Roy Bowers
Encyclopedia
Robert Cochrane who was born as Roy Bowers, was an English
Neopagan
witch
who founded the tradition known as Cochrane's Craft
, which is seen by some to be a form of Wicca
but is sometimes considered distinct from it due to Cochrane's opposition to both Gerald Gardner
and Gardnerian Wicca
.
Born into a poor family in London, he claimed to have had family members with various connections to different forms of the occult
, and to have been a member of a hereditary witch family, a claim that has been criticised by historians such as Ronald Hutton
. Being initiated into the Gardnerian
tradition, he subsequently went on to found a coven
known as the Clan of Tubal Cain, through which he propagated his Craft. In 1966, he committed ritual suicide.
Ever since his death, a number of Neopagan and magical groups have continued to adhere to his teachings, including the Regency, the 1734 Tradition
and the revived forms of the Clan of Tubal Cain.
family in London in 1931, in what he would later describe as "a slum".
He claimed that members of his family had been practitioners of an ancient pagan Witch-cult
since at least the 17th century, and that two of them had been executed for it. He would also claim that his great-grandfather had been "the last Grand Master of the Staffordshire witches". He said that his grandparents had abandoned the craft and converted to Methodism, for which his great-grandfather had cursed them. He said that his father had practiced witchcraft, but that he kept it a secret, and made his wife promise to not tell his son, Robert. Despite her oath, according to Cochrane, after his father's death, her mother did in fact tell him, at which he embraced his heritage. He asserted that his Aunt Lucy actually taught him all about the faith, but several other accounts of who initiated him have since emerged, causing some confusion on the issue. He would later say of this family tradition that:
He admitted that whilst growing up, he had a very violent temper, and was "a walking threat to anything or anybody", because of which he got a broken nose and several scars upon his face.
He worked as a blacksmith
at a foundry
, and later as a bargee transporting coal along Britain's network of canals. He would later remark that he saw traces of paganism
in the folklore and folk art of both of these professions.
In the early 1960s, Cochrane and his wife Jane began living on a modern housing estate in Slough
in Berkshire
. At this time he worked as a typeface designer in an office.
in the United Kingdom
, Cochrane, who was in his early twenties, founded a coven
, and named it the "Clan of Tubal Cain" after the Biblical figure Tubal Cain (the first blacksmith), as a reference to his work in that profession.
Cochrane initiated his wife Jane and several others into the craft, and they then joined the coven. Among these was Evan John Jones, who would later become an author upon the subject of pagan witchcraft. Jones had met Cochrane through his wife Jane, as they both worked at the same company.
The group performed their rituals either at Cochrane's house, or, more often, at Burnham Beeches
, though they also performed rituals at the South Downs
, after which they would stay the night at Doreen Valiente's flat in Brighton
.
Describing his creation of his Witchcraft tradition, one of its later adherents, Shani Oates, remarked that "Like any true craftsman, he was able to mold raw material into a magical synthesis, creating a marvelous working system, at once instinctively true and intrinsically beautiful."
The Clan of Tubal Cain worshiped a Horned God
and a Triple Goddess, much akin to the Bricket Wood coven
that Gerald Gardner
had recently founded. The Goddess was viewed as "the White Goddess
", a term taken from Robert Graves
' book of the same name. The God was associated with fire, the underworld and time, and was described as "the goat-god of fire, craft, lower magics, fertility and death". The God was known by several names, most notable Tubal Cain
, Bran
, Wayland and Herne
. Cochrane's tradition held that these two deities had a son, the Horn Child, who was a young sun god.
However, differences between the two also existed, for instance Gardnerians always worked skyclad, or naked, whereas Cochrane's followers wore black hooded robes. Similarly, Cochrane's coven did not practice scourging
, as Gardner's did. Cochrane himself disliked Gardner and the Gardnerians and often ridiculed them, even coining the term "Gardnerian" himself.
Whilst they used ritual tools, they differed somewhat from those used by Gardner's coven. The main five tools in Cochrane's Craft were a ritual knife (known as an athame
), a staff known as a stang (according to Ronald Hutton
's Triumph of the Moon, Bowers is responsible for the introduction of this into Wicca), a cup, a stone (used as a whetstone to sharpen the knife), and a ritual cord worn by the coven members. Cochrane never made use of a Book of Shadows
or similar such books, but worked from a "traditional way of doing things", which was both "spontaneous and shamanistic
".
