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{{Short description|American Neopagan leader and author (1949–2012)}}
Bonewits, P. E. I. (Isaac) (1949–?) One of the brightest and most colorful figures of the Neopagan movement, Philip Emmons Isaac Bonewits is best known for his leadership in modern Druidism. He is a priest, magician, scholar, author, bard and activist, and has dedicated himself to reviving Druidism as a “Third Wave” religion aimed at protecting “Mother Nature and all Her children.“
{{Infobox person
| name=Isaac Bonewits
| image=Isaac Bonewits 2004.png
| caption=Isaac Bonewits in 2004
| birth_name= Phillip Emmons Isaac Bonewits
| birth_date= {{birth date|1949|10|1}}
| birth_place= ]
| death_date= {{Death date and age|2010|08|12|1949|10|1}}
| death_place= ]
| occupation=Public speaker, liturgist, songwriter
| education= ] <small>(], ])</small>
| spouse= Phaedra Bonewits (m. 2007)
| children= 1
| website=http://www.neopagan.net
}}


'''Phillip Emmons Isaac Bonewits''' (October 1, 1949 &ndash; August 12, 2010<ref name=WVObit>{{cite web|url=http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=22549|title=Isaac Bonewits (1949 - 2010) : A Tribute|access-date=January 19, 2012|first=Peg|last=Aloi|work=Witchvox|date=August 12, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120229032753/http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=22549|archive-date=February 29, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref>) was an American ] who published a number of books on the subject of ] and ]. Bonewits was a public speaker, liturgist, singer and songwriter, and founder of the Neopagan organizations ] (ADF) and the Aquarian Anti-Defamation League.
Bonewits was born on October 1, 1949, in Royal Oak, Michigan — the perfect place, he likes to joke, for a future Archdruid. The fourth of five children (three girls, two boys), he spent most of his childhood in Ferndale, a suburb of Detroit. When he was nearly 12, the family moved to San Clemente, California.


==Early life and education==
From his mother, a devout Roman Catholic, Bonewits developed an appreciation for the importance of religion; from his father, a convert to Catholicism from Presbyterianism, he acquired skepticism. He bounced back and forth between parochial and public schools, largely due to the lack of programs for very bright students — his I.Q. was tested at 200.
Bonewits was born on October 1, 1949, in ], as the fourth of five children. His father was a Presbyterian while his mother a Catholic.<ref name="Carlson 2010">{{cite web | last=Carlson | first=Jess | title=Isaac Bonewits Enters the Summerland | website=Jess Carlson | date=2010-08-12 | url=https://jesscarlson.com/isaac-bonewits-enters-the-summerland/ | access-date=2022-11-11}}</ref><ref name=Guiley>{{cite book |last=Guiley |first=Rosemary Ellen |author-link=Rosemary Ellen Guiley |title=The Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft & Wicca |edition=Third |publisher=] |isbn=9781438126845|year=2008 |page=34|quote=He also was the last to do so in the United States. College administrators were so embarrassed over the publicity about the degree that magic, witchcraft, and sorcery were banned from the individual group study program.}}</ref> Spending much of his childhood in ], he was moved at age 12 to ], where he spent a short time in a Catholic high school before he went back to public school to graduate from high school a year early. He enrolled at ] in 1966 and graduated in 1970 with a ] in magic,<ref>{{Cite news| title=Berkeley Student Will Graduate With Bachelor of Arts in Magic |newspaper =] |issn=0362-4331 |date=1 June 1970 |page=24| quote=Among June graduates at the University of California is Isaac Bonewits, who will receive a bachelor of arts in magic.}}</ref> perhaps becoming the first<ref name=WVObit/> and only person known to have ever received any kind of ] in ] from an accredited university.


