Alex Sanders
(1926 - 1988)
(1926 - 1988)
Alex Sanders, was the founder of the Alexandrian tradition of Wicca. Born Orrell
Alexander Carter, (June 6, 1926 - April 30, 1988), a Gemini with Scorpio rising. Alex
was the son of Harold, a musician, and Hannah Carter. His Welsh grandmother, Mrs
Bibby, was apparently a cunning woman and medium who gave him an early interest
in the occult. His mother was also a medium as was Alex and all his brothers. The
young Alex Sanders (he later changed his surname to Sanders by deed poll) became
quite well known as a trance medium where he lived.
Alex claimed to have been initiated into the Craft by his grandmother at the age of
seven, after he interrupted one of her solitary rituals, was later determined to be a
hoax. According to Sanders, neither he nor the family had any idea [Mrs Bibby] was a
witch, but she gave him no time to brood. She had the clothes off him, initiated him on
the spot, and told him that he was now a witch too and that various dreadful things
would happen if he betrayed the secret. Bearing in mind that Alex was a
seven-year-old child at the time, the claim is more redolent of child abuse than
witchcraft as understood by today practitioners. His assertion was that his book of
shadows was given him by his grandmother is therefore also certainly false, it is
fundamentally a Gardnerian one with some differences and some of the prose
sections missing.
Alex, was initiated into Gardnerian Wicca on March 9, 1963 by Medea of the
Derbyshire Gardnerian Coven. Medea also initiated Sylvia Tatham and raised Patricia
Kopanski to the Second Degree. Patricia Crowther had refused to raise Kopanski to
the Second Degree in her Sheffield Coven, so Pat left. When Medea's husband
suddenly died, she closed her Coven and left the area, leaving Pat, Alex and Sylvia
without a Coven or a complete BOS. They started their own Coven in Manchester,
with Pat as HPS, Alex as acting HP and Sylvia as Maid. After Sylvia received her
Second and Third Degree Initiations from Scotty Wilson (Loric) at Gardner's Witches'
Mill Coven, she initiated Alex to the Third Degree, and brought a complete BOS from
the Witches' Mill. Pat left the Coven when Alex refused to marry her, and Sylvia
became the HPS. After Sylvia left for New Zealand and the Coven dissolved, Alex
formed a new coven with Paul King and Maxine Morris in late 1964. Alex made Maxine,
a redhead who dyed her hair blonde, his High Priestess.
Alex married Maxine December 1965 in one of the earliest examples of a Wiccan
handfasting. In June of 1967, Alex and Maxine Sanders moved to London, where they
became well-known in the city's alternative scene, providing introductory talks on
witchcraft on a weekly basis.
Alex reversed some of the reforms of Doreen Valiente, making the God and Goddess
once again equal, adding Kabbalistic ceremonial magick, and changing the coven
emphasis from group activity to individual magical development. Sanders proved to be
just as passionate about promoting "the Craft" as Gardner, and, consequently, the
number of Alexandrian covens grew to rival the number of Gardnerian covens.
Sanders' initiates started calling themselves 'Alexandrians' to differentiate themselves
from the Gardnerians in May 1966, after Pat Crowther and Rae Bone denounced
Sanders. They claimed, wrongly, that he was not properly initiated, carrying on a feud
that had simmered between them and Medea and Pat Kopanski. Medea was one of
those Witches Gardner had initiated in a frenzy of initiations that Crowther and Bone
considered poor judgement on his part. The Alexandrians and Gardnerians have
constantly cross-fertilized each other, until today their similarities outweigh their
differences.
In 1969, June Johns published a biography of Sanders entitled King of the Witches,
based on Sanders' own testimony. Toward the end of the 60's, Alex was shunned by
many of his previous supporters when he embarked on a series of magickal workings
to make contact with extraterrestrial entities.
