A Timeline of Dates in Modern Traditional Witchcraft

I have included dates relating to prominent Wiccan figures as some facilitated or had contact with Traditional Witches, were initiates and practitioners themselves, and because Wicca and Traditional Witchcraft have both impacted upon one another to lesser or greater extents. I almost inserted dates for publication of scholarly books that have deeply impacted the modern traditional witchcraft movement(s) but decided against it. Suffice it to say that books by Carlo Ginzburg, Emma Wilby, Owen Davies, Éva Pócs, etc. are influential on thought in Traditional Witchcrafts.

For some of my broader reflections on Traditional and Folkloric Witchcrafts in the so-called west, go here: https://youtu.be/grwKqcIuv18

April, 1909 - George Pickingill (born circa 1816) dies. Later various witches and witchcraft traditions would claim George Pickingill as a direct magical forbear or influence.

1932 - Victor Anderson claimed to be initiated into a coven of mainly dustbowl refugees in Oregon in this year.

1939 - Gerald Gardner claimed to be initiated into a New Forest coven of witches who used the term ‘Wica’ in September this year.

May 1944 - Cora Cremeans and Victor Anderson meet and are married three days later in Bend, Oregon.

1947 - Cecil Williamson attempts to open the first iteration of the Museum of Witchcraft in Stratford-upon-Avon, but because of local opposition a new plan had to be forged.

1948 - Cora and Victor Anderson move to the Bay Area, California.

1949 - Rosaleen Norton - a notoriously public witch and mystical artist - had an exhibition at the University of Melbourne shut down by the police under obscenity charges. Four paintings - Witches' Sabbath, Lucifer, Triumph and Individuation - are removed. Rosaleen Norton is later taken to court and wins against the police.

June, 1951 - After purchasing the locally-named Witches’ Mill in 1948 in Castletown in the Isle of Man, the Folklore Centre of Superstition and Witchcraft was opened in 1951. This was the same year that the Witchcraft Act of 1735 was repealed, largely due to pressure and action from Spiritualists and those friendly to their cause within the British parliament. The Witchcraft Act of 1735 made it a criminal offence to claim that anyone had magical powers or was guilty of witchcraft. This of course would have an impact on certain service, folk, cunning magicians who were still practising at the time, some sectors of the Romani population, and later Spiritualist mediums.

July, 1951 - Both Cecil Williamson and Gerald Gardner are interviewed and quoted in a the Sunday Pictorial as either being witches or having something to do with witchcraft (an earlier article in the same paper interviews just Cecil Williamson). This friendship between Cecil Williamson - who had encountered folk magic and practitioners of witchcraft in his youth - and Gerald Gardner - the founder of what we now call Gardnerian Witchcraft - was pivotal in many regards. Their friendship turned sour however.

1952 - The Art of Rosaleen Norton is published. An article in the Australasian Post by D. Barnes entitled ‘Rosaleen says she could be a Witch’ is also published.

1953 - Doreen Valiente is initiated by Gerald Gardner into what would be later called Gardnerian Witchcraft. Doreen Valiente was ultimately critical in facilitating meetings and conversations between multiple figures and traditions of witchcraft. Doreen was also initiated into the Coven of Atho by Ray Howard, as well as the Clan of Tubal Cain. She worked with the Cardells for a short period as well.

1958 - An article entitled ‘The Craft of the Wiccens’ authored by Charles Cardell is published in Light magazine. Charles Cardell had been friendly earlier with the Bricket Wood Coven and Gerald Gardner, but around this time had fallen out. This article caught Doreen Valiente’s attention. She then reached out to Cardell and became involved for a short time with their rituals.

1960 - Eric Maple publishes his account of George Pickingill as a cunning person, 50 years after Pickingill’s death.

1962 - Doreen’s first non-fiction book on witchcraft - Where Witchcraft Lives - is published.

1962 - Joseph Wilson - who would later go on to form 1734 - meets Sean, his first teacher. 1734 is a mystical expression of witchcraft ‘watered’ by the teachings of Sean and his ‘Old Faith’, the influence of the matriarch Ruth Wynn Owen of Y Plant Bran, a Welsh hereditary House, and a short, but intense correspondence between Robert Cochrane and Joseph Wilson.

February, 1964 - Gerald Gardner dies at the age of 79.

1962/3 (?) - Alex Sanders is said to be initiated into Gardnerian Witchcraft. Alex and Maxine Sanders go on to forge the Alexandrian Witchcraft Tradition into which many people are initiated.

