My Third Degree, and the Dark Side of Traditional Witchcraft
Joy to the World
BE IT KNOWN that on November 5, 2022 (BONFIRE NIGHT) – against all odds and amidst a hostile culture which has either made [or otherwise supported] grave and legitimate threats upon my very life, that I was raised to the Sublime and Ultimate 3rd Degree of the Gardnerian Craft; by way of the Olwen/Long Island branch of the genuine Wica.
“A good conscience is a continual Christmas.” – Benjamin Franklin
Remember, Remember, the 5th of November.
Rex + the Raven
On October 1, 2022, the officiating High Priestess who cast the Circle in which I was welcomed for this tertiary honor, was issued a coven charter, or lineage document, acknowledging her due right and authority to ‘hive’ from the parent coven.
In treasured moments between worlds, it was truly so.
The wholly-autonomous RAVENSTONE COVEN was hence created, and is in possession of a full set of such documents tracing back an unbroken succession – High Priestess by High Priestess over nearly sixty years – to Olwen (Monique Wilson) of Perth, Scotland circa 1963, and the original New York Coven which effectively ‘began’ the Gardnerian Craft in the United States.
Following the mid-October death of the parent coven’s officiating High Priestess (and this particular subsequent hive) the original coven has fallen under illegitimate control and can no longer be considered as a part of the genuine Wica.
A Declaration of Independence
Context is everything, and this JOYOUS ANNOUNCEMENT carries with it a unique history.
On July 20, 2022, a breakaway faction of Witches released into the public wilds a so-called Declaration of the Traditional Gardnerian Wica which reduces Witchcraft’s quasi-organized orthopraxy to an argument revolving around gender essentialism.
“Un menteur est toujours prodigue de serments (…a liar is always lavish [prodigal] of oaths).”
– Pierre Corneille, Le Manteur, 1644
This document makes the claim that “Slander, purposeful misrepresentations, false accusations, rumor-mongering, and gatekeeping became the norm,” and suggests it to be “clear that many of those engaging in such activities had specific motives related to power and control over the Wica.” – Declaration of the Traditional Gardnerian Wica, 2022
Such sentiments very clearly echo those of that were discussed in my own writings dating back to June 2021; and in case there should be any confusion, the authors of the duly inspired ‘declaration’ were (in fact) readers of that Work, some of them publicly lauding it – with links to it being passed around in the private ‘coven chats’ of some of the hidden powers’ existing behind the same ‘Traditional’ schism.
Whitecroft Way, or Rosemary + Ray?
In an earlier piece, I alluded to the fact that different ‘branches’ of the Craft had varying sentiments about the Gardnerian third degree itself.
The ‘Long Island Line’ places a decadent importance on the attainment of the rank, so much so that second degree High Priestesses may only run a coven with the blessing of their immediate superior. 1
The Whitecroft folks, rather poetically – and beautifully – have described it to me as simply “coming home.” In other words, “you’ve made it, but have actually been here for some time.” And although you can be unquestionably sure that I will never quote her again, it was aptly described by the well-known author Deborah Lipp as becoming the Craft itself.
“I no longer felt at risk of violating the rules of the tradition;
it seemed now that I was the tradition, I was its rules and structures.”
– Deborah Lipp, Merry Meet Again: Lessons, Life & Love on the Path of a Wiccan High Priestess, 2013
Perhaps most significantly, the practice of ‘charters’ itself is something unfamiliar to the Whitecroft Witches – highlighting a distinct (and arguably profound) shift in what passes for ‘Traditional’ depending on whom you ask.
…but that’s not all.
1-And, in practice, almost always with their meddling!
Lady Inanna / Lord Lentrohamsanin
In true Hermetic fashion, the arguments surrounding biological polarity have equally polarized the Gardnerian Craft as an entire movement. This is regrettable, because in many ways it only serves to exacerbate the ‘blind spots’ of spiritual abuse which take place as a matter of course by some of the very same people who made sure that their names were part of what they clearly perceived to be a historic shift in the Magical current itself.
“Like all dreamers, I confused disenchantment for truth.”
– Jean-Paul Sartre, Les Mots (The Words), 1964/1981
Back in April, I published the tentative location of a so-called ‘Gardnerian Gather’ which earned me heaps of hatred from friend and foe alike. The contention remained then [as it does now] that no event which welcomes (…and was openly advertised to) non-Initiates could possibly be considered to be ‘Witchcraft proper.’
