To Main Page 2201 Maiden Story Excerpted from "The Bardic Mysteries: The Book of the Fool," by the Whyte Bard: The Maiden, being young and giddy, was watching the Men and Women as they played and laughed in the Garden one morning. She turned to the Fool, blinked her eyes, and said, "They are so fine and good, smiling all the time. How will they ever learn and grow if they have no obstacles; if there is no pain?" And Trickster smiled a mad smile, and gave the Maiden a box. It was a small box, of something that might have been wood, but wasn't, and it had no lock on it. It did, however, have a small, neatly lettered sign on its lid. Trickster pointed to the sign, and said, "That's called 'writing.' I haven't invented it yet." "Oh," said the Maiden, "But what's in the box?" "Oh," said Trickster, "You don't want to know!" "I don't?" said the Maiden, slightly miffed, "But I'm Deity!" "I know that," Trickster grinned, "But you still don't want to know." "Well....all right." And the Maiden flounced away, very much put out. Trickster watched Her go, and grinned. He then put the box down where the Maiden could see it whenever She looked in that direction, and sauntered away, eating an apple. The Maiden looked at the box for several days. "I wonder what's in there...." She would think to Herself. "That Person is always up to some trick." Finally, Her curiosity got the best of Her, and She walked into the Garden and picked up the box. She sat down under the apple tree, and spread Her skirts about Her, and placed the box on Her lap. She looked at it for a long time, and then thought, "Well! A little peek inside can't do any harm..." And She opened the box. Immediately, the lid sprang off, and a cloud of tiny things flew out! They were like flies, or mosquitoes, and they buzzed crazily about Her head for a moment, and then flew off in all directions. Trickster stepped out from behind the tree. "Well, now You've done it," He said. "Done what?" asked the Maiden. "Let loose what was in the box. Pain, and Suffering, and Envy, and Hatred, and Jealousy, and War, and Covetousness, and Sloth, and quite a lot more." Just then, the box gave a great heave, and a very tiny, very bright little Something flew out. Trickster smiled a warm smile, and said, ".....and Hope. I'm an eternal optimist. Want an apple?" "I guess so," said the Maiden. "What did it say on the lid, anyway?" "The usual. You know, 'Do Not Open This Box.'" "Oh. I guess I messed up, huh?" He smiled at Her, and said, "Not really. We would have had to do it anyway, and this makes a better story, though they might get it wrong." They both looked at the Men and Women, who were now sitting around on the grass arguing with each other. A couple of the Men were fighting, and a group of the Women were talking in whispers about another group of Women. Another Man had fenced off a section of the Garden, while another was coughing a little with a bewildered expression on his face. "Excuse me for a bit," said Trickster. "I guess I have to be the One 2202 to finish this, and get them started up the Path." He walked briskly over to the Men and Women, changing His Aspect as He went, until He appeared as a different sort of Being indeed. "Time to leave," said the Angel to the Men and Women. "Yes, we know," they answered, only half sadly, and the Men and the Women started out from the Garden, out on the Path Of Being Human. Trickster watched them go, out from the Gates. "Good luck....." He murmured, and he sheathed the Flaming Sword and closed the Gates of Innocence. Thus it was, and so it is, and evermore shall be so! --------------------------------------------------------------- 2203 The Sacred King The Men and Women were hungry. They would eat of those that walk in Fur, Fin and Feather, and thank them for their sacrifice, but that was not enough. They would eat of the wild fruits of the Earth, but that was not enough, for all of these must be found, and hunted, and a home cannot be built on this. And the Sacred King saw, and thought upon it for a time, and His face grew grave and sad. And He spoke to the Lady, and said, "I must die." And the Lady grieved for Her Lord, and He fell upon His Sword, and died. The Mother buried Him in the Earth, returning Him to Her Womb, and mourned, and Winter wrapped the World in ice and snow. She covered the face of the Sky with dark clouds, and Her Tears of rain poured therefrom in cascades and torrents. And the Tears of the Mother wetted the ground, and the Sun warmed the ground, and a green shoot appeared, poking its head out from the Womb of the Mother, and grew as the days grew, longer and taller, until the golden hair of the Sacred King once more waved proudly in the wind; until the Grain of the Fields stood, row upon row, as far as the eye could see; until the Bounty of the Mother, the Sacred King Himself, stood upon the World, ready to be harvested. "That was well done," said the Mother, "But it pains me to see you die." "It is as it must be," He said, "And does it not show them that Death is an illusion; is but another change in a MultiVerse of Change? It feeds them, too, and this is a good thing." "You are right," She sighed, "But I just wish it could have been done in a kinder way." "Maybe," He spoke, lowly, "But it is as it is nonetheless." Thus it was, and so it is, and evermore shall be so! 2204 The Gifts Of The Fool The Men and the Women were hungry. All about them was the Mother's Bounty, the Gift of the Sacred King, and no way to harvest it. The Fool came, and took of the Earth itself, and mixed it with water, and shaped a Pot. And He took of the Grass, and shaped a Basket, and Nets, and Clothing. And He took wood from the Tree. A straight piece of wood, and he took a stone, the very Bones of the Mother, and shaped it to a point, and fastened it to the wood, and made a Spear. With another stone He made a Hoe, and with another he crafted a Knife, and gave them to the Men and Women. And the Fool spoke, and said, "Look you here at Tools. They give you claws and fangs, and extend your reach longer than any of the Brothers and Sisters-in-Fur, even as high as the stars themselves. They will bring you food, and clothing, and shelter. They are good servants, but poor masters, for they can also be used in the service of War, and War will harm and kill you, and destroy what you have. Learn from Earth, and be wise." The Men and Women were cold, and the winds of Winter blew over them. Ice and snow rushed around them, and they huddled together, fearing. But the Fool came to them, with a new thing. He took wood from the Tree, and the Bones of the Mother, and made a small circle. And with the wood from the Tree He made Fire. And the Men and Women gathered around the warmth, as planets gather around suns, and were glad. And the Fool said, "Look you here at Fire. It is warm and good; a good servant, but a poor master indeed. Learn from this, that some things are good when used correctly, and very bad indeed when used wrongly. For Fire will warm your homes, and cook your food, and do many things for you, but it can harm you, and kill you, and destroy what you have. You will find many things like Fire. Learn from Fire, and be wise." And the Fool took the clay pot, and filled it with Water, and placed therein the meat of the hunt, and the fruits of the Earth. He placed the pot upon the Fire, and the Water rolled and boiled, and the smell was savory to the Men and Women. And the Fool spoke, and said, "Look you here at Water, the Blood of the Mother. It will refresh you, and cool you, and shall be your servant. But mind you do not let it be your master, for it will drown you, and flood you, and harm you and kill you, and destroy what you have. It is soft, but of all things it will wear thru even the hardest object. You will find many things like Water. Learn from Water, and be wise." The Fool sat beside the Fire, and hummed to Himself, and as He hummed He clapped his hands in time, and He made yet another new thing, and called it Song. And the Men and Women took up the Song, and sang, and rejoiced. And the Fool said, "Look you here at Air. Song is of the Air, of the very Breath you take. Song will comfort you in sadness, and rejoice with you in celebration. Song will weave Words into Magic, and can bend the edges of Reality. Treat it with respect, and do not misuse it, for Song, and Words, can twist and lie and turn you to a harmful way; take away your individuality and turn you to a Mob, that knows not what it does." 2205 "You swim in the Air as a Fish swims in Water. Keep it pure, and live. Foul it, and die. It is your choice. And beware of the Storms of the Air, for this insubstantial Element can destroy what you have, and kill you. You will find many things like Air. Learn from Air, and be wise." And the Fool took of the Sacred King, and He winnowed it in the Air. He ground it between the Bones of the Earth, and He made flour, and wetted it with Water, and baked it in Fire, and made Bread, the Body of the Sacred King. "Know that I am always with you," sang the Fool. "I am He who Saves, He who Teaches, He who brings Light to the World. I bring peace with one hand, and a sword with the other, that you may not stagnate, but might learn and grow, and attain the very stars in the Heavens." "You will always kill me, in many ways. I have been chained to a rock, and crucified, and burned, persecuted, and hated. I have been banished and slain, but always, always I return to you, and I will not be silenced." "My words will be twisted, and misunderstood, but with each generation you will strive ever closer to That which you reach for, forever striving, forever attaining, and forever changing." "Sometimes I will come in quiet, slipping in and out again before you have known my Presence, and at other times I will come with the sound of trumpets and proclaimations." "But always I will come, and I shall be with you, always, to the End of Time." And He gave the Bread to the Men and Women, and said "Remember!" And one approached, and said, "You have told us of Earth, and my husband was digging therein, and it fell upon him and he died. Therefore I shall kill you." And another approached, and said, "You have told us of Air, and a great wind has blown my mother from a high place, wherefrom she died. Therefore I shall kill you." And another approached, and said, "You have given us Fire, and my daughter has burned her hand therein. Therefore I shall kill you." And another approached, and said, "You have told us of Water, and my son has drowned therein. Therefore I shall kill you." And they took the Spear, made from the wood of the Tree, pointed with the Bones of the Mother, and thrust it into the body of the Fool, and the Fool smiled sadly, and, for the first time of many, died. "Will you always do this Teaching, O Fool?" said the Lady. "Assuredly so," replied the Fool, with a smile, "For are they not Our children?" "That they are," said the Lord, "But for how long shall You teach them, and be slain in return?" "For always," said the Fool. And he smiled, and a single tear coursed down His cheek. Thus it was, and so it is, and evermore shall be so! --------------------------------------------------------------- 2206 Death He was old. He felt old. His body did not work right anymore, and he was always tired. His eyes were rheumy, and there were pains in his joints that woke him in the cold night time. One night, as he slept, a soft white light filled his hut. He looked up, and saw the most beautiful Lady he had ever seen standing in the room. "Who are you?" he whispered. "Death," She answered, quietly. "Death?" His reply was confused. "I never thought Death would be so beautiful! We have always pictured you as some kind of spectre of fear." The Lady smiled. "You only fear Death because you do not remember it. Just as you fear Life, because you do not remember it. Come. Walk with me, and be at peace." He got out of the straw bed, and walked to Her. She took his hand, and he looked back at the bed. He saw his body, laying there. Still and unmoving. Dead. "It's quite a shock, isn't it?" Her voice was calm. "Am I .... dead?" "Most assuredly so. Come." They walked out of the cottage, hand in hand, and he noticed that they were not walking thru the streets of the village where he had lived. "Where are we?" "You'll see in a moment. Wait." "Am I bound for Hell?" he asked. She stopped, and looked him in the eyes. "There is no Hell. You have lived as most humans do, loving, hating, being loved and being hated. You did the best you could with the Light you had to see by. You have learned much, and earned much." Her voice was low, but filled with a vibrancy that touched his very soul. They continued a little way down a hill, and then turned a corner, or something very much like it, and he saw, and heard the laughter. "Is it Heaven? What is it? It's beautiful!" "This is the Summerland. Here you will rest a while, and play, and perhaps meet old playmates again and discuss your Game, and ways to improve It. It is time for you to remember all your lives." She reached up, and softly touched him on the forehead. "Now remember." And he did. --------------------------------------------------------------- 2207 Rebirth "It is time for you to go now." The Lady spoke to him in a sweet voice. "So soon?" he answered, "It seems as if I just arrived." "It always does," she smiled, "But it's time to move on to another life and another body. You'll like this one." "I hope so. Buchenwald was not pleasant...." "No, it isn't. But, like you folks say, 'that's Life!'" He laughed, and stood up on the so-green grass. "Yeah, I guess it is. See you in a while, folks." The Circle of