THE PICKINGILL PAPERS

Old George Pickingill

& the Origins of Modern Wicca

(Capall Bann Publishing Ltd 1994)

 

George Pickingill (1816-1909) was a cunning man or wizard who lived in the remote village of Canewdon on the Essex marshes. From 1974 a series of articles was published in The Wiccan and The Cauldron magazines by E.W. Liddell, who claimed to be a hereditary member of the Pickingill Craft. He had allegedly been inducted when he was a young man into the family tradition in the early 1950s. This book contains reprints of Liddell’s articles from the two magazines together with an introduction and explanatory notes and references by Michael Howard. Subjects covered include Gerald B. Gardner and the Pickingill Craft, ritual nudity, druidism, Freemasonry and the French witchcraft connection, the Saracen mystery schools and the medieval witch-cult, Aleister Crowley and Wicca, hereditary family witch traditions, the Goddess in ancient Britain, and witchcraft in the Aquarian Age.