The Secret Gardnerian Fourth Degree

A Samhain Letter:

On St. John’s Eve, I penned an article titled The Great Divide in Witchcraft Today which demonstrated, amidst a number of ecclesiastical ¹ concerns, the genuine reality that the modern Gardnerian Witch cult has been commandeered (something quite close to stolen, really) by an interconnected and highly-coordinated cabal under the catchphrase of ‘Family.’

_{1-It is this writer’s pleasure to corrupt the phrase, along with some similar accoutrements in the following paragraphs:
it being said that the best Witches steal whatever works, and leave behind that which doesn’t.}

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_{Ulpiano Checa y Sanz – Le Temps}

“At this liminal period everything returns to the ‘ancient chaos’ of the pre-creational state and stands ‘between the times.’ Thus on All-Hallows Eve everything becomes upside-down and mystically reversed, the barriers between the worlds of the dead and living dissolve and the primeval Wild Hunt or Faery Rade rides across the night.” – Nigel Aldcroft Jackson, Call of the Horned Piper, 1994

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Priesthood Labeled as Personæ Non Grata

Some call me a ‘persona non grata’ during their private conversations: it’s a modern turn of phrase, which has been ascribed to some of the Craft’s best… I have taken to calling it a badge of honor.

This phrase, so giddily heaped upon those falling out of ‘lockstep’ with the nameless but very real ‘Council of Elders’ amounts to a modern tell which inadvertently reveals the reality of a network of spiritual abuse stretching from Southern Ireland to both the midwest and eastern seaboard of the United States.

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Naturally, the question is begged as to how a Tradition of initiatory Witchcraft originating in Great Britain might possibly answer to such a scheme; and indeed, such a riddle could prove almost as great a Mystery as to those that the Wica hold genuine claim over.

The contention remains that there exists a modern ‘cult within a cult’ which would handily flunk the quite well-known Bonewits’ Cult Danger Evaluation Frame… this in and of itself is a testament to the fact that Fate loves irony.

“Let the Aspirant live the life of a strong and beautiful being, proud and exalted, contemptuous of and fierce toward all that is base and vile.” – Aleister Crowley, Liber HAD

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Lineage Documents as Abuses of Magical Authority

I have been encouraged by Craft elders to elaborate further on some of the abuses suffered at the hands of the supposedly ‘non-existent’ power structure in Witchcraft today.

It felt more important, though, to a highlight a far more significant issue: the reality that lineage paperwork is routinely kept from High Priestesses months, years, or even permanently following their legitimate attainment of a Gardnerian third-degree elevation.

“I think we must say goodbye to the witch. The cult is doomed, I am afraid, partly because of modern traditions…” – Gerald B. Gardner, Witchcraft Today, 1954

This tactic is a distinctly American phenomenon: amounting to an administrative, SECRET FOURTH DEGREE of the Long Island [formerly New York] Gardnerians, which – much like Abe Lincoln – might only be ended by being killed in a public theatre.

_{woodcut from The Copperhead; or the Secret Political History of Our Civil War Unveiled, Fayette Hall, 1902}

“These our actors, as I foretold you, were all spirits…” – Prospero, from Shakespeare’s Tempest

The Rebis of Belief + Practice

In my previous post, I wrote that ‘the Work of the Craft … is carried out across three degrees of Initation and Elevation.’ I neglected to mention our seasonal celebrations [sabbats] and lunar ecstasies [esbats]. There remains a lingering debate, amongst Witchcraft’s faithful across many stripes, as to whether or not what we do constitutes a so-called Old Religion or merely an orthopraxy of ritualized performances. Whereas Gerald Gardner and Doreen Valiente (and others amongst the so-called ‘old Guard’) seemed adamant that we Witches ascribed to an actual Religion, the idea that what we do is simply a prescribed rote creeps in by way of the written works of Bricket Wood-original Lois Bourne, and of course – is also implied heavily in the Magical writings of Roy Bowers (Robert Cochrane).

Here, there is a linguistic game which must be pointed out to the less informed, which perhaps culminates in the literary output of the Byronic karcist Andrew D. Chumbley, ultimately sidestepping the issue of what defines the Faith of Witches by ascribing various old Craft traditions as a subset of observances – such a nuance is extremely important and speaks toward what some continental adepti called ‘the grace of God.’ In plain language, it is an understanding which my words aim here to pass on or convey.

