|
You are here: Wild Ideas > Temple > Library >
Crafting The Art Of Magic:
A Critical Review
By D. Hudson Frew (Morgann)
Revised Version
Copyright 1991 by D. Hudson Frew.
Used by permission of the author.
Due to the extreme length of this document, I have broken it into
several pages, based on the subsections of the original document.
— The Webmistress
- Introduction
- Gardner's "dyslexia", his "conspirators",
& the reliability of Kelly's texts
- Independent evidence of an earlier group
- Pre-1939 Witch groups & Kelly's research
The antiquity of other, non-Gardnerian
Craft traditions
Mysterious & unsupported statements
of "fact"
- Kelly's apparent ignorance of folk magic
Ye Bok of ye Art Magical
- West Country Wicca
Kelly's not-so-puzzling ignorance
of Book of Shadows construction
- Gardner's texts & "sources"
- Folk tradition in the Gardnerian circle
- The Eightfold Path
- Charles Cardell & the Weschcke documents:
reliable sources?
- The Craft Laws
Misdirection
- Kelly's hidden agendas
- Conclusions
- Post scriptum & acknowledgements
- Bibliography of referenced works
- Updates:
- Richard Smoley of Gnosis Magazine
said that he assumed that the "English educational system"
mentioned by Kelly on page 47 above encompassed the full range
of educational opportunities in England at the time, including
private tutors...
- Gus di Zerega and Anna Korn
pointed out that it was incredibly facile, not to mention insulting,
for Kelly to assert, on page 27, that Gardner's supposed sexual
addiction to flagellation...
- On page 81, Kelly presents the well-known "Amalthean
horn" prayer.
- Paul Suliin asked me if it was
true that all of the Gardnerian material was in published
sources....
- Leah Samul takes exception
to Kelly's statement on page x where he says: "I call
all Neopagan Witches Gardnerian Witches..."
- Carl Weschcke, owner of Llewellyn
Publications, responded to my review...
- Chas Clifton, a contributor
to Gnosis Magazine, responded by asking: "... as long
as we're dealing with hidden agendas, shouldn't you simply say
up front that while Kelly has abandoned the idea of a pre-1939
coven, you have not?"
- I sent a copy of my review to Aidan
Kelly himself, who called me and left the following message...
- Victor Anderson says that virtually
everything reported by Kelly about the Faery Tradition is inaccurate...
- "Robert", a
British Witch who was initiated in Gardner's presence and worked
in his coven, and who is often quoted in Kelly's book...
- Allyn Wolfe of the New Wiccan Church
points out that on page 53, Kelly reproduces what he says is the
earliest version of The Charge...
- Kelly recently sent an "open group letter" (dated
2/1/92) to several Elders of the Gardnerian
community...
- Kathy Fleck of the OTO recently
reviewed Kelly's book in January 1992 issue of the Thelema
Lodge OTO Newsletter.
All content copyright 1999-2006 by the
individual authors, where cited, or by
Lynna Landstreet
where not specifically credited.
Except where otherwise noted, this site is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
2.5 License.
Site design: Spider Silk Design - Toronto web designers
This page last modified: January 29, 2006
|