Cochrane's craft tried to blend both traditional witchcraft practices that he claimed were followed by the traditional Witch-cult, but also Celtic
mysticism, that he believed the ancient Druids had practiced.
In 1963, Cochrane anonymously published an article in the Spiritualist
newspaper Psychic News
(9 November issue) entitled "Genuine Witchcraft is Defended". In it, he stated that:
, who had formerly been a High Priestess of the Gardnerian Bricket Wood coven, through mutual friends which he had met at a gathering at Glastonbury Tor
held by the Brotherhood of the Essenes. The two became friends, and Valiente joined the Clan of Tubal Cain. She later remarked that there were certain things in this coven that were better than those in Gardner's, for instance she thought that "[Cochrane] believed in getting close to nature as few Gardnerian witches at that time seemed to do". She also commented on how Cochrane did not seem to want lots of publicity, as Gardner had done, something which she admired. She began to become dissatisfied with Cochrane however, over some of his practices.
Cochrane often insulted and mocked Gardnerian witches, which annoyed Valiente. This reached such an extreme that at one point in 1966 he called for "a Night of the Long Knives
of the Gardnerians", at which point Doreen, in her own words, "rose up and challenged him in the presence of the rest of the coven. I told him that I was fed up with listening to all this senseless malice, and that, if a 'Night of the Long Knives' was what his sick little soul craved, he could get on with it, but he could get on with it alone, because I had better things to do". She left the coven, and never came back.
Valiente had also been unnerved by Cochrane's taking of hallucinogenic drugs, which he called "witches' potions".
After Doreen's departure, Cochrane began to commit adultery
with a new woman who had joined the coven, and, according to other coven members, did not care that his wife Jane knew.
Shortly after Valiente's departure, Jane also left, and the coven soon ceased to function.
. Mr. Wilson formed a new tradition, known as the 1734 tradition
based upon teachings of Ruth Wynn Owen, a tradition taught by a man he refers to as Sean, and Robert Cochrane's teaching.
The numerological number '1724' (a possible misprint in the book), was explained by Doreen Valiente in her 1989 book The Rebirth of Witchcraft. Valiente claimed that Cochrane had given the American witch Justine Glass a photograph of a copper platter with '1724' printed on it for her 1965 book Witchcraft, the Sixth Sense - and Us. He had told Glass that it depicted a witch's ritual bowl that had been in his family for many centuries. Valiente revealed that this was a lie by Cochrane - she had herself, in fact, bought that very item for him only the year before in a Brighton
antiques shop to be used in a ritual.
eve 1966, and died nine days later in hospital without recovering consciousness. He left a suicide note expressing his intent to kill himself "while of sound mind".
A similarly Cochrane-inspired tradition was the Roebuck,
whose lore is also used by the "Ancient Keltic Church".
There are currently three groups operating under the title of “Clan of Tubal Cain”; each of them has their own interpretation and expression of the legacy of Robert Cochrane, although they may not necessarily completely agree with each other.
All three Clans are led by a Maid and Magister, currently these are:
Following correspondence with Cochrane in the mid 1960s, an American named Joseph Bearwalker Wilson
founded a group called the 1734 Tradition
, based on his teachings, the teachings of the actress Ruth Wynn Owen and another colleague named Sean and ideas in Robert Graves
' The White Goddess
, The Magic Arts in Celtic Britain by Lewis Spence
, and The Golden Bough
by Sir James George Frazer.
Another of Cochrane's initiates, Evan John Jones wrote a book, Witchcraft: A Tradition Renewed (a collaboration with Doreen Valiente
) outlining his version of the Cochrane tradition. Whilst there was no objective way to validate Cochrane's claim to be a hereditary witch, the experience of being in his coven was that of being one of "Diana's darling crew" (Jones, cited in Clifton, 2006).
