The King of the Witches: The World of Alex Sanders

86 Pages·2007·12.47 MB·English

by  June Johns

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Complacency serves the old gods,
By the sameauthor i{iug of tbt .itcbt~ :
TheGrasshopper Boy
The World of Alex Sanders
Zoo Without Bars
JUNE JOHNS
With photographs by
JACK SMITH
PETER DAVIES LONDON
<toutents
© 1969 byJuneJohns
First published.1969 page
Glossary viii
Introduction
I
Chapters
I. The Young Initiate 10
2. A Magic Childhood IS
3. The Haunted Hill 23
4. Call Down the Spirits
3°
5. Bewitched 36
6. The Devil to Pay
© 45
illustrations 1969 byJack Smith
7. Time ofAtonement 53
8. In. Search ofAngels 64
9. The Unwelcome Apprentice 72
10. Relic ofthe Past 80
II. Witch Wedding 88
12. King ofthe Witches 96
13. Toil andTrouble l°S
14. Betrayal in the Coven
II4
An Interview withAlex Sanders
120
Appendices
A. The Book ofShadows 13°
B. The Witches' Calendar 142
C. Initiation Ceremonies 145
D. The Magic ofMatter 152
Made and printed in Great Britain by
Morrison and Gibb Limited;London and Edinburgh
3JIlustrations
The illustrations appear betweenpages 56-57 and72-73.
Alex Sanderswith hiscrystal
Maxine blesses her athame
Tarot cards
The witches' circle .
Maxine besidethe altar
Alex honours the goddess
Maxine inside the circle
Breathing lifeinto the fith-fath
The witches' dance
Walking to covenstead
Calling down the power
The symbolic sexact
The witches' altar
Passingthe pentacle around the circle
The witches fallto the ground
Fertility rites
The black mass
3lntrobuction
ATHAMll Thewitch'sblack-hiltedknife.
BOOK OF SHADOWS With book ofrules,written in witch's own hand
writing andcopiedbysuccessive generations,
Sincethe dawn ofhistory man has believedin miracles. The
COVEN Groupofwitches.
COVENS'rEAD Meetingplaceofacoven first tribesmen to discoverthe healing power ofherbs, or to
ESBAT Smallmeeting, not necessarily ofafullcoven. recognizecloudsastheforerunners ofrain, were electedmagi,
ESP Extra-sensoryperception or wisemen. From thisit wasbut ashort stepto divining the
FAMILIAR
Amassofenergyorpowerraisedbythewitchesand future and to the formulation ofspells to increase fertility or
sentto work theirwill.
destroyenemies.
FITH-FATH Smallimage made ofclayor plasticineto represent
Aslong ago astheStone Agethe wiseman ofthe tribe was
aperson on whom a restraintisto be worked.
THE KEy OF AncientHebrew book ofmagic. dressed in an animal skin; he was called 'devil', which meant
SOLOMON 'little god', and was worshipped by hisfollowers asthe chief
MEASURE Length ofcord measuring a witch's height at the god's representative. The earliest record of this custom is a
time ofhisinitiation. Sometimesheld asa 'hostage' palaeolithicpainting found in a cave in the Ariege district of
by thecovenleader.
southern France. It depicts a man clad in a stag's skin, with
PENTACLE Originally a five-sidedfigure but now any circular
antlerson hishead-the Horned God, asymbol ofbenevolent
pieceofmetal inscribedwith witch symbols.
SABBAT Major meeting ofwhole covenor severalcovens. power in primitive times. Another, a man disguised as a
TAROT CARD Cards usedin predicting the future. jackal, carved on slate,dates back to archaicEgypt.
VOODOO Primitive form.ofreligion practisedby negroes of In about 1100 B.C. women and officers of the harem of
Haiti andelsewhereintheWest IndiesandAmerica.