friends waved at him, wishing him luck and good fortune, and he and the Lady moved off into a misty area. "Pretty foggy here," he remarked. "It will clear up soon," she said, and she took his hand. They walked for a long time, until he saw they were on a quiet street in a small town. It looked like a nice place. Around the corner was a park, and in it, two people, a man and a woman, were sitting on a bench, holding hands. They were deeply in love, and that love shone around them to those with eyes to see. "These are your parents. They're nobody special, but they're nice people and you'll like them," She said. "They look like nice folks," he replied. "Anything I need to know before I do this?" "I'm afraid I can't tell you. Life is one of those things that you just have to experience on your own." "OK," he said, "I guess You're right, all things considered." The Lady laughed, and touched him on the forehead. "Now forget, for a time, until you return to Me." And he did. --------------------------------------------------------------- 2208 Creation Mystery The Lord, and the Lady (and the Fool) were lonely. The All was not complete; there was none to keep them company, and laugh with them. There was none to know them, and none to be Their Children. And the Lady said, "Let us go forth and make Life upon the many worlds, that We may have Children, and a Family of Life within the MultiVerse. And let Us make them in Our image, and love and be loved in return." And the Fool laughed, and asked, "Shall it be so?" "No," said the Sacred King. And the Fool asked a second time, and said, "Shall it be so?" "Maybe," smiled the Youth. And the Fool asked a third time, saying, "Shall it be so?" "Yes!" said the Child. And the Fool smiled, and said, "If we do this thing, it shall be a wondrous thing indeed, for we shall make a Creature that shall have the Love of the Lady, and the Strength of the Lord, and a Curiousity to match Myself. It shall know Good and Evil, and Light and Darkness, and That which stands between them, and shall be very near and dear to us. It shall be arrogant, and willful, and cruel, but it shall also be kind, and gentle and loving. It shall be all things, and nothing at all." And the Fool laughed, and asked, "Shall it be so?" "No," said Chaos. And the Fool asked a second time, and said, "Shall it be so?" "Maybe," smiled Trickster. And the Fool asked a third time, saying, "Shall it be so?" "Yes!" said Prometheus. The Fool took up the stuff of stars, that whispers thru the MultiVerse, and mixed it with the dry clay of earth, and mixed the substance thereby made with the waters of the sea, and the tears of the Maiden, and the birth-waters of the Mother, and the spittle of the Crone; wet it was with the blood of the Sacred King, and the sweat of the Youth, and the milk on the lips of the Child. And the Fool laughed, and asked, "Shall it be so?" "No," said the Crone. And the Fool asked a second time, and said, "Shall it be so?" "Maybe," smiled the Maiden. And the Fool asked a third time, saying, "Shall it be so?" "Yes!" said the Mother. And the Fool smiled, and said, "Then let it be so, for I have asked three times, and three times three, and thus it is and so it ever shall be!" The Holy Fool bent, and sank to His knees, and She took the wet clay, wet with the waters of the sea, and the tears of the Maiden, and the birth- waters of the Mother, and the spittle of the Crone; wet with the blood of the Sacred King, and the sweat of the Youth, and the milk on the lips of the Child. 2209 And from that clay He made our Brothers and Sisters in Fur, Feather and Scale, and all the growing things. And one thing made of that clay was taken up by the Fool, and placed aside. And the Lady smiled upon Her Lord. And the Fool turned, and It was Prometheus, and shaped the wet clay thing further. Side by side, He made them, that none should stand above the other, but that all should walk as equals and partners, in joy and love. And the Fool turned, and It was Trickster, who shaped us to be curious, and to doubt, and from our doubt and curiousity, to learn, and to laugh. And the Fool turned, and She was Chaos, and placed a bit of Itself within us, that we may change and grow. And the Lord smiled upon His Lady. Man and Woman Prometheus made, and the making and the shaping was as years, and years upon years. And the Fool began to dance. And the Lady began to dance. And the Lord began to dance. They danced Life into the World, the Lady and the Lord, and the Fool. They danced the moon, and stars, and Sun, and all that there is, they danced into being. And they danced Death into the World, for we must close the Circle of our Being, and go forth unto newness. They danced Life and Death, and still They dance, a never-ending, ever-spinning Circle, endlessly spiraling upon itself, and uncoiling to start anew; hand in hand They dance, to a Music They have made, endlessly creating, and endlessly destroying. Thus it was, and so it is, and evermore shall be so! --------------------------------------------------------- 2210 THE TRIPLE GODDESS As the Maiden, I saw through your eyes as a child Spring rains, green forests, and animals wild! I saw you run freely on the Earth with bare feet! I watched as you danced in the winds, blowing free! I was there as you grew, getting stronger each day! I brought you rainbows, chasing grey skies away! I was there in your laughter - I was there in your tears! I was the acceptance you gained from your peers! I saw your first love and I felt your first blush, As passion first stirred in the night's gentle hush! I am there with you always in the fresh morning dew! I bring you the crispness of beginnings anew. As the Mother, I bore all the labor distress Of birthing your child, and I felt the caress Of your hand on the face of the new life so dear. I heard its first cry, and I eased your fear! I provided the milk which you fed from your breast Till the baby grew strong, and with health it was blessed. As she took her first step, I was there in your smile! I was there while you nurtured your beautiful child! On the first day of school, when the doors opened wide I was there in your fear - I was there in your pride. I am there with you always in the bright full of moon! I bring you fertility - abundance in bloom. As the Crone, I brought blessings of wisdom with age [Wisdom not found by the turn of a page]. I was there as you taught the correct way to live: To love and to trust - to take and to give! I was there in the twinkle of your aged eye! I was there in your thoughts of the years flying by! I was there when you taught the Mysteries of old! I was there in the fire warming you in the cold! In the weariness of age, I was there with you, too... I brought well-deserved rest and peace unto you! I am there with you always in the darkness of night! I complete your life cycle, guiding you toward the light. Maid, Mother and Crone - We are all One - Yet We are all separate, as each role is done. We do not leave you - We're always there As you walk through this life with your worries and cares; As you dance in the spiral, We live inside - Deep in your spirit - where nothing can hide! No matter your path, no matter it's length - We give you courage and We give you strength. We are there to support you every hour of day And deep in the night, when dreams take you away. Our gifts We give freely, for you are our Child... Yes, We are the Lady: Wise, Pure, and Mild! -Kalioppe- 2211 A GODDESS ARRIVES THE NOVELS OF DION FORTUNE AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF GARDNERIAN WITCHCRAFT by CHAS S. CLIFTON No one occultist of the 20th century worked more vehemently in ad- vocating a "Western" - and within that, "Northern" - path of esoteric spirituality than did the English ceremonial magician, Dion Fortune. She founded an esoteric school that still persists, but beyond that direct transmission, her ideas seeded themselves into modern Neopagan religion to the point that they seem completely indigenous, their origins invisible. Certain of Fortune's key ideas, however, were not so much transmitted through her mystical writings and articles in The Occult Review of the 1920s, as they were passed on through a unique series of novels, one of which stands fifty years later as "the finest novel on real magic ever written," in the words of Alan Richardson, her most adept biog- rapher1. Primary among these key ideas was her raising up of a lunar, feminine divine power - not that she was the first modern magician to do it, but by taking the two paths of ritual and literature she gave the power two ways to go. The second idea was that of egalitarian magical working, something she came to late in her life (she lived from 1890-1946). This was a fairly radical idea in that all her associations with the Theosophical Society, the Order of the Golden Dawn, and her own Fraternity (later Society) of the Inner Light included the idea of hierarchies and grades, going back in her own self-proclaimed reincarnational history to lifetimes among the sacred priestly caste of legendary Atlantis. Both of these ideas are found in the Anglo-American branches of modern Witchcraft, which first made its presence known in Great Britain in the early 1950s, having, I suspect, been developed and codified into its modern form during the later 1930s and 1940s. While a demonstrable personal connection between the modern witches and Dion Fortune cannot be proven - unless one had her entire mailing list circa 1939 in hand - I think a literary connection can be shown. Her ideas about an earth-based Western tradition of esoteric, magical religion, which exalted the feminine principle, fit so neatly with the cosmology of those modern witches who came out of a similar esoteric British milieu, that the connection is unmistakable. The reason it has not been acknowledged until recently is that to do so would conflict with the frequent assertion that Witchcraft was the "Old Religion" brought forward unchanged in its essentials from centuries ago. Unfortunately for that assertion, the historical records, such as they are, showed little evidence for secret goddess religion persisting until recent centuries in Northern Europe. The voluminous "witch trial" documents of England, Scotland, and France, which the archaeol- ogist and folklorist Margaret Murray used to buttress her argument for the survival of a pre-Christian religion, do not mention goddess worship. 2212 If one looks for other evidence of a goddess arriving in the mid-20th century, the other suspect typically is Robert Graves, whose widely influential book, The White Goddess, was written in 1944. Parallel and contemporary with Graves is Gertrude Rachel Levy's The Gate of Horn, which treats much of the same material Graves does, principally from the viewpoint of art history.2 The thesis of The White Goddess, which has been enormously influential among modern Pagan groups, is "that the language of poetic myth anciently current in the Mediterranean and Northern Europe was a magical language bound up with popular religious ceremonies in honour of the Moon-Goddess, or Muse,some of them dating from the Old Stone Age (Palaeolithic), and that this remains the language of true poe- try." Graves believed that this language "was still taught...in the Witchcovens of medieval Western Europe."3 I do not contend that Graves and Levy supplied the dual male and female divinities of most modern Witchcraft covens. Their books were both first published in 1948, after Fortune's works had been in print for a decade or more. Before examining the influence of Fortune's works, however, I will summarise the "coming out" of the British covens. THE RE-EMERGENCE OF BRITISH WITCHCRAFT In 1951 the British Parliament repealed the Witchcraft Act of 1735 - largely at the urging of Spiritualist churches, who objected to its prohibition of mediumship. This statutory change unexpectedly led to the emergence into public view of a religious tradition thought to be extinct: Witchcraft.4 These British witches defied definitions of the term common both in the vernacular and in anthropology textbooks. They were of both sexes, all ages, and were not isolated practitioners of maleficent magic; rather they claimed to be inheritors of the islands' pre-Christian religions. Their religion was duotheistic: they wor- shipped a male god, often called Cernnunos, Kernaya, or Herne; and a goddess, sometimes called Aradia or Tana. Of the two, sometimes seen as manifestations of a nonpersonal Godhead, the goddess had the greater importance, and her earthly representatives, the coven's priestess, had greater ritual authority. Greatly condensed, this is a description of what came to be known as "Gardnerian Witchcraft," after Gerald Gardner (1884-1964), who retired from the British colonial customs service in Malaya in 1936, returned to England and - as he described - was initiated into what he himself thought was a dying religion in 1938.5 This was no overnight conver- sion: Gardner was fascinated for many years with magical religion and "practical mysticism". A recognised avocational archaeologist and anthropologist in Malaya, during a visit to England in the 1920s, he set out to investigate the claims of British Spiritualists, trance mediums and the like. As he wrote: "I have been interested in magic and kindred subjects all my life and have made a collection of magical instruments and charms. These studies led me to spiritualist and other societies..."6 Gardner wrote three books on Witchcraft, one novel, and two nonfiction works. The novel was High Magic's Aid (1949), a stirring tale of late- medieval English coveners dodging secular and