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A rough draft of the spiritual autobiography of Joseph B Wilson. The history that lead to Toteg Tribe.
Copyright 2003 by Joseph B Wilson
Then I telephoned Ruth Wynn-Owen at her flat in London. She seemed thrilled to hear from me and
invited me to come and visit. So that evening I took a train to London and followed her instructions
for taking the tube (subway) to Ealing. I walked the few blocks from the station to 9 Queens road
where she lived.
We had a delightful meeting, and she introduced me to several others who were involved with the
Old Religion. One was Andrew, a fellow actor who was her lover. Andrew was 20 years younger
than Ruth. Another was Reg, a photographer and member of the Gardnerian Wicca that I had been
corresponding with. Reg lived in northern England. Finally was Colin and Marged, a young couple
that had recently broken off from their old Gardnerian coven and were forming their own. That
Saturday evening Ruth conducted services of the Plant Bran in her flat. I had already memorized
the prayers she had sent me while I was still in the United States. She was impressed. The others,
who had been attending her services for months, still did not have them memorized. Colin and
Marged recognized my involvement from the United States and gave me an open invitation to
attend their circles when I came to London.
Sunday I returned to RAF Upper Heyford and reported for duty Monday morning. I registered for a
3-bedroom house in the base housing area and was told that there was none available so I started
to look for suitable housing off base.
So many interesting things happened in my first few months at RAF Upper Heyford that I can't
really put them in order, so I'll just tell about them without worrying which came first.
About two weeks after my arrival the base Staff Judge Advocate (kind of like a Prosecuting
Attorney) called me into his office for questioning. It seems that the Office of Special Investigations
(OSI) (the Air Force's intelligence agency, similar to the FBI, CIA, CID, DIA etc.) had clipped the
photo feature that Gene Smith had published and included it in a report about my religious
activities. The SJA wanted to know what that was all about. I told him that the first amendment to
the constitution guaranteed my right to practice religion my own way, and the fact that I wasn't
Christian was not his business, and that I considered his questions to be religious harassment. A
few days later I was ordered to report to a psychiatrist for evaluation at RAF Lakenheath, near
London.
The psychiatrist was quite reasonable. I explained to him the possible relationship between God
and Goddess or any other religious images and experiences with Jungian archetypes and said
that in my opinion it didn't matter which was correct, since the spiritual effects and results were the
same. He told me the Staff Judge Advocate had overstepped his authority, gave me a relatively
clean bill of health, asked to be put on my mailing list for The Waxing Moon and returned me to
duty.
I made arrangements to attend Ruth's Samhain (October 31st Feast in Honor of the Ancestors)
celebration at her husband's estate in Yorkshire. Ian was a likable man who didn't participate but
also didn't mind his wife's activities so long as she used her stage name and not her married
name. I found this to be an interesting and enjoyable service, but not what I was used to.
Reg had just got a new place to live and invited me to his "Hovel Warming." I gladly accepted.
While there he introduced me to a Gardnerian HPS whom I'll call "Lady Alice" because I promised
not to reveal her identity.
Lady Alice offered to initiate me and I accepted. I got my first degree that evening. Over the next
month I made two more trips north where she gave me the second, and third degrees. Although
apparently most of the Gardnerian "secrets" have since been published and corrupted by others, I
did take an oath not to reveal what was taught "except in a circle such as we are now in" during my
initiations and so won't go into detail about any specific practice.
Back down south I attend Colin and Marged's Full Moon rites each month. They were in the
process of the heresy of modifying the Gardnerian tradition so that there would be more of a
balance of responsibility between men and women. Still, like all Gardnerian circles of the time
these rituals were performed "Skyclad" i.e., naked. Since the British climate is rather cold I was
glad these were performed indoors. I assisted them with several initiations during my stay, but
never practiced that tradition elsewhere.
Ruth introduced me to Norman Giles, a man who lived in Oxford. He had been a friend of Roy
Bowers aka Robert Cochran and was with him when he ritually drank the potion of poisonous
herbs that took his life.