RamesesIII were brought to trial for making wax imagesof
WARLOCK Originally the witch who bound the initiate, but
the Pharaoh to the accompaniment of magic incantations.
usedonly by non-witches to describeamale-witch.
WICCA Ancientword forwitchcraft. These images were fith-faths, still used by witches today
WITCH Initi~t:dmaleorfemalememberofwitchcraftgroup. againsttheir enemies.
WIZARD Magician,not necessarilyawitch. History shows that, asa new religion succeeds the old, the
I
gods ofthe latter are invariably condemned as the devilsof to distinguishbetween beneficial and harmful magic, it had
the former, and it was thus that the pagan god became the little effecton the treatment ofthe witchesthemselves. From
Christian devil. ill spite of this, Christianity and witchcraft being a joyous religion, witchcraft was changed overnight
~eBull.t~at
co-existed peaceably for centuries. In Britain, for instance, when, in 1484,Pope InnocentVIIIputhisseal on
London was stillheathen six hundred yearsafter the birth of condemned witches as hereticsfor interfering WIth fertility.
Christ, and although Augustinemanaged to convert the King From now on terror would invadethelifeofanyonesuspected
of Kent to Christianity, the rest of the country preferred ofworking miracles.
pagan ritesofwitchcraft. In 1486, two members of the Inquisition, with the full
an~ ha~ publis~ed boo~
But asthe 'establishment'becameChristian,theold religion approval of the Pope, wrote the
fellintodisrepute,andinA.D.668theArchbishopofCanterbury Malleus Male.ficarum, which described in considerable det~11
ruled that people who ate and drank in heathen temples, or methods of discovering and punishing witches and ways m
wore the headsofbeasts, should do three years' penance.The which magic could be harmful. The book, which by. 1520
witches continued to use the stag's horns, however. Their had run to fourteen editions, confirmed popular miscon
only concession was to meet secretly,on moors or in lonely ceptionsand hostility towards witchcraft and wasto influe~ce
public opinion in Europe until after the Reformation
forests. These meetings were known as 'sabbats'.* After
homage had beenpaidto thedevil,usuallypresentin theguise (Protestants were even greater witch-haters than their
of a black goat, or his deputy, the witches held a banquet. predecessors). .
One of the first countries to declare war on Witches had
This was followed by the main feature of the sabbat, the
dance, the tempo of which was often raised to a frenzy in been France, where they .were burnt at the stake several
preparation for the final climax ofsexualorgy. decades before the PapalBull.At that time whole villagesstill
It isimportant to note at this point that although we have followed the old religion and even the priests, who were
few historicalrecordsof'white' witchesat thistime and must mostly drawn from the peasant class, were only outwardly
Christian.Having tried to stampout witchcraftby persuasion,
include them under the general term 'witches', modem white
witches,who arethesubjectofthisbook, believethat they are the clergy, backed by civil law, overcame it by force-the
descended from, andadhere to, aseparatetradition embracing samefateashad befallenthe ancientreligionsofEgypt and of
the worship not of Satan, but of the Homed God and the the Aztecs.
Earth Mother-symbol offertility, the oldestgoddessknown ill England tolerance had prevailed until the arrival ofthe
to man. Certain aspects ofwhite-witch dogma can be traced inquisitors. At first the law forbade them to usetorture, but
in ancientreligionsallover the world, in Druidicalbeliefs, for nevertheless rumour and terror were rifein everyvillage.The
instance,and theincantationsin Runic havebeen passed from clergyclaimedthat allwitcheshad madeapactwith the Devil
who, inreturn, gavethem a'familiar', usuallyintheform ofa
generation to generation. White witchcraft is invariably con
domestic animal, to run errands for them and bewitch their
fmedto doinggood, restrainingevilandpromotingfertility.
enemies. At a time when most peoplebelievedthat the earth
But although some attempt was made in the Middle Ages
was flat, it was not difficult to imagine such evil properties
*
Often confused, erroneously, with the term 'coven'. The latter ismuch in anyobedientanimal,especiallyifitsowner were unsociable;
more recent and refers to the basic organizational grouping of thirteen and lived alone. (Spiteful women are not confmed to the
witches-six couples and a leader, or eleven priests, a high priest and high
twentieth century; they abounded in medieval Europe!)
priestess.