==Career==
His first exposure to magic came at age 13, when he met a young Creole woman from New Orleans who practiced Voodoo. She showed him some of her magic and so accurately divined the future that he was greatly impressed. During his teen years, he read extensively about magic and parapsychology. He also read science fiction, which often has strong magical and psychic themes.
===Early years===
]
In 1966, while enrolled at ], Bonewits joined the ] (RDNA). Bonewits was ordained as a ] ] in 1969. During this period, the 18-year-old Bonewits was also recruited by the ],<ref name=Guiley/> but left due to political and philosophical conflicts with ]. During his stint in the Church of Satan, Bonewits appeared in some scenes of the 1970 documentary '']''.<ref name="imdb">{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063550/|work=Internet Movie Database|title=Satanis|access-date=Jan 19, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120227101754/http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063550/|archive-date=February 27, 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> Bonewits, in his article "My Satanic Adventure", asserts that the rituals in ''Satanis'' were staged for the movie at the behest of the filmmakers and were not authentic ceremonies.<ref>{{cite web|last=Bonewits|first=Isaac|url=http://www.neopagan.net/SatanicAdventure.html|title=My Satanic Adventure|access-date=Jan 19, 2012|year=2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111053132/http://www.neopagan.net/SatanicAdventure.html|archive-date=January 11, 2012|url-status=live}}</ref>


===1970s: author and editor===
In ninth grade, Bonewits entered a Catholic high-school seminary. He soon realized, however, that he did not want to be a priest in the Catholic faith. He returned to public school and graduated a year early. After spending a year in junior college to get foreign language credits, he enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley in 1966. At about the same time, he began practicing magic, devising his own rituals by studying the structure of rituals in books, and by observing them in various churches.
His first book, ''Real Magic'', was published in 1971. Between 1973 and 1975 Bonewits was employed as the editor of ''Gnostica'' magazine in Minnesota (published by ]). He 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, in his words, his "lifelong status as a ]"). He also founded the short-lived Aquarian Anti-Defamation League (AADL), an early Pagan civil rights group.<ref name="Guiley" />


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.<ref name="Guiley" />
His roommate at Berkeley, Robert Larson, was a Druid, an alumnus of Carleton College, where the Reformed Druids of North America (RDNA) had been founded in 1963. Larson interested Bonewits in Druidism and initiated him into the RDNA. The two established a grove in Berkeley. Bonewits was ordained as a Druid priest in October 1969. The Berkeley grove was shaped as a Neopagan religion, unlike other RDNA groves, which considered the order a philosophy. The Neopagan groves became part of a branch called the New Reformed Druids of North America (NRDNA).


===1980s: founding of Ár nDraíocht Féin===
During college, Bonewits spent about eight months as a member of the Church of Satan, an adventure that began as a lark. The college campus featured a Spot where evangelists of various persuasions would lecture to anyone who would listen. As a joke, Bonewits showed up one day to perform a satirical lecture as a Devil’s evangelist. He was so successful that he was approached by a woman who said she represented Anton Szandor LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan. Bonewits attended the church’s meetings and improved upon some of their rituals but dropped out after personality conflicts with LaVey. The membership, he found, consisted largely of middleclass conservatives who were more “rightwing and racist” than Satanist.
Throughout his life Bonewits had varying degrees of involvement with occult groups including ] and the ] (a ]n organization not to be confused with the ]).<ref name="A Brief Biography of Isaac Bonewits">{{cite web|url=http://www.neopagan.net/IB_Bio.html|title=Isaac Bonewits' Biography|first=Isaac|last=Bonewits|website=www.neopagan.net|access-date=2008-01-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080131214106/http://www.neopagan.net/IB_Bio.html|archive-date=2008-01-31|url-status=live}}</ref><!-- This ref needs to be carefully vetted. It is hosted on Bonewits' own website and while the original Guiley text is WP:V, it is interspersed with Bonewits' own personal additions in brackets and doesn't support all of this info.--> Bonewits was a regular presenter at Neopagan conferences and festivals all over the US, as well as attending gaming conventions in the Bay Area. He promoted his book '']'' to gamers as a way of organizing '']'' games.


