Patricia Crowther (Wiccan)

Patricia Crowther (born 14 October 1927) who also goes by the craft name Thelema, is a British occultist considered influential in the early promotion of the Wiccan religion^[1] and she is the mother of the witch or wiccan runes.^[2]

Crowther was born in Sheffield in 1927, then as Patricia Dawson. She was initiated into Witchcraft by fellow well-known Wiccan Gerald Gardner.^{[citation needed]} Her handfasting to husband Arnold Crowther (1909–1974)^[3] took place in 1960.^[4]

Along with Doreen Valiente, Lois Bourne, and Eleanor Bone, Crowther is considered^[5] to be one of the "early mothers" of modern Wicca. Patricia and her then-husband, Arnold Crowther, founded the Sheffield Coven in 1961, of which they were High Priestess and High Priest.^[3] Crowther has promoted Witchcraft through a number of book publications, contributions to occult magazines and journals, and through a number of interviews with local and national newspapers. She has also appeared several times on television.

In 1971, both Patricia and her then-husband Arnold wrote and presented A Spell of Witchcraft, a radio programme produced and broadcast by BBC Radio Sheffield in six 20-minute parts. The radio programme, the first of its kind in relation to modern Witchcraft as a religion, explored the history and folklore of Witchcraft and presented elements of a local coven's activities and practices within the community.^[6]

• 1965 - The Witches Speak (with Arnold Crowther)(Athol Publications)
• 1973 - Witchcraft in Yorkshire (Dalesman) ISBN 0-85206-178-1
• 1974 - Witch Blood (The Diary of a Witch High Priestess) (House of Collectibles) ISBN 0-87637-161-6
• 1981 - Lid off the Cauldron: A handbook for witches (Muller) ISBN 0-584-10421-9
• 1992 - The Zodiac Experience (Samuel Weiser Inc) ISBN 0-87728-739-2
• 1992 - The Secrets of Ancient Witchcraft With the Witches' Tarot (Carol Publishing) ISBN 0-8065-1056-0
• 1992 - Witches Were for Hanging (Excalibur Press of London) ISBN 1-85634-049-X
• 1998 - One Witch's World (Robert Hale) ISBN 0-7090-6222-2 (published in America under the title High Priestess. Apart from the title, they are the same book) (Phoenix Publishing) ISBN 0-919345-87-5
• 2001 - High Priestess: The Life & Times of Patricia Crowther (Phoenix Publishing Inc.) ISBN 978-0919345874
• 2002 - From Stagecraft to Witchcraft: The Early years of a High Priestess(Capall Bann) ISBN 1-86163-163-4
• 2009 - Covensense (Robert Hale) ISBN 9780709087205

• The Mystica site on Patricia Crowther
• The Wicca - Website with some information about Patricia Crowther. Archived 2014-12-28 at the Wayback Machine
• Patricia Crowther personal recording from her book Zodiac Experience

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