Born in 1931 into a large family living in the slums of London, Cochrane was something of a tearaway when he was young. He had a violent temper and this got him into fights with his peers. He spent his early working life as a blacksmith in a London Transport foundry and later, after he married and settled down, he became a bargee on the narrow boats transporting coal along the canal network. In the 1960s Cochrane lived on a council estate in Slough, Berkshire with his wife and young son and worked as a typeface designer for a local company.

Robert Cochrane claimed that the narrow boat people preserved elements of the ‘Old Faith’ in their culture and that the folk art decorating their barges included symbols of the Craft. It is possible this is where he first learnt about the Craft or perhaps it was through reading Robert Graves’ book The White Goddess in the late 1950s, which remained an important influence on his beliefs throughout his life.

Cochrane himself told a classic ‘granny story’ about his alleged Craft background. He claimed to be a hereditary witch and that his family had practised the Craft for many generations back to at least the 18th century. He said his great-grandfather had been the “Grand Master of the Staffordshire witches”, his father had been a Horse Whisperer, his mother was the Maid and scryer of an old coven in Windsor dating back to the Victorian period and he was taught the secrets of the Craft as a child by his Aunt Lucy. Cochrane described himself as “…a member of the People of Goda- the Clan of Tubal Cain.” Goda was the name of the faery queen in the famous legend of Wild Edric in Shropshire. Locally, he said, they were known as ‘witches’, the ‘Good People’, ‘Green Gowns’, ‘Horsemen’ and ‘wizards’. Cochrane described himself as a ‘pellar’ – an old Cornish word for a cunning man or magician who heals the sick and expels evil spirits. He also called himself as a “man of Od [Odin]” (Cochrane and Jones 2002:28).

Whether any of this is true or not cannot be proved. Many of his critics believed that Cochrane made it all up. If he did then, as Professor Ronald Hutton of Brostol University has commented, he must have been a genius. Shortly after his death Cochrane’s widow told Doreen Valiente (who had been a member of his covine) that he had invented the whole story about being a hereditary witch (quoted in one of DV’s private notebooks dated 1966 ). However his widow may have had a personal axe to grind as they had separated due to marital problems. Despite this there is some circumstantial evidence to suggest that Cochrane knew of or had contact with traditional and hereditary witches (See Jones and Cochrane 2002: 10, 109 and 169). Even if he did make it all up (and that seems highly unlikely when you look at the ritual and mythic corpus of his tradition) he still left behind a practical legacy of traditional witchcraft that works and produces tangible results. That is all that really matters.

In the early 1960s Cochrane founded his own group to practice the Craft in the old traditional way. This group became known as the Clan of Tubal Cain and has also been called the ‘Royal Windsor Cuveen’ by some writers. It worked outdoors at Burnham Beeches in Berkshire, Witney Clumps in Oxfordshire, the Sussex Downs, Cheddar Gorge in Somerset and the Brecon Beacons in South Wales. Black and hooded robes were worn and power was raised by pacing or dancing in a circle around a central fire. The ritual tools used included a knife, a cord, a stone, a cauldron, a human skull, a cup or drinking horn and a forked staff called a stang. In the rituals the stang represented the presence of the Horned God in the circle. At each of the four festivals celebrating the Wheel of the Year it was garlanded with the relevant seasonal flowers or foliage. Christianised names were used for each of the festivals i.e. Candlemass, May Eve, Lammas and Hallows.

The Clan revered a horned god of fire, craft, fertility and death who was identified with the biblical first blacksmith Tubal Cain, the Canaanite fertility and storm god Baal and the Saxon smith god Wayland. The female aspect was represented by the ‘Three Mothers’ or ‘ Three Ladies’. They were a triplicity of goddesses who ruled Fate and could be identified with the Wyrd Sisters of Anglo-Saxon mythology or the Norns from the Scandinavian pantheon. Cochrane always said that Fate was “the name of the true witch goddess”.

The CTC also recognised other deities who were born from the womb of the goddess Nox or Night at the beginning of creation. Four of these were the gods or kings who ruled the castles of the elements symbolically placed at each quarter of the circle. In the east (fire) was Lucet (Lucifer?), in the west (water) Node (Nodens?), in the north Tettens (Tuetones?) and in the south (earth) Carenos (Cernunnos?).

