Modern witchcraft
Doreen Valiente
Doreen Edith Dominy
Poet, priestess and historian from within the movement, responsible for much of the language through which early Wicca still speaks.
- Dates
- 4 January 1922 – 1 September 1999
- Dating
- documented dates
- Born
- Mitcham, Surrey
- Died
- Brighton
The life
Valiente was initiated by Gardner in 1953 and became high priestess of his Bricket Wood coven. She rewrote ritual passages whose borrowings from Crowley were too conspicuous, produced original invocations and poetry, later worked with other witchcraft traditions, and became a public defender and unusually candid historian of modern Paganism.
Place in the tradition
Gardner supplied much of the structure; Valiente supplied much of the voice. Her writing helped turn a private initiatory script into a religious liturgy capable of surviving its founders.
a note on the record
History and later legend
Authorship inside a collaboratively copied Book of Shadows is difficult to assign line by line. Her role is well established, but neat percentages for how much she wrote imply a precision the manuscripts do not provide.
the written record
Principal works
-
1973
An ABC of Witchcraft Past and Present
An alphabetical introduction joining folklore, ritual practice and the history of modern witchcraft.
-
1975
Natural Magic
A practical account of magic using ordinary materials and local landscapes.
-
1978
Witchcraft for Tomorrow
Presents adaptable rites for readers without access to an initiatory coven.
-
1989
The Rebirth of Witchcraft
Her memoir and internal history of the twentieth-century witchcraft revival.