Gerald Gardner and
the New Forest Witches
Nearly all modern religions have an origin myth. In Christianity that myth involves Jesus of Galilee dying on a cross and coming back from the dead. Islam begins with the prophet Muhammad praying in a cave, meeting the angel Gabriel, and then reciting the first verses of what would become the Koran. The founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons), Joseph Smith, also met an angel who revealed to him the existence of several “golden plates” that were then translated into the Book of Mormon.
Modern Witchcraft has its own origin story too, but one devoid of supernatural overtones and divine intervention. Instead of a story involving angels or other supernatural forces, Modern Witchcraft begins with a very human initiation in the year 1939. In September of that year it’s alleged that a retired English civil servant named Gerald Gardner (1884–1964) was initiated into a coven of Witches near England’s New Forest area.
Like most events that spark a worldwide religious movement, we have no way of knowing if Gardner’s initiation was a real historical event. Despite what some believe, there are no contemporary accounts of Jesus’s death and resurrection, and like Muhammad in his cave or Joseph Smith with the angel Moroni, we have no independent witnesses to corroborate Gardner’s claim of initiation. Origin myths are often not about literal truths and are meant to be taken on faith. I believe wholeheartedly that Gerald Gardner was initiated into a coven of people who thought of themselves as Witches in 1939. It’s not something that can be proven conclusively, but there’s a lot of circumstantial evidence that gives credence to the argument.
The only source of information we have for Gardner’s initiation is, not surprisingly, Gerald Gardner. In the 1960 biography Gerald Gardner: Witch (listed author: Jack Bracelin, see footnote), 4 Gardner gives his account of the event:
Gardner felt delighted that he was about to be let into their secret. Thus it was that, a few days after the war had started, he was taken to a big house in the neighborhood. This belonged to “Old Dorothy”—a lady of note in the district, “county” and very well-to-do. She invariably wore a pearl necklace, worth some 5,000 pounds at the time.
It was in this house that he was initiated into witchcraft. He was very amused at first, when he was stripped naked and brought into a place “properly prepared” to undergo his initiation.
It was halfway through when the word Wica was first mentioned: “and I knew that which I had thought burnt out hundreds of years ago still survived.” 5
Gerald Gardner: Witch is not the only book Gardner was involved with that references his initiation, but it does contain the most information about it (and even that is scant). The lack of information about Gardner’s initiation in print has a lot to do with the oath of secrecy he took during it. In his 1959 book The Meaning of Witchcraft he mentions this oath of secrecy: “But I was half-initiated before the word ‘Wica’ which they used hit me like a thunderbolt, and I knew where I was, and that the Old Religion still existed. And so I found myself in the Circle, and there took the usual oath of secrecy, which bound me not to reveal certain things.” 6
While Gardner’s recollections about his initiation don’t reveal much, they do provide us with a little bit of information. The United Kingdom entered World War II in September of 1939, which means Gardner was probably initiated in September or October of that year (“a few days after the war started”). He also gives us a location, the home of “Old Dorothy.”
There’s one last tiny bit of information about Gardner’s initiation from his published works: his initiation took place in the nude. This is not surprising, as later Gardnerian Witches would all work “skyclad” (“clothed by the sky”), which is a fancy word for naked. Before his initiation he was also “properly prepared,” which means ritually cleansed.
We have one other source of information about Gardner’s alleged initiation and it comes in the form of a letter from Gardner to English writer and occultist Gerald Yorke (who was then acting as editor of the book that would become Witchcraft Today in 1954):
As soon as the Circle is cast & purified, they go round, what I call, evoking the Mighty Ones. To attend, to guard the Circle & witness the rites. These are meny. they are supposed to stand outside, & watch, seeing all is correct. Candidates for initiation are peraded round, introduced to them, & they are supposed to be satisfied all is in order. Also at certain rite, The, God, or Goddess Is invoked to descend & come into the Body of the Priestess or Priest, but first these are purified, & perade round so the mighty ones outside see all is in order, this we speak of as invoking. At ordinary meetings, the God & Goddess are not so invoked, the Priestess & Priest are simply their representatives, & are not the Gods themselves, I think I did not refer to this rite, if I did, I don’t think theyll pass it. 7
Gardner’s letter to Yorke shines a bit more light on his initiation, outlining some of the ritual. Those components should be familiar to most Modern Witches and include calling the watchtowers (or quarters, generally the powers at the four cardinal points of the compass: east, south, west, and north) and possibly the ritual of drawing down the moon (see part 4 of this book). The language Gardner uses to describe these practices here is also what many Witches use in the circle today. “Goddess is invoked to descend and come into the body of the Priestess” almost sounds like it comes straight out of ritual.