Lucet was known as the ‘Lord of the Morning Star’ and was symbolised by the waxing sun. He was the young Horned God or ‘Child of Promise’ born at the winter solstice from the sacred marriage at Beltane between the Old Horned God and the Goddess. He was described as a being of light with wings of fire and he can be identified with the fallen archangel Lucifer. Node was a sea god and was regarded as the equivalent to the Once and Future King, Arthur. Tettens was known as the ‘Lord of the Mound’ and was the ruler of the dead, symbolised by the waning sun. Cochrane identified him with the Greek trickster god of thieves and merchants Hermes, with the Norse shamanic god of the runes Odin or Woden and with the biblical first murderer Cain in his role as the ‘Man in the Moon’. All these deities were cultural exemplars. Tettens was the patron of magicians, witches and sorcerers and was described physically as small, dark and cold. Finally, Carenos is the ‘Lord of Animals’ and the ancient God of the Woods, the Green Man. He is depicted as a human figure with ram’s horns. There were also four goddesses who were queens of the elemental castles representing life, maternity, wisdom and death and they were associated with the phases of the moon.

Cochrane taught that in ancient times there had been a union between the Gods and humankind. It was from this union that the art of magic developed. This theme can also be found in faery lore, the biblical stories of the Garden of Eden and the Watchers or fallen angels, fairy tales, and the Arthurian legends. These are all myths and legends that are relevant to many genuine Old Craft traditions, including my own tradition, the Cultus Sabbati. They provide a further indication that at some stage in his early life Cochrane was in contact with those who were ‘in the know’

The rituals practised by the Clan of Tubal Cain during Cochrane’s lifetime were very different from anything found in modern DIY Wiccan books. A description of one Hallows ritual attended by the Cabbalistic magician William ‘Bill’ Gray has recently been published and gives a good flavour of the ambience of the Clan. (Richardson and Claridge 2003:156-160) Although the Clan was supposed to be a closed covine this did not prevent Cochrane inviting uninitiated outsiders to attend meetings as guests. The initiated members did not accept this practice very willingly and the presence of cowans at the rites caused some problems.

The Hallows ritual mentioned above was held in Sussex after Doreen Valiente joined the covine and Clan members stayed at her flat in Brighton afterwards. As each person climbed the hill to the working site they picked up a stone to carry to the top. This, Gray said, represented the burdens of responsibility gathered during a lifetime. The stones were used either to build a small cairn at the working site or to form a ring for the fire-pit. Each member also carried a photograph of a deceased love one, relative or friend. Once at the top of the hill everyone had an allotted task to do in preparing the site for the ritual, such as lighting the fire and setting up the cauldron over it on a tripod. Cochrane, as the ‘Devil’ or Magister (Master) of the covine, set up the stang. He placed a wreath of evergreen foliage on it (probably yew leaves) with two crossed arrows and a reaping hook. The wreath symbolised eternal life, the arrows transformation, and the sickle death.

The ritual proper began with the men pacing around the fire chanting and plunging their knives into the cauldron. Then the women elevated a platter (symbolising the Grail) and dipped it into the liquid. A sword was then plunged into the boiling cauldron and the liquid was scattered to the four quarters using its blade. Everyone then entered the smaller of the two circles traced on the ground with Cochrane as the Devil traditionally bringing up the rear. Widdershins dancing followed, the Maid went into a trance and made a prophecy, and a working known as Summoning the Spirit was performed. The meet ended with the group adjourning to a place outside the circle where another fire was lit and a communal meal was consumed.

At rituals held at the full moon the covine performed a unique version of ‘Drawing down the Moon’. The cup was filled with wine and the Lady or Maid held up a small mirror to reflect the moonlight into it. While she was doing this the covine paced the circle around her nine times deosil. The Magister then stepped forward holding the knife in his right hand and a lighted lantern in his left. He sharpened the blade of the knife on the whetstone, plunged it into the cup and stirred the wine three times with it. Drops of wine were then splashed around the circle at each quarter. The Magister kissed the Maid and then the cup was passed around the circle with cakes or bread on a platter. The following charm derived from a historical Scottish Craft source was used: “In the Old One’s name we eat this bread with great terror and fearful dread. We drink this wine in Our Lady’s name and she’ll gather us home again.”