3
2
0
As e activi~ies of the witch-hunters increased, Henry the threat ofdeath from haemorrhage or blood-poisoning to
VIIIhimselfdecId~d to ~rofit by it. In 1542 a law waspassed that ofexecution.
not only condemning witches to death but confiscatingtheir Another certain proofwas the finding of a spot that was
landsand money. Allover the country men and women were insensible to pain and that did not bleedwhen stabbedwith a
dragged from their homes on the flimsiest evidence.In Kent pin. The Scotsdeveloped this method to such a fine art that
amother an? daughter were condemned to deathfor 'feeding somecitiesin Englandhired expertsfrom across the border to
and employmg an evil spirit in the likeness ofa black dog'. conduct their witch-hunts for them.
Alt~ough,torture wa~ ostensiblystillforbidden, witchescould In 1649 the town bell-ringer of Newcastle-on-Tyne was
be tested. Naked, witharmscrossed and thumbs tied to their sent round the streets to gather accusations against supposed
bigtoes, they were flung into the nearestdeepwater. Ifthey witches.Within a few hours thirty women were forced to go
s:mJe they were innocent-but usuallythey were dead by the into thetownhalland,oneby one,werestrippednaked.Their
time they were hauled out. Ifthey could swim it wascertain faces covered, they were stretched out on the draughty floor
proofoftheir guilt, and they could behanged after what was and, watched by ajeering mob, had pins up to three inches
only the formality ofa trial. long stuckinto them. The expert, who wasbeing paidtwenty
Queen Elizabethwent further than her father; she had an shillings for every proven witch, seemedto be having a.good
Act passed condemning anyone who, by witchcraft, tried to day, for none ofthe women was able to say exactly where
foresee how long she would reign and who would be her in her numbed flesh theneedles had beenstuck. Fortunately a
u.cei
successor. more enlightenedwitness,a Hobson,refusedto accept
The t~me of.the terror leftno one secure.Ifthey were seen thisproofand demanded that the women be allowedto stand
out at night WIt?strang~ men, young girlswould be brought so that their blood could flow freely. Their subsequent
before the magistrates, Her companion had cloven hoofs,' screaminglost the bounty-hunter hisfeeand gave them back
theaccuserswould cry, or, 'A tailhung beneathhiscloak.' No their freedom.
amountofdenialscouldspareagirltheagonyofbeingstripped In 1662 so many peoplehad died from the resultsofbeing
naked, after which the hair would be shaved from all parts 'pricked' that thecustomwasdropped andreplacedby gentler
ofherbody andlocalcroneswould pokeandprod her,looking forms ofpersuasion, such as denial ofsleep.The suspectwas
for warts, tumours or protuberance-s.* Doctors today know put upon awooden stoolin the centreofthe room sothat she
thatsupernumerarynipples,occurringinboth menandwomen couldnot resther back. Her captors took it in tum to cross
on almost any part ofthe body, are common and harmless. examine her day and night, without respite.In addition they
At the time ofthe Inquisition, however, and for some time kept watch for any spiders, mice or flies, sincethey might be
after,.they meant cert~n death to their owner, for any such Satan'sagentscome to help her. Ifsomething did appear and
blemish was automatically regarded as the Devil's Mark the gaolers could not catch it, they regarded it as proofthat
used by a witch to suckleher familiar. When a 'witch' was it was the devil's messenger. By the time the woman had sat
warned .she mi~~t be arres.ted, she .would often amputate on the stool for twenty-four hours without food, water or
a potential DeVIls Mark WIth the kitchen knife, preferring rest,shewasusuallyreadyto confessto anything. The factthat
shemight recant later wasnot much help to her; her gaolers
*
Or, atthestartoftheterror, forthemarkofthethree-nailedclaw known could alwaysembroider their evidencewith accountsoftheir
asth~~itch's.Mark, with which witchesusedto tattoo their conv;rts. Not
valiant attempts to catch Satan'simps.
surpnsmgly thiscustom wassoon discontinued.
