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Liber XXXV · Witchcraft & Wicca

Liber XXXV · Witchcraft & Wicca · Chapter VII: Wicca

Alexandrian Wicca: Alex and Maxine Sanders and Their Craft

Alexandrian Wicca explained: how Alex and Maxine Sanders founded a ceremonial branch of Wicca in the 1960s, its rituals, degrees and Gardnerian roots.

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Alexandrian Wicca is a tradition of initiatory witchcraft founded in England in the 1960s by Alex Sanders (1926–1988) and his wife Maxine Sanders (born 1946). It grew out of Gardnerian Wicca and keeps its three degrees, coven structure and Book of Shadows, but adds a stronger element of ceremonial magic and a more flexible approach to ritual. Through Alex Sanders's flair for publicity and the books of his initiates Stewart and Janet Farrar, it became, after Gardnerian Wicca, the most influential lineage of British traditional Wicca.

Alex Sanders: From Manchester Medium to "King of the Witches"§

Alex Sanders was born Orrell Alexander Carter in Birkenhead in 1926 and grew up in Manchester, where his family took the surname Sanders. He later told interviewers that his grandmother had initiated him as a witch when he found her performing a ritual in her kitchen at the age of seven, and that she had given him her book of magic. Historians have found no evidence for this hereditary initiation, and Ronald Hutton and others treat it as part of the personal legend that Sanders built around himself. He worked in various jobs, was involved in Spiritualist circles as a medium and healer, and had a strong interest in ceremonial magic.

In 1963 Sanders was initiated into the first degree of Gardnerian Wicca by a priestess connected with a coven in the north of England, and he acquired a copy of its Book of Shadows. Rather than working within that lineage he quickly built covens of his own in Manchester and gathered followers. In the mid-1960s he began to give interviews to the popular press, staging rites for photographers and journalists, and presented himself as "King of the Witches", a title he said had been conferred by the leaders of many covens. Other Wiccans, especially Gardnerians, resented both the claims and the sensational publicity, which seemed to undo their efforts to present witchcraft as a quiet and serious religion.

Maxine Sanders and the Notting Hill Coven§

Maxine Morris, born in Manchester in 1946 and raised a Catholic, met Alex Sanders in the early 1960s and was initiated by him. The couple were handfasted and later married in 1968. Maxine became the high priestess at the centre of the tradition, and many initiates credit her with its ritual discipline and depth.

In 1967 the Sanderses moved to a basement flat in Notting Hill Gate, London. Their coven there met at a time of intense interest in the occult among the young, and they ran training groups as well as initiatory covens. Over the following years hundreds of people passed through their circle, and many went on to found covens of their own in Britain, continental Europe, North America and Australia.

Alex and Maxine separated in 1973. Alex moved to Sussex, where he continued to teach until his death on 30 April 1988, the eve of Beltane (see Beltane). Maxine remained in London and continued to lead and teach the tradition, later writing an autobiography, Firechild (2007), which gives her own account of these years.

Publicity, Film and the Farrars: How Alexandrian Wicca Spread§

Alex Sanders understood the mass media of the 1960s better than any other Wiccan of his generation. June Johns's biography King of the Witches: The World of Alex Sanders (1969) told his story in his own terms, and the couple took part in the film Legend of the Witches (1970), which showed Alexandrian ritual on screen. These appearances made the Sanderses the public face of witchcraft in Britain for a decade.

The most important channel of influence was literary. The journalist Stewart Farrar came to interview the Sanderses in 1969, was initiated in 1970 and wrote What Witches Do (1971), a sympathetic and detailed description of Alexandrian practice. In the Sanders coven he met Janet Owen, later Janet Farrar; the couple soon left to found their own coven and moved to Ireland in 1976. Their books Eight Sabbats for Witches (1981) and The Witches' Way (1984), written with the help of Doreen Valiente, published much of the Book of Shadows and became standard manuals of Wicca far beyond the Alexandrian tradition.

The name "Alexandrian" itself is usually said to have been coined around the time What Witches Do was written, combining a reference to Alex with an allusion to the ancient Library of Alexandria. Sanders's followers had earlier simply called themselves witches or Wiccans.

Beliefs and Ritual: How Alexandrian Wicca Differs from Gardnerian§

In its core beliefs Alexandrian Wicca is close to the Gardnerian tradition described in Wicca and Gerald Gardner. Both honour a Goddess and a Horned God, often understood through the imagery of the moon and the Triple Goddess; both work in covens led by a high priestess and high priest; both keep the eight festivals of the Wheel of the Year and meet at full moons; and both use the cast circle, the athame and the ritual texts of the Book of Shadows, including the Charge of the Goddess.

