Doreen Valiente
Encyclopedia
Doreen Edith Dominy Valiente (4 January 1922 – 1 September 1999), who also went under the craft name Ameth, was an influential English
Wicca
n who was involved in a number of different early traditions, including Gardnerianism
, Cochrane's Craft
and the Coven of Atho. Responsible for writing much of the early Gardnerian religious liturgy, in later years she also helped to play a big part in bringing the Neopagan
religion of Wicca to wider public attention through the publication of a string of books on the subject.
Having been born in south London, she first became involved in the Craft after being initiated into the Gardnerian tradition in 1953 in a ceremony performed by Gerald Gardner
, in which Edith Woodford-Grimes was also present. Subsequently becoming the High Priestess of his Bricket Wood coven
, she helped him to produce many important scriptural texts for Wicca, such as The Witches Rune and the Charge of the Goddess
, which were incorporated into the early Gardnerian Book of Shadows
. Splitting off to form her own coven in 1957, she went on to work with Robert Cochrane in his coven, the Clan of Tubal Cain, till the mid 1960s when she began working as a solitary practitioner. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s she penned a number of books on the subject of Wicca - which she always called "witchcraft
" - including An ABC of Witchcraft (1973) and Witchcraft for Tomorrow (1978), as well as being an early proponent of self-initiation into the Craft.
Having had a significant influence in the history of Wicca
, she has been referred to as "the mother of modern Witchcraft" and is today is widely revered in the Wiccan and wider Neopagan community.
parents named Harry and Edith. However they soon moved near to Horley
in Surrey
. The young Doreen was convinced by the age of 13 that she possessed the power to use magic
, and used it to help protect her mother from a bullying co-worker. When she informed her parents of her actions, they objected to her use of sorcery and sent her to a convent school. By the age of 15 she had left the school and refused to ever go back.
, Doreen married Joanis Vlachopoulos a seaman in the British Navy; during World War II
he was declared missing and presumed dead.
In 1944 she married Casimiro Valiente, a Spaniard
living in exile from the Spanish civil war
, where he had fought on the side of the Free French Forces
and been wounded at the Battle of Narvik. Valiente would later say that both she and her husband suffered racism
after the war because of their foreign associations.
During this period, she became interested further in occult
ism, an interest that her second husband did not share. She was particularly interested by John Symond
's biography of Aleister Crowley
, which was entitled The Great Beast.
after the war. Here, in 1952, Doreen read an article entitled "Witchcraft in Britain" in the newspaper Illustrated, which had been written by Allen Andrews. The article mentioned both Cecil Williamson
, who ran the Museum of Magic and Witchcraft, as well as the New Forest Coven
, or "southern coven of British witches" as it called it. Valiente wrote to Williamson asking for more information, who passed her letter on to Gerald Gardner
.
Doreen and Gardner corresponded for some time before she asked to join his coven. He initially denied the request, but agreed to meet her, in winter 1952, at the house of a woman known only as Dafo
near the New Forest
. When she entered, her initial reaction was that:
Gardner gave her a copy of his novel High Magic's Aid, allegedly to gauge her opinion on ritual nudity and scourging
, something which he did with all prospective persons wishing to join his coven.
On Midsummer
1953 Gardner invited Doreen again to Dafo's house, and it was here that he initiated her into Wicca. The three of them then set off to Stonehenge
(a place where Valiente had never before been), where they watched the Druids performing a ritual there. Gardner had lent a ritual sword he owned, and had collected from the museum on the Isle of Man
, to the Druids, who placed it within the heelstone
during rituals. Valiente only told her husband and mother about the visit to Stonehenge, but not about her initiation, of which they would not have approved.
, and soon rose to become its High Priestess. She noticed how much of the material in his Book of Shadows
was taken not from ancient sources as Gardner had initially claimed, but from the works of the occultist Aleister Crowley
. She confronted Gardner with this, who admitted that the text he had received from the New Forest coven had been fragmentary and he had had to fill much of it using various sources. She took the Book of Shadows, and, with Gardner's permission, rewrote much of it, cutting out a lot of sections that had come from Crowley (whose negative reputation Valiente feared). Valiente dramatically rewrote sections such as the Charge of the Goddess
and also wrote several poems for the book, such as The Witches Rune. She also helped to create a poem to include the Wiccan Rede
within it.
