The Wild Hunt (https://wildhunt.org/tag/gerald-gardner)
Alan U. Dalul reviews Kenneth Johnson’s history of Traditional Witchcraft and the tradition’s founder, Robert Cochrane, whose vision of Witchcraft diverged, but also complemented, that of his contemporary Gerald Gardner.
“Armed only with some dude’s book of nonsense and her own determination and national pride, Eglantine Price could fly. She could conjure. She could make change.” Meg Elison is back with another Classic of Pagan Cinema: Disney’s 1971 musical “Bedknobs and Broomsticks,” a story with surprising resonance for her Wiccan tradition.
Alan U. Dalul reviews Craig Spencer’s “Witchcraft Unchained: Exploring the History & Traditions of British Craft,” from Crossed Crow Books.
The food was bad, the magic was bad, and both were written by people who had all of this knowledge they forgot to put down on the page. But making food felt like the easier version of reading the grimoires. Troubleshooting instructions, handwriting alterations, and crossing out some steps altogether made me more confident in both the kitchen and the sacred circle.
In terms of a Queer Craft, it is important to form a relationship with figures from queer history, and not just those within the Craft or occultism. Figures like Sappho, Oscar Wilde, Alan Turing, James Baldwin, and Edith Windsor each offer us an opportunity to forge spiritual bonds with those who helped to move the queer experience forward.