Alexandrian Wicca: Difference between revisions

| members = Over 1,000 {{Citation needed|date=February 2024}}

| ministers_type = Priest/PriestnessPriestess

'''Alexandrian Wicca''' or '''Alexandrian Witchcraft''' is a tradition of the [[Neopaganism|Neopagan]] [[religion]] of [[Wicca]], founded by [[Alex Sanders (Wiccan)|Alex Sanders]] (also known as "King of the Witches")<ref>{{cite book | author=Johns, June | title=King of the witches: The world of Alex Sanders | publisher=P. Davies | year=1969|isbn=0-432-07675-1}}</ref>) who, with his wife [[Maxine Sanders]], established the tradition in the [[United Kingdom]] in the 1960s. Alexandrian Wicca is similar in many ways to [[Gardnerian Wicca]], and receives regular mention in books on Wicca as one of the religion's most widely recognizedrecognised traditions.<ref>See {{cite book | author=Adler, Margot | authorlinkauthor-link=Margot Adler | title=Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America Today | publisher=Viking | year=1979 | isbn=0-670-28342-8 }}, and {{cite book |authorsauthor1=Farrar, Janet |author2=Farrar, Stewart, |author3=Bone, Gavin |lastauthorampname-list-style=yesamp | title=The Pagan Path | publisher=Phoenix Publishing | year=1995 | isbn=0-919345-40-9}}, amongst others.</ref>

The tradition is based largely upon [[Gardnerian Wicca]], in which Sanders was trained,<ref name="Rabinovitch">{{cite book |author1=Rabinovitch, Shelley |author2=Lewis, James R. | title=The Encyclopedia of Modern Witchcraft and Neo-Paganism | pages=5–6 | publisher=Citadel Press | year=2004 | isbn=0-8065-2407-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&id=xuvLRbKvyGEC&dqq=%22Janet+Farrar%22&prev=https://books.google.com/books%3Flr%3D%26q%3D%2522Janet%2BFarrar%2522%26start%3D0&lpg=PA95&pg=PA95}}</ref> and initaited, and also contains elements of [[ceremonial magic]] and [[Hermetic Qabalah|Qabalah]], which Sanders had studied independently.

Maxine Sanders recalls that the name was chosen when [[Stewart Farrar]], a student of the Alex Sanders', began to write ''[[What Witches Do]]''. "Stewart asked what Witches who were initiated via our Covens should be called; after much discussion, he came up with "Alexandrian" which both Alex and I rather liked. Before this time we were very happy to be called Witches".<ref name="twptMaxine">{{note label|Maxine|5|a}} {{cite web | title=Priestess of the Goddess: TWPT talks with Maxine Sanders | work=The Wiccan/Pagan Times | url=http://www.wicpagtimes.com/sanders.htm | accessdateaccess-date=11 December 2005}}</ref> Conversely, the most recent edition of ''What Witches Do'' (2010) includes previously published interviews between Sanders and Farrar.

Alexandrian Wicca is practicedpractised outside of Britain, including Canada, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, the United States, Australia, Brazil and South Africa.

Alexandrian Wicca, in similarity with other traditional Wiccan practices, emphasizesemphasises gender polarity. This emphasis can be seen in the [[Sabbat (esbathneopaganism)|Sabbat]] rituals, which focus on the relationship between the Wiccan Goddess and God.

As compared to Gardnerian Wicca, Alexandrian Wicca is "somewhat more eclectic", according to ''The Encyclopedia of Modern Witchcraft and Neo-Paganism''.<ref name="Rabinovitch"/> Maxine Sanders notes that Alexandrians take the attitude "If it works use it".<ref name="twptMaxine"/> Tool use and deity and [[elemental]] names also differ from the Gardnerian tradition.<ref name="Rabinovitch"/> [[Skyclad (Neopaganism)|Skyclad]] practice, or ritual nudity, is optionalpracticed within the tradition, training is emphasized, and [[ceremonial magic]] practices, such as those derived from [[Hermetic Qabalah]] and [[Enochian magic]] may be part of ritual.<ref name="Rabinovitch"/> Alex's work on his ''Book of Shadows'' continued up until his death resulting, like the Gardnerian in several different versions. Some of these derived from his teaching notes that his students received in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It is not unusual to find that earlier initiates did not receive the same books as later ones although they obtained all the information in dictated form, Sander's preferred mode of teaching.