clerical foes with something of the feel of Walter Scott's Ivanhoe or Robert Louis Stevenson's The Black Arrow to it. Interestingly enough, the "witch- 2213 craft" portrayed in High Magic's Aid differs from what was later called "Gardnerian Witchcraft." In it the goddess is de-emphasised; the rituals are more in line with the post-Renaissance traditions of ceremonial magic. Gardner's next two books, The Meaning of Witchcraft (1959) and Witch- craft Today (1954), are more definitive of the tradition. All three of the forenamed remain in print; an earlier novel, with the suggestive title A Goddess Arrives, is long out of print, and I have not been able to locate a copy. Gardner and his followers also produced a "book" that was, until the early 1970s, passed on as handcopied manuscripts: "The Book of Shadows." It is a collection of "laws" and suggestions for running a clandestine coven, performing rituals, resolving disputes between witches inside the group, and so forth. Although it appears to be written in perhaps the English of the 17th century, I have concluded that it was produced during and immediately after World War II. Its atmosphere of secrecy and underground organ- ising is not a product of the witch-trial era, but of the early years of World War II when an invasion of southern England by the German Army appeared quite likely, and patriotic Britons were planning how they would organise a Resistance movement like those in France, Norway, and elsewhere in Nazi-occupied Europe. The woman often assumed to have birthed the idea of a Pagan under- ground in Christian Western Europe was not Dion Fortune, but the Egyptologist Margaret Murray of University College, London. Professor Murray, better known as the time for her work with Sir Flinders Petrie in Egypt, began researching Pagan carryovers while convalescing from an illness in 1915. World War I had interrupted her work in Egypt, and she wrote in her autobiography, My First Hundred Years:7 "I chose Glastonbury [to convalesce in]. One cannot stay in Glaston- bury without becoming interested in Joseph of Arimathea and the Holy Grail. As soon as I got back to London I did a careful piece of research, which resulted in a paper on Egyptian elements in the Grail Romance... Someone, I forget who, had once told me that the Witches obviously had a special form of religion, 'for they danced around a black goat.' As ancient religion is my pet subject this seemed to be in my line and during all the rest of the war I worked on Witches... I had started with the usual idea that the Witches were all old women suffering from illusions about the Devil and that their persecutors were wickedly prejudiced and perjured. I worked only from contemporary records, and when I suddenly realised that the so-called Devil was simply a dis- guised man I was startled, almost alarmed, by the way the recorded facts fell into place, and showed that the Witches were members of an old and primitive form of religion, and that the records had been made by members of a new and persecuting form." Murray's researches into medieval and Renaissance witch-trial docu- ments from Britain, Ireland, and the Continent (including those relating to Joan of Arc and Gilles de Rais) led to her writing three books, The Witch-Cult in Western Europe (1921), The God of the Witches (1931), and The Divine King in England (1954). In them she described her evidence for the survival of a pre-Christian religion centred on the Horned God of fertility (later labelled "The Devil" by Christian authorities) up until at least the 16th century in Britain. 2214 As the late historian of religion Mircea Eliade wrote, "Murray's theory was criticised by archaeologists, historians and folklorists alike."8 Pointing out some parallels between medieval witchcraft and Indo-Tibetan magical religion, Eliade gives qualified approval to part of Murray's conclusions. "As a matter of fact, almost everything in her construction was wrong except for one important assumption: that there existed a pre-Chris- tian fertility cult and that specific survivals of this pagan cult were stigmatised during the Middle Ages as witchcraft....recent research seems to confirm at least some aspects of her thesis. The Italian historian Carlo Ginsburg has proved that a popular fertility cult, active in the province of Friule in the 16th and 17th centuries, was progressively modified under pressure of the Inquisition and ended by resembling the traditional notion of witchcraft. Moreover, recent investigations of Romanian popular culture have brought to light a number of pagan survivals which clearly indicate the existence of a fertility cult and of what may be called a "white magic," comparable to some aspects of Western medieval witchcraft." One may thus argue that the existence of Murray's three works "paved the way for Gardner's reformation", as J. Gordon Melton of the In- stitute for the Study of American Religion put it.9 Gardner's "reform- ation" of whatever British witchcraft existed prior to his initiation into it had both theological and ritual aspects. The works he and his associates produced give a style of worship, a new set of ritual texts - and increasing emphasis on the goddess-aspect as the tradition grew - all of them pre-figured not in Murray's works but in Dion Fortune's. A PRACTICAL OCCULTIST In my experience, there is hardly a British, Irish or American witch of the revived, post-Gardnerian traditions who has not read something by Dion Fortune, and the same probably holds true in Canada, Aust- ralia, or New Zealand. Until 1985, however, biographies of her were nonexistent, even while the American Books in Print reference volumes listed twenty of her books in that year's volume - not bad for someone considered at best an obscure genre writer by the literary establish- ment of fifty years ago and of today. Neither her book on psychology, The Machinery of the Mind, written in the 1920s nor her works on occult philosophy, nor her five "occult" novels and volume of short stories received much critical notice when they came out. Such notice as was received was almost worse than none. A 1934 (London) Times Literary Supplement review of her book Avalon of the Heart begins, "The author tells us that she is the last of the Avalonians - of those who were drawn to Glastonbury as 'a centre of ever-renewed spiritual and artistic inspiration,' whatever that may mean." And clearly the reviewer was not interested in finding out! Alan Ri- chardson's 1985 work, Dancers to the Gods, while primarily about two members of Fortune's magical order, contained the first well-res- earched material on her life.10 He followed it with a full biography, Priestess, two years later, an affectionate and sensitive portrait of this woman whose spiritual trajectory has yet to reach the horizon.11 Charles Fielding's and Carr Collins's The Story of Dion Fortune contains more details of her and her associates' magical work, but is 2215 written in a wooden "true believer" style and marred by numerous edi- torial blunders.12 To summarise greatly, she was born Violet Mary Firth in 1890 in Wales, where her English father, together with his wife's relatives, operated a seaside hotel and health spa catering to a well-to-do clientele. When her grandfather's death led to a dissolving of the partnership, her father moved the family to London where he could live comfortably off his inheritance. Her spiritual quest as a young woman led her to Christian Science (which her mother adopted when it came to England), Freudian psychology, the "Eastern wisdom" of the Theosophical Society, the Qabalistic magic of the Order of the Golden Dawn, 8and study with an Anglo-Irish occultist, T.W.C. Moriarty, the model for "Dr Taverner" in her book of short stories, The Secrets of Dr Taverner. She would have liked to have studied Freemasonry, but could not, being a woman. She studied psychology while in her twenties, before the outbreak of World War I, and practiced as a psychoanalyst for a time, the field not yet being closely controlled by the medical establishment. Fortune was probably the first writer on ceremonial magic and hermetic ideas to draw upon and acknowledge the work of Freud and later Jung. In her novel The Goat-Foot God, published in 1936 and dealing with the effects of both psychological repression and past lives, its central character, Hugh Paston, asks a friend, "Are the Old Gods synonymous with the Devil?" "Christians think they are. "What do you think they are?" "I think they're the same thing as the Freudian subconscious."13 After Moriarty's death she headed the Christian Mystic Lodge of the Theosophical Society. In 1927 she married Thomas Penry Evans, a Welsh doctor practising in London, nicknamed "Merlin" or "Merl" for his own magical interests. They were priest and priestess, but never father and mother. The marriage, magically productive but contentious in the mundane world, lasted until 1939 when Evans left her for another woman. Fortune continued to head their group, which became the Society of the Inner Light and maintained, for a time, both a large communal house in London and another establishment in Glastonbury. The Society continues to this day, but Dion Fortune herself died of leukemia in 1946. Her penname derived from the motto she took as her magical name in the Golden Dawn, "Deo Non Fortuna", or roughly, "by God, not by Chance." Her involvement with the Golden Dawn lasted roughly from 1919 to about 1922, and while these were the sunset years of the Order, which had been founded in 1888, they set for her a significant pattern of what an esoteric order should be. That Fortune also eventually was influenced by Jung is apparent in her work, although she was an occultist first and a Jungian second. Since her time there has been a great deal of discussion of the "gods and goddesses" by such neo-Jungians as James Hillman and Charlotte Downin- g. Surely Fortune's blending of psychoanalytical ideas, Hermeticism, Qabalah, and Christian mysticism in the two orders she headed prefigures Hillman's question, "Can the atomism of our psychic paganism, that is, the individual symbol- 2216 formation now breaking out as the Christian cult fades, be contained by a psychology of self-integration that echoes its expiring Christian model?"14 I doubt that Dion Fortune would have answered as dogmatically as H- illman did, "The danger is that a true revival of paganism as religion is then possible, with all its accoutrements of popular soothsaying, quack priesthoods, astrological divination, extravagant practices, and the erosion of psychic differentiation through delusional enthus- iasms." Where she did agree with Jung is that Western methods are best for Western people. Jung wrote: "Instead of learning the spiritual tec- hniques of the East by heart and imitating them... it would be far more to the point to find out whether there exists in the unconscious an introverted tendency similar to that which has been developed in spiritual principles in the East. We should then be in a position to build on our own ground with our own methods."15 Compare Fortune's chapter "Eastern Methods and Western Bodies" in Sane in which she stated:16 "The pagan faiths of the West developed the nature contacts. Modern Western occultism, rising from this basis, seems to be taking for its field the little-known powers of the mind. The Eastern tradition has a very highly developed metaphysics.... Nevertheless, when it comes to the practical application of those principles and especially the proc- esses of occult training and initiation, it is best for a man to foll- ow the line of his own racial evolution.... The reason for the in- advisability of an alien initiation does not lie in racial antagonism, nor in any failure to appreciate the beauty and profundity of the Eastern systems, but for the same reason that Eastern methods of agriculture are inapplicable to the West - because conditions are different." It is clear from Fortune's novels that a "true", that is psychologic- ally informed, Paganism, was indeed what she sought in the late 1920s and 1930s. Time after time she created plots that mixed the t- herapeutic and the magical, drawing characters who combined psycho- logical acumen with non-ordinary wisdom. She defined her ideal mixture thus in Sane Occultism: A knowledge of [occult] philosophy can give a clue to the researches of the scientist and balance the ecstasies of the mystic; it may very well be that in the possibilities of ritual magic we shall find an invaluable therapeutic agent for use in certain forms of mental disease; psychoanalysis has demonstrated that these have no physiological cause, but it can seldom effect a cure."17 I see her as someone who shared a significant degree of philosophical accord with what would become "Neo-Pagan Witchcraft", but who in practice followed a different path. I have said her contribution to "the Craft" has not been sufficiently acknowledged; there is one exception. The works of two English Witches, Janet and Stewart Farrar, produced during the late 1970s and early 1980s, frequently refer their readers to Dion Fortune. In a recent instance, having laid out a ritual based on one in Fortune's novel The Sea Priestess and having received permission from the current leadership of the Society of the Inner Light to do so, they write:18 "In their letter of permission, the Society asked us to say 'that Dion Fortune was not a Witch and did not have any connection with a coven, 2217 and that this Society is not in any way associated with the Craft of Witches.' We accede to their request; and when this book is published, we shall send them a copy with our