Cochrane's Craft

Around the time that the British Witchcraft Act 1735 was repealed in 1951, Cochrane, who was in his early twenties, founded a coven, naming it the Clan of Tubal Cain after the biblical blacksmith Tubal-cain, as a reference to his work in that profession. At first, he worked with Gerald Gardner, the founder of Wicca, but broke with him on creative differences. This created a rivalry that continued through Gardner's death. Cochrane initiated his wife Jane and several others into the craft, and they then joined the coven. Among these was Evan John Jones, who would one day replace Robert Cochrane as the magister (master) of the Clan of Tubal Cain. Jones had met Cochrane through his wife Jane, as they both worked for the same company. In 1982, two Americans named Dave and Ann Finnin reached out to Gray and Jones. In 1986, after four years of correspondence, Jones adopted the Finnins into the Clan of Tubal Cain and named them the magister and maid of a satellite group called The Roebuck. Later, conflicts arose between Jones and the Finnians, and he ceased communicating with the couple. In 1996, Mike Howard, editor of The Cauldron, introduced Jones to a woman named Shani Oates. In 1998, Jones felt Oates to be the best person to lead the Clan of Tubal Cain and formally named her its maid, giving her "supreme and undivided authority over the whole Clan". Oates then named as her magister Robin the Dart. On the winter solstice of 2017, Oates appointed Ulric Goding as magister of the Clan, as the successor to lead the Clan to future generations. Describing Cochrane's creation of his religious tradition, Oates remarked that "like any true craftsman, he was able to mold raw material into a magical synthesis, creating a marvelous working system, at once instinctively true and intrinsically beautiful." == Beliefs ==

Theology As in most forms of neopagan witchcraft, Cochranians worship both a Horned God and a Triple Goddess. The Goddess is viewed as the White Goddess, a term taken from Robert Graves's book on poetry, The White Goddess. She is also viewed as a triad of three mothers or three sisters, whom both Cochrane and Evan John Jones noted as having similarities with the weird sisters or Norns of Germanic paganism. In Cochrane's Craft, the God is associated with fire, the underworld, and time, and has been described as "the goat-god of fire, craft, lower magics, fertility and death". The God was known by several names, most notable Tubal-cain, Brân, Wayland and Herne. Cochrane's tradition held that these two deities had a son, the Horn Child, who was a young sun god. Cochrane, like Gardner, believed that there was a being beyond the God and the Goddess—the Godhead—though he referred to this deity as "the Hidden Goddess". He also referred to it as "Truth". Cochrane told of a cosmogynic myth involving Night, "a feminine being with force, but without form, giving birth to man and with him she discovered love, and so all things began". He said that the Elder Gods had seven children who each created a realm to rule over from a castle, as well as creating the elements of earth, air, fire and water, each of which had a god ruling over it. Ethics and morality No mention is made in Cochrane's writings of the Wiccan Rede or "Threefold Law". Cochrane instead offers an "old witch 'law that reads: In a letter to occultist William G. Gray, Cochrane said: == Practices ==

Cochranians wear robes whilst performing rituals and adhere to the traditional Great Rite. Tools An iconic part of Cochrane's Craft is the tool known as the stang. A stang is a forked staff used primarily as a portable altar. In The Roebuck in the Thicket, Evan John Johns describes the acquisition and adornment of a stang intended for use by a coven. According to Jones, the shaft of the stang should be made from ash; the fork of the stang should be made of iron; the base should be shod in iron; two upward-facing crossed arrows should adorn the shaft below the fork; and, on the four "Great Sabbats" (namely, Candlemas, May Eve, Lammas, and Halloween), the arrows should be garlanded as fits the season. but Cochrane is credited with being the first witch to use one. == Media ==

The 2015 film The Coven used the premise that a ring of trees in Queen's Wood was a meeting place for practitioners of Cochrane's Craft. The plot features a contemporary group of Cochranians who go missing after last being seen among the ring of trees. == See also ==