Doreen Valiente

Doreen Valiente

Doreen Edith Dominy Valiente (4 January 1922 – 1 September 1999), who also went under the craft name Ameth, was an influential English Wiccan who was involved in a number of different early traditions, including Gardnerianism, Cochrane's Craft and the Coven of Atho. Responsible for writing much of the early Gardnerian religious liturgy, in later years she also helped to play a big part in bringing the Neopagan religion of Wicca to wider public attention through the publication of a string of books on the subject.

Having been born in south London, she first became involved in the Craft after being initiated into the Gardnerian tradition in 1953 in a ceremony performed by Gerald Gardner, in which Edith Woodford-Grimes was also present. Subsequently becoming the High Priestess of his Bricket Wood coven, she helped him to produce or adapt many important scriptural texts for Wicca, such as The Witches Rune and the Charge of the Goddess, which were incorporated into the early Gardnerian Book of Shadows. Splitting off to form her own coven in 1957, she went on to work with Robert Cochrane in his coven, the Clan of Tubal Cain, till the mid 1960s when she began working as a solitary practitioner. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s she penned a number of books on the subject of Wicca - which she always called "witchcraft" - including An ABC of Witchcraft (1973) and Witchcraft for Tomorrow (1978), as well as being an early proponent of self-initiation into the Craft.

Having had a significant influence in the history of Wicca, she has been referred to as "the mother of modern Witchcraft" and is today is widely revered in the Wiccan and wider Neopagan community.