Witches Ride High Over English Cities;
And They Are Not All Female Pagans
And They Are Not All Female Pagans
Books, Gifts and More
770-516-6969
The Frederick Post - Frederick Maryland
December 7, 1962
December 7, 1962
By TOM A. CULLEN, Newspaper Enterprise Assn.
BRIGHTON, England -- (NEA) – Witchcraft is now enjoying its biggest boom in Britain since the Middle Ages.
Hundreds of men and women are now claiming to be witches and to have the power to heal or to cast spells. Some of these are genuine pagans,
or followers of the 'Old Religion,' as they call it.
Others are cranks or thrill-seekers, with area out-and-out racketeers thrown in
Witches and warlocks as male witches are called have been interviewed on television. Some have even written their memoirs for the British press
under such lurid titles as "I Was a Sussex Devil Worshipper.'
Cashing in on the region's 450-year-old reputation for sorcery, the Commercial Hotel of Pendleton East Lancashire recently changed its name to
'The Witch O Pendle' and doubled its business overnight.
Why the present interest in witches and black magic?
The revival dates from 1951, when the last of Britain's anti-witch laws was repealed, according to Mrs. Doreen Valiente, an authority on witchcraft,
whom I interviewed here in Brighton. In the bad old days -- or the 'burning times.' as Mrs. Valiente calls them -- witches were reluctant to contact
each other for fear of being prosecuted by the law.
"Now witches are coming more and more into the open." she claims. "Their main trouble is finding premises. Ordinary apartments and houses
are out, for witches like to make lots of noise."
At the same time Mrs. Valiente warned that some covens witches meeting places are being run as rackets.
"Some of them attract members by promising exotic practices. Then the member is trapped into a compromising situation and afterwards
blackmailed."
One Brighton coven is said to have charged American tourists large sums to witness so-called "Black Masses," and other rituals.
None of the Americans detected the fraud, apparently, for they went away satisfied that they had seen something unique and well worth the
money.
"Many people think that I, myself, am a witch," said dark-haired Mrs. Valiente, who has just completed a book on sorcery. "I don't mind being
called a witch," she added "In fact, I find it rather amusing."
Certainly, Mrs Valiente's basement flat in Brighton contains one of the most amazing collections of witchcraft bric-a-brac to be found in the British
Isles.
The flat abounds with crystal balls, magic wands, incense burners and swords and daggers used for drawing 'magic circles.' A picture of the
moon goddess surmounted by antelope horns stares down from the wall.
Items include a "horned scraper" made of flint which, when placed on the end of a wand, could serve as a sort of witches back-scratcher. There
is also a chopper of the sort that is used by witches in dicing herbs. Even the candlesticks have cloven hooves.
As for Mrs. Valiente, I noticed that she was wearing a necklace of "witch stones." tiny fossils found on Brighton beach. The only item missing is a
broomstick, which apparently witches now consider old-fashioned.
In fact, Mrs. Valiente has breathed the atmosphere of witchcraft from childhood, having been born in New Forest, Hampshire, a region noted for
its sorcerers. "My family was notorious for their ability to commune with fairies." she said.
One reason why witchcraft dies hard in this county of Sussex, according to Mrs. Valiente, is that this was the last county in England to turn
Christian. Sussex witches have certain specialties which set them apart from others of their sisterhood, according to my informant.
A favorite diversion of Sussex witches, according to legend, was to turn themselves into hares and run about the countryside at night. Thus,
there is a valley near Willingdon Hill Sussex, which still bears the name of Harewitch Bottom.
Another specialty was known as the "Tanglewood charm," a spell which caused people to wander out of their way and get lost. A Hurstpierpoint
witch named "Dame Prettylegs" as said to be an adept at this charm.
"All this may sound like non-sense" Mrs. Valiente conceded, "But how can one explain what happened to the group of teenagers who visited
Chanctonbury Ring recently?"
Chanctonbury Ring is the site of an old pagan temple on the Sussex Downs, and is ringed around with beech trees. Legend says that if one runs
three times around the ring of trees at midnight and calls upon the Devil, he will appear.
"Recently, some teenagers decided to put the legend to a test. So, loaded with several crates of beer and a portable phonograph, they climbed
to Chanctonbury Ring to hod a mock witches' sabbat.
"At first they contented themselves with doing the Twist and conventional rock 'n' roll. But as midnight approached they danced more and more
wildly around the ring invoking pagan powers.
"Suddenly an eerie silence descended upon the place followed by a feeling of terrible tension. It was as though one were being sucked up in the
vacuum created by a nuclear explosion, as one of the teenagers expressed it."
"Without consulting among themselves, they fled in panic down the hill. Today, nothing would induce those youngsters to go back to that spot,"
said Valiente.
