Alex Sanders

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People in Magick - Alex Sanders

Alex Sanders (June 6, 1926 - April 30, 1988), born Orrell Alexander Carter, was the founder of the Alexandrian tradition of Wicca.

Sanders' first contact with Gardenerian Wicca was in the early 1960s, through correspondence and meetings with Patricia Crowther. In September 1962, he succeeded in convincing the Manchester Evening News to run a front-page article on Wicca. This publicity had several unfortunate side-effects for Sanders, including the loss of his job (due to evidence provided in the article that he had violated the policy of the library at which he was employed) and estrangement from the Crowthers. Soon afterwards, he joined a Gardnerian coven led by Pat Kopanski, which dissolved just over a year later.

Alex Sanders claimed to have been initiated by his grandmother in 1933. He created the Alexandrian Wicca, whose principal proponents are Janet and Stewart Fararr. Their books set forth most, if not all, of the tradition. Contrary to popular belief, the name Alexandrian refers not to Alex Sanders, but to Ancient Alexandria. By 1965, Sanders had formed his own coven with fPaul King and Maxine Morris. Sanders married Morris in December of that year, in one of the earliest examples of what would become the common Wiccan ceremony of handfasting. The ceremony received extensive press coverage. (This marriage would later dissolve between 1972 and 1973.)

In June of 1967, Alex and Maxine Sanders moved to London, where they became well-known in the city's alternative scene, providing introductory talks on witchcraft on a weekly basis.

In 1969, June Johns published a biography of Sanders entitled King of the Witches, based on Sanders' own testimony. Sanders also provided much of the material for the book What Witches Do, published later that same year by Stewart Farrar. Stewart and his wife Janet were members of Sanders' coven and two of his most enthusiastic followers. It was Stewart who came up with the popular name of "Alexandrian" for the tradition of Wicca founded by Sanders.

Alexandrian Wicca is arguably more welcoming to homosexual and bisexual individuals than Gardnerian Wicca, which has a heavy emphasis on gender polarity. In most ways though, the Alexandrian Tradition is very close to Gardnerian with a few minor changes; one of the most obvious ones being that the Alexandrians use the athame as a symbol for the element of fire and the wand as a symbol for air. Most of the rituals are very formal and heavily indebted to ceremonial magick. It is also a polarized tradition and the sexuality of that female/male polarity is emphasized. The ritual cycle deals mostly with the division of the year between the Holly King and the Oak King and several ritual dramas deal with the dying/resurrected God theme. As with Gardnerians, the High Priestess is supposedly the highest authority.