Witchcraft Research Association
| Formation | 1964 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Gerard Noel |
| Dissolved | 1966 |
TheWitchcraft Research Associationwas a British organisation formed in 1964 in an attempt to unite and study the various claims that had emerged of surviving remnants of the so-calledWitch-Cult,such as those ofGerald Gardner,Robert Cochrane,Sybil Leek,Charles Cardell,andRaymond Howard.
It had been set up byGerard Noel,with the help of several other interested witches. Presidency was first held by Sybil Leek, but after she was forced to emigrate to the United States after suffering persecution and being evicted from her home, it was taken over byDoreen Valiente,who had herself already been involved in several strands of neopagan witchcraft, includingGardnerian Wicca,Cochrane's Craftand theCoven of Atho.
The WRA published thePentagramnewsletter beginning August 1964.
Formation
[edit]In February 1964Sybil Leekannounced the formation of the Witchcraft Research Association, with herself as its first president.[1]The historianRonald Huttonsuggested that its creation had been influenced by two recent events: the death of prominent WiccanGerald Gardnerand a lecture tour by the historianRussell Hope Robbinsin which Robbins had publicly criticised theWitch-cult hypothesispromoted byMargaret Murray.[1]Leek's reputation was however damaged by press hostility and a strained relationship with other Wiccans, resulting in her resignation as President of the WRA in July and her emigration to the United States.[2]The Presidency was taken up byDoreen Valiente.[3]
On 3 October 1964, the WRA held a dinner in which fifty Witches were present.[3]At the dinner, Valiente gave an address in which she called for the reunification of what she believed where the many scattered remains of the Murrayite witch-cult across Britain.[3]According to Hutton, "it was probably the first and last gathering in modern Pagan history where most of the men wore black ties and dinner jackets".[3]Cochrane attended the event, as did the sympathetic journalistJustine Glass,who went on to writeWitchcraft, the Sixth Sense – and Us,published bySpearmanin 1965.[3]
Pentagramnewsletter
[edit]The WRA newsletterPentagramwas edited by a friend ofRobert Cochranenamed Gerard Noel.[4]In the first issue, Valiente included an article in which she expressed the hope that the WRA would become a "United Nations of the Craft", bringing together different Wiccan traditions in the spirit of unity.[5]According to Hutton, "the Association fell at this initial hurdle."[5]In the next issue ofPentagram,an article was contributed by Cochrane, in which he echoed Valiente's call for a full study of the differing forms of the witch-cult, which in his view would reveal an ancientmystery religionwhich lay behind them.[3]He extolled his own mystical interpretation of the religion as the most true, deeming it superior to others.[6]However, one of Cochrane's friends, "Taliesin", also produced an article for the newsletter in which he claimed to be a member of a Goddess-focused hereditary tradition based in theWest Country.In several articles published between May and December he extolled his own tradition and scornfully criticised others.[5]In one of these articles he criticised Valiente's speech at the WRA dinner as exemplifying "the Gardnerian atmosphere of sweetness and light coupled with good clean fun under the auspices of a Universal Auntie".[3]Hutton believed that this was probably the first appearance in print of the term "Gardnerian"to describe the followers of Gardner's Wiccan tradition.[5]
Two Gardnerians,Arnold Crowtherand "Monsieur", responded to Taliesin's criticisms, to which he then retaliated with what Hutton called "an even nastier reply".[5]Cochrane had encouraged "Taliesin" in his messages, which damaged the relationship between Cochrane and Valiente.[6]She had little respect for "Taliesin"; conducting research into him, she found that he had no apparent connection to a West Country tradition, that he instead lived near to Cochrane in theThames Valley,and that he had for a time been a member of Gardner'sBricket Wood coven.[6]
ThePagan studiesscholar Ethan Doyle White noted that a column onHalloweenthat was contained in the fifth issue ofPentagramfeatured the second oldest printed use ofthe term "Wicca" in reference to Pagan Witchcraftthat he was aware of. Although the name of the column's author was not included, Doyle White speculated that it might have been Noel or Valiente.[7]
An advert forPentagramwas placed in the U.S. magazineFate.[8]The scholar of modern PaganismChas S. Cliftonsuggested that Noel had chosen to advertise inFatebecause it was the only magazine devoted to paranormal phenomena which was distributed nationally across the U.S.[8]This advert introduced the American WitchJoseph WilsontoPentagram,and on the basis of it he decided to establish his own American publication,The Wa xing Moon: A Witchcraft Newsletter.[8]Wilson began corresponding with Noel, who agreed to place an advert forThe Wa xing Moonin the final issue ofPentagram.[9]This resulted in Cochrane opening a correspondence with Wilson. In his first letter, written on 20 December 1965, Cochrane asked Wilson if there were a system ofley linesin North America and claiming that the star on theFlag of Texasconstituted proof that many of the British settlers who arrived in the Americas were witches.[9]Their correspondence continued for another half year, being ended by Cochrane's suicide in the summer of 1966.[9]
The rancour between competing Wiccan factions severely damagedPentagram,which folded in 1966, when the WRA also came to an end.[6]Following the culmination ofPentagram,a group of British Gardnerians under the editorship of Dorset-based John Score replaced it with a newsletter titledThe Wiccan,first issued in July 1968.[7]In Clifton's view,The Wiccanrepresented a "successor" toPentagram.[10]"Taliesin" meanwhile was not publicly heard from again.[6]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]Footnotes
[edit]- ^abHutton 1999,p. 311.
- ^Hutton 1999,pp. 311–312.
- ^abcdefgHutton 1999,p. 312.
- ^Hutton 1999,p. 312;Clifton 2006,p. 19.
- ^abcdeHutton 1999,p. 316.
- ^abcdeHutton 1999,p. 317.
- ^abDoyle White 2010,p. 193.
- ^abcClifton 2006,p. 19.
- ^abcClifton 2006,p. 21.
- ^Clifton 2006,p. 23.
Bibliography
[edit]- Clifton, Chas S. (2006).Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca and Paganism in America.Oxford and Lanham: AltaMira.ISBN978-0-7591-0202-6.
- Doyle White, Ethan (2010). "The Meaning of" Wicca ": A Study in Etymology, History and Pagan Politics".The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies.12(2): 185–207.doi:10.1558/pome.v12i2.185.
- Hutton, Ronald (1999).The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft.Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0198207443.
