Alexandrian Wicca

Last updated
Alexandrian Wicca
AbbreviationAW
Type Wicca
Classification British Traditional Wicca
Orientation Gardnerian Wicca
Governance Priesthood
Region Australia, United Kingdom, Brazil, South Africa, Canada and United States
Founder Alex Sanders and Maxine Sanders
Origin1960s
United Kingdom
Separations Chthonioi Alexandrian Wicca (1974)
MembersOver 1,000 [ citation needed ]
Other name(s)Alexandrian Witchcraft

Alexandrian Wicca or Alexandrian Witchcraft is a tradition of the Neopagan religion of Wicca, founded by Alex Sanders (also known as "King of the Witches") [1] who, with his wife Maxine Sanders, established the tradition in the United Kingdom in the 1960s. Alexandrian Wicca is similar in many ways to Gardnerian Wicca, and receives regular mention in books on Wicca as one of the religion's most widely recognised traditions. [2]

Contents

Origins and history

The tradition is based largely upon Gardnerian Wicca, in which Sanders was trained, [3] and initaited, and also contains elements of ceremonial magic and Qabalah, which Sanders had studied independently.

Maxine Sanders recalls that the name was chosen when Stewart Farrar, a student of the Alex Sanders', began to write What Witches Do . "Stewart asked what Witches who were initiated via our Covens should be called; after much discussion, he came up with "Alexandrian" which both Alex and I rather liked. Before this time we were very happy to be called Witches". [4] Conversely, the most recent edition of What Witches Do (2010) includes previously published interviews between Sanders and Farrar.

Alexandrian Wicca is practised outside of Britain, including Canada, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, the United States, Brazil and South Africa.

Practices

Alexandrian Wicca, in similarity with other traditional Wiccan practices, emphasises gender polarity. This emphasis can be seen in the Sabbat rituals, which focus on the relationship between the Wiccan Goddess and God.

As compared to Gardnerian Wicca, Alexandrian Wicca is "somewhat more eclectic", according to The Encyclopedia of Modern Witchcraft and Neo-Paganism. [3] Maxine Sanders notes that Alexandrians take the attitude "If it works use it". [4] Tool use and deity and elemental names also differ from the Gardnerian tradition. [3] Skyclad practice, or ritual nudity, is practiced within the tradition, training is emphasized, and ceremonial magic practices, such as those derived from Hermetic Qabalah and Enochian magic may be part of ritual. [3] Alex's work on his Book of Shadows continued up until his death resulting, like the Gardnerian in several different versions. Some of these derived from his teaching notes that his students received in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It is not unusual to find that earlier initiates did not receive the same books as later ones although they obtained all the information in dictated form, Sander's preferred mode of teaching.

Alexandrian covens meet on new moons, full moons and during Sabbat festivals. [3]

Ranks and degrees

Alexandrian Wicca shares with other traditional Wicca systems the belief that "only a witch can make another witch". [5] The process through which an individual is made a witch is called "initiation". As in Gardnerian Wicca, there are three levels, or "degrees", of initiation, commonly referred to as "first", "second", and "third" degree. Only a second or third degree witch can initiate another into witchcraft, and only a third degree witch can initiate another to third degree. A third degree initiate is referred to as a "High Priestess" or "High Priest". [5] The Farrars published the rituals for the three ceremonies of initiation in Eight Sabbats for Witches. [6]

Some Alexandrians have instituted a preliminary rank called "neophyte" or "dedicant." In these Alexandrian covens, a neophyte is not bound by the oaths taken by initiates, and thus has an opportunity to examine the tradition before committing to it. [5] Neophytes are not, however, considered to have actually joined the tradition until they do take first degree. As such they would not experience certain aspects of rituals that were considered oathbound.

