For witches and covens, honoring and remembering their forebears and ancestors holds deep significance, impacting their spiritual path and magical practices.
Here’s why it’s so important:
1. Connection and Identity:
- Weaving the Web of Identity: Ancestors are seen as the threads that weave the fabric of individual and familial identity.
- Understanding Roots: Exploring ancestral roots allows for a deeper understanding of oneself and one’s place within a lineage, fostering a sense of grounding and belonging.
2. Wisdom and Guidance:
- Lessons from the Past: Ancestors offer lessons from their lives, triumphs, and hardships, providing valuable insights for navigating present challenges.
- Spiritual Guidance: Connecting with ancestors can be a deeply spiritual experience, allowing for access to spiritual guidance and support.
3. Power and Magical Practice:
- Channeling Energy: Ancestors can help channel and strengthen magical energy for healing, divination, and clairvoyance.
- Strengthening Lineage Power: In some beliefs, ancestor veneration strengthens the ancestral lines, which in turn can bolster the magical power of the living within that lineage.
- Improving Magical Sense: Communion with ancestors can sharpen a witch’s magical sense and potentially lead to attaining wisdom in certain aspects of the Craft.
- Protection and Blessings: Honoring ancestors is believed to provide protection from misfortune and curses and bring blessings to the family and home.
4. Keeping Traditions Alive:
- Preserving Customs and Beliefs: Ancestors have passed down cherished traditions, rituals, and values that are integral to a witch’s practice.
- Ensuring the Continuation of the Craft: By honoring and keeping ancestral practices alive, witches ensure the continuity of their lineage’s magical wisdom and abilities for future generations.
5. Healing and Growth:
- Healing Trauma: Ancestor work can be used to heal generational trauma within oneself and within the ancestral spirit realm.
- Personal Growth: Through this process of remembrance, honoring, and connection, individuals can experience personal growth and a deeper understanding of themselves and their heritage.
Honoring ancestors is a powerful practice that allows witches and covens to:
- Deepen their connection to their roots and personal identity.
- Gain wisdom, guidance, and strength for their magical practice.
- Preserve and transmit their magical lineage and traditions.
- Find healing and foster personal growth.
1200 – 165 BCE — The word ‘Witch’ is first mentioned in the Old Testament in verses from the books of Exodus, Deuteronomy and Leviticus.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
The late Dr. Margaret Murray traced back and saw Witchcraft’s origins in Paleolithic times; twenty-five thousand years ago. She saw it more or less as an unbroken line through to the present, and as a fully organized religion throughout western Europe for centuries before Christianity.
Buckland’s Complete Book of Witchcraft: Lesson One
1230’s CE — The Catholic Church institutes its policy of Inquisition in an effort to root out heretics, and in 1258 the Church makes demon worship and sorcery punishable acts of heresy.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1316 – 1364 — Pope John XXII issues several papal bulls connecting heresy with witchcraft, thereby inciting a growing paranoia and persecutions against those accused of practicing sorcery.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
In 1484 — Pope Innocent VIII produced his bull against Witches. Two years later, two infamous German monks, Heinrich Institoris Kramer and Jakob Sprenger, produced their incredible concoction of anti-Witchery, the Malleus Maleficarum (The Witches’ Hammer). In this book, definitive instructions were given for the prosecution of Witches.
Buckland’s Complete Book of Witchcraft: Lesson One
1536 — Anne Boleyn is executed. Although accused of Witchcraft by her husband, King Henry VIII, she was ultimately found guilty of treason in conspiracy with her alleged lovers, and not of witchcraft.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1542 — As fear of Witches continues in England, the country passes its first Witchcraft Act, making Witchcraft a secular crime.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1580 — French lawyer Jean Bodin publishes his treatise on witchcraft trial methodologies: On the Demon-Mania of Sorcerers.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1580 – 1650 — Witch hunt hysteria sweeps through Europe. Thousands of people are accused of witchcraft, tried, and executed.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1584 — Reginald Scot of Kent publishes Discovery of Witchcraft, which expresses doubts as to the veracity of Witchcraft.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1590 – 1592 — King James VI of Scotland (later to become James I of England) personally oversees the condemnation of a dozen supposed Witches in Scotland in what will become known as the North Berwick Trials.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1597 — King James VI of Scotland (later James I of England) publishes his study of Magick and Witchcraft: Daemonologie.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1604 — The Witchcraft Act of King James I of England expands the list of punishable offenses related to Witchcraft.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
In 1604 — King James I passed his Witchcraft Act, but this was repealed in 1736 and was replaced by an act that stated that there was no such thing as Witchcraft, and that to pretend to have occult powers was to face being charged with fraud. By the late seventeenth century, the surviving members of the Craft had gone underground.
