New Forest coven
Encyclopedia
The New Forest coven were a group of Neopagan
witches
or Wicca
ns who allegedly met around the area of the New Forest
in southern England during the 1930s and 1940s. According to his own claims, in September 1939, a British occultist named Gerald Gardner
was initiated into the coven
, and subsequently used its beliefs and practices as a basis from which he formed the tradition of Gardnerian Wicca
. Gardner described some of his experiences with the coven in his published books Witchcraft Today
(1954) and The Meaning of Witchcraft
(1959), although on the whole revealed little about it, saying he was respecting the privacy of its members. Meanwhile, another occultist, Louis Wilkinson, corroborated Gardner's claims by revealing in an interview with the writer Francis X. King
that he too had encountered the coven, and expanded on some of the information that Gardner had provided about them.
As the Neopagan religion of Wicca developed in the latter decades of the twentieth century, some of the figures who were researching its origins, such as Aidan Kelly
and later Leo Ruickbie
, came to the conclusion that the New Forest coven had never existed, and that it was simply a fictional invention of Gardner's to provide a historical basis for his new faith. The historian Ronald Hutton
accepted this as a possibility, although recognised that it was not "implausible" that the coven had indeed existed. Later research by Philip Heselton
, which was published in the early twenty-first century, came to a different conclusion, indicating that there was much evidence for a coven of practitioners, whose members he identified as being Dorothy Clutterbuck
, Edith Woodford-Grimes, Ernest Mason, Susie Mason, Rosamund Sabine and Katherine Oldmeadow. Another researcher, Steve Wilson, also concurred that the New Forest coven was real, but believed that it had originated from a Neopagan offshoot of the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry
.
According to the beliefs held by coven members which they told to Gardner, the faith which they followed was the continuation of the Witch-Cult
, a pre-Christian religion that originated in the paganism
of ancient Western Europe. This was in keeping with the widely held theories then propagated by the anthropologist Margaret Murray
and her supporters. However, according to Hutton, "no academic historian has ever taken seriously Gardner's claim to have discovered a genuine survival of ancient religion" and it is thought that the group had been founded some time in the 1920s or 1930s based upon Murray's theories.
, a pre-Christian pagan religion that worshipped a Horned God
and a Goddess and which had been persecuted during the witch trials of the Early Modern period. The existence of the Witch-Cult had been put forward by various writers in the nineteenth century, such as Jules Michelet
and Charles Leland, but had risen to prominence in the early twentieth century when it was promoted in two of the works of Egyptologist Dr Margaret Murray
: The Witch-Cult in Western Europe (1921) and The God of the Witches (1933). The idea of the pagan Witch-Cult has been disproved and dismissed by historians specialising in the Early Modern witch trials since Murray's death in 1963, with works by academics like Elliot Rose, Norman Cohn
, Carlo Ginzburg
and Keith Thomas
instead showing the real nature of the witch trials as a combination of social, economic and religious factors. It is for this reason that the historian Ronald Hutton
(1999) dismissed any possibility of the New Forest coven being the continuation of the Witch-Cult.
Instead, the theory has been purported that the New Forest coven had been founded in the early twentieth century by various occultists who wished to resurrect the Witch-Cult as described in Murray's works. Philip Heselton (2003), who performed the most exhaustive research into the group, speculated that the coven had been formed by a woman named Rosamund Sabine, who prior to moving to the New Forest in 1924 had been involved in various esoteric groups like the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
. He thought that she, after reading The Witch-Cult in Western Europe, became interested in witches, and believed herself to be the reincarnation
of one. It was for this reason, he believed, that she gathered together some of her friends who also had an interest in the occult, and founded the coven.