Toward the end of this quoted passage Gardner writes, “I don’t think they’ll pass it,” which is a reference to his initiators.8 From the moment he went public with Witchcraft in 1951 until his death in 1964, Gardner often spoke of needing approval to publish certain things from the individuals who brought him into the Witch-cult. Originally he was “allowed” to write only a fictional account of Witchcraft (1949’s High Magic’s Aid ) and then finally Witchcraft Today in 1954. Such prohibitions make sense in a religion with vows of secrecy.
Gardner’s initiators, or lack thereof, are a big source of contention in academic circles. There’s no concrete evidence that Gardner’s initiation ever happened, and all we really have are Gardner’s claims that it did. In addition, there are some issues with Gardner himself when it comes to whether or not he was initiated into Witchcraft. The passages quoted in this book make it sound as if Witchcraft was immediately fulfilling to Gardner, but history argues against that. In the years following his initiation, Gardner dabbled with several other magickal and esoteric orders, including Druidry, a liberal strain of Christianity known as the Ancient British Church, and English occultist Aleister Crowley’s O.T.O. (Ordo Templi Orientis).
For me personally, Gardner’s dabbling has always been hard to reconcile with the idea that he was initiated into a Witch coven in 1939. If Gardner was initiated in the days following England’s entry into World War II, then he goes from getting hit “like a thunderbolt” to exploring several other esoteric paths in the span of about six to seven years. He would only “come back” to Witchcraft in 1949, ten years after beginning that journey.
For this reason, many modern Pagan scholars find the idea that Gardner was initiated into a Witch group in 1939 unlikely. I think their concerns are completely justified, and it’s just not in the nature of academics to make wild speculative leaps with so little evidence. So we have to at least respect the idea that Gardner was not initiated all those decades ago. But as you may have guessed, I think he was initiated into something, and the New Forest area of England had just the right mix of occult elements to produce what today we call Wiccan-Witchcraft.
The Elements of
Modern Wiccan-Witchcraft
Despite the claims of some, there is no “unbroken chain” linking today’s Witches to a public or underground Witch religion from ages past. While many Witches today feel a kinship with the innocents whose lives were lost during the Burning Times, those “witches” were not practicing the same things we are today. In fact, nearly all of them would have self-identified as Christians.
But just because today’s Witchcraft is a relatively new belief system doesn’t mean it lacks any ancient roots. I think it’s safe to say that Wiccan-Witchcraft (and most other magickal paths of European descent being practiced today) is a part of the Western magickal tradition. While religions rise and fall, magickal practices generally remain. When most of Europe converted to Christianity, people didn’t stop practicing magick—just the opposite. Magick remained an important part of their lives, and many of the greatest and most important magick books ever written were composed by Christians and attributed to legendary Jewish figures such as King Solomon.
When most of us say abracadabra, we think of it as a nonsense word associated with stage magic, but that’s a misconception. The word has actually been used for over 1,800 years now, and for actual magick! Before being used on the stage, it was a staple in magick books and spells throughout Europe.9 Many magick techniques and words have been Christianized over the years but often still date back to pagan antiquity.
The Western magickal tradition traces its history back to the ancient Greeks, and before that the Egyptians and Babylonians. After the emergence of Christianity, its wisdom was preserved in folk traditions and magickal grimoires. Eventually it gave birth to magickal religions such as modern Wiccan-Witchcraft and some forms of Druidry. Today’s Witchcraft is ancient, just not in the way some hope for.
Within the Western magickal tradition there are several schools of thought and/or institutions that had a very large impact on the Witchcraft of today. We will be exploring many of these throughout this book. What’s interesting is that all of these elements were present in the New Forest area of England back in 1939, when Gardner claimed to have been initiated.
Freemasonry
Nearly every modern tradition that contains an initiation ceremony owes something to Freemasonry. Most Wiccan initiation ceremonies share at least a superficial resemblance to Masonic ones, but Masonry provided Witchcraft with more than a ritual structure for initiations and other rites. Much of the language used in Witch circles also comes from the Masonic tradition. Words such as charge and cowan both stem from the Masonic tradition.
