Doreen E. Valiente Hp
Biography
Doreen Edith Dominy Valiente (4 January, 1922, Mitcham, South London, England – 1 September 1999, Brighton, England), who used the craft name Ameth,was a highly influential figure in the religion of Witchcraft, being a High Priestess of Gardnerian Witchcraft and an initiate of both Cochrane's Craft and the Coven of Atho. She was initiated into the craft by Gerald Gardner, and was his High Priestess in the early Bricket Wood coven.
Valiente produced many important scriptural texts for Witchcraft, such as The Witches Rune and the Charge of the Goddess, which were incorporated into the early Gardnerian Book of Shadows. Valiente also published five books about Witchcraft in her lifetime. She has been referred to as "the mother of modern Witchcraft".
Born Doreen Dominy in southern London, she was the daughter of Christian parents named Harry and Edith. However they soon moved near to Horley in Surrey. The young Doreen was convinced by the age of 13 that she possessed the power to use magic, and used it to help protect her mother from a bullying co-worker. When she informed her parents of her actions, they objected to her use of sorcery and sent her to a convent school. By the age of 15 she had left the school and refused to ever go back.
Marriages and Occult interest, 1941-1945
In 1941, whilst working as a secretary in Barry, southern Wales, Doreen married a seaman called Joanis Vlachopoulos. He was a part of the Navy and during World War II was declared missing and presumed dead.
In 1944 she married Casimiro Valiente, a Spaniard living in exile from the Spanish civil war, where he had fought on the side of the Free French Forces and been wounded at the Battle of Narvik. Valiente would later say that both her and her husband suffered racism after the war because of their foreign associations.
Gardner and initiation, 1952-1953
The Valientes moved to Bournemouth after the war. Here, in 1952, Dorothy read an article entitled "Witchcraft in Britain" in the newspaper Illustrated, which had been written by Allen Andrews. The article mentioned both Cecil Williamson, who ran the Museum of Magic and Witchcraft, as well as the New Forest Coven, or "southern coven of British witches" as it called it. Valiente wrote to Williamson asking for more information, who passed her letter on to Gerald Gardner.
Doreen and Gardner corresponded for some time before she asked to join his coven. He initially denied the request, but agreed to meet her, in winter 1952, at the house of a woman known only as Dafo near the New Forest. When she entered, her initial reaction was that:
“We seemed to take an immediate liking to each other. I realised that this man was no time-wasting pretender to occult knowledge. He was something different from the kind of people I had met in esoteric gatherings before. One felt that he had seen far horizons and encountered strange things; and yet there was a sense of humour about him and a youthfulness, in spite of his silver hair.”
Gardner gave her a copy of his novel High Magic's Aid, allegedly to gauge her opinion on ritual nudity and scourging, something which he did with all prospective persons wishing to join his coven.
Bricket Wood Coven, 1953-1957
Valiente joined Gardner's Bricket Wood coven, and soon rose to become its High Priestess. She noticed how much of the material in his Book of Shadows was taken not from ancient sources as Gardner had initially claimed, but from the works of the occultist Aleister Crowley. She confronted Gardner with this, who admitted that the text he had received from the New Forest coven had been fragmentary and he had had to fill much of it using various sources. She took the Book of Shadows, and, with Gardner's permission, rewrote much of it, cutting out a lot of sections that had come from Crowley (whose negative reputation Valiente feared). Valiente dramatically rewrote sections such as the Charge of the Goddess and also wrote several poems for the book, such as The Witches Rune. As the coven's High Priestess, Valiente initiated a number of males into the craft through the coven, including Jack L. Bracelin in 1956.
However Gardner's increasing desire for publicity, much of it ending up negative, caused conflict with Valiente and other members of his coven. As she would later say:
“that as the coven's High Priestess, I felt that by speaking to the press, Gardner was compromising the security of the group and the sincerity of his own teachings”
Valiente's Coven, 1957-1964
After breaking from Gardner's Bricket Wood coven, she formed her own coven with Ned Grove as High Priest, still following the tradition of Gardnerian Witchcraft, albeit without the wit laws, which she believed to be entirely an invention of Gardner's.
