Chylde Catcher - Interview with a Witch: Maxine Sanders

She’s also back-footed me with her appearance. I’m expecting someone who lived through the 60’s in London’s Bayswater, who has been steeped in the esoteric to have a whiff of the eccentric, maybe tinged with a streak of romanticism, as I see in many other female occultists. Not a bit of it. Her apparel is that of a conventional professional business woman, come legal secretary, wearing a grey suit, a short neat coiffure, with sober jewellery completing the ensemble. Ironically she looks a little out of place amongst the more casually (shabbily) dressed Treadwellian crowd.

Back home in Wales she is known in her locale as ‘The Professional Woman’ or ‘The Weird Woman'. Which makes me think, we’re only seeing one half of ‘the act’ tonight? They have no idea that she’s a witch either! It’s probably for the best; Maxine carries a lot of sensationalist baggage, fabricated by the press to fit in with their 'Hammer Horror' idea of Witchcraft.

 Christina was marked down as grand inquisitor for the public talk downstairs. That particular dynamic didn’t quite take place though, as Maxine only really needs a prompt to get going, despite public speaking not being something she relishes.
As the evening progresses something else emerges to dilute that dynamic. A combination of northern bluffness blended with a wilful determination not to fit into a role, play along or even to be liked. The reason for this also emerges during the captivating ‘talk’.

 The audience facing west …the seated Maxine began to account something of her life. She moved to Wales about 7 years ago, discovering that she lived close to the ‘Bee Shaman’. The Bee Shaman as well as discovering a bee indigenous to North Wales is a healer using bees. He had walked to Maxine’s home with 2 bees up his sleeve, to help cure her arthritis. She is now providing us with a health tip, to eat the honey from our local area as an antidote to allergies (triggered by pollution)

 The ‘Temple of Mother’ was the name of Maxine’s first coven in London in the 60’s. Pictures from that era have Maxine invariably skyclad. When people ask why? She really has to give thought to why such a question arises. For her it was the most natural thing to do as a witch for certain rituals – she had just as many photo’s of her taken clothed but of course newspapers being newspapers, theses didn’t get published nearly as often.
Her cohort at the time was the even more infamous Alex Sanders, the man she married and ‘A brilliant showman’.
Up until that time until this pair came along witchcraft and the priestesses were more mythical and very much underground entities.
Maxine and Alex gave a much needed boost to witchcraft with their brand of Wicca.

Alexandrians came into being when the book ‘What Witches Do’ by Stewart Farrar an initiate of the group, was being produced. Half way through the writing Stewart asked what they should call their brand of witchcraft and how about ‘Alexandrians’?
So the more 'daredevil' side of witchcraft was named, as opposed to the traditionalist known as ‘Gardenian’s’ who were sticklers and liked to cross the ‘t’s’ and dot the ‘i’s’
‘Alex was a magician, he was an inspirer – Inspiring in a witch sense, in a magical sense, he could make you feel love’

 Christina had another question. What did Maxine like about training people or what do you miss about now not training?
She really missed the soul … the initiate’s soul. Maxine expanded. ‘No matter how much you teach the mysteries, you have to wait for the revelation of them in the student’. It was a privilege to see a soul blossom’.
She didn’t think old age gave you wisdom to teach and that to teach you had to be ruthless. ‘A teacher can kill you or make you cry’.

 Did she ever tire of teaching?
‘If you are an initiate it’s a joy and a privilege to teach’. She had no time for those people that moaned when it came to teaching.
‘Initiation isn’t only about joy’ there’s the facing of the abyss, dealing with part of what isn’t normal.
‘Loves working the Craft, still getting the uplifts … still the depressions’

 What is magical about London for you?
Maxine had just mentioned her home back in Wales, situated where 2 rivers met and how she was having some stone steps made from the river up to her stone circle in the garden, as a path for the goddess.
She’d seen a bridge over the Serpentine in Hyde Park coming back through London that they use to jump off in the summer (it now has a ‘Don’t jump off the bridge’ sign)
They had constructed a magic mirror (for an undisclosed purpose). Now the only way to destroy a magic mirror is underwater, so they had taken it to the Serpentine. However,  breaking a mirror underwater is harder than it sounds, the stone they tried to use had no effect ….. So they took it back and got a hammer! Laughter from the audience.

