WitchCraftes Elders
CAMP ROMANI·THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 2017
Pagan professing?
Do you even know your Elders?
In this lesson...
1 Who Was Dorothy Clutterbuck?
2 Gardnerian Wicca
3 Who Was Doreen Valiente?
4 Professor Ronald Hutton
5 Author Ray Buckland
Who was Dorothy Clutterbuck?
Although she never publicly claimed to practice witchcraft -- or even left any evidence of it after her death -- Dorothy Clutterbuck is credited with initiating Gerald Gardner into the New Forest coven of witches. Dorothy was born in India in 1880 to a British Army captain, who brought his family back to England after his retirement from service. She was briefly married in her mid-fifties to a local justice of the peace who was killed in a car accident in 1939. By all appearances, Dorothy Clutterbuck seemed to be a perfectly respectable English country widow who attended church regularly and was an ardent supporter of the local conservative party.
Following her death in 1951, Gardner indicated that Dorothy had in fact been a member of the New Forest coven of witches that he had joined in 1939. There was some question about whether Dorothy initiated Gardner, but it appears that Gardner may have actually been initiated by Edith Woodford-Grimes.
The real controversy surrounding Dorothy Clutterbuck has been brought up by historians who question Gardner's statements. Jeffrey Russell, who has written a number of historical works on English and European witchcraft, suggests that Dorothy may have been "invented" by Gardner to support his claims of an ancient tradition of witchcraft in Britain. Ronald Hutton, author of Triumph of the Moon, suggests that the use of Dorothy's name as a potential witch might have been a joke on Gardner's part, done in order to conceal the true identity of his high priestess. Hutton also indicates that the date of Gardner's initiation would coincide with Dorothy's mourning period after the loss of her husband -- a time when she cancelled nearly all other social engagements -- and so it's unlikely that she was involved in his initiation ceremony.
Dorothy left a number of diaries, and there are different interpretations as to how the contents should be viewed. The diaries are a collection of poems, essays and other writings, which may or may not be associated to witchcraft or Paganism, depending on how one sees them. The diaries contain some references to fairies, nature and herb lore, but also include a number of references to Christian themes.
Gardnerian Wicca
Who Was Gerald Gardner?
Gerald Brousseau Gardner (1884–1964) was born in Lancashire, England. As a teen, he moved to Ceylon, and shortly prior to World War I, relocated to Malaya, where he worked as a civil servant. During his travels, he formed an interest in native cultures, and became a bit of an amateur folklorist. In particular, he was interested in indigenous magic and ritual practices.
After several decades abroad, Gardner returned to England in the 1930s, and settled near the New Forest. It was here that he discovered European occultism and beliefs, and - according to his biography, claimed that he was initiated into the New Forest coven. Gardner believed that the witchcraft being practiced by this group was a holdover from an early, pre-Christian witch cult, much like the ones described in the writings of Margaret Murray.
Gardner took many of the practices and beliefs of the New Forest coven, combined them with ceremonial magic, kabbalah, and the writings of Aleister Crowley, as well as other sources.
Together, this package of beliefs and practices became the Gardnerian tradition of Wicca. Gardner initiated a number of high priestesses into his coven, who in turn initiated new members of their own. In this manner, Wicca spread throughout the UK.
In 1964, on his way back from a trip to Lebanon, Gardner suffered a fatal heart attack at breakfast on the ship on which he traveled. At the next port of call, in Tunisia, his body was removed from the ship and buried. Legend has it that only the ship's captain was in attendance. In 2007, he was re-interred in a different cemetery, where a plaque on his headstone reads, "Father of Modern Wicca. Beloved of the Great Goddess."
Origins of the Gardnerian Path
Gerald Gardner launched Wicca shortly after the end of World War II, and went public with his coven following the repeal of England’s Witchcraft Laws in the early 1950s. There is a good deal of debate within the Wiccan community about whether the Gardnerian path is the only “true” Wiccan tradition, but the point remains that it was certainly the first. Gardnerian covens require initiation, and work on a degree system. Much of their information is initiatory and oathbound, which means it can never be shared with those outside the coven.
The Book of Shadows
The Gardnerian Book of Shadows was created by Gerald Gardner with some assistance and editing from Doreen Valiente, and drew heavily on works by Charles Leland, Aleister Crowley, and SJ MacGregor Mathers. Within a Gardnerian group, each member copies the coven BOS and then adds to it with their own information. Gardnerians self-identify by way of their lineage, which is always traced back to Gardner himself and those he initiated.
Gardnerian Wicca in the Public Eye
Gardner was an educated folklorist and occultist, and claimed to have been initiated himself into a coven of New Forest witches by a woman named Dorothy Clutterbuck. When England repealed the last of its witchcraft laws in 1951, Gardner went public with his coven, much to the consternation of many other witches in England. His active courting of publicity led to a rift between him and Valiente, who had been one of his High Priestesses. Gardner formed a series of covens throughout England prior to his death in 1964.
One of Gardner's best known works, and the one that truly brought modern witchcraft into the public eye was his work Witchcraft Today, originally published in 1954, which has been reprinted several times.
Gardner's Work Comes to America
In 1963, Gardner initiated Raymond Buckland, who then flew back to his home in the United States and formed the first Gardnerian coven in America. Gardnerian Wiccans in America trace their lineage to Gardner through Buckland.
Because Gardnerian Wicca is a mystery tradition, its members do not generally advertise or actively recruit new members. In addition, public information about their specific practices and rituals is very difficult to find.
Who Was Doreen Valiente?
If Gerald Gardner is the father of the modern witchcraft movement, then certainly Doreen Valiente is the mother of many traditions. Like Gardner, Doreen Valiente was born in England. Although not much is known about her early years, her website (maintained by her estate) verifies that she was born Doreen Edith Dominy in London in 1922. As a teen, Doreen lived in the New Forest area, and it is believed that this is when she began experimenting with magic.
