Merry we meet - Merry we meet - Merry we meet
Welcome to
Controverscial.Com
Merry we meet - Merry we meet - Merry we meet
Welcome to
Controverscial.Com
|
|
Pagan Pioneers: Founders, Elders, Leaders and OthersVera Chapman
Written and compiled by George Knowles
Vera Chapman is perhaps best known as the founder of the Tolkien Society of Great Britain, founded in 1969 to promote the works of the author J.R.R. Tolkien. Later she became an accomplished author herself, best known for the Arthurian Trilogy: The Green Knight (1975), King Arthur’s Daughter (1976) and The King’s Damosels (1976). However, less was known about her interest in Woodcraft and Paganism, for she was an early member of the Kibbo Kift Kindred, a movement founded by John Gordon Hargrave in 1920, a member of the Ancient Druid Order, and later Pendragon of the Order of Bards, Ovates & Druids founded by Ross Nichols in 1964.
Born Vera Ivy May Fogerty in Christchurch, near Bournemouth, England, on the 08th May 1898, Vera was the youngest of three daughters (sisters - Dulcie W. and Geraldine E.) born to John Frederick Fogerty and his wife Kate Isabella Veronica Fogerty (nee Morse). John Fogerty was a wealthy architect and engineer of Irish descent, best known for East Cliff Hall (completed in 1907), a new “home/museum” he designed for wealthy Sir Merton Russell-Cotes and his wife Lady Russell-Cotes in Bournemouth. Today the building is known as the Russell Coates Art Gallery and Museum, a popular cultural attraction in Bournemouth open to the public.
East Cliff Hall in
1907 -
As it was in 2008
Shortly before 1914 her parents emigrated to South Africa, apparently for the benefit of her mother’s health. There at the start of WWI her father enlisted in the army as an Officer, throughout which he served in South West Africa, the Isle of Wight, Palestine and Poona in India. By the end of the war he had been wounded several times and had received various decorations. After the war he returned to South Africa and worked as a public engineer in Pretoria until 1926, before moving on to Lusaka in Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) as a Borough Surveyor. He later died at Kilfinane in Lusaka in 1938.
Meanwhile, having waited out the war in the relative safety of South Africa, Vera was sent back to England and enrolled at the prestigious Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, to continue her education. There in 1920 she became one of the first women admitted as a full-time student in Oxford University. Her time at Oxford was not without incident however, as women in the early 1920’s were still struggling to gain equality in a male dominated society. Ladies from wealthy backgrounds, particularly those entering influential institutions like Oxford University, were expected to conduct themselves according to very strict standards of respectability. As such Vera caused a minor scandal when she was seen out walking with a boyfriend along the river Cherwell without a chaperone. This was considered a shocking breach of propriety, for which she was summoned to the College Principal’s office and reprimanded.
Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
During her time in Oxford, Vera also became a dedicated member of the Kibbo Kift Kindred, a ‘back-to-nature’ orientated Woodcraft movement founded by John Gordon Hargrave (the White Fox). Vera’s woodcraft name was ‘Lavengri’ meaning ‘Woman of Letters’, reflecting her University status. After graduating from Oxford in 1924, Vera married a Church of England clergyman, Charles Sydney Chapman, and went to live in Lourenco Marques in Portuguese East Africa. A year later they returned to England, where they lived for many years in country vicarages where they raised two children (names and birth dates not yet known).
In the late 1920’s, the focus of the Kibbo Kift movement changed from its ‘back-to-nature’ origins to that of Social Credit, and while Vera supported some of their aims, in particular the need for a fairer distribution of the nation’s wealth among workers, she did not favour political activism; and so ended any further involvement with the movement. Today her original handmade Kinswoman leather belt and personal logbooks are preserved in the Kibbo Kift collection held at the Museum of London.
