Philip Heselton is a retired British Conservation Officer, a Wicca

Wicca

Wicca , is a modern Pagan religious movement. Developing in England in the first half of the 20th century, Wicca was popularised in the 1950s and early 1960s by a Wiccan High Priest named Gerald Gardner, who at the time called it the "witch cult" and "witchcraft," and its adherents "the Wica."...

n initiate, and a writer on the subjects of Wicca, Paganism

Paganism

Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....

 and Earth mysteries

Earth mysteries

The term Earth mysteries describes an interest in a wide range of spiritual, quasi-religious and pseudo-scientific ideas focusing on cultural and religious beliefs about the Earth, generally with regard to particular geographical locations of historical significance.The study of ley lines...

. He is best known for two books, Wiccan Roots: Gerald Gardner and the Modern Witchcraft Revival and Gerald Gardner and the Cauldron of Inspiration, which gather historical evidence surrounding the New Forest coven

New Forest coven

The New Forest coven were a group of Neopagan witches or Wiccans who allegedly met around the area of the New Forest in southern England during the 1930s and 1940s...

 and the origins of Gardnerian Wicca

Gardnerian Wicca

Gardnerian Wicca, or Gardnerian Witchcraft, is a mystery cult tradition or denomination in the neopagan religion of Wicca, whose members can trace initiatory descent from Gerald Gardner. The tradition is itself named after Gardner , a British civil servant and scholar of magic...

.

In his non-literary life his interest in landscape led to a degree in Geography and a career in Town and Country Planning

Urban planning

Urban planning incorporates areas such as economics, design, ecology, sociology, geography, law, political science, and statistics to guide and ensure the orderly development of settlements and communities....

; eventually he became a Conservation Officer

Architectural conservation

Architectural conservation describes the process through which the material, historical, and design integrity of mankind's built heritage are prolonged through carefully planned interventions. The individual engaged in this pursuit is known as an architectural conservator...

 for Hull City Council

Hull City Council

Hull City Council is the governing body for the unitary authority and city of Kingston upon Hull. It was created in 1972 as the successor to the Corporation of Hull, which was also known as Hull Corporation....

 before his retirement in 1997.

1960s–1970s: Ley hunting

Heselton has been described by Allen Watkins, son of Alfred Watkins

Alfred Watkins

Alfred Watkins was a businessman, self-taught amateur archaeologist and antiquarian who, while standing on a hillside in Herefordshire, England, in 1921 experienced a revelation and noticed on the British landscape the apparent arrangement of straight lines positioned along ancient features, and...

, as the person who "...led the post-war revival of academic and practical interest in Leys

Ley line

Ley lines are alleged alignments of a number of places of geographical and historical interest, such as ancient monuments and megaliths, natural ridge-tops and water-fords...

". In 1962, Heselton and others collaborated to form the Ley Hunters' Club, a revival of Alfred Watkins' Straight Track Club. The Ley Hunters worked on a hypothesis that Ley lines were not just prehistoric trackways, but were in some way connected with UFOs

Unidentified flying object

A term originally coined by the military, an unidentified flying object is an unusual apparent anomaly in the sky that is not readily identifiable to the observer as any known object...

. Heselton edited the first issues of the club's journal, The Ley Hunter, in 1965-66 and frequently contributed articles to the journal when it reappeared between 1969 and 1976.

2000 onwards: Gerald Gardner and the origins of Wicca

Since 2000, Heselton's publications have all centred around the origins of Wicca and its populariser (or inventor) Gerald Gardner. One review says of Heselton that "...he has dug deeper than anyone before him into the life and associates of Gerald B. Gardner ... No historian of Wicca's beginnings has conducted such patient and detailed research into primary sources. Heselton's view of Gardner is that he genuinely did make contact with a group who were maintaining remnants of an 'Old Religion', into which he was initiated in 1939 much as he describes. Many reviewers have greeted his work enthusiastically, treating it as a vindication of traditional accounts of Wiccan origins. Others have been less enthusiastic, describing the work as speculative. A more critical account of the origins of Wicca was previously provided by Ronald Hutton

Ronald Hutton

Ronald Hutton is an English historian who specializes in the study of Early Modern Britain, British folklore, pre-Christian religion and contemporary Paganism. A reader in the subject at the University of Bristol, Hutton has published fourteen books and has appeared on British television and radio...

 but the relationship between the two appears warm: Hutton has written in the foreword to Gerald Gardner and the Cauldron of Inspiration: "Philip Heselton is the most interesting, valuable and enjoyable author who has yet written on what is becoming one of the greatest riddles in the history of modern religion: the origins of pagan witchcraft".

Publications

• With Jimmy Goddard and Paul Baines: Skyways and Landmarks Revisited (1985)
• With Brian Larkman: Earth Mysteries - An Explanatory Introduction (1985)
• Tony Wedd: New age pioneer (1986). Northern Earth Mysteries. ISBN 0948635010
• The Elements of Earth Mysteries (1994). Element Books. ISBN 1852302283
• Secret Places of the Goddess: Contacting the Earth Spirit (1995). Capall Bann Publishing. ISBN 1898307407
• Mirrors of Magic: Evoking the Spirit of the Dewponds (1997). Capall Bann Publishing. ISBN 1898307849
• Leylines - A Beginner's Guide (1999). Hodder Arnold. ISBN 0340743166
• Magical Guardians: Exploring the Spirit and Nature of Trees 2nd revised edition. (1999). Capall Bann Publishing. ISBN 1861630573

• Wiccan Roots: Gerald Gardner and the Modern Witchcraft Revival (2000). Capall Bann Publishing. ISBN 1861631103
• Gerald Gardner and the Witchcraft Revival: The Significance of His Life and Works to the Story of Modern Witchcraft (2001). I-H-O Books. ISBN 1872189164
• Gerald Gardner and the Cauldron of Inspiration: An Investigation into the Sources of Gardnerian Witchcraft (2003). Capall Bann Publishing. ISBN 1861631642