As the coven's High Priestess, Valiente initiated only Jack L. Bracelin
in 1956.
However Gardner's increasing desire for publicity, much of it ending up negative, caused conflict with Valiente and other members of his coven. As she would later say:
When she, and other coven members, in 1957, confronted him saying that some rules had to be developed, he claimed it was not needed as some already existed, at which point he produced the Wiccan Laws
in 1957. These laws limited the control of the High Priestess, which angered Valiente, who, with several other members, left the coven. She later stated that:
, albeit without the Wiccan laws, which she believed to be entirely an invention of Gardner's.
, and partially based upon the teachings of Charles Cardell
. In 1963 she gained the lowest rank on the course, that of Sarsen. Valiente copied everything she was taught into notebooks, which have provided some of the most important information on the practices of the group.
held by the Brotherhood of the Essenes, she met the witch Robert Cochrane
, and the two became friends.
Valiente soon joined Cochrane's coven - the Clan of Tubal Cain, becoming one of only very few members. She later remarked that there were certain things in this coven that were better than those in Gardner's, for instance she thought that "[Cochrane] believed in getting close to nature as few Gardnerian witches at that time seemed to do". She also commented on how Cochrane did not seem to want lots of publicity, as Gardner had done, something which she admired.
However, she became dissatisfied with Cochrane, who was openly committing adultery
and constantly insulting Gardnerians, even at one point calling for "a Night of the Long Knives
of the Gardnerians", at which point Doreen, in her own words, "rose up and challenged him in the presence of the rest of the coven. I told him that I was fed up with listening to all this senseless malice, and that, if a 'Night of the Long Knives' was what his sick little soul craved, he could get on with it, but he could get on with it alone, because I had better things to do".
Valiente also disapproved of the fact that Cochrane often took what he called "witches' potions", but which were, in reality, hallucinogenic drugs. She left his coven in 1966, shortly before he committed ritual suicide at Midsummer
.
, things which she incorrectly associated with the origins of Wicca. The historian Ronald Hutton
would later relate that it was "one of the first three books to be published on the subject" of Wicca, and that the "remarkable feature of the book is that it remains, until this date [2010], the only one produced by a prominent modern witch that embodies actual original research into the records of the trials of people accused of the crime of witchcraft during the early modern period." Nonetheless, he noted that Where Witchcraft Lives was also historically inaccurate, because "she diffidently interpreted the facts that she was revealing within the framework supplied by the foremost contemporary academic expert in the early modern trials, Margaret Murray
", whose theories that Early Modern witchcraft was a surviving pre-Christian religion, have subsequently been disproved and dismissed by historians.
In the 1970s and 1980s Valiente gradually became one of the most well respected and influential leaders of Wicca
, meriting an entry in the Dictionary of National Biography
.
She wrote five books on the subject, three of which were 'how-to' books designed to teach solitary Wiccans - An ABC of Witchcraft (1972), Natural Magic (1975) and Witchcraft for Tomorrow (1978), and an autobiography entitled The Rebirth of Witchcraft in 1989.
Meanwhile she continued to write poetry, much of which has been published in the book Charge of the Goddess: The Mother of Modern Witchcraft, an example of which is "An Unsolved Problem of Psychic Research", which goes thus:
She was active in her promotion of modern witchcraft and neo-paganism, being particularly keen to emphasise that the movement was not related to Satanism
and did not seek publicity for its own sake. She was a notable figure in supporting the development of the Pagan Federation
.