A different origin theory was put forward by Steve Wilson (1996), who speculated that the coven might have been founded by members of a scouting organisation, the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry
. Heselton accepted similarities between the Order and the coven, but did not believe that there was any direct connection.
claimed that after moving to the borough of Christchurch, Dorset
in 1939, he got involved with the Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship
, an occult organisation based upon Rosicrucianism. However, he was largely dissatisfied with the Order, and in particular its leader, George Alexander Sullivan
, believing them to be devoid of any genuine esoteric knowledge. Meanwhile, he met a group of people within the Fellowship who claimed to have been involved in a form of Freemasonry
known as Co-Masonry, who informed him that they had moved to the area where they had joined the Rosicrucian Order when their friend and fellow Co-Mason, Mabel Besant-Scott
, had done so. The researcher Philip Heselton identified two of these individuals as Ernest and Susie Mason, a brother and sister couple who had in prior decades been involved in a variety of occult groups, including Co-Masonry and Theosophy
, and who had recently moved to the area from Southampton. According to Gardner:
This group claimed to have known Gardner from a past life
, and in September 1939, revealed to him that they were members of a Witches' coven, and then initiated him into Wicca in a ritual which took place in one of the homes owned by Dorothy Clutterbuck
.
and prevent them from invading Britain. This magical ritual, Gardner claimed, took place inside the Forest, and involved the Witches raising a Cone of Power which they directed in the direction of Germany and focused on sending the message into the minds of the German leaders that they would not be able to cross the English Channel
. Gardner also noted that several of the older and frailer practicing Witches died after practicing the ritual, something that was confirmed by Louis Wilkinson, who claimed that it was because they had performed the ritual naked, without goose grease on the skin to keep them warm, and that as such they had contracted pneumonia
. Investigating these claims, Heselton found two locals who died soon after the ritual: a reporter, Walter Forder (1881-1940), and a blacksmith, Charles Loader (1864-1940), who he speculated were involved in the rite.
, a Rosicrucian
society that operated a theatre in Christchurch
. They were a reserved group, who remained somewhat separate from other members of the order and the theatre. Historian Philip Heselton
has identified some of the members of this group as Edith Woodford-Grimes, Ernie Mason, and his sisters Susie Mason and Rosetta Fudge. It is possible that by the late 1930s some members of the Crotona Fellowship, inspired by the work of Margaret Murray
, were performing rituals based on Co-Masonry and incorporating elements of folklore, and that these were the rituals that Gardner encountered.
; Susie was a Co-Freemason and Theosophist
, and Ernie, who claimed to have been fully aware from the moment of his birth, was an enthusiastic esotericist and taught mental exercises in the Crotona Fellowship. Their father George Miles Mason, an optician and astronomer, had built a meeting hall in Southampton
which seems to have been used for the meetings of various esoteric groups, including Co-Freemasonry. Heselton points to a reference to nearby Toothill as a "witch centre" in a book by Justine Glass, who does not name her informant. In the 1881 census nearly a quarter of the inhabitants of that hamlet (three families) had the surname Mason (an otherwise uncommon name in that part of England); based on this and other circumstantial evidence
he proposes that the Mason family could have been the custodians of a hereditary witchcraft tradition.
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...
witches
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...
or 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."...
ns who allegedly met around the area of 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....
in southern England during the 1930s and 1940s. According to his own claims, in September 1939, a British occultist named 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...
was initiated into the coven
Coven
A coven or covan is a name used to describe a gathering of witches or in some cases vampires. Due to the word's association with witches, a gathering of Wiccans, followers of the witchcraft-based neopagan religion of Wicca, is also described as a coven....
, and subsequently used its beliefs and practices as a basis from which he formed the tradition of Gardnerian Wicca
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...
. Gardner described some of his experiences with the coven in his published books Witchcraft Today
Witchcraft Today
In the book Gardner also repeats the claim, which had originated with Matilda Joslyn Gage, that 9 million victims were killed in the European witch-hunts." Current scholarly estimates of the number of people executed for witchcraft during this time period vary between about 40,000 and 100,000.The...
(1954) and The Meaning of Witchcraft
The Meaning of Witchcraft
The Meaning of Witchcraft is a non-fiction book written by Gerald Gardner, the, known to many in the modern sense as the "Father of Wicca", based around his experiences with the religion of Wicca and the New Forest Coven...
(1959), although on the whole revealed little about it, saying he was respecting the privacy of its members. Meanwhile, another occultist, Louis Wilkinson, corroborated Gardner's claims by revealing in an interview with the writer Francis X. King
Francis X. King
Francis X. King was a British occult writer and editor who wrote about tarot, divination, witchcraft, magic, sex magic, tantra, and holistic medicine.-Partial bibliography:* Techniques of High Magic with Stephen Skinner...
that he too had encountered the coven, and expanded on some of the information that Gardner had provided about them.
