'White witchcraft', John Blades, Chicago Tribune, 27 March 1970

Chicago Tribune, 27 March 1970, page 16. The paper's book editor John Blades reviews King of the Witches in his Books Today column. Half amused, he summarises the book's account of Alex: made king by 65 witches of five covens, initiated at 14 by his grandmother, a "black period" ended by his sister's death, marriage to "a nice, wholesome witch like himself", and a refused offer of 1,500 pounds to sacrifice a girl on the altar of Kali. His verdict: "no great shakes as a biography", but it "should do a lot to sweep away some of the cobwebs that surround witchcraft." How to cite: John Blades, 'White witchcraft', Chicago Tribune, 27 March 1970, p. 16. Alexandrian Witchcraft Timeline & Archive.

BOOKS today A Review by John Blades White Witchcraft KING OF THE WITCHES by June Johns, Coward-McCann, 155 pages, $5. WHAT HAS ROSEMARY’s baby wrought? A widespread cultural preoccupation with witchcraft, for one thing - at least to judge by the amount of demoniac reading matter that has lately been pouring out of the publishing cauldrons. If your idea of a witch is Margaret Hamilton cackling and chasing Judy Garland down the yellow brick road on her broomstick, then this book will be especially relevatory. On the basis of the evidence here, we owe the witches of the world—or the “white” witches, as distinguished from those who practice black magic, an apology for holding them in such low esteem all these centuries. “White witchcraft,” says author June Johns, “is invariably confined to doing good, restraining evil, and promoting fertility.” Nor is witchcraft exclusively a pursuit for the female of the species, as the movies and the fairy tales would have us believe. Alex Sanders, the Englishman who is the subject of this biography, is a witch, and such a successful one that 65 of his brethren - or five full covens - invited him to a ceremony five years ago at which they made him their king. It couldn't have happened to a more deserving soul. For most of his career, Sanders’ clairvoyance and healing powers have been devoted to better things for better living thru witchcraft. Sanders did, admittedly, go thru a black period. Initiated into witchhood - and sex - at the age of 14 by his 74-year-old grandmother, he soon set off on a life of debauchery, filled with orgies of alcohol, drugs, and homosexuality. The death of his sister, however, caused him to renounce black magic, and he has since settled down and gotten married to a nice, wholesome witch like himself. As proof of Sanders’ reformation, the author notes that he recently refused an offer of 1,500 pounds to disembowel an Indian maiden on the altar of Kali and, on another occasion, fled in horror from a poltergeist exorcising ceremony when a sacrificial lamb was slaughtered. At the risk of having some kind of evil spell cast over me, I will say that this book is no great shakes as a biography, but it should do a lot to sweep away some of the cobwebs that surround witchcraft. For example, those supposedly lurid fertility rites that witches hold under a full moon sound, as the author describes them, no more diabolical than a volleyball game at a nudist camp. Miss Johns also writes of “the utter naturalness of the witch and his god; it is one of love and understanding. Without artifice or hypocrisy, the witches I met were truly pious.” Pious witches? Is nothing sacrilegious! It’s enough to destroy your faith in Halloween. John Blades is The Tribune's book editor.