Buckland’s Complete Book of Witchcraft: Lesson One
1610 – 1630 — Throughout Europe and England, an immense wave of Witchcraft persecutions kill countless innocent people.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1612 — Twelve people are accused of Witchcraft in the Pendle Trials in Lancashire, England. Of the accused, one is found not guilty, one dies in prison, and ten are put to death.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1634 — In Loudun, France, a group of nuns claims to be possessed and blames Father Grandier for practicing sorcery. Even after Father Grandier is executed, the “possessions” continue to occur for the next three years.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1647 — The self-proclaimed “Witch-finder General” Matthew Hopkins publishes his infamous tome, The Discovery of Witches, in which he intricately outlines his witch hunting methods.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1662 — Isobel Gowdie is executed after confessing to Witchcraft without being tortured. She claimed to have led a Coven for many years and to have been in direct league with the Devil.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1682 — King Louis XIV of France outlaws Witchcraft Trials.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
The panic began early in 1692, over an exceptionally raw Massachusetts winter, when a minister’s niece began to writhe and roar. It spread quickly, confounding the most educated men and prominent politicians in the colony. Neighbors accused neighbors, husbands accused wives, parents and children one another. It ended less than a year later, but not before nineteen men and women had been hanged, and an elderly man crushed to death.
The Witches, Salem 1692, by Stacy Schiff
1862 — Jules Michelet publishes La Sorciere, which argues that Witchcraft is the last surviving vestige of Pagan Worship, celebrating rites of fertility and nature.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
In 1862 — Karl Heinrich Ulrichs took the momentous step of telling his family and friends that he was, in his own words, an “Urning”. His first five pamphlets, collected as ‘Studies on the Riddle of Male-Male Love’, explained such love as natural and biological.
Wikipedia, on Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, the first to recognize ‘gay community’
1887 — The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn is founded.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1890 — The Golden Bough is published. Written by scholar Sir James George Frazer and published in two volumes, it is a comparative study of mythology, religion, and Magick.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1890 — Scholar and ceremonial magician Dion Fortune is born. Her writings, particularly “The Cosmic Doctrine”, penned through channeling from 1923 to 1925, will have a profound effect on 20th-century Witchcraft.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1893 — American Suffragist and Human-Rights Activist Matilda Joslyn Gage publishes “Woman, Church and State”, claiming the number of women executed in the Witch Hunts was in the millions.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1899 — Charles Godfrey Leland explores the origins of the Witch archetype in “Aradia: Gospel of the Witches”.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1900 — L. Frank Baum publishes “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
It was not until 1921, when Dr. Margaret Alice Murray produced “The Witch Cult in Western Europe”, that anyone looked at Witchcraft with anything like an unbiased light. From studying records of the trials of the Middle Ages, Murray picked up the clues that seemed to her to indicate that there was a definite, organized, pre-Christian religion behind all the “hogwash” of the Christian allegations. … She enlarged on her views in a second book, “The God of the Witches”, in 1931.
Buckland’s Complete Book of Witchcraft: Lesson One
1948 — American artist and scholar Kurt Seligmann publishes his now classic overview of the occult practice over the ages, “The Mirror of Magic: A History of Magic in the Western World”.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1951 — The Fraudulent Mediums Act is passed in England, making Witchcraft essentially legal and helping to spur the Wiccan Movement as Witches could now go public.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
In England, in 1951, the last laws against Witchcraft were finally repealed. This cleared the way for the Witches themselves to speak up. In 1954, Dr. Gerald Brousseau Gardner, in his book Witchcraft Today, said, in effect, “What Margaret Murray has theorized is quite true. Witchcraft was a religion and, in fact, it still is. I know, because I am a Witch myself.”
