Secret Rites

Last updated

Secret Rites
Secret Rites film titles (1971).png
Film titles
Directed by Derek Ford
Produced byMorton M. Lewis
Starring Alex Sanders
Penny Beeching
Tony Barton
Jane Spearing
Shirley Harmer
Narrated byLee Peters
CinematographyRoy Pointer
Edited byIvor Gleek
Music byBryn Walton
Release date
  • 18 October 1971 (1971-10-18)
(USA) [1]
Running time
47 min.
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Secret Rites is a 1971 British documentary film directed by Derek Ford. [2] [3] [lower-alpha 1] It concerns the study of witchcraft and black magic, with a rare appearance by real-life occultist Alex Sanders. The film's music was composed by Bryn Walton and played by The Spindle. [4] This film should not be confused with the 1970 Italian film Riti segreti directed by Gabriella Cangini.

Contents

Cast

Critical reception

Monthly Film Bulletin said "An unusually sympathetic and selective addition to the recent spate of witchcraft documentaries. After a spoof opening sequence to illustrate some popular misconceptions, with a screaming girl victim rescued from "unmentionable obscenities" by a crucifix-wielding hero, the film concentrates almost entirely on ritual as performed by Alex Sanders' now famous coven. An initiation ceremony for an aspiring witch is followed by a re-enactment of the 'mythical rite' on which it is founded; a marriage ceremony (binding for a year and a day) is followed by a 'union of souls' ritual which has its basis in the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Though some of the other rituals illustrated inevitably contain an erotic element, there is no black magic, no wax images and pins. Instead, the film presents witchcraft as another religion, allegedly the oldest, stressing its spiritual significance to those who embrace it." [5]

Notes

  1. This film should not be confused with the 1970 Italian film Riti segreti directed by Gabriella Cangini.

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 1960s, 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.

A coven is a group or gathering of witches. The word "coven" remained largely unused in English until 1921 when Margaret Murray promoted the idea that all witches across Europe met in groups of thirteen which they called "covens".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Necromancy</span> Magic involving communication with the deceased

Necromancy is the practice of magic involving communication with the dead by summoning their spirits as apparitions or visions for the purpose of divination; imparting the means to foretell future events and discover hidden knowledge. Sometimes categorized under death magic, the term is occasionally also used in a more general sense to refer to black magic or witchcraft as a whole.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Athame</span> Ceremonial blade, generally with a black handle

An athame or athamé is a ceremonial blade, generally with a black handle. It is the main ritual implement or magical tool among several used in ceremonial magic traditions, and by other neopagans, witchcraft, as well as satanic traditions. A black-handled knife called an arthame appears in certain versions of the Key of Solomon, a grimoire dating to the Renaissance.

<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.

Black magic has traditionally referred to the use of supernatural powers or magic for evil and selfish purposes.

Alexandrian Wicca or Alexandrian Witchcraft is a tradition of the Neopagan religion of Wicca, founded by Alex Sanders 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.

Raymond Buckland, whose craft name was Robat, was an English writer on the subject of Wicca and the occult, and a significant figure in the history of Wicca, of which he was a high priest in both the Gardnerian and Seax-Wica traditions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Forest coven</span> Alleged British group of witches

The New Forest coven was an alleged group of pagan witches who met around the area of the New Forest in southern England during the early 20th century. 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. According to Gardner, the faith they followed was the Witch-Cult, a supposed pagan religion that had survived in secret after the Christianization of Europe. This was in keeping with the now-discredited theories of Margaret Murray and her supporters.

<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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maxine Sanders</span> British Wiccan priestess

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.

<i>Virgin Witch</i> 1971 British horror sexploitation film by Ray Austin

Virgin Witch is a British horror sexploitation film directed by Ray Austin and starring Ann and Vicki Michelle, Patricia Haines and Neil Hallett. A prospective model and her sister join a coven of white wizards.

George Francis King, known as Francis X. King, was a British occult writer and editor from London who wrote about tarot, divination, witchcraft, magic, sex magic, tantra, and holistic medicine. He was a member of the Society of the Inner Light, an offshoot of the Alpha et Omega, which in turn was an offshoot of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

<i>The Witches</i> (1966 film) 1966 British film by Cyril Frankel

The Witches is a 1966 British horror film directed by Cyril Frankel and starring Joan Fontaine, Alec McCowen, Kay Walsh, Ann Bell, Ingrid Boulting and Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies. Made by Hammer Films, it was adapted by Nigel Kneale from the 1960 novel The Devil's Own by Norah Lofts.

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">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">Museum of Witchcraft and Magic</span> Museum in Cornwall, England

The Museum of Witchcraft and Magic, formerly known as the Museum of Witchcraft, is a museum dedicated to European witchcraft and magic located in the village of Boscastle in Cornwall, south-west England. It houses exhibits devoted to folk magic, ceremonial magic, Freemasonry, and Wicca, with its collection of such objects having been described as the largest in the world.

<i>Witchcraft</i> (1964 film) 1964 British film by Don Sharp

Witchcraft is a 1964 British horror film directed by Don Sharp and starring Lon Chaney Jr., Jack Hedley and Jill Dixon. The script was written by Harry Spalding.

References

  1. "Secret Rites". kinopoisk.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  2. "Secret Rites". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 28 November 2023.
  3. "Witch reports: unearthing two occult films of the hippie era". bfi.org.uk. Retrieved 13 May 2023.
  4. "Secret Rites - BFI Player". bfi.org.uk. Retrieved 13 May 2023.
  5. "Adventures of a Taxi Driver". Monthly Film Bulletin . 39 (456): 58. 1972 via ProQuest.