Roy Bowers

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Roy Bowers (1931-1966), aka Robert Cochrane, was a British cunning man and one of the most famous figures in modern witchcraft of non-Wiccan variety. His coven, the Clan of Tubal Cain, was running contemporaneously with Gerald Gardner's early covens, and from 1964 Doreen Valiente, who had been Gardner's High Priestess, worked with this group. According to Ronald Hutton's Triumph of the Moon, Bowers is responsible for the introduction of the stang as a ritual tool.

Cochrane ingested belladonna and Librium on Midsummer 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 group called The Regency was formed to preserve and continue his tradition; it eventually disbanded in 1978. A similarly Cochrane-inspired tradition was the Roebuck [1], whose lore is also used by the "Ancient Keltic Church" [2].

Following correspondence with Cochrane in the mid 1960s, an American named Joseph Bearwalker Wilson founded a group called the 1734 Tradition[3], based on his teachings, the teachings of the actress Ruth Wynn-Owen [4] 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) [5] 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).

[edit] Published writings

• Jones, Evan John., (ed) The Robert Cochrane Letters: An Insight into Modern Traditional Witchcraft (Capall Bann Publishing, 2003)
• Jones, Evan John, (ed) The Roebuck in the Thicket: An Anthology of the Robert Cochrane Tradition (Capall Bann Publishing, 2001
• Jones, Evan John (with Chas S. Clifton), Sacred Mask, Sacred Dance (Llewellyn, 1997). Expanded workings based on Cochrane's ideas.

[edit] References

• 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)

1734 tradition website[6]