Some shadowy ‘elders’ were less concerned with the aforementioned legitimate threats against my life than they were with the fact that I had revealed the location of a not-so-secret event. Moreover, certain amongst them had the audacity to attack me simultaneous to the publication of their ‘Declaration.’ Insomuch as their criticisms against the ‘power’ and ‘control’ within the cult ring true, they have fallen prey to the inverse swing of the pendulum, and themselves become a part of the problem itself.
“It is characteristic of the principle of Lentrohamsanin in man that no sooner does a real teaching begin to be given out, than someone or some group, afraid of the terrific efforts that may have to be made, begins to try to find a short cut and so distort the teaching. It has always been so.” – from A.R. Orage’s Commentary on G. I. Gurdjieff’s ‘Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson,’ – excerpted from Teachings of Gurdjieff: a Pupil’s Journal, C.S. Nott, 1961
As chronicled previously, numerous changes were made after the Craft left the Bucklands’ stewardship in the United States. Many of these were inconsequential, but others – as it turns out – have dramatically altered the religion’s evolution.
The honest Witch recognizes themselves as mere vessel or conduit for a force to which they can pretend no absolute ownership thereof, and to betray that truth is a darker Magic than any which might be accomplished with black candles or barbarous names of power.
So it was for KENTUCKY KATHY.
“The Goddess bids me tell that her moon is waning and that
a new moon will sit on her cardboard throne which the
clean winds of the morning will blow away forever.”
– Charles Cardell, Witch!, 1964
Kentucky Kathy’s Fake Edwardian Wicca
Having touched a bit above on the Long Island and Whitecroft Lines, we shift here to a particularly fuzzy part of modern Craft history, and one that has reared its ugly head in direct opposition to my Magical Will – and objectively – the Truth.
That is the OLD KENTUCKY LINE dating back to the 1970s, most influentially through the so-called ‘Brooklyn Heights Coven.’ To be clear, this coven (insomuch as it even might be described as one) was disavowed by the Craft contemporaneous to its own practice.
For decades, more gracious practitioners have extended a mild, eye-rolled courtesy to some of the progenitors behind this questionable lineage, but it was only in the last few months that I had the misfortune to come across one of their ‘students,’ who flubbed almost everything when pressed as to their credentials.
After direct attempts at intercession to the creation of RAVENSTONE COVEN, actual Craft elders quizzed KENTUCKY KATHY regarding her so-called ‘Gardnerian Lineage,’ which amounts to a tracing of succession to an admittedly not-Gardnerian High Priestess who we will refer to here only as G.
Following her pretend takeover of another coven, the rogue imposter took to describing herself to actual, genuine Craft elders as the coven’s new ‘deputy high priestess,’ which, of course, was something casually picked up during her grift, and rather humorously suggests that she is second-in-command, as the word’s mundane definition would suggest.
The melting pot of practice from which Kathy’s branch of the so-called OLD KENTUCKY LINE stems is more accurately described as Edwardian Wicca, after its founder, Eddie Buczynski. This title was lent to this lineage by Lady Rhea, who is a notable purveyor of glitter candles offered to those who need a little ‘extra help’ manifesting their dreams.
“Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.” – WB Yeats
As a well-intentioned rule of thumb, my writings thus have taken great care to speak in generalities, and in such a way that holds some interest to the greater collective of Western Magic.
However – for this liminal end of the Christmas season – one of the Fourth Way breaks the ‘fourth wall’ and says here directly to his attacker, KENTUCKY KATHY – you are the most offensive example of a Black Magician which I have ever encountered; a shame to the Craft; a disgrace to Truth and goodness; and a genuinely evil wretch upon honor.
Let me be incredibly clear: the names which you provided as your direct, initiatory upline are known to not be ‘valid’ Gardnerians. We do not use the title ‘Lord’ for our High Priests, however gratifying that might be to some of us.
Had the ‘crown’ passed to you from your predecessor (it did not, and so rests with Ravenstone), it would have simply burned you.
The Heresies of Theos + Phoenix
Of course, even the longstanding Long Island Line is less than perfect.
Last Halloween, I quoted Raymond Buckland’s 2016 interview in The Wild Hunt. Suffice to say, Robat was not very complimentary to Theos and Phoenix, but his remarks in the interview go even further.
“The reason is that each cultus or philosophy which comes into the world is a Benjamin of humanity which lives by the death of its mother ; it is because the symbolical serpent seems ever devouring its own tail ; it is because, as essential condition of existence, a void is necessary to every plenitude, space for every dimension, an affirmation for each negation ; it is the eternal realisation of the phœnix allegory.”