Faced with challenges from sceptics, Valiente attempted, with some success, to provide evidence for Gardner's claims concerning his initiation, notably by identifying the woman Gardner called 'Old Dorothy' as Dorothy Clutterbuck
in 1980, the woman who was supposed to have performed Gardner's initiation, in an essay published in The Witches' Way by Janet
and Stewart Farrar
.
towards the end of her life. In her last few days she was moved to a nursing home
, and she died at 6.55am on 1 September 1999, with John Belham-Payne at her side. John Belham-Payne inherited all of Doreen's magical artefacts and manuscripts including her Book of Shadows
.
examines her life and contribution to Wicca in his Witchcraft Out of the Shadows. According to Dr Ruickbie, Valiente was the 'Mother of Modern Witchcraft', playing a crucial role in re-writing much of Gardner's original ritual material, an assessment supported by Ronald Hutton
.
In March 2011 John Belham-Payne along with his wife, Julie and friends Brian and Patricia Botham and Ashley Mortimer formed The Doreen Valiente Foundation which they established as a charitable trust dedicated to protecting the artefacts, books and writings (published and unpublished) that Doreen had bequeathed to John. The ownership of the collection passed from John to the trust with the deed of trust that meant the collection could never be sold or split up and will be added to by donations from other members of the witchcraft and pagan community to be used for education, research and to be published and exhibited publicly as part of the wider heritage of paganism.
----
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
Wicca
Wicca
Wicca , is a modern Pagan religious movement. Developing in England in the first half of the 20th century, Wicca was popularised in the 1950s and early 1960s by a Wiccan High Priest named Gerald Gardner, who at the time called it the "witch cult" and "witchcraft," and its adherents "the Wica."...
n who was involved in a number of different early traditions, including Gardnerianism
Gardnerian Wicca
Gardnerian Wicca, or Gardnerian Witchcraft, is a mystery cult tradition or denomination in the neopagan religion of Wicca, whose members can trace initiatory descent from Gerald Gardner. The tradition is itself named after Gardner , a British civil servant and scholar of magic...
, Cochrane's Craft
Cochrane's Craft
Cochrane’s Craft, which is also known as Cochranianism, is a tradition of the Neopagan religion of Witchcraft founded in 1951 by the English Witch Robert Cochrane, who himself claimed to have been taught it by some of his elderly family members, a claim that is disputed by some historians such as...
and the Coven of Atho. Responsible for writing much of the early Gardnerian religious liturgy, in later years she also helped to play a big part in bringing the Neopagan
Neopaganism
Neopaganism is an umbrella term used to identify a wide variety of modern religious movements, particularly those influenced by or claiming to be derived from the various pagan beliefs of pre-modern Europe...
religion of Wicca to wider public attention through the publication of a string of books on the subject.
Having been born in south London, she first became involved in the Craft after being initiated into the Gardnerian tradition in 1953 in a ceremony performed by Gerald Gardner
Gerald Gardner
Gerald Brousseau Gardner , who sometimes used the craft name Scire, was an influential English Wiccan, as well as an amateur anthropologist and archaeologist, writer, weaponry expert and occultist. He was instrumental in bringing the Neopagan religion of Wicca to public attention in Britain and...
, in which Edith Woodford-Grimes was also present. Subsequently becoming the High Priestess of his Bricket Wood coven
Bricket Wood coven
The Bricket Wood coven, or Hertfordshire coven was a coven of Gardnerian Witches founded in the 1940s by Gerald Gardner. It was notable for being the first coven in the Gardnerian line, though having its supposed origins in the pre-Gardnerian New Forest coven...
, she helped him to produce many important scriptural texts for Wicca, such as The Witches Rune and the Charge of the Goddess
Charge of the Goddess
The Charge of the Goddess is a traditional inspirational text sometimes used in the neopagan religion of Wicca. Several versions exist, though they all have the same basic premise, that of a set of instructions given by a Great Goddess to her worshippers...
, which were incorporated into the early Gardnerian Book of Shadows
Book of Shadows
A Book of Shadows is a book containing religious texts and instructions for magical rituals found within the Neopagan religion of Wicca. Originating within the Gardnerian tradition of the Craft, the first Book of Shadows was created by the pioneering Wiccan Gerald Gardner sometime in the late 1940s...
. Splitting off to form her own coven in 1957, she went on to work with Robert Cochrane in his coven, the Clan of Tubal Cain, till the mid 1960s when she began working as a solitary practitioner. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s she penned a number of books on the subject of Wicca - which she always called "witchcraft
Witchcraft
Witchcraft, in historical, anthropological, religious, and mythological contexts, is the alleged use of supernatural or magical powers. A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft...
