An Evening with the Fire Child

The fireworks started before she turned up. I mentioned that R was in Israel, which quickly led to a face-off between two of my closest friends, one Jewish, fiercely proud of her inheritance and of Israel's ability to defend itself against those who would harm it, the other ardently pro-Palestine and deeply concerned about the suffering of innocents there. Things got mucky fast, and it took much effort plus the arrival of the buffet to calm them both down. Even after, they were generous enough with each other, but the atmosphere stayed scratchy. And then she turned up and sat herself down in an armchair before all our enquiring gazes; Maxine Sanders, High Priestess of Alexandrian Wicca, whose beauty, buttocks and bewitchings kept the News of the World in print throughout much of the 60s and 70s.



Decades later she has a handsome presence enhanced by a very earthy approach. The evening was a questions and answers session with her. Personally I could have spent the night interviewing the lady, though she may well have found me impertinent. When I asked her if she believed in Gods outside of human invention, she said she adored them entirely within the context of ritual and the magic; and outside of that context, it didn't matter whether she was an atheist, or whatever she believed. An interesting and layered answer...

In general though, her comments were less enigmatic. No, all that filming hadn't interested her,it had been boring, No she didn't want Wicca to become mainstream because it would become common, No, she didn't believe that circles should work together for the greater good, No, what happened in other people's circles didn't concern her, only her own.

When people paused, she supplied her own questions with a gentle mocking smile. British Wiccans were among the most prudish, judgemental hypocritical people, she said... she wondered if any looking at their FB friends list realised how many of their Wiccan priestly chums were rapists? At least half, she assured the shocked room. [NB:See below for  the dispelling of  some muddle on this issue]  And wasn't anyone going to ask her about disability? her views on this were famously controversial; she initiated very few disabled people because they couldn't do the dancing, and dancing is very important in Wicca. Someone challenged her, saying that surely the strength of mind needed to overcome a disability was a huge disciplinary asset and she agreed with a caveat, 'But few and far between...' She didn't budge on this, nor did she on my next question, after she declared that a Witch Queen had to be young and beautiful, and I asked why that was the case when Witch Kings could be such munters.

'Have you ever seen images of the horned god?' She asked me.

'Yes, many,' I supplied.

'Then you have your answer.'

An answer indeed! It was perfect for setting right in my mind the images of the Wiccan deities; the God is a goatish creature of lust, the Goddess a paragon of youth and perfection. The parallel between the above idea and the story of the older, pleasant but distinctly plain Alex Sanders and the 15 year old beautiful girl he met and made his high priestess and wife is very clear. Gerald Gardner's own writings display something similar, when he tried to claw back a little power over his groups. Having established a spiritual practice where women could rule and express their spirituality, he attempted something of a volte-face:

"And the High Priestess shall rule her Coven as representative of the Goddess, and the High Priest shall support her as the representative of the God, And the High Priestess shall choose whom she will, if he have sufficient rank, to be her High Priest, For the God himself, kissed her feet in the fivefold salute, laying his power at the feet of the Goddess, because of her youth and beauty, her sweetness and kindness, her wisdom and Justice, her humility and generosity. So he resigned his lordship to her. But the Priestess should ever mind that all power comes from him. It is only lent when it is used wisely and justly. And the greatest virtue of a High Priestess is that she recognizes that youth is necessary to the representative of the Goddess, so that she will retire gracefully in favour of a younger woman, Should the Coven so decide in Council, For the true High Priestess realizes that gracefully surrendering pride of place is one of the greatest of virtues, and that thereby she will return to that pride of place in another life, with greater power and beauty."

Gerald Gardner never felt the need to show virtue in 'gracefully surrendering pride of place' of course. Priestesses like Doreen Valiente were not suddenly going to accept this new dictat that all power came from the God, not the Goddess, so that GG could get his end away tied up by a pretty girl in front of an altar. They carried on without him.

Sanders seems to have been more generous and less overtly gagging for it than Gardner. But it does demonstrate the possibility that Wicca might suffer from a strange irony, that the same Craft that created a spiritual outlet for women, offering dignity and power and freedom, had at its base boring familiar shaghunting - like the guy who wants to help you get out of an oppressive relationship so that he can nail you himself.

This business about a high priestess needing to be pretty and young, without any such onus on the high priest is the stuff of men's dreams; internalised objectification? More sexism, with the onus taken away from being beautiful madonna to being beautiful sex object? Really?

My suspicion is that Maxine would shrug and tell me that this is how it works, and if it feels wrong then the Craft is not for me. She certainly doesn't want it to become a world religion or anything like that, she says witches should stay secretive and shadowy... again, an irony, considering her fame.

I found her directness refreshing and funny, though it was very evident there's lots she doesn't say. Perhaps the Craft has grown less glamourous, less magical even as it has become kinder and more inclusive. Certainly I understand much more clearly my own relationship with the Craft, where it starts and stops. Especially where it stops.

Edited on 23/2/16 : So on the 22/2/16 I was contacted by a good friend from within the community. Her comment is below but I repeat it as it  has considerable bearing on the subject;

"I think it is worth mentioning that there is a slight but significant misquote here regarding the rapist chums on FB Friends lists. Maxine wondered how many people in the room realised they had two people in particular (unnamed but prominent Wiccan Priests) on their FB Friends list who were rapists - probably half the people in the room [had these two individuals on their FB Friends list].

That is very different to quoting her as saying "at least half" of each person's FB Friends list are rapists."

It feels inauthentic to change my original writing, but it is perfectly possible that I misheard/misunderstood, so I place this here for the sake of clarity and fairness.