4 5
Perhapsbecausethey ledsuchwretched lives,childrenwere The law, the church and the state felt no guilt; like the
often the first to accuse their parents. One testimony was earlymap-makerswho, knowing that none might prove them
sufficient to hang a person. A child who felt he had been wrong, labelledunexplored territory 'Here Be Dragons', they
unjustly punished might run to the village gossip with the preferred to condemn inexplicable phenomena rather than
news that his mother had been visited by an owl at dead of admit they were baffled. Better to blame the devilsthey knew
night. The factthat the owl had nestedoutsidehishome ever than let the publicsuspectthere might be greater devilsasyet
sincehe could remember would be convenientlyignored, and undreamed of
ifthe child repented and tried to tell the truth when he saw The last person in England to die for being a witch was
his mother being taken off to gaol, everyone would nod Alice Mollard of Exeter, who was hanged in 1684. In 1736
sagelyandagreethat thepoor childhad beenbewitched. Nine the Act ofJames I was repealed. It now became illegal to
women werecondemnedatLeicesterontheevidenceofasingle prosecute for witchcraft, sorcery or enchantment. Instead,
boy who claimed they had bewitched him, and at Lancaster anyone claiming to be able to work magic by witchcraft
in 1612 the court acceptedthe evidenceofanine-year-old. could be sent to prison for a year, during which he had to
Not every witch deniedthe charges;many went into great spend a whole day per quarter in the pillory of the nearest
detailabout the spells they had worked, andwere proud to be market square.
named. These same prisoners went to the gallows almost Thepersecutorsandwitch-prickershaddonetheirworkwell.
gaily, just as much martyrs to their religion as the early The books ofmagic, or 'grimoires' asthey were called,were
Christianswho were thrown to the lions. seized upon by collectors-many of the witches' closest
Despite the vivid imagination of witnesses, the credulity secrets were discovered in The Key of Solomon, a copy of
of the public that encouraged them to believe the fantastic which is preserved in the British Museum. Clutching the
liesthey were told, and the general fear ofwitchcraft, many remnants oftheir faith, the survivorsofthe witch-hunts went
judges refusedto acceptthe evidenceevenwhen it included a underground. But not for long.
confession. An average of 20 per cent of the accused were Eliphas Levi was born in Francein 1810. Roman Catholic
found guilty and executed; the others were eitherlet offwith priest and magician, Levi was not ashamedto announce that
a year in gaol-which could amount to a death sentence in he wasawitch and could conjure up spirits.Laterhe revealed
those unsanitary days-or were set free. hismethods to anEnglishoccultgroup ledby Bulwer Lytton,
Witch mania did not develop in England until the second thenovelist.Soonhalfadozensimilarsocietieshad sprung up.
halfofthe sixteenthcentury. Between 1542 and 1684 about a Themembersdabbledinmagicandwitchcraft,blackandwhite,
thousand people were executed for witchcraft, the most theformer for revengeandevenmurder, thelatterfor healing,
dangerous period being from 1598 to 1607 when 41 per cent divination and self-preferment. By the time Levi died in
ofthosecharged were sent to the gallows.In Scotland,where 1875, he had paved the way for a renaissance in witchcraft.