" - including An ABC of Witchcraft (1973) and Witchcraft for Tomorrow (1978), as well as being an early proponent of self-initiation into the Craft.
Having had a significant influence in the history of Wicca
History of Wicca
The history of Wicca documents the rise of the Neopagan religion of Wicca and related witchcraft-based Neopagan religions. Wicca originated in the early twentieth century, when it first developed amongst several secretive covens in England who were basing their religious beliefs and practices upon...
, she has been referred to as "the mother of modern Witchcraft" and is today is widely revered in the Wiccan and wider Neopagan community.
Early life, 1922-1940
Born Doreen Dominy in southern London, she was the daughter of ChristianChristianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
parents named Harry and Edith. However they soon moved near to Horley
Horley
Horley is a town in Surrey, England, situated south of the twin towns of Reigate and Redhill, and north of Gatwick Airport and Crawley.With fast links by train to London from Horley railway station, it has grown popular with commuters in recent years...
in Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
. The young Doreen was convinced by the age of 13 that she possessed the power to use magic
Magic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
, and used it to help protect her mother from a bullying co-worker. When she informed her parents of her actions, they objected to her use of sorcery and sent her to a convent school. By the age of 15 she had left the school and refused to ever go back.
Marriages and occult interest, 1941-1945
In 1941, whilst working as a secretary in Barry, southern WalesWales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, Doreen married Joanis Vlachopoulos a seaman in the British Navy; during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
he was declared missing and presumed dead.
In 1944 she married Casimiro Valiente, a Spaniard
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
living in exile from the Spanish civil war
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
, where he had fought on the side of the Free French Forces
Free French Forces
The Free French Forces were French partisans in World War II who decided to continue fighting against the forces of the Axis powers after the surrender of France and subsequent German occupation and, in the case of Vichy France, collaboration with the Germans.-Definition:In many sources, Free...
and been wounded at the Battle of Narvik. Valiente would later say that both she and her husband suffered racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
after the war because of their foreign associations.
During this period, she became interested further in occult
Occult
The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...
ism, an interest that her second husband did not share. She was particularly interested by John Symond
John Symond
John Symond is an Australian businessman. He is best known as the founder of Aussie Home Loans. -Early life:John Symond was born on 17 August 1947 in Crookwell, New South Wales and raised in Sydney, Australia. Growing up he spent most of his time between Brisbane, where his mother's family lived,...
's biography of Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley , born Edward Alexander Crowley, and also known as both Frater Perdurabo and The Great Beast, was an influential English occultist, astrologer, mystic and ceremonial magician, responsible for founding the religious philosophy of Thelema. He was also successful in various other...
, which was entitled The Great Beast.
Gardner and initiation, 1952-1953
The Valientes moved to BournemouthBournemouth
Bournemouth is a large coastal resort town in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. According to the 2001 Census the town has a population of 163,444, making it the largest settlement in Dorset. It is also the largest settlement between Southampton and Plymouth...
after the war. Here, in 1952, Doreen read an article entitled "Witchcraft in Britain" in the newspaper Illustrated, which had been written by Allen Andrews. The article mentioned both Cecil Williamson
Cecil Williamson
Cecil Williamson was an influential English Neopagan Witch. He was the founder of both the Witchcraft Research Center which was a part of MI6's war against Nazi Germany, and the Museum of Witchcraft...
, who ran the Museum of Magic and Witchcraft, as well as the New Forest Coven
New Forest coven
The New Forest coven were a group of Neopagan witches or Wiccans who allegedly met around the area of the New Forest in southern England during the 1930s and 1940s...
, or "southern coven of British witches" as it called it. Valiente wrote to Williamson asking for more information, who passed her letter on to Gerald Gardner
Gerald Gardner
Gerald Brousseau Gardner , who sometimes used the craft name Scire, was an influential English Wiccan, as well as an amateur anthropologist and archaeologist, writer, weaponry expert and occultist. He was instrumental in bringing the Neopagan religion of Wicca to public attention in Britain and...