compliments, in the hope that it may give them second thoughts about whether Wiccan philosophy is as alien to that of Dion Fortune (whom witches hold in great respect) as they seem to imagine." Despite the Society of the Inner Light's disavowal, a good circumsta- ntial case can be made that Fortune's works, particularly her novels, could have influenced Gerald Gardner and his initiates. This insight was brought home to me while reading The Goat-Foot God, published two years before Gardner's initiation into the Craft. Its plot is typical of Fortune: a person down on his or her luck and near psychological collapse is rescued by a powerful magician or priestess and re-inte- grated socially and psychically. Hugh Paston, quoted above, is a wealthy Londoner on the verge of a nervous breakdown following the death of his wife and his friend - revealed to be her lover - in a car wreck. Aimlessly walking the streets, Paston finds a used-book shop run by a scholarly occultist who becomes the catalyst of his psychological integration. This incl- udes finishing some actions begun by a heretical medieval prior in an English monastery who may have been an earlier incarnation of Paston's or who otherwise overshadows him. What caught my attention was a remark given to the character of Jelkes, the bookseller, who in guiding Paston's reading on magic tells him, "Writers will put things into a novel that they daren't put in sober prose, where you have to dot the Is and cross the Ts.19 Fortune's literary output was divided between novels and "sober prose- ". Other "sober titles" included Practical Occultism in Daily Life, The Cosmic Doctrine, Esoteric Philosophy of Love and Marriage and what is often considered to be her masterpiece, The Mystical Qabalah. Robert Galbreath, writing a bibliographic survey of modern occultism, defined her message as "spiritual occultism."20 "Spiritual occultists state that it is possible to acquire personal, empirical knowledge of that which can only be taken on faith in religion or demonstrated through deductive reasoning in philosophy. Further, this knowledge, arrived at in full consciousness through the use of spiritual disciplines, is said to reveal man's place in the spiritual plan of the universe and to reconcile the debilitating conflict between science and religion. The goal of occultism, the- refore, is the complete spiritualisation of man and the cosmos, and the attainment of a condition of unity." The novels, however, convey a parallel but somewhat different message. They do it using a different vocabulary, a more consciously Pagan vocabulary. While published statements of the Society of Inner Light proclaimed it "established on the enlightened and informed Christian ethic and morality," its founder's novels say repeatedly that Christianity has had its day and a new Renaissance is dawning. After his experience of inner integration Hugh Paston muses:21 "It is a curious fact that when men began to re-assemble the fragments of Greek culture - the peerless statues of the gods and the ageless wisdom of the sages - a Renaissance came to the civilisation that had sat in intellectual darkness since the days when the gods had with- drawn before the assaults of the Galileans. What is going to happen 2218 in our day, now that Freud has come along crying, "Great Pan is risen!" - ? Hugh wondered whether his own problems were not part of a universal problem, and his own awakening part of a much wider awakeni- ng? He wondered how far the realisation of an idea by one man, even if he spoke no word, might not inject that idea into the group-mind of the race and set it working like a ferment? Likewise, in The Winged Bull, set not long after World War I, Colonel Brangwyn the magician tells his new student, one of his former junior officers:22 "It [Christianity] had its place, Murchison, it had its place. It sweetened life when paganism had become corrupt. We lack something if we haven't got it. But we also lack something if we get too much of it. It isn't true to life if we take it neat." Later, during a ritual Brangwyn quotes Swinburne's poem "The Last Oracle" in praise of Paganism past - it was this aspect of Swinburne that G.K. Chesterton mockingly called "neo-Pagan" - making Murchison remember "that great pagan, Julian the Apostate, striving to make head against the set of the tide," and Murchison thinks to himself:23 "And the trouble with Christianity was that it was so darned lop-si- ded. Good, and jolly good, as far as it went, but you couldn't stretch it clean round the circle of experience because it just wouldn't go. What it was originally, nobody knew, save that it must have been something mighty potent. All we knew of it was what was left after th- ose two crusty old bachelors, Paul and Augustine, had finished with it. And then came the heresy hunters and gave it a final curry-combing, taking infinite pains to get rid of everything that it had inherited from older faiths. And they had been like the modern miller, who refines all the vitamins out of the bread and gives half the popul- ation rickets. That was what was the matter with civilisation, it had spiritual rickets because its spiritual food was too refined. Man can't get on without a dash of paganism, and for the most part, he doesn't try to." The notion of injecting a key idea into the collective unconscious of Western humanity appears over and over in Fortune's novels. It is not surprising that the writer who had two favourite maxims - "A religion without a goddess is halfway to atheism" and "All the gods are one god and all the goddesses are one goddess and there is one initiator" - should repeatedly call for attention to be paid to the Great Goddess. In another of his soliloquies, Hugh Paston thinks, "Surely our of all her richness and abundance the Great Mother of us all could meet his need? Why do we forget the Mother in the worship of the Father? What particular virtue is there in virgin begetting?" DRAWING DOWN THE MOON When the British witches went public in the early 1950s, the idea that Christianity had had its day and furthermore was not always the right path for Westerners was often heard. The major difference between their religion and that portrayed in the witch-trial documents Mar- garet Murray studied, however, was the reintroduction of worship of the Great Goddess. She was seen both as Queen of Heaven and Earth/Sea Mother, depending on the context. The best evidence for Fortune's inf- 2219 luence here lies in the construction of the key "Gardnerian" ritual called "Drawing Down the Moon."25 In that ritual, developed and/or modified by Gardner and his contempo- raries, the Goddess is invoked by the priest in the body of the priestess. It is expected that a type of divine inspiration will res- ult. Drawing down the Moon is a key part of every Gardnerian ritual c- ircle - and its elements and purpose are easily discernible in Fort- une's novel The Sea Priestess, which she was forced by publishers' lack of interest to self-publish in 1938.26 Richardson, her biographe- r, calls it and its sequel, Moon Magic, "the only novels on magic ever written," considering the competition. Although Gardner only hints at the workings of the ritual in his boo- ks, his successors, the Farrars, explain it more fully in Eight Sabb- ats for Witches.27 It comes after the drawing of the ritual circle - a conscious creating and marking of sacred space, defined by the cardi- nal directions and purified with the four magical elements, fire and air (incense), water and earth (salt). While the priestess stands before the altar (in a traditional Gardnerian circle she holds a wand and a lightweight scourge in her crossed arms, like a figure of Osiris), the priest kneels and blesses with a kiss her feet, knees, womb, breast and lips. Then a shift occurs, both in language and action. He ceases to address her as a woman and begins to address her as the Mother Goddess, beginning with the words,"I invoke thee and call upon thee, Mighty Mother of us all..."28 When the invocation is completed, the priestess is considered to be speaking as the Goddess, not as herself. She may go on to deliver a passage (authored by Doreen Valiente, whose role I deal with below) that is based partly on material collected during the 1890s in Italy by the American folklorist Charles Leland.29 I am the gracious Goddess, who gives the gift of joy unto the heart of man. Upon earth, I give the knowledge of the spirit eternal; and bey- ond death, I give peace, and freedom, and reunion with those who have gone before. Nor do I demand sacrifice; for behold, I am the Mother of all living, and my love is poured out upon the earth." She may, of course, speak spontaneously; Janet Farrar comments that "'she never knows how it will come out.' Sometimes the wording itself is completely altered, with a spontaneous flow she listens to with a detached part of her mind."30 Dion Fortune believed that a re-introduction of both ritual and ps- ychological approaches to the Great Goddess would even the psychic balance between men and women, a theme carried on today by a number of feminist psychologists and writers, although with scant acknowled- gment. She wished every marriage to take on an aspect of the hieros gamos (divine marriage), and it is there that a parallel with Witch- craft ritual lies, since many rituals turn on sexual polarity, both symbolically and literally. Fortune foreshadowed this in The Sea Priestess when she wrote:31 "In this sacrament the woman must take her ancient place as priestess of the rite, calling down lightning from heaven; the initiator, not the initiated.... She had to become the priestess of the Goddess, and I [the male narrator], the kneeling worshipper, had to receive the sacrament at her hands....When the body of a woman is made an altar 2220 for the worship of the Goddess who is all beauty and magnetic life... then the Goddess enters the temple." This is not just Fortune's description of the magical side of marri- age, but a virtual schematic of the Drawing Down the Moon ceremony and its concluding Great Rite, as Gardner called ritual intercourse at its conclusion (something more frequently performed symbolically). As the Farrars state, "The Great Rite specifically declares that the body of the woman taking part is an altar, with her womb and generative organs as its sacred focus, and reveres it as such."32 I would suggest that when the Farrars openly built a new ritual upon the Sea Priestess, the "seashore ritual" mentioned earlier, which for- ms Chapter X of The Witches' Way, they were openly admitting a debt to Fortune which modern Witchcraft has always carried on its books. To recapitulate, the circumstantial case for Fortune's influence on the beginnings of modern Witchcraft fits the chronology. Gerald Gardn- er's initiation took place in 1939 in Hampshire. In the late 1940s he "received permission" to publish some things about Witchcraft in his novel High Magic's Aid, which appeared in 1949 and had little of the Goddess element in it. The Sea Priestess was written in the 1930s, but only available in a private edition at first, while its sequel, Moon Magic, was available in 1956. The Great Goddess becomes more central in Gardner's works from the 1950s and is absolutely central to the Craft as it developed in that decade. She did not, however, appear in Margaret Murray's works on the alleged underground Paganism of the Middle Ages, which Murray wrote in the 1920s. There may, however, be echoes of a Goddess religion in It- aly, based on Leland's research there in the mid-1800s. Leland pr- ovided another literary source for the Drawing Down the Moon ceremony. The person who re-wrote that ceremony and gave Gardnerian- tradition ritual much of its form is now known to be Doreen Valiente, who wrote four books on the Craft as well. Her contributions to the texts are discussed at length in The Witches' Way. Although not the only one of Gardner's original coveners still living (i.e., after he moved away from the coven that initiated him, most of whose members were elderly in the 1930s), she has been the only one publicly involved in a critical re-evaluation of the tradition's beginnings. Although Gardner and Fortune were contemporaries, she does not know if they ever met, she told me in a 1985 letter. She did, however, say that she is "very fond of Dion Fortune's books, especially her novels The Sea Priestess, The Goat-Foot God, and Moon Magic. It is notable that her [Fortune's] outlook became more pagan as she grew older." Whether this is a tacit admission that she drew upon Fortune's works, I cannot say. Witches are known for oblique statements, and Valiente walked a fine line between secrecy and disclosure. Given England's size, its relatively interwoven cliques of occultists, and the small number of novelists dealing with Pagan themes, it is unlikely that Valiente and Gardner were not aware of Fortune's novels at the time they were giving their religion its present form. As we h- ave seen, Gardner was himself engaged in a conscious search for ma- gical learning in the 1920s and 1930s, and it was in the 1930s that F- ortune's novels began appearing, while the chapters of SaneOccultism were published serially in The Occult Review , and influential British journal it is unlikely he would have overlooked. 