John Gordon Hargrave (the White Fox) - The Kibbo Kift Logo
Throughout the war years 1939-1945 it is thought that Vera worked as a teacher/civil-servant in London, and then after the war she joined the Colonial Office as a student welfare officer. At about this time she also joined the Ancient Druid Order (ADO), then the largest Druidic order in the UK with a lineage that can be traced back to 1717. It was perhaps through the ADO, or through London’s academic and literary circles, that she made the acquaintance of Ross Nichols. Nichols was the Principal of a private teaching college in London (known as Jimmy’s); he was also an author, poet, artist and naturist. In 1954 he had helped a fellow naturist and member of the ADO, Gerald B. Gardner to produce his first non-fiction book on witchcraft called “Witchcraft Today”.
Gerald Gardner (third from left with bagpipes) at Stonehenge in 1951
(Taken from a Festival Souvenir Brochure produced for the Festival of Britain in 1951).
That same year 1954, more interested in the ancient history and practice of Druidry, Nichols was introduced into the ADO by Gardner, and quickly advanced through the ranks to the office of Scribe, a position that suited his academic and literary abilities. Later he was elected Chairman of the Order, in which capacity he lectured on its history. In 1963 together with Robert A. F. MacGregor-Reid, then Chosen Chief of the ADO, Nichols was invited to the Breton Gorsedd in Brittany and ordained as ‘Archdeacon of the Isles’ (Isles of Britain) by Archbishop Tugdual of the Ancient Celtic Church.
Ross Nichols - Gerald Gardner - Robert MacGregor-Reid - Dr Thomas Maughan
Sadly over the following two years his friends Gerald B. Gardner, Robert MacGregor-Reid and Archbishop Tugdual all died. Each had played a major role in his life and to lose them all naturally devastated Nichols, but he was aided and encouraged by his friendship with Vera who provided him with the peer support and intellectual stimulus he needed to move on. With the death of MacGregor-Reid, a schism soon developed among senior members of the ADO and as a result the Order split into two factions. The first group elected Dr Thomas Maughan as the new Chosen Chief of the ADO, while the second group elected Nichols as the first Chosen Chief of the Order of Bards, Ovates & Druids (OBOD), a newly reconstructed Order focusing on the same three grades - Bard, Ovate and Druid. As the senior officer in the new Order, Nichols appointed Vera his first Pendragon, a position she would hold until 1991.
OBOD Triumvirate: Chosen Chief – Ross Nichols (center), Pendragan – Vera Chapman (left), and Scribe - John Brant (right), laying hands on a sword during the Spring Equinox ceremony of 1967 at Parliament Hill in Highgate, London.
“Whilst this sword is unsheathed, promise you all that the England our home and mother shall be protected and illuminated by the swords of our spirits and wills.”
Into the 1960’s fearing that the hippie cult-culture was undermining the literary value of books like The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings (1954) by J.R.R. Tolkien, Vera founded the first Tolkien Society of Great Britain dedicated to restoring a more scholarly appreciation of his works. In 1969 taking the name Belladonna Took from The Hobbit, she placed an advertisement in the New Statesman, an influential weekly magazine published in London, announcing the creation of the Society.
J.R.R. Tolkien - Gandalf played by Ian McKellen in The Lord of the Rings
Acting as Secretary of the Society, new members initially met at her flat in Camden, North London, from where they produced a newsletter called the Belladonna Broadsheet, named after her Middle-earth alias. Later on the 27th June 1972, she was invited to a party given by Tolkien’s publisher Rayner Unwin, and there met Tolkien himself and persuaded him to become the Society’s Honorary President. After his death in 1973, Tolkien was elected President of the Society “in perpetuo”. Vera remained Secretary of the Society for six years before she handed it over to other enthusiasts, during which time it had expanded rapidly, as did the newsletter, which today is a bimonthly publication called Amon Hen.
Amon Hen the bulletin of the tolkien society
By this time, perhaps inspired by Tolkien, but focusing on the myths and legends associated with her roots in paganism, she had been writing herself. In 1975 at the aged of 77, Vera published her first fictional novel The Green Knight (1975). She followed this with King Arthur’s Daughter (1976) and The King’s Damosel (1976) completing an Arthurian trilogy, the last of which Warner Bros. bought the film rights to be used as the basis for a 1998 animated feature film called Quest for Camelot. Robert B. Wyatt, editor of Avon Books, described her at that time as “elegant and energetic, in a long red cape: her conversation was crisp and witty.”