.
Doreen and Gardner corresponded for some time before she asked to join his coven. He initially denied the request, but agreed to meet her, in winter 1952, at the house of a woman known only as Dafo
Dafo
Edith Rose Woodford-Grimes was an English Wiccan who achieved notoriety as one of the faith's earliest known adherents. She had been a member of the New Forest coven which met during the late 1930s and early 1940s, and through this became a friend and working partner of Gerald Gardner, who would...
near the New Forest
New Forest
The New Forest is an area of southern England which includes the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in the heavily-populated south east of England. It covers south-west Hampshire and extends into south-east Wiltshire....
. When she entered, her initial reaction was that:
Gardner gave her a copy of his novel High Magic's Aid, allegedly to gauge her opinion on ritual nudity and scourging
Flagellation
Flagellation or flogging is the act of methodically beating or whipping the human body. Specialised implements for it include rods, switches, the cat o' nine tails and the sjambok...
, something which he did with all prospective persons wishing to join his coven.
On Midsummer
Midsummer
Midsummer may simply refer to the period of time centered upon the summer solstice, but more often refers to specific European celebrations that accompany the actual solstice, or that take place on a day between June 21 and June 24, and the preceding evening. The exact dates vary between different...
1953 Gardner invited Doreen again to Dafo's house, and it was here that he initiated her into Wicca. The three of them then set off to Stonehenge
Stonehenge
Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument located in the English county of Wiltshire, about west of Amesbury and north of Salisbury. One of the most famous sites in the world, Stonehenge is composed of a circular setting of large standing stones set within earthworks...
(a place where Valiente had never before been), where they watched the Druids performing a ritual there. Gardner had lent a ritual sword he owned, and had collected from the museum on the Isle of Man
Isle of Man
The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...
, to the Druids, who placed it within the heelstone
Heelstone
right|thumb|250px|Southwest face of HeelstoneThe Heelstone is a single large block of sarsen stone standing within the Avenue outside the entrance of the Stonehenge earthwork, close to the main road . In section it is sub-rectangular, with a minimum thickness of 8 ft , rising to a tapered top...
during rituals. Valiente only told her husband and mother about the visit to Stonehenge, but not about her initiation, of which they would not have approved.
Bricket Wood Coven, 1953-1957
Valiente joined Gardner's Bricket Wood covenBricket Wood coven
The Bricket Wood coven, or Hertfordshire coven was a coven of Gardnerian Witches founded in the 1940s by Gerald Gardner. It was notable for being the first coven in the Gardnerian line, though having its supposed origins in the pre-Gardnerian New Forest coven...
, and soon rose to become its High Priestess. She noticed how much of the material in his Book of Shadows
Book of Shadows
A Book of Shadows is a book containing religious texts and instructions for magical rituals found within the Neopagan religion of Wicca. Originating within the Gardnerian tradition of the Craft, the first Book of Shadows was created by the pioneering Wiccan Gerald Gardner sometime in the late 1940s...
was taken not from ancient sources as Gardner had initially claimed, but from the works of the occultist Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley , born Edward Alexander Crowley, and also known as both Frater Perdurabo and The Great Beast, was an influential English occultist, astrologer, mystic and ceremonial magician, responsible for founding the religious philosophy of Thelema. He was also successful in various other...
. She confronted Gardner with this, who admitted that the text he had received from the New Forest coven had been fragmentary and he had had to fill much of it using various sources. She took the Book of Shadows, and, with Gardner's permission, rewrote much of it, cutting out a lot of sections that had come from Crowley (whose negative reputation Valiente feared). Valiente dramatically rewrote sections such as the Charge of the Goddess
Charge of the Goddess
The Charge of the Goddess is a traditional inspirational text sometimes used in the neopagan religion of Wicca. Several versions exist, though they all have the same basic premise, that of a set of instructions given by a Great Goddess to her worshippers...
and also wrote several poems for the book, such as The Witches Rune. She also helped to create a poem to include the Wiccan Rede
Wiccan Rede
The Wiccan Rede is a statement that provides the key moral system in the Neopagan religion of Wicca and other related Witchcraft-based faiths. A common form of the Rede is An it harm none, do what ye will....
within it.
