Raymond Buckland's Biography(Books)(Photos)

Known as "The Father of American Wicca," Raymond Buckland
was responsible for introducing Wicca to the United States.

received a query from the U.S., it was forwarded to and
answered by Buckland.

Author and Wiccan high priest who, with his wife, Rosemary
Buckland, introduced Gardnerian Witchcraft into the United

In 1963 Buckland and his wife Rosemary flew back to the UK

States. Buckland was born August 31, 1934, in London,
England, where he attended high school. He served in the

to be initiated and raised in Perth, Scotland by Gardner’s
main High Priestess ‘Monique Wilson’. Gardner joined

Royal Air Force, 1957-59, and earned a Ph.D. in anthropology
at King's College, Cambridge. Raymond Buckland is also the

them for the initiation ceremony, during which Buckland was
given a craft name “Robat” and Rosemary named “Lady

Rowen”. This was the first and only physical meeting
between Buckland and Gardner, for shortly after Gardner left

America. He has been a leading spokesman for the Craft in
America for more than three decades.

the UK to vacation the winter months in the Lebanon. On the
12th February 1964 while returning on board The Scottish

As a child Buckland was brought up in the Church of England,

Prince, Gardner suffered a fatal heart attack and was buried
on shore in Tunis the following day.

but had no particular interest in religion. When he was 12
years old his father's brother “uncle” George, a

In America interest in Witchcraft was catching on quickly,

practising Spiritualist, introduced him to Spiritualism and
sparked his life long interest in all things occult. By

but Buckland built his coven slowly and with caution. There
were many that wanted to become Gardnerian Witches who felt

this time Buckland was already an avid reader, and started
to read all he could find on alternative religions and such

that Buckland was being over cautious, those who didn’t
want to wait for initiation simply went away and started

related subjects as: Ghosts, ESP, Magick, Voodoo and
witchcraft. Raymond Buckland became familiar with the books

their own covens. Buckland persisted; he wanted only those
with a genuine interest in the craft as a religion.

of Margaret Murray and Gerald Gardner on Witchcraft.
Buckland contacted Gardner and established a relationship

Initially Buckland was secretive, and kept his name and
address from the press, but eventually it was published by

with him and his priestess Monique Wilson (Lady Olwen).
Shortly before Gardner's death in 1964, Buckland and his

journalist Lisa Hoffman in the New York Sunday News, which
focused attention on him as a leading authority and

wife became Gardner's first American initiates, and they
assumed the religious names Robat and Lady Rowan. After they

spokesman of the craft. On the other hand it also led to a
deal of negative persecution on himself, his wife and two

moved to the United States in 1962, they began the first
Gardnerian coven (an assembly or band of usually 13 witches.

children.

Whenever Americans contacted Gardner and his followers in
England, they were referred to the Bucklands, thus

In the early 1970s Buckland divorced and began to disagree
with some of the elements of the Gardnerian tradition. In

establishing the Gardnerian movement in the United States.
They also opened a Witchcraft Museum on Long Island modeled

1973 he turned the leadership of the Gardnerian movement
over to another couple, Lady Theos and Phoenix, and created

on the museum Gardner had established on the Isle of Man.
Buckland also authored a set of books on Wicca, including

a new non-secret form of Witchcraft that he called Seax (or
Saxon) Wicca. He presented this new Witchcraft in a 1974

Ancient and Modern Witchcraft (1970) and Witchcraft from the
Inside (1975).

book, The Tree: The Complete Book of Saxon Witchcraft. That
same year he also married Joan Helen Taylor, who became his

After his his family immigration to the States In February

new high priest.

of 1962 two books came into his possession that would
greatly influence his life and beliefs, The Witch-Cult In

Buckland then developed a correspondence course in Seax
Wicca, which he offered through the 1970s. He also moved to

Western Europe by Margaret A. Murray (1921), and Witchcraft
Today by Gerald B. Gardner (1954).

Southern California where his approach to the craft evolved.
He continued to write on a wide variety of magical and

Until reading these two books, Buckland had never looked

Witchcraft themes and his latest books include Practical
Color Magick(1983), Complete Book of Witchcraft (1986), and

upon Witchcraft as a religion, but now he realized he had
found what he felt was missing, an old but new religion that

the Secrets of Gypsy Fortunetelling (1988), which is of a
series of books on gypsy occult practices. As of the

appealed to his own beliefs and sense of history,
“Wicca”. For more information about Wicca, he contacted

mid-1990s, Buckland has written more than 20 books. One, a
spoof on the books of James Church-ward, was called Mu

Gerald Gardner in the Isle of Man, and soon began a
long-distance mail and telephone friendship with him. As

Revealed and appeared under the Pseudonym Tony Earll (an
anagram for "not really"). Buckland also wrote novels under

their friendship matured Buckland became Gardner’s
spokesman in the United States, and whenever Gardner

the pseudonym Jessica Wells.