Early life Howard was born in London in 1948. In his early teenage years, he developed an interest in
Western esotericism,
occultism, and the
paranormal, primarily through the fictional stories of writers like
Dennis Wheatley,
M. R. James,
Algernon Blackwood,
C. S. Lewis,
H. Rider Haggard,
Edgar Rice Burroughs,
Sax Rohmer,
Arthur Machen,
Robert E. Howard, and
H. P. Lovecraft. Aged fourteen, he underwent an emergency operation and an associated
near death experience, subsequently embarking on a study of
spirituality, in particular through books on
Tibetan Buddhism by authors like
Lobsang Rampa. He was intrigued by the prospect of magical practices continuing in Britain after reading a March 1963 article in the
Daily Sketch detailing a "Black Magic Rite" alleged to have taken place near to the village of
Clophill in
Bedfordshire. Shortly after, he watched a television interview with the prominent Wiccan
Gerald Gardner, whose arguments against a hostile Christian clergyman impressed Howard. He went on to study at an agricultural college in
Somerset, as part of which he was assigned to a work placement on a
smallholding between
Wincanton and
Castle Cary which was run by two elderly spinster sisters. An elderly man who sometimes worked on the farm recounted to Howard various aspects of local folklore, including a belief in
witchcraft. The old man informed him that the spinsters nailed
rowan twigs above the doors to their barn and cowshed on
May Eve and
Halloween in order to ward off
fairies and "black witches", also telling him that there were solitary female "witches" living on the border between
Devon and Somerset who used magic to either curse or cure ailments. Following his graduation, Howard gained employment on a farm in
Gloucestershire, and on his day off each week he travelled to
Gloucester or
Cheltenham. In the latter was a second-hand bookstore where he purchased a number of books on esoteric subjects, including
John Symonds' biography of the occultist
Aleister Crowley,
The Great Beast, Crowley's own
Magick in Theory and Practice,
Robert Graves'
The White Goddess,
Dion Fortune's
The Sea Priestess and
Moon Magic,
Margaret Murray's
The Witch-Cult in Western Europe,
Montague Summers'
Witchcraft and Black Magic,
James Frazer's
The Golden Bough, and
Helena Blavatsky's
The Secret Doctrine and
Isis Unveiled. It was also while working for this farm that he met a local
cunning man, who also worked as a hedge layer and fence-repairer. This man taught Howard more about folk magic, and hinted that there were groups of folk magicians active in the
Cotswolds who were involved in a tradition that was separate from Gardner's Wicca. After a short time in Gloucestershire, Howard moved to
Middlesex to be closer to his mother, who was terminally ill. Here he was employed as a gardener at
Stanmore, although he later left this position in order to become an office worker. In coming years he would work in various managerial and executive positions for
EMI,
Sotheby's, and
Her Majesty's Customs and Excise.