2221 Valiente, meanwhile, was initiated by Gardner as a priestess in 1953 and left his coven to form her own in 1957, the year after Moon Magic came out. With such a coincidence of subject matter, place and dates, it is difficult not to see Dion Fortune as a previously unadmitted but significant influence on the development of Gardnerian Witchcraft. Today the Goddess revival seems to have its "applied" and "theor- etical" wings, with the Neo-Pagans in the first category and various Jungians, writers on feminist spirituality and historians of religion in the second. With her combined psychological and magical training, Dion Fortune could be considered a foremother to each. NOTES 1. Alan Richardson, Priestess: The Life and Magic of Dion Fortune. (Wellingborough, Northants: The Aquarian Press, 1987), p.37. 2. G. Rachel Levy, The Gate of Horn: A Study of Religions Concep- tions of the Stone Age and Their Influence upon European Thought. (London: Faber and Faber, 1948). 3. Robert Graves, The White Goddess: A historical grammar of poetic myth. (New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1966), p.12. 4. Raymond Buckland, Witchcraft from the Inside. (St Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 1971), p.55. The law was a successor to the Witchcraft Act of King James I, passed in 1604 and repealed in 1736. 5. J.L. Bracelin, Gerald Gardner: Witch. (London: Octagon Press 1960). 6. Gerald B. Gardner, Witchcraft Today. (London: Rider & Co., 1954), p.18 7. Margaret Murray, My First Hundred Years. (London: William Kimber, 1963), p.104. The title was no exaggeration; she was born in 18- 63. 8. Mircea Eliade, Occultism, Witchcraft and Cultural Fashions: Essa- ys in Comparative Religions. (Chicago: University of Chicago Pre- ss, 1976), p.56 9. J. Gordon Melton, Magic, Witchcraft and Paganism in America: A Bibliography. (New York: Garland Publishing Co., 1982), p.105 10. Alan Richardson, Dancers to the Gods. (Wellingborough, Northants: The Aquarian Press, 1985). 11. ------, Priestess: The Life and Magic of Dion Fortune. (- Wellingborough, Northants: The Aquarian Press, 1987). 12. Charles Fielding and Carr Collins, The Story of Dion Fortune. (- Dallas, Texas: Star and Cross Publication, 1985). 13. Dion Fortune, The Goat-Foot God. (London: The Aquarian Press, 1971), p.89 2222 14. James Hillman, "Psychology: Monotheistic or Polytheistic." Appendix to David L. Miller, The New Polytheism. (Dallas, Texas: Spring Publications Inc., 1981), p.125 15. C.G. Jung, "Yoga and the West". In The Collected Works of C.G. Jung. (London: Pantheon, 1958), Vol XI, p.534. 16. Dion Fortune, Sane Occultism. (Wellingborough, Northants: The Aquarian Press, 1967), pp.161-2. 17. Ibid. pp. 25-6. 18. Janet and Stewart Farrar, The Witches' Way. (London: Robert Hale, 1984), pp. 95-6. 19. Goat-Foot God, p. 89. 20. Robert Galbreath, "The History of Modern Occultism: A Biblio- graphic Survey." Journal of Popular Culture, V:3 (Winter 1971), p. 728/100 21. Goat-Foot God, pp. 352-3 22. Dion Fortune, The Winged Bull: A Romance of Modern Magic. (Lo- ndon: Williams and Norgate Ltd., 1935), p. 169. It is no coin- cidence that the leading female character was named Ursula Bra- ngwyn,a name used by D.H. Lawrence for a character in Women in Love; Fortune was trying to re-state "the sex problem" on a "h- igher plane" than Lawrence had. 23. Ibid. pp. 154-6. 24. Goat-Foot God, p. 349. 25. A term that deliberately or otherwise echoes Plato's description in the Georgias of "the Thessalian witches who drawn down the moon from heaven." 26. Dion Fortune, The Sea Priestess. (London: Wynham Publications Lt- d., 1976). 27. Janet and Stewart Farrar, Eight Sabbats for Witches: and Rites for Birth, Marriage and Death. (London: Robert Hale, 1981), p. 15. 28. The exact terminology may vary from coven to coven; the Farrar's give Gardner's favourite. 29. Charles Godfrey Leland, Aradia: or the Gospel of the Witches. (L- ondon: David Nutt, 1899). Leland may indeed have found some fragments of a goddess religion. Gardner and Valiente expurgated parts of it, such as the invocation of the Goddess as a poisoner of great lords in their castles, and other homely arts. 30. The Witches' Way, p.68. 31. The Sea Priestess, pp. 160-1. 32. Eight Sabbats for Witches, p.49. TEMPLES, COVENS AND GROVES - OH MY! 2223 by KHALED There appears to be a fair amount of ongoing confusion as to what each of these is and what each of them should be doing, so let me stick my oar into it, too. But first, let's play the definition game. CIRCLE Three or more people who gather together to work ritual or Craft. Some are ritual only, some worship only, but most do both. The following are all special cases of a Circle: GROVE Circle usually led by, and under the auspices of, a coven. Frequently eclectic in practice, Groves are commonly used as an introduction to the Craft as a whole but not necessarily to any given Tradition. Groves usually don't initiate. May also be called a study group. COVEN Circle gathering at least once per month (with a majority gathering twice) for worship and/or magic. Membership tends to be stable with gradual personnel changes. Normally prac- ticing within a single Tradition, Covens typically have strong group rapport. Most train their members to whatever standard they use. Rites of passage (the "I" word) are the norm. TEMPLE Two or more Circles, generally at least one Coven (the Inner Circle) and a Grove (the Outer Circle), the latter being open to the public. Serves the public as a place to worship and/or learn about the Gods with advanced training for those seekers who meet the Temple's standards. I'm on shakier ground here, never having run a Temple, but I see a Circl- e/Grove open to the general public as essential to the definition, while the strong affiliation to one or more covens is a matter of observation (as is the relationship b- etween Groves and Covens cited earlier.) A fair number of practitioners do not distinguish among these terms (nor, for that matter, among Wicca, Paganism and New Age). Feel free to take issue with any of these definitions, but they are what I have in mind as I write this. Let's take a closer look at what each of these is and how they tend to function within Neo-Paganism. A Circle is a gathering of, preferably like-minded, individuals for p- urposes of magic and/or worship. None of those gathered need be of the same Tradition, nor even Initiate, though it makes for better results if at least some of them are. All Groves, Covens and Temples are therefore Circles. The reverse, however, isn't always the case since many Circles do not also meet the criteria for a Grove, Coven or Temple. A Grove, or Study Group, is a Circle of students learning the basics of Neo-Pagan (or Wiccan or any of the other subsets of Pagan) worship and Circle techniques. While normally under the tutelage of one or more Initiates, the members are not necessarily being trained towards Initiation in any particular Tradition, nor need the tutors be of the same Tradition(s) as the students (nor even of each other). 2224 Mystery religions, by their very nature, aren't for everyone, nor is any given Mystery suitable for all Initiates. The Grove is a way for potential Initiates to take a good look at one or more Traditions while learning how to handle themselves in just about any basic Circle. If this isn't for them, they can easily drop it. If it is, they can focus on the specific Tradition (or family of Traditions) which seems to speak most clearly to them (assuming they were exposed to more than one). Similarly, the tutor(s) can teach general techniqu- es to any serious Seeker without worrying about an implied commitment to Initiate someone unsuited to their particular Tradition. Groves do not normally do Initiations (they're done by the sponsoring Coven, if any), and tend to be oriented more towards teaching and worship than towards magical practice. They are also more likely to be fairly open to new members or even the general public than is the case with established Covens, while study groups, in my experience at least, are more likely to be invitation-only. The most effective Gr- oves (or study groups, of course) are under the helpful eye, if not out-and-out sponsorship, of an established Coven or family of Covens. A Coven, on the other hand, is a regularly meeting Circle, all of the same Tradition, at least some of whom are Initiates (and at least one of whom holds Initiatory power if the Coven is to survive or grow). Such a group tends to become very close ("closer than kin") and is bound by the rules and styles (deliberately non-existent in some c- ases) of its Tradition, and by its own internal rules and customs. A member of a Coven is normally provided training and, when deemed ready, Initiation or Elevation by that Coven's Priesthood/Elders. There are also magical considerations which go into the making of a Coven which further differentiate it from a Grove/study group, but it isn't my intention to go into them here. Suffice it to say that they are connected to the closeness and tend to enhance it. Because the bond is tight, and because a Coven generally intends to be around for a few decades, they're kinda fussy about who joins. The wise Seeker is equally fussy about which, if any, Coven s/he eventually joins. You're not joining a social club here, you're adopting, and being adopted into, an extended family. And this time round you have some control over who your kin will be! Neo-Pagan Temples are a fairly new phenomena combining many of the characteristics of Covens and Groves. I think that the clearest description of just what they're about comes from the (draft) Const- itution of the proposed Victoria (B.C.) Temple: a) To minister to the Pagan community by way of providing support, education, and sponsoring religious celebrations; b) to establish and maintain a religious sanctuary and place of wor- ship accessible to all who would worship the Goddess and the God; c) to provide a seminary for the training of Wiccan clergy; d) to provide accredited ordination for Wiccan clergy; e) to provide accurate information about Witchcraft to all who would ask and to engage in dialogue with other religious groups with the purpose of furthering understanding and friendship between us; and 2225 f) to do other charitable acts of goodwill as will benefit the comm- unity at large. As stated in my definition of Temple above, I consider the provision of Neo-Pagan (not necessarily Wiccan) religious instruction and servi- ces to the general public to be essential, and provision of community services to the local Neo-Pagan population highly desirable. To be taken seriously in the wider world, we need to have our clergy recog- nised by our government(s), which in turn means that we need to be visibly providing training and ordination which meets government accreditation criteria (which can vary significantly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction). Such accredited ordination is most easily adminis- tered through Temples. To address a diatribe current on the Nets (computer Network Bulletin Boards: Ed.) so long as the governments we seek accreditation from think in Christian terms, then we will have to use Christian terms, carefully defined to earmark differences in usage, to describe our- selves to them. Sure, there's some danger of picking up some ina- ppropriate (to Wicca) ways of thinking along with those terms, but we're more likely to import them with converts who were raised as C- hristians. The solution to both problems is the same: clearly unde- rstood (by the tutors above all!) religious instruction. And if a Christian notion isn't inappropriate, and if it's truly useful, why shouldn't we adopt it? Religious intolerance itself is inappropriate to Wiccan thought, and I think we should be clearer in condemning it. So how does it all tie together? I think that the Neo-Pagan community needs a mix of solitaires, coveners and templers, along with sig- nificant variety among their Traditions, to remain intellectually and spiritually healthy. We also need umbrella organisations capable of meeting the needs of each of them, not only for credibility with gov- ernments and the general public, but to spread new (and not so new) ideas around the very community they should exist to serve. I'll talk more on what this umbrella organisation should look like in a bit. For now, let's get back to roles of the different types of Circle. One of the things that fascinates about the Craft is our teaching that the Gods don't need a Priesthood to run interference between Them and Their worshippers. Nor is this a new idea. Heroditus recorded with a certain amazement that Persians must call on a Magus to perform every little sacrifice, whereas among the Greeks of his time, anyone, including housewives and slaves, could sacrifice at any time, assuming they had the desire and the means. We have a Priesthood because some people feel called to a deeper understanding and expression of their faith than is the case for many. And while They don't need Initiated Priesthoods, humans find them very useful both as a source of thoughtful religious instruction and as a ready source of warm b- odies to stick with the administrivia of organising group ritual. Like sex, however, effective worship isn't something that just comes naturally. It must be learnt, and practised. Groves, festivals and Temples are all good places to learn the fundamentals, assuming you weren't fortunate enough to learn them at home. They are also good places to socialise with people who think much the way you do, a deeply-seated human need we do well not to overlook. If your need runs deeper, you will find Priesthood there to talk to. If your needs prove more mystically oriented, they should be able to arrange contact with 2226 one or more Covens, who can in turn, if appropriate, Initiate you into whichever flavour of the Mysteries they practise. Different Circle structures serve different needs. None is superior to the other except to