Coven of Atho, early 1960s
In the early 1960s, Valiente begun a course on the Coven of Atho, which was run by Raymond Howard, and partially based upon the teachings of Charles Cardell. In 1963 she gained the lowest rank on the course, that of Sarsen. Valiente copied everything she was taught into notebooks, which have provided some of the most important information on the practices of the group.
] Clan of Tubal Cain, 1964-1966
In 1964, both Doreen's mother, and Gerald Garder died. That same year, at a gathering at Glastonbury Tor held by the Brotherhood of the Essenes, she met the witch Robert Cochrane, and the two became friends.
Valiente soon joined Cochrane's coven - the Clan of Tubal Cain, becoming one of only very few members. She later remarked that there were certain things in this coven that were better than those in Gardner's, for instance she thought that "[Cochrane] believed in getting close to nature as few Gardnerian witches at that time seemed to do". She also commented on how Cochrane did not seem to want lots of publicity, as Gardner had done, something which she admired.
However, she became dissatisfied with Cochrane, who was openly committing adultery and constantly insulting Gardnerians, even at one point calling for "a Night of the Long Knives of the Gardnerians", at which point Doreen, in her own words, "rose up and challenged him in the presence of the rest of the coven. I told him that I was fed up with listening to all this senseless malice, and that, if a 'Night of the Long Knives' was what his sick little soul craved, he could get on with it, but he could get on with it alone, because I had better things to do".
Writing, 1966-1999
In the 1970s and 1980s Valiente gradually became one of the most well respected and influential leaders of Witchcraft, meriting an entry in the Dictionary of National Biography.
She wrote five books on the subject, three of which were 'how-to' books designed to teach solitary Witchcraft - An ABC of Witchcraft (1972), Natural Magic (1975) and Witchcraft for Tomorrow (1978), and an autobiography entitled The Rebirth of Witchcraft in 1989.
Meanwhile she continued to write poetry, much of which has been published in the book Charge of the Goddess: The Mother of Modern Witchcraft, an example of which is "An Unsolved Problem of Psychic Research", which goes thus:
There was a young lady called Freeman
Who had an affair with a demon
She said that his cock
was as cold as a rock
Now, what in the Hell could it be, man?
She was active in her promotion of modern witchcraft, being particularly keen to emphasise that the religion was not related to Satanism and did not seek publicity for its own sake. She was a notable figure in supporting the development of the Pagan Federation.
Faced with challenges from sceptics Valiente attempted, with some success, to provide evidence for Gardner's claims concerning his initiation, notably by identifying the woman Gardner called 'Old Dorothy' as Dorothy Clutterbuck in 1980, the woman who was supposed to have performed Gardner's initiation, in an essay published in The Witches' Way by Janet and Stewart Farrar.
Death, 1999
Valiente suffered from pancreatic cancer towards the end of her life. In her last few days she was moved to a nursing home, and she died at 6.55am on 1st September 1999, with John Belham-Payne at her side. John Belham-Payne inherited all of Doreen's magical artefacts and manuscripts including her Book of Shadows.
Posthomously
Dr Leo Ruickbie examines her life and contribution to Witchcraft in his Witchcraft Out of the Shadows. According to Dr Ruickbie, Valiente was the 'Mother of Modern Witchcraft', playing a crucial role in re-writing much of Gardner's original ritual material, an assessment supported by Ronald Hutton.
Valiente's second book, An ABC of Witchcraft
Bibliography
· 1962: Where Witchcraft Lives
· 1973: An ABC of Witchcraft
· 1975: Natural Magic
· 1978: Witchcraft for Tomorrow
· 1989: The Rebirth of Witchcraft
· 2000: Charge of the Goddess, a collection of poems, published posthumously
Valiente also edited and wrote the introduction to the 1990 book, Witchcraft: A Tradition Renewed by Evan John Jones, which was about forms of Witchcraft other than the Gardnerian and Alexandrian traditions, such as Cochrane's Craft.
Biography
Doreen Edith Dominy Valiente (4 January, 1922, Mitcham, South London, England – 1 September 1999, Brighton, England), who used the craft name Ameth,was a highly influential figure in the religion of Witchcraft, being a High Priestess of Gardnerian Witchcraft and an initiate of both Cochrane's Craft and the Coven of Atho. She was initiated into the craft by Gerald Gardner, and was his High Priestess in the early Bricket Wood coven.
