Ed Fitch was one of the first people initiated by Ray and Rosemary Buckland when they arrived in the USA. That was in 1967. How many of us have been in the Craft that long? Not me! Some of us weren't even born in '67.
It was with curiosity that I went to hear Fitch's lecture about the Gardnerian tradition at Edge of the Circle Books May 27. I am an initiated Alexandrian, although that's not my working tradition, and it was interesting to me to hear about how it was then and who was doing what. Kinda like "official gossip" about all of these supposedly astute pagan leaders! It was great. I learned a thing or two, and Fitch was charming, if a bit unfocused in his presentation. I would have preferred less tangential information and more time to socialize. I was also surprised there were no books by him available for sale. Still, all in all it was a good talk.
To give a flavor of what Fitch's lecture was like, I excerpt here from his essay "Preface: In the Beginning Was the Word":
The time was in the mid-part of the year 1967. I had been initiated into Gardenerian Wicca a few months earlier, following several years of searching and solitary intensive study on my own. I was in the military at that time and whenever I could get a weekend free from my duties at Hanscom Air Force Base, in Massachusetts, I would catch a plane down to Long Island to visit and to share stimulating.
Ray Buckland and his wife Rosemary had been in the United States for several years, sent here by the coven of the late Gerald Gardner. As I understood it, they were half seriously given the task of being "missionaries to carry Wicca to the wayward colonies of the New World." (I am certain that Lady Olwen and the rest of the witches on the Isle of Man could never have dreamed how enormously successful this small mission would be!) The Bucklands were my mentors and best friends and my visits were always memorable. On this one Saturday morning however, I arrived from the airport to find them both to be dejected and angry. Upon asking a few questions I learned that one of their newer initiates had, against the rules, copied out a fair portion of the Book Of Shadows, added some Quabalah to it and was now loudly proclaiming to the intrigued national media, that she was the Grand High Priestess of the United States and Canada, of a totally new branch of witchcraft! (And she did have some very valid material.) The geographic claim had no basis of course, but the television networks, news magazines and newspapers loved it! This was the late `60s, remember, and the age of Aquarius was in full flower.
Fitch goes on to tell how other branches of the Craft have come to evolve from Garderian and how he published a Book Of Shadows that parallels the Gardnerian, including the rituals, without giving away the "actual secrets":
Under the Bucklands' close supervision, I would research and assemble a very simple and short training system with rituals that generally paralleled those of Gardenarian Wicca, but which used none of the secret material or methods. It could be used for training and evaluating new people without putting the Book of Shadows at risk.
This was the beginning of the "Outer Court" books, published together now by Llewellyn publications for the first time as one volume.
(The Outer Court Book of Shadows should be published in early 1996.) Fitch discovered his work on the Outer Court books wasn't going to be easy:
It soon became obvious to me that this project was not going to be as short or as simple as I had first thought. In very rapid order the Grimoire grew to 20 and then to 30 pages of training material, with the promise of expanding to more than twice that length before it would be completed. Also, the rituals looked to be pretty good but very different from the magical training exercises, and it became apparent that they would have to be part of yet a second Outer Court book. And there would be a lot of these rituals!
I was fascinated by the legends and literature of pre-Classical Greece, and by the enigmatic, beautiful and sensual Goddess art of ancient Crete. Pagan Ireland and Britain seemed to be lands of eternal sunrise where song and poetry were the purest magic. Iron Age Germany was a land of austere, powerful magics and an archetypal sense of honor that would outlast even the Gods themselves. As background, I remembered the wild, primal magnificence and mystery of the remote California mountain wilderness where I lived as a boy. And through it all was woven Robert Graves' vision of the Language of Myth and Legend.
He continues:
The Bucklands, bless them, examined all my work and told me what would be usable and what wouldn't. Then I would hop the next plane back to Boston and continue this work which so absorbed my free time.
World events intruded....
Fitch was sent first to Vietnam then Thailand by the military; when he returned, he was stationed in North Dakota:
By this time both the Outer Court Book of Shadows and the Grimoire of the Shadows had been finished. There were to be revisions in coming years, but they were fairly close to the (current) version
He continues:
I had underestimated the Outer Court system at first. On a trip to New York City I visited with the late Susan Roberts to help her on a book about Wicca that she was writing. While there I met her friend Joe Lukach, himself of a Caribbean tradition somewhat similar to Santeria. Joe examined the copy that I had given him, then gave me a bit of a quizzical look.
"Ed," he said, "what you've written is a full tradition in itself. Didn't you realize that?"
