Isaac Bonewits

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Isaac Bonewits
Magic)
Occupation(s)Public speaker, liturgist, songwriter
SpousePhaedra Bonewits (m. 2007)
Children1
Websitehttp://www.neopagan.net

Phillip Emmons Isaac Bonewits (October 1, 1949 – August 12, 2010

occultism
since the 1960s.

Early life and education

Bonewits was born on October 1, 1949, in

magic
from an accredited university.

Career

Early years

Isaac Bonewits
Bonewits (right) at Camp Ramblewood.

In 1966, while enrolled at

Neo-druid priest in 1969. During this period, the 18-year-old Bonewits was also recruited by the Church of Satan,[3] but left due to political and philosophical conflicts with Anton LaVey. During his stint in the Church of Satan, Bonewits appeared in some scenes of the 1970 documentary Satanis: The Devil's Mass.[5] Bonewits, in his article "My Satanic Adventure", asserts that the rituals in Satanis were staged for the movie at the behest of the filmmakers and were not authentic ceremonies.[6]

1970s: author and editor

His first book, Real Magic, was published in 1971. Between 1973 and 1975 Bonewits was employed as the editor of Gnostica magazine in Minnesota (published by

Llewellyn Publications). He established an offshoot group of the Reformed Druids of North America (RDNA) called the Schismatic Druids of North America, and helped create a group called the Hasidic Druids of North America (despite, in his words, his "lifelong status as a gentile"). He also founded the short-lived Aquarian Anti-Defamation League (AADL), an early Pagan civil rights group.[3]

In 1976, Bonewits moved back to Berkeley and rejoined his original grove there, now part of the New Reformed Druids of North America (NRDNA). He was later elected Archdruid of the Berkeley Grove.[3]

1980s: founding of Ár nDraíocht Féin

Throughout his life Bonewits had varying degrees of involvement with occult groups including Gardnerian Wicca and the New Reformed Orthodox Order of the Golden Dawn (a Wiccan organization not to be confused with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn).[7] Bonewits was a regular presenter at Neopagan conferences and festivals all over the US, as well as attending gaming conventions in the Bay Area. He promoted his book Authentic Thaumaturgy to gamers as a way of organizing Dungeons & Dragons games.

In 1983, Bonewits founded Ár nDraíocht Féin (also known as "A Druid Fellowship" or ADF), which was incorporated in 1990 in the state of Delaware as a U.S. 501(c)3 non-profit organization.[3] Although illness curtailed many of his activities and travels for a time, he remained Archdruid of ADF until 1996. In that year, he resigned from the position of Archdruid but retained the lifelong title of ADF Archdruid Emeritus.

Musician and activist

A songwriter, singer, and recording artist, he produced two CDs of pagan music and numerous recorded lectures and panel discussions, produced and distributed by the Association for Consciousness Exploration. He lived in Rockland County, New York, and was a member of the Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans (CUUPS).

Bonewits encouraged charity programs to help Neopagan seniors,[8] and in January 2006 was the keynote speaker at the Conference On Current Pagan Studies at the Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, CA.[9]

Personal life

Bonewits was married five times. He was married to Rusty Elliot from 1973 to 1976. His second wife was Selene Kumin Vega, followed by marriage to

handfasting ceremony to a former vice-president of the Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans, Phaedra Heyman Bonewits. At the time of the handfasting, the marriage was not yet legal because he had not yet been legally divorced from Lipp, although they had been separated for several years. Paperwork and legalities caught up on December 31, 2007, making them legally married.[3][10]

Bonewits' only child was born to Deborah Lipp in 1990.[3]

Illness and death

In 1990, Bonewits was diagnosed with

eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome. The illness was a factor in his eventual resignation from the position of Archdruid of the ADF
.

On October 25, 2009, Bonewits was diagnosed with a rare form of

colon cancer,[11] for which he underwent treatment. He died at home, on August 12, 2010, surrounded by his family.[1]

Accusations of sexual assault

In 2018, accusations of sexual abuse against a minor rose against ADF founder Bonewits relating to his relationship with Moira Greyland when she was six years old.[12] Greyland said in her book, 'The Last Closet: the Dark Side of Avalon':

"Some people called him the Pagan pope […] I hated Isaac, and refused to be in the same room with him, even if the only way I could articulate my objections to him was to say ‘he tickled me.'"[12]

In light of this accusation, ADF, the lead pagan organization that Issac Bonewits founded, removed his name from their website and repudiated him.

"To preserve the health of our organization, we must cut out the blight that is Isaac Bonewits’ legacy. We sever the ties both historical and spiritual that bind us to him. For his actions against children, Isaac Bonewits will no longer be named as a beloved ancestor of ADF, nor is he welcome at our sacred fire.