Masonry is at least three hundred years old, and probably much older. It’s most likely a descendent of a Scottish “masonic guild” that helped design the huge cathedrals and castles of Scotland. Eventually it evolved into a fraternal society and thereafter inspired dozens of other “secret societies.” Some of the earliest Druid orders were organizations very much like the Freemasons, and groups like the Horseman’s Word (a group for individuals who worked with horses, including blacksmiths) took fraternal ritual to an entirely new level, as we’ll see in chapter 7.
Freemasonry exists in two very different worlds. For some Masons their organization is simply a fraternal order dedicated to fellowship and charity. For other Masons it is an esoteric one, with magickal and occult aspects. Masonic ritual is rich with symbolism and is open to anyone who believes in a “higher power.” Most Masonic organizations are for men only, but Co-Masonry (a Masonic practice open to both women and men) was popular in Gardner’s day and was practiced by people in the New Forest area.
The Grimoire Tradition
Books have been highly influential in the development of Modern Witchcraft, most specifically books dealing with ceremonial magick. Written spells existed before the invention of books, but the portability of books versus scrolls made them much more useful in magickal practice. Books as we would recognize them today first appeared in the third century BCE, though it would be several more centuries before they would become commonplace.
Most early grimoires were written in Greek, Latin, or Hebrew and were inaccessible to most people, but that began to change with the European discovery of movable type in 1450. Within a hundred years of that discovery, magick books in common languages began to appear.10 While many today associate the ceremonial magick of the grimoire tradition with wealthy individuals, that wasn’t always the case. Both rich and poor had access to books and reading by that time in history, and even rural cunning-folk were known to consult grimoires.
Though the grimoire tradition was originally Christian in nature, many of its tools and practices are familiar to Modern Witches. Grimoire-influenced magicians cast circles with swords and knives, and purified materials such as salt and water. Many of the most common Witchcraft rites come nearly word for word from the most famous and influential of all the grimoires, the Key of Solomon (know in Latin as Clavicula Salomonis).
The high magick that came down through the grimoire tradition eventually influenced and inspired one of the most important magickal orders of the last two hundred years, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (founded in 1888). While the Golden Dawn generally thought of itself as a Judeo-Christian organization, it sometimes utilized pagan deities in its rites. The Golden Dawn, like the tradition that helped to give it life, would go on to influence Modern Witchcraft.
Cunning-Craft
For many centuries magick was a skill like any other. If you needed your grain milled, you went to the miller. If your horse needed shoeing, you visited the blacksmith. And if you needed assistance with negative forces or your fortune told, you went to a cunning-man or cunning-woman. Perhaps cunning-craft wasn’t the most appreciated calling in the world, but it was certainly a part of most British villages, towns, and cities (and practically everywhere else, though every culture has its own name for it).
Many folks who practiced cunning-craft passed their knowledge down orally to students and family members. Oftentimes it was also preserved in books and other writings. Some of it was simply what today we might call herbalism, while other parts of it were influenced by the grimoire tradition. Cunning-craft was (and is) folk magick, which means it’s a magickal system where the practitioner utilizes anything and everything that works. That might be an old spell handed down for hundreds of years, or it might be something out of a book like the Key of Solomon.
Sometimes practitioners of cunning-craft were called witches, to indicate that they were magick practitioners. However, that does not mean they were Witches in the same sense that you or I might be. Until recently, most (if not all) practitioners of cunning-craft thought of themselves as Christians, and often as Christians in opposition to evil witches.
The Theosophical Society
The Theosophical Society was founded in 1875 by Helena Blavatsky (1831–1891) and Henry Steel Olcott (1832–1907). Blavatsky was the driving force behind the group and claimed that she was in communication with a group of secret “Masters.” The Masters (or Mahatmas) were said to have once been human but had achieved a higher state of wisdom due to their great knowledge and religious understanding. Theosophy was in many ways a mix of various religious traditions around the world, with the Blavatsky’s Masters at the center of the truths revealed by those faiths.
Theosophy was never a mass movement, but it appealed to a great many occultists. The Golden Dawn had its own set of “Secret Chiefs” that were similar in many respects to the Mahatmas of the Theosophical Society. Theosophy’s greatest gift to the world was its introduction of Eastern religious ideas to the Western world. Some of the ideas that many of us take for granted today in Witchcraft, such as karma and reincarnation, are most likely a part of our practice due to the Theosophical Society and its focus on spiritual ideas from places such as India.
