The historical origins of witchcraft in moon-worship and the witches’ legend of creation. Initiation rites undergone by the modern witch’ divination by birds and animals; Christianity’s absorption of pagan rites; revenge killing; the Black Mass. Cecil Williamson's Museum of Witchcraft in Cornwall. Investigations into the efficacy of witchcraft; extra-sensory perception; foretelling the future. All featuring the infamous "King Of The Witches" in the only footage in existance of the King Of Wicca. Alexander Saunders.. who uses this documentary to guide us through his coven. By then, Sanders had been endorsed by a group of 1,623 practicing Wiccans as 'King of the Witches' - with Maxine as 'Witch Queen' - and he turned into a media celebrity. There were TV appearances, late-night talks on radio, a sympathetic biography, record albums of his rituals and this film, The Legend of The Witches, based on his exploits. These were said to include healing people of warts by 'wishing them on someone else, who's already ugly'. Another woman was supposedly cured of cander by Sanders sitting with her in hospital for three days and nights, holding her feet and pouring 'healing energy' into her. Sanders and Maxine parted in 1973 and he drifted into semi-retirement before moving to Bexhill in East Sussex, where he died in 1988. Like Gardner, his legacy was his own tradition of ritual and belief within the Wicca movement - dubbed 'Alexandrian' in a play on his first name.
87 min., B&W, 1969.
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