Author: A Solitary Pagan
Margaret Murray (1863 – 1963) Part One
Margaret Murray was a pioneering Egyptologist, archaeologist, anthropologist, folklorist, and a trailblazing first-wave feminist. She gained lasting fame for her influential books on witchcraft, which played a crucial role in shaping modern Wicca. While some of her theories have been debunked, her impact on both academia and modern paganism remains significant. So how did Margaret Murr...
Hohman, John George (d. ca. 1845)
John George Hohman, a German immigrant to America, authored the well-known magical text, The Long Lost Friend. Details about Hohman’s life are scarce. In 1802, he, his wife Anna Catherine, and their son Philip (or Caspar, according to some sources) departed from Hamburg and arrived in Philadelphia on October 12th. They were penniless and became indentured servants, leading to the separation ...
Alex Sanders – Calling Down the Spirits
When Alex was seventeen he met a girl who was a keen spiritualist. Learning of his interest in the occult she invited him to a meeting. He was curious to see if it had anything in common with witchcraft and went along with her. During the evening a medium in a trance singled him out. ‘I see horns on your head,’ she murmured. There was a ripple of laughter; horns could mean he was a cuckold. But Al...
Duncan, Helen (1898–1956)
Duncan, Helen (1898–1956) was a British Spiritualist whose controversial conviction on dubious witchcraft charges led to the repeal of Britain’s Witchcraft Act of 1736, paving the way for the public practice of Witchcraft. Helen Duncan, a Scotswoman, gained fame for her natural mediumistic talents by the 1920s. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, she traveled across Britain conducting seances. Attende...
Bury St. Edmonds Witches
Bury St. Edmonds Witches Of the various witch trials of Suffolk, England, conducted in Bury St. Edmonds during the 17th century, two episodes stand out. In 1645, 68 witches went to their deaths on the gallows, victims of the witch-hunting zeal of Matthew Hopkins and John Stearne. Seventeen years later, in 1662, Sir Matthew Hale presided over trials that led to the condemnation and execution of two...
Alex Sanders – The Young Initiate
There was nothing about the day to suggest it would change the course of his life and influence him until the day he died. It was grey and cheerless, like many other days in Manchester, and Alex was an undersized seven-year-old passing through mean back streets on his way from St George’s Primary School in Hulme to the home of his grandmother. The Sanders family had recently moved to a semi-detach...
Biddy Early (1798–1874)
Irish seer and healer often described as a witch. Most of what is known about Biddy Early has been collected from oral tradition, and many of the stories about her have numerous variations. Nonetheless, Biddy seemed to have possessed real powers, and many people from all over Ireland and even England came to her for cures. She was widely believed to be “of the fairies.” She was born Biddy O’Connor...
Dafo
The pseudonym or magical name of the woman who initiated Gerald Gardner into witchcraft around 1939–40.The identity of Dafo remains uncertain. She is sometimes confused with Old Dorothy Clutterbuck, who was Gardner’s first high priestess. He described her as his teacher and an authority on witchcraft. Little is known about Dafo’s life. She lived in Christchurch, Hampshire, and was a member of the ...
Crowley, Aleister (1875–1947)
The most controversial and perhaps least understood magician and occultist of his time, Aleister Crowley has been both vilified and idolized. He was a man of both low excesses and high brilliance. He considered himself to be the reincarnation of other great occultists: Pope Alexander VI, renowned for his love of physical pleasures; Edward Kelly, the notorious assistant to occultist John Dee in Eli...
Abramelin the Mage (1362–1460)
A Jew from Würzburg, Germany, Abraham, or Abramelin, created a body of magical works that for centuries influenced magicians, including Aleister Crowley. An expert on the Kabbalah, Abramelin said he learned his magical knowledge from angels, who told him how to conjure and tame demons into personal servants and workers, and how to raise storms. He said that all things in the world were created by ...
Fortune, Dion (1891–1946)
The magical name of Violet Mary Firth, British occultist and author whose books continue to have an impact on modern witchcraft and Paganism. Considered one of the leading occultists of her time, Dion Fortune was an adept in ceremonial magic and was perhaps one of the first occult writers to approach magic and hermetic concepts from the psychology of Jung and Freud . Some contemporary Witches and ...
Leek, Sybil (1923–1983)
English witch and astrologer who moved to America in the 1960s and gained fame by publicizing the renaissance of witchcraft in the Western world. Her trademarks were a cape, loose gowns and a jackdaw named Mr. Hotfoot Jackson who perched on her shoulder. She always wore a crystal necklace, passed on to her, she said, by her psychic Russian grandmother. Leek claimed to be a hereditary witch and als...