As the Neopagan religion of Wicca developed in the latter decades of the twentieth century, some of the figures who were researching its origins, such as Aidan Kelly
Aidan Kelly
Aidan Kelly is an American academic, poet and influential figure in the Neopagan religion of Wicca. Having developed his own branch of the faith, the New Reformed Orthodox Order of the Golden Dawn, during the 1960s, he was also initiated into other traditions, including Gardnerianism and Feri, in...
and later Leo Ruickbie
Leo 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...
, came to the conclusion that the New Forest coven had never existed, and that it was simply a fictional invention of Gardner's to provide a historical basis for his new faith. 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...
accepted this as a possibility, although recognised that it was not "implausible" that the coven had indeed existed. Later research by Philip Heselton
Philip Heselton
Philip Heselton is a retired British Conservation Officer, a Wiccan initiate, and a writer on the subjects of Wicca, Paganism and Earth mysteries...
, which was published in the early twenty-first century, came to a different conclusion, indicating that there was much evidence for a coven of practitioners, whose members he identified as being 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...
, Edith Woodford-Grimes, Ernest Mason, Susie Mason, Rosamund Sabine and Katherine Oldmeadow. Another researcher, Steve Wilson, also concurred that the New Forest coven was real, but believed that it had originated from a Neopagan offshoot of the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry
Order of Woodcraft Chivalry
The Order of Woodcraft Chivalry is a Scouting-like movement operating in the United Kingdom, which was founded in 1916 by Ernest Westlake. Like Scouting, it was inspired by Ernest Seton's Seton Indians, and Seton was its honourary Grand Chieftain...
.
According to the beliefs held by coven members which they told to Gardner, the faith which they followed was the continuation of the Witch-Cult
Witch-cult hypothesis
The Witch-cult is the term for a hypothetical pre-Christian, pagan religion of Europe that survived into at least the early modern period. As late as the 19th and early 20th centuries, some scholars had postulated that European witchcraft was part of a Satanic plot to overthrow Christianity; most...
, a pre-Christian religion that originated in the paganism
Paganism
Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....
of ancient Western Europe. This was in keeping with the widely held theories then propagated by the anthropologist 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...
and her supporters. However, according to Hutton, "no academic historian has ever taken seriously Gardner's claim to have discovered a genuine survival of ancient religion" and it is thought that the group had been founded some time in the 1920s or 1930s based upon Murray's theories.
Origins
Gerald Gardner believed that the New Forest coven was a survival of the Witch-CultWitch-cult hypothesis
The Witch-cult is the term for a hypothetical pre-Christian, pagan religion of Europe that survived into at least the early modern period. As late as the 19th and early 20th centuries, some scholars had postulated that European witchcraft was part of a Satanic plot to overthrow Christianity; most...
, a pre-Christian pagan religion that worshipped a Horned God
Horned God
The Horned God is one of the two primary deities found in some European pagan religions. He is often given various names and epithets, and represents the male part of the religion's duotheistic theological system, the other part being the female Triple Goddess. In common Wiccan belief, he is...
and a Goddess and which had been persecuted during the witch trials of the Early Modern period. The existence of the Witch-Cult had been put forward by various writers in the nineteenth century, such as Jules Michelet
Jules Michelet
Jules Michelet was a French historian. He was born in Paris to a family with Huguenot traditions.-Early life:His father was a master printer, not very prosperous, and Jules assisted him in the actual work of the press...
and Charles Leland, but had risen to prominence in the early twentieth century when it was promoted in two of the works of Egyptologist Dr 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...
: The Witch-Cult in Western Europe (1921) and The God of the Witches (1933). The idea of the pagan Witch-Cult has been disproved and dismissed by historians specialising in the Early Modern witch trials since Murray's death in 1963, with works by academics like Elliot Rose, Norman Cohn
Norman Cohn
Norman Rufus Colin Cohn FBA was a British academic, historian and writer who spent fourteen years as a professorial fellow and as Astor-Wolfson Professor at the University of Sussex.-Life:...