the extent that it serves your needs better. For those of us simply seeking to express our religious feelings in sympathetic company, whichever form best serves that expression is all we're likely to need. But those of us who feel called to serve the greater community will need all of them to achieve the mandate we have set ourselves. To return to our model umbrella organisation, to serve a significant majority of the community it will have to address as many of the r- ather different needs of solitaires, Covens and Temples as is feasible without stepping on the concerns of any of them. To be effective, it has to have some standards, but it can't impose them from above witho- ut violating the sovereignty that all three segments of the community value rather highly. One of the difficulties with any ideal is that it manifests imperfec- tly, if indeed it can be brought to manifestation at all. Rather than a discouragement, however, I find that a challenge: to bring about the best fit possible between reality and our ideal. Here then are my ideas on some of the attributes such an organisation can aim for. To start from the top, I think the stated purpose of the organisation should be to serve as a liaison between member clergy and the Es- tablishment, whether government or public. Why clergy? Because we don't need government approval simply to worship our Gods, especially if we're doing so discreetly and on private property. It's our institutions which need public recognition in order to be a- ble to avail themselves of public resources available to other, alrea- dy recognised, religions, not the worshippers themselves. And ins- titutions effectively mean the clergy. Note I don't say Priesthood. I- t's one of the earmarks of the Craft that all Initiates are clergy, but in many of our Traditions, Priesthood requires a deeper underst- anding of traditional lore and techniques. The immediate needs such an organisation should attempt to fulfil are essentially three: 1) Establishment of a Seminary to provide the training necessary for government accreditation as a minister of religion for those who need or seek said accreditation. To achieve this it will be necessary to look into the minimal training expected by any intended licensing bodies and ensure that those standards are being met or exceeded by all graduates of said certification pro- gram. This accreditation is to serve no other purpose within the organisation: all of our members will be recognised by us as clergy, whether or not they seek further accreditation. 2) To act as a public relations and information office on the Craft to the general public. If we exist, we will be used as an infor- mation source, so we might as well plan on it and do the job pr- operly. 3) To act as a Craft contact and social network to facilitate Pagan networking among members and non-members alike. 2227 To expand upon the seminary somewhat, any member should be able to sit for an examination without taking the associated classes (a process known in Ontario as "challenge for credit"). If s/he passes, s/he is given the credit, if not, the associated courses must be taken before s/he may sit for another examination on that subject. In this way we can grant credit for existing knowledge without in any way comprom- ising our standards. I think it would be a very bad idea to grant an exemption from this procedure to anyone. Because very few of us are likely to be able to drop everything for a couple of years to travel to wherever we happen to establish the campus, one should be able to complete the courses necessary for certification by correspondence. Nor should the topics of instruction be limited for those required for accreditation with government. Let's also see to it that our ministers have a grounding in the phil- osophy of religion, comparative religion (especially comparative Pagan religion) and chaplaincy as well. Note too that I keep referring to the document as a Certificate, not a college degree. A university level of education, while great for the egos of graduates, is unneces- sarily high to meet the needs of our Pagan laity - a Community College is much more appropriate. The stages of learning in a guildcraft are apprentice, journeyman and master, NOT baccalaureate, master and doctor! Mind, I have no objection to our Seminary offering college level courses, nor any other course or seminar it may choose to offer. I merely object to the insistence in some quarters that since most Christian ministers must hold graduate degrees, then by golly ours must too! Horsefeathers! Our Organisation then breaks down into a Seminary to provide internal education, and accreditation, to Pagan religious tutors; a PR office to provide external education, and referrals to the public; and one or more Festivals, and no doubt a periodical (e.g. a newsletter), to p- rovide for contacts and networking both internal and external. Further, I see our Organisation as an ecclesia in the ancient Athenian sense of the term, and assembly of all those having the right to vote in our affairs. I don't feel the ecclesia should either set or attempt to enforce any standards beyond those required for government ac- creditation and a minimal ethical standard for membership. I feel that membership should be restricted to ordained clergy within a Pagan tradition, nor should the ecclesia itself set any standard as to what does or does not constitute clergy (though I expect it may have to define criteria for determining what is or isn't Pagan). All this because any other approach compromises the essential sovereignty of our Covens and Temples (for which purpose I see a solitary as a Coven of 1). Since our membership is composed of clergy, not Covens and Temples, I favour one-person-one-vote. Certainly, groups with a large number of ordained members will thereby gain a larger number of votes in the ecclesia, why not? The ecclesia has no authority over individual members nor the organisations they may represent. Its most extreme power is to suspend the membership of persons found to be in violation of the ethical code, which code is set and policed by the members themselves. Or to appoint officers to manage the ecclesia's property and affairs, which officers will be legally and constitutionally answerable to the membership. 2228 On the topic of polity, I see the ecclesia/AGM as setting policy which is then administered and interpreted by the officers. The officers should have no power to set policy themselves. Our structure should be absolutely minimalist to avoid unpleasant takeover bids later. Any office or function which doesn't need to be there, shouldn't be there. If someone has grounds for an ethics complaint, an ad hoc committee should be assembled to look into it. If amends are made or the objec- tionable behaviour corrected, then the case should be dropped (i.e. the committee is focused on correcting unethical behaviour, not punishing it). On the subject of officers and their terms of office, I rather like the notion of electing them in alternate years for two- year terms. A one-year term is too hard on continuity. One possibility to avoid little fiefdoms is to provide each function with two officers, one senior and the other junior. Each year the senior officer retires, the junior officer becomes the senior and a new junior officer is elected. Continuity is preserved, and each officer gains an assistant who has a year in which to learn the ropes. I think that barring the outgoing senior from seeking re-election as a junior would be wasteful of resources, myself, but it would certainly serve to break up fiefdoms even further, should the ecclesia happen to be particularly paranoid about them. A not-so-little proposal, but the subject is an important one. This is only somewhat-baked, and I see the need as both real and immediate, so please give me some feedback on this. 2229 THE FEMININE CURRENT IN THE GOLDEN DAWN by Peregrin (A version of this article first appeared in SWEEPINGS). Many Wiccans and Pagans, whilst declaring themselves "eclectic" seem to avoid the Golden Dawn like the plague. This is quite understanda- ble, since on the face of it the GD seems to be counter to most of the Pagan philosophies. (The open hostilities and down putting directed at Wiccans that pour out of some GD practitioners does not help the matter either.) The GD Is often viewed as inflexible, patriarchal, authoritarian and stuck up its own behind. A few Wiccans do practise the GD, but most of these, I feel do so with the belief that the two are watertight compa- rtments - that is Wicca is a religion and the GD a "system". Most (including myself), if they confide in you will admit that they view the GD as more "powerful" - at least in the magical as opposed to the religious sense. It is my aim here to show that the essence of the GD is not inherently patriarchal and opposed to Pagan ideology. This I believe can be r- eadily observed if we remember that the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was a late 19th century outward manifestation of a spiritual system aeons old. The essence of the system would therefore be con- tained within, but not altered by, and outward form that reflected late 19th century western occult ideology. (Remember also that the GD first emerged via Masonic sources and thus the outer form was heavily coloured by that system.) This essence can however be readily "tapped into". This will then help the magician avoid being trapped into "believing" the GD's outer form. The essence I speak of is, of course, the Goddess. On the face of it to say that the GD's essence is Goddess sounds absurd. But please do not judge the GD book by its cover. Forget the outer form, forget the Victorian pomposity, forget the props. Let's go a little deeper. First off, the original GD System relied heavily on its ceremonial in- itiations. The process of initiation (even the mimicry of ritual initiation) always involves a death and re-birth, which can only truly occur via Goddess, since only the "female" force of the universe can give birth. Thus straightaway we see that at the core of the GD is an unrecognised Goddess force. To deny it is to say that either, a) the GD initiations do not involve a re-birth; b) something other than Go- ddess can give birth; or c) the GD initiations are not effective, which anyone who has undergone them will heartily dispute. Christopher S Hyatt, the main collaborator with the late Israel Regar- die before his death, in a recent book - The Secrets of Western Tantra - makes several hints which echo the views I express. Says Hyatt, when tracing the link between the GD and the Tantric Goddess: "...one attribute among many others which gives the whole show away is the equality between male and female adepts." (p.69) For a Masonically derived Order in Victorian England this was an unpr- ecedented and daring move. Yet this had to, and did occur, since the Order's essence is based firmly on Goddess and the co-equality of the 2230 sexes. Looking a little more closely at the formation of the Order will also show many other clues regarding the hidden Goddess essence. Firstly, the leading light of the Order, S L MacGregor Mathers, was an ardent supporter of the equality of the sexes and the young feminist movement. In his introduction to "The Kabbalah Unveiled" he sets the record straight concerning the nature of divinity: "...the translators of the Bible have crowded out and smoothed up eve- ry reference to the fact that Divinity is both masculine and femini- ne... now we hear much of the Father and the Son, but we hear nothing of the Mother in the ordinary religions of the day." Presuming the hidden Goddess essence and following the mythology of the Order, it becomes apparent why the "Secret Chiefs" chose such a person to lead the GD. If the Order's essence was patriarchal they would surely have chosen a different man. Continuing with the examination we find that the Outer Order rituals are based upon a set of cipher manuscripts. In those manuscripts, as published in "The Secret Inner Order Rituals of the Golden Dawn", we find the candidate is often referred to as "she". In an age when women were still calling themselves "brothers" and "chairmen", this is significant. Further, the Order was chartered and given authority (ie, symbolic life) by a woman (Sr SDA). Now admittedly serious doubt has been cast upon this history, but regardless of whether the events occurred in shared space-time or Westcott's mind, the symbolism is important - it is a symbolic birth performed by a Goddess figure. This theme is further developed in the naming of the first true GD temple in England (and the initial temple of many GD Orders worldwide) as the Isis-Urania temple. Thus the Order is visibly dedicated to, and under the influence of, the Goddess. Behind all things, even GD t- emples, is the Mother. Before having a quick flick through Regardie's "The Golden Dawn" to see what Goddess essence we can find there, let's pay attention to some of the more prominent proteges of the Order. Firstly Mathers himself went on to utilise his GD adeptship to develop, along with his wife Moina, the Rites of Isis in Paris (the couple nearly always worked as a partnership in their occult work.) Secondly Aleister Cr- owley, despite his male ego, misogyny and viciousness went on to pr- oduce a sort of Nuit "cult", using GD based techniques. Crowley him- self is an excellent example of my point that inner essences do not necessarily reflect outer forms and vice versa. It is hard to imagine that such a person as Crowley (the man) could act as medium to such Goddess inspired beauty as the closing paragraphs of the