Other works have been published about Cochrane based upon his teachings, and on his Craft, or based upon his ideas
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
Neopagan
Neopaganism
Neopaganism is an umbrella term used to identify a wide variety of modern religious movements, particularly those influenced by or claiming to be derived from the various pagan beliefs of pre-modern Europe...
witch
Witchcraft
Witchcraft, in historical, anthropological, religious, and mythological contexts, is the alleged use of supernatural or magical powers. A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft...
who founded the tradition known as Cochrane's Craft
Cochrane's Craft
Cochrane’s Craft, which is also known as Cochranianism, is a tradition of the Neopagan religion of Witchcraft founded in 1951 by the English Witch Robert Cochrane, who himself claimed to have been taught it by some of his elderly family members, a claim that is disputed by some historians such as...
, which is seen by some to be a form of 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."...
but is sometimes considered distinct from it due to Cochrane's opposition to both Gerald Gardner
Gerald Gardner
Gerald Brousseau Gardner , who sometimes used the craft name Scire, was an influential English Wiccan, as well as an amateur anthropologist and archaeologist, writer, weaponry expert and occultist. He was instrumental in bringing the Neopagan religion of Wicca to public attention in Britain and...
and 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...
.
Born into a poor family in London, he claimed to have had family members with various connections to different forms of the occult
Occult
The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...
, and to have been a member of a hereditary witch family, a claim that has been criticised by historians such as 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...
. Being initiated into the Gardnerian
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...
tradition, he subsequently went on to found a coven
Coven
A coven or covan is a name used to describe a gathering of witches or in some cases vampires. Due to the word's association with witches, a gathering of Wiccans, followers of the witchcraft-based neopagan religion of Wicca, is also described as a coven....
known as the Clan of Tubal Cain, through which he propagated his Craft. In 1966, he committed ritual suicide.
Ever since his death, a number of Neopagan and magical groups have continued to adhere to his teachings, including the Regency, the 1734 Tradition
1734 Tradition
The 1734 Tradition is a tradition of Traditional Witchcraft founded by the American Joseph Wilson, who developed it between 1964 and 1972 and founded the tradition in late 1973 and early 1974. It was largely based upon the teachings which he received from an English Traditional Witch namedRobert...
and the revived forms of the Clan of Tubal Cain.
Early life, 1931-1951
As noted by Mike Howard in 2001, "factual details about Cochrane's early life are scant". He was born into a MethodistMethodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...
family in London in 1931, in what he would later describe as "a slum".
He claimed that members of his family had been practitioners of an ancient pagan Witch-cult
Witch-cult hypothesis
The Witch-cult is the term for a hypothetical pre-Christian, pagan religion of Europe that survived into at least the early modern period. As late as the 19th and early 20th centuries, some scholars had postulated that European witchcraft was part of a Satanic plot to overthrow Christianity; most...
since at least the 17th century, and that two of them had been executed for it. He would also claim that his great-grandfather had been "the last Grand Master of the Staffordshire witches". He said that his grandparents had abandoned the craft and converted to Methodism, for which his great-grandfather had cursed them. He said that his father had practiced witchcraft, but that he kept it a secret, and made his wife promise to not tell his son, Robert. Despite her oath, according to Cochrane, after his father's death, her mother did in fact tell him, at which he embraced his heritage. He asserted that his Aunt Lucy actually taught him all about the faith, but several other accounts of who initiated him have since emerged, causing some confusion on the issue. He would later say of this family tradition that:
He admitted that whilst growing up, he had a very violent temper, and was "a walking threat to anything or anybody", because of which he got a broken nose and several scars upon his face.
He worked as a blacksmith
Blacksmith
A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...
at a foundry
Foundry
A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal in a mold, and removing the mold material or casting after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals processed are aluminum and cast iron...
, and later as a bargee transporting coal along Britain's network of canals. He would later remark that he saw traces of paganism
Paganism
Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....
in the folklore and folk art of both of these professions.
In the early 1960s, Cochrane and his wife Jane began living on a modern housing estate in Slough
Slough
Slough is a borough and unitary authority within the ceremonial county of Royal Berkshire, England. The town straddles the A4 Bath Road and the Great Western Main Line, west of central London...
in Berkshire
Berkshire
Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...
