An ABC of Witchcraft Past and Present - Doreen Valiente 2018

Preface to the 1994 edition

It is now twenty years since the first edition of this book was published. During that time a good deal has happened on the witchcraft scene, and with regard to paganism generally. The impact of what has come to be known as the New Age, which I foreshadowed in the article in this book entitled ’Astrology’, has been felt world-wide.

The breaking-down of the social order associated with the outgoing Age of Pisces has accelerated at a frightening rate. So has the world unrest associated with it. But at the same time, the green movement has gathered momentum. No longer are people who want to save our woodlands and the plants, animals and birds of our countryside regarded as cranks. The peril to our planet itself is recognized by world governments.

It was not military force which broke down the Berlin Wall, or toppled the great monolith of Soviet Communism, but something more like a revolutionary outburst of the human spirit. The wind of the Age of Aquarius is starting to blow.

The impact of the New Age is beginning to appear in our high streets, with the advent of shops selling books, Tarot cards, crystals and even implements for the rites of witchcraft! What would old Gerald Gardner have said, if he had lived to see this? Like it or not, the marketing of magic is with us. Nor have the efforts of fundamentalist Christians been successful in stopping it. Here in Brighton, Sussex, when one of these shops first opened, the owner found her premises picketed by a vociferous group of such opponents trying to prevent people going in. Nothing daunted, she simply sent for the police, who moved the protestors on. They have not come back. Indeed, since this confrontation several other similar shops have opened.

However, in other parts of Britain and the USA matters have taken a more sinister turn. We have read in the newspapers of arson attacks upon shops of this kind, allegedly carried out by fundamentalist Christians. Lectures on psychic matters have been cancelled, after the owners of premises where they were due to be held received telephone threats of fire-bombing. The same thing happened to a psychic fair, when threats of fire-bombing were made to the hotel where it was taking place. There are still people around who think they have a religious duty to burn witches — literally!

The new phenomenon of the psychic fair (or ’fayre’ as it is often spelt in mock old English) has become highly popular, in spite of all the efforts of Christian extremists. Moreover, leading witches have often been invited to give lectures at such gatherings, so that the concept of the Old Religion has become much more publicly acceptable than it was before.

The word Wicca as a term for the Old Religion is finding its way into the English language, in spite of the fact that it does not mean ’witchcraft’ at all. Its actual meaning is ’a male witch’. The feminine equivalent was wicce; but Gerald Gardner mistakenly believed wicca to be a synonym for ’witchcraft’ and his mistake has been copied ever since. However, it has proved to be a useful term for the beliefs of modern witches, as it serves to distinguish them from associations with Satanism. Gerald Gardner’s Witchcraft Museum at Castletown, Isle of Man, was sold by his heirs and the collection dispersed — something British witches have never forgiven. But what he started lives on, and all followers of Wicca today are indebted to him.

When this book first appeared, the rituals of modern witchcraft, as contained in Gerald Gardner’s Book of Shadows, had never been published in any authentic form. Stolen and distorted versions of them were, however, in circulation. Therefore, when I met Stewart and Janet Farrar, I decided that the time had come to give out the genuine version of old Gerald’s Book of Shadows. This has now been done, in Stewart and Janet Farrar’s books, Eight Sabbats for Witches (Robert Hale, London, 1981) and The Witches’ Way: Principles, Rituals and Beliefs of Modern Witchcraft (Robert Hale, London, 1984). A good deal of indignation was aroused in some quarters by the publication of these books. Still more followed the publication of my book The Rebirth of Witchcraft (Robert Hale, London, 1989), in which I told for the first time the real story behind the modern witchcraft revival and Gerald Gardner’s part in it. I have lost some friends over my writings, and have been criticized and abused; but I regret nothing.

There is no doubt that witchcraft has evolved considerably since Gerald Gardner’s time. Few covens now insist upon ritual nudity, or practise the more controversial rites involving sex or flagellation. In my opinion, this is all to the good, though of course others may disagree; but I feel that what witchcraft is really all about is the hidden powers of the human mind. The paraphernalia of ritual is simply to create the atmosphere in which those powers can manifest.

Today, many people question the necessity of the old coven structure at all. Do we really need a group sworn to secrecy and dominated by a High Priestess or a Magister, before we can follow the Old Religion? There is no doubt that it was this coven structure which enabled the Old Religion to survive the years of persecution that witches call ’the Burning Times’. Nor is there any doubt that some extremists would like to relight those fires of persecution today. In the present day, however, other means of self-defence are available. There is a legal right to freedom of religion, which was non-existent before. There are associations in Britain and the USA to fight defamation spread by fundamentalist bigots. Paganism and Wicca are moving towards becoming recognized religious faiths.