As the coven's High Priestess, Valiente initiated only Jack L. Bracelin
Jack L. Bracelin
Jack L. Bracelin was an influential figure in the early history of the neopagan religion of Wicca, being a High Priest of Gardnerian Wicca who had been inititated into the craft by Doreen Valiente in 1956 and had been a member of the Bricket Wood coven....
in 1956.
However Gardner's increasing desire for publicity, much of it ending up negative, caused conflict with Valiente and other members of his coven. As she would later say:
When she, and other coven members, in 1957, confronted him saying that some rules had to be developed, he claimed it was not needed as some already existed, at which point he produced the Wiccan Laws
Wiccan Laws
The Wiccan Laws, also called the Craft Laws, the Old Laws, the Ardanes or simply The Laws are the traditional laws of Wicca from the Book of Shadows...
in 1957. These laws limited the control of the High Priestess, which angered Valiente, who, with several other members, left the coven. She later stated that:
Valiente's Coven, 1957-1964
After breaking from Gardner's Bricket Wood coven, she formed her own coven with Ned Grove as High Priest, still following the tradition of Gardnerian WiccaGardnerian Wicca
Gardnerian Wicca, or Gardnerian Witchcraft, is a mystery cult tradition or denomination in the neopagan religion of Wicca, whose members can trace initiatory descent from Gerald Gardner. The tradition is itself named after Gardner , a British civil servant and scholar of magic...
, albeit without the Wiccan laws, which she believed to be entirely an invention of Gardner's.
Coven of Atho, early 1960s
In the early 1960s, Valiente begun a course on the Coven of Atho, which was run by Raymond HowardRaymond Howard
Raymond Howard was an English Witch and an early figure in the history of the neopagan religion of Wicca. Howard propagated the tradition focused around the Horned God known as Atho, which had originated with Charles Cardell....
, and partially based upon the teachings of Charles Cardell
Charles Cardell
Charles Cardell was an English Wiccan who propagated his own tradition of the Craft, which was distinct from that of Gerald Gardner. Cardell's tradition of Wicca was based around a form of the Horned God known as Atho, and worked with a coven that met in the grounds of his estate in Surrey. His...
. In 1963 she gained the lowest rank on the course, that of Sarsen. Valiente copied everything she was taught into notebooks, which have provided some of the most important information on the practices of the group.
Clan of Tubal Cain, 1964-1966
In 1964, both Doreen's mother and Gerald Gardner died. That same year, at a gathering at Glastonbury TorGlastonbury Tor
Glastonbury Tor is a hill at Glastonbury, Somerset, England, which features the roofless St. Michael's Tower. The site is managed by the National Trust. It has been designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument ....
held by the Brotherhood of the Essenes, she met the witch Robert Cochrane
Roy Bowers
Robert Cochrane , who was born as Roy Bowers, was an English Neopagan witch who founded the tradition known as Cochrane's Craft, which is seen by some to be a form of Wicca but is sometimes considered distinct from it due to Cochrane's opposition to both Gerald Gardner and Gardnerian Wicca.Born...
, and the two became friends.
Valiente soon joined Cochrane's coven - the Clan of Tubal Cain, becoming one of only very few members. She later remarked that there were certain things in this coven that were better than those in Gardner's, for instance she thought that "[Cochrane] believed in getting close to nature as few Gardnerian witches at that time seemed to do". She also commented on how Cochrane did not seem to want lots of publicity, as Gardner had done, something which she admired.
However, she became dissatisfied with Cochrane, who was openly committing adultery
Adultery
Adultery is sexual infidelity to one's spouse, and is a form of extramarital sex. It originally referred only to sex between a woman who was married and a person other than her spouse. Even in cases of separation from one's spouse, an extramarital affair is still considered adultery.Adultery is...
and constantly insulting Gardnerians, even at one point calling for "a Night of the Long Knives
Night of the Long Knives
The Night of the Long Knives , sometimes called "Operation Hummingbird " or in Germany the "Röhm-Putsch," was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany between June 30 and July 2, 1934, when the Nazi regime carried out a series of political murders...
of the Gardnerians", at which point Doreen, in her own words, "rose up and challenged him in the presence of the rest of the coven. I told him that I was fed up with listening to all this senseless malice, and that, if a 'Night of the Long Knives' was what his sick little soul craved, he could get on with it, but he could get on with it alone, because I had better things to do".
