An altar with objects owned by Doreen Valiente (courtesy Doreen Valiente Foundation) (click to enlarge)
In 2013, a blue plaque, the historic marker of British heritage, was bestowed, for the first time, on the home of a witch. Supported by the Centre for Pagan Studies with a crowdfunding campaign, it honored a person who made witchcraft accessible to a curious public during the paganism revival of the 20th century: Doreen Valiente, who lived in a Brighton apartment block. Thanks to the trust, it’s now adorned with a blue plaque stating: “Poet, Author and Mother of Modern Witchcraft Lived Here.”
Doreen Valiente with her books and a sword (courtesy Doreen Valiente Foundation) (click to enlarge)
Valiente passed away in 1999, and on April 1 her personal collection of items relating to witchcraft and folklore will go on its inaugural public view. Folklore, Magic and Mysteries: Modern Witchcraft and Folk Culture in Britain at Brighton’s Preston Manor, part of the Royal Pavilion and Museums Brighton and Hove, will feature both contemporary and historical ritual objects, ceremonial artifacts, a rotating altar, Valiente’s personal writings, as well as, on certain days, the rare 1940s Book of Shadows containing rituals handwritten by Gerald Gardner, an equally influential figure in modern witchcraft, or Wicca.
“[Valiente’s] collection is seen as the most important of its kind in the world, and as such it represents a unique snapshot of the life and practices of a witch active in Britain in the second half of the 20th century,” Paula Wrightson, venue officer for Preston Manor, told Hyperallergic.
The 17th-century manor has its own supernatural history: its site notes a slew of specters, including phantom ladies clad in white and grey, “disembodied hands on the bedposts,” “weird and uncanny noises,” and a “ghost playing with a toy tractor in the nursery in the 1960s.” The exhibition organizers emphasize, however, that Valiente’s practices were distinct from the paranormal.
“We don’t aim to make a direct link between the Doreen Valiente collection and Preston Manor’s ghostly reputation, although of course both the subjects may appear equally esoteric to the casual visitor,” Wrightson explained. “The collection represents items sacred to the belief system of modern-day Pagans and as such it should be regarded as a display of religious artifacts, and accorded the same respect.”
Ritual books owned by Doreen Valiente, including Gerald Gardner’s ‘Book of Shadows’ at the back (courtesy Doreen Valiente Foundation) (click to enlarge)
Valiente’s most widespread influence came through her books, like Natural Magic and Witchcraft for Tomorrow, which emphasize personal connections to nature. She was also an advocate of religious respect for pagans, including as a founder of the Pagan Federation. Philip Heselton, the author of a forthcoming biography of Valiente, told Culture24, that she “was happier going out at night under a full moon and communing, if you like, with the spirits that are there, rather than elaborate rituals.”
Valiente bequeathed her collection to her last high priest, John Belham-Payne, who went on to serve as the chair of the Doreen Valiente Foundation, which continues her legacy. Before he died this past February, Belham-Payne told Catherine Chapman at the Creators Project that “we want someone to walk in the front door thinking it could be a bit spooky but walk out with the idea that it wasn’t what they thought it would be.”
So, while the cloven-hoof candlesticks, swords, and knotted curses in jars might be a bit startling, the intent of the Preston Manor exhibition is to celebrate a woman who both practiced spiritual divination and strove to answer questions like, “How can I find a witches’ coven?” And beyond the ghosts, the historic house is a good fit for the show: its last private owner, Sir Charles Thomas-Stanford, was a historian of folklore and superstitions in the area and wished for his home to become a Museum of Sussex Life, focused on this pagan past.
“Bringing Doreen’s story to Preston Manor honors Sir Charles Thomas-Stanford’s wishes in a small respect, by devoting a room of his former home to a Brighton personality who was devoted to early-British and Sussex folklore, customs, and beliefs,” Wrightson said.
Doreen Valiente with various pagan objects (courtesy Doreen Valiente Foundation)
Folklore, Magic and Mysteries: Modern Witchcraft and Folk Culture in Britain will go on view at Preston Manor (Macquoid Room, Preston Drove, Brighton, England) on April 1.
Some of the books she is standing in front of are at archive.org.
https://archive.org/details/faithsandfolklo01hazlgoog
https://archive.org/stream/gumboyaya00louirich/gumboyaya00louirich_djvu.txt
Would love to see this show.
That’s great! Thanks so much for sharing the links.
The Witchcraft Act of 1735 did not make paganism illegal – it just recognized that witchcraft was not real and actually stopped any persecution of people as witches with a possible death penalty. It treated things like fortune telling and finding lost objects by divination as fraud and punished people who made “Pretences to such Arts or Powers as are before mentioned,whereby ignorant Persons are frequently deluded and defrauded” by a year’s imprisonment and standing in the stocks. The act was replaced by the Fraudulent Mediums Act in 1951, according to some due to pressure by Spiritualist churches – it left mediums an ‘out’ if they could show that their activities were ‘for the purposes of entertainment only’. Wicca is pretty much a 20th century invention, though it claims to be practising an ancient religion that somehow survived undetected for centuries. The people who were convicted and executed for witchcraft before 1735 were not practising another religion, like heretics – they were accused of invoking evil spirits, in the context of Christian belief, that could be used to kill or cause harm to others.
Thanks so much for the comment, I’ve clarified in the text.
It should be pointed out that the Blue Plaque was NOT placed by the English Heritage Trust, but by the Centre for Pagan Studies, who also paid for it after donations were made by the public.
Thank you for pointing out that error, and my apologies, the post has been updated.