The Order of the Morning Star and Wicca In 1964 he joined the short-lived
Witchcraft Research Association, and through reading its newsletter,
Pentagram, he discovered the writings of the Witch
Robert Cochrane. Although Howard claimed that he was "never totally convinced" of Cochrane's claim to have come from a hereditary tradition of witches stretching back generations, he added that Cochrane's writings "had a lasting influence on my progress through the Craft". Searching for an occult organisation in which to involve himself, he visited the headquarters of the
Society of the Inner Light in
Hampstead, although being nineteen at the time he was deemed too young to join. In 1967, Howard wrote to the Luciferian ceremonial magician and astrologer
Madeline Montalban after reading one of her articles in
Prediction magazine; she invited him to visit her at her home. The two became friends, with Montalban believing that she could see the "Mark of
Cain" in his
aura. She invited him to become a student of the ONS, which he duly did. Although his parents disapproved of his interest in magic, over the coming year he spent much of his time with her, and in 1968 they went on what she called a "magical mystery tour" to the
West Country, visiting
Stonehenge,
Boscastle and
Tintagel. In 1969, he was initiated into
Gardnerian Wicca, something Montalban disapproved of, and their friendship subsequently "hit a stormy period" with the pair going "[their] own ways for several years." Howard's Gardnerian initiator had also been involved in The Regency, a group founded by members of Cochrane's Clan of Tubal Cain after Cochrane's death in 1966. The Wiccan group that Howard was part of merged the Gardnerian structure with additional elements borrowed from ceremonial magic, the Regency, and Cochrane's practices. This coven corresponded with an American,
Jessie Bell, and initiated her into the tradition by proxy, sending her a copy of their own variant of the Gardnerian
Book of Shadows. Claiming that the Goddess had commanded her to do so, she published the work as ''
Lady Sheba's Book of Shadows'', much to the coven's disapproval. During the 1970s he befriended
Christine Hartley, a longstanding member of the Society of the Inner Light, and he accompanied her to
Mass performed by the
Liberal Catholic Church. At her invitation, he joined her
Co-Masonic lodge in West London, which had an
Ancient Egypt theme. He also enquired about joining the West London-based
Ancient Order of the Pyramid and the Sphinx, a ceremonial magic group which was run by
Tamara Bourkon, but declined membership when it was revealed that he would have to adopt
vegetarianism,
celibacy, and
teetotalism.
Publications and The Cauldron At Montalban's recommendation, Howard began writing on esoteric subjects, with his first publication being an article on
elementals which appeared in
Prediction in 1971. He continued to write articles and book reviews for the magazine for thiry years, until his friend, Jo Logan, retired as its editor. In 1975 his first book,
Candle Burning: Its Occult Significance, was published by
Thorsons. The publisher had initially proposed a book on this subject to
W. G. "Ernest" Butler, a friend of Hartley's, but he did not feel capable of the task, instead suggesting Howard's name to them. In 1974, he and a female friend had established an esoteric magazine titled
Spectrum. It ran for ten issues before folding after his co-editor found the project too difficult due to pre-existing work commitments. In 1976 Howard then established
The Cauldron, a magazine catering for modern Pagan Witches, after the idea was suggested to him in a conversation with the Gardnerian Madge Worthington. After
The Wiccan, it was only the second British outlet to do so, and gave space to practitioners of traditions other than the
Gardnerian Wicca which dominated
The Wiccan. 100 copies of the first issue were produced on a second-hand roneo duplicator which Howard had purchased from the redundancy payment given to him by EMI. 25 copies were placed in the
Atlantis Bookshop while the rest were sent to
Spectrum subscribers to complete their outstanding subscriptions. Over the coming forty years,
The Cauldron published articles by a range of individuals associated with the study or practice of magic, including
Ronald Hutton, Caroline Tully,
Philip Heselton, Geraldine Beskin, Sorita d'Este,
Rae Beth,
Gareth Knight,
Evan John Jones, and Nigel Pennick. In 1977 Howard was contacted by E. W. Liddell, who was then publishing controversial articles on the Essex cunning man
George Pickingill in
The Wiccan. Liddell ceased writing for
The Wiccan and began producing articles for
The Cauldron instead. Howard also published a number of articles on the subject of Luciferianism within
The Cauldron, using the pseudonym of 'Frater Ashtan'. Many of these were published in a collected form as
The Pillars of Tubal Cain, brought out by Capall Bann in 2000. In 1992, Howard was contacted by
Andrew Chumbley, who sent him a copy of his work,
Azoetia: A Grimoire of the Sabbatic Craft, to review for
The Cauldron. This resulted in a correspondence that lasted for several years before Howard met with Chumbley and his wife. Chumbley invited Howard to join his occult order, the
Cultus Sabbati, with Howard doing so in 1999. Howard moved to Wales, where he lived for two decades. A Jacobite, he was a member of the
Royal Stuart Society. In 2015, he died of complications surrounding renal failure while in Devon, surrounded by friends and family. The news was announced by Xoanon and on
The Cauldron website, while it was also announced that the magazine itself would be discontinued. ==Luciferianism==