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Scire and the Strict Observance

“The public manifestation of the Elder Faith has not appeared in a uniform manner, but has exhibited a stimulating variety of forms. These various forms or streams of the Tradition, one may refer to as ‘observances‘ or recensions of the Old Rite; each differing according to the Master or Mistress responsible for the dispensation of its knowledge.” – Andrew D. Chumbley, What is Traditional Craft?, originally from Michael Howard’s ‘The Cauldron’ (No. 81, Lammas 1996), later – Opuscula Magica Volume I – Essays: Witchcraft and the Sabbatic Tradition, 2010

Like persona non grata, this phrase – observance – is an inadvertent, if unintentional, twilight language hint from the tragic Essex Magister which speaks to the very heart of the issue concerning this piece. This word, like the practices which have ensconced modern Craft practice, reveal an unspoken secret that might well link modern Witchcraft back [at least in faith] to the so-called Strict Observance of Baron von Hund; the CBCS – L’Ordre de Chevalier Bienfaisant de la Cité Saint, or, as Wica’s founding father (himself a Perfect Initiate or P ∴ I ∴ of the Ordo Templi Orientis, or, anglicized, Order of the Temple of the East) preferred to summarize: the Knights Templar.

^{C. Yarnall Abbott – The Darker Drink (1908)}

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“Now this secret castle was said to be in a far land and to belong to the Templars. To reach it you had to undergo trials or to ask certain questions, know certain secrets and secret words (passwords); in other words, ‘initiation’ into a more or less secret society whose secrets were a magical talisman, which had five forms, or five things which were different but the same; a secret of prosperity and fertility, and a secret of resurrection or regeneration connected with a lance which dripped blood into a cup or cauldron.”
– Gerald B. Gardner, Witchcraft Today, 1954

Tying the threads all together: more mundanely, other [physical] castles are found scattered across continental Europe, and in legitimate practice have hosted the Martinist degrees of Martinez de Pasqually and Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, tied also to the rites of the Élus Coëns which preceded them – culminating in the third degree known as Supérieur Inconnu (Unknown Superior), or S ∴ I ∴ – more plainly, Secret Chiefs.

After this third degree; in layman’s terms, there is a fourth and final degree of Martinism which affords ‘free initiator’ status, including the authority to establish practicing groups of one’s own.

What’s the point? We assert that somewhere before or after the jump was made to the New World, certain similar provisos were attached to the American branch of the Gardnerian Observance. Some such provisions are untraditional, unethical, and almost unheard of to our British (and in some cases, global) equivalents.

Many of these revisions to our own Observance, however well-intentioned, are being abused against the spirit of modern Witchcraft itself, and so, too, its highest Initiates.

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Portcullis Upon the Palace

As stated above, the most egregious of these was the habit of issuing paper credentials; or documents proving lineage back to one of Gerald Gardner’s original High Priestesses, by way of a sort of ‘apostolic succession’ (much like found in Martinism) – we Witches have the bad habit of calling them puppy papers² – to serve as warrants of legitimacy for those High Priestesses who have attained the cult’s highest rank. It is these papers which are thought to be the Priestess’ ticket to her ultimate authority within our world: to rule her coven, as is her right (and daresay, responsibility).

_{2-I was asked here to include that referring to them as such is ‘disrespectful and rude,’ my brethren’s Rede much obliged.}

“Later, when the baton was passed on to Theos and Phoenix, there were a LOT of changes made by them (to my chagrin, many of those have been erroneously attributed to me), so these were very much brought home to me.” – Raymond Buckland / Terence P Ward, An Interview with Raymond Buckland, American Wicca Pioneer, WildHunt.org, 2016

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All Trick, No Treat

These concerns are not merely hypothetical.

Today, I know of no less than three High Priestesses of the Gardnerian persuasion who have been denied the aforementioned lineage papers. By virtue of not receiving these documents, they themselves cannot honestly pass similar along to their own Initiates, in those cases of which there are, in fact, some to speak of.

There is historical precedent which rests beyond the scope [and perhaps venue] of this piece – which should concern those affected, which is to say Initiates, further downline of the aggrieved, regarding the legitimacy of their own Initiations and Elevations.