The Most Interesting
Elements (Gardner’s Initiators)
In 1938 retired English civil servant Gerald Gardner and his wife, Donna, moved to the New Forest area of southern England. Before moving to New Forest, Gardner had spent most of his adult life far from England, in Borneo, Malaysia, Singapore, and Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon). Gardner had spent most of his time in the East working as a plantation inspector (and possibly taking bribes), and when he returned to England in 1936 he was a fairly wealthy man.
Most of the pictures we see today of Gerald Gardner show him at the end of his life, well into his seventies and even eighties. But in 1938 Gardner was only in his early fifties and still retained much of his youthful vigor. He was a strong-looking, striking man with tattoos on his arms.
We have no idea when Gardner first became attracted to what we might today call “the occult,” but it was certainly a passion he indulged in often as an adult. Not only did he enjoy reading about magick and the paranormal but he also actively sought it out during his adventures around the world. If there was a spiritual adventure to be had, Gardner did his best to partake in it.
A short while after moving to the New Forest area, Gardner joined an esoteric order and theatre company called the Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship (often shortened to simply the Crotona Fellowship). The Crotona Fellowship was led by a man named George Alexander Sullivan (1890–1942), who claimed to be immortal and to change his identity every few decades. Gardner was introduced to the group through its plays (written by Sullivan), which were performed at the Christchurch Garden Theatre, a facility built exclusively for the Crotona Fellowship.
Gardner had very few nice things to say about the Crotona Fellowship or Sullivan in his biography, but he did find himself attracted to a small clique within the group. He called that group “the most interesting element” and added that they “had a real interest in the occult.” 11 We will never know for sure exactly who all made up the “most interesting element,” but there is one person we can be sure was a part of the group: Edith Woodford-Grimes (1887–1975), a divorced teacher of elocution and most likely Gardner’s mistress. It’s possible that they met even before Gardner began attending the meetings of the Crotona Fellowship.
Affectionately nicknamed Dafo by Gardner (this was not her magickal name), Woodford-Grimes remained a part of Gardner’s life for nearly the next twenty years. We know with absolute certainty that Dafo was active as a Witch for at least a part of her life and enacted Witch ritual with Gerald. Due to Gardner’s relationship with Woodford-Grimes, it’s possible to speculate on the individuals who made up “the most interesting element,” and it turns out that nearly all of them were Co-Masons, or at least ex-Co-Masons.
The “element” was a part of Sullivan’s group in large part because they had nowhere else to go. In 1935 Mabel Besant (daughter of Co-Masonry’s founder and one of the leading lights of Theosophy, Annie Besant), who then held the title “Most Puissant Grand Commander of the British Federation” of Co-Masons, was “suspended” from Co-Masonry due to her anger over the group’s Supreme Council reconciling with a French Masonic group exiled from the greater world of Masonry. (Yes, just like there are “Witch wars” today, there were “Co-Masonry massacres” in the 1930s.) In a show of solidarity with Besant, members of the nearby Southampton Co-Masonic lodge (ironically named Harmony Lodge) resigned from the group. Among those who resigned were Edith Woodford-Grimes and two other individuals we will get to know fairly well, Ernie and Susie Mason (who were brother and sister).
The Crotona Fellowship had built their theatre on property given to them by a woman named Catherine Chalk, who just happened to be a Co-Mason. It’s likely that Chalk introduced Besant and her followers to the Rosicrucians. Gardner is very open about this in Gerald Gardner: Witch and even affectionately refers to Mabel Besant by the nickname “Mabs.” 12 Exiled from the world of Co-Masonry, could Besant, Woodford-Grimes, and the Mason family have turned to Witchcraft? I think the answer is a very strong possibly.
Ernest “Ernie” Mason (1885–1979) is probably the most intriguing figure in the Crotona Fellowship when it comes to Witchcraft. An informant of historian Philip Heselton said this of Mason: “He was a witch, you know! The whole family were. They were mind control people. But he found the rituals too strenuous so he couldn’t do it anymore.” 13
If there’s a case to be made for Gardner being initiated into a tradition with some real roots in cunning-craft and other old magickal practices, it most likely goes through the Mason family.
