Aidan Kelly

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Aidan Kelly is a poet and co-founder of the New Reformed Orthodox Order of the Golden Dawn, a form of witchcraft invented in San Fransisco, 1968. Kelly and college class-mates attempted to recreate a witches' sabbat for a class project, drawing on various sources, including Robert Graves' The White Goddess. The group that resulted was humorously named after the famous Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, although it has no other connection to that group. Kelly was later initiated into Gardnerian Wicca in a coven led by Donald H. Frew, and went on to publish a book critical of the origins of Gardnerian Wicca, Crafting the Art of Magic, which allegedly included much oath-bound material. Kelly was ostracised from the traditional Wiccan community, and Frew published a lengthy article criticising Kelly's research.