Philip Heselton, Doreen Valiente: Witch

Home , Doreen Valiente, Gerald Gardner (Wiccan), Robert Cochrane (witch), The Cauldron

[The Pomegranate 18.1 (2016) 108-111] ISSN 1528-0268 (print) doi: 10.1558/pome.v18i1.30254 ISSN 1743-1735 (online)

Philip Heselton, Doreen Valiente: Witch (Nottingham, UK: The Doreen Valiente Foundation in association with The Centre for Pagan Stud- ies, 2016), 357 pp., £21.99 (hardcover) £14.99 (paper)

While it is Gerald Gardner (1884–1964), the internationally renowned “Father of Wicca,” who is most often credited with helping to bring this Pagan new religious movement out of the shadows and into public consciousness, there is a strong argument to be made that he would never have been anywhere near as successful had it not been for the work of his most influential and significant high priestess, Doreen Valiente (1922–1999). Born in the southern English county of Surrey, Valiente began practicing magic as a child and later became acquainted with Gardner after learning of him from a magazine arti- cle. Being initiated into his Gardnerian tradition of Wicca at Mid- summer 1953, Valiente subsequently became the high priestess of his Bricket Wood coven, during which time she rewrote much of the ritual liturgies and poems contained within his Book of Shad- ows. Although she broke from him in 1957, she retained her belief in Wicca and involved herself in the traditions of rivals like Raymond Howard and Robert Cochrane. From the early 1960s through to the late 1980s she published a series of five books on Wicca, through which she sought to publicize the faith to a far wider audience. By the time of her death she was well-respected as an elder in the Craft, coming to be widely known as the “Mother of Modern Witchcraft” or “Mother of Wicca.” The author of this biography, Philip Heselton, first made a name for himself in the British Earth Mysteries movement, establishing The Ley Hunter magazine and later authoring volumes on ley lines and earth spirits in the 1980s and 90s. Becoming a practicing Wiccan, he later changed his research direction and began to explore the early origins of his faith, establishing himself as one of the foremost fig- ures in this field. His investigations into the life of Gardner and the putative New Forest coven—the existence of which has been central to many of his arguments—has been published in the form of Wiccan Roots (Capall Bann, 2000), Gerald Gardner and the Cauldron of Inspiration (Capall Bann, 2004) and Witchfather: A Life of Gerald Gardner (Thoth Publications, 2012). These important books have been read widely within the modern Pagan community and attracted the attention

© Equinox Publishing Ltd 2016. Office 415, The Workstation, 15 Paternoster Row, Sheffield S1 2BX. Review 109 of academics operating in contemporary Pagan studies. Heselton is therefore a sympathetic biographer, both to Valiente and to the belief system to which she devoted herself. However, as with his previous work on Gardner this is not mere hagiography, and he has not shied away from some of the more controversial aspects of her life. Its title a clear nod to Jack Bracelin and Idries Shah’s Gerald Gard- ner: Witch (Octagon Press, 1960), the idea behind Doreen Valiente: Witch was not originally conceived by Heselton. Rather, the volume was specially commissioned by John Belham-Payne (1952–2016) for publication through his own Doreen Valiente Foundation, established in 2011. Belham-Payne was Valiente’s final magical partner, having befriended her through the Centre for Pagan Studies, a UK- based community organization that he had established with his wife Julie in 1995. Having inherited Valiente’s collection of magical arti- facts and documents, he had since been instrumental in promoting her legacy by establishing the Doreen Valiente Foundation, publishing an anthology of her poetry, and organizing an upcoming exhi- bition about her in the English coastal town of Brighton. Tragically, Belham-Payne died just prior to the release of this biography, which had its launch party at Treadwell’s bookstore, an esoteric community hub in central London, in February 2016. It is only fitting therefore that this book opens with an introduc- tion from Belham-Payne himself. Here he reveals that he had originally hoped to write Valiente’s biography on his own, until finding that the task was beyond his capabilities and that Heselton instead would be better placed to undertake the task. Oddly, in this open- ing chapter Belham-Payne makes the erroneous claim that Hesel- ton’s volume represents the first ever biography of Valiente to be produced (xiii). Not only did Valiente’s own autobiographical work, The Rebirth of Witchcraft, appear in 1989, but Jonathan Tapsell’s all- too-brief Ameth: The Life and Times of Doreen Valiente was brought out by Avalonia Books in 2013. Heselton’s, then, is the third biography of Valiente to have seen publication, although it does have the dis- tinction of being the fullest and most detailed of the three. It should be stressed that this is not an academic biography, and nor does it pretend to be. It is clearly aimed at a popular (primarily Wiccan) audience, with short paragraphs and a lack of scholarly jargon helping to make this a very easy read. While it would therefore be unfair to assess it by the same criteria as one would judge an academic publication, here I shall be primarily concerned with its utility for those involved in the field of contemporary Pagan studies.