– Éliphas Lévi, Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie, 1854/1856,
as translated by AE Waite in 1896
Remembering and acknowledging that Buckland (and certainly not Buczynski and kin) is indeed the true progenitor of Gerald Gardner’s Magical and initiatic legacy on American soil, his words carry an enormous weight – they are profoundly sharp remarks from a typically-mild mannered maverick, and those of which are nothing short of dangerous to the ‘power structure’ behind Witchcraft Today – across both of its factions – the so-called ‘Traditional Gardnerians’ and the shattered diaspora which loosely prides itself as a reincarnation soul cluster which they coyly refer to as ‘Family.’
Here, Ray summarizes a sentiment excerpted from an autobiography that he was penning at the time, and makes the bombshell claim that “Theos and Phoenix probably did more harm to Witchcraft than did the whole of the Christian persecutors back in the Middle Ages!”
So, what egregious harm could Ray have been referring to?
If there was one true benefit to the Wica as a whole during the course of this raging debate regarding the core tenets its Faith, it has been the exploration of what precisely defines it.
“And the rest of the learned beings then began shouting and pushing each other in order to get near Lentrohamsanin; and addressing him as their ‘long-awaited-Messiah’ they conveyed to him by their admiring glances what is called their ‘high-titillation.'”
– G.I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson, 1950
Unfortunately, the Promethean and gnostic streaks inherent to this vaguely ‘animist’ cult has lent to heavy-handed changes that even altered its core liturgies (possibly to re-veil riddles that at some point may have been revealed).
There are, in fact, uncontemporary ideologies held onto by a minute sect which are closer to Christian in nature than Craft, that speak to some concept of Messianic redemption that (in this context) was effectively ‘glued’ on.
“And here we find ourselves quite suddenly and unexpectedly
in line with some of the old Rosicrucian doctrines.”
– Simon Iff, from Aleister Crowley’s ‘Moonchild,’ 1929
All of which to say: many of the most vocal proponents of the so-called ‘Traditional Gardnerian’ Craft are far less Traditional than they would have you believe; and for reasons which have nothing to do with the ideological rabbitholes they lead Seekers into.
Seasons in the Sun
Words can never accurately describe an Initiatory current or the experiences that accompany it, but ‘Wica’ is a beautiful thing encapsulizing a distinct mythology that is simultaneously synthetic and serene. It’s a postcard in time from a handful of sincere practitioners that may (or may not) have had an Initiatory link to something even older.
“Unless you experience it yourself you will never believe.
When you have experienced it, you don’t believe, you KNOW.”
– Gerald B. Gardner, Witchcraft Today, 1954
Gerald Brousseau Gardner, despite his rakish reputation, was honest enough to concede that the rituals he received may have had ‘borrowed’ portions, and Buckland (aside, of course, from the phony PhD that he shared with Dr. Gerald) seemed to be a reasonable individual, and one who was personally kind to me – and who’s life and legacy lives on (even in death), as testament true to his Magical Work.
The old rule of ‘only add, don’t subtract’ does not mean the injection of ideas and practices that are completely foreign to the lessons of the Craft’s three primary rites themselves, and it would be irresponsible and dishonest to to pretend that it does.
“Witches do not kiss the Devil’s posterior, first because they never kiss anyone’s posterior…”
– Gerald B. Gardner, Witchcraft Today, 1954
Any historian or cultural anthropologist would be fascinated by this clear ‘fork’ in the tradition, but most Inititates would be aghast at the notion that Theos and Phoenix quietly created an ‘elite’ class of Witches who imagine themselves to be peerless among equals or the Mighty Ones themselves.
The Epiphany of Elphame
My words would not ring true without the profound influence of those who have walked the Crooked Path before me, and laid their lessons down through the stories of their lives.
“Nothing is more despicable than respect based on fear.” – Albert Camus
I speak here specifically of Roy Bowers, Charles Cardell, and Alex Sanders – my ‘three kings’ if ever were, the so-called ‘bad guys’ of modern witchcraft who were perhaps more honest than what passed for good.
For his part, Roy has been posthumously something close to ‘sainted.’ Cardell’s story is finally being told through groundbreaking research into his Magical and mundane existence…
And to this very day, there are hushed whispers that Alex will eventually get one last apology in the form of a posthumous literary encore from the Gardnerian ‘powers that be.’
Pardon my French, but laissez les bons temps rouler.
Rex Nemorensis, 3°
LE ROY LE VEULT
January 5, 2023
Twelfth Night