Bill Gray described the Clan rituals he had witnessed as powerful events that “touched upon something deep within the land and the psyche.” Similar sentiments have been voiced by Marian Green, the editor of Quest magazine, an ex-editor of Pagan Dawn and author of many popular books on witchcraft and magic, who was associated with the Clan. She has said: “ Cochrane may have not been all the things he claimed, or that have been claimed for or about him since his death, but he did really know how to work with the forces of the land and with time, and with elemental beings, in what still feels like an authentic ancient way.” (quoted in Jones and Cochrane 2001:37).

Cochrane did not believe that the Old Craft was a pagan fertility religion, although he did concede that it had preserved elements of the old pre-Christian Mystery cults. He taught that when they died witches passed over to the Rose Castle of the Goddess, while pagans were reincarnated on the earth plane. In one of his letters to Bill Gray he said that until the late Middle Ages the Roman Church tolerated pagan survivals. However, with the Crusades in the 12th century spiritual emissaries arrived in Europe from Persia (modern Iran) and converted the surviving pagans to their beliefs. This, Cochrane claimed, was when the worship of the Horned God achieved dominance in the witch cult. As a result of this development allegedly the Church declared the Craft was a devil-worshipping heresy and began its mass persecution of alleged ‘witches’.

Controversy still rages about Robert Cochrane’s legacy over forty years from his suicide. However, as the accounts of the rituals witnessed by Bill Gray and Marian Green testify, Cochrane’s tradition produces dramatic magical results such as spirit manifestations and changes in the consciousness of the participants. Evan John Jones freely admitted that Cochrane was a trickster who used his so-called ‘grey magic’ to baffle and confuse people he did not like. Jones also said that 99% of the workings of the Clan were “an illusion created by words, actions and atmosphere”. Even so “…the illusion stopped and reality took over. From that part on things used to happen…” (Richardson and Claridge 2003: 151). That after all is the key to any practical system of witchcraft or magic, ancient or modern. It proves that whatever its origins and pedigree the Cochranian tradition was and is genuine.

Bibliography and further reading: The Roebuck in the Thicket: An Anthology of the Robert Cochrane Witchcraft Tradition Evan John Jones and Robert Cochrane. Edited by Michael Howard (Capall Bann 2001), The Robert Cochrane Letters: An Insight into Modern Traditional Witchcraft Robert Cochrane with Evan John Jones. Edited and introduced by Michael Howard (Capall Bann 2002), The Old Sod: The Odd Life and Inner Work of William G. Gray Alan Richardson and Marcus Claridge (ignotus press 2003), Witchcraft: A Tradition Renewed Evan John Jones with Doreen Valiente (Robert Hale 1990), Sacred Mask, Sacred Dance Evan John Jones with Chas S.Clifton (Llewellyn USA 1997), ‘A Hereditary Witch’s Revelations’ by Robert Cochrane in Witchcraft, the Sixth Sense – and Us Justine Glass (Neville Spearman 1965), ‘Robert Cochrane, Magister’ in Rebirth of Witchcraft Doreen Valiente (Robert Hale 1989) and ‘The Man in Black’ in The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft Ronald Hutton (Oxford University Press 1999).

Author’s biography: Michael Howard has been involved in the Craft for over forty years. He is the editor of the witchcraft journal The Cauldron, published since 1976, and the author of over twenty books on the occult, runes, folklore, witchcraft and magic. During his mundane life he has worked in both farming and horticulture and in senior managerial positions in private companies, local government and the Civil Service, including being a Customs officer. He is now retired.

He is an honorary member of the Pagan Federation and a member of the Folklore Society, the Friends of the Museum of Witchcraft at Boscastle, and the Royal Stuart Society. He was a student of the Luciferian Order of the Morning Star in the 1960s, founded by the famous astrologer, magus and taromancer Madeline Montalban, was initiated into Gardnerian Wicca in 1969, and he is currently an empowered initiate and Elder of the traditional witchcraft sodality known in the outer as the Cultus Sabbati.

Michael Howard can be contacted by e-mail at mike@the-cauldron.fsnet.co.uk or by writing to BM Cauldron, London, WC1N 3XX, England.

Copyright © M.A.Howard 2009.

All the material in this article is based upon the already published works as listed in the bibliography above.