The differences lie mainly in emphasis and style:

  • Ceremonial magic. Sanders drew freely on the Kabbalah, the Key of Solomon, angelic magic and the ritual heritage of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Alexandrian training often includes Kabbalistic correspondences, planetary magic and techniques of evocation that early Gardnerian covens used less.
  • Flexibility. Alexandrian covens have generally been more willing to adapt ritual wording and to add new material, and Sanders himself freely improvised. Gardnerians have tended to stress the faithful transmission of received texts.
  • Ritual dress. Both traditions worked skyclad (naked) in the 1960s, but many Alexandrian covens became willing to use robes when appropriate.
  • Healing and mediumship. Sanders's background in Spiritualism and faith healing gave his teaching a strong interest in clairvoyance and healing work, which some covens retain.

Hutton summarised the tradition as Gardnerian Wicca with a larger admixture of ceremonial magic. Alexandrians themselves stress continuity of initiation as the defining link, with practice allowed to develop within each coven. A general outline of the Wiccan circle as practised today appears in the spellbook entry on casting a Wiccan circle.

Initiation, Degrees and Lineage§

Like Gardnerian Wicca, Alexandrian Wicca is an initiatory mystery tradition. A person becomes an Alexandrian only by initiation from an Alexandrian priest or priestess, usually after a period of training, often described as a year and a day. There are three degrees:

  1. First degree makes the initiate a priest or priestess and witch, and a member of the coven.
  2. Second degree confers further teaching and the ability to initiate others under supervision.
  3. Third degree qualifies a priest or priestess to lead an independent coven, traditionally through the Great Rite, which may be enacted symbolically.

Initiations pass, by tradition, from man to woman and from woman to man, and every initiate can in principle trace a lineage back through their initiators to Alex or Maxine Sanders. The oath-bound portions of the Book of Shadows are not published by practitioners, although much of the text has appeared in print through the Farrars and others. This emphasis on lineage distinguishes Alexandrian and Gardnerian "British Traditional Wicca" from the eclectic and solitary Wicca that spread from the 1980s through popular books.

Alexandrian Wicca after the Sanders Era§

Early hostility between Gardnerians and Alexandrians softened over the following decades. In the United States a combined tradition called Algard was founded in the early 1970s, and in Britain many covens came to work both lineages side by side. Vivianne Crowley, initiated into both, presented a Jungian interpretation of Wicca in Wicca: The Old Religion in the New Age (1989) that was widely read by both communities. Mutual recognition is now common, and the two are often grouped together as British Traditional Wicca.

Assessments of Alex Sanders remain mixed. Critics point to his invented biography and his love of sensation; admirers stress his gifts as a ritualist, teacher and healer, and the number of serious initiates he trained. Ronald Hutton's The Triumph of the Moon places him among the decisive figures of modern witchcraft, the man who made Wicca visible to a mass audience and gave it a second major lineage. Alexandrian covens today exist in many countries, generally small and private, and Maxine Sanders remains a respected elder of the tradition. For the wider question of how Wicca relates to Paganism and the old religions, see what is a pagan.

Frequently asked questions§

What is the difference between Alexandrian and Gardnerian Wicca?§

Both share three degrees, coven structure and a common core of ritual from Gerald Gardner's Book of Shadows. Alexandrian Wicca adds more ceremonial magic, such as Kabbalah and grimoire material, and tends to be more flexible about adapting ritual, while Gardnerian Wicca stresses faithful transmission of its texts.

Who founded Alexandrian Wicca?§

It was founded by Alex Sanders and his wife and high priestess Maxine Sanders in the 1960s, first in Manchester and then in Notting Hill, London. Alex had been initiated into Gardnerian Wicca in 1963 before forming his own covens.

Why is it called Alexandrian?§

The name is generally explained as a combination of Alex Sanders's first name and the ancient Library of Alexandria. It seems to have come into use around 1969–1971, when Stewart Farrar was writing What Witches Do.

Can you become an Alexandrian Wiccan without a coven?§

In the tradition's own terms, no: Alexandrian Wicca is defined by initiation in an unbroken lineage, normally after training within a coven. People who follow its published rituals alone are usually described as practising eclectic or solitary Wicca.

Sources and further reading§