Doreen Valiente

Doreen Valiente (born January 4, 1922 in Mitcham , Surrey , England , † September 1, 1999 in Brighton , England) was an English occultist and author.

She worked closely with Gerald Brousseau Gardner for some time . Along with Gardner, she was considered one of those personalities who played a key role in the development of the Wicca religion through the writing of rituals and texts.

Life

Doreen Valiente was raised as a Christian and attended a convent school . At the age of 15 she left the convent school and refused to attend it again. She later worked as a secretary studying books on magic and witchcraft by Aleister Crowley , Margaret Murray (Egyptologist and ethnologist) and Charles Leland (folklorist).

Shortly after the 1952 Witchcraft Act was repealed (England), she learned through an article by Cecile Williamson that there was still a working coven , the New Forest Coven . Cecile Williamson, who worked at the Museum of Witchcraft on the Isle of Man , then received a letter from Valiente and forwarded the letter to Gerald Gardner . Shortly afterwards, she met Gardner. In 1953 it was initiated into the Gardner Coven . A short time later she was his high priestess of the New Forest Coven .

In 1957 she and Gardner broke up. She feared that Gardner would endanger the coven through increased public relations. She left the New Forest Coven with some members and founded a new coven with Ned Grove . Valiente was then introduced into the Clan of Tubal-Cain , led by Robert Cochrane . But she left the coven when she noticed that Cochrane was more interested in witch ointments and spoke disparagingly of Gardnerian witches.

When her husband died in 1972, Valiente devoted himself to writing, as well as witchcraft, because a member of the British Parliament had tried to enforce a new law against witchcraft, which could trigger a modern witch hunt. In 1980 Valiente went in search of Dorothy "Old Dorothy" Clutterbuck , the high priestess who allegedly initiated Gardner to prove that this controversial woman even existed. However, a study by Ronald Hutton found that Gardner used this name to cover the true high priestess. In 1999, Doreen Valiente died of various diseases, including cancer, at the age of 77.

effect

Doreen Valiente is still considered by many to be the mother of modern paganism . She wrote many of the Wiccan rituals still in use today. She was so talented at this that Gardner would come to her often and ask her to work out a ritual on a particular subject that same day.

Valiente also discovered passages from Aleister Crowley in Gardner's Book of Shadows . Gardner stated that the traditions he had received were fragmentary and that he had tried to fill in these gaps; but if she thinks she can do better, then she should do it. Valiente took him at his word and changed many of Crowley's passages and added some passages from Charles Godfrey Leland . The Book of Shadows , which was finally completed , then became the basis for the Gardnerian Wicca .

Works

• Where Witchcraft Lives , 1962
• An ABC of Witchcraft , 1973
• Natural Magic , 1975 (Natural Magic, 2004)
• Witchcraft for Tomorrow , 1978
• The Rebirth of Witchcraft , 1989
• Charge of the Goddess: The Mother of Modern Witchcraft , 2000

literature

• Rensing, Britta. "I - 14.9.2: Doreen Valiente - mother of the Wicca religion" in Klöcker, Michael and Udo Tworuschka (eds.). Handbook of Religions: Churches and other faith communities in Germany. Munich: Olzog, loose-leaf edition 1997 and supplementary deliveries. 15. Supplementary delivery 2007.
• Rosemary Ellen Guiley: The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft . 2nd edition. Checkmark Books, New York NY et al. 1999, ISBN 0-8160-3849-X .
• Leo Ruickbie: Witchcraft Out of the Shadows. A complete history . Robert Hale, London 2004, ISBN 0-7090-7567-7 .

Web links

• On the death of Doreen Valiente (obituary)
• biography
• Review of Natural Magic