In 1983, Bonewits founded ] (also known as "A Druid Fellowship" or ADF), which was incorporated in 1990 in the state of ] as a U.S. 501(c)3 non-profit organization.<ref name="Guiley" /> Although illness curtailed many of his activities and travels for a time, he remained Archdruid of ADF until 1996. In that year, he resigned from the position of Archdruid but retained the lifelong title of ADF Archdruid Emeritus.
Bonewits had intended to major in psychology but through Berkeley’s individual group-study program fashioned his own course of study. In 1970 he graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in magic , the first person ever to do so at a Westem educational institution. He also was the last to do so in the United States. College administrators were so embarrassed over the publicity about the degree that magic, witchcraft and sorcery were banned from the individual group-study program.


===Musician and activist===
The fame of his degree led to a book contract. In 1971 Real Magic was published, offering Bonewits’ views on magic, ritual and psychic abilities. A revised and updated edition was published in 1979 and reissued in 1989.
A songwriter, singer, and recording artist, he produced two CDs of pagan music and numerous recorded lectures and panel discussions, produced and distributed by the ]. He lived in ], and was a member of the ] (CUUPS).


Bonewits encouraged charity programs to help Neopagan seniors,<ref name="fn_1">{{cite web|last=Bonewits|first=Isaac|url=http://www.neopagan.net/Adopt-an-Elder.html|title=Adopt an Elder|access-date=January 19, 2012|year=2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205061956/http://www.neopagan.net/Adopt-an-Elder.html|archive-date=February 5, 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> and in January 2006 was the keynote speaker at the Conference On Current Pagan Studies at the ] in ].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://paganconference.com/past-keynote-speakers/|title=Conference on Current Pagan Studies|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161203012536/http://paganconference.com/past-keynote-speakers/|archive-date=2016-12-03|url-status=dead}}</ref>
In 1973 Bonewits met a woman named Rusty , a folksinger in the Berkeley cafes. They moved to Minneapolis, where they were married, and where Bonewits took over the editorship of Gnostica, a Neopagan journal published by Carl Weschcke of Llewellyn Publications. He gave Gnostica a scholarly touch and turned it into the leading journal in the field. But the job lasted only 1 1/2 years, for the editorial changes resulted in the loss of many non-Pagan readers, who found the magazine too high brow.


==Personal life==
Bonewits remained in Minneapolis for about another year. While there he established a Druid grove called the Schismatic Druids of North America, a splinter group of the RDNA. He also joined with several Jewish pagan friends and created the Hasidic Druids of North America, the only grove of which existed briefly in St. Louis, where its membership overlapped with that of the Church of All Worlds. In 1974–75, Bonewits wrote, edited and self-published The Druid Chronicles (Evolved), a compendium of the history, theology, rituals and customs of all the Reformed Druid movements, including the ones he invented himself.
Bonewits was married five times. He was married to Rusty Elliot from 1973 to 1976. His second wife was Selene Kumin Vega, followed by marriage to ] (1980 to 1985). His fourth wife was author ], from 1988 to 1998. On July 23, 2004, he was married in a ] ceremony to a former vice-president of the Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans, Phaedra Heyman Bonewits. At the time of the handfasting, the marriage was not yet legal because he had not yet been legally divorced from Lipp, although they had been separated for several years. Paperwork and legalities caught up on December 31, 2007, making them legally married.<ref name=Guiley/><ref name="marrige">{{cite web|url=http://neopagan.net/blog/?p=179|title=Neopagan.Net 2007 Year-End Report and 2008 Donation Campaign - Views from the Cyberhenge|website=neopagan.net|access-date=2008-01-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080107002923/http://neopagan.net/blog/?p=179|archive-date=2008-01-07|url-status=live}}</ref>


Bonewits' only child was born to Deborah Lipp in 1990.<ref name=Guiley/>
he also founded the Aquarian Anti-Defamation League (AADL), a civil liberties and public relations organization for members of minority belief systems, such as the Rosicrucians, Theosophists, Neopagans, Witches, occultists, astrologers and others. Bonewits sought to convince such persons that they had more in common with each other than they realized. By banding together, they could effectively fight, through the press and the courts, the discrimination and harassment of the Judeo-Christian conservatives.


