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Eleanor Ray Bone

Written and compiled by George Knowles

Eleanor Ray Bone “Matriarch of British Witchcraft” was one of Gerald Gardner’s High Priestesses, and played an important part in the revival of contemporary Wicca/Witchcraft.  She claimed to have been initiated into a hereditary coven in Cumbria, and later formed her own coven in South London.  During the early 1960’s and 70’s she was responsible for initiating some of the early prominent leaders of the craft, including:  Prudence Jones, Vivianne and Chris Crowley, Madge and Arthur Worthington and authors John and Kathy (Caitlen) Matthews. 

Eleanor was the daughter of a Girls School Headmistress (name unknown, but died in 1942), and was born in London in 1911.  From her mother she naturally received a good and varied education, but an experience in early childhood caused her to question her faith, Eleanor explained why in a later interview: 

“I've held unorthodox views on religion since 8 when my cat died.  I was very upset and cried when I asked the Vicar whether the creature had gone to heaven; he replied that animals did not go there.  This comment did not sit well with me and I began to read the Golden Bough and became interested in folklore”. 

Nothing more about her early life is known at this time, until at the start of World War II in 1939, she went to work in Cumbria in the North of England and came under the care of an elderly couple.  One evening after work, conversation fell to reincarnation and Eleanor mentioned her belief in it, at which the couple revealed themselves to be hereditary witches.  Later in August 1941 the couple initiated Eleanor into their coven of Traditional Witchcraft.  Over the next four years Eleanor practised and learned from them before returning to London at the end of the war in 1945. 

After the war Eleanor married her husband Bill and settled into a house called the Towers in Streatham, South London.  During the day Eleanor worked as a matron running a home for the elderly, while at night she ran a witches coven, as she explained in a later interview: 

“My flat is a four-penny bus ride from the old folk’s home in Streatham, in a house called The Towers.  The cauldron inside my front door is no door-stop, it’s part of my other life.  I’m not only a witch, but one of Britain’s three High Priestesses.  By day I dress for my job as matron in a tweed suit, thick lisle stockings and brogues.  By night I dance naked with only a garter on my left thigh.  I’ve often wondered what my neighbours at the Towers think of the bumps in the night.  I tell them it’s me moving the furniture about. 

My coven meets in the living room.  I take everything out of the room, clear off the magic circle on the carpet, and setting up an altar is no easy task.  I use a huge old chest on which I lay my ritual knives.  Sacrifice?  Never.  People confuse witches like me with Black Magic.  They say the red wine and small cakes I administer to my kneeling coven are a travesty of the Holy Communion.  Piffle!  They are symbolic of the harvest and we are simply giving thanks to the gods for the grapes and the grain. 

It is true that we are always naked at our rituals, but the reason is our search for purity.  We don’t wear clothes because they bring foreign particles into our magic circle.  Our magic circle is purified with salt water.  It is a big ring drawn at the beginning of each ceremony.  It is drawn symbolically with the witches’ sword – but I’ve painted mine on the carpet to save time.  Once the circle is made, the High Priestess – that’s me – sprinkles salt water all over it.  You might call it our equivalent of Holy Water.  When the circle has been purified in this way no member of the coven can enter it unless they are naked, for a speck of dust from our everyday clothes might spoil our magic. 

Please don’t run away with the idea that we have a sexual orgy.  My coven is made up of middle-aged men and women – the kind of people you see in any bus queue.  There is nothing sexy about us with our clothes off.  We take it all very seriously and a prospective member to the “craft” is watched closely for three months before his or her nomination is put to the vote.  That’s how choosy we are. 

As high-priestess of the coven I’ve had my share of crank letters, but I’ve a stock answer for those kind of crackpots – I write and tell them it’s a psychiatrist they need, not a witch”. 

Through the early to mid 1950’s when Gerald Gardner was becoming prominent in the press, and Gardnerian covens began forming around the country, Eleanor was introduced to him and the two became good friends.  Later she was initiated into one of his London covens, and in 1960 raised and appointed High Priestess of her own Gardnerian coven in Tooting Bec, London.  Eleanor’s craft name was Artemis, and among her early initiates were:  Vivianne and Chris Crowley, John and Kathy (Caitlen) Matthews, Prudence Jones and Madge and Arthur Worthington.  Madge and Arthur in decent from Eleanor founded the Whitecroft coven in south London, which ultimately was responsible for large numbers of initiations and ensuring the survival of the Gardnerian Tradition in the UK.

