ABOVE & BELOW : Pictured here are some of our Alexandrian Wiccan Casting Circles which form part of our exhibition area.
Alex Sanders ( 6 June 1926-30 April 1988). Born Orrell Alexander Carter, who went under the craft name Verbius, was an English occultist and High Priest in the Pagan religion of Wicca, responsible for founding the tradition of Alexandrian Wicca during the 1960s. Raised in a working-class family, he was introduced to esoteric ideas by his mother and grandmother from a young age, and as a young man began working as a medium in the local Spiritualist Churches before going on to study and practice ceremonial magic. In 1963, he was initiated into Gardnerian Wicca before founding his own coven, through which he merged many aspects of ceremonial magic into Wicca. He claimed to have been initiated by his Grandmother as a child, though evidence for this is lacking. Throughout the 1960s, he would court publicity in the press, appearing in a number of documentaries, marrying the far younger Maxine Sanders, and being declared to be the “King of the Witches” by his followers, something that led to other prominent Gardnerian Witches, such as Patricia Crowther and Eleanor Bone, attacking him in the press. In the late 1970s and 1980s, he went on to work with a ceremonial magical group known as the Ordine Della Luna, prior to his death. The tradition he founded with Maxine Sanders became known as Alexandrian Wicca.
Below : An intriguing video footage on the seemingly bizarre life of Alex Sanders
Below : One of the collage features on display within Littledean Jail’s “Witchcraft, Paganism, Wiccan, Satanism, The Occult, The Illuminati and Secret Societies Collection ” .
Below : Alex Sanders initiation into the sacred Mysteries
Below : One of the collage features on display within Littledean Jail’s “Witchcraft, Paganism, Wiccan, Satanism, The Occult, The Illuminati and Secret Societies Collection ” .
Above: Original painting by Paul Bridgman on display here at Littledean Jail of Alex Sanders , Maxine Sanders during the initiation of Janet Farrar, the wife of High Priest husband Stewart Farrar.
Above: Original painting of High Priest Stewart Farrar and his High Priestess wife Janet , here on display at Littledean Jail
Below: Baphomet Ouija board on display at Littledean Jail
Below: Original paintings by Gloucestershire Artist Paul Bridgman depicting Alex Sanders and his High Priestess wife Maxine, along with Baphomet… The Horned God , both on display at the jail
BELOW: ‘BEAKY BLINDER’ OUR MYSTICAL AND SPIRITUAL RAVEN- GUARDIAN AND KEEPER OF LITTLEDEAN JAIL
Below : Collage of newspaper clippings featuring Alex Sanders on display at Littledean Jail
Original painting by Gloucestershire Artist Paul Bridgman depicting Gerald Gardner, and High Priestess’s Monique Wilson and Patricia Crowther on display at the jail
LP Album cover of Alex Sanders ” A Witch Is Born ” on display at the Jail
Original painting by Gloucestershire Artist Paul Bridgman depicting Aleister Crowley , on display at the jail
Above and Below : Original oil paintings by local artist Paul Bridgman depicting our Alexandrian Baphomet “Horned God” on display in and amongst our exhibition areas.