==Illness and death==
Bonewits served as president of the AADL and devoted most of his income — from unemployment insurance — to running it. The organization scored several small victories in court, such as restoring an astrologer to her apartment, after she had been evicted because a neighbor told her landlord that her astrology classes were “black magic seances.” In 1976 Bonewits and Rusty divorced, and he decided to return to Berkeley. The AADL disintegrated shortly after his departure.
In 1990, Bonewits was diagnosed with ]. The illness was a factor in his eventual resignation from the position of Archdruid of the ].


On October 25, 2009, Bonewits was diagnosed with a rare form of ],<ref name=":0"> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160910072720/http://wildhunt.org/2009/10/isaac-bonewits-diagnosed-with-cancer.html |date=2016-09-10 }}, Jason Pitzl-Waters, ''The Wild Hunt''</ref> for which he underwent treatment. He died at home, on August 12, 2010, surrounded by his family.<ref name=WVObit/>
In Berkeley, Bonewits rejoined the NRDNA grove and was elected Archdruid. He established The Druid Chronicler (which later became Pentalpha Journal) as a national Druid publication in 1978. He attempted to make the Berkeley grove as Neopagan as the groves in Minneapolis and St. Louis, which caused a great deal of friction among the longtime members. After a few clashes, Bonewits left the organization. Pentalpha Journal folded.


==Accusations of sexual assault==
In 2018, accusations of sexual abuse against a minor rose against ADF founder Bonewits relating to his relationship with Moira Greyland when she was six years old.<ref name="wildhunt.org">{{Cite web|url=https://wildhunt.org/2018/01/accusations-of-abuse-surface-against-adf-founder-isaac-bonewits.html|title=Accusations of abuse surface against ADF founder Isaac Bonewits - News, Paganism, U.S.|first=Heather|last=Greene|date=January 10, 2018|website=The Wild Hunt}}</ref> Greyland said in her book, 'The Last Closet: the Dark Side of Avalon':


"Some people called him the Pagan pope I hated Isaac, and refused to be in the same room with him, even if the only way I could articulate my objections to him was to say ‘he tickled me.'"<ref name="wildhunt.org"/>
In 1979 he married for a second time, to a woman named Selene . That relationship ended in 1982 . In 1983 he was initiated into the New Reformed Order of the Golden Dawn . The same year, he married again, to Sally Eaton, the actress who created the role of the hippie Witch in the Broadway musical, Hair. They moved to New York City in 1983 where Bonewits met Shenain Bell, a fellow Neopagan, and discussed the idea of starting a Druidic organization.


In light of this accusation, ADF, the lead pagan organization that Issac Bonewits founded, removed his name from their website and repudiated him.
The fellowship, Ár nDraíocht Féin (“Our Own Druidism” in Irish Gaelic), was born as a fresh Neopagan religious organization with no ties to the ancient Druids or to the RDNA, which by this time was apparently defunct. Bonewits became Archdruid, and Bell became ViceArchdruid.


"To preserve the health of our organization, we must cut out the blight that is Isaac Bonewits’ legacy. We sever the ties both historical and spiritual that bind us to him. For his actions against children, Isaac Bonewits will no longer be named as a beloved ancestor of ADF, nor is he welcome at our sacred fire.
In 1986 Bonewits and Eaton separated, and he moved to Kansas City for several months, where he worked as a computer consultant. He then returned to Berkeley but could not find work in Silicon Valley, which was in a slump . He moved back to the East Coast, to Nyack, New York, near Manhattan, in November 1987, with his intended fourth wife, Deborah Lipp, a Wiccan high priestess . He continued work as a computer consultant and worked on the building of Ár nDraíocht Féin. He also began work on a book on the creation, preparation and performance of effective religious rituals .