Gerald Gardner claimed that ’You may not be a witch alone’. Today, this idea is repudiated by many, and I think rightly. Solitary witches, people who work on their own, or those who work with a partner and perhaps just one or two others, are in my experience just as powerful (and often more so) than most covens. Whether or not they decide to come out publicly as witches, or to opt for secrecy, is entirely up to them.

There has been great development in the spread of witchcraft and paganism generally in the USA since this book was first written. Much of it has been linked with the growing feminist movement and with goddess-worship. Writers such as Zsuzsanna Budapest and Starhawk have produced completely new versions of a Book of Shadows, geared to women’s feelings of the present day. In Australia also, paganism and witchcraft are now widespread, and the art of Rosaleen Norton, the once notorious ’Witch of King’s Cross’, is beginning to be appreciated instead of denounced.

Since I wrote the article in this book entitled ’Ritual Murder’, there has been an extraordinary development on this theme, both in Britain and the USA. Sensational claims have been made, mostly by evangelical Christians, that babies and children by the hundred — even by the thousand — were being sacrificed by Satanists, among whom witches were numbered. The stories seem to have begun with the publication of a book entitled Michelle Remembers by Michelle Smith and Lawrence Pazder (Simon & Schuster, USA, 1980). This book recounts how a young woman named Michelle, while undergoing therapy from Dr Pazder, purported to recall horrific abuse inflicted upon her in her childhood in the name of Satanism. I read the book when it first came out and dismissed it as fantasy. Not a scrap of evidence could be produced to support the allegations made in it. However, the story seemed to capture the imagination of fundamentalist Christians in the USA. It was followed by so many other similar books that a sceptical newspaper columnist in Britain called their production ’a cottage industry’.

Soon, associations were being formed to combat this frightful evil. Seminars were held in which social workers and police officers were indoctrinated in the prevalence of Satanism, ’black’ witchcraft, ritual murder, ritual child abuse and the general furtherance of Satan’s kingdom on earth. This, we were solemnly told, was being brought about by such diverse methods as the logos on detergent packets and the playing of Dungeons and Dragons. One detergent manufacturer actually had to change their logo because of the outcry against its alleged occult implications. If the results of this campaign had not been so serious, it would have been funny. But the results were horrific.

The campaign spread to Britain. Soon, disturbing headlines were appearing in our newspapers, telling of sobbing children literally snatched at dawn from their bewildered parents by social workers, backed by police, upon allegations of ’Satanic ritual abuse’. Women started appearing on television, telling amazing tales of having been members of ’black’ witch covens and of being used to breed babies for sacrifice to Satan. Claims were made of having witnessed such murderous sacrifices. Oddly enough, however, such claims never seemed to have been made to the police. These people would tell their stories gladly to the media, but when asked if they had been to the police, they said that they were afraid to do so for fear of reprisals. When the police insisted upon interviewing them and investigating their stories, no evidence to support them was ever found. Given the possibilities of modern forensic science, I find this strange. All these sacrifices are supposed to have taken place in Britain and the USA. Yet there are no bodies, no bloodstains, no bones — nothing!

Eventually, the tide of public opinion in this country began to turn. Parents got together and began legal action to get their children back. They have generally succeeded; while over-zealous social workers have found themselves discredited. Two hard-hitting television documentaries have helped to expose the truth. The first was broadcast in the BBC’s Panorama series in December 1992, and was presented by Martin Bashir. The programme revealed how the whole Satanic scenario had been imported from the USA, and how children’s minds had been manipulated in accordance with it. The second programme was even more scathing. Called In Satan’s Name, it was produced by Anthony Thomas for ITV, and broadcast in June 1993. It revealed the whole process of the manufacture of the satanic conspiracy myth in the USA, and quoted Kenneth Lanning of the FBI as saying that supporters of such allegations were ’totally unamenable to reason’.

Kenneth Lanning also contributed a special article to an important book entitled Satanism in America: How the Devil Got Much More Than His Due (Gaia Press, PO Box 466, El Cerrito, California 94530—0466). This symposium by a number of authoritative writers, led by Shawn Carlson and Gerald Larue, should be read by anyone seriously interested in these matters.

Does this mean, however, that we should utterly discount any stories of black magic involving the abuse of children, blood sacrifices or ritual murder? I fervently wish that I could say, ’Yes’. But I cannot. For one thing, I have encountered people in the world of the occult who were quite mad enough and bad enough to do these things to gain power, if they thought they could get away with it. For another, there is real evidence, both historic and in the present day, of crimes committed in the name of black magic. I have the press cuttings of cases which have come to court and been proved. One of the worst side-effects of the great satanic ritual child abuse myth, as detailed above, is that it has obscured the investigation into the evil that really happens.

DOREEN VALIENTE,

Brighton, 1993