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Phillip Emmons Isaac Bonewits is an influential Neopagan leader and author. He is a liturgist, speaker, journalist, Neo-druid priest, and a singer, songwriter, and independent recording artist. Born in Royal Oak, Michigan, Bonewits has been heavily involved in occultism since the 1960s.
Life
In 1966 while enrolled at UC Berkeley, Bonewits joined the Reformed Druids of North America or RDNA. Bonewits was ordained as a Neo-druid priest in 1969. During this period Bonewits was recruited by the Church of Satan, but left due to political and philosophical conflicts with Anton LaVey. During his stint in the Church of Satan Bonewits appeared in the 1970 documentary Satanis. Bonewits, in his article "My Satanic Adventure", asserts the rituals in Satanis were staged for the movie at the behest of the filmmakers and were not authentic ceremonies.
Bonewits graduated from UC Berkeley in 1970 with a Bachelor of Arts, becoming the only person to have ever received any kind of degree in Magic from an accredited university. According to the website Controverscial.Com, the publicity from this embarrassed the UC Berkeley administrators, and Magic, Witchcraft and Sorcery was subsequently banned from the individual group studies program. His first book, Real Magic, was published in 1971. Between 1973 and 1975 Bonewits was employed as editor of Gnostica magazine in Minnesota (published by Llewellyn Publications), established an offshoot group of the RDNA called the Schismatic Druids of North America, and helped create a group called the Hasidic Druids of North America (despite his life-long status as a "gentile"). He also founded the short-lived Aquarian Anti-Defamation League (AADL), an early Pagan civil-rights group.
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.
In 1983 Bonewits founded Ar nDraiocht Fein (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. He made the organization's first public announcement in 1984, and began the membership sign-up at the first WinterStar Symposium in 1984. Over the years Bonewits has also had varying degrees of involvement with the Caliphate Line of the Ordo Templi Orientis, Gardnerian Wicca, the New Reformed Orthodox Order of the Golden Dawn (a Wiccan organization not to be confused with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn) as well as others. Bonewits is a regular presenter at Neopagan festivals in the US.
Bonewits served as Archdruid of ADF until 1996, when he resigned due to the onset of symptoms of Eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome. He retains the lifelong title of ADF Archdruid Emeritus.
A songwriter, singer and recording artist, he has produced two CDs of Pagan music and numerous recorded lectures and panel discussions, produced and distributed by the Association for Consciousness Exploration. He lives in Rockland County, New York, and is a member of the Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans (CUUPS). On July 23 2004 he was married in a handfasting ceremony to a former vice-president of the organization, Phaedra Heyman Bonewits, and has a son from a previous marriage to author Deborah Lipp, Arthur Shaffrey Lipp-Bonewits. At the time of the handfasting, the marriage was not yet legal because he had not yet been legally divorced from Ms. Lipp, although they had been separated for several years by that point. Paperwork and legalities caught up on December 31 2007 making them legally married.
Bonewits is currently encouraging charity programs to help Neopagan seniors, and in January 2006 was the key note speaker at the Conference On Current Pagan Studies at the Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, CA.
Contributions to Neopaganism
Bonewits has coined much of the modern terminology used to define and articulate many of the conceptual themes and issues which affect the North American Neopagan community.
- Pioneered the modern usage of the terms thealogy, "Paleo-Paganism", "Meso-Paganism", and numerous other retronyms.
- Possibly coined the term "Pagan Reconstructionism", though the communities in question would later diverge from his initial meaning.
- 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 or ABCDEF
- Coined the phrase "Never Again the Burning."
- Critiqued the Burning Times / Old Religion Murray thesis (in Bonewits's Essential Guide to Witchcraft and Wicca)
Popular culture
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- In the music video for his song A Witches Invitation, singer Carman goes to meet what he calls a "warlock" named "Isaac Horowitz". This is a play on Bonewits' name.