May his memory and his dark actions fade with the rising of the sun."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wildhunt.org/2019/11/adf-repudiates-founder-isaac-bonewits.html|title=ADF repudiates founder Isaac Bonewits - News, Paganism, The Wild Hunt, U.S., World|first=The Wild|last=Hunt|date=November 8, 2019|website=The Wild Hunt}}</ref>


==Contributions to Neopaganism==
In his book ''Real Magic'' (1971), Bonewits proposed his "Laws of Magic". These "laws" are synthesized from a multitude of ]s from around the world to explain and categorize magical beliefs within a cohesive framework. Many interrelationships exist, and some belief systems are ]s of others. This work was chosen by ] in the 1970s to be part of his publishing project ''Library of the Occult''.


Bonewits also coined much of the modern terminology used to articulate the themes and issues that affect the North American Neopagan community.
The “10–year gap.” Bonewits has discovered, he says, a “10–year gap” between many of his views and their acceptance among Neopagans. In 1973 he was the first Neopagan to state publicly that the alleged antiquity of Neopagan Witchcraft (Wicca) was “hogwash.” The Craft, he said, did not go back beyond Gerald B. Gardner and Doreen Valiente . Bonewits was held in contempt by many for that, yet by 1983, Neopagans generally acknowledged that Neopagan Witchcraft was a new religion, not the continuation of an old one. The Aquarian Anti-Defamation League was also ahead of its time. In 1974–75, Neopagans were not ready to admit that they needed public relations and legal help. By a decade later, a number of such organizations were in existence.
* Pioneered the modern usage of the terms "]", "]", "]", and numerous other ]s.
* Possibly coined the term "]", though the communities in question would later diverge from his initial meaning.<ref name="recon">{{cite book | first =Isaac | last =Bonewits | year =2006 | title =Bonewits's Essential Guide to Druidism | pages =131 | publisher =Kensington/Citadel | location =New York| isbn =0-8065-2710-2 }} 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".</ref><ref name="McColman">McColman (2003) p.51: "Such reconstructionists are attempting, through both spiritual and scholarly means, to create as purely Celtic a spirituality as possible."</ref>
* Founded ], 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'' (ABCDEF).
* Coined the phrase "Never Again the Burning".<ref name="natb">{{cite web|url=http://www.neopagan.net/AquarianManifesto.html|title=The Aquarian Manifesto with Historical Notes|first=Isaac|last=Bonewits|website=www.neopagan.net|access-date=2007-06-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070418175456/http://www.neopagan.net/AquarianManifesto.html|archive-date=2007-04-18|url-status=live}}</ref>
* Critiqued the ] (in ''Bonewits's Essential Guide to Witchcraft and Wicca'').
* In his book ''Real Magic'' (1971), Bonewits proposed his hypothesis on the Laws of Magic, which were then elaborated in his RPG supplement ''Authentic Thaumaturgy''. The book makes it clear it is an adaptation of the ideas from Real Magic to gaming with the Laws presented being abbreviated from those in ''Real Magic''.<ref>Bonewits, Isaac (2005). ''Authentic Thaumaturgy''. Steve Jackson Games. p. 58</ref>