. At this time he worked as a typeface designer in an office.
The Clan of Tubal Cain, 1951-1966
Around the time that the British 1735 Witchcraft Act was repealed in 1951, and it became legal to practice witchcraftWitchcraft
Witchcraft, in historical, anthropological, religious, and mythological contexts, is the alleged use of supernatural or magical powers. A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft...
in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Cochrane, who was in his early twenties, founded a coven
Coven
A coven or covan is a name used to describe a gathering of witches or in some cases vampires. Due to the word's association with witches, a gathering of Wiccans, followers of the witchcraft-based neopagan religion of Wicca, is also described as a coven....
, and named it the "Clan of Tubal Cain" after the Biblical figure Tubal Cain (the first blacksmith), as a reference to his work in that profession.
Cochrane initiated his wife Jane and several others into the craft, and they then joined the coven. Among these was Evan John Jones, who would later become an author upon the subject of pagan witchcraft. Jones had met Cochrane through his wife Jane, as they both worked at the same company.
The group performed their rituals either at Cochrane's house, or, more often, at Burnham Beeches
Burnham Beeches
Burnham Beeches is an area of 220 hectares of ancient woodland, located close to Farnham Common, Burnham and Beaconsfield, in Buckinghamshire. It is approximately 25 miles to the west of London, England.-Preservation:...
, though they also performed rituals at the South Downs
South Downs
The South Downs is a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen Valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, near Eastbourne, East Sussex, in the east. It is bounded on its northern side by a steep escarpment, from whose...
, after which they would stay the night at Doreen Valiente's flat in Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
.
Describing his creation of his Witchcraft tradition, one of its later adherents, Shani Oates, remarked that "Like any true craftsman, he was able to mold raw material into a magical synthesis, creating a marvelous working system, at once instinctively true and intrinsically beautiful."
Cochrane's Craft
- Main article see Cochrane's CraftCochrane's CraftCochrane’s Craft, which is also known as Cochranianism, is a tradition of the Neopagan religion of Witchcraft founded in 1951 by the English Witch Robert Cochrane, who himself claimed to have been taught it by some of his elderly family members, a claim that is disputed by some historians such as...
The Clan of Tubal Cain worshiped a Horned God
Horned God
The Horned God is one of the two primary deities found in some European pagan religions. He is often given various names and epithets, and represents the male part of the religion's duotheistic theological system, the other part being the female Triple Goddess. In common Wiccan belief, he is...
and a Triple Goddess, much akin to the Bricket Wood coven
Bricket Wood coven
The Bricket Wood coven, or Hertfordshire coven was a coven of Gardnerian Witches founded in the 1940s by Gerald Gardner. It was notable for being the first coven in the Gardnerian line, though having its supposed origins in the pre-Gardnerian New Forest coven...
that Gerald Gardner
Gerald Gardner
Gerald Brousseau Gardner , who sometimes used the craft name Scire, was an influential English Wiccan, as well as an amateur anthropologist and archaeologist, writer, weaponry expert and occultist. He was instrumental in bringing the Neopagan religion of Wicca to public attention in Britain and...
had recently founded. The Goddess was viewed as "the White Goddess
The White Goddess
The White Goddess: a Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth is a book-length essay on the nature of poetic myth-making by author and poet Robert Graves. First published in 1948, based on earlier articles published in Wales magazine, corrected, revised and enlarged editions appeared in 1948, 1952 and 1961...
", a term taken from Robert Graves
Robert Graves
Robert von Ranke Graves 24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985 was an English poet, translator and novelist. During his long life he produced more than 140 works...
' book of the same name. The God was associated with fire, the underworld and time, and was described as "the goat-god of fire, craft, lower magics, fertility and death". The God was known by several names, most notable Tubal Cain
Tubal-cain
Tubal-cain is an individual mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, in . He was a descendant of Cain, the son of Lamech and Zillah, and the brother of Naamah.-Name:...
, Bran
Bran
Bran is the hard outer layer of grain and consists of combined aleurone and pericarp. Along with germ, it is an integral part of whole grains, and is often produced as a by-product of milling in the production of refined grains. When bran is removed from grains, the grains lose a portion of their...
