'Which are witches?', letter from Vulcan, Wolverhampton Express and Star, 18 September 1967

Wolverhampton Express and Star, Monday 18 September 1967, page 5. A letter to the editor signed Vulcan, replying to Arnold Crowther's letter of 14 September. Vulcan was the name used by Robert Turner. Four years after telling the same paper he was a witch and deputy high priest of a coven, Vulcan now attacks the Craft outright: he claims its rites were written for Gerald Gardner in 1936 by Aleister Crowley 'for X amount of hard cash', that the English witches did not exist before that, that… Crowther's books are 'quite laughable', and that organised witchcraft is 'one part delusion, one part hysteria' held together by 'downright childish nonsense'. Arnold Crowther's letter is also in the archive, as are the paper's two 1963 reports on Vulcan. How to cite: Vulcan, 'Which are witches?', letter, Wolverhampton Express and Star, 18 September 1967, p. 5. Alexandrian Witchcraft Timeline & Archive.

Which are witches ? THE rites of British witchcraft can lay no claim to fabulous antiquity as Arnold Crowther (September 14) implies. It is well known that these rites were written for Gerald B. Gardner (father of modern witchcraft) in 1936, by the famous magician, Aleister Crowley, for X amount of hard cash. Before this nothing was heard of the so-called witches of England simply because they did not exist. Mr. Crowther’s statement that the Church “invented Satan” is ridiculous. The name Satan has existed in one form or another for 3,000 years or more. The Egyptian “Set” (or Seth), the Arabic Sethan and the Greco-Roman god name Saturn bear witness to this fact. The eight so-called witch sabbats or sabbaths which Mr. Crowther doubtless refers to are nothing but early, and not so early, pagan festivals: Beltain, Lammas, Rood Mass and Hallowe'en, to mention a few. The books Mr. Crowther mentions are of a similarly unconvincing nature; in fact, they are quite laughable. They consist mainly of bits and drabs originally cooked up by Crowley. They contain nothing new. Even the so-called secret names of the modern witch cult’s god and goddess are old hat to anyone familiar with mythological studies. Organised witchcraft consists of one part delusion, one part hysteria and is held together by a hard core of downright childish nonsense. VULCAN.