Alexandrian Wicca shares with other traditional Wicca systems the belief that "only a witch can make another witch".<ref name="introAlexWicca">{{cite web | title=An Introduction to Alexandrian Wicca | work=Gay Pagans, Gay Witches...? | url=http://www.thewellhead.org.uk/tradition/an-introduction-to-alexandr.html |accessdateaccess-date=30 October 2011}}</ref> The process through which an individual is made a witch is called "[[initiation]]". As in [[Gardnerian Wicca]], there are three levels, or "degrees", of initiation, commonly referred to as "first", "second", and "third" degree. Only a second or third degree witch can initiate another into witchcraft, and only a third degree witch can initiate another to third degree. A third degree initiate is referred to as a "High Priestess" or "High Priest".<ref name="introAlexWicca"/> The Farrars published the rituals for the three ceremonies of initiation in ''Eight Sabbats for Witches''.<ref name="eightSabbats">{{cite book | authorsauthor1=Farrar, Janet and|author2=Farrar, Stewart | title=Eight Sabbats for Witches, revised |edition=revised | publisher=Phoenix Publishing | year=1988 | isbn=0-919345-26-3}}</ref>

Historian [[Ronald Hutton]] records comments from British practitioners of Gardnerian and Alexandrian Wicca that distinctions between the two traditions have blurred in the last couple of decades, and some initiates of both traditions have recognized initiation within one as qualification for the other.<ref>{{cite book | first=Ronald | last=Hutton | authorlinkauthor-link=Ronald Hutton | title=Triumph of the Moon | publisher =Oxford University Press | year=2000|isbn=0-500-27242-5 }}</ref> Author [[Vivianne Crowley]] often trains her students in both traditions.<ref name="Rabinovitch"/> In the United States, Alexandrian priestess [[Mary Nesnick]], an initiate of both traditions, created a deliberate fusion of the two, which she named the [[Algard Tradition]].<ref name="Rabinovitch"/>

Janet and Stewart Farrar, both of whom were initiated into the Alexandrian tradition by the Sanderses, describe themselves as having left the tradition after the release of ''Eight Sabbats for Witches''.<ref name="ourWiccanOrigins">{{cite web|title=Our Wiccan Origins |work=Wicca na hErin |author1=Bone, Gavin |author2=Farrar, Janet |url=http://www.wicca.utvinternet.com/origins.htm |accessdateaccess-date=11 December 2005 |url-status=dead |archiveurlarchive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060608185540/http://www.wicca.utvinternet.com/origins.htm |archivedatearchive-date=8 June 2006 }}</ref> They were later referred to as "Reformed Alexandrian",<ref>{{cite book | author=Dunwich, Gerina | authorlinkauthor-link=Gerina Dunwich | title=The Wicca Book of Days | pages=78 | publisher=Citadel Press | year=1995 | isbn=0-8065-1685-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&id=rJkia3vwbAEC&pg=PA78&lpg=PA78&dqq=%22Janet+Farrar%22&prevpg=https://books.google.com/books%3Flr%3D%26q%3D%2522Janet%2BFarrar%2522%26start%3D20PA78}}</ref> a description that [[Janet Farrar]] does not use preferring just to refer to herself and her initiates as witches.<ref name="ourWiccanOrigins"/> [[Chthonioi Alexandrian Wicca]] <ref>{{cite web | title=Chthonioi Alexandrian Wicca | url=http://chthonioi.org/ | accessdateaccess-date=30 October 2011}}</ref> and the "Starkindler Line" are derived from Alexandrian Wicca,<ref>{{cite web|title=The StarKindler Line |url=http://www.starkindler.org/starkind.html |accessdateaccess-date=11 December 2005 |url-status=dead |archiveurlarchive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051227175912/http://www.starkindler.org/starkind.html |archivedatearchive-date=27 December 2005 }}</ref> and Alexandrian Wicca was a major influence on [[Blue Star Wicca]]<ref>{{cite web | title=Home Again: An Introduction To Blue Star Wicca | author=Gillette, Devyn Christopher | url=http://www.bluestarwicca.org.uk/homeagain.html | accessdateaccess-date=11 December 2005 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051127092057/http://www.bluestarwicca.org.uk/homeagain.html | archive-date=2005-11-27 | url-status=dead }}</ref> and [[Odyssean Wicca]].<ref>{{cite web | title=A Brief History of the WCC and the Odyssean Tradition | author=Landstreet, Lynna | url=http://www.wcc.on.ca/history.html | accessdateaccess-date=11 December 2005 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150510202327/http://www.wcc.on.ca/history.html | archive-date=10 May 2015 | url-status=dead | df=dmy-all }}</ref>

The High Magical and Qabalistic strands of the Alexandrian tradition also informed the ''Ordine Della Luna in Constantinople'' which, from 1967 onwards, Sanders operated as a 'side-degree' or ancillary rite to Alexandrian Wicca, most notably in collaboration with [[Derek Taylor (Wiccan)|Derek Taylor]] in the 1980s.<ref>{{cite book |last=Strachan |first=Francoise |year=1970 |title=The Aquarian Guide to Occult, Mystical, Religious, Magical, London and Around |location=London |publisher=Aquarian Press |isbn=0-85030-074-6}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.geocities.com/triple-moon/alexandderek.html |title=The Ordine Della Luna/Nova: The Work of Alex Sanders and Derek Taylor |accessdateaccess-date=27 August 2006 |archiveurlarchive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091022105902/http://geocities.com/triple-moon/alexandderek.html |archivedatearchive-date=2009-10-22 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

[[Category:WiccanAlexandrian Wicca| traditions]]

[[Category:Religious organizations established1960s in themodern 1960spaganism]]