Ernie, along with his sisters Susie and Rosetta Fudge (she took her husband’s last name), were involved in many different esoteric and occult groups. Ernie was publicly a Co-Mason and a Rosicrucian, and he might have inherited the teachings and traditions of the Crotona Fellowship after Sullivan’s death, and at least practiced the tradition until the 1950s. Friends have also stated that he was a marvelous teacher and had his own set of mental exercises (which seem to somewhat resemble those of Modern Witchcraft) and was an amateur chemist.14
Susie Mason (1882–1979) was involved in all the same groups as Ernie but was also a part of the Theosophical Society, serving as a regional secretary from 1929–1934. 15 Rosetta Fudge (1884–1971) was the older sister of Ernie and Susie and married in 1903. Like her siblings, she was involved in Co-Masonry and Rosicrucianism and had also at least studied the works of occult writer Rudolf Steiner earlier in life.
So were the Masons a family of Witches? We will never know for sure, but as a family they were certainly at least very interested in occult and esoteric philosophies. I wish there was some sort of smoking cauldron linking them to a family magickal tradition, but so far that’s proven elusive. With their broad array of unconventional interests, it’s possible that people in their native town of Southampton might have called them “witches” or speculated on their magickal activities. Given the Co-Masonic ties between Edith Woodford-Grimes and the Mason family (they all resigned when Mabel Besant was “suspended” by the Co-Masonic Grand Council), I think it’s likely that they make up a large part of what Gardner called the “most interesting element.”
One of the major themes of early Witchcraft was reincarnation, and it seems to have played a large role in Gardner’s 1939 initiation. Writing in The Meaning of Witchcraft in 1959, Gardner says this of his initiators:
I was of these opinions in 1939, when, here in Britain, I met some people who compelled me to alter them. They were interested in curious things, reincarnation for one, and they were also interested in the fact that an ancestress of mine, Grizel Gairdner, had been burned as a witch. They kept saying that they had met me before. We went through everywhere we had been, and I could not ever have met them before in this life; but they claimed to have known me in previous lives. Although I believe in reincarnation, as many people do who have lived in the East, I do not remember my past lives clearly; I only wish I did. However, these people told me enough to make me think. Then some of these new (or old) friends said, “You belonged to us in the past. You are of the blood. Come back to where you belong.” 16
Perhaps the Mason family and Gardner’s other initiators had only recently begun thinking of themselves as Witches, or maybe a memory of a past life sparked some sort of interest in Witchcraft. If they all felt some sort of kinship with Gardner that went beyond their rather recent association, it would explain why he seems to be their only initiate from that period of time, and the only one who was not a Co-Mason.
The Other Witches
Before the publication of Ronald Hutton’s The Triumph of the Moon in 1999, the name most associated with Gardner’s 1939 initiation was “Old Dorothy.” As we’ve seen previously, Gardner mentions her in the Gerald Gardner: Witch biography, but while doing so he makes no claims that “Old Dorothy” was his initiator or was even present during his initiation rite.
Later in Gerald Gardner: Witch she’s mentioned again, this time in relation to Operation Cone of Power, a Witchcraft ritual constructed to keep the Germans from making landfall in the British Isles (see section 2 of this book). In this instance she’s portrayed as the High Priestess of the Witch-cult:
Old Dorothy called up “covens right and left; although by Witch Law they should not have known each other.” And this was the start of “Operation Cone of Power,” when the witches, as they claim, sent up a force against Hitler’s mind. 17
It can be written with a large degree of certainty that the Dorothy being referred to in these passages by Gardner was Dorothy Fordham, better known to most Witches as Dorothy Clutterbuck (1880–1951).18 Doreen Valiente, who was initiated by Gardner in 1953 and spent the rest of her life writing about Witchcraft, says that Gardner used to speak often of Old Dorothy, and apparently her last name was known to at least some of his initiates. In his 1980 book A History of Witchcraft: Sorcerers, Heretics & Pagans, historian Jeffrey Russell mentions that many Gardnerian Witches “tell the story that he was initiated by Old Dorothy Clutterbuck.” 19
For many years the very existence of “Old Dorothy” was met with a lot of skepticism both within academia and in the Witchcraft community. That changed in the early 1980s when Valiente was able to track down Dorothy’s death certificate and prove her existence. She was much like Gardner described her in Gerald Gardner: Witch: wealthy and the owner of two large homes and at least one very expensive pearl necklace.
Clutterbuck is an especially vexing character when it comes to Gardner’s initiation. She was not a former Co-Mason and was not involved with the Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship. She and Gardner seem to at least have been acquaintances; he seconded her nomination to be president of the “Highcliffe Branch of the New Forest and Christchurch Conservative and Unionist Association” in 1940, but as of now that’s the only known group that connects them. 20 It also seems unlikely that the “Conservative and Unionist Association” would have been a good place to talk about Witchcraft and other occult goings-on.