, Wayland and Herne
Herne the Hunter
In English folklore, Herne the Hunter is a ghost associated with Windsor Forest and Great Park in the English county of Berkshire. His appearance is notable in the fact that he has antlers upon his head....
. Cochrane's tradition held that these two deities had a son, the Horn Child, who was a young sun god.
However, differences between the two also existed, for instance Gardnerians always worked skyclad, or naked, whereas Cochrane's followers wore black hooded robes. Similarly, Cochrane's coven did not practice scourging
Flagellation
Flagellation or flogging is the act of methodically beating or whipping the human body. Specialised implements for it include rods, switches, the cat o' nine tails and the sjambok...
, as Gardner's did. Cochrane himself disliked Gardner and the Gardnerians and often ridiculed them, even coining the term "Gardnerian" himself.
Whilst they used ritual tools, they differed somewhat from those used by Gardner's coven. The main five tools in Cochrane's Craft were a ritual knife (known as an athame
Athame
An Athame or Athamé is a ceremonial dagger, with a double-edged blade and usually a black handle. It is the main ritual implement or magical tool among several used in the religion of Wicca, and is also used in various other neopagan witchcraft traditions. It is variously pronounced or...
), a staff known as a stang (according to 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...
's Triumph of the Moon, Bowers is responsible for the introduction of this into Wicca), a cup, a stone (used as a whetstone to sharpen the knife), and a ritual cord worn by the coven members. Cochrane never made use of a Book of Shadows
Book of Shadows
A Book of Shadows is a book containing religious texts and instructions for magical rituals found within the Neopagan religion of Wicca. Originating within the Gardnerian tradition of the Craft, the first Book of Shadows was created by the pioneering Wiccan Gerald Gardner sometime in the late 1940s...
or similar such books, but worked from a "traditional way of doing things", which was both "spontaneous and shamanistic
Shamanism
Shamanism is an anthropological term referencing a range of beliefs and practices regarding communication with the spiritual world. To quote Eliade: "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism = technique of ecstasy." Shamanism encompasses the...
".
Cochrane's craft tried to blend both traditional witchcraft practices that he claimed were followed by the traditional Witch-cult, but also Celtic
Celtic mythology
Celtic mythology is the mythology of Celtic polytheism, apparently the religion of the Iron Age Celts. Like other Iron Age Europeans, the early Celts maintained a polytheistic mythology and religious structure...
mysticism, that he believed the ancient Druids had practiced.
In 1963, Cochrane anonymously published an article in the Spiritualist
Spiritualism
Spiritualism is a belief system or religion, postulating the belief that spirits of the dead residing in the spirit world have both the ability and the inclination to communicate with the living...
newspaper Psychic News
Psychic News
Psychic News was a weekly British Spiritualist newspaper that was in publication from 1932 to 2010.-History, 1932-2010:The first issue of the paper was published on 28 May 1932. The name of the paper was devised by one of its founding editors, Maurice Barbanell, who said that he was told to use it...
(9 November issue) entitled "Genuine Witchcraft is Defended". In it, he stated that:
Doreen Valiente and the Clan's breakup
In 1964 Cochrane met Doreen ValienteDoreen Valiente
Doreen Edith Dominy Valiente , who also went under the craft name Ameth, was an influential English Wiccan who was involved in a number of different early traditions, including Gardnerianism, Cochrane's Craft and the Coven of Atho...
, who had formerly been a High Priestess of the Gardnerian Bricket Wood coven, through mutual friends which he had met at a gathering at Glastonbury Tor
Glastonbury Tor
Glastonbury Tor is a hill at Glastonbury, Somerset, England, which features the roofless St. Michael's Tower. The site is managed by the National Trust. It has been designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument ....
held by the Brotherhood of the Essenes. The two became friends, and Valiente joined the Clan of Tubal Cain. She later remarked that there were certain things in this coven that were better than those in Gardner's, for instance she thought that "[Cochrane] believed in getting close to nature as few Gardnerian witches at that time seemed to do". She also commented on how Cochrane did not seem to want lots of publicity, as Gardner had done, something which she admired. She began to become dissatisfied with Cochrane however, over some of his practices.