Sadly on the 30th April 1975 her friend and colleague, the Chosen Chief of the Order of Bards, Ovates & Druids (OBOD) Ross Nichols passed away. By this time the Order consisted of just a handful of members, one of whom - John Brant (the Scribe) - briefly took over his position as the next Chosen Chief, before the Order went into decline, with members ceasing to meet. After a hiatus of 13 years, one of his early students Philip Carr-Gomm became ready to take on his role, and in 1988 was asked to re-form the Order as the next Chosen Chief.
The
current Chosen Chief of the Order of Bards, Ovates & Druids
(OBOD) Philip
Carr-Gomm
Philip Carr-Gomm who had studied Druidry with Nichols before his death, and thereafter knew Vera personally, has kindly shared some recollections about her:
“In
the late 1980’s, I used to visit Vera in her council flat in Camden and she
would talk about her life, the Order, and a book she was trying to write on the
history of the Women’s Freemasonry movement.
For some curious reason (which I have forgotten if I ever knew) her
small, simple flat was either the same flat, or at least was in the same block,
in which the previous Chief of the ADO, Robert MacGregor-Reid, had lived before
he died:
Harrington House in Stanhope Street.
Although she was lucky to have had three books published and the film rights for one sold, she recounted her misfortune in not receiving much of the royalties, due to the financial difficulties of her first literary agent.
In 1991, at the age of 93, she was due to attend the Order’s summer solstice ceremony on Primrose Hill, there to hand over her title as Pendragon of the OBOD to her successor the artist Will Worthington. However, she had suffered a stroke on the previous day and was admitted to a nearby hospital. Just before the solstice ceremony, in a moving scene at the hospital, after receiving the last rites from the chaplain, Vera signed a certificate, clasped Will Worthington’s hands in blessing, and officially handed over her title to him."
Will
Worthington Pendragon
of the OBOD (1991 – 2010)
A year later having recovered sufficiently from her stroke, Vera was able to attend the Tolkien Centenary Conference in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of J.R.R. Tolkien’s birth in 1892. This was to be her last meeting with the Tolkien Society, after which her general health began to fail and she was rarely seen in public again. Toward the end of her life when she was no longer able to cope on her own, Vera was moved from her flat in Camden, to a nursing home in Croydon, Surrey, and there she died on the 14th May 1996, just a few days after her 98th birthday.
Philip Carr-Gomm again share’s his recollections:
Five years later, when I attended her funeral, we heard beautiful singing in the service held in what is known as the 'Zoo Church' (St. Mark's in Prince Albert Road - by Primrose Hill, and just across from the entrance to London's Zoo). For the wake we went to The Queens pub in Primrose Hill. There an opera singer sang the funeral lament from The Lord of the Rings in Elvish. There we were - Vera's family, her Tolkien Society friends, her masonic friends, her publisher, and her Druid friends - all sitting in a pub just by Primrose Hill, with its Druid associations, listening to that beautiful lament, and thinking fondly of a truly remarkable woman.”
Bless her be, may she rest in peace.
A Partial Bibliography:
The Green Knight (1975) King Arthur’s Daughter (1976) The King’s Damosel (1976) – Film rights bought by Warner Bros. for a 1998 animated feature film called Quest for Camelot. Judy and Julia (1977) Blaedud the Birdman (1978) The Wife of Bath (1978) Three Damosels (1978) Miranty and the Alchemist (1983) Around Darlington in Old Photographs (1990) The Notorious Abbess (1993) Croft, Hurworth, Neasham, Middleton And Dinsdale in Old Picture Postcards (1996) The Enchantresses (1998) (with Mike Ashley)
Sources:
Private communication with Philip Carr-Gomm
The Book of Druidry by Ross Nichols
Biographical notes in the Introduction to The Notorious Abbess by Vera Chapman (Academy Chicago, 1970) http://www.kibbokift.org/who.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_Chapman http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/vera-chapman/ http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/The_Tolkien_Society http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-2588804496.html http://www.tolkiensociety.org/ts_info/folk/vera-chapman.html http://www.druidry.org/druid-way/other-paths/influence-italy-wicca-and-druidry http://www.druidry.org/druid-way/other-paths/wicca-druidcraft/origins-wicca-druidry Written and
compiled on the 06th July 2012 ©
George Knowles This biography can also be seen at: http://www.druidry.org/library/vera-chapman
Best wishes and Blessed Be
|
|
Site Contents - Links to all Pages
A Universal Message:
Let there be peace in the world - Where have all the flowers gone?
