " to describe malevolent magic, and " right-hand path " to describe magic performed with good intentions; terminology that had originated with the occultist Helena Blavatsky in the 19th century. Some modern Wiccans, however, have stopped using the white/black magic and left/right-hand-path dichotomies, arguing for instance that the colour black should not necessarily have any associations with evil. Scholars of religion Rodney Stark and William Bainbridge claimed in 1985 that Wicca had "reacted to secularisation by
25488-458: The spirits of the deceased, a belief adopted from Spiritualism . Many Wiccans believe in magic , a manipulative force exercised through the practice of " spellcraft ". Many Wiccans agree with the definition of magic offered by ceremonial magicians , such as Aleister Crowley , who declared that magic was "the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with will", while another ceremonial magician, MacGregor Mathers stated that it
25665-402: The subconscious that could be evoked in ritual. It was for this reason, she said "The Goddess and God manifest to us in dream and vision". Wiccans often believe that the gods are not perfect and can be argued with. Many Wiccans also adopt a more explicitly polytheistic or animistic world-view of the universe as being replete with spirit-beings. In many cases these spirits are associated with
25842-442: The teachings of Plato and earlier Platonists . Neoplatonism teaches that along the same road by which it descended the soul must retrace its steps back to the supreme Good. It must first of all return to itself. This is accomplished by the practice of virtue , which aims at likeness to God, and leads up to God. By means of ascetic observances the human becomes once more a spiritual and enduring being, free from all sin. But there
26019-561: The teachings that she received into notebooks, where she was able to identify many of the sources from which Howard had drawn upon in fashioning his tradition. In 1964, Valiente was introduced to the Pagan witch Robert Cochrane by a mutual friend, the ceremonial magician William G. Gray , who had met him at a gathering at Glastonbury Tor held by the Brotherhood of the Essenes . Although sceptical of Cochrane's claims to have come from
26196-441: The term "religious experience" in his book, The Varieties of Religious Experience . It is considered to be the classic work in the field, and references to James' ideas are common at professional conferences. James distinguished between institutional religion and personal religion . Institutional religion refers to the religious group or organization, and plays an important part in a society's culture. Personal religion, in which
26373-526: The theologian Karl Barth . In the 20th century, religious as well as moral experience as justification for religious beliefs still held sway. Some influential modern scholars who held this liberal theological view were Charles Raven and the Oxford physicist/theologian Charles Coulson . Robert Sharf writes that "experience" is a typical Western term, which has found its way into Asian religiosity via western influences. The notion of "experience" introduces
26550-486: The unveiling at the ceremony, and a speech was given by Denise Cobb , the Mayor of Brighton. It had been preceded by an open solstice ritual in Brighton's Steine Gardens, led by Ralph Harvey. Following Valiente's death, John Belham-Payne received offers of substantial amounts of money from buyers seeking to purchase parts of her collection. In 2011 he entrusted the collection of artefacts that he had inherited from Valiente to
26727-405: The use of entheogens , such as: Religious experiences may have neurophysiological origins. These are studied in the field of neurotheology , and the cognitive science of religion , and include near-death experiences . Causes may be: Neoplatonism is the modern term for a school of religious and mystical philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century AD, founded by Plotinus and based on
26904-415: The view that Valiente was best known for her books, which are "still some of the most readable on the subject" of Wicca, further highlighting that they often appeared on Wiccan reading lists. The ritual liturgies that Valiente composed also proved highly influential within the Wiccan religion and constitute a core element of her legacy. Kelly asserted that Valiente "deserves credit for having helped transform
27081-507: The view that the Goddess is not an entity with a literal existence, but rather a Jungian archetype. As well as pantheism and duotheism , many Wiccans accept the concept of polytheism , thereby believing that there are many different deities . Some accept the view espoused by the occultist Dion Fortune that "all gods are one god, and all goddesses are one goddess" – that is that the gods and goddesses of all cultures are, respectively, aspects of one supernal God and Goddess. With this mindset,
27258-649: The visit to Stonehenge, but not about her initiation, of which, she feared, they would not have approved. Later in the year, Gardner invited Valiente to visit him at his flat in Shepherd's Bush , West London, and it was there that she met the eight to ten members of his Bricket Wood coven , which met near St. Albans , north of London. She soon rose to become the coven's High Priestess. The historian Ronald Hutton later commented that in doing so, she formed "the second great creative partnership of [Gardner's] life" after that with Woodford-Grimes. Valiente recognised how much of