Buckland’s Complete Book of Witchcraft: Lesson One
1954 — Gerald Gardner publishes the books “Witchcraft Today” and, five years later, “The Meaning of Witchcraft”, outlining the tenets of Wicca.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1950’s – 1970’s — Occultist, poet, and artist Marjorie Cameron brings her esoteric aesthetic to Hollywood’s cult underground, appearing in films by experimental filmmakers Kenneth Anger and Curtis Harrington, as well as producing her own prolific output of paintings and writings.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1960’s – 1970’s — The artist and dancer Vali Myers establishes a studio and wildlife sanctuary on the Italian coast in the mid-1960’s and becomes a counter-cultural icon, the beautiful and mysterious “Witch of Positano”.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1950’s – 1990’s — Doreen Valiente, initiated by Gerald Gardner into his Wiccan Coven, helps adapt many important Wiccan texts. Valiente introduces Gardner’s concepts of Wicca to a global audience and remains one of the most influential women in modern Witchcraft.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
In America, in 1964, the first Witch to stand up and be recognized was myself, Raymond Buckland. At that time, there were no Covens visible in this country. Initiated in Scotland by Gardner’s High Priestess, I set out to emulate Gardner insofar as to try and straighten out long-held misconceptions, and to show the Craft for what it truly is.
Buckland’s Complete Book of Witchcraft, by Raymond Buckland
1968 — The Church of the All Worlds begins publishing their influential Neo-Pagan magazine, “Green Egg Magazine”.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1968 — Sybil Leek publishes her book “Diary of a Witch”.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1968 — W.I.T.C.H. (Women’s International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell), a collective of feminist activists, is founded. The organization fights for women’s and civil rights and participates in the anti-war movement.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
The Black Cat Tavern, at 3909 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA is the recognized site of the first documented LGBTQ civil rights demonstration. In February of 1967, over 200 LGBT patrons of the tavern marched peacefully in a counter-protest against police brutality following a raid on the tavern.
The Stonewall Riots were a series of spontaneous riots and demonstrations against a police raid that took place in June of 1969 at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Although the demonstrations were not the first time American homosexuals fought back against government-sponsored persecution of sexual minorities, the Stonewall riots marked a new beginning for the gay rights movement, in the United States and around the world.
Wikipedia: on “The Black Cat Tavern” and on “The Stonewall Riots”
1970’s — The women’s rights movement ushers in a new phase of Witchcraft as translated through a feminist lens.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1971 — Los Angeles — The Susan B. Anthony Coven No. 1 met on Whitley Avenue for the first time on the Winter Solstice of 1971. Zsuzsanna Budapest dedicated much of her life to creating and disseminating Dianic Wicca, a feminist, Goddess-centered spirituality she originated in Los Angeles during the 1970’s. She was arrested for reading tarot cards in Venice when divination was still illegal across most of California.
Feminist Witch Introduced California to the Goddess, by Los Angeles Times
1970’s — The Alexandrian sect of Witchcraft is made famous by Alex and Maxine Sanders.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1970 — Scholar and Wiccan Priest, Raymond Buckland, releases “Witchcraft: Ancient and Modern”.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1973 — “Witches, Midwives, and Nurses” is published by historians Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English. The book makes the claim that women schooled in healing practices represented a particular threat to the patriarchy.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
“Yes, I am a Witch. I’m a bitch. I don’t care what you say.” Yoko Ono wrote these words in 1974, bristling at media backlash to her relationship with John Lennon, targeting her righteous indignation at the press, at the patriarchy, at the brittle unyielding edifice of the cultural establishment. Ono was and remains a witch — defiant, powerful, a magickal being, manifesting the spell of creative action. By her very existence, she defies stereotype. By proclaiming herself a witch, she transforms a legacy of persecution into an expression of empowerment.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1974 — In an attempt to define the tenets of modern Witchcraft, the American Council of Witches reports that the Craft is varied and inclusive. Each Coven is considered autonomous, exploring various symbologies and rituals.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1977 — Author, scholar and practicing Witch, Laurie Cabot is proclaimed the official Witch of Salem by Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1979 — With her seminal tome “Drawing Down the Moon”, journalist and Witchcraft practitioner Margot Adler draws back the veil on modern Witchcraft.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
In 1979 — activists Harry Hay, Mitch Walker, Don Kilhefner, and John Burnside organized the first Spiritual Conference for Radical Faeries. The Radical Faerie movement began during the sexual revolution among gay men in the United States. The network subsequently evolved alongside queer rights expansions, engaging with eclectic constructs and rituals, while challenging commercialized and patriarchal aspects of modern LGBTQ+ life. Faeries tend to be fiercely independent, anti-establishment, and community-focused. Contemporary Radical Faeries embody a wide range of genders, sexual orientations, and identities.