Bibliography
- Real Magic: An Introductory Treatise on the Basic Principles of Yellow Magic. (1972, 1979, 1989) Weiser Books ISBN 0-87728-688-4
- Authentic Thaumaturgy. (1978, 1998) Steve Jackson Games ISBN 1-55634-360-4
- Rites of Worship: A Neopagan Approach. (2003) Earth Religions Press ISBN 1-59405-501-7 OP
- Witchcraft: A Concise Guide or Which Witch Is Which?. (2003) Earth Religions Press ISBN 1-59405-500-9
- The Pagan Man: Priests, Warriors, Hunters, and Drummers. (2005) Citadel ISBN 0-8065-2697-1, ISBN 978-0806526973
- Bonewits's Essential Guide to Witchcraft and Wicca. (2006) Citadel ISBN 0-8065-2711-0, ISBN 978-0806527116
- Bonewits's Essential Guide to Druidism. (2006) Citadel ISBN 0-8065-2710-2, ISBN 978-0806527109
- Real Energy: Systems, Spirits, And Substances to Heal, Change, And Grow. (2007) New Leaf ISBN 1564149048, ISBN 978-1564149046. Co-authored with Phaedra Bonewits.
- Neopagan Rites: A Guide to Creating Public Rituals that Work. (2007) Llewellyn ISBN 0738711993, ISBN 978-0738711997
Discography
Music
- Be Pagan Once Again! - Isaac Bonewits & Friends (including Ian Corrigan, Victoria Ganger, and Todd Alan) (CD) (ACE/ADF)
- Avalon is Rising! - Real Magic (CD)(ACE/ADF)
Spoken word
- The Structure of Craft Ritual (ACE)
- A Magician Prepares (ACE)
- Programming Magical Ritual: Top-Down Liturgical Design (ACE)
- Druidism: Ancient & Modern (ACE)
- How Does Magic Work? (ACE)
- Rituals That Work (ACE)
- Sexual Magic & Magical Sex (with Deborah Lipp) (ACE)
- Making Fun of Religion (with Deborah Lipp) (ACE)
Panel discussions
- The Magickal Movement: Present & Future (with Margot Adler, Selena Fox, and Robert Anton Wilson) (ACE)
- Magick Changing the World, the World Changing Magick (with AmyLee, Selena Fox, Jeff Rosenbaum and Robert Anton Wilson) (ACE)
References
- Berger, Helen A. (2005) Witchcraft and Magic: Contemporary North America. University of Pennsylvania Press ISBN 081223877X, ISBN 978-0812238778
- Berger, Helen A. (1998) A Community of Witches: Contemporary Neo-Paganism and Witchcraft in the United States. University of South Carolina Press ISBN 1570032467, ISBN 978-1570032462
- Berger, Helen A. & Helen H. & Evan A. Leach, Leigh S. Shaffer (2003) Voices from the Pagan Census: A National Survey of Witches and Neo-Pagans in the United States. University of South Carolina Press ISBN 1570034885, ISBN 978-1570034886
- Bond, Lawrence & Ellen Evert Hopman (1996) People of the Earth: The New Pagans Speak Out. (reissued as Being a Pagan: Druids, Wiccans & Witches Today in 2002 Destiny Books ISBN 0-89281-904-9) Interview.
- Clifton, Chas S. (2006) Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca and Paganism in America. AltaMira Press ISBN 0759102023, ISBN 0759102015.
- Lewis, James R. & Shelley Rabinovitch (2002) The Encyclopedia of Modern Witchcraft and Neo-Paganism. C Trade Paper ISBN 0806524065, ISBN 978-0806524061
- Pike, Sarah M. (2004) New Age and Neopagan Religions in America. Columbia University Press ISBN 0231124023, ISBN 978-0231124027
- Urban, Hugh B. (2006) Magia Sexualis: Sex, Magic, and Liberation in Modern Western Esotericism. University of California Press ISBN 0520247760, ISBN 978-0520247765
See also
Notes
- My Satanic Adventure
- Satanis at the Internet Movie Database
- http://www.neopagan.net/SatanicAdventure.html My Satanic Adventure
- A Brief Biography of Isaac Bonewits
- Views from Cyberhenge
- Adopt an Elder
- Bonewits, Isaac (2006). Bonewits's Essential Guide to Druidism. New York: Kensington/Citadel. p. 131. ISBN 0-8065-2710-2.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters:|coauthors=and|month=(help) 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 just applied it in a novel fashion." - McColman (2003) p.51: "Such reconstructionists are attempting, through both spiritual and scholarly means, to create as purely Celtic a spirituality as possible."
- "The Aquarian Manifesto"
External links
- Neopagan Net (formerly "Isaac Bonewits' Homepage")
- A Reformed Druid Anthology includes The Druid Chronicles (Evolved).
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