27435-409: The whole of the religion rather than to a specific tradition. In following decades, members of certain traditions – those known as British Traditional Wicca – began claiming that only they should be called "Wiccan", and that other traditions must not use it. From the late 1980s onwards, various books propagating Wicca were published that again used the former, broader definition of the word. Thus, by
27612-402: The wider culture", one in which female practitioners can "redefine and empower themselves". Wiccan rituals usually take place in private. The Reclaiming tradition has utilised its rituals for political purposes. Practice in Wicca (including, as an example, matters such as the varying attributions of the elements to different directions discussed in the preceding section) varies widely due to
27789-447: The witch because she is imagined as powerful - she can make people sleep for one hundred years, she can see the future, she can curse and kill as well as heal ... and of course, she can turn people into frogs!" Pearson says that Wicca "provides a framework in which the image of oneself as a witch can be explored and brought into a modern context". Identifying as a witch also enables Wiccans to link themselves with those persecuted in
27966-577: The witch trials of the Early Modern period, often referred to by Wiccans as "the Burning Times". Various practitioners have claimed that as many as nine million people were executed as witches in the Early Modern period, thus drawing comparisons with the killing of six million Jews in the Holocaust and presenting themselves, as modern witches, as "persecuted minorities". Bide the Wiccan laws ye must, in perfect love and perfect trust ... Mind
28143-627: Was "the science of the control of the secret forces of nature". Many Wiccans believe magic to be a law of nature, as yet misunderstood or disregarded by contemporary science, and as such they do not view it as being supernatural , but a part of what Leo Martello calls the "super powers that reside in the natural". Some Wiccans believe that magic is simply making full use of the five senses to achieve surprising results, whilst other Wiccans do not claim to know how magic works, merely believing that it does because they believe they have observed it to be so. During ritual practices, which are often staged in
28320-642: Was a biography of the occultist Aleister Crowley , who had founded the religion of Thelema in 1904, and following this she avidly read a copy of Crowley's Magick in Theory and Practice which she found in a local library. Alongside these, she also had some practical experience with the esoteric religions of Spiritualism and Theosophy , having attended the services of a local Christian Spiritualist church in Charminster . "We seemed to take an immediate liking to each other. I realised that this man [Gardner]
28497-648: Was a civil engineer, and he lived with her mother Edith in Colliers Wood. Harry came from a Methodist background and Edith from a Congregationalist one, however Doreen was never baptised , as was the custom of the time, due to an argument that Edith had had with the local vicar . Doreen later claimed that she had not had a close or affectionate relationship with her parents, whom she characterised as highly conventional and heavily focused on social climbing. During her childhood they moved to Horley in Surrey, and it
28674-497: Was also in the early 1970s that she read John Michell 's The View Over Atlantis and was heavily influenced by it, embracing Michell's view that there were ley lines across the British landscape that channelled earth energies . Inspired, she began searching for ley lines in the area around Brighton. She also began subscribing to The Ley Hunter magazine, for which she authored several articles and book reviews. Valiente came to see
28851-441: Was devoted to Wicca and also featured the prominent Wiccan Alex Sanders . That same year, she was involved in the founding of the Pagan Front , a British pressure group that campaigned for the religious rights of Wiccans and other Pagans. In November 1970 she developed a full moon inauguration ritual for local branches of the Front to use and on May Day 1971 she chaired its first national meeting, held at Chiswick , West London . It
29028-566: Was diagnosed first with diabetes and then terminal pancreatic cancer ; increasingly debilitated, John Belham-Payne and two of her friends became her primary carers. In her last few days she was moved to the Sackville Nursing Home, there requesting that Belham-Payne publish an anthology of her poems after her death. She died on 1 September 1999, with Belham-Payne at her side. CFPS' barn in Maresfield, where an all-night vigil
29205-429: Was embraced by Gardner – who claimed that it had Stone Age roots – and remains the underlying theological basis to his Gardnerian tradition. Gardner claimed that the names of these deities were to be kept secret within the tradition, although in 1964 they were publicly revealed to be Cernunnos and Aradia; the secret Gardnerian deity names were subsequently changed. Although different Wiccans attribute different traits to