Perhaps the greatest strength of this book is the information that it brings to light for the very first time. Indeed, many of the rev- elations that Heselton has brought forth are quite fascinating. He reveals, for instance, that during the Second World War, Valiente was working as a translator at the code-breaking center of Bletch- ley Park (40). He also reveals that prior to her involvement in Wicca, Valiente was practicing Golden Dawn-style ceremonial magic with a partner known only as “Zerki”, and that this individual was also introduced to Gardner and initiated into the Gardnerian Craft in 1953 before soon dropping out (65–66, 72–74). Equally fascinating is the revelation—only hinted at in Tapsell’s previous biography—that during the early 1970s Valiente was involved in the white national- ist far right, being a member of the National Front and also perhaps the Northern League. As Heselton points out, Valiente came to dis- associate herself with these groups as she became better acquainted with their ideas; however, he also proffers the interesting sugges- tion that she may have joined such groups at the bequest of the Brit- ish intelligence services (153–163). Just as intriguing is Heselton’s revelation that Valiente was a personal friend of the Queen Mother and was put on a private jet to visit her in Scotland (254–55). How this came to be is left a perplexing mystery. Despite these important discoveries, it was unusual to find that certain aspects of Valiente’s life—such as her involvement in the cre- ation of the Wiccan Rede and her work with The Regency, a prom- inent Pagan group active in the 1960s and 70s—are not mentioned within the book. Many scholars may also be unsatisfied with the volume’s lack of engagement with the growing academic literature on the history of Wicca; a number of research articles that would have been pertinent to this work have for instance been overlooked. Equally frustrating for scholars will be the sparse and inconsistent use of referencing throughout many of its chapters. Important documents pertaining to Valiente’s life have clearly been consulted by Heselton, but often with no citations provided to indicate exactly what these documents are or where they can be found. This may well be vexing for later researchers who wish to examine these sources for themselves in greater detail. Although the style of writing makes this an easily accessible read, at times one feels that it could have been improved had the prose been guided by a firmer editorial hand. One recurring issue is that names are repeatedly dropped with no mention of who they are, when they knew Valiente, or what their relationship to her actually

© Equinox Publishing Ltd 2016 Review 111 was. On page 36 for instance, Heselton refers to Hazel Hall, Melissa Harrington, and Shelley Rabinovitch without specifying who any of them are. While the work is illustrated with a wide range of photo- graphs, many of which have never before seen publication, all too often these are either too small or of insufficient clarity to be fully appreciated. Of far better visual quality is a handy family tree of Valiente’s ancestry which Heselton has put together (9). Also worthy of commendation is the thorough and useful index at the end of the work. As Heselton himself makes plain, this is not going to be the defin- itive biography of Valiente. At several points in the book he high- lights those areas where he thinks that there is much further research to be carried out. The impression given—at least to this reviewer— was that Heselton has been simply unable to explore Valiente’s life to the same level of detail that he exhibited in his earlier works on Gardner. Why this is the case remains elusive, although it may be that the extent of his research was curtailed somewhat in order to meet a publisher’s deadline. If this is the case it would hopefully be rectified if Heselton ever decides to return to Valiente’s life for an expanded, enhanced second edition. While in this review I have highlighted those areas which might frustrate academic readers of this work, it is nevertheless the case that anyone with an interest in Wiccan history will undoubtedly gain enjoyment from reading it, and for that alone it has real value; it is a book that I would certainly recommend. Accordingly, there can be little dispute that once again, Heselton has done a great service to the study of Wiccan history.

Ethan Doyle White University College London