By day a matron of an old folks home  -  By night a High Priestess of a witches coven 

Eleanor’s connections among other witches through the 1950’s included “Dafo” the mysterious witch of the New Forest coven in Hampshire, about whom she talked about in an interview: 

“Dafo most certainly did exist and I had the pleasure of visiting her with Gerald Gardner and my husband on many occasions.  We were good friends.  Dafo talked about the New Forest traditions and seemed to think that the coven had originated from around the time of Rufus— the Norman King who died in the forest.  She was a schoolteacher and was also known to my mother who knew her through the Hampshire education circuit.  I never met any other members of the New Forest coven and did not practise Wicca with Dafo.  She and I were good friends.  She confided in me that both she and the New Forest coven gave a sigh of relief when Gerald Gardner moved away to the Isle of Man.  They felt he was a publicity seeker and I know for a fact he had never been trusted with any teachings in writing.  Dafo and I called Gerald 'The Old Boy'— he was a lovely old man and generous to a fault, people often took advantage of him.  I know he had never been initiated beyond the first degree in Wicca”. 

Other prominent witches of that time were:  Jack Bracelin, Patricia Crowther, Doreen Valiente and Sufi teacher Idris Shah.

In the early sixties a number of publicity scandals threatened the progress of the newly evolving Wicca movement as others began to form their own covens and traditions, the most famous of course was Alex Sanders, who having taken the title “King of the Witches”, like Gerald Gardner actively courted media sensationalism.  After the death of Gerald Gardner on the 12^th February 1964, it was then left to his three main High Priestesses:  Monique Wilson, Patricia Crowther and Eleanor, to represent the public face of the Gardnerian Tradition in England. 

Monique Wilson who had founded two covens in Scotland, had already become one of his main spokespersons, and was dubbed by the press “the Queen of the Witches”, a title that brought on her the disdain of other craft leaders, and in particular Eleanor who had no time for hypocrisy.  Just before Gardner’s death however, Monique initiated Raymond Buckland into the craft, and through direct descent went on to found the first Gardnerian coven in the United States. 

Patricia Crowther in the North of England had founded covens in Yorkshire and Lancashire.  As a minor show-biz celebrity connected with the entertainment world, with her husband Arnold, she was a frequent guest on radio talk shows, appeared regularly on television, and travelled up and down the country giving lectures at universities and other institutions in her efforts to dispel the many myths and misconceptions surrounding the Craft and the Old Religion. 

In London, Eleanor was accomplishing much the same in her own way, she was always willing to pose for photographers or give interviews to authors, journalists and researchers.  She was motivated not out of personal gain or recognition, but simply trying to represent Wicca in a positive light.  Her sincere hope was that modern society would eventually accept Wicca as a legitimate religion, equal alongside other religions like Christianity and Buddhism etc. 

In June 1964 Eleanor invited a newspaper photographer to photograph parts of a secret initiation ceremony held in a remote cottage deep in Locket Wood, Hertfordshire.  Initiations at the cottage were always conducted skyclad (naked)…

Cottage in Locket Wood, Hertfordshire 

… and in May 1965 to witness and photograph a fire ritual held at the famous Rollright Stones circle in Wiltshire…

Rollright Stones circle in Wiltshire 

In 1966 Eleanor and Patricia Crowther came together to denounce Alex Sanders as the “King of the Witches”, a title they thought he had no right to claim, they also refuted his claim to a hereditary witch linage and the manner in which he claimed to have been initiated as a witch.  Their battle to discredit Sanders had little effect however, except to empathize the Gardnerians mis-trust of others outside of their own tradition, for he succeeded in forming an equally strong and influencial tradition, the Alexandrian Tradition.  Eleanor however did gain some ground that year when she was choosen to replace Harold Wilson, the Prime Minister, as an honorary member of the Oxford University Liberal Club. 