Despite her lack of involvement in any known occult groups or fraternal orders, Clutterbuck was highly unconventional. She had what was (most likely) a long-term and rather open same-sex relationship until her partner passed away in the early 1930s. This was followed by her marriage to Rupert Fordham, who was still legally married when he and Dorothy held their nuptials. (Fordham’s wife had previously been committed to a mental health facility, and they never officially divorced.)
Clutterbuck’s parents had been wealthy, and she was able to live as a woman of independent means for her entire life, meaning she had plenty of free time. After her marriage to Fordham, she had even more money (he was the heir to a beer-brewing fortune) and certainly had the time to engage in a practice such as Witchcraft. In addition to her involvement in conservative politics, Clutterbuck dabbled in local theatre, generally as a wealthy benefactor. Because of that interest, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that she visited the Crotona Fellowship when they staged a play.
As of yet there is no definitive piece of evidence that points to Clutterbuck’s involvement in Witchcraft or the occult, but there are some sources that hint at it. During the early 1940s Clutterbuck kept a daily journal. This was not a diary but more like a daily meditation and/or art exercise. Dorothy’s journals (there were three over the course of 1942–1943) contain poetic reflections and watercolor illustrations. Some of Dorothy’s poems reflect a great love of the natural world, an interest that today we might call “pagan.” 21
Some of the more interesting passages include the personification of Christmas with a female (goddess-like?) figure and a poem about “the White Shepherdess,” another figure that might be linked to a belief in a goddess. Clutterbuck’s journals are light on Jesus and Christianity but do include thoughts on days dedicated to certain Catholic saints. I think that Clutterbuck’s journals are a mixed bag and that if one looks through them searching for evidence that Clutterbuck was a Witch, it can be found. But conversely, the opposite is probably true as well.
So was Clutterbuck a Witch? Like everything in this chapter, the answer is possibly. She had the time, she was eccentric, and I don’t think she gave two shits what people thought about her, so why not? If she was a Witch, then Philip Heselton (Gardner’s greatest biographer and the source of many of my footnotes) believes that Gardner probably didn’t have much to do with her. Perhaps she was only around occasionally or lost interest in the practice after the start of World War II.
Ronald Hutton has suggested that the use of Clutterbuck’s name by Gardner might have been a bit of a red herring. Perhaps in order to conceal the identity of Woodford-Grimes as his initiator, Gardner instead publicly used the name of the by then deceased Clutterbuck as a bit of a joke.22 In addition to a lack of documented social interaction between Gardner and Clutterbuck, 1939 (the year of Gardner’s alleged initiation) was an especially traumatic year for Old Dorothy. In May of that year, her husband, Rupert, died in an auto accident, an event that, according to Hutton, made her a virtual shut-in for the rest of the year.
While we will never know for sure if Clutterbuck was an occult practitioner, there is another name often linked to Gardner with strong magickal ties. While not as well known as Dorothy Clutterbuck, Rosamund Isabella Charlotte Sabine (1865–1948) might very well be the missing piece when it comes to Gardner’s initiation and early Modern Witchcraft. Sabine is mentioned only once by Gardner, in a letter to his then friend Cecil Williamson.23
In that letter Gardner refers to the recent death of “Old Mother Sabine” and his inheritance of her dried herb collection. While there’s nothing strange about that on the surface, a little digging reveals that Sabine died five years before Gardner wrote that letter in 1953! 24 Much like with Clutterbuck, there’s very little evidence linking Sabine directly to Gardner, and, like Clutterbuck, Sabine was not a part of Gardner’s social circle and was not a Co-Mason or a member of the Crotona Fellowship.
However, earlier in life Sabine had been a member of an offshoot of the Golden Dawn, one of the most influential magickal organizations of the last two hundred years. And as late as 1930, Sabine was submitting articles to The Occult Review, then the United Kingdom’s premier magickal magazine.25 Sabine was clearly an occultist, and it doesn’t take much imagination to think that as a fellow resident of the New Forest area, she might have hung out with the Rosicrucians of the Crotona Fellowship, even if there is no clear paper trail. (I’m sure I’ve visited groups without leaving too much in the way of a record.)