In 1970, Alex and his High Priestess Maxine, initiated Stewart and Janet Farrar into
their 'tradition'. As a writer, Farrar started writing about the Alexandrians. Alex
provided much of the material for the book What Witches Do, published by Stewart in
1971. Stewart and his wife Janet were two of his Alex's enthusiastic followers. It was
Stewart who came up with the popular name of "Alexandrian" for the tradition of Wicca
founded by Alex. Later, Stewart mixed the Gardnerian and Alexandrian Traditions in
his work. Prior to his recent death, Farrar switched to a Gardnerian format for his
Witchcraft.
Circa 1970/1971, Alex composed a series of lectures written by himself and others
which were privately distributed as a course for novices in Alexandrian Wicca. These
lectures were published in the book The Alex Sanders Lectures in 1984 but were in
private circulation since the 1970's.
After Alex and Maxine's marriage dissolved between 1972-1973, Alex made a bonfire
of his private papers, including those relating to his time as a Witch. Alex was a gifted
medium from a family of mediums, and he worked with another medium named Derek
Taylor. Two of the manuscripts produced were called Children of the Stars and The
Southern Quarter Speaks: Set and Sekmet. Alex also claimed to have been initiated
into one of the oldest continuous covens on earth, the Ordine Della Luna in
Constantinople. Alex and Derek resurrected the group in Britain as the Ordine Della
Nova, a coven pursuing the Great Work as the stellar mysteries of the Divine Mother
ignored by Wicca.
Alex died of lung cancer in a hospice on the East Sussex coast of England, close to
where Aleister Crowley had also died four decades earlier. He died at the age of
sixty-one, on Beltane April 30, 1988.
Both Gerald Gardner and Alex conferred a secret Fourth Degree upon those initiates
they deemed worthy. Gerald's was the OTO Fourth Degree, while Alex used the
Adeptus Minor Ritual of the Golden Dawn. Although both of their traditions contain
some seed of the old Cunning Craft, they contain even more that is different and
stand alone as a newly created religion of Witchcraft generally known as 'the Craft' or
'Wicca.' Both the Gardnerians and the Alexandrians exported their Craft to other
countries before it came to the US, and neither showed much interest in 'colonizing'
the US with Wicca.
References
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://www.angelfire.com/nt/dragon9/ORIGINS.html
http://www.waningmoon.com/ethics/rede3.shtml
Alexander Carter, (June 6, 1926 - April 30, 1988), a Gemini with Scorpio rising. Alex
was the son of Harold, a musician, and Hannah Carter. His Welsh grandmother, Mrs
Bibby, was apparently a cunning woman and medium who gave him an early interest
in the occult. His mother was also a medium as was Alex and all his brothers. The
young Alex Sanders (he later changed his surname to Sanders by deed poll) became
quite well known as a trance medium where he lived.
Alex claimed to have been initiated into the Craft by his grandmother at the age of
seven, after he interrupted one of her solitary rituals, was later determined to be a
hoax. According to Sanders, neither he nor the family had any idea [Mrs Bibby] was a
witch, but she gave him no time to brood. She had the clothes off him, initiated him on
the spot, and told him that he was now a witch too and that various dreadful things
would happen if he betrayed the secret. Bearing in mind that Alex was a
seven-year-old child at the time, the claim is more redolent of child abuse than
witchcraft as understood by today practitioners. His assertion was that his book of
shadows was given him by his grandmother is therefore also certainly false, it is
fundamentally a Gardnerian one with some differences and some of the prose
sections missing.
Alex, was initiated into Gardnerian Wicca on March 9, 1963 by Medea of the
Derbyshire Gardnerian Coven. Medea also initiated Sylvia Tatham and raised Patricia
Kopanski to the Second Degree. Patricia Crowther had refused to raise Kopanski to
the Second Degree in her Sheffield Coven, so Pat left. When Medea's husband
suddenly died, she closed her Coven and left the area, leaving Pat, Alex and Sylvia
without a Coven or a complete BOS. They started their own Coven in Manchester,
with Pat as HPS, Alex as acting HP and Sylvia as Maid. After Sylvia received her
Second and Third Degree Initiations from Scotty Wilson (Loric) at Gardner's Witches'
Mill Coven, she initiated Alex to the Third Degree, and brought a complete BOS from
the Witches' Mill. Pat left the Coven when Alex refused to marry her, and Sylvia
became the HPS. After Sylvia left for New Zealand and the Coven dissolved, Alex
formed a new coven with Paul King and Maxine Morris in late 1964. Alex made Maxine,
a redhead who dyed her hair blonde, his High Priestess.