Relationship to other traditions

Historian Ronald Hutton records comments from British practitioners of Gardnerian and Alexandrian Wicca that distinctions between the two traditions have blurred in the last couple of decades, and some initiates of both traditions have recognized initiation within one as qualification for the other. [7] Author Vivianne Crowley often trains her students in both traditions. [3] In the United States, Alexandrian priestess Mary Nesnick, an initiate of both traditions, created a deliberate fusion of the two, which she named the Algard Tradition. [3]

Janet and Stewart Farrar, both of whom were initiated into the Alexandrian tradition by the Sanderses, describe themselves as having left the tradition after the release of Eight Sabbats for Witches. [8] They were later referred to as "Reformed Alexandrian", [9] a description that Janet Farrar does not use preferring just to refer to herself and her initiates as witches. [8] Chthonioi Alexandrian Wicca [10] and the "Starkindler Line" are derived from Alexandrian Wicca, [11] and Alexandrian Wicca was a major influence on Blue Star Wicca [12] and Odyssean Wicca. [13]

The High Magical and Qabalistic strands of the Alexandrian tradition also informed the Ordine Della Luna in Constantinople which, from 1967 onwards, Sanders operated as a 'side-degree' or ancillary rite to Alexandrian Wicca, most notably in collaboration with Derek Taylor in the 1980s. [14] [15]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gardnerian Wicca</span> Tradition in Wiccan religion

Gardnerian Wicca, or Gardnerian witchcraft, is a tradition in the neopagan religion of Wicca, whose members can trace initiatory descent from Gerald Gardner. The tradition is itself named after Gardner (1884–1964), a British civil servant and amateur scholar of magic. The term "Gardnerian" was probably coined by the founder of Cochranian Witchcraft, Robert Cochrane in the 1950s or 60s, who himself left that tradition to found his own.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wicca</span> Modern syncretic pagan religion based on white magic, occultism and paganism

Wicca, also known as "The Craft", is a modern pagan, syncretic, earth-centered religion. Considered a new religious movement by scholars of religion, the path evolved from Western esotericism, developed in England during the first half of the 20th century, and was introduced to the public in 1954 by Gerald Gardner, a retired British civil servant. Wicca draws upon ancient pagan and 20th-century hermetic motifs for theological and ritual purposes. Doreen Valiente joined Gardner in the 1950s, further building Wicca's liturgical tradition of beliefs, principles, and practices, disseminated through published books as well as secret written and oral teachings passed along to initiates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Book of Shadows</span> Type of book or text found in Neopagan religions

A Book of Shadows is a book containing religious text and instructions for magical rituals found within the Neopagan religion of Wicca. Since its conception, it has made its way into many pagan practices and paths. The most famous Book of Shadows was created by the pioneering Wiccan Gerald Gardner sometime in the late 1940s or early 1950s, and which he utilised first in his Bricket Wood coven and then in other covens which he founded in following decades. The Book of Shadows is also used by other Wiccan traditions, such as Alexandrian Wicca and Mohsianism, and with the rise of books teaching people how to begin following non-initiatory Wicca in the 1970s onward, the idea of the Book of Shadows was then further propagated amongst solitary practitioners unconnected to earlier, initiatory traditions.

Odyssean Wicca is a Wiccan tradition created in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in the late 1970s. Its principal founders were Tamarra and Richard James. Most of its practitioners today live in Ontario, but it also has members in Eastern Canada and the United States. The tradition differs from other initiatory Wiccan traditions in its emphasis on preparation of its members for public priesthood.

Frank 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 as well. A devout communist in early life, he worked as a reporter for such newspapers as the Soviet Weekly and the Daily Worker, and also served in the British army during the Second World War. He was responsible for writing episodes for such television series as Dr. Finlay's Casebook, Armchair Theatre and Crossroads, and for his work in writing radio scripts won a Writer's Guild Award. He also published a string of novels, written in such disparate genres as crime, romance and fantasy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blue Star Wicca</span>

Blue Star Wicca is one of a number of Wiccan traditions, and was created in the United States in the 1970s based loosely on the Gardnerian and Alexandrian traditions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Janet Farrar</span> British writer and Wiccan priestess

Janet Farrar is a British teacher and author of books on Wicca and Neopaganism. Along with her two husbands, Stewart Farrar and Gavin Bone, she has published "some of the most influential books on modern Witchcraft to date". According to George Knowles, "some seventy five percent of Wiccans both in the Republic and Northern Ireland can trace their roots back to the Farrars."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex Sanders (Wiccan)</span> British Wiccan priest (1926–1988)

Alex Sanders, born Orrell Alexander Carter, who went under the craft name Verbius, was an English occultist and High Priest in the modern Pagan religion of Wicca, responsible for founding, and later developing with Maxine Sanders, the tradition of Alexandrian Wicca, also called Alexandrian Witchcraft, during the 1960s.

