Fig 5. An example of Jim Davies workmanship.

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After emigrating to Canada he settled in Toronto, where he spent some time as a correctional officer at a jail and was quite open about being a Witch. He travelled regularly between Canada and the Isle of Man.

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In the early 1980s he initiated a Greek woman known as ‘Raven’ and, for a short time, they ran an occult shop on Harbord Street in Toronto aptly named ‘The Witchy Shoppe’. Jim was also a tarot reader at ‘The Occult Shop’, which is still a famous occult store in Toronto.

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Jim’s first article from the 1980s includes a child’s perspective on Gerald Gardner:

 

“If you were really lucky you got to meet the Witch, himself. The first time that I met Gerald, I was about 12 years old. He was standing at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the museum holding a broomstick. Pretty scary! I (very nervously) asked the most obvious and probably tedious question. ‘Do Witches really fly on broomsticks?’ Gerald slowly looked down and eyeballed me. “No …”, he monotoned, “we ride them!” Then grinning from ear to ear, he cackled at his private little joke’”.

 

In the same article, Jim continues to express affection for Gardner as he writes:  

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“…he [Gardner] opened doors for me that would change my life.”

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Indeed, Gardner did just that, for it was Gardner who was the Hight Priest for Jim’s initiation in 1960 as confirmed by Jane who wrote:

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“Gerald was the HP for J.D.'s initiations... the lucky bugger!... Jim, idolized Gerald. This is for certain. He first met him as a young boy at the Mill. What kid with an active imagination wouldn't be impressed!”

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Jim’s 1980s article continues:

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“The Ways of the Craft were different then. The 'Gardnerian Tradition' as the Old Order has become known, was not quite as it is now. My Initiations were not as 'slick' as many that I have witnessed in subsequent years, but the feeling, the meaning and the Magick was just as real.”[7]

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Here we see Jim’s thinking revealed – it is his opinion that what became known as the Gardnerian tradition should acknowledge a homage to having some roots in a traditional Manx Witchcraft.

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Jim continues:

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“Gerald Gardner was an enigma. He was not a messiah, he was not a genius, nor was he a charlatan that many have tried to make him out to be. Gerald Gardner was a Witch. He passed along much of that which had been passed along to him and more, with the help of others he was able to gather around him.”

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We are used to accepting that Gardner was initiated into a New Forest group but this doesn’t in any way detract from the idea that he may have also been initiated into an older, ‘pre-Gardnerian’ Isle of Man coven. Let us just continue to entertain that thought…

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In 2005 Michael Howard, who also had an exchange with Jane, wrote to me:

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“Some years ago, I was in contact with a woman [Jane Trombley] in Toronto who claimed to be a traditional. She was in a coven founded by a man [Jim Davies] who knew Gardner on the IOM and had been born there. He claimed that Gardner had been initiated into one of the surviving local 'old' covens and knew the 'real stuff', but had decided to launch a popular neo-pagan fertility religion instead. I met him when the Toronto coven visited Wales some years ago, but he was unwilling to talk about it.”

 

We can see both Jane and Jim’s assertion that Gardner was initiated into a surviving, local ‘old’ coven. The unwillingness of Jim to talk to Mike demonstrates the insular attitude that’s long been held to be characteristic of what it is to be a Witch; Mike’s experience was in keeping with that. A similar attitude is true of the Isle of Man and its people. Even today, there is an ‘of the Mann’ and ‘not of the Mann’ feel that is pervasive, like an unwritten code.

 

Despite Jim’s reluctance to talk with Mike Howard, he had written further articles about Witchcraft. One, entitled ‘Ye Olde Detrius’ (written under his preferred name Jim Davies) appeared at Beltane 1993 in the Canadian publication, Wiccan Candle. This was followed by another in the Midsummer 1993 edition entitled ‘Manx Witchery’ under the pseudonym ‘Astrophel’. These are both somewhat cynical in their tone.[8]

 

The first of these is about 'Ye Bok of Ye Art Magical' and how Jim believed it was a prop created by Gardner for use in his museum. It reads like he is almost laughing at others who were hailing 'Ye Bok of Ye Art Magical' as the oldest version of the Gardnerian Book of Shadows. Jim writes:

 

“No, and I lie to ye not, this ‘Ye Bok of Ye Art Magical’ was a book that was purposely and meticulously crafted, by Gerald, as a public display for the museum. Yup, that’s right… it’s what would be known in the film business as a ‘PROP’.”

 

He then goes on to give his account of how he knows 'Ye Bok of Ye Art Magical' was created as an impressive, magical-looking museum piece, citing evidence of its placement from his childhood memories and what can be seen of it in pictures of exhibits in the Museum used in Bracelin/Shah’s book, Gerald Gardner – Witch.