Valiente also disapproved of the fact that Cochrane often took what he called "witches' potions", but which were, in reality, hallucinogenic drugs. She left his coven in 1966, shortly before he committed ritual suicide at Midsummer
Midsummer
Midsummer may simply refer to the period of time centered upon the summer solstice, but more often refers to specific European celebrations that accompany the actual solstice, or that take place on a day between June 21 and June 24, and the preceding evening. The exact dates vary between different...
.
Writing, 1966-1999
In 1962, Valiente saw her first book published: entitled Where Witchcraft Lives, it dealt with her own research into folklore and the Early Modern witch trials that occurred in her county of SussexSussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
, things which she incorrectly associated with the origins of Wicca. The historian Ronald Hutton
Ronald Hutton
Ronald Hutton is an English historian who specializes in the study of Early Modern Britain, British folklore, pre-Christian religion and contemporary Paganism. A reader in the subject at the University of Bristol, Hutton has published fourteen books and has appeared on British television and radio...
would later relate that it was "one of the first three books to be published on the subject" of Wicca, and that the "remarkable feature of the book is that it remains, until this date [2010], the only one produced by a prominent modern witch that embodies actual original research into the records of the trials of people accused of the crime of witchcraft during the early modern period." Nonetheless, he noted that Where Witchcraft Lives was also historically inaccurate, because "she diffidently interpreted the facts that she was revealing within the framework supplied by the foremost contemporary academic expert in the early modern trials, Margaret Murray
Margaret Murray
Margaret Alice Murray was a prominent British Egyptologist and anthropologist. Primarily known for her work in Egyptology, which was "the core of her academic career," she is also known for her propagation of the Witch-cult hypothesis, the theory that the witch trials in the Early Modern period of...
", whose theories that Early Modern witchcraft was a surviving pre-Christian religion, have subsequently been disproved and dismissed by historians.
In the 1970s and 1980s Valiente gradually became one of the most well respected and influential leaders of Wicca
Wicca
Wicca , is a modern Pagan religious movement. Developing in England in the first half of the 20th century, Wicca was popularised in the 1950s and early 1960s by a Wiccan High Priest named Gerald Gardner, who at the time called it the "witch cult" and "witchcraft," and its adherents "the Wica."...
, meriting an entry in the Dictionary of National Biography
Dictionary of National Biography
The Dictionary of National Biography is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published from 1885...
.
She wrote five books on the subject, three of which were 'how-to' books designed to teach solitary Wiccans - An ABC of Witchcraft (1972), Natural Magic (1975) and Witchcraft for Tomorrow (1978), and an autobiography entitled The Rebirth of Witchcraft in 1989.
Meanwhile she continued to write poetry, much of which has been published in the book Charge of the Goddess: The Mother of Modern Witchcraft, an example of which is "An Unsolved Problem of Psychic Research", which goes thus:
- There was a young lady called Freeman
- Who had an affair with a demonDemoncall - 1347 531 7769 for more infoIn Ancient Near Eastern religions as well as in the Abrahamic traditions, including ancient and medieval Christian demonology, a demon is considered an "unclean spirit" which may cause demonic possession, to be addressed with an act of exorcism...
- She said that his cockPenisThe penis is a biological feature of male animals including both vertebrates and invertebrates...
- was as cold as a rock
- Now, what in the Hell could it be, man?
She was active in her promotion of modern witchcraft and neo-paganism, being particularly keen to emphasise that the movement was not related to Satanism
Satanism
Satanism is a group of religions that is composed of a diverse number of ideological and philosophical beliefs and social phenomena. Their shared feature include symbolic association with, admiration for the character of, and even veneration of Satan or similar rebellious, promethean, and...
and did not seek publicity for its own sake. She was a notable figure in supporting the development of the Pagan Federation
Pagan Federation
The Pagan Federation is a UK-based voluntary organisation, formed in 1971, which campaigns for the religious rights of Neo-pagans and educates both civic bodies and the general public about Paganism. It is active throughout Europe and organises a large number of Pagan events. The organisation...