== Bibliography ==
Around 1985 Bonewits began regularly discussing the need to provide social services for domestic and personal problems and drug dependencies. Neopagans, he points out, represent a cross section of the population, and such problems cut across religious lines. Bonewits estimates that as many as 80 percent of Neopagans come from “nonfunctional family” backgrounds. Neopagans, he observes, are brighter and more artistic than average, but also, therefore, “more neurotic.” The community has been quick to address these social issues with programs .
*''Real Magic: An Introductory Treatise on the Basic Principles of Yellow Magic''. (1972, 1979, 1989) Weiser Books {{ISBN|0-87728-688-4}}
*''The Druid Chronicles (Evolved)''. (1976 Drunemeton Press, 2005 Drynemetum Press) (With Selene Kumin Vega, Rusty Elliot, and Arlynde d'Loughlan)
*'']''. (With others) (1978 Chaosium, 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|978-0-8065-2697-3}}
*''Bonewits's Essential Guide to Witchcraft and Wicca''. (2006) Citadel {{ISBN|0-8065-2711-0}}, {{ISBN|978-0-8065-2711-6}}
*''Bonewits's Essential Guide to Druidism''. (2006) Citadel {{ISBN|0-8065-2710-2}}, {{ISBN|978-0-8065-2710-9}}
*''Real Energy: Systems, Spirits, And Substances to Heal, Change, And Grow''. (2007) New Leaf {{ISBN|1-56414-904-8}}, {{ISBN|978-1-56414-904-6}}. Co-authored with Phaedra Bonewits.
*''Neopagan Rites: A Guide to Creating Public Rituals that Work''. (2007) Llewellyn {{ISBN|0-7387-1199-3}}, {{ISBN|978-0-7387-1199-7}}
*


==Discography==
Bonewits also began lobbying for financial support for full-time Neopagan clergy (the priesthood is essentially a volunteer job), but the idea fell on uninterested ears. In 1988 Bonewits was pursuing a goal of buying land and establishing an academically accredited Pagan seminary.
===Music===
* ''Be Pagan Once Again!'' &ndash; Isaac Bonewits & Friends (including Ian Corrigan, Victoria Ganger, and Todd Alan) (CD) (]/])
* ''Avalon is Rising!'' &ndash; 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 ]) (ACE)
* ''Making Fun of Religion'' (with ]) (ACE)

===Panel discussions===
* ''The Magickal Movement: Present & Future'' (with ], ], and ]) (ACE)
* ''Magick Changing the World, the World Changing Magick'' (with AmyLee, ], Jeff Rosenbaum and ]) (ACE)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
<!-- The user who added these simply did a google book search, and added every title that had any inclusion of Bonewits's name. I strongly suggest page numbers of exact content be added here. If the mention is a substantial interview or anthologised article, sure, included it. But if it is simply, say, a cite of his ABCDEF, the ref. doesn't belong here. -->

* {{Cite book | last1 = Vale | first1 = V. | last2 = Sulak | first2 = John | title = Modern Pagans : an Investigation of Contemporary Pagan Practices | year = 2001 | publisher = RE/Search Publications | location = San Francisco, Calif. | isbn = 1-889307-10-6 | pages = | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/modernpagansinve00john/page/70 }}

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
*
*
* includes ''The Druid Chronicles (Evolved)''
*
* ''''

{{Neo-druidism}}
{{LaVeyan Satanism}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonewits, Isaac}}
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Latest revision as of 11:39, 5 October 2024

American Neopagan leader and author (1949–2012)
Isaac Bonewits
Isaac Bonewits in 2004
BornPhillip Emmons Isaac Bonewits
(1949-10-01)October 1, 1949
Royal Oak, Michigan
DiedAugust 12, 2010(2010-08-12) (aged 60)
Valley Cottage, New York
EducationUniversity of California, Berkeley (B.A., Magic)
Occupation(s)Public speaker, liturgist, songwriter
SpousePhaedra Bonewits (m. 2007)
Children1
Websitehttp://www.neopagan.net

Phillip Emmons Isaac Bonewits (October 1, 1949 – August 12, 2010) was an American Neo-Druid who published a number of books on the subject of Neopaganism and magic. Bonewits was a public speaker, liturgist, singer and songwriter, and founder of the Neopagan organizations Ár nDraíocht Féin (ADF) and the Aquarian Anti-Defamation League.

Early life and education

Bonewits was born on October 1, 1949, in Royal Oak, Michigan, as the fourth of five children. His father was a Presbyterian while his mother a Catholic. Spending much of his childhood in Ferndale, Michigan, he was moved at age 12 to San Clemente, California, where he spent a short time in a Catholic high school before he went back to public school to graduate from high school a year early. He enrolled at UC Berkeley in 1966 and graduated in 1970 with a Bachelor of Arts in magic, perhaps becoming the first and only person known to have ever received any kind of academic degree in magic from an accredited university.