first chapter of Liber Al vel Legis. Yet Goddess came forth anyway. Crowley, like the GD was outwardly patriarchal, but contained the essence of God- dess. There is no more Goddess inspired thealogy than Crowley's maxim, "Do what Thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law". Dion Fortune, initiate of the Stella Matutina, also used GD based tec- hniques to help formulate her Pagan workings, the focus of which was the Goddess Isis. 2231 The most obvious evidence of Goddess in the GD is the Rose-Cross, the symbol of the combined female and male forces. The GD's Inner Order, the Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis claimed a Rosicrucian lineage, and the links between the Rosicrucians and Goddess have been detailed beautifully by Gareth Knight in his book, "The Rose Cross and the Goddess". We come then to the GD tarot, and find it restoring the court cards to an equal sexual balance based upon the Tetragrammaton. The male knave (page) of the exoteric packs of the era was correctly replaced by the female princess, symbolic of the Earth Goddess. In Qabalistic philosophy we find the spirit of the Divine often refe- rred to as Shekinah, which is seen as having a female essence. This is shown clearly by Mathers when he correctly translates a passage from the Sepher Yetzirah: "...AChTh RVCh ALHIM ChIIM: Achath (feminine, not Achad, masculine) Ruach Elohim Chiim; One is She the Spirit of the Elohim of Life." This thealogy is followed in the GD. Israel Regardie shows this in his ritual for Spiritual Advancement, which is based firmly upon the Z documents of the Inner Order. Here he implores the Mother of Goddesses and Gods (Aima Elohim) to aid him in his quest. Regardie even uses a cauldron as a symbol of the Great Mother. This, believe it or not, is not a Wiccan ritual, but pure Golden Dawn. The main weapon of the RR et AC adept, the Lotus Wand, has embodied within it much Goddess essence. It is described as, "...a simple wand surmounted by the lotus flower of Isis. It symbolises the development of creation." (The Golden Dawn, 5th ed. p224.) This indicates that the creation of the Spirit, the Heavens and the Earth comes from the Great Mother Isis. The wand also represents the Kundalini - a feminine Goddess force. This to me is a beautiful tool, alive with Goddess, much more so than the Wiccan athame (which is objected to by some feminist Witches as being aggressive and masculine). Finally let us return to initiations. The two most important init- iations of the GD/RR et AC system, the Neophyte and the Adeptus Minor ceremonies, both contain the hidden Goddess essence. The Neophyte ceremony is based on the myth of the Slain and Risen Osiris, where the candidate acts as the Slain Osiris. This myth ho- wever is a later patriarchal rendition of the Ishtar and earlier Inna- na myth of Goddess descending into the Underworld. The Goddess is thus present deep within the archetypal theme of the ceremony. Further, the act that seals the initiation proper, the final consecration, is conducted by Officers representing "the Goddesses of the Scale of the Balance". And as the badge of the grade is placed upon the new init- iate, "... it is as the two Great Goddesses Isis and Nepthys, stret- ched forth their wings over Osiris (the initiate) to restore him again to life." The candidate is thus re-born to a fuller life by the power of Goddess. The Adeptus Minor ceremony contains much Goddess essence quite openly. The clearest example of this is the Vault of the Adepti, and obvious symbol of the Womb of Goddess. As Regardie briefly points out in his introduction to the Golden Dawn, the candidate is led through the Twin Pillars which symbolise the vagina and into the womb itself. There she returns to the Great Mother and is re-born and out through the vagina 2232 once more. The symbolism is so obvious, so beautiful and so potent, and I am surprised some Wiccan/Pagan group hasn't adapted the ceremony in their own workings. From the foregoing it can easily be seen that Goddess is alive and well within the GD - at least in its essence. Sadly not many GD adepts are aware of this. Most GD magicians get too caught up in the outer form and potency of the system to notice where the energy and beauty originate. I am not claiming that the GD is, or should be, a religion. It is not, and its essence is not. The essence is however Goddess and Her continuing manifestation in this world. If we are to remember and consciously perceive this it will transform our GD work. Then the GD will no longer be "dry" and without life - the perceptions most Wiccans and natural Goddess worshippers intuitively feel. For 100 years the Golden Dawn has concealed Her, the Mother of Light, Life and Love. But now in this time when She is being worshipped by so many in so many different ways, the Golden Dawn will at last reveal its secret. And just as the Stone that the Builders rejected shall become the Cornerstone of the Temple, so too shall Goddess become the key to the 21st century manifestations of what is now the Golden Dawn. The new Golden Dawn shall one day become as important as the Wiccan movement in the collective invocation of Goddess. This process is already beginning, and we can all take part in and promote it if we Will. But whether we chose to or not, now is the time to bury the false split between ceremonial and Pagan magic, for both are born of the Mother and both will lead us back to her. 2233 THE RITUAL ABUSE SCANDAL IN BRITAIN 1991 reviewed & summarised by MICHAEL HOWARD (This article first appeared in issue 63 of THE CAULDRON) FEBRUARY: The liberal minded "Guardian" abandoned all its principles and published an astonishing attack on the Craft written by left-wing journalist Beatrix Campbell attempting to link it with so-called "Satanic ritual abuse". Transcripts of interviews with children in the Nottingham case were re-printed. This confidential information had evidently been leaked to Campbell, who is known to be sympathetic to the fundies. The article coincided with a failed attempt in Parliament by Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens to make it illegal for children to attend pagan gatherings, Spiritualist Church services, New Age events or ps- ychic fayres. MARCH: Social workers and police seized nine children from their homes in the Orkneys in Gestapo-style dawn raids alleging "ritual abuse". This claim had originated from the confessions of other children involved in a normal abuse case. It was alleged a hooded, masked and cloaked figure known as "The Master", who also dressed as a Mutant Ninja Turtle, and who was identified as the local vicar, had led dances around a bonfire at a local quarry. Police seized items associ- ated with "black magic" from the parents' houses. These included a book of erotic poetry, and Oriental statue of a couple making love, a letter written to the tooth fairy by one of the children, and a Guy F- awkes mask! A week later the majority of children placed into care in 1990 following allegations of widespread "ritual abuse" on a Rochdale council estate were returned to their parents. In court the police said they had found no evidence and the social services were criti- cised for their methods. The Rochdale case was followed by an official statement by the Chief Inspector of Constabulary for the UK, Sir John Woodcock, who said the police had absolutely no evidence that "ritual abuse" existed, He said that concern about the subject had been exaggerated and got out of control. APRIL: The children in the Orkneys case were released by order of the local sheriff. Angry parents besieged the social services department. In Ayrshire ten children were taken into care amid fantastic alle- gations of human sacrifices and rituals held in a haunted castle, gra- veyards, and a hot air balloon by parents dressed as clowns! Granada Television's "World in Action" programme exposed the methods used by the social services to extract confessions from children. A child psychologist was quoted as saying that these methods were themselves a form of abuse. Police in Aberdeen confirmed they had dropped charges against six adults arrested for "ritual abuse". JUNE: A doctor in Brighton claimed there was widespread "ritual abuse" in Sussex involving animal sacrifices and "naked circle rituals" in local woods. A police officer in charge of the child abuse unit in Brighton said she was aware of the allegations but had no knowledge of any confirmed case. Media reports suggest leading fundies involved in spreading the "ritual abuse" myth in the UK were being secretly funded by an extreme right-wing American group who believe the British Royal family are international drug smugglers! AUGUST: Three young sisters were put out for adoption following the allegation of "ritual abuse" by their mother, her boyfriend, and their grandparents. This 2234 was despite the fact that the Crown Prosecution Service had found no evidence and were not contemplating criminal charges. "The News of the World" did one of its famous exposes on the Paganlink-Up Gathering, looking for evidence of "ritual abuse", but naturally found nothing. The judicial enquiry into the Orkneys fiasco began with social workers admitting they had ignored guidelines laid down after the Cleveland affair. The social services Director claimed there was a widespread conspiracy among the islanders to cover up the alleged abuse which involved the vicar, local GP, and district nurse. SEPTEMBER: It was revealed that none of the children in the Orkneys "ritual abuse" case showed medical signs of sexual abuse. "The Independent on Sunday" suggested stories of circle dancing had arisen from a Hallowe'en fancy dress party held by the Brownies at the Church Hall. OCTOBER: BBC Wales television programme "Week In-Week Out" exposed the activities of Maureen Davies, the Rev Kevin Logan, et al, and alleged they had fabricated evidence of "ritual abuse" in North Wales. NOVEMBER: The trial at the Old Bailey of a gypsy family allegedly involved in Satanic rites and child abuse collapsed after one of the child witnesses admitted fabricating evidence. It was said she got her ideas from pornographic magazines. Two of those accused - who are evangelical Christians and prison visitors - are seeking compensation and taking their complaints to the Court of Human Rights in Stras- bourg. One of them said he had been pressurised by the authorities to sign a false confession. The Orkneys enquiry nearly ended when some participants said they could not afford the legal costs without gov- ernment help. The inquiry is costing œ100,000 (A$ 235,682) per week and is expected to last until the end of 1992! Allegations were made that the dawn raids were required because social services received i- nformation that parents had threatened to use guns to stop their children going into care. The saga continues..... Two lessons have been learnt from last year's events. Firstly that the ritual abuse myth is not a right-wing conspiracy. Left-wing journali- sts, so-called Liberal publications like the "New Statesman" and the "Guardian", and even Labour's spokeswoman on child affairs, have supported the fundies. Secondly, while the authorities are wasting millions of taxpayers' money investigating the "ritual abuse" myth and dragging innocent people through the courts, resources are being diverted from catching the real child abusers in our sick society, who sadly include Christian priests and social workers. 2235 WARRIORSHIP by Swein Runestaff There has been much written on warriorship in recent times and i- nterest in the subject shows no sign of diminishing. As Pagans we must come to understand our warrior ancestry and, more importantly, adapt its principles to modern life. If we fail in this task, we face the prospect of becoming either meek and herded sheep, or branded outlaws, condemned as were our ancestors, for our heresy. Although I have read widely on the historical evidence, my own u- nderstanding comes mainly from my training in a living Norwegian tradition and in the Rune-Gild. There are many academic theories and conjectures about the role of the warrior in Pagan society but very few academics who understand warriorship. We Pagans do not have the luxury of theorising, no matter how clever those theories may seem. If they are not of practical benefit to us in daily life, they amount to nothing more than intellectual wankery. Paganism is about freedom. Freedom from dogma, freedom from our ne- gative conditioning, habits, and inhibitions, freedom from our self- -limiting beliefs. We must not think that we can improve our situation if we break the bonds of the Judeo-Christian chastity belt merely to adopt fetters forged from the twisted scrap of a bygone age. Chri- stianity became fossilised before it reached the wisdom and tolerance of maturity, let us not make the same mistake. Paganism has always had its strength in its diversity and fluidity, constantly adapting according to time and location. The form is always evolving but the essence remains. This fluidity is indeed part of the essence, and differentiates us from the anachronists who seek only relief from reality. To the Pagan, reality is not the tiresome mud of everyday, but colourful clay to be moulded lovingly in our hands. Paganism is our way and warriorship is our vehicle. Without warri- orship, Paganism becomes quaint anachronism. In my tradition warrior- ship is not about aggression, in fact a warrior has gone beyond the need for aggression. Warriorship is actually magick, the art of ma- nifesting the True Will. An aspect of this is illustrated in our understanding of the Berserk. The word "berserk" comes