In the margins of Doreen Valiente’s copy of Gerald Gardner: Witch there’s a small note referencing a “Mother Sabine,” with a question mark near a passage about the New Forest Witches. This indicates that Gardner spoke of a Mother Sabine with some regularity to his early initiates. It would be nice if there was a clear trail from Sabine to Gardner or even Woodford-Grimes, but all we have are these little tidbits.
Philip Heselton has speculated that perhaps Clutterbuck and Sabine were a part of a triad of Witches who were nominally linked to the ones from the Crotona Fellowship. He speculates that the two women, along with writer Katherine Oldmeadow (1878–1963), may have gotten interested in Witchcraft after reading an article about Margaret Murray’s 1921 book The Witch-Cult in Western Europe in The Occult Review a year after the book’s initial release. Oldmeadow and Clutterbuck were neighbors and were known to be friends, and Oldmeadow was interested in herbalism, as was Sabine. But linking the three of them together in connection with Witchcraft is, as of now, simply speculation.
Part of what makes a good mystery is not knowing, and such is the case with both Sabine and Clutterbuck. There’s just enough there that the idea they may have been practicing Witchcraft can’t be dismissed completely. As more research is done into the early days of the Craft, perhaps the missing link that connects all the dots will be found. And if not, speculation is part of the fun.
4. Jack Bracelin is listed as the author of Gerald Gardner: Witch, but most of the book is alleged to have been written by the Sufi mystic and novelist Idries Shah, a friend of Gardner. Gerald was intimately involved with the production of his biography, and I think it’s safe to say that the story was told the way he wanted it to be.
5. Bracelin, Gerald Gardner: Witch, 165.
6. Gardner, The Meaning of Witchcraft. Originally published in 1959 by the Aquarian Press and by many other publishers subsequently. I’m quoting from a Magickal Childe edition published in the 1990s (there’s no publication date in the book). This is from page 11.
7. Heselton, Witchfather: A Life of Gerald Gardner, Vol. 1, 215. The strange spellings, misspellings, and grammatical errors are from Gardner’s original letter.
8. Gardner’s letter was mistaken, too. Drawing down the moon does appear in Witchcraft Today and is referenced in regard to a Yule ritual.
9. Hohman, The Long-Lost Friend, ed. Harms, 248.
10. I spend a lot of time discussing the history of books and grimoires in my book The Witch’s Book of Shadows, published in 2017 by Llewellyn.
11. Heselton, Witchfather: A Life of Gerald Gardner, Vol. 1, 198.
12. For a much more detailed account of these goings-on, read pages 202–205 of Heselton’s Witchfather: A Life of Gerald Gardner, Vol. 1.
13. Heselton, Wiccan Roots, 100.
14. Heselton, Wiccan Roots, 106.
15. Ibid., 105.
16. Gardner, The Meaning of Witchcraft. Originally published in 1959 by the Aquarian Press and by many other publishers subsequently. I’m quoting from a Magickal Childe edition published in the 1990s (there’s no publication date in the book). This is from page 11.
17. Heselton, Wiccan Roots, 226.
18. In 1939 Clutterbuck would have been known as Dorothy Fordham, and later Dorothy St. Quintin-Fordham. Clutterbuck was her maiden name and Fordham her married name, and it was changed a third time after the death of her husband, Rupert, in 1939.
19. Valiente in Janet and Stewart Farrar’s A Witches’ Bible, 283. Valiente’s essay appears as Appendix One.
20. Heselton, Witchfather: A Life of Gerald Gardner, Vol. 1, 224–225.
21. Philip Heselton writes extensively about “Dorothy’s diaries” in his book Wiccan Roots, and that book includes a few full-page photographs of Clutterbuck’s work. If you want to learn more about Dorothy’s books and read some excerpts, you should track down Roots.
22. Hutton, The Triumph of the Moon, 212. Hutton is the Craft’s greatest historian, and he is rather dismissive of Clutterbuck as a Witch. He makes a good argument.
23. Williamson and Gardner opened a Witchcraft museum and then had a major falling-out. After their partnership fizzled out, Williamson opened a new museum, which has lasted into the present day. If you ever get a chance to visit the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in Boscastle, England, I highly recommend it!
24. Heselton, Witchfather: A Life of Gerald Gardner, Vol. 1, 219.
25. Heselton, Witchfather: A Life of Gerald Gardner, Vol. 1, 219. Heselton also writes about Sabine in his book Gerald Gardner and the Cauldron of Inspiration.