the terror flourished more strongly, the number ofexecutions AleisterCrowleywasborn in the sameyearand he cameto
wasconsiderablyhigher. Thesearenot figuresto be proud of, consider himself the reincarnation of Levi. When Crowley
but they are puny when compared with those ofthe rest of wasinhistwentieshejoined the Societyofthe GoldenDawn,
Europewhere,accordingto churchauthorities,inthefifteenth, ofwhich W. B. Yeatswasamember, and hebecameaskilled
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries over 250,000 people died magician. Before long he was recognized as an incurable
at the stake for practising witchcraft. practitioner ofblackwitchcraft, by which meanshe indulged
6 7
his sexual appetites and his ine f
made a mockery ofthei 1 cravI~g or power. Although he J of competent writers have already dealt with this subject
heroi . elr aws WIthhi . d ' Dr Margaret Murray, for one, in her Witch Cult in Western
eroinheis stillacknowled d d ..s orgies an his use of
witches..Known.as 'The J;ea~respected by manyEnglish Europe. I have merely attempted to portray the world of
Alex Sanders, to describe the life and activities ofone ofthe
on magIc,Magick in Theory and ;ast: he wrote a textbook
The man who p h racttce.He died in 1947 most powerful living witches and to gauge the appeal of
, . .. .er aps most infl d· h ' .
witchcraft to thousands ofordinary men and women.
wItchcraft in England in thi' • uence t e revival of
wh0 was born in 1884 G· .·ds·.c.:e':nt.ury,w,as Gerald .Gardner My own position with regard to the phenomenon is that I
gra·de ofthe cult by awi.tcharca.nlleerdw'Dasffmi ,it~iated imto the first' would nomore become a witch than I would a parachutist
andforthesamereason: fear.Evenlooking into my ownfuture
and he proceeded to recrui't·. a 0 m the New Forest,
ha ' ,.... .many covens in' f hi holdsno attraction for me. That witches can seethe future
vmgreceived initiation into th d spire 0 s not
or part ofit-I have no doubt. That they can alter its course,
By dilig.ent study. of an.' H be secon and third grades..
, .. . Clent· e rew and E . .
I prefer to deny. Witches have no monopoly ofwisdom and
scnpts,hedevisedhisownritual . . ':gyptian manu-
Museum in the Isle.ofM ;.In~950h~.setupaWitchcraft the only common denominator amongst them isthejoy they
of witch weapons He d~dW ,ere e exhibited his collection fmd in their god.
, . Ie m 1964 T d' .
? Reared first as a nonconformist and then as an Anglican, I
wItches ate considered novices bh· ay, ?ardnerian'
~ e~edltary wastaughtearly to fearGod. Laterinlife,whenIwasexposed
learnt their ritualsfrom recordh d wItches who
acce;te~e ~'fll to high-powered evangelism, I found that He could be a
to generation; they are 1. from ,generation
only ofthefirst grade, egttlmate wItches, but jolly good fellow when pleased and a thunderer when
thwarted. Butnone ofthis prepared me for the utter natural
,The repeal in 1951 of the old '
wirches.from the fear of . WItchcraft Act releasing nessoftherelationship betweenthe witch and hisgod; itisone
. persecutIOn did h h oflove and understanding. Without artifice or hypocrisy, the
revIVal ofthe cult but th . muc to elp the
, ,ose Covens op t d b h
wItches claim to h era e y rereditary witches I met were truly pious.
ave met co' 1
centuries. Alexander Sandershi ~l~tenty throughout the When I consider their ways of worship, in particular the
line of Welsh witches d ms~ .l~ descendedfrom along nude rites that appear to be so ludicrously out of place in
as
grandmother. He is ess:tial7 mltlated, as a child by his . religion, I find I must rethink my attitude towards more
rOkfess~onal familiar religions. To an agnostic, is the caIling down ofthe
though he has experimented J'thbPI white witch,.
dang dh ac wItchcraft kn . moon any more absurd than the act ofgenuflecting? Is the
, ,ers, an . asexperienced the difficul f '. ows Its
true cult after having flout d i 1 ty 0 returmng to the lighting ofa candle to a long-dead saint more credible than
65 tying cords round a wax image? Isthe immaculate conception
'King of,the Witches', a titl: l:::h:'W·'In 19 he was elected
by Owain Glyndwr th 1 . d m the fifteenth century more easilybelieved than a vision in a bowl ofwater?