1964 - Charles Cardell as Rex Nemorensis publishes a pamphlet entitled ‘Witch’ which sets out to attack and defame both Gerald Gardner and Doreen Valiente. It also publishes entire sections of the Gardnerian Book of Shadows for the first time.

1964 - Doreen Valiente and Robert Cochrane meet. She was initiated into the Clan of Tubal Cain which had been founded at some point in the 50s. There is an unsubstantiated rumour of Robert Cochrane having been initiated as a Gardnerian witch, this has not been proven and is likely a concocted rumour. Incidentally, Robert Cochrane despised the so-called Gardnerians and is likely the origin of that term.

Midsummer, 1966 - Robert Cochrane (Roy Bowers) died tragically after ingesting belladonna and librium at the age of 35.

1966-1998 - Evan John Jones serves as the Magister of the Clan of Tubal Cain. He then passes the offices of Magister and Maid to Robin the Dart and Shani Oates.

1970 - Mastering Witchcraft by Paul Huson is first published. It mixes what the author had studied and experienced of Wiccan and Cochranian systems of witchcraft and attempts to present a workable modern-day grimoire for witches and warlocks. It fast becomes a classic.

1972 - The New England Covens of Traditionalist Witches (NECTW) is founded by Lady Gwen Thompson, who claimed to be a hereditary witch. It has been proven that occultism did flourish in her family for several generations by Theitic and academic Robert Mathiesen, and that Lady Gwen Thompson did in fact descend from both the accused and the accusers involved in the Salem Witch Trials.

1973 - Lady Circe first founds the Sisterhood and Brotherhood of Wicca which was her braiding of family folklore and magical tradition with contemporary Wiccan structures and terminologies. Orion Foxwood, a prominent American traditional witch, faery seer, and Southern Conjure practitioner, is an initiate of her order.

1974 - Lugh (another name for E. W. Liddell or Bill Liddell) begins to write what would become the Pickingill Papers in the form of articles in The Wiccan. Essentially these claimed that George Pickingill was a pagan priest of the Horned God who had established nine covens around Britain, of which the New Forest Coven was one.

1976 - Michael Howard - occultist, angelic magician, and traditional witch - begins The Cauldron which lasts until his death.

December, 1979 - Rosaleen Norton dies at the age of 62.

1981 - The Book of the Holy Strega by Raven Grimassi - hereditary Italian witch - is first published. He begins to popularise Stregheria, a form of Italian-American witchcraft.

April, 1988 - Alex Sanders dies at the age of 61.

1992 - The Azoëtia - Andrew Chumbley’s first book - is privately published and circulated.

1999 - The Triumph of the Moon by Ronald Hutton is published. This book mostly examines the development of Gardner’s Wica as ‘modern pagan witchcraft’. It however also concisely investigates the more dual-faith traditional groups and figures such as Robert Cochrane and Andrew Chumbley.

September, 1999 - Doreen Valiente dies at the age of 77.

December, 1999 - Cecil Williamson dies at the age of 90.

September, 2001 - Victor Anderson - Grandmaster of the Feri Tradition - dies at the age of 84.

August, 2003 - Evan John Jones dies at the age of 67.

May, 2004 - Lady Circe dies at the age of 82.

September, 2004 - Andrew Chumbley - the original magister of the Cultus Sabbati - dies from a severe asthmatic attack on his 37th birthday.

April, 2006 - Coven of the Wildwood is founded on Mt Coot-tha in so-called Brisbane, Australia and drinks from several roots and rivers. From this coven emerges a modern traditional witchcraft lineage and becomes one of the first Australian-founded witchcraft traditions to become international and bring in people from other continents.

May, 2008 - Cora Anderson - Grandmaster of the Feri Tradition - dies at the age of 93.

2008 - Traditional Witchcraft: A Cornish Book of Ways by Cornish traditional witch Gemma Gary is first published.

2012 - A Deed without a Name by Lee Morgan, a British-Australian traditional witch and magister of the Anderean Thread is first published.

September, 2015 - Michael Howard - prolific author and Gardnerian and Cultus Sabbati initiate - dies at the age of 67.

March, 2019 - Raven Grimassi - prolific author and devotee of foundational forms of witchcraft - dies at the age of 67.

March, 2020 - E. W. Liddell (Bill) dies at the age of 87.