Carl
“Llewellyn” Weschcke (1930 - ).
Written and compiled by George Knowles.
Carl Weschcke is president of Llewellyn
Worldwide Ltd, one of the largest publishers of occult and New Age books in the
world. He is also a Magician, a Tantric practitioner, a Pagan and a former
Wiccan High Priest who played a leading role in the rise and spread of Wicca and
Neo-Paganism in America during the 1960’s and 70’s.
Weschcke was born into a Roman Catholic
family on the 10th of September 1930 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Early in his
life his paternal grandfather, who at the time was vice-president of the
American Theosophical Society, exposed him to metaphysics and the occult.
For his 12th birthday he presented the young Weschcke with his own
astrological chart, after and guided by his grandfather, he became fascinated with astronomy, religion, the occult and reincarnation.
His parents were vegetarian naturalists who practiced mind reading techniques,
and were happy to discuss occult subjects with him.
Even one of the houses they lived in had strange and mysterious thumps and bangs in
the night, which were attributed to the ghosts of the deceased former owners. Such
were the influences that shaped Weschcke’s early life and future path.
Weschcke was educated at the St. Paul
Academy and graduated in 1948. He
then went on to study at the Babson Business Institute in Massachusetts
graduating in 1951 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business
Administration. After graduating he went to work in the family’s
Pharmaceutical business, but found the work unfulfilling. He had a
dream of becoming a publisher, which led him back to school studying for a
doctorate in Philosophy at the University of Minnesota. However, his longing to
get involved with publishing caused him to leave the
university before completing his course, and in 1960 he purchased the little
known Llewellyn Publishing Co.
The Llewellyn Publishing Co. was the
brainchild of the Welsh astrologer, Lewellyn George, who founded the Llewellyn
Publishing Co. in Portland, Oregon during 1901. At that time it was a small mail
order business with a limited focus specializing in selling three Astrology
books and Calendars. Lewellyn
George later moved the company to Los Angeles where he died in 1954. Weschche purchased the business in 1960 and moved it to St. Paul in Minnesota
where he began to rebuild it. He quickly expanded the business to include
a complete line of books on Astrology and the Occult, and within a decade was
publishing some thirty to fifty titles a year, including audio and videotapes.
He also launched a series of magazines including: New Dimension, Gnostica,
Astrology Now, New Times and New World.
During the late 1950’s and early 60’s
Weschcke became actively involved with the civil rights and liberties movements.
He held office in the St. Paul’s branch of NAACP (The National Association for
the Advancement of Coloured People) and the ACLU, (Minnesota’s Civil Liberties
Union) where he played a major role in bringing about fair-housing legislation
in St. Paul.
Weschcke
reported in the St Paul's Recorder 1959
In 1964 Weschcke bought a large stone
mansion on Summit Avenue in St. Paul and used it as both home and a place of
business. The house was reputedly haunted and Weschcke had numerous odd
experiences there. He was often wakened at night by cold drafts coming in
from open windows, windows he knew he had closed before going to sleep. He
also heard strange noises and footsteps in the dead of night and saw apparitions
of a man and woman. These he believed were not true ghosts but the
vibrations of former occupants that had been recorded in the woodwork of the
building. A newspaper article about the hauntings created an avalanche of
public attention and paved the way for his media prominence in the emerging
Wicca and Paganism movements.
476 Summit Avenue in St. Paul
In 1970 Weschcke opened the Gnostica
Bookstore in Minneapolis from which he also incorporated the Gnostica School for
Self-Development. The bookstore quickly became a popular gathering place
for Pagans and others interested in the occult and alternative religions, and
established the Twin Cities as a major centre for New Age resources. A
year later in 1971, a local convention centre manager suggested that Minneapolis
could benefit from a Woodstock style annual festival. Weschcke thought it
a good idea and took the opportunity to host it. The first of several
festivals was staged later that year; called the "First American Aquarian
Festival of Astrology and the Occult Sciences". The festival
attracted many of the best known Witches, Wiccans, Magicians and Neo-Pagans from
all around the world. Witchcraft rituals were conducted and Weschcke led
meditations for peace and the healing of the earth. Later festivals were
re-named and became known as 'Gnosticon'.
The following year in 1972 Weschcke himself was
initiated into the American Celtic Tradition of Witchcraft by Lady
Sheba, the
tradition’s founder. Holding coven meetings in his Summit Avenue home,
Weschcke rose to High Priest and is now an Elder in that tradition. The
same year he met 'Sandra Heggum', a High Priestess in the same tradition.
They later married in a heavily publicized handfasting ceremony conducted under
a full moon. They wrote their own vows taken from old Witchcraft
rituals, and guests drank from a large cauldron filled with fruit, wine and
flowers.
Lady Sheba
In 1973, Weschcke helped to form and
organize the 'Council of American Witches' and became its first Chairman.
During his brief tenure as Chairman he drafted the now famous 'Thirteen Principles of
Belief' statement, which he considers his proudest accomplishment for the Craft.
The statement was later incorporated into the U.S. Army’s handbook for
Chaplains. That same year his wife gave birth to their son who they named
Gabriel.
By the mid-1970’s Weschcke began to wind
down his public activities, feeling his publishing business was starting to
stagnate. Weschcke believed his
constant media publicity and its resulting attention was the cause of it, and so
resolved to do something about it. Selling the haunted mansion on Summit Avenue
he moved the family to the country where he could spend and devote more time to
them. He restructured the business by closing the bookstore, dropping the
festivals and increasing the number of book titles they were publishing.
He also included computer software to his range of audio and videotapes.
The Weschckes continue to support the Wiccan
and Pagan communities primarily through their publishing, and many of their
authors are sent out to organized conferences and activities. Today, most of
their time is taken up by the demands of their business, which by the mid
1990’s had grown into a medium sized publishing house issuing about 100 new
titles a year, spanning the general Spirituality and New Age markets. Their
son Gabriel, holds a master’s degree in publishing science from Pace
University, New York, and now works for the business as its regional sales manger.
Weschcke holds two honorary doctorates, one
in magick, and was for a time the Grandmaster of Aurum Solis, an international
magickal Order originally founded in England in 1897, but now based in St. Paul.
He withdrew from the Order in 1991 and is currently not affiliated with any
group. His media prominence during the 1960's and 70's did much to bring
Wicca and Paganism into the light of acceptability in a skeptical American
society.
Sources
The
Encyclopedia of Witches &Witchcraft - by
Rosemary Ellen Guiley.
Encyclopedia of Wicca & Witchcraft
- By Raven
Grimassi.
First published on the 18th November 2001,
up-dated 30th January 2009
© George Knowles
Best
wishes and Blessed Be
