Abomination: Devil Worship and Deception in the West Memphis Three Murders (30 page)

Crowley continually emphasized the importance of the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. “If the magician needs to perform any other operation than this, it is only lawful in so far as it is a necessary preliminary to That One Work.” He reveals to the reader what entity he considers his own Holy Guardian Angel:

THE BEAST 666 (Crowley) has preferred to let names stand as they are, and to proclaim simply that AIWAZ — the solar-phallic-hermetic “Lucifer” is His own Holy Guardian Angel, and “The Devil” SATAN or HADIT of our particular unit of the Starry Universe.
¹⁸¹

Thus, we can see the importance of the Abramelin magical operation to Crowley and clearly determine from his own statement contained in
Magick in Theory and Practice
, that his Holy Guardian Angel (HGA) was the Devil.

Gerald Brousseau Gardner holding Aleister Crowley’s walking stick, posing next to a skull.

Gerald Brousseau Gardner

Gerald Gardner was born in 1884 into a middle class family in Lancashire, England. Like Crowley, he inherited a significant amount of money. He became a member of the occult society the Freemasons in 1908 while visiting Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).

In the 1940‘s, Gardner invented the occult doctrines of Wicca, and much like the Golden Dawn mythos, created a novel historical background for his new religion. He began codifying his religion, referencing
The Lesser Key of Solomon, or Goetia,
the writings of Aleister Crowley, and
Aradia, the Gospel of Witches
(1899), a novel based on an Italian witch cult in Tuscany. Gardner penned the books
Witchcraft Today
and
The Meaning of Witchcraft
. Gardner was described in the 1950's as "being about 5'6" tall and stocky with snow white hair and a goatee.” He was often seen wearing a tweed suit, a homespun wool jumper with sandals on bare feet. His reading glasses hung in a case from a cord around his neck, and his fingers were covered in magical rings. One ring spelled out his O.T.O. magical name "Scire" in letters of the Theban alphabet. Along with a nervous twitching of his hands and eyelids, his speech was reported as being rather jerky.

The term Wiccan is now universally used to describe witchcraft. The word Wicca comes from the Anglo-Saxon word meaning a male witch, sorcerer or magician and wicce, a female witch or sorcerer. Gardner wrote "there are men and women witches. Each is called a wica."
¹⁸²
It's derivation comes from the Anglo-Saxon word for prophet or diviner. Gardner professed a comparatively simple definition of magic: "my view is that it is simply the use of some abnormal faculty."
¹⁸³
Wicca is a religion, like Christianity, and Witchcraft is a methodology.
¹⁸⁴
The adherents to Gardnerian Wicca follow a general rule similar to Aleister Crowley’s “Do What Thou Wilt” admonition:

THESE EIGHT WORDS THE REDE FULFILL

"AN YE HARM NONE, DO WHAT YE WILL.”

Gardener described in
Witchcraft Today
the importance of the magical circle: "I am also permitted to tell for the first time in print the true reason why the important thing in all their ceremonies is the "Casting the Circle." Wiccans are taught that the circle is "between the worlds," that is, between this world and the next, the Dominions of the Gods. “The Old Gods are not dead. They think we are,” stated Gardner.
¹⁸⁵

Traditionally, many rituals and even spells are performed in a circle. In a group setting, a circle shows that each person present is important to the success of the overall working. The Circle represents unity, accord, wholeness, and a safe psychic sphere within which all can find comfort and protection.
¹⁸⁶

The circle is usually nine feet in diameter, unless made for some very special purpose. There are two circles, each of six inches, so the third circle has a diameter of eleven feet.
¹⁸⁷
When drawn, this circle is carefully purified, as also are all who celebrate the rites. Witches attach great importance to this, for within the circle is the gods' domain."
¹⁸⁸
The witches circle is intended to keep in the power of the ritual contained. Gardner stated that when the High Priest was not present, a skull and crossbones was used to represent god, death and resurrection. He also wrote that the most beautiful girl would be selected to act as high priestess and was the hostess when distinguished visitors such as the Devil turned up. An acolyte described an initiation into Gardnerian Wicca: Gardner stood in the center of a magical circle "stark naked, with wild white hair, a suntanned body, and arms which bore tattoos and a heavy bronze bracelet."
¹⁸⁹

