8/10/2019 Cochrane Article From Pentacle Magazine.

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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.

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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