Valiente produced many important scriptural texts for Witchcraft, such as The Witches Rune and the Charge of the Goddess, which were incorporated into the early Gardnerian Book of Shadows. Valiente also published five books about Witchcraft in her lifetime. She has been referred to as "the mother of modern Witchcraft".
Born Doreen Dominy in southern London, she was the daughter of Christian parents named Harry and Edith. However they soon moved near to Horley in Surrey. The young Doreen was convinced by the age of 13 that she possessed the power to use magic, and used it to help protect her mother from a bullying co-worker. When she informed her parents of her actions, they objected to her use of sorcery and sent her to a convent school. By the age of 15 she had left the school and refused to ever go back.
Marriages and Occult interest, 1941-1945
In 1941, whilst working as a secretary in Barry, southern Wales, Doreen married a seaman called Joanis Vlachopoulos. He was a part of the Navy and during World War II was declared missing and presumed dead.
In 1944 she married Casimiro Valiente, a Spaniard living in exile from the Spanish civil war, where he had fought on the side of the Free French Forces and been wounded at the Battle of Narvik. Valiente would later say that both her and her husband suffered racism after the war because of their foreign associations.
Gardner and initiation, 1952-1953
The Valientes moved to Bournemouth after the war. Here, in 1952, Dorothy read an article entitled "Witchcraft in Britain" in the newspaper Illustrated, which had been written by Allen Andrews. The article mentioned both Cecil Williamson, who ran the Museum of Magic and Witchcraft, as well as the New Forest Coven, or "southern coven of British witches" as it called it. Valiente wrote to Williamson asking for more information, who passed her letter on to Gerald Gardner.
Doreen and Gardner corresponded for some time before she asked to join his coven. He initially denied the request, but agreed to meet her, in winter 1952, at the house of a woman known only as Dafo near the New Forest. When she entered, her initial reaction was that:
“We seemed to take an immediate liking to each other. I realised that this man was no time-wasting pretender to occult knowledge. He was something different from the kind of people I had met in esoteric gatherings before. One felt that he had seen far horizons and encountered strange things; and yet there was a sense of humour about him and a youthfulness, in spite of his silver hair.”
Gardner gave her a copy of his novel High Magic's Aid, allegedly to gauge her opinion on ritual nudity and scourging, something which he did with all prospective persons wishing to join his coven.
Bricket Wood Coven, 1953-1957
Valiente joined Gardner's Bricket Wood coven, and soon rose to become its High Priestess. She noticed how much of the material in his Book of Shadows was taken not from ancient sources as Gardner had initially claimed, but from the works of the occultist Aleister Crowley. She confronted Gardner with this, who admitted that the text he had received from the New Forest coven had been fragmentary and he had had to fill much of it using various sources. She took the Book of Shadows, and, with Gardner's permission, rewrote much of it, cutting out a lot of sections that had come from Crowley (whose negative reputation Valiente feared). Valiente dramatically rewrote sections such as the Charge of the Goddess and also wrote several poems for the book, such as The Witches Rune. As the coven's High Priestess, Valiente initiated a number of males into the craft through the coven, including Jack L. Bracelin in 1956.
However Gardner's increasing desire for publicity, much of it ending up negative, caused conflict with Valiente and other members of his coven. As she would later say:
“that as the coven's High Priestess, I felt that by speaking to the press, Gardner was compromising the security of the group and the sincerity of his own teachings”
Valiente's Coven, 1957-1964
After breaking from Gardner's Bricket Wood coven, she formed her own coven with Ned Grove as High Priest, still following the tradition of Gardnerian Witchcraft, albeit without the wit laws, which she believed to be entirely an invention of Gardner's.
Coven of Atho, early 1960s
In the early 1960s, Valiente begun a course on the Coven of Atho, which was run by Raymond Howard, and partially based upon the teachings of Charles Cardell. In 1963 she gained the lowest rank on the course, that of Sarsen. Valiente copied everything she was taught into notebooks, which have provided some of the most important information on the practices of the group.
