'A Night With Today's Witches', The Montreal Star, 6 August 1966

The Montreal Star, Saturday 6 August 1966, pages 54 to 56. Robert Eddison's long illustrated feature, with photographs by John Drysdale, on witnessing the initiation of David Charles, a 19-year-old fashion photographer, into Alex Sanders's Manchester coven. The report follows the rite in a living-room temple, with Maxine Morris as high priestess, from the challenge, oath and scourging to the taking of the measure, cakes and wine, and a trance in which Sanders speaks as his familiar, Michael. The coven then walks out onto the moor before dawn for a round dance and a May Day celebration. Sanders, 39, is described as the self-styled witch-king of Europe, advising MGM on The Devil's Eye and due to appear in 17 American television programmes. He puts his coven at 107 witches. The five photographs show Maxine drawing down the moon before Sanders's painting of Aradia, Sanders on the moor with a skull and regalia, the blessing of the food and wine, the round dance at dawn, and Maxine consecrating the wine in a chalice held by Sanders. The dawn rite is described as the coven's May Day festival, so the photographs were probably taken in spring 1966, some months before publication. How to cite: Robert Eddison, 'A Night With Today's Witches', The Montreal Star, 6 August 1966, pp. 54 to 56. Alexandrian Witchcraft Timeline & Archive.

Page 54 [1st photo] In an English living room, high priestess Maxine Morris “draws the moon” with high priest Alexander Sanders. On the altar behind is a painting of the witch goddess Aradia. It was painted by Sanders. [2nd photo] When dawn comes the witches must be out on the moor to continue the age-old ceremonies of their fertility cult. High priest Sanders sits with skull and other regalia. A NIGHT WITH TODAY'S WITCHES Witchcraft is booming in Britain and strange rituals are enacted on the desolate Yorkshire moors By Robert Eddison LONDON. ONCE UPON A TIME witches were burned at the stake. Times are tolerant now and witchcraft is legal even if it isn't acceptable. To the average person it still smacks of black magic, broomsticks and boiling cauldrons of brew. Witchcraft is booming in Britain and if the art is not respectable, many of its practitioners are. When night falls and the moon rises high over the moor, bowler-hatted bankers, clergymen, advertising men, secretaries and housewives shed their clothes, smear their bodies with digitalis, aconite and hemlock and dance on the Yorkshire moors in Northern England. Alexander Sanders, a slight, soft-spoken man of 39, is the high priest of a large coven (assembly of witches) in Manchester and the self-styled witch-king of Europe. He is currently advising Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on its film on witchcraft, The Devil’s Eye (Thirteen, in America), and is scheduled to appear in 17 half-hour U.S. television programs. Sanders decided to lift the veil of secrecy a little and invited me to witness the initiation of a new witch, a young man, into the coven. The house where the coven gathered looks no different from its neighbors Page 55 Photos by John Drysdale - until you enter the living room. The smell of incense weighs down the air. Naked bodies gleam in the flickering light of the altar candles. The initiate, David Charles, a 19-year-old fashion photographer, stands naked outside the magic circle, blindfolded and hands tied behind his back. The witches stand inside the circle. Only Sanders is clothed - in rich gold vestments - as he officiates at the altar. Maxine Morris, the high priestess, steps toward the initiate. She is a tall, blonde, beautifully-proportioned 19-year-old, a former Roman Catholic whose family still prays for her redemption. “'Art willing to venture into the unknown?”' she asks the initiate. “I am,” says David Charles. He takes as an oath never to reveal the secrets of the art. “'Before you’re sworn, are you willing to pass the ordeal?” she continues. The incense is suffocating in the pause that follows. Charles moistens his lips. “'I am,” he affirms. The high priestess drops the sword she has been holding to his chest and anoints him with oil and wine, symbolizing the moon goddess’s body and blood. She kisses him on the mouth, and he is then led into the circle. His arms are pinioned and he is whirled around at a dizzying speed by the circle of witches. As suddenly as it began, the circle stops in its tracks. The high priestess kneels, to show humility, and kisses the initiate’s feet. Again she asks, “Before you’re sworn, are you willing to pass the ordeal?” “I am.” The initiate kneels down. A hand presses his head past his knees on to the ground. He must now undergo a ritual scourging at the hands of the high priestess. While he kneels, his “measure” (height) is taken with a length of rope. Formerly the rope was self-protection to the coven. If a member broke his oath and divulged the secrets of the coven, small lengths would be periodically snipped off so he would die by degrees. Now it is only a ritual. “Ye have