WITCHCRAFT 1968 PICTORIAL

WITCHCRAFT TODAY
One-shot Collector's Edition
1968
PW Publications
Editor: ?
Cover: Photo
Pages: 32
Cover price: ?

On Walpurgis Night, April 30, 1966, Anton Szandor LaVey declared himself the High Priest of the Church of Satan. It was not long after that his devotees formed "grottoes", or smaller meeting places, which formed a network of like-minded Satanists.

By 1968 the Occult Renaissance in America, and predominantly in California, was in full swing. From Los Angeles to San Francisco, countless witch's covens and other magical groups sprang up like magic mushrooms. Membership was also on the rise from older, established occult groups such as the Rosicrucians, Manley P. Hall's Philosophical Research Society, Builders of the Adytum, Astara, and The I AM Movement. The Beatles had released their legendary Sgt. Pepper album with the image of The Great Beast, Aleister Crowley included among the images on the LP cover. A multitude of occult books from earlier years were being reprinted, and there seemed never to be a better time to choose your religion . . . or your illusion.

The shiny veneer of occult enlightenment was dulled by self-indulgence and misappropriation by many of the practitioners of magic and the occult, and the quest for hidden knowledge was further and further subverted into becoming nothing more than a social aberration. One example was that Witchcraft and magic was viewed as inextricably tied to nudity and sex. Being "skyclad" at a Sabbat became the rule rather the exception -- if you were to believe the media anyway -- who amplified these juicy elements of The Craft for all they were worth.

The one-shot slim volume entitled WITCHCRAFT TODAY exploited the notion that Witchcraft wasn't  authentic unless everyone participating in the proceedings was naked. Subtitled, "An in depth study of a bizarre sociological phenomenon", it consists primarily of staged photographs of nude revelers engaged in ritual sexual abandon and light BDSM. This only gave the ancient tradition a reputation of luridness that continues to this day. That the media exposure, as it were, was encouraged by the leaders of the organized covens, only allowed the printer's ink to flow freer through the hallowed halls of Celebrity. One particular example was the British occultist Alex Sanders (identified as "Saunders" in the article) and his lovely wife Maxine, who always seemed to garner attention with their unabashed nudity during their photo sessions.

Considering the subject matter, the magazine is made up of mostly photos and the "in depth" study is limited to a few pages of meandering text. Not to be taken seriously, this supposed exposé is best described as a cultural curiosity of the 1960's . . . but it's still pretty cool!