Alex married Maxine December 1965 in one of the earliest examples of a Wiccan
handfasting. In June of 1967, Alex and Maxine Sanders moved to London, where they
became well-known in the city's alternative scene, providing introductory talks on
witchcraft on a weekly basis.
Alex reversed some of the reforms of Doreen Valiente, making the God and Goddess
once again equal, adding Kabbalistic ceremonial magick, and changing the coven
emphasis from group activity to individual magical development. Sanders proved to be
just as passionate about promoting "the Craft" as Gardner, and, consequently, the
number of Alexandrian covens grew to rival the number of Gardnerian covens.
Sanders' initiates started calling themselves 'Alexandrians' to differentiate themselves
from the Gardnerians in May 1966, after Pat Crowther and Rae Bone denounced
Sanders. They claimed, wrongly, that he was not properly initiated, carrying on a feud
that had simmered between them and Medea and Pat Kopanski. Medea was one of
those Witches Gardner had initiated in a frenzy of initiations that Crowther and Bone
considered poor judgement on his part. The Alexandrians and Gardnerians have
constantly cross-fertilized each other, until today their similarities outweigh their
differences.
In 1969, June Johns published a biography of Sanders entitled King of the Witches,
based on Sanders' own testimony. Toward the end of the 60's, Alex was shunned by
many of his previous supporters when he embarked on a series of magickal workings
to make contact with extraterrestrial entities.
In 1970, Alex and his High Priestess Maxine, initiated Stewart and Janet Farrar into
their 'tradition'. As a writer, Farrar started writing about the Alexandrians. Alex
provided much of the material for the book What Witches Do, published by Stewart in
1971. Stewart and his wife Janet were two of his Alex's enthusiastic followers. It was
Stewart who came up with the popular name of "Alexandrian" for the tradition of Wicca
founded by Alex. Later, Stewart mixed the Gardnerian and Alexandrian Traditions in
his work. Prior to his recent death, Farrar switched to a Gardnerian format for his
Witchcraft.
Circa 1970/1971, Alex composed a series of lectures written by himself and others
which were privately distributed as a course for novices in Alexandrian Wicca. These
lectures were published in the book The Alex Sanders Lectures in 1984 but were in
private circulation since the 1970's.
After Alex and Maxine's marriage dissolved between 1972-1973, Alex made a bonfire
of his private papers, including those relating to his time as a Witch. Alex was a gifted
medium from a family of mediums, and he worked with another medium named Derek
Taylor. Two of the manuscripts produced were called Children of the Stars and The
Southern Quarter Speaks: Set and Sekmet. Alex also claimed to have been initiated
into one of the oldest continuous covens on earth, the Ordine Della Luna in
Constantinople. Alex and Derek resurrected the group in Britain as the Ordine Della
Nova, a coven pursuing the Great Work as the stellar mysteries of the Divine Mother
ignored by Wicca.
Alex died of lung cancer in a hospice on the East Sussex coast of England, close to
where Aleister Crowley had also died four decades earlier. He died at the age of
sixty-one, on Beltane April 30, 1988.
Both Gerald Gardner and Alex conferred a secret Fourth Degree upon those initiates
they deemed worthy. Gerald's was the OTO Fourth Degree, while Alex used the
Adeptus Minor Ritual of the Golden Dawn. Although both of their traditions contain
some seed of the old Cunning Craft, they contain even more that is different and
stand alone as a newly created religion of Witchcraft generally known as 'the Craft' or
'Wicca.' Both the Gardnerians and the Alexandrians exported their Craft to other
countries before it came to the US, and neither showed much interest in 'colonizing'
the US with Wicca.
References
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://www.angelfire.com/nt/dragon9/ORIGINS.html
http://www.waningmoon.com/ethics/rede3.shtml
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