 Christina asked another question, not quite getting the answer she thought she might.
When you were looking at initiation were you drawn by magic or Gods?
‘No it was a man!’ was the quick retort. More laughter
How about now?
This produced a deeper response. She’d had a horrendous childhood, where she’d suffered abuse on every level. Had ‘fallen’ into a fire.. and been taken to hospital.
To this day she still suffers from the abuses met out by her father. So the young Maxine escaped into her mind.
Her mother was an artist, a bit of an intellectual with an interest in spiritual matters.
Alex (Sanders) knew her mother. ‘Father hated him’. Alex predicted that her father would die within 2 months, a few weeks later, her father was dead!’

 How has your relationship to the Goddess evolved?
Maxine questioned ‘Goddess?’ ‘I think it’s a god’. She liked working with the god – But she invokes the goddess, to feel enhanced, and then uses that energy to invoke the god. She’s aware of the matriarchal nature of witchcraft but thinks that the relevance of the god is a neglected aspect of the Craft.

 Has the relationship to the Goddess changed over time?
Maxine thought she had a healthy relationship to the gods or the energies that she works with that she interprets as gods or goddesses.
She worships the goddess from dawn to noon to midnight – but then corrected herself on the midnight part to ‘night’, as she likes to go to bed early.
Loves the power of the circle, working with the stones, water and the Green Ray.

 Christina was surprised at how much psychic development work she does.
This produced the most impassioned response of the evening. If you’re an initiate you have to stay within the bonds of the priesthood, to keep it safe ‘THAT was my vow!’ She didn’t care if her students liked her or not, what was important was imparting the Craft in the most effective way possible, so that it carried on growing.
If anybody who thought that Maxine Sanders was a bit of an occult dilettante that had been trading on the notoriety of her name all these years, then the scene of this heartened response would put you in no doubt that this woman has devoted her life to the Craft, body and soul. It gave one a warm glow that it had been in such capable hands all these years.

 A question was asked on her training and magical work and what were the aims?
A group without tears, laughter, anger, mistakes, is not working as a group. The student that makes the most mistakes was the best member of the group for making it grow. Although this was not without its dangers, for such a student  could just as easily destroy the group, so a close watch had to be kept on their progress.

 Then the ‘interview’ was over all too quickly and a few questions were fielded from the audience

 She was asked about spiritual perfection and what she aspired to?
She gave a pat, fortune cookie answer, ‘To be One’ – but went onto give an illustration of what she meant.
Coming to the talk she had got a bit nervous of the prospect. She had got to the shop but something had gone astray in the usual Treadwell’s hospitality and she hadn’t been given a seat to sit on – But somehow this personal little fit of pique had enabled her to forget the nerves and become at one with herself again.

 Somebody else in the audience didn’t have a question but gave a thank you for being such an influence on his life for the past 36 years.
Maxine modestly said she’s always surprised when people say that because she’s so focused on what she’s doing and the devotion to the Craft, that she’s often quite oblivious to the effect that she may have on people.

 On being asked if Madeline Montalban had been in the Craft? Over which there’s some historical confusion, Maxine gave an emphatic No!  However, they had been given her Angelic system from an intermediary, (Betty XXXX[?]) discarded that which they thought irrelevant and incorporated it into their system with Madeline’s blessing. ‘She was a wonderful, wonderful person’.

 Maxine’s parting shot was to tell us to listen to the inner voice. I personally would have preferred to listen to more of what the captivating Maxine had to say, not only for her words but the things being conveyed beyond the words … the definable mark of a good teacher.

 
Spotted in the audience tonight were those other living legends, Sir Michael Staley, Lady Caroline Wise, Steve Wilson, Pharaon, Paulo and Karen, elijahs_fire, rabid_peacock, frozen_in_honey, wildbadger and simontomasi