"The Chanctonbury temple was dedicated to the Horned God whom the Greeks called Pan, the Romans Faunus. It may be that the old black
magic still works."
BRIGHTON, England -- (NEA) – Witchcraft is now enjoying its biggest boom in Britain since the Middle Ages.
Hundreds of men and women are now claiming to be witches and to have the power to heal or to cast spells. Some of these are genuine pagans,
or followers of the 'Old Religion,' as they call it.
Others are cranks or thrill-seekers, with area out-and-out racketeers thrown in
Witches and warlocks as male witches are called have been interviewed on television. Some have even written their memoirs for the British press
under such lurid titles as "I Was a Sussex Devil Worshipper.'
Cashing in on the region's 450-year-old reputation for sorcery, the Commercial Hotel of Pendleton East Lancashire recently changed its name to
'The Witch O Pendle' and doubled its business overnight.
Why the present interest in witches and black magic?
The revival dates from 1951, when the last of Britain's anti-witch laws was repealed, according to Mrs. Doreen Valiente, an authority on witchcraft,
whom I interviewed here in Brighton. In the bad old days -- or the 'burning times.' as Mrs. Valiente calls them -- witches were reluctant to contact
each other for fear of being prosecuted by the law.
"Now witches are coming more and more into the open." she claims. "Their main trouble is finding premises. Ordinary apartments and houses
are out, for witches like to make lots of noise."
At the same time Mrs. Valiente warned that some covens witches meeting places are being run as rackets.
"Some of them attract members by promising exotic practices. Then the member is trapped into a compromising situation and afterwards
blackmailed."
One Brighton coven is said to have charged American tourists large sums to witness so-called "Black Masses," and other rituals.
None of the Americans detected the fraud, apparently, for they went away satisfied that they had seen something unique and well worth the
money.
"Many people think that I, myself, am a witch," said dark-haired Mrs. Valiente, who has just completed a book on sorcery. "I don't mind being
called a witch," she added "In fact, I find it rather amusing."
Certainly, Mrs Valiente's basement flat in Brighton contains one of the most amazing collections of witchcraft bric-a-brac to be found in the British
Isles.
The flat abounds with crystal balls, magic wands, incense burners and swords and daggers used for drawing 'magic circles.' A picture of the
moon goddess surmounted by antelope horns stares down from the wall.
Items include a "horned scraper" made of flint which, when placed on the end of a wand, could serve as a sort of witches back-scratcher. There
is also a chopper of the sort that is used by witches in dicing herbs. Even the candlesticks have cloven hooves.
As for Mrs. Valiente, I noticed that she was wearing a necklace of "witch stones." tiny fossils found on Brighton beach. The only item missing is a
broomstick, which apparently witches now consider old-fashioned.
In fact, Mrs. Valiente has breathed the atmosphere of witchcraft from childhood, having been born in New Forest, Hampshire, a region noted for
its sorcerers. "My family was notorious for their ability to commune with fairies." she said.
One reason why witchcraft dies hard in this county of Sussex, according to Mrs. Valiente, is that this was the last county in England to turn
Christian. Sussex witches have certain specialties which set them apart from others of their sisterhood, according to my informant.
A favorite diversion of Sussex witches, according to legend, was to turn themselves into hares and run about the countryside at night. Thus,
there is a valley near Willingdon Hill Sussex, which still bears the name of Harewitch Bottom.
Another specialty was known as the "Tanglewood charm," a spell which caused people to wander out of their way and get lost. A Hurstpierpoint
witch named "Dame Prettylegs" as said to be an adept at this charm.
"All this may sound like non-sense" Mrs. Valiente conceded, "But how can one explain what happened to the group of teenagers who visited
Chanctonbury Ring recently?"
Chanctonbury Ring is the site of an old pagan temple on the Sussex Downs, and is ringed around with beech trees. Legend says that if one runs
three times around the ring of trees at midnight and calls upon the Devil, he will appear.
"Recently, some teenagers decided to put the legend to a test. So, loaded with several crates of beer and a portable phonograph, they climbed
to Chanctonbury Ring to hod a mock witches' sabbat.
"At first they contented themselves with doing the Twist and conventional rock 'n' roll. But as midnight approached they danced more and more
wildly around the ring invoking pagan powers.
"Suddenly an eerie silence descended upon the place followed by a feeling of terrible tension. It was as though one were being sucked up in the
vacuum created by a nuclear explosion, as one of the teenagers expressed it."
"Without consulting among themselves, they fled in panic down the hill. Today, nothing would induce those youngsters to go back to that spot,"
said Valiente.
"The Chanctonbury temple was dedicated to the Horned God whom the Greeks called Pan, the Romans Faunus. It may be that the old black
magic still works."