from whom Sander~ bel' astln ependene Prince of W:tles I have drawn no conclusions beyond this: for those like
from hiIS title however ehiev'es"he IS descended. QU'lte apart' me who prefer their spirits mixed with soda, witchcraft
the taskofm'akinghi 'l"e~s uroque in that he hassethimself affordsafascinatingglimpseinto another world; but for those
factio~sreanlgdlofin.r~spect.able,
in view ofthe a herculean labour who are drawn to the supernatural, who are prepared to
frm' ge reli,gI,on. nctl0ns inheren.t m' so bitzarre a devote time and trouble to it, witchcraft offers no lessthan
the power to achieve a new dimension oflife.
This book isnotintended asastudy ofwitchcraft; anumber
8
K.W.-2 9
addicted to alcohol, and during an engagement in Argyllshire
he appeared on the stage drunk. He was instantly dismissed.
His reputation preceded him-never again ~as he able to~et
work in the theatre. He became a hod-carrier and the fanuly
rented the terraced house in Grape Street, Manchester, until
they had saved enough to move to Chorlton,
1 ~bt lloung 3Jnftfatt
Now it was one long struggle to keep heads above water.
Harold took private pupils for lessons on the comet, and
sometimesworked for prizebrassor silverbandsatweek-ends.
But frequently he took refuge in drink, distressing his wife
and terrifying his children.
Hannah reassured them about their father's 'illness'. She
regaled them with stories oftheir paternal great-grand~ather
who had been captain ofa tea clipper. (Shenever mentioned
that he had been captured by Chinesepiratesand buried alive.)
She cleaned for a tailor in Chorlton who had a son the same
size as Alex, and once every six months she agreed to forgo
There was nothing about the day to suggest it would change
her wages of3S. 6d. a week in return for a parcel ofclothes
the course ofhis lifeand influencehim until the day he died.
outgrown by the tailor's son. The family lived on bread and
Itwasgrey and cheerless, like manyotherdaysin Manchester,
dripping those weeks, but Alex was warmly shod and well
and Alex was an undersized seven-year-old passing through
dressed for another half-year.
mean backstreetson hisway fromSt George's Primary School
His Grandma Bibby had moved from her birthplace,
in Hulme to the home ofhisgrandmother.
Bethesda in North Wales, to be near her daughter. Widowed
The Sandersfamily had recently moved to a semi-detached
for many years, she was now sixty-six ~d had dark h~r
house-No.2 StrattonRoad, Chorlton-agreat improvement
which, sheboasted, shecould sit on. Asa girl shehad been in
over the old Victorian house near the central goods yard in
service with Lord Penrhyn and had learnt to be an excellent
Manchester, where mother, father and three children had had
cook. Alex enjoyed visiting her for that reason, but she was
to make do in one room. But living in a better-class district
stillvery much a stranger, having moved to the district only
had its drawbacks. The rent was high and Mrs Sanders had
months before.
taken a charringjob to eke out her husband's wage.
On this particular day Alex was tired and,h~gry, and
Small-barely five-foot-and wiry, Hannah Sanders was
feeling a little sorry for himsel£ Why c?~dnt his.mother
determined to raise her children above their environment.
be like other mothers, be at home wattmg for him? He
When first married ten years previously she and her husband
resented being sent to Gran's to askifshewould give him his
had been comfortably off. He had been a musician and for
tea. Usually his mother finished work soon after three, but
five years or so shetravelled with him. When their first child
today shewasworking late.
Alex was born, he too made the tour ofthe music halls and
No. 46 Wilton Road was a terraced family house with an
theatres. Soon, however, Harold Sandersbecame increasingly
alley separating it from its neighbour at ground level. Instead
10
II