Every witch obtains a personal magical name in Wicca and obtains a personal knife; they have been reborn. Wiccans call this ritual knife an athame.
¹⁹⁰

Gerald Gardner met Aleister Crowley on Beltane, May 1st, 1946. Gardner wrote that Crowley wasted money like water and that Crowley had the other mark of a charlatan: the all-pervading, almost overpowering, personal charm which brought him so many dupes:
¹⁹¹

By the way, Aleister Crowley was in the cults, but left in disgust. He could not stand a High Priestess having a superior position or having to kneel to her, and while he approved of the Great Rite, he was shocked at nudity. Queer man, he approved of being nude in a dirty way, but highly disapproved of it in a clean and healthy way. Also, he disapproved of the use of a scourge to release power.
¹⁹²

Crowley thought witchcraft as designed by Gardner was "too tame." Gardner told a follower that he used a lot of Crowley's writings because they represented "the very spirit of paganism." Gardner himself speculated that Crowley may have invented Wicca himself. In
Witchcraft Today
, Gardner states that he "may have borrowed things from the cult writings, or more likely someone may have borrowed expressions from him.” Some critics have referenced this statement as an indication that Gardner based the rituals on Crowley's writings. Gardner borrowed elements from Crowley such as the Gnostic Mass, which became the basis for the Wiccan Great Rite. "There are indeed expressions and certain words used that smack of Crowley...”
¹⁹³
The Great Rite ceremony forming the third degree initiation into Wicca was based on the sixth degree ritual for the OTO. The male represents Baphomet and the woman represents Lady Babalon. Most of the material plagiarized from Crowley was excised between 1954-57 to placate females turned off by Crowley’s male chauvinism and to prevent ill repute upon the Craft.

Occult author Francis King claims that Gardner paid Crowley a large fee to write the rituals of Wicca. A Crowley disciple, Gerald Yorke, verified this claim by writing that Gardner paid Crowley about 300 pounds for an O.T.O. charter. This particular charter was on display at the Witchcraft Museum on the Isle of Man. Clumsily drafted by Gardner, the Charter is signed by Crowley on the bottom left as Baphomet, his O.T.O title.
¹⁹⁴
Also, Gardner traveled to Los Angeles where he met Jack Parsons, the young rocket scientist and Aleister Crowley disciple who ran the Agape Lodge in Pasadena, California.
¹⁹⁵

Gardner became a business partner with Cecil Williamson, a farmer, producer and former MI6 agent. Together they launched a witchcraft museum in Castletown on the Isle of Man in southern England. The first floor of the witchcraft museum was outfitted as a magicians study, containing the necessary equipment for practicing ritual magic. A drawing of a magical circle covered the floor, with an altar flanked with two pillars in the style of a Golden Dawn or Masonic temple.
¹⁹⁶
One author claimed there was a prototype of the Book of Shadows exhibited at the Witchcraft Museum and that Gardner’s first American initiate, Raymond Buckland, referred to it.

Drafted by Gerald Gardner, signed by Aleister Crowley

on lower left as Baphomet

Raymond Buckland

Raymond Buckland established a Wiccan coven in the United States based upon Gerald Gardner’s teachings. Buckland briefly met Gardner in England in 1963. The author of over forty books on the subject of witchcraft, Buckland currently lives in Ohio. Of Gardner, Buckland stated:

Gardner was, almost single-handedly, responsible for the resurgence of interest in the Old Religion; certainly in establishing it as a viable alternative to the established creeds. I’m happy to say that I was able to play a small part in that renaissance myself, by extending Gardener’s teachings to the shores of the United States. Today Wicca is practiced around the world.
¹⁹⁷

Buckland acknowledged that Gardner’s interest in the Old Religion brought Wicca to the entire world. As noted earlier in this book, the West Memphis coven and Damien Echols used Buckland’s
Complete Book of Witchcraft
as a reference manual and guidebook. There are important correlations between information in the
Complete Book of Witchcraft
and the West Memphis case.

The Theban Alphabet

The Theban alphabet is used almost exclusively by Wiccans as a substitution cipher to protect magical writings from prying eyes. It originated as a magical alphabet; the exact origin of the text is unknown. The Theban alphabet first appeared in print in medieval occultist Henry Cornelius Agrippa’s
Three Books of Occult Philosophy
in 1531, where its origins were ascribed to the legendary magus Honorius of Thebes.