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“In the Circle of the Witch’s Art, this state of Exile is perpetual. Neither affected nor contrived as a fashionable rebellion, it is instead the emboided paradox of those who ‘Walk by Night’ and yet must also ‘Walk by Day’ in complete anonymity amidst the world of the profane.”
– Daniel A. Schulke, Cainite Gnosis and the Sabbatic Tradition, 2012

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In one case, the upline Witch Queen passed away one year ago today, withholding written credentials until the end out of spite, even as other Initiates advocated that they be issued.

In another situation, papers have been held back based on a spat over loyalty and the extent to which it might be observed at the expense of the autonomy inherent within the Gardnerian Observance.

In the third instance, the upline High Priestess unilaterally decided that the authority of deciding her coven maiden’s High Priest was within her purview, and has opted to withhold papers until such point that her ego is sufficiently gratified.

Speaking plainly and sans regret: within the cloister of our tight-knit world, at this present moment; these problems are well-known but ignored by the broader collective out of a blind respect for those perpetuating outright Magical and spiritual abuse.

Although admittedly speculative, I’m all but sure that there are more instances of this practice than I am myself aware; and part of my motivation for writing is to shine a light on this despicable game. To be sure, there are honest Craft elders who find this practice abhorrent; but what does that do for those women who have been robbed of what rightfully belongs to them at ‘the end of desire?’

The community seems to be at a crossroads as to whether or not the practice of lineage paperwork should continue – of course, they lie outright and say that there is no ‘Grand Council’ but who runs the guestlists, collects the Gather registration fees, prints the t-shirts, and decides who’s ‘valid?’ Who enforces the nearly ubiquitously accepted ‘vouching’ system, and how are those vouches verified? As the Wizard of Oz once commanded: ‘pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!’

The silver lining is a real opportunity for spiritual growth, and even to heal historical rifts pertaining to validity, lineage, and beyond. Will the Witches continue to burn their own at the stake, while ignoring the hypocrisy of it all?

“Throw roses into the abyss and say: here is my thanks to the monster who didn’t succeed in swallowing me alive.” – Friedrich Nietzsche, Posthumous Works, 1882

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Reflections on Proteus and Jung

Judy Harrow, a kindly Craft Elder whom I had the privilege to meet in her later years, is another High Priestess that had the misfortune of crossing the ‘Council’ in one of its earlier forms, defining the plague of High Priestess’ disease as follows: “a pathological condition in which coven leaders fall into the delusion that they are holier than the others and can mediate between them and the Gods.” – Judy Harrow, Wicca Covens: How to Start and Organize Your Own, 1999

As far back as 1976, even the notably progressive Leo Martello lamented a similar cultural sickness when he wrote: “The ‘High Priestess syndrome’ is in full swing: In covens where the final authority is hers, she develops an authoritarianism, falsely mistaking this for regal conduct, and the result is chronic resentment and eventual dissolution of the coven. Most of them are playing a role. They are not Crafters but cultists and this applies no matter what type of initiation they’ve had.” – Leo Louis Martello, Guest Editorial: My Cauldron of Contempt – Earth Religion News (Volume 3 – issues 1, 2, and 3), 1976

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Carl Jung famously mused rhetorically: ‘what myth am I living by?,’ a question that every Witch should ask themselves. More than this, it should be given special attention by those mistreating their own Initiates, who may have spent years working toward attainment, only to be rooked. It’s the moral responsibility of our community (hidden Council or not!) to band together and stop this trickery, correct it where it is able, and otherwise condemn this ‘Gardnerian Fourth Degree’ for the con that it is on our peerage.

Thus ends our dark rite of literary necromancy, offered for the reader’s consideration on this holiest of our days, where the veil is most thin. Of course, we (as the living) should affect change while we are still best able. May the Wheel ever turn; and as the notorious Magister Charles Cardell once teased in seven words, after he was cursed by the Gardnerian ‘royalty’ of his day: “Blessed be they who worship the Goddess.”

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“Farewell from this world, but not from the Circle.
That place that is between the worlds
Shall hold return in due time. Nothing is lost”
– Rex Nemorensis: Elegy for a Dead Witch
(Doreen Valiente eulogizing Roy Bowers)

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“I am forbidden to give any more; but if you accept her rule you are promised various benefits and admitted into the circle, introduced to the Mighty Dead and to the cult members.” – Gerald B. Gardner, Witchcraft Today, 1954