In 1968 Eleanor went on a pilgrimage to Tunis, there to visit the grave of Gerald Gardner.  While there she learned from the Chaplin that the Tunisian Government would shortly be turning the cemetery into a public park.  He explained that if she wished to disinter his remains and move them to another location, that this could be arranged.  Through donations made by members of the Craft, Gardner’s remains were later laid to rest in a more fitting place close to the ancient city of Carthage, once a prominent religious centre where they worshiped the Moon goddess Tanit and the Sun god Baal, the equivalent of the Phoenician goddess Astarte.  Cults associated with the Greek goddesses Demeter and Persephone and the Roman goddess Juno were also worshiped there.  While Eleanor arranged all this in his honour, she never made mentioned of it again publicly. 

After years of living with the hustle and bustle of London, Eleanor retired in 1972 and moved back to the peace and quite of Cumbria.  There she took up residence in the tiny village of Alston, located high up in the North Pennines.  Alston at 1000 feet above sea level, is one of the highest market village settlements in England, and is 20 miles away from its nearest town of Hexham.  It is also very remote, but situated in a landscape designated as an “Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.  Not surprisingly in such a setting Eleanor returned to practicing the old country ways of magic she had learnt during the war.

Alston village market square     -     Arial view of Alston village 

While Eleanor may have given up her position as a High Priestess, she was far from inactive and took on the role of Elder spokeswoman.  After another interview she gave about Witchcraft published in a Newcastle newspaper, she was inundated with correspondence from people wishing to know more, and in this way she continued to teach and defend the craft.  Eleanor was also considered an authority on curses, and during a trip to the United States she was asked to participate in a US television chat show with another curse authority, the eccentric Sybil Leek.  Both being strong willed and outspoken women, after an exchange of dry witty insults, Eleanor was asked to turn her into a toad, at which she replied:  “Why should I improve on nature”. 

In the summer of 2001 Eleanor gave a final interview for the annual Occulture festival held in Brighton.  In a live telephone link-up from her home in Alston, Cumbria, she spoke about the origins of modern Witchcraft and discussed some little known facts about the New Forest coven (see Dafo quoted above).  In her closing comments she reminded people that when she had first practised the Craft, it had still been illegal, and since then we had come along way in gaining acceptance, she was proud that Wicca was finally taking its place beside other world religions.  The interview finished with a standing ovation. 

Throughout her many years as a spokesperson for the Gardnerian Tradition and Wicca in general, Eleanor was always unhesitating when answering bigots and outside critics of the craft, and was particularly disdainful of those in the craft who she felt degraded their positions by taking unjustified titles to boost their own self egos.  Whither she approved or not is uncertain, but toward the end of her life she was given her own title as the “Matriarch of British Witchcraft”.  The origin of the title is unknown, but there can be little doubt that she enjoyed a special regard within the community and her name commanded the respect of most all other witches.

Garigill Church in Cumbria 

In 2001 Eleanor was approached by the UK’s Pagan Federation and asked to be listed as an honorary member, but she politely declined the offer stating as her reason that she did not recognise several of the traditions supported by the Federation.  Later that year in August 2001, Eleanor stated that she would soon be “called back to the Old Gods”, and made arrangements to wrap up her affairs.  Just a month later on the 21st September 2001, she passed on into the next world.  Eleanor was buried alongside her husband Bill in un-consecrated ground at Garigill cemetery, located in a village just a few miles away from her home in Alston, Cumbria.

End.

Sources:

The Triumph of the Moon - Ronald Hutton

The Encyclopedia of Modern Witchcraft and Neo-paganism - By Shelley Rabinovitch

The Witch Book - The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft, Wicca, and Neo-paganism - By Raymond Buckland

 “As a Matron and as a Witch”, an interview with Eleanor in a UK magazine called Tit-Bit’s, week ending 6th June 1964.

“Witches In Britain”, an article in the Weekend Telegraph – Number 35, 21^st May 1965

http://www.occulture-festival.com/2001/BoneInterview.htm

http://www.dynionmwyn.net/obituary.html

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Written and compiled on the 10^th October 2007  ©  George Knowles

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