Wikipedia: on the “History and Origins of the Radical Faerie Movement”
1979 — The California-based Witchcraft practitioner Starhawk pioneers a new goddess- and nature-centric approach to the tradition with her groundbreaking book “The Spiral Dance”.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1980’s — The New Age Movement popularizes esoteric practices, including a revival of pagan and goddess-worship traditions.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1983 — Italian scholar Carlo Ginzburg’s historical study “The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries” is published in English.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1985 — Luisah Teish publishes “Jambalaya”, exploring African American spiritual traditions.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1986 — Janet and Stewart Farrar publish their influential book “The Witches’ Way: Principles, Rituals, and Beliefs of Modern Witchcraft”.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1987 — Julie Anne Britton gives birth to Malcolm de Cesare in New York City at St. Vincent’s Hospital of Greenwich Village, during the height of the AIDS epidemic, where the epicenter of the crisis was unfolding. Julie charted:
Sun in Scorpio | Moon in Taurus | Ascendant Capricorn
1988 — Influential Wiccan, scholar, and author Scott Cunningham debuts his now-classic book “Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner,” and more than a million copies will sell.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1990’s — Information on Witchcraft becomes accessible through the self-publishing zine boom and Witchcraft websites formed in the nascent days of the internet.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1992 — Raymond Buckland publishes “Buckland’s Complete Book of Witchcraft”.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1994 — Silver RavenWolfe releases “To Ride a Silver Broomstick: New Generation Witchcraft”, influencing countless young Witches.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1996 — The hugely popular Hollywood Witchcraft movie “The Craft” is released.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1997 — The J. K. Rowling book “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”, the first book of the Harry Potter series, is published in the United Kingdom.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
1999 — Renowned author and scholar Ronald Hutton releases his seminal tome, “The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft”.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
2001 — “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” debuts in United States theaters – marking the first in a series of global blockbuster films based on J. K. Rowling’s books.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
2004 — Silvia Federici publishes her book “Caliban and the Witch”.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
2000’s – Present — Witchcraft is embraced by a new generation exploring individual expression, inclusivity, and community. Seeking to find connection outside the limitations of organized religions, they redefine and reinterpret the practice in a multitude of ways.
The Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft
2020 — The Coven of the Grove and the Solitary Mystics
Ms. Malcolm has been a Solitary Mystic as far back as they can recall, where, after many traumatic experiences, Ms. Malcolm grew more in need of community and fellowship, and so decided to organize a Coven. But how?
In a first-wave Millennial fashion, Ms. Malcolm chose MeetUp.com as a platform worth utilizing after learning about its use, reputation, and reach.
Other pagan and esoteric groups, including social justice activism, do organize through MeetUp.com, and from there, Ms. Malcolm met Ms. Molly and Ms. Andy — and so our Coven was born, with a book beneath a tree.
Gratitude is owed to the platform of MeetUp for introducing us to other Covens, Groves, Groups, and Merchants, as well as Pagans, Mystics, Faeries, Witches, and the like. Introducing us to Mandragora Magika.
2021 — Olde Ways Pagans, the Coven, and the Grove
Our Coven inherited the digital structures of other groups unable to sustain themselves, and grew to include many various Pagans and Practitioners, which broadened our scope of belief systems, practices, and ideas.
2022 — Pan Pacific Pagans and Radical Faeries
Pan Pacific Park at Gardner Street has, according to Pan’s Apothika, hosted Pagan Pride Festivals before. Pan Pacific has served our Coven and the needs of our communities rather well, so in acknowledgement, we have grown to refer to it as something of a sacred space.
Radical Faeries, more newly introduced into our lexicon, if not less newly introduced into our philosophies — Our Grove Coven reflects a 2SLGBTQIA+ inclusive membership that includes many associated events and themes.
2023 — Full Moon Rites: The Covenstead and The Grove Coven
In an exploration of sacred sexuality, and to ritualize the drawing down of the moon, a Covenstead was itself blessed and consecrated. Deeper relationships were formed concerning personal Craft, social Craft, and the development of the Coven versus its other associated groups.
During the year, Witches, Pagans, and Mystics revealed to themselves and to others what it is they believe relating to their Magick and their identities.
2024 — The Grove Coven Network
Our rituals and relationships have formed a Network that now includes Covens, Groves, and Circles from out of state and out of the country.
Our Coven achieved many milestones regarding successfully organized activities, as well as navigating complex interpersonal relationships.
2025 — High Vibe and AXIS Parties, the Celestial Collective, the Moon Circle Mystics, the Rainbow Rock Coven of Ocala, Florida, and the Renaissance Faire Caravan, among many other noteworthy expansions…
New Groups continue to form and to hive, while observances honoring the Sabbats and Esbats continue, and an expedition to Hawaii is planned.
The Grove Coven 