Cochrane often insulted and mocked Gardnerian witches, which annoyed Valiente. This reached such an extreme that at one point in 1966 he called for "a Night of the Long Knives
Night of the Long Knives
The Night of the Long Knives , sometimes called "Operation Hummingbird " or in Germany the "Röhm-Putsch," was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany between June 30 and July 2, 1934, when the Nazi regime carried out a series of political murders...
of the Gardnerians", at which point Doreen, in her own words, "rose up and challenged him in the presence of the rest of the coven. I told him that I was fed up with listening to all this senseless malice, and that, if a 'Night of the Long Knives' was what his sick little soul craved, he could get on with it, but he could get on with it alone, because I had better things to do". She left the coven, and never came back.
Valiente had also been unnerved by Cochrane's taking of hallucinogenic drugs, which he called "witches' potions".
After Doreen's departure, Cochrane began to commit adultery
Adultery
Adultery is sexual infidelity to one's spouse, and is a form of extramarital sex. It originally referred only to sex between a woman who was married and a person other than her spouse. Even in cases of separation from one's spouse, an extramarital affair is still considered adultery.Adultery is...
with a new woman who had joined the coven, and, according to other coven members, did not care that his wife Jane knew.
Shortly after Valiente's departure, Jane also left, and the coven soon ceased to function.
Joe Wilson and the 1734 Tradition, ca. 1973
In December 1965 to April 1966, Cochrane corresponded with an American witch named Joe WilsonJoseph Bearwalker Wilson
Joseph Bearwalker Wilson was a shaman and witch, founder of the 1734 Tradition of witchcraft, toteg Tribe, Metista, and a founding member of the Covenant of the Goddess....
. Mr. Wilson formed a new tradition, known as the 1734 tradition
1734 Tradition
The 1734 Tradition is a tradition of Traditional Witchcraft founded by the American Joseph Wilson, who developed it between 1964 and 1972 and founded the tradition in late 1973 and early 1974. It was largely based upon the teachings which he received from an English Traditional Witch namedRobert...
based upon teachings of Ruth Wynn Owen, a tradition taught by a man he refers to as Sean, and Robert Cochrane's teaching.
The numerological number '1724' (a possible misprint in the book), was explained by Doreen Valiente in her 1989 book The Rebirth of Witchcraft. Valiente claimed that Cochrane had given the American witch Justine Glass a photograph of a copper platter with '1724' printed on it for her 1965 book Witchcraft, the Sixth Sense - and Us. He had told Glass that it depicted a witch's ritual bowl that had been in his family for many centuries. Valiente revealed that this was a lie by Cochrane - she had herself, in fact, bought that very item for him only the year before in a Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
antiques shop to be used in a ritual.
Death, 1966
Cochrane ingested belladonna and Librium on MidsummerMidsummer
Midsummer may simply refer to the period of time centered upon the summer solstice, but more often refers to specific European celebrations that accompany the actual solstice, or that take place on a day between June 21 and June 24, and the preceding evening. The exact dates vary between different...
eve 1966, and died nine days later in hospital without recovering consciousness. He left a suicide note expressing his intent to kill himself "while of sound mind".
Influence
A group called The Regency was formed by Ronald "Chalky" White and his friend, George Winter, to preserve and continue Cochrane's tradition; it eventually disbanded in 1978 but recently a website has been set up to preserve The Regency memory.A similarly Cochrane-inspired tradition was the Roebuck,
whose lore is also used by the "Ancient Keltic Church".
There are currently three groups operating under the title of “Clan of Tubal Cain”; each of them has their own interpretation and expression of the legacy of Robert Cochrane, although they may not necessarily completely agree with each other.
All three Clans are led by a Maid and Magister, currently these are:
- Shani Oates and ‘Robin the Dart’ in the U.K. who are regular contributors to The Cauldron Magazine and can be contacted via its editor. This clan claims direct lineage and virtue from Robert Cochrane through Evan John Jones.
- Ann and Dave Finnin are based in the USA.
- Carol Stuart Jones and ‘Blackthorn’ in the UK.