, Carlo Ginzburg
Carlo Ginzburg
Carlo Ginzburg is a noted historian and proponent of the field of microhistory. He is best known for his Il formaggio e I vermi which examined the beliefs of an Italian heretic, Menocchio, from Montereale Valcellina.- Biography :The son of Natalia Ginzburg and Leone Ginzburg, he was born...
and Keith Thomas
Keith Thomas (historian)
Sir Keith Vivian Thomas is a Welsh historian, best known as the author of Religion and the Decline of Magic and Man and the Natural World.-Biography:...
instead showing the real nature of the witch trials as a combination of social, economic and religious factors. It is for this reason that 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...
(1999) dismissed any possibility of the New Forest coven being the continuation of the Witch-Cult.
Instead, the theory has been purported that the New Forest coven had been founded in the early twentieth century by various occultists who wished to resurrect the Witch-Cult as described in Murray's works. Philip Heselton (2003), who performed the most exhaustive research into the group, speculated that the coven had been formed by a woman named Rosamund Sabine, who prior to moving to the New Forest in 1924 had been involved in various esoteric groups like the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was a magical order active in Great Britain during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which practiced theurgy and spiritual development...
. He thought that she, after reading The Witch-Cult in Western Europe, became interested in witches, and believed herself to be the reincarnation
Reincarnation
Reincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...
of one. It was for this reason, he believed, that she gathered together some of her friends who also had an interest in the occult, and founded the coven.
A different origin theory was put forward by Steve Wilson (1996), who speculated that the coven might have been founded by members of a scouting organisation, the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry
Order of Woodcraft Chivalry
The Order of Woodcraft Chivalry is a Scouting-like movement operating in the United Kingdom, which was founded in 1916 by Ernest Westlake. Like Scouting, it was inspired by Ernest Seton's Seton Indians, and Seton was its honourary Grand Chieftain...
. Heselton accepted similarities between the Order and the coven, but did not believe that there was any direct connection.
Gerald Gardner's Involvement
Gerald GardnerGerald 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...
claimed that after moving to the borough of Christchurch, Dorset
Christchurch, Dorset
Christchurch is a borough and town in the county of Dorset on the south coast of England. The town adjoins Bournemouth in the west and the New Forest lies to the east. Historically in Hampshire, it joined Dorset with the reorganisation of local government in 1974 and is the most easterly borough in...
in 1939, he got involved with the Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship
Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship
The Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship was a Rosicrucian group founded by George Alexander Sullivan in about 1924. It may have existed under the name Order of Twelve from 1911–1914 and again from 1920. The ROCF operated first from the Liverpool area of England and then after the mid-1930s from...
, an occult organisation based upon Rosicrucianism. However, he was largely dissatisfied with the Order, and in particular its leader, George Alexander Sullivan
George Alexander Sullivan
George Alexander Sullivan was the founder of the Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship.Born in 1890 in Liverpool, Sullivan is believed to have organized a group named the Order of Twelve from 1911-1914 and again from 1920. In about 1924 it became known as the Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship...
, believing them to be devoid of any genuine esoteric knowledge. Meanwhile, he met a group of people within the Fellowship who claimed to have been involved in a form of Freemasonry
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
known as Co-Masonry, who informed him that they had moved to the area where they had joined the Rosicrucian Order when their friend and fellow Co-Mason, Mabel Besant-Scott
Mabel Besant-Scott
Mabel Emily Besant-Scott was a Theosophist, Co-Freemason and Rosicrucian....
, had done so. The researcher Philip Heselton identified two of these individuals as Ernest and Susie Mason, a brother and sister couple who had in prior decades been involved in a variety of occult groups, including Co-Masonry and Theosophy
Theosophy
Theosophy, in its modern presentation, is a spiritual philosophy developed since the late 19th century. Its major themes were originally described mainly by Helena Blavatsky , co-founder of the Theosophical Society...
, and who had recently moved to the area from Southampton. According to Gardner:
- They seemed rather brow-beaten by the others, kept themselves to themselves. They were the most interesting element, however. Unlike many of the others, they had to earn their livings, were cheerful and optimistic and had a real interest in the occult.
This group claimed to have known Gardner from a past life
Reincarnation
Reincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...