Career

Early years

Isaac Bonewits
Bonewits (right) at Camp Ramblewood.

In 1966, while enrolled at UC Berkeley, Bonewits joined the Reformed Druids of North America (RDNA). Bonewits was ordained as a Neo-druid priest in 1969. During this period, the 18-year-old Bonewits was also 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 some scenes of the 1970 documentary Satanis: The Devil's Mass. Bonewits, in his article "My Satanic Adventure", asserts that the rituals in Satanis were staged for the movie at the behest of the filmmakers and were not authentic ceremonies.

1970s: author and editor

His first book, Real Magic, was published in 1971. Between 1973 and 1975 Bonewits was employed as the editor of Gnostica magazine in Minnesota (published by Llewellyn Publications). He established an offshoot group of the Reformed Druids of North America (RDNA) called the Schismatic Druids of North America, and helped create a group called the Hasidic Druids of North America (despite, in his words, his "lifelong 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.

1980s: founding of Ár nDraíocht Féin

Throughout his life Bonewits had varying degrees of involvement with occult groups including Gardnerian Wicca and the New Reformed Orthodox Order of the Golden Dawn (a Wiccan organization not to be confused with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn). Bonewits was a regular presenter at Neopagan conferences and festivals all over the US, as well as attending gaming conventions in the Bay Area. He promoted his book Authentic Thaumaturgy to gamers as a way of organizing Dungeons & Dragons games.

In 1983, Bonewits founded Ár nDraíocht Féin (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. Although illness curtailed many of his activities and travels for a time, he remained Archdruid of ADF until 1996. In that year, he resigned from the position of Archdruid but retained the lifelong title of ADF Archdruid Emeritus.

Musician and activist

A songwriter, singer, and recording artist, he produced two CDs of pagan music and numerous recorded lectures and panel discussions, produced and distributed by the Association for Consciousness Exploration. He lived in Rockland County, New York, and was a member of the Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans (CUUPS).

Bonewits encouraged charity programs to help Neopagan seniors, and in January 2006 was the keynote speaker at the Conference On Current Pagan Studies at the Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, CA.

Personal life

Bonewits was married five times. He was married to Rusty Elliot from 1973 to 1976. His second wife was Selene Kumin Vega, followed by marriage to Sally Eaton (1980 to 1985). His fourth wife was author Deborah Lipp, from 1988 to 1998. On July 23, 2004, he was married in a handfasting ceremony to a former vice-president of the Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans, Phaedra Heyman Bonewits. At the time of the handfasting, the marriage was not yet legal because he had not yet been legally divorced from Lipp, although they had been separated for several years. Paperwork and legalities caught up on December 31, 2007, making them legally married.

Bonewits' only child was born to Deborah Lipp in 1990.

Illness and death

In 1990, Bonewits was diagnosed with eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome. The illness was a factor in his eventual resignation from the position of Archdruid of the ADF.

On October 25, 2009, Bonewits was diagnosed with a rare form of colon cancer, for which he underwent treatment. He died at home, on August 12, 2010, surrounded by his family.

Accusations of sexual assault

In 2018, accusations of sexual abuse against a minor rose against ADF founder Bonewits relating to his relationship with Moira Greyland when she was six years old. Greyland said in her book, 'The Last Closet: the Dark Side of Avalon':

"Some people called him the Pagan pope I hated Isaac, and refused to be in the same room with him, even if the only way I could articulate my objections to him was to say ‘he tickled me.'"

In light of this accusation, ADF, the lead pagan organization that Issac Bonewits founded, removed his name from their website and repudiated him.