29382-618: Was formally a member of the Orthodox Church, had been trained in Western Scholastic theology. Barlaam asserted that our knowledge of God can only be propositional. The practice of the hesychasts was defended by St. Gregory Palamas . While all Muslims believe that they are on the pathway to God and will become close to God in Paradise ;– after death and after the "Final Judgment" – Sufis believe that it
29559-485: Was formed in 1875 by Helena Blavatsky , Henry Steel Olcott , William Quan Judge and others to advance the spiritual principles and search for Truth known as Theosophy . The Theosophical Society has been highly influential in promoting interest, both in west and east, in a great variety of religious teachings: No single organization or movement has contributed so many components to the New Age Movement as
29736-477: Was held; those invited included Ralph Harvey, and Ronald Hutton. After this Pagan rite was completed, her coffin was cremated at Brighton's Woodvale crematorium , in an intentionally low-key service with John Belham-Payne, Doreen's last High priest as celebrant for the funeral. As per her wishes, Valiente's ashes were scattered in Sussex woodland. Her magical artefacts and manuscripts, including her Book of Shadows, were bequeathed to John Belham-Payne. Her book of poems
29913-619: Was here that he initiated her into Wicca in a ritual during which they stood before an altar and he read from his Book of Shadows . The three of them then set off to the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge in Wiltshire , where they witnessed the Druids performing a ritual there. Gardner had lent a ritual sword which he owned to the Druids, who placed it within the monument's Heel Stone during their rite. Valiente told her husband and mother about
30090-445: Was included in the first issue of the WRA's newsletter, Pentagram , published in August 1964, while she also gave a speech at the WRA's Halloween dinner in October. It was at the speech that Valiente proclaimed the Wiccan Rede ; this was its first public appearance in a recognisable form, with Doyle White arguing that it was Valiente herself who both created and named the Rede. It was through the WRA that Valiente came to communicate with
30267-400: Was no time-wasting pretender to occult knowledge. He was something different from the kind of people I had met in esoteric gatherings before. One felt that he had seen far horizons and encountered strange things; and yet there was a sense of humour about him and a youthfulness, in spite of his silver hair." Valiente on her first meeting with Gardner, 1989 She had also become familiar with
30444-630: Was published posthumously in 2000, followed by an enlarged second edition in 2014. Hutton characterised Valiente as "a handsome woman of striking, dark-haired, aquiline looks, possessed of a strong, enquiring, candid, and independent personality, and a gift for poetry and ritual". Belham-Payne noted that Valiente was "very tall, rather reserved and preferred to be in the background", while Doreen Valiente Foundation Trustee, Ashley Mortimer described her as "sensible, practical, decent, honest and, perhaps most importantly, pragmatic". The writer Leo Ruickbie described her as "a plain, owlishly bespectacled woman with
30621-426: Was she who developed the three principles that came to be central to the Pagan Front's interpretation of their religion: adherence to the Wiccan Rede, a belief in reincarnation , and a sense of kinship with nature. In April 1972 her husband Casimiro died; he had never taken an interest in Wicca or esotericism and Valiente later claimed that theirs had been an unhappy relationship. Newly widowed, she soon had to move as
30798-467: Was taken as the criterion for truth. In the late 18th and early 19th century, the first translations of Hindu texts appeared, which were also read by the Transcendentalists, and influenced their thinking. They also endorsed universalist and Unitarianist ideas, leading to Unitarian Universalism , the idea that there must be truth in other religions as well, since a loving God would redeem all living beings, not just Christians. The Theosophical Society
30975-428: Was there, according to her later account, that she had an early spiritual experience while staring at the Moon. From there her family moved to the West Country and then to the New Forest . In either late 1934 or 1935, Doreen's mother left her father and took her to live with maternal relatives in Southampton . Valiente first began practising magic at age 13, performing a spell to prevent her mother being harassed by
31152-407: Was transferred to the intelligence service's offices in Berkeley Street in the Mayfair area of London, where she was involved in message decryption . In London she met and entered into a relationship with Casimiro Valiente, a Spaniard who had fled from the Spanish Civil War , where he had fought on the side of the Spanish Republican Army before later joining the French Foreign Legion , where he
31329-451: Was wounded at the Battle of Narvik and evacuated to England. They were married on 29 May 1944 at St Pancras Registry Office. The couple moved to Bournemouth – where Doreen's mother was then living – and here Casimiro worked as a chef. Valiente would later say that both she and her husband suffered racism after the war because of their foreign associations. Developing an interest in occultism , she began practising ceremonial magic with
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