, and in September 1939, revealed to him that they were members of a Witches' coven, and then initiated him into Wicca in a ritual which took place in one of the homes owned by 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...
.
Operation Cone of Power
Gardner would reveal little about the coven and its members, although claimed that in August 1940, during the midst of the Second World War, they performed a ritual known as Operation Cone of Power which they hoped would influence the High Command of Nazi GermanyNazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
and prevent them from invading Britain. This magical ritual, Gardner claimed, took place inside the Forest, and involved the Witches raising a Cone of Power which they directed in the direction of Germany and focused on sending the message into the minds of the German leaders that they would not be able to cross the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
. Gardner also noted that several of the older and frailer practicing Witches died after practicing the ritual, something that was confirmed by Louis Wilkinson, who claimed that it was because they had performed the ritual naked, without goose grease on the skin to keep them warm, and that as such they had contracted pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
. Investigating these claims, Heselton found two locals who died soon after the ritual: a reporter, Walter Forder (1881-1940), and a blacksmith, Charles Loader (1864-1940), who he speculated were involved in the rite.
Coven members
According to Gardner, his first contact with the witches was through an inner group within the Crotona FellowshipRosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship
The Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship was a Rosicrucian group founded by George Alexander Sullivan in about 1924. It may have existed under the name Order of Twelve from 1911–1914 and again from 1920. The ROCF operated first from the Liverpool area of England and then after the mid-1930s from...
, a Rosicrucian
Rosicrucian
Rosicrucianism is a philosophical secret society, said to have been founded in late medieval Germany by Christian Rosenkreuz. It holds a doctrine or theology "built on esoteric truths of the ancient past", which, "concealed from the average man, provide insight into nature, the physical universe...
society that operated a theatre in Christchurch
Christchurch, Dorset
Christchurch is a borough and town in the county of Dorset on the south coast of England. The town adjoins Bournemouth in the west and the New Forest lies to the east. Historically in Hampshire, it joined Dorset with the reorganisation of local government in 1974 and is the most easterly borough in...
. They were a reserved group, who remained somewhat separate from other members of the order and the theatre. Historian Philip Heselton
Philip Heselton
Philip Heselton is a retired British Conservation Officer, a Wiccan initiate, and a writer on the subjects of Wicca, Paganism and Earth mysteries...
has identified some of the members of this group as Edith Woodford-Grimes, Ernie Mason, and his sisters Susie Mason and Rosetta Fudge. It is possible that by the late 1930s some members of the Crotona Fellowship, inspired by the work of 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...
, were performing rituals based on Co-Masonry and incorporating elements of folklore, and that these were the rituals that Gardner encountered.
The Mason family
The Mason family, researched by Heselton, lived in Southampton for a period of over 150 years. One of Heselton's informants described Ernie in particular and the family in general, as 'witches', adding that Ernie, who he had known for several years, had had to give up because he found the rituals too strenuous. Rosetta was a keen follower of AnthroposophyAnthroposophy
Anthroposophy, a philosophy founded by Rudolf Steiner, postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world accessible to direct experience through inner development...
; Susie was a Co-Freemason and Theosophist
Theosophy
Theosophy, in its modern presentation, is a spiritual philosophy developed since the late 19th century. Its major themes were originally described mainly by Helena Blavatsky , co-founder of the Theosophical Society...
, and Ernie, who claimed to have been fully aware from the moment of his birth, was an enthusiastic esotericist and taught mental exercises in the Crotona Fellowship. Their father George Miles Mason, an optician and astronomer, had built a meeting hall in Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
which seems to have been used for the meetings of various esoteric groups, including Co-Freemasonry. Heselton points to a reference to nearby Toothill as a "witch centre" in a book by Justine Glass, who does not name her informant. In the 1881 census nearly a quarter of the inhabitants of that hamlet (three families) had the surname Mason (an otherwise uncommon name in that part of England); based on this and other circumstantial evidence
Circumstantial evidence
Circumstantial evidence is evidence in which an inference is required to connect it to a conclusion of fact, like a fingerprint at the scene of a crime...
he proposes that the Mason family could have been the custodians of a hereditary witchcraft tradition.