 

Given that Jim was born and raised on the Isle of Man and lived locally, I feel we can give credence to his testimony. Having looked at 'Ye Bok' myself, there are issues with it. It is derived in the main from MacGregor Mathers’ well-known translations of various magical grimoires, plus extracts from the King James Bible, the Talmud and the works of Crowley, alongside material that is now uniquely identified with Gardnerian Witchcraft. Some pages appear to have extra-large writing and diagrams on them which suggest it is something to be viewed from a distance. It is arguable whether that distance is for visitors to the Museum, or for someone dancing around a circle.

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Jim’s second 1993 article ‘Manx Witchery’ is essentially him extolling the existence of a traditional form of Witchcraft on the Isle of Man. This article relies heavily on evidence presented by folklorist W. Walter Gill in his series of three Manx Scrapbooks which date from 1929 – 1938. These scrapbooks are a compilation of traditional Manx names and folklore and mention a fair amount about a surviving traditional form of Witchcraft on the island. Jim writes:

 

“…Indeed, not all book references are undesirable. Occasionally, little gems [the ‘Manx Scrapbooks’] of published information come to light from people in the past with no Gardnerian axe to grind. They illuminate our minds and remind us that Witchcraft really did exist before Gardner was ever initiated into the Way, or added his fillers to the holes in the almost abandoned Path.”

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Here we can see Jim’s view of traditional Manx Witchcraft as an almost abandoned path, not as something obsolete. He is also asserting Gardner’s initiation into, and his additions to ‘the Way’ as he referred to Witchcraft. Jim may well have a point. After all, the modern Gardnerian Book of Shadows has much evidence for its creation and adaptation throughout the 1950s, though maybe not its entirety.

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“[Gill’s writings] are just some of the written reference to Witchcraft and Witchcraft traditions existing in Man prior to Gardner (Do you think that the New Forest group was Gerald’s only ‘background’?) Ellan Vannin, as the island of Mannanin is called in Manx, was certainly not exclusionary. However, as an insular place the ‘Old Tradition’ did manage to keep a penurious hold. The Old Ways’ in Man, as in other places, were not to be spoken of, and Gerald, in his day, took a lot of flack for letting it be known that they still existed.”

 

As a small aside, The Cauldron's 2000 reprint of Jim’s 1993 article states ‘The writer is an initiate of the OTO’. Unfortunately, this was an editorial error and in the following edition we find a ‘mea culpa’ from Mike Howard, apologising for the error and stating “…In fact he is a companion of the OTD (Ordo Templi Duo) an esoteric order which is not related in any way to the OTO.”

 

The Ordo Templi Duo was a Canadian temple that blended ceremonial magic with the Pagan duality of God and Goddess instead of using Judeo-Christian symbolism.

 

During his life, Jim Davies also claimed Gardnerian, Traditional Manx and later, in the 1980s, Alexandrian lineages.

 

Jim certainly believed that Gill’s writings revealed evidence of an old Manx Witchcraft tradition “of fertility cult and rites, of secret worship of pagan Gods and Goddesses. Of circle dances for magic…. Of Witch initiations and of higher degrees of Witchcraft.” This is something quite distinct from the concept of cunning folk and traditional folkloric customs though we do find that their boundaries, if any, tend to blur together.

 

I found it interesting that there is a definite change of tone between Jim’s articles. The 1980s one feels like a warm recollection of his time as a child visiting the mill, meeting Gerald Gardner and then later being initiated by him. Jim’s second two articles are more assertive, insistent and cynical. We find Jim reaffirming the long existence of a traditional Manx Witchcraft. Importantly, I feel it should be noted that The Cauldron[9] reprint’s footnote, states that “… [this article was first] published at a time when derogatory comments about Gerald Gardner were circulating.”

 

It seems likely that Jim wrote the later articles as a political poke at certain Gardnerians, particularly those hailing 'Ye Bok of Ye Art Magical' as the first Gardnerian Book of Shadows.  In the second of the 1993 articles, Jim focused upon a long tradition of Manx Witchcraft and Gardner’s involvement with it.

 

There were ‘Witch Wars’ going on in Canada at this time between initiates of the Long Island style of Witchcraft, some of whom presented as purists, plus the very public dissent over the publication of Aidan Kelly’s 1991 book, Crafting the Art of Magic. Jim was very upset by both of these.