passed the test,” says the high priestess. David Charles stands and takes an oath of allegiance. The blindfold is lifted and he is welcomed to the coven as a witch. They sit in a circle and have a ritual feast of consecrated cakes and wine, symbolizing union and communion with the goddess. They enter into meditation and suddenly Sanders begins speaking in a voice not like his own. (He said later that it was his familiar, Michael, an attending demon, and then a greater power, “the living Buddha,” speaking through Michael through him.) Slowly the circle comes to life and it is time for the round dance. Naked bodies glisten with sweat as the witches whirl by in ever-increasing tempo. Among them is an assistant matron of a hospital, a fashion photographer, an electronics engineer, a former marine engineer and a Church of England minister. As the moon begins to wane, the power lessens and the dancers prepare to go out and meet the dawn. The sun will soon be up and they must be out to greet it. It is a strange-looking group which makes its way along the lonely moors. One or two carry broomsticks, others swords, one a satchel containing a human skull and other ceremonial regalia. An altar is set up in the grey, pre-dawn mist and the magic circle is cast. Now robed, as are they all, the high priestess intones a verse and as the sun rises they dance. The swords are plunged into the earth (symbolizing the womb of the goddess). The strange events of the last hours seemed unreal on the walk back to town. These young men and women, who claim the power to place and remove curses, see into the future and communicate with the supernatural, looked like any group of young people. How did they come to be witches? Almost all, Sanders told me, had come from families which were interested in psychic or spiritual matters. They are mostly young and they come from all walks of life. “We don't seek converts,” Sanders told me. “They come as complete strangers. We meet them socially and assess them. Hundreds try to join, but we only accept a few.” Sanders's coven numbers 107 witches and estimates of the total number in Britain range from 1,000 to 43,000. The best-educated guesses put it nearer the 4,000 mark. Sanders’s coven is a fertility cult. In February it celebrates the birth of a sun god to Diana, the moon goddess. “Symbolically,” said Sanders, “the new cycle of life has begun. As the sun becomes stronger, the crops begin to grow. Like tonight’s new initiate, the sun has been growing in strength since February. Both are now in their prime. Both, like the spring, are full of the promise of fertility.” Sanders, who was initiated to witchcraft at the age of seven when he accidentally came across his grandmother “working,” has traced a witch in every other generation of his family. He stressed that the nudity, the emphasis on fertility and wild, abandoned dancing in no way encourage promiscuity. “We discourage some people from joining us,” he said. “But we welcome engaged or married couples. In fact, I think we behave more morally than most non-witches.” He is engaged to Maxine Morris, the high priestess. [ 3rd photo] After the initiation ceremony Sanders blesses food and wine for a ritual feast. Food represents the moon goddess Diana, and the wine, her blood. Page 56 A NIGHT WITH TODAY’S WITCHES Continued from preceding page [4th photo] The witches perform the round dance at dawn ceremony on the moor. This precedes the main ritual which is the celebration of their May Day Festival. It marks the waking of earth from winter, the revival of life. [5th photo] Maxine consecrates the wine with her witches’ knife in a chalice held by the high priest. The wine is then drunk as part of the fertility rite. “Our relationship,” he said, “is a pure one.” “Nudity,” he explained, “removes inhibition and releases the powers in our bodies. Clothes are a form of slavery. In some odd way they attach one to the world. Nakedness is the state of innocence, the truly holy state.” Though witchcraft is not against the law, it is still an offence in the minds of many people. Some witches’ windows have been stoned, others have been fired from their jobs. One woman claims social ostracism drove her from her home and forced her to give up her antique business next door. “We are careful to whom we admit it,” said one witch. "We use white, not black, magic,” Sanders said. “It’s only another word for wisdom. But to the layman all magic - black or white - is the same.” He looks forward to a change, however. “Once we do away with the old broomstick image and communicate our real belief,” said Sanders, '”we might even become respectable and regain some of our old authority. “Much as Christians pray to God,” he said, “we pray to our goddess. I look forward to the day when our religion will be seen for the beautiful thing it is and we shall be allowed to worship freely in our temples.” Such optimism seems premature. Witchcraft has a long way to go before it achieves Sanders’s aims. But perhaps a new broomstick may eventually sweep out the old image.