When she was thirty, Doreen was introduced to Gerald Gardner. By this time, she had been married twice - her first husband died at sea, her second was Casimiro Valiente - and in 1953, she was initiated into the New Forest coven of witches. Over the next several years, Doreen worked with Gardner in expanding and developing his Book of Shadows, which he claimed was based on ancient documents passed down through the ages. Unfortunately, much of what Gardner had at the time was fragmented and disorganized.
Doreen Valiente took on the task of re-organizing Gardner's work, and more importantly, putting into a practical and usable form. In addition to finishing things up, she added her poetic gifts to the process, and the end result was a collection of rituals and ceremonies which are both beautiful and workable - and the foundation for much of modern Wicca, some sixty years later. For a brief period, Gardner and Doreen parted ways - this is often attributed to Gardner's love of speaking publicly about witchcraft to the press, while Doreen felt coven business should remain private. However, there is also speculation that some of the rift was caused when Doreen questioned the authenticity of Gardner's claims about the age of some of the items they were working with. At any rate, they later reconciled and worked together once more. In the 1960s, Doreen moved away from Gardnerian Wicca and was initiated into a traditional British witchcraft coven.
Doreen may well be best known for her incredibly evocative poetry, much of which has found its way into the lexicon of modern ritual format, both for Wiccans and other Pagans. Her Charge of the Goddess is a powerful call to invoke the Divine within us. The Wiccan Rede is often attributed to Doreen as well. Although the Rede is typically summarized in brief as An it harm none, do what ye will, there is actually quite a bit more to the original work. Doreen's poem entitled The Wiccan Rede can be read in its entirety here: The Wiccan Rede.
Near the end of her life, Doreen was concerned about the many misconceptions about modern witchcraft, as well as the wide distortions of original teachings. She became patron of the Centre for Pagan Studies, described as "offering a facility for learned research and a non commercial environment." She passed away in 1999.
Much of Valiente's work is still in print, and can be find both new and in used versions. Many of these titles have been updated since their original publication, and even after Valiente's death, but are still worth seeking out.
1962: Where Witchcraft Lives
1973: An ABC of Witchcraft
1975: Natural Magic
1978: Witchcraft for Tomorrow
1989: The Rebirth of Witchcraft
2000: Charge of the Goddess, posthumous collection of poems
Valiente's collection of artifacts and books are now in the possession of the Doreen Valiente Foundation, which was established as a charitable trust in 2011.
Professor Ronald Hutton
Ronald Hutton is the author of a number of books on historical and modern Paganism.
Ronald Hutton, born in 1953, is a professor of history at the University of Bristol. According to his staff biography he is also a leading authority on history of the British Isles in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, on ancient and medieval paganism and magic, and on the global context of witchcraft beliefs, as well as the leading historian of the ritual year in Britain and of modern paganism.
Interestingly, Hutton himself has never publicly acknowledged his own religious beliefs, although he has indicated that his mother was Pagan.
He is the author of a number of books on British history, as well as several titles on modern Paganism, including:
Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles
Stations of the Sun
Triumph of the Moon
The Druids
Pagan Britain
Blood and Mistletoe
Hutton has often been quoted in disputes against “false history.” For instance, he has publicly questioned the scholarship of a number of authors well-known to the early NeoPagan movement, including folklorist Charles Godfrey Leland and researcher Margaret Murray’s theories about a pan-European “mother goddess” religion.
Hutton has often questioned many of the common assumptions made about the development of Wicca (in particular, statements made that Wicca is an ancient fertility religion). However, he has also acknowledged that Wicca, as a newer religion created by Gerald Gardner, is perfectly valid – it’s simply that he’s arguing against the claims of ancient lineage.
In a 2014 interview with Ethan Doyle White, Hutton explained how his mother's influence led him to his studies of modern Pagan religions. He said, "I was brought up by my mother, after my father died when I was a small child. She was a delightful and admirable person, of whom I was very fond, but also rather unworldly, and in increasingly fragile health. As a result, I spent most of my formative years trying to support and preserve her, a struggle which I finally lost as she died when I was a student. One of her most significant influences on me was that she was herself a Pagan, of a recognisable Victorian and Edwardian kind. She was deeply influenced by the Greek and Roman classics, regarded the Olympian deities as the natural divinities of the world, had a sense of a single archaic mother goddess as standing behind them, and felt an immanent divinity in nature. She never practised any acts of worship or other rites, and her attitudes were entirely literary; and indeed there was a large nineteenth- and early twentieth-century literature to support them. My affection for them, and for her, gave me a sympathy for Pagans of the mid and late twentieth century kind, such as Wiccans, when I encountered them from my teens onward."
Occasionally, Hutton is accused by members of the Pagan community of having some sort of secret anti-Pagan agenda because he is well known for questioning (and often debunking) claims that are outlandish or have no academic standing.
Gary Lachman, at the Religion News Blog, interviewed Hutton in 2010, shortly after The Druids was released. Lachman says, "Predictably, Hutton finds himself defending his position on two fronts. Neo-pagans, clinging to the notion that their beliefs are part of an ancient nature religion, and radical feminists upholding the idea of a primeval matriarchal society (which Hutton finds "rather delightful"), scorn Hutton's refreshingly cheerful acceptance that there seems little evidence for either of these. And his less unbuttoned colleagues shake their heads at his optimism about Druidry and other 'alternative spiritualities' as valid contemporary religions."
For an excellent perspective, in Hutton’s own words, about what it is like to write about historical and contemporary witchcraft and religion today, read Writing the History of Witchcraft: A Personal View.
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