] Clan of Tubal Cain, 1964-1966
In 1964, both Doreen's mother, and Gerald Garder died. That same year, at a gathering at Glastonbury Tor held by the Brotherhood of the Essenes, she met the witch Robert Cochrane, and the two became friends.
Valiente soon joined Cochrane's coven - the Clan of Tubal Cain, becoming one of only very few members. She later remarked that there were certain things in this coven that were better than those in Gardner's, for instance she thought that "[Cochrane] believed in getting close to nature as few Gardnerian witches at that time seemed to do". She also commented on how Cochrane did not seem to want lots of publicity, as Gardner had done, something which she admired.
However, she became dissatisfied with Cochrane, who was openly committing adultery and constantly insulting Gardnerians, even at one point calling for "a Night of the Long Knives of the Gardnerians", at which point Doreen, in her own words, "rose up and challenged him in the presence of the rest of the coven. I told him that I was fed up with listening to all this senseless malice, and that, if a 'Night of the Long Knives' was what his sick little soul craved, he could get on with it, but he could get on with it alone, because I had better things to do".
Writing, 1966-1999
In the 1970s and 1980s Valiente gradually became one of the most well respected and influential leaders of Witchcraft, meriting an entry in the Dictionary of National Biography.
She wrote five books on the subject, three of which were 'how-to' books designed to teach solitary Witchcraft - An ABC of Witchcraft (1972), Natural Magic (1975) and Witchcraft for Tomorrow (1978), and an autobiography entitled The Rebirth of Witchcraft in 1989.
Meanwhile she continued to write poetry, much of which has been published in the book Charge of the Goddess: The Mother of Modern Witchcraft, an example of which is "An Unsolved Problem of Psychic Research", which goes thus:
There was a young lady called Freeman
Who had an affair with a demon
She said that his cock
was as cold as a rock
Now, what in the Hell could it be, man?
She was active in her promotion of modern witchcraft, being particularly keen to emphasise that the religion was not related to Satanism and did not seek publicity for its own sake. She was a notable figure in supporting the development of the Pagan Federation.
Faced with challenges from sceptics Valiente attempted, with some success, to provide evidence for Gardner's claims concerning his initiation, notably by identifying the woman Gardner called 'Old Dorothy' as Dorothy Clutterbuck in 1980, the woman who was supposed to have performed Gardner's initiation, in an essay published in The Witches' Way by Janet and Stewart Farrar.
Death, 1999
Valiente suffered from pancreatic cancer towards the end of her life. In her last few days she was moved to a nursing home, and she died at 6.55am on 1st September 1999, with John Belham-Payne at her side. John Belham-Payne inherited all of Doreen's magical artefacts and manuscripts including her Book of Shadows.
Posthomously
Dr Leo Ruickbie examines her life and contribution to Witchcraft in his Witchcraft Out of the Shadows. According to Dr Ruickbie, Valiente was the 'Mother of Modern Witchcraft', playing a crucial role in re-writing much of Gardner's original ritual material, an assessment supported by Ronald Hutton.
Valiente's second book, An ABC of Witchcraft
Bibliography
· 1962: Where Witchcraft Lives
· 1973: An ABC of Witchcraft
· 1975: Natural Magic
· 1978: Witchcraft for Tomorrow
· 1989: The Rebirth of Witchcraft
· 2000: Charge of the Goddess, a collection of poems, published posthumously
Valiente also edited and wrote the introduction to the 1990 book, Witchcraft: A Tradition Renewed by Evan John Jones, which was about forms of Witchcraft other than the Gardnerian and Alexandrian traditions, such as Cochrane's Craft.
Doreen Valiente and Patrica Crowther
Doreen Valiente and Patrica Crowther
I would like to use one of the images of Doreen in a diary I am preparing for 2020.The diary will contain names, dob, and in the case of those who have passed, date of death. I will also be writing a cameo piece of the occultist's life and have a suitable image of them. I am a writer and artist specialising in mostly the Egyptian pantheon. I am an initiate of one of Maxine Sander's covens. Please do feel free to contact me on: judith.page29@gmail.com
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