About me: My Personal Page / My Place in England / My Family Tree (Ancestry)
Wicca & Witchcraft
Wicca/Witchcraft / What is Wicca / What is Magick
Traditional Writings:
The Wiccan Rede / Charge of the Goddess / Charge of the God / The Three-Fold Law (includes The Law of Power and The Four Powers of the Magus) / The Witches Chant / The Witches Creed / Descent of the Goddess / Drawing Down the Moon / The Great Rite Invocation / Invocation of the Horned God / The 13 Principles of Wiccan Belief / The Witches Rede of Chivalry / A Pledge to Pagan Spirituality
Correspondence Tables:
Incense / Candles / Colours / Magickal Days / Stones and Gems / Elements and Elementals
Traditions:
Traditions Part 1 - Alexandrian Wicca / Aquarian Tabernacle Church (ATC) / Ár Ndraíocht Féin (ADF) / Blue Star Wicca / British Traditional (Druidic Witchcraft) / Celtic Wicca / Ceremonial Magic / Chaos Magic / Church and School of Wicca / Circle Sanctuary / Covenant of the Goddess (COG) / Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans (CUUPS) / Cyber Wicca / Dianic Wicca / Eclectic Wicca / Feri Wicca /
Traditions Part 2 - Gardnerian Wicca / Georgian Tradition / Henge of Keltria / Hereditary Witchcraft / Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (H.O.G.D.) / Kitchen Witch (Hedge Witch) / Minoan Brotherhood and Minoan Sisterhood Tradition / Nordic Paganism / Pagan Federation / Pectic-Wita / Seax-Wica / Shamanism / Solitary / Strega / Sylvan Tradition / Vodoun or Voodoo / Witches League of Public Awareness (WLPA) /
Other things of interest:
Gods and Goddesses (Greek
Mythology) / Esbats &
Full Moons / Links
to Personal Friends & Resources / Wicca/Witchcraft
Resources / What's a spell? /
Circle Casting and
Sacred Space / Pentagram
- Pentacle / Marks
of a Witch / The Witches
Power / The Witches Hat
/ An
esoteric guide to visiting London / Satanism
/ Pow-wow
/ The
Unitarian Universalist Association / Numerology: Part 1
/ Part 2 / Part
3 / A
history of the Malleus Maleficarum: includes: Pope
Innocent VIII /
The
papal Bull /
The
Malleus Maleficarum /
An extract from the Malleus Maleficarum
/ The letter of approbation
/ Johann
Nider’s Formicarius /
Jacob
Sprenger /
Heinrich Kramer /
Stefano Infessura
/ Montague Summers /
The Waldenses
/ The Albigenses
/
The Hussites / The
Native American Sun Dance
/ Shielding (Occult
and Psychic Protection) /
Sabbats and Festivals:
The Sabbats in History and Mythology / Samhain (October 31st) / Yule (December 21st) / Imbolc (February 2nd) / Ostara (March 21st) / Beltane (April 30th) / Litha (June 21st) / Lammas/Lughnasadh (August 1st) / Mabon (September 21st)
Rituals contributed by Crone:
Samhain / Yule / Imbolc / Ostara / Beltane / Litha / Lammas / Mabon
Tools:
Tools of a Witch / The Besom (Broom) / Poppets and Dolls / Pendulums / Cauldron Magick / Mirror Gazing
Animals:
Animals in Witchcraft (The Witches Familiar and Totem Animals) / Antelope / Bats / Crow / Fox / Frog and Toads / Goat / Honeybee / Kangaroo / Lion / Owl / Phoenix / Rabbits and Hares / Raven / Robin Redbreast / Sheep / Spider / Squirrel / Swans / Unicorn / Wild Boar / Wolf / Serpent / Pig / Stag / Horse / Mouse / Cat / Rats / Unicorn
Trees:
In Worship of Trees - Myths, Lore and the Celtic Tree Calendar. For descriptions and correspondences of the thirteen sacred trees of Wicca/Witchcraft see the following: Birch / Rowan / Ash / Alder / Willow / Hawthorn / Oak / Holly / Hazel / Vine / Ivy / Reed / Elder
Sacred Sites:
