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.Murphy, Joseph M. Santeria and Vodou in the United States. In America sAlternative Religions.Ed.Timothy Miller.Albany, NY: State University of NewYork Press, 1995.Odunfonda I, Adaramila.Obatala, The Yoruba God of Creation.Sheldon, SC: GreatBenin Books, n.d.AirAir is one of the four classical elements of nature that form the basis for alllife.Along with fire, it is considered to be a male element.In antiquity airwas thought to be the essence of the soul.Ghosts were felt to be of the samesubstance as air.Thus they were invisible, but their presence could be felt likethe wind.It also was believed that in death the soul departed the living bodywith the body s last breath and entered the surrounding air.Some items asso-ciated with air are the cardinal direction east, intellect, energy, endeavor, so-ciability, squandering, frivolity, the color yellow, the metal silver, the wand(the Witches tool), and the wand that represents one of the Tarot card suits.See Also: Earth; Fire; Sylphs; Wand; WaterFurther ReadingCirlot, J.E.A Dictionary of Symbols.New York: Dorset Press, 1991.Heisler, Roger.Path to Power.York Beach, ME: Weiser, 1990.Alexandrian TraditionThe Alexandrian Tradition is, in terms of ritual, a minor variant on Gardner-ian Witchcraft, although its adherents now far outnumber orthodox Gard-nerians.The tradition began in 1963 in England, when Alexander Sanders,who was initiated into Gardnerian Wicca by Pat Kopanski, an initiate of Pa-tricia Crowther, was allowed to copy her Book of Shadows (a manual definingrituals to be performed).As soon as Gerald Gardner died, Sanders claimedthat he had been initiated as a Witch at age nine by his grandmother and hadreceived the Book of Shadows from her.Sanders attracted a substantial fol-lowing, and Alexandrian Witches make up one of the largest subgroups inthe Neopagan Witchcraft movement.One of the first Americans to travel to England to become initiated as anAlexandrian Witch was Jim B.of Boston, who founded the coven Du BandiaGrasail and began teaching the Craft there in 1970.Jim B., a trained histo-rian, also studied some of the issues associated with Craft history in the early1970s, and soon arrived at the conclusion that the Craft had been con-6AMERICAN TRADITIONstructed entirely from literary and social materials available in the 1940s and1950s which, of course, was not commonly thought.Feeling betrayed anduncomfortable at having passed on false information about the origins of theCraft to his coveners, he closed the coven in 1974.He lectured publicly onthe subject in the 1970s, causing much controversy.The members of Du Ban-dia Grasail then dispersed into several successor organizations.Another early Alexandrian in America was Mary Nesnick, who beganher Craft career in Lady Theos s Gardnerian Long Island coven, until shegrew dissatisfied with their approach.She wrote to Sanders in England andasked if she could transfer her allegiance from the Gardnerian Tradition ofWitchcraft to the Alexandrian Tradition.He agreed and conferred on her thetitle of Grand High Priestess of the Americas. She received her Alexan-drian training from Patrick Sumner, who traveled to America on occasion.An energetic woman, Nesnick immediately set about to expand and regular-ize the Alexandrian groups in America.Nesnick created what she called the Algard Tradition, blending Alexandrian and Gardnerian practices.One ofher more prominent initiates was Roy Dymond of Toronto, whose HighPriestess, Lady Arianrhod, in turn initiated Charles Arnold, who was respon-sible for the official recognition of Wicca as a religion from the Canadiangovernment.Another important Alexandrian initiation arranged by Nesnick was thatof Lady Ayeisha (Carolyn K.) of Baltimore, worked by Jim B., Roy Dymond,Lady Morgana (Ayeisha s mother), and several others in Boston on Septem-ber 18, 1971.Lady Ayeisha went on to become the first High Priestess ofKAM, Keepers of the Ancient Mysteries, created by the Elders of severalWitchcraft traditions in Maryland.Nesnick fell into obscurity in the late1970s.See Also: IntroductionFurther ReadingFarrar, Stewart.What Witches Do: The Modern Coven Revealed.New York: CowardMcCann, 1971.Johns, June.King of the Witches: The World of Alex Sanders.New York: CowardMcCann, 1969.American TraditionThe American Tradition was created in about 1971 by the founders of thePagan Way to serve as a form of Wicca that was not as restricted by oaths ofsecrecy as the Gardnerian covens had become.They hoped that this new tra-dition would allow more people to become Witches than could possibly beaccommodated by the extant Gardnerian covens, with their strict rules onhow long candidates for admission had to remain in training.The majorfounders Ed Fitch, Thomas Giles, and Joe Wilson combined knowledgefrom their various traditions and created new rituals to replace those that had7AMULETbeen previously bound by oath.A major influence on the work was the Gri-moire of the Shadows that Fitch had written while stationed by the military inThailand in the 1960s.American Tradition covens are scattered about the United States, al-though they have never been numerous.A continual process of creationtakes place as groups splinter off the American Tradition covens to createtheir own covens.One of these is called the Moseyin Tradition.One notable Witch of the American Tradition is Lady Dana Corby, whowas originally initiated in 1975 and trained by Bran and Moria at CoraxCovenstead in La Verne, California.Corby was a coeditor of The CrystalWell, a member of the working committee that created the Covenant of theGoddess (a networking group), and a member of the group who helped recordGwydion Pendderwen s first album, Songs for the Old Religion, on which shewrote and sang the Hymn to the Sun God.After living in Boise, Idaho, for some years, Corby moved to the Seattlearea, where she founded a small publishing company, Rantin Raven Pam-phleteers.Her American Tradition students are scattered across the UnitedStates, from California to Wisconsin.See Also: Pagan WayFurther ReadingCorby, Dana.What Is Wicca: An Overview
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