by Carl Llewellyn Weschcke
The sixties and seventies of the last century were very exciting times for Pagans and Occultists of all persuasions.
What had been repressed by Church and Society was suddenly being Born Again, and the mood was revolutionary. We were discovering and recovering the Old Ways of Ancient Wisdom, but we were also part of the New Wave of Science and Political Liberation. The Old Ways and the New Wave fed into each other and inspired what we can still, legitimately, call the “New Age.”
The New Age shook things up so much that it attracted as many crazy people as it did reformers and people wanting answers to old questions for which old answers were no long accepted. We invented new movements and new institutions, and found alternative ways to see the world. It was as if futuristic science fiction and medieval myths merged and came alive in our time.
Now, in 2013, I can look back over a half-century of publishing for the New Age with astonishment and enjoyment for all we’ve done and for all the people who played active roles in giving it birth. Today, so much of the New Age is part of the modern world that what was once strange and scary to mainstream America is now common culture in the newly forming global civilization.
Even the pioneers don’t appreciate all that has happened. We planted the seeds that burst into New Life; we were the midwives to the birth of a New Earth; we nurtured a New Generation through childhood and adolescence; and now we watch as the Final Drama unfolds, the world-as-we-know-it ends, and a New World Order takes its place.
In the fall of 1973, Llewellyn sponsored an event called “Gnosticon,” standing for Gnosis, or Inner Knowledge, in the New Age. Many of these pioneers came together ostensibly to learn from each other but more importantly to “rebirth” one another. The energy of the moment was astonishing and still brings a song to my heart.
At the 1973 Gnosticon, I introduced Morning Glory to Oberon, and sparks flew. Suddenly, where there had been a crowd milling about near the hotel swimming pool, there were only two people. It was a timeless moment when two parts became a Whole Greater than the sum of the parts.
It is said that True Marriages are made in Heaven, but we believe that the Kingdom of Heaven is within—in the Heart of each of us. The Kingdom of Heaven is forever and we can all enter in. A True Marriage is a fertile union that enriches the world around and gives birth to new ideas, new understanding, and renewed devotion to shared ideals.
The life of Oberon and Morning Glory shows all of this to be true, and therefore we can all share in the celebration of that life and the Magick that they have brought into the world and are teaching to another generation.
—Carl Llewellyn Weschcke
Planet New Earth, Fall 2013