Mystical Sacred Sites - Stonehenge / Glastonbury Tor / Malta - The Hypogeum of Hal Saflieni / Avebury / Cerne Abbas - The Chalk Giant / Ireland - Newgrange /
Rocks and Stones:
Stones - History, Myths and Lore
Articles contributed by Patricia Jean Martin:
Apophyllite / Amber / Amethyst / Aquamarine / Aragonite / Aventurine / Black Tourmaline / Bloodstone / Calcite / Carnelian / Celestite / Citrine / Chrysanthemum Stone / Diamond / Emerald / Fluorite / Garnet / Hematite / Herkimer Diamond / Labradorite / Lapis Lazuli / Malachite / Moonstone / Obsidian / Opal / Pyrite / Quartz (Rock Crystal) / Rose Quartz / Ruby / Selenite / Seraphinite / Silver and Gold / Smoky Quartz / Sodalite / Sunstone / Thunderegg / Tree Agate / Zebra Marble
Wisdom and Inspiration:
Knowledge vs Wisdom by Ardriana Cahill / I Talk to the Trees / Awakening / The Witch in You / A Tale of the Woods / I have a Dream by Martin Luther King /
Articles and Stories about Witchcraft:
Murdered by Witchcraft / The Fairy Witch of Clonmel / A Battleship, U-boat, and a Witch / The Troll-Tear (A story for Children) / Goody Hawkins - The Wise Goodwife / The Story of Jack-O-Lantern / The Murder of the Hammersmith Ghost / Josephine Gray (The Infamous Black Widow) / The Two Brothers - Light and Dark
Old Masters of Academia:
Pliny the Elder / Hesiod / Pythagoras
Biographies
A "Who's Who" of Witches, Pagans and other associated People (Ancient, Past and Present)
(Departed Pagan Pioneers, Founders, Elders and Others)
Pagan
Pioneers: Founders, Elders, Leaders and Others
Abramelin the Mage / Agrippa / Aidan A Kelly / Albertus Magnus - “Albert the Great” / Aleister Crowley - “The Great Beast” / Alex Sanders - “King of the Witches” / Alison Harlow / Allan Bennett - the Ven. Ananda Metteyya / Allan Kardec (Spiritism) / Alphonsus de Spina / Amber K / Ann Moura / Anna Franklin / Anodea Judith / Anton Szandor LaVey / Arnold Crowther / Arthur Edward Waite / Austin Osman Spare / Balthasar Bekker / Biddy Early / Barbara Vickers / Bridget Cleary - The Fairy Witch of Clonmel / Carl " Llewellyn" Weschcke / Cecil Hugh Williamson / Charles Godfrey Leland / Charles Walton / Christopher Penczak / Christina Oakley Harrington / Cornelius Loos / Damh the Bard - "Dave Smith" / Dion Fortune / Dolores Aschroft-Nowicki / Donald Michael Kraig / Doreen Valiente / Dorothy Morrison / Dr. John Dee & Edward Kelly / Dr. Leo Louis Martello / Edain McCoy / Edward Fitch / Eleanor Ray Bone - “Matriarch of British Witchcraft” / Eliphas Levi / Ernest Thompson Seton / Ernest Westlake / Fiona Horne / Frederick McLaren Adams - Feraferia / Friedrich von Spee / Francis Barrett / Gavin and Yvonne Frost and the School and Church of Wicca / Gerald B. Gardner - The father of contemporary Witchcraft / Gwydion Pendderwen / Hans Holzer / Helen Duncan / Herman Slater - Horrible Herman / Heinrich Kramer / Isaac Bonewits / Israel Regardie / Ivo Domínguez Jr. / Jack Whiteside Parsons - Rocket Science and Magick / James "Cunning" Murrell - The Master of Witches / Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone / Jean Bodin / Jessie Wicker Bell - “Lady Sheba” / Johann Weyer / Johannes Junius - "The Burgomaster of Bamberg" / Johann Georg Fuchs von Dornheim - the “Hexenbrenner” (witch burner) / John Belham-Payne / John George Hohman - "Pow-wow" / John Gerard / John Gordon Hargrave and the Kibbo Kith Kindred / John Michael Greer / John Score / Joseph “Bearwalker” Wilson / Joseph John Campbell / Karl von