May his memory and his dark actions fade with the rising of the sun."[13]

Contributions to Neopaganism

In his book Real Magic (1971), Bonewits proposed his "Laws of Magic". These "laws" are synthesized from a multitude of

belief systems from around the world to explain and categorize magical beliefs within a cohesive framework. Many interrelationships exist, and some belief systems are subsets of others. This work was chosen by Dennis Wheatley
in the 1970s to be part of his publishing project Library of the Occult.

Bonewits also coined much of the modern terminology used to articulate the themes and issues that affect the North American Neopagan community.

  • Pioneered the modern usage of the terms "
    Meso-Paganism", and numerous other retronyms
    .
  • Possibly coined the term "Pagan Reconstructionism", though the communities in question would later diverge from his initial meaning.[14][15]
  • Founded
    Ar nDraiocht Fein
    , which was incorporated in 1990 in the state of Delaware as a U.S. 501(c)3 non-profit organization.
  • Developed the Advanced Bonewits Cult Danger Evaluation Frame (ABCDEF).
  • Coined the phrase "Never Again the Burning".[16]
  • Critiqued the Burning Times / Old Religion Murray thesis (in Bonewits's Essential Guide to Witchcraft and Wicca).
  • In his book Real Magic (1971), Bonewits proposed his hypothesis on the Laws of Magic, which were then elaborated in his RPG supplement Authentic Thaumaturgy. The book makes it clear it is an adaptation of the ideas from Real Magic to gaming with the Laws presented being abbreviated from those in Real Magic.[17]

Bibliography

Discography

Music

  • Be Pagan Once Again! – Isaac Bonewits & Friends (including Ian Corrigan, Victoria Ganger, and Todd Alan) (CD) (
    ADF
    )
  • Avalon is Rising! – Real Magic (CD)(ACE/ADF)

Spoken word

Panel discussions

References

  1. ^ a b c Aloi, Peg (August 12, 2010). "Isaac Bonewits (1949 - 2010) : A Tribute". Witchvox. Archived from the original on February 29, 2012. Retrieved January 19, 2012.
  2. ^ Carlson, Jess (2010-08-12). "Isaac Bonewits Enters the Summerland". Jess Carlson. Retrieved 2022-11-11.
  3. ^
    ISBN 9781438126845
    . He also was the last to do so in the United States. College administrators were so embarrassed over the publicity about the degree that magic, witchcraft, and sorcery were banned from the individual group study program.
  4. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Among June graduates at the University of California is Isaac Bonewits, who will receive a bachelor of arts in magic.
  5. ^ "Satanis". Internet Movie Database. Archived from the original on February 27, 2012. Retrieved Jan 19, 2012.
  6. ^ Bonewits, Isaac (2005). "My Satanic Adventure". Archived from the original on January 11, 2012. Retrieved Jan 19, 2012.
  7. ^ Bonewits, Isaac. "Isaac Bonewits' Biography". www.neopagan.net. Archived from the original on 2008-01-31. Retrieved 2008-01-22.
  8. ^ Bonewits, Isaac (2009). "Adopt an Elder". Archived from the original on February 5, 2012. Retrieved January 19, 2012.
  9. ^ "Conference on Current Pagan Studies". Archived from the original on 2016-12-03.
  10. ^ "Neopagan.Net 2007 Year-End Report and 2008 Donation Campaign - Views from the Cyberhenge". neopagan.net. Archived from the original on 2008-01-07. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
  11. ^ Isaac Bonewits Diagnosed with Cancer Archived 2016-09-10 at the Wayback Machine, Jason Pitzl-Waters, The Wild Hunt
  12. ^ a b Greene, Heather (January 10, 2018). "Accusations of abuse surface against ADF founder Isaac Bonewits - News, Paganism, U.S." The Wild Hunt.
  13. ^ Hunt, The Wild (November 8, 2019). "ADF repudiates founder Isaac Bonewits - News, Paganism, The Wild Hunt, U.S., World". The Wild Hunt.
  14. ISBN 0-8065-2710-2
    . Author is unsure whether he "got this use of the term from one or more of the other culturally focused Neopagan movements of the time, or if [he] just applied it in a novel fashion".
  15. ^ McColman (2003) p.51: "Such reconstructionists are attempting, through both spiritual and scholarly means, to create as purely Celtic a spirituality as possible."
  16. ^ Bonewits, Isaac. "The Aquarian Manifesto with Historical Notes". www.neopagan.net. Archived from the original on 2007-04-18. Retrieved 2007-06-12.
  17. ^ Bonewits, Isaac (2005). Authentic Thaumaturgy. Steve Jackson Games. p. 58

Further reading

External links

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