William G.

Gray and the Sangreal:

The Bloody Magicians Modern Tradition

Justin C. Wisner
justin.c.wisner@gmail.com
History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents, One-Year Masters Thesis
First reader, Wouter J Hanegraaff
Second reader, Justin Sausman
Student No.: 10234365
13 July, 2012
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Table of Contents

Introduction........page 3

Weaving traditions together in esoteric networks...page 6

Building authoritative traditionspage 10

Gray as Mystery-Maker.page 13

Orienting Gray and his influences.....page 16

(A) Grays woven Western esoteric discoursepage 17

(B) Traditionalism and belonging by blood and soil....page 21

(C) Academic exposure.......page 29

(D) Psychologized mysteries for the modern malaisepage 33

Network connections built and lostpage 37

Maintained connections: sabbatic and Sangreal survivals...page 41

Conclusion..page 43

Appendicespage 46

Bibliographypage 49
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Introduction
In many ways William Gray was a paradoxical combination of qualities. This is
perhaps unsurprising when viewing him in the context of his prodigious but relatively
unsung career as a mid- to late-20th century Western esotericist and ritual magician. The
cosmos presented in his literature is at once very focused on tradition and folklore, and
very post-modern, incorporating academic discourses from biology, anthropology and
psychology. He was a devoted mystic attempting to revitalize what he saw as a forgotten
Western tradition, and he was a nasty, racist man with a regrettable tendency to fight with
everyone he knew. Unlike many notable and influential purveyors of the esoteric from
the 19th centurys occult revival, Grays life in the 20th century was one marked by its
astonishing, rustic ordinarinessa Cheltenham chiropodist with a firm handshake, and a
strong interest in the folklore of Britannia.1 Nevertheless, Grays influential style of
esotericism has been adopted and adapted by a small but devout cadre of pagans, ritual
magicians and occultists since he began publishing in the late 1960s.
William Gordon Gray was born March 25th, 1913 in Middlesex, and died in 1992
in Cheltenham, living through most of the momentous events, and meeting many of the
occult luminaries, of 20th century Britain.2 The span of his life covers the steady decline
of religiosity in Western Europe, and the triumphant march of scientific progress through
a quickly disenchanting West. Growing up after World War I in the cultural crisis of our
new killing capability through mechanized war making, and through his own military
service confronting the atrocities of modern war at the retreat of Dunkirk, Gray fostered a
mystical disposition alongside a rational, even technological orientation.3 His works
display disillusionment with modernity, an enchanted mystical cosmos, and yet a
rigorous rational pursuit of grasping and conveying complex altered states of
consciousness through an explication of ritual magic and mysticism that draws heavily
from psychological, anthropological and biological discourses. Gray viewed the pursuits
and accomplishments of science to be a direct outgrowth of the magical pursuits of the

1
A Richardson & M Claridge, The Old Sod: the Odd Life and inner work of William G. Gray, Skylight
Press, Cheltenham, 2011, p. 180.
2
Richardson & Claridge, pp. 11-13, 197-9.
3
Ibid., p. 88.
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past.4 Pointedly, he viewed culture and history as an evolutionary process, with all the
materialistic and genetic implications.5 Furthermore, Grays genetic dogma inevitably
supported his racial doctrines of exclusivity within his variation of traditionalism and
semi-fascistic beliefs so similar to the blood and soil concepts that gained favor among
the far right in the 20th century.6 However, Grays reactionary leanings do not cause him
to forsake attempting to reformulate the esoteric traditions of the West for the modern
world he engaged daily.
In a period of social flux and great changes to the Western way of life, Gray
aimed at adaptation for the future. Evolution, psychoanalysis and the atomic bomb were
changing the world, and Gray proposed to adapt what he perceived to be the true
Western tradition for the future, while trying to retain the most important components
from the past. Akin to Ren Guenon and Julius Evola, but with his characteristic twist of
embracing the modern, Grays disillusionment with the modernity he inhabited hardened
his resolve to explore so-called Inner Traditions in order to ensure their viability and
functionality for a better future, enriched with sacred meaning beyond the purely material
for the chosen members of the human race that belonged with the Western esoteric
tradition. More akin to Hitler than Gunon, Grays sacred culture is transmitted via
belonging with the blood, which meant the genes, and at times even focusing on
nationalistic belonging to a geopolitical identity.7
The following paper will address the question, How did Grays conception of the
Western esoteric tradition successfully build and maintain connections in the cultural
network of 20th century Western esotericism despite his unpopular racial doctrines? I
will attempt to cover as many of Grays published works as possible in making explicit
his Sangreal or Royal Blood tradition, which presents Grays racially divisive,
ahistoric version of the tradition of the ancients modernized and materialized for the

4
W Gray, Seasonal Occult Rituals, The Aquarian Press, London, June 1970, pp. 3-4.
5
W Gray, An Outlook on Our Inner Western Way, Samuel Weiser, New York, 1980, pp.9, 40-50; W Gray,
Western Inner Workings, Samuel Weiser, Inc., York Beach, 1983, pp. ix-xiv, 2; W Gray, The Sangreal
Sodality Series Vol. 2: The Sangreal Sacrament, Samuel Weiser, Inc, Yorke Beach, 1983, pp., ix-xiii.; W
Gray, Inner Traditions of Magic, The Aquarian Press, London, Nov 1970, pp. 40-1, 260-1.
6
Western Inner Workings, pp