Eckartshausen / Lady Gwen Thompson - and "The Rede of the Wiccae" / Laurie Cabot - "the Official Witch of Salem" / Lewis Spence / Lodovico Maria Sinistrari / Ludwig Lavater / Madeline Montalban and the Order of the Morning Star / Margaret Alice Murray / Margot Adler / Michael Howard and the UK "Cauldron Magazine" / Margaret St. Clair - the “Sign of the Labrys” / Marie Laveau - " the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans" / Marion Weinstein / Martin Antoine Del Rio / Matthew Hopkins - “The Witch-Finder General” / Max Ehrmann and the "Desiderata" / Michael A. Aquino - and The Temple of Set / Monique Wilson / Montague Summers / Nicholas Culpeper / Nicholas Remy / M. R. Sellars / Mrs. Maud Grieve - "A Modern Herbal" / Oberon Zell-Ravenheart and Morning Glory / Old Dorothy Clutterbuck / Old George Pickingill / Olivia Durdin-Robertson - co-founder of the Fellowship of Isis / Paddy Slade / Pamela Colman-Smith / Paracelsus / Patricia Crowther / Patricia Monaghan / Patricia “Trish” Telesco / Paul Foster Case and the “Builders of the Adytum” mystery school / Peter Binsfeld / Philip Heselton / Raven Grimassi / Raymond Buckland / Reginald Scot / Richard Baxter / Robert Cochrane / Robert ‘von Ranke’ Graves and the "The White Goddess" / Rosaleen Norton - “The Witch of Kings Cross” / Rossell Hope Robbins / Ross Nichols and the " Order of Bards, Ovates & Druids" (OBOD) / Rudolf Steiner / Sabrina Underwood - "The Ink Witch" / Scott Cunningham / Selena Fox - founder of "Circle Sanctuary" / Silver Ravenwolf / Sir Francis Dashwood / Sir James George Frazer and the " The Golden Bough" / S.L. MacGregor Mathers and the “Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn” / Starhawk / Stewart Farrar / Sybil Leek / Ted Andrews / The Mather Family - (includes: Richard Mather, Increase Mather and Cotton Mather ) / Thomas Ady / T. Thorn Coyle / Vera Chapman / Victor & Cora Anderson and the " Feri Tradition" / Vivianne Crowley / Walter Brown Gibson / Walter Ernest Butler / William Butler Yeats / Zsuzsanna Budapest /
Many of the above biographies are briefs and far from complete. If you know about any of these individuals and can help with additional information, please contact me privately at my email address below. Many thanks for reading :-)
"FAIR USE NOTICE"While I have taken due care and diligence to credit all sources where possible, this website may contain copyrighted material which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. My use of making such material available here is done so in my efforts to advance our understanding of religious discrimination, the environmental and social justice issues etc. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this website for purposes of your own then you must obtain permission from the relevant copyright owner yourself.Any queries please contact me at email - George@controverscial.com
Email_Witches My online email discussion group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Email_Witches
Dove of Peace Help send a message of peace around the world! The Dove of Peace flies from site to site, through as many countries as possible. It does not belong to ANY belief system. Please help make a line around the globe by taking it with you to your site, by giving it to someone for their site, by passing it on to another continent or to the conflict areas of the world. May trouble and strife be vanquished in it's path.
mailto:George@controverscial.com
|