"To preserve the health of our organization, we must cut out the blight that is Isaac Bonewits’ legacy. We sever the ties both historical and spiritual that bind us to him. For his actions against children, Isaac Bonewits will no longer be named as a beloved ancestor of ADF, nor is he welcome at our sacred fire.

May his memory and his dark actions fade with the rising of the sun."

Contributions to Neopaganism

In his book Real Magic (1971), Bonewits proposed his "Laws of Magic". These "laws" are synthesized from a multitude of belief systems from around the world to explain and categorize magical beliefs within a cohesive framework. Many interrelationships exist, and some belief systems are subsets of others. This work was chosen by Dennis Wheatley in the 1970s to be part of his publishing project Library of the Occult.

Bonewits also coined much of the modern terminology used to articulate the themes and issues that 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 (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).
  • In his book Real Magic (1971), Bonewits proposed his hypothesis on the Laws of Magic, which were then elaborated in his RPG supplement Authentic Thaumaturgy. The book makes it clear it is an adaptation of the ideas from Real Magic to gaming with the Laws presented being abbreviated from those in Real Magic.

Bibliography

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

References

  1. ^ Aloi, Peg (August 12, 2010). "Isaac Bonewits (1949 - 2010) : A Tribute". Witchvox. Archived from the original on February 29, 2012. Retrieved January 19, 2012.
  2. Carlson, Jess (2010-08-12). "Isaac Bonewits Enters the Summerland". Jess Carlson. Retrieved 2022-11-11.
  3. ^ Guiley, Rosemary Ellen (2008). The Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft & Wicca (Third ed.). Facts On File. p. 34. ISBN 9781438126845. He also was the last to do so in the United States. College administrators were so embarrassed over the publicity about the degree that magic, witchcraft, and sorcery were banned from the individual group study program.
  4. "Berkeley Student Will Graduate With Bachelor of Arts in Magic". The New York Times. 1 June 1970. p. 24. ISSN 0362-4331. Among June graduates at the University of California is Isaac Bonewits, who will receive a bachelor of arts in magic.
  5. "Satanis". Internet Movie Database. Archived from the original on February 27, 2012. Retrieved Jan 19, 2012.
  6. Bonewits, Isaac (2005). "My Satanic Adventure". Archived from the original on January 11, 2012. Retrieved Jan 19, 2012.
  7. Bonewits, Isaac. "Isaac Bonewits' Biography". www.neopagan.net. Archived from the original on 2008-01-31. Retrieved 2008-01-22.
  8. Bonewits, Isaac (2009). "Adopt an Elder". Archived from the original on February 5, 2012. Retrieved January 19, 2012.
  9. "Conference on Current Pagan Studies". Archived from the original on 2016-12-03.
  10. "Neopagan.Net 2007 Year-End Report and 2008 Donation Campaign - Views from the Cyberhenge". neopagan.net. Archived from the original on 2008-01-07. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
  11. Isaac Bonewits Diagnosed with Cancer Archived 2016-09-10 at the Wayback Machine, Jason Pitzl-Waters, The Wild Hunt
  12. ^ Greene, Heather (January 10, 2018). "Accusations of abuse surface against ADF founder Isaac Bonewits - News, Paganism, U.S." The Wild Hunt.
  13. Hunt, The Wild (November 8, 2019). "ADF repudiates founder Isaac Bonewits - News, Paganism, The Wild Hunt, U.S., World". The Wild Hunt.
  14. Bonewits, Isaac (2006). Bonewits's Essential Guide to Druidism. New York: Kensington/Citadel. p. 131. ISBN 0-8065-2710-2. 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".
  15. McColman (2003) p.51: "Such reconstructionists are attempting, through both spiritual and scholarly means, to create as purely Celtic a spirituality as possible."
  16. Bonewits, Isaac. "The Aquarian Manifesto with Historical Notes". www.neopagan.net. Archived from the original on 2007-04-18. Retrieved 2007-06-12.
  17. Bonewits, Isaac (2005). Authentic Thaumaturgy. Steve Jackson Games. p. 58

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External links

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