from two words, "bare" and "sark" (a shirt). A berserk was originally one who fought without a shirt, bare from the waist up. Not only did they scorn body armour, they even went without the psychological advantage of a layer of clothing between their skin and the enemy's sword. In our tradition, the symbolism of removing the armour is of great importance, but before it is safe to do so, one must be adept at doing battle with the armour on. Whether on the battlefield or in the marketplace we all wear some sort of armour against "the slings and a- rrows of outrageous fortune", or more to the point, the barbs of our fellow humans. In order to operate efficiently we must know our stre- ngths and weaknesses, and become aware of the style and construction of our armour. As our movements become increasingly efficient, we find that we can afford to shed some of our armour. We then find that our movements become even more efficient with the resulting freedom. Eventually we find ourselves totally open to the world. No longer encumbered with 2236 layers of protection we are free to be our true selves. Every act becomes a spontaneous and joyous act of pure will. We become a vortex of pure will force. Paradoxically, while a novice stripped of armour would be instantly slain, an adept becomes impervious to steel. The berserk ceases to be a target by becoming as if devoid of gross substance. The Ynglinga Saga describes the Berserks when inspired by Odin, "They cut down the enemy, while neither fire nor iron could make an impression on them." That which offers no resistance cannot be cut. That which is flexible cannot be broken. Anyone who has been in combat situations will realise that uncontr- olled anger is rarely a friend in battle. Such emotion may well sti- mulate enthusiasm and fearlessness, but at the cost of judgement and precision. There is a Samurai saying- "The angry man will defeat himself in battle as well as in life." The true berserk rage is certainly not blind anger. An angry warrior may be frightening and deadly but is unlikely to come out of a battle alive, let alone unscathed. The secret of the berserk's invulnerability is the ability to let the True Will flow unimpeded. This requires the warrior to be totally calm and centred while at the same time unleashing the destructive forces of the Will. This is a form of meditation infinitely more difficult than being calm and centred in a quiet room (something most people find almost impossible anyway). The slightest distracting thought can be fatal. By not letting thoughts interfere with the flow of Will, the berserk is always in the right place at the right time. Action flows, there is no rigidity or predictability, there is nowhere a blade can strike. The berserk acts without hesitation and is always in harmony with any situation. Harmony in this case means being true to the self and inte- racting with the situation in a way which is honest with the self. Th- is can only be done when there is no barrier between the self and the situation. One becomes a fluid part of the situation without losing one's individuality, an indispensable and autonomous part of the whole, every movement being a vital adjustment of one's position in the universe. It is only through warriorship that we will be able to practise our varied traditions without fear of persecution, for this fear betrays a lack of confidence in one's own magickal ability and in the power of one's tradition. Like the berserk, those who truly practise warriors- hip or magick will find themselves beyond the reach of any attack, and extremely unlikely to be attacked in the first place. Judeo-Christian culture has taught us that we are powerless as indi- viduals, that we must follow the mob to be saved. Pagan culture has always taught that we should accept responsibility for ourselves. Our power or lack of it is our own choice. Freedom is ours, taking res- ponsibility for ourselves is the price. Many are not ready to pay it, let them join the sheep of a herd religion until they are ready, they too have a valid place in the greater whole. This is why Paganism does not seek to make converts. Ultimately warriorship is a path of compassion. When we no longer fear others, we are free to sense their real needs. This is not sympathy or 2237 just being nice, sometimes a harsh lesson will be far more beneficial in the long run. Only fearless openness allows one to see the best way to interact. Without fear we can be more tolerant and less defensive, less inclined to take things personally, or become offended when others do things a little differently, or moralise and interfere with others because we feel threatened by their strangeness. Only fear prevents us from achieving our potential. Only warriorship will defeat the fears which divide us. (Swein Runestaff is Steward of the South Pacific Region of the Rune- Guild) GLENN INNES STANDING STONES: THE FIRST STANDING STONES OF MODERN TIMES Glenn Innes in northern NSW is home to many people descended from Scottish, Welsh, Cornish, Manx and Irish immigrants. The streets have Gaelic street signs, and in a marvellous initiative, the local Council have erected a stone circle "similar to those erected by Celtic People throughout Europe centuries ago". Three stones - named Gaelic, Bry- thonic and Australis - are the focal point of the circle; on the op- posite side of the circle four stones form the Southern Cross, with a Celtic stone acting as a pointer. Outside of the circle, stones at each of the cardinal points form an Ionic Cross. There are a total of 38 stones, with 24 being in the circle. Each one stands approximately 12 feet above the ground, and weighs several ton. Parts of the array of stones are intended to act as a calender, whilst other parts have a religious significance. Calculations by the Royal Australian Hydrographic Office were used to determine the position of the Winter Solstice; the positions of the Summer Solstice sunrise and sunset were observed on December 22nd 1990. Also in NSW, another stone circle - with a difference! At Mt Annan Botanical Gardens, 15 basalt crystal columns have been erected in a circle to form a "sundial of human involvement". This analemmatic sundial uses a movable marker to cast a shadow. And the moveable marker? A human, with arms raised above their head! The circle is so situated that it is possible to look out across the Blue Mountains, to the Sydney skyline in the distance. 2238 BEYOND REASON: A new look at an old Devil by Aries Inside my mind is a court room. It is dark and sombre, a few shafts of light from high slit windows etch out sloping pillars of swirling dust. In the public gallery are a representative sample of the great unwashed; fighting, fornicating, eating, suckling piglets, and other sub-Bosch activities that lend atmosphere to the Baroque wanderings of my imagination. The judge is unhappy. Whatever happens, someone, somewhere, will hate him for it. In the dock are the three grand-dames from Shakespeare's "Scottish" play, and I am counsel for the defence. The Advocatus Diaboli, I guess. In the witness stand is "Dance with the Devil" by Audrey Harper and Harry Pugh, and grave are its accus- ations. But first, let's have its story. Audrey Harper; a familiar tale of degradation and final redemption t- hrough our Saviour Jesu Christos; sent to a Dr Barnado's home by her mother, she grew up with deprivation and social stigma. In time she becomes a WRAF, falls in love, gets pregnant, boyfriend dies, she turns to booze, gives up her baby and becomes homeless. Wandering to Piccadilly Circus she meets some Flower Children with the killer weed, and her descent into Hell is assured. By day she gets stoned and eats junk food; by night she sleeps in squats and doorways. Along comes Molly; the whore with a heart of gold who teaches Audrey the art of streetwalking. She flirts with shoplifting, gets into pills, and then gets talent spotted and invited to a Chelsea party, where wealth, pow- er and tasteful decor are dangled as bait. At the next party she is hooked by the "group", which meets "every month in Virginia Water". She agrees to go to the next meeting which is to be held at Hallow- e'en. Inside the dark Temple lit by black candles and full of "A heady, sickly sweet smell from burning incense", she is "initiated" by the "- warlock", whose "face was deathly pale and skeletal... his eyes ... w- ere dark and sunken" and whose "breath and body seemed to exude a strange smell, a little like stale alcohol." She signs herself over to Satan with her own blood on a parchment scroll, whereupon a baby is produced, its throat cut, and the blood drank. Following this she gets dumped on the "altar" and fucked as the "sacrifice of the White Virgin". The meeting finishes with a little ritual cursing and she's left to wander "home" in the dark. Her life falls into a steady routine of meetings in Virginia Water, getting screwed by the "warlock", drug abuse, petty crime, and recrui- ting runaways for parties, where the drinks are spiked - "probably LSD" - and candles injected with heroin release "stupefying fumes into the air"; the object being sex kicks and pornography. She falls pregnant again, gets committed to a psychiatric hospital, has the baby, and gives it away convinced that the "warlock" would sacrifice it. Things then become a confusion of Church desecration, drug addiction, ritual abuse, psychiatric hospital, and falling in with Christian folk who try vainly to save her soul. For rather vague reasons the "coven" decide to drop her from the team, and she dedicates herself to a true junkie's lifestyle with a steady round of overdosing, jaundice, and detoxification units. The "warlock" drops by to threaten her, and she makes her way north via some psychiatric hospitals to a Christian Rehabilitation farm. She gets married, has a child which she keeps, 2239 and becomes a regular churchgoer. But beneath the surface are recur- ring nightmares, insane anger and murderous feelings towards her brethren. At the Emmanual Pentecostal Church in Stourport she asks the Minister, Roy Davies, for help. He prays, and God tells him that she was involved with witchcraft. An exorcism has her born again, cleansed of her sin. She gets baptised and has no more nightmares, becoming a generally nicer person. She becomes the "occult expert" of the Reach- out Trust and Evangelical Alliance, and makes a career out of telling an edited version of her tale. Geoffrey Dickens MP persuades her to tell all on live TV; "Audrey, to your knowledge is child sacrifice still going on?" To this she rep- lies, "To my knowledge, yes." After this the whole thing rambles into an untidy conclusion of self-congratulation, self-promotion, and self- justification; and for a grand finale pulls out a list of horrendous child abuse, which is shamelessly exploited in typically journalistic fashion, and by the usual fallacious arguments which links it to anything "occult"; help-lines, astro predictions in newspapers, and even New Age festivals. And so we are left with a horrifying vision of hordes of Satanists swarming the country, buggering kids, sacrificing babies, and feeding their own faeces to the flock. I would be tempted to consider this story a modern parable; a Rakes Progress for the late 20th century, were it not for the claim of truth and the accusations cast. Throughout her tale Mrs Harper shows herself to be a clumsy diss- embler; inconsistencies appear throughout, and the tone is shrill and hysterical. "I know parts of my story are hard to believe. I realise there are some sceptics who will not accept that such things can h- appen." This is a perfect example of the fallacy known as "poisoning the well", but what part might we find hard to believe? On page 79 with her bare face hanging out she tells us that, "I was, by now, quite an accomplished young witch. I could levitate. I could bring down the powers of darkness to move furniture about." Better a wilful sceptic than having us believe in levitating junkies. But was she a witch? When the Chelsea girl invites her along, "she never mentioned witchcraft. But somehow, as she spoke, her words conjured up an eerie atmosphere." And according to her testimony, nobody actually mentions witchcraft prior to Roy Davies, who is tipped the wink by Lord God Almighty. Regardless of that, she still promiscuously mixes up the terms; wi- tchcraft, Satanism and Paganism, playing free and easy with the rules of evidence. However, it does appear that there is a thing called Wicca or White Witches who "certainly do not set out to do evil", but are still damned because "even if they don't do deliberate harm, their activities are opposed to Christian teachings because they worship false gods." Obviously possessed of the spirit of discernment, or as Joseph Campbell said, "You can't fool around with Yahweh." 1 Okay, so where is the evidence? In Mrs Harper's reality tunnel the e- vidence is everywhere, for the world is full of "evils that are the work of Satan." Not for Mrs Harper the easy road of "hardfacts" when she assures us that "There have been mounting suspicions over the years that child sacrifices take place regularly. I believe that they do. I have no evidence to support this belief." "It's my belief that some of the hundreds of children and adults who go missing every year end up being sacrificed." All that she offers us is her belief, but is it a rational belief? Consider these words from another book, in a 2240 chapter called "Schizophrenia: The Demon in Control - "Let's say that when you awake tomorrow, you find standing at your bedside a man with purple scale skin...from Mars... visible and audible