.
Faced with challenges from sceptics, Valiente attempted, with some success, to provide evidence for Gardner's claims concerning his initiation, notably by identifying the woman Gardner called 'Old Dorothy' as Dorothy Clutterbuck
Dorothy Clutterbuck
Dorothy Clutterbuck , was a wealthy Englishwoman who was named by Gerald Gardner as a leading member of the New Forest coven, a group of pagan Witches into which Gardner claimed to have been initiated in 1939...
in 1980, the woman who was supposed to have performed Gardner's initiation, in an essay published in The Witches' Way by Janet
Janet Farrar
Janet Farrar is a British teacher and author of books on Wicca and Neopaganism. Along with her two husbands, Stewart Farrar and Gavin Bone, Farrar has published "some of the most influential books on modern Witchcraft to date." According to George Knowles, "some seventy five percent of Wiccans...
and Stewart Farrar
Stewart Farrar
Frank Stewart Farrar , who always went by the name of Stewart Farrar, was an English screenwriter, novelist and prominent figure in the Neopagan religion of Wicca, which he devoted much of his later life to propagating with the aid of his seventh wife, Janet Farrar, and then his friend Gavin Bone...
.
Death, 1999
Valiente suffered from pancreatic cancerPancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer refers to a malignant neoplasm of the pancreas. The most common type of pancreatic cancer, accounting for 95% of these tumors is adenocarcinoma, which arises within the exocrine component of the pancreas. A minority arises from the islet cells and is classified as a...
towards the end of her life. In her last few days she was moved to a nursing home
Nursing home
A nursing home, convalescent home, skilled nursing unit , care home, rest home, or old people's home provides a type of care of residents: it is a place of residence for people who require constant nursing care and have significant deficiencies with activities of daily living...
, and she died at 6.55am on 1 September 1999, with John Belham-Payne at her side. John Belham-Payne inherited all of Doreen's magical artefacts and manuscripts including her Book of Shadows
Book of Shadows
A Book of Shadows is a book containing religious texts and instructions for magical rituals found within the Neopagan religion of Wicca. Originating within the Gardnerian tradition of the Craft, the first Book of Shadows was created by the pioneering Wiccan Gerald Gardner sometime in the late 1940s...
.
Posthumously
Dr Leo RuickbieLeo Ruickbie
Leo Ruickbie is an historian and sociologist of magic, witchcraft and Wicca. He is the author of several books, beginning with Witchcraft Out of the Shadows, a 2004 publication outlining the history of witchcraft from ancient Greece until the modern day. Ruickbie was born in Scotland and took a...
examines her life and contribution to Wicca in his Witchcraft Out of the Shadows. According to Dr Ruickbie, Valiente was the 'Mother of Modern Witchcraft', playing a crucial role in re-writing much of Gardner's original ritual material, an assessment supported by Ronald Hutton
Ronald Hutton
Ronald Hutton is an English historian who specializes in the study of Early Modern Britain, British folklore, pre-Christian religion and contemporary Paganism. A reader in the subject at the University of Bristol, Hutton has published fourteen books and has appeared on British television and radio...
.
In March 2011 John Belham-Payne along with his wife, Julie and friends Brian and Patricia Botham and Ashley Mortimer formed The Doreen Valiente Foundation which they established as a charitable trust dedicated to protecting the artefacts, books and writings (published and unpublished) that Doreen had bequeathed to John. The ownership of the collection passed from John to the trust with the deed of trust that meant the collection could never be sold or split up and will be added to by donations from other members of the witchcraft and pagan community to be used for education, research and to be published and exhibited publicly as part of the wider heritage of paganism.
External links
- Doreen Valiente website
- The Wica - Information on Doreen Valiente and other Craft Elders.
- Doreen Valiente biography
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