 

Further evidence of Jim’s cynicism and discontent can be seen in Jane’s correspondence where she writes of him:

 

“At the time I met him he really had 'given up the Craft' due to unfortunate experiences with people over here [North America].  He, like one of his older Brothers on Mann, felt that "They killed the Craft, let them keep the corpse."  This refers to modern 'Gardnerian' and the egocentric priesthood lines... etc... of which I and my Brothers and Sisters stay clear of.”

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It is clear that by this time, there was indeed a separation in thinking and ideologies between those who believed themselves as hailing from a traditional Manx-Gardnerian ‘hybrid’ line and certain other Gardnerians. A not too dissimilar thought was shared by Charles Clark, who interestingly to me, as in Jim’s own Book of Shadows, always spelt ‘Wica’ with one ‘c’. This may be a small, but I feel, significant thing that tells us about our history. Indeed, ‘Wica’ was clearly the word of choice for Gardner during the early to mid-1950s. This is something I strongly suspect changed into ‘Wicca’ due to the delightful, etymological pedantry of Doreen Valiente.[10]

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In conclusion, Jim’s impact on the local witchcraft scene seems unclear, with some people saying that many seekers were introduced to Gardnerian practices through him and others saying that he was a bit of a lone wolf. After ‘The Witchy Shop’ closed Jim Davies remained a visible presence in the area until his death.[11]

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Manx Witchcraft

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Hopefully, I have demonstrated that Jane Trombley and Jim Davies considered themselves to be from a traditional line of Manx Witchcraft but also embraced Gardner. Having looked as far as I can into these things and supported by what Charles said to me about Gardner having an initiation on the Isle of Man (a knowledge also proffered independently by Jane and Jim), I have to say I believe them and find them credible.

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This is a view also supported by Michael Howard who in his book, Modern Wicca – A history from Gerald Gardner to the present asserts: “Jim Davies was the magister of a traditional coven”.[12]  In fact, in 2002, upon hearing of Jim’s death, Mike Howard had wanted to put an obituary in The Cauldron but Jane (who had worked as a High Priestess with Jim) did not want attention to be drawn to him – a viewpoint she later changed, wishing she had given Mike the permission.

 

We come now to an article published in February 2014 in The Cauldron.[13] Its authorship is attributed to ‘Manxwytch’.[14] He writes:

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“Outside of its initiatory lineages, scarcely any research has been done on the influence that traditional Manx witchcraft had on Gerald B. Gardner. This is a seemingly obvious line of enquiry, given that the infancy of modern neo-pagan Wicca was on Ellan Vannin (Gaelic for the Isle of Man) and that Gardner was primarily surrounded by Manx witches during his years there.”

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I think this is a good point. As humans we value things of age and do tend to look for proof of longevity by co-opting history, much as we see with Gardner and his (at times) ‘inventive’ writings. We also see this with Jim Davies holding up Gill’s writings as evidence for a tradition of old Manx Witchcraft. Whilst their conclusions may not be strictly upheld through a more robust scientific method, historical research will always entail a degree of subjectivity and personal interpretation as to the words and recollections of others.

 

As previously stated, none of this detracts from the research carried out on the New Forest Coven. Indeed, Jane wrote of them:

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“I really don't doubt the New Forest coven existed... of course I don't think that they practiced in the same way people do now.  Things back then were a bit less [rigid].  But they were in England … I do know that they did correspond with the Isle but letters tend to get burned after people pass away.  That's what we do.”

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The Isle of Man has a rich history of folklore and traditions and I don’t think it’s hard to envisage that Jim was not the only one involved with Gardner and his Witchcraft practices on the island.

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From Jim and Jane’s recollections we get a sense of a once-contented ‘hybrid’ of Gardnerian and Manx Witchcraft on the island in the 1950s and early 60s. Then in 1964, after inheriting Gardner’s museum, Monique and Scotty Wilson brought a media frenzy to the Isle of Man and along with it, I suspect, a segregation on the island into the ‘Old Ones’ of the Wica and the ‘New’ Gardnerians as exemplified by the Wilsons.

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A Tangential Digression

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In another of Jane’s emails she wrote: “Donna and Gerald's gravestone bears the star and triangle.  It was placed there by a close friend of theirs on the Isle.  (And I don't mean Monique or her crew, etc.).” Words that show her knowledge, awareness and perception of a different set of non-Gardnerian Isle of Man witches. I’m also inclined to think that the following statement by Manxwytch is related to Jane’s comment above. The blog entry reads:

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“In advance of Sauin, I undertook a pilgrimage to several of the important sites sacred to the traditional witches in my Line on the Isle… Kirk Michael, Kirk Malew, and Kirk Patrick all contain memorials to ancestors of my Line. I paid respects at each, caring for the two sites that were not being maintained by others on the Isle.”[15]