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8/10/2019 Cochrane Article From Pentacle Magazine.
1/5
Robert
Cochrane
The
Magister
of theClan
By Michael Howard
Illustrated byRowan
I
n
June1966
a
young
man who
used
the
nom-de-
plume
'Robert Cochrane'took
his own
life
in
mysterious
circumstances. He is of interest to thereaders because
he
was one of the
most fascinating, enigmatic
and
controversialfigures in themodern witchcraft revival. Born
in 1931 into
a
large family living
in the
siums
of
London,
Cochranehad aviolent temperandthisgot himinto fights
withhispeersin hisyouth.Hespenthisearly working
life
as ablacksmithin afoundryandlater, afterhemarried and
settled down,
he
became
a
bargee
on the
narrow boats
transporting coaialongthecanal network. Inthe 1960s
Cochrane livedon acouncil estateinSlough, Berkshire
withhiswife andyoungson and heworkedas atypeface
designer for alocal company.
Robert Cochrane claimed that
the
narrow
boat
people
preserved elementsof the
'OldFaith'
intheir culture and
thatth efolk ar tdecorating their barges included symbols
of
the
Craft.
It is
possiblethis
is
where
he
firstlearnt about witchcraft
or
perhaps
it
was through reading Robert Graves' book
The
Whi te
Goddess which remained an
important influenceon hisbeliefs throughout
his
life.Cochrane claimed
to be a
hereditary
witchandthathisfamilyhadpractised
the Craftformany generations backto at
leastthe18th century.Hesaidhisgreat-
grandfatherhadbeenthe"Grand Master
oftheStaffordshirewitches", his
father
had
been
a
Horse
Whisperer, his
mother
was theMaidand scryer of an oldcovenin
Windsor dating backto theVictorian period
and he wastaughtthesecretsof theCraft
as a
child
by hisAunt Lucy. Cochrane described himself
as "...amemberof thePeopleof
Goda-the
ClanofTubal
Cain.
Locally,
he
said, they were known
as 'witches',the
'GoodPeople
1
,'GreenGowns','Horsemen' and
'wizards'.
He also described himselfas a'pellar'- an oldCornish
word for acunningman ormagician who expelsspirits
Cochrane also describedhimself
as a
"man
of Od[Odin]"
(CochraneandJones 2002:28).
Whetherany ofthis istrueor notcannotb eproved. Many
of hiscriticsbelievedthat Cochrane madeit
all
up. If he
didthen,asProfessor Ronald
Hutton
hascommented,he
must have beenagenius. Thereissome circumstantial
P G N D W N
a m m a s
2 0 0 ;
evidence
to
suggest
that
Cochrane knew
of or had
contact
with traditional andhereditary witches (See Jonesand
Cochrane 2002:10, 109 and169). Evenifhed idmake it
all up(andthatseems highly unlikely whenyoulookat the
ritual and
mythic corpus
of his
tradition)
he
still left
behind
apractical legacyo ftraditional witchcraft that worksand
producestangible results. Thatis allthat really matters.
In
theearly
1960s
Cochrane foundedhis owngroup,
'theClanofTubalCain'topracticetheCraftin the old
traditionalway.
It has
also been called
the
'RoyalWindsor Cuveen'. Itworked outdoors
atBurnham Beeches inBerkshire, Witney
Clumps inOxfordshire, theSussex Downs,
CheddarGorge
in
Somerset
and the
Brecon
Beacons inSouth Wales. Black and hooded
robes were wornandpowerw as raised
bypacing
or
dancing
in a
circle around
a
central fire.Theritual tools used includeda
knife,acord,astone,acauldron, ahuman
skull,
a cup ordrinking
horn
and a
forked
staff
called
a
stang.
In the
rituals
the
stang
represented
the
presence
of the
Horned
God
in thecircle.Ateachof thefour festivals
celebrating theWheelof the Yearit was
garlanded withth erelevant seasonal flowers orfoliage.
Christianised names were usedforeachof thefestivals i.e.
Candlemass,MayEve, Lammas andHallows.
TheClan revered
a
horned
god of
fire, craft,fertility
and
deathwho was identified withthe
biblical
first blacksmith
TubalCain
the
Canaanite fertility
and
storm
god
Baal
and
theSaxon smithgod Way/and. Th efemale aspectwas
representedby theThreeMothers'
or '
Three Ladies'.
They wereatriplicityo fgoddesseswhoruled Fatean d
could be
identified with
th e
Wyrd Sisters
of
Anglo-Saxon
mythologyor theNorns fromtheScandinavian pantheon.
Cochrane always said that Fatewas"the nameof thetrue
17
8/10/2019 Cochrane Article From Pentacle Magazine.
2/5
witch goddess".
The
Clan also recognised other deities
who
were bornfrom
the
womb
of the
goddess
Nox or
Night
at
the
beginning
of
creation.
Fourof these
were
the gods
or kings
who
ruled
the
castles
of
th eelements symbolically
placed
at
each quarter
of thecircle.In the
east (fire)
was
Lucet
(Lucifer?),in thewest(water)Node(Nodens?), in the
north
Tettens(Tuetones?) and in the
south (earth) Carenos
(Cernunnos?).
Lucetwasknownas the 'Lord of theMorning Star' and
he
w assymbolisedby thewaxing sun. He wastheyoung
HornedGod or 'Child of Promise'bornat thewintersolstice
from
the
sacred marriage
at
Beltane
between the Old
Homed God and theGoddess. He wasdescribedas a
beingoflight with wingsoffire. Nodewas a sea god and
wasregarded in the Clan mythos as theequivalentto
the onceandfuture king. Arthur. Tettenswasknownas
the 'Lord of theMound'and he was the rulerof thedead
symbolisedby thewaningsun.TheClan identifiedhim
withtheGreek trickstergod ofthievesandmerchants
Hermes, with
the
Norse shamanic
god of the
runes Odin
or
Woden
and
with
the
biblicalfirst murderer Cain
in his
role
as the
'Man
in the
Moon'.
All these deities were cultural
exemplars. Tettenswas thepatrono fmagicians, witches
andsorcerers
and was
described physically
as
small, dark
andcold. Finally,Carenos is the'Lordof Animals' and the
God of theWoods.He isdepictedas ahuman figure with
ram'shorns. There were also four goddesses w howere
queensof theelementalcastles
representing
life, maternity,
wisdoman ddeath an dthey were associated withth e
phasesof themoon.
Cochrane taught that inancient times therehadbeen
a
union between
the
Gods
and
humankind.
It was
from
this union thatthe art ofmagickdeveloped. This theme I
canalsobefoundinfaery lore,the biblical stories
of
theI
Garden
ofEdenandthe
Watchers
or
fallenangels, fairy
|
tales,and theArthurian legends. Theseare allmythsara
legends that
are
relevant
to
many
Old
Craft
traditions,
provide
afurther
indication
that atsomestage in his
earl
life Cochranewas
n
contact with those
who
were
'inthe|
know'.
What typeofritualsdid the
Clan
ofTubalCainpractice
duringCochrane'slifetime? Thefirst thingtorealise is
t
they were very different fromanythingfound
in
modern
Wiccanbooks. Adescriptionof one
Hallows
ritual
atte
by
the
Cabbalistic magician William
'Bill'
Gray
has
re