Following correspondence with Cochrane in the mid 1960s, an American named Joseph Bearwalker Wilson
Joseph Bearwalker Wilson
Joseph Bearwalker Wilson was a shaman and witch, founder of the 1734 Tradition of witchcraft, toteg Tribe, Metista, and a founding member of the Covenant of the Goddess....
founded a group called the 1734 Tradition
1734 Tradition
The 1734 Tradition is a tradition of Traditional Witchcraft founded by the American Joseph Wilson, who developed it between 1964 and 1972 and founded the tradition in late 1973 and early 1974. It was largely based upon the teachings which he received from an English Traditional Witch namedRobert...
, based on his teachings, the teachings of the actress Ruth Wynn Owen and another colleague named Sean and ideas in Robert Graves
Robert Graves
Robert von Ranke Graves 24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985 was an English poet, translator and novelist. During his long life he produced more than 140 works...
' The White Goddess
The White Goddess
The White Goddess: a Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth is a book-length essay on the nature of poetic myth-making by author and poet Robert Graves. First published in 1948, based on earlier articles published in Wales magazine, corrected, revised and enlarged editions appeared in 1948, 1952 and 1961...
, The Magic Arts in Celtic Britain by Lewis Spence
Lewis Spence
James Lewis Thomas Chalmbers Spence was a Scottish journalist, whose efforts as a compiler of Scottish folklore have proved more durable than his efforts as a poet and occult scholar....
, and The Golden Bough
The Golden Bough
The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion is a wide-ranging, comparative study of mythology and religion, written by Scottish anthropologist Sir James George Frazer . It first was published in two volumes in 1890; the third edition, published 1906–15, comprised twelve volumes...
by Sir James George Frazer.
Another of Cochrane's initiates, Evan John Jones wrote a book, Witchcraft: A Tradition Renewed (a collaboration with Doreen Valiente
Doreen Valiente
Doreen Edith Dominy Valiente , who also went under the craft name Ameth, was an influential English Wiccan who was involved in a number of different early traditions, including Gardnerianism, Cochrane's Craft and the Coven of Atho...
) outlining his version of the Cochrane tradition. Whilst there was no objective way to validate Cochrane's claim to be a hereditary witch, the experience of being in his coven was that of being one of "Diana's darling crew" (Jones, cited in Clifton, 2006).
Published writings
Cochrane did not write any books in his lifetime, though some of his collected writings and letters have been assembled since his death:- The Roebuck in the Thicket: An Anthology of the Robert Cochrane Witchcraft Tradition, Capall Bann Publishing, 2001
- The Robert Cochrane Letters: An Insight into Modern Traditional Witchcraft, Capall Bann Publishing, 2002
Other works have been published about Cochrane based upon his teachings, and on his Craft, or based upon his ideas
- Sacred Mask, Sacred Dance by Evan John Jones with Chas S. CliftonChas S. CliftonChas S. Clifton is an American academic, author and historian who specialises in the fields of English studies and Pagan studies. Clifton currently holds a teaching position in English at Colorado State University-Pueblo, prior to which he taught at Pueblo Community College.A practicing Pagan...
, Llewellyn, 1997 - Witchcraft, A Tradition Renewed, by Evan John Jones with Doreen ValienteDoreen ValienteDoreen Edith Dominy Valiente , who also went under the craft name Ameth, was an influential English Wiccan who was involved in a number of different early traditions, including Gardnerianism, Cochrane's Craft and the Coven of Atho...
, Hale, 1989
See also
- The Writings of Roy Bowers (Retrieved 2007-02-08).
- Robert Cochrane, from controverscial.com (Retrieved 2007-02-08).
- Phillips, Julia History of Wicca in England: 1939 to the Present Day 2004 revised edition (Retrieved 2007-02-08).
- Semple, Gavin W., A Poisoned Chalice (Reineke Verlag, 2004) gives a scrupulously researched account of Bowers' suicide from contemporary documents.
- Clifton, Chas C., Evan John Jones 1936-2003, Letter from Hardscrabble Creek. http://www.chasclifton.com/2003/09/evan-john-jones-1936-2003.html (Retrieved 2008-05-05)
- Clifton, Chas C., Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca and Paganism in America (Altamira Press, 2006)