Since then, Fitch writes:
Like ripples spreading from where a rock is dropped in a quiet pond, the Pagan Way and the Outer Court, followed after a time by Gardnerian and other traditions, have kept on expanding, doubling and redoubling, as more and more people have come into them from the outside. Nowadays, yearly Pagan festivals in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia draw thousands to their gatherings. Long ago I lost track of who was involved and what was happening and how.
But I couldn't be happier about it.
My theory is that neo-Paganism and Wicca provide that which is needed to satisfy an archetypally deep craving that everyone has for an archaic magic that works, mystery that pierces far beyond the mundane, glamor that inspires and fascinates and a deep religious sense of devotion that goes beyond all time and space.
He concludes:
Every now and then, at a Pagan gathering up in the mountains, I will be enjoying myself with the good company of kindred souls, and perhaps with a tankard of good ale. There will be an announcement that a handfasting will be taking place, and that all are welcome to attend. I will go, of course, since I like such things. Usually I find a place out int the trees toward the back of the crowd, and watch.
The bride will be radiant and beautiful, as all brides are, and the groom smiling, strong and handsome, as are all grooms. The ceremony begins, and the liturgy begins sounding familiar.
I realize that, althouth the rite has been modified somewhat, the words are mine. I wrote it, originally!
I look at the bride and groom. Their faces show the happiness of a joining that will link them for years, or perhaps for a lifetime. I look at the people around them, smiling or in tears of joy. I've done something good for someone, I think to myself. They'll probably never know that I forged the link that joins them, but I know it. I've given them something really worthwhile, and that's what matters, after all!
I raise my tankard of ale toward them in silent salute, and then settle comfortably at the base of an oak tree, way out in back at the edge of the woods, to watch the proceedings.
The feeling is good. Very good.
Now, Ed is living the good life and writing in his "fortess of serenity," an old Victorian house with hidden panels and rooms in Orange County, California. I asked him if he's worried about earthquakes and falling into the ocean. He gives that a "25 percent chance of happening."
When asked what he's up to now, he said he is "doing advanced magickal studies" and "elders studies" in Wicca. He also mentioned that he is very fond of the Norse traditions of magick and wonders: "`What would have happened had not Christianity overwhelmed Europe?' and `What would the religion of Valhalla be like in the 21st century?'" He is intrigued by the Norse notion that "it is possible for women to acheive Goddesshood." His former wife, and good friend, Janina Rene‚, will publish a book next year about this subject, as yet untitled.
Ed is of Russian stock and practices several types of magic. He has been initiated into a number of different traditions including Gardnerian, Faery, Mosian, Order of Osiris, Ceremonial Magick, the Order of the Temple of Astarte and Norse. He is very much interested in the "warrior orders" and has a black belt in Karate. He is also attempting to reconstruct as a magic art form belly dance, which descends from the ancient Sumerian and Middle Eastern temple dances of Inanna, Fortuna and Venus.
Fitch is currently writing a book, to be published in mid-1996, tentatively titled The Dancing Book of Shadows. Also coming out early next year is The Outer Court Book of Shadows, referred to earlier. He says The Outer Court Book of Shadows "has everything except the oath- bound material included in it."
I took the opportunity to ask Ed some further questions about his pagan and magickal experience.
S. SilverWitch: How important do you feel structured pyschic and magickal training is?
Ed Fitch: Very important! Training is surely lacking, and it is a major factor in the Craft. The degree system, spending a week or two on each of the Bardonian exercises (those exercises in 20th Introduction Into Hermetics by Franz Bardon), is necessary; otherwise a person brings their century conciousness (and politics) to magick. Magick puts you in touch with wonder and the divine; politics puts you in touch with politicians.
S: What about the problems the Seattle community has recently faced, the division?
E: It's about a process of coming together. Just because you differ doesn't mean the others are the "dark lords." It's a poor idea to look down your nose at anyone just because they don't share your views. It's no different than sniping at someone because of their race.
S: Do you have any "words of wisdom" for us here in the Northwest?
E: I was very much impressed by your Seattle community. You should share what you have and try to learn from it. Help others within the limits of your oath. Just give them your blessings and send them on their way.
He added, on a different tack, a comment we'd all do well to remember: "Know that much goes on that we don't accept in our mundane reality."
Ed Fitch bibliography:
"I was fascinated by the legends and literature of pre-Classical Greece, and by the enigmatic, beautiful and sensual Goddess art of ancient Crete. Pagan Ireland and Britain seemed to be lands of eternal sunrise where song and poetry were the purest magic. Iron Age Germany was a land of austere, powerful magics and an archetypal sense of honor that would outlast even the Gods themselves."
_ Ed Fitch
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