Maxine Sanders is a key figure in the development of modern pagan witchcraft and Wicca and, along with her late husband, Alex Sanders, the co-founder of Alexandrian Wicca.

The Fivefold Kiss is an element of Wiccan ritual which involves blessing five sacred parts of the body. With each bestowed blessing the area of the body is sealed with a kiss. Wiccan tradition practises differ, but the Five-Fold Kiss is first and foremost a blessing bestowed upon the High Priestess by the High Priest or by the High Priestess upon the High Priest. The ritual symbolises the act of honoring the person as a vessel of the female or male version of Deity.

<i>What Witches Do</i>

What Witches Do is a book by Stewart Farrar, and is an eye-witness account of Wiccan practices, namely that of the Alexandrian coven run by Alex Sanders and his wife Maxine Sanders.

The history of Wicca documents the rise of the Neopagan religion of Wicca and related witchcraft-based Neopagan religions. Wicca originated in the early 20th century, when it developed amongst secretive covens in England who were basing their religious beliefs and practices upon what they read of the historical witch-cult in the works of such writers as Margaret Murray. It was subsequently founded in the 1950s by Gardner, who claimed to have been initiated into the Craft – as Wicca is often known – by the New Forest coven in 1939. Gardner's form of Wicca, the Gardnerian tradition, was spread by both him and his followers like the High Priestesses Doreen Valiente, Patricia Crowther and Eleanor Bone into other parts of the British Isles, and also into other, predominantly English-speaking, countries across the world. In the 1960s, new figures arose in Britain who popularized their own forms of the religion, including Robert Cochrane, Sybil Leek and Alex Sanders, and organizations began to be formed to propagate it, such as the Witchcraft Research Association. It was during this decade that the faith was transported to the United States, where it was further adapted into new traditions such as Feri, 1734 and Dianic Wicca in the ensuing decades, and where organizations such as the Covenant of the Goddess were formed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wiccan views of divinity</span>

Wiccan views of divinity are generally theistic, and revolve around a Goddess and a Horned God, thereby being generally dualistic. In traditional Wicca, as expressed in the writings of Gerald Gardner and Doreen Valiente, the emphasis is on the theme of divine gender polarity, and the God and Goddess are regarded as equal and opposite divine cosmic forces. In some newer forms of Wicca, such as feminist or Dianic Wicca, the Goddess is given primacy or even exclusivity. In some forms of traditional witchcraft that share a similar duotheistic theology, the Horned God is given precedence over the Goddess.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magical tools in Wicca</span> Tools used in the practice of magic in the religion of Wicca

In the neopagan religion of Wicca a range of magical tools are used in ritual practice. Each of these tools has different uses and associations and are commonly used at an altar, inside a magic circle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vivianne Crowley</span> English writer and Wiccan priestess

Vivianne Crowley is an English writer, university lecturer, psychologist, and a High Priestess and teacher of the Wiccan religion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neopagan witchcraft</span> Group of neopagan traditions

Neopagan witchcraft, sometimes referred to as The Craft, is an umbrella term for some neo-pagan traditions that include the practice of magic. These traditions began in the mid-20th century, and many were influenced by the witch-cult hypothesis; a now-rejected theory that persecuted witches in Europe had actually been followers of a surviving pagan religion. The largest and most influential of these movements was Wicca. Some other groups and movements describe themselves as "Traditional Witchcraft" to distinguish themselves from Wicca.

Georgian Wicca is a tradition, or denomination, in the neopagan religion of Wicca. In its organisation, it is very similar to British Traditional Wicca groups such as Gardnerian Wicca, however, it does not trace its initiatory line to one of the old English covens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bricket Wood coven</span> Historical witches coven

The Bricket Wood coven, or Hertfordshire coven is a coven of Gardnerian witches founded in the 1940s by Gerald Gardner. It is notable for being the first coven in the Gardnerian line, though having its supposed origins in the pre-Gardnerian New Forest coven. The coven formed after Gardner bought a plot at the Fiveacres Country Club, a naturist club in the village of Bricket Wood, Hertfordshire, southern England, and met within the club's grounds. It played a significant part in the history of the neopagan religion of Wicca.

In Modern English, the term Wicca refers to Wicca, the religion of contemporary Pagan witchcraft. It is used within the Pagan community under competing definitions. One refers to the entirety of the Pagan Witchcraft movement, while the other refers explicitly to traditions included in what is now called British Traditional Wicca.

<i>Living Witchcraft</i> 1994 book by Allen Scarboro, Nancy Campbell and Shirley Stave

Living Witchcraft: A Contemporary American Coven is a sociological study of an American coven of Wiccans who operated in Atlanta, Georgia, US, during the early 1990s. It was co-written by the sociologist Allen Scarboro, psychologist Nancy Campbell and literary critic Shirley Stave and first published by Praeger in 1994. Although largely sociological, the study was interdisciplinary, and included both insider and outsider perspectives into the coven; Stave was an initiate and a practicing Wiccan while Scarboro and Campbell remained non-initiates throughout the course of their research.

References

  1. ↑ Johns, June (1969). King of the witches: The world of Alex Sanders. P. Davies. ISBN   0-432-07675-1.
  2. ↑ See Adler, Margot (1979). Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America Today. Viking. ISBN   0-670-28342-8., and Farrar, Janet; Farrar, Stewart & Bone, Gavin (1995). The Pagan Path. Phoenix Publishing. ISBN   0-919345-40-9., amongst others.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Rabinovitch, Shelley; Lewis, James R. (2004). The Encyclopedia of Modern Witchcraft and Neo-Paganism. Citadel Press. pp. 5–6. ISBN   0-8065-2407-3.
  4. 1 2 a "Priestess of the Goddess: TWPT talks with Maxine Sanders". The Wiccan/Pagan Times. Retrieved 11 December 2005.
  5. 1 2 3 "An Introduction to Alexandrian Wicca". Gay Pagans, Gay Witches...?. Retrieved 30 October 2011.
  6. ↑ Farrar, Janet; Farrar, Stewart (1988). Eight Sabbats for Witches (revised ed.). Phoenix Publishing. ISBN   0-919345-26-3.
  7. ↑ Hutton, Ronald (2000). Triumph of the Moon. Oxford University Press. ISBN   0-500-27242-5.
  8. 1 2 Bone, Gavin; Farrar, Janet. "Our Wiccan Origins". Wicca na hErin. Archived from the original on 8 June 2006. Retrieved 11 December 2005.
  9. ↑ Dunwich, Gerina (1995). The Wicca Book of Days. Citadel Press. p. 78. ISBN   0-8065-1685-2.
  10. ↑ "Chthonioi Alexandrian Wicca" . Retrieved 30 October 2011.
  11. ↑ "The StarKindler Line". Archived from the original on 27 December 2005. Retrieved 11 December 2005.
  12. ↑ Gillette, Devyn Christopher. "Home Again: An Introduction To Blue Star Wicca". Archived from the original on 2005-11-27. Retrieved 11 December 2005.
  13. ↑ Landstreet, Lynna. "A Brief History of the WCC and the Odyssean Tradition". Archived from the original on 10 May 2015. Retrieved 11 December 2005.
  14. ↑ Strachan, Francoise (1970). The Aquarian Guide to Occult, Mystical, Religious, Magical, London and Around. London: Aquarian Press. ISBN   0-85030-074-6.
  15. ↑ "The Ordine Della Luna/Nova: The Work of Alex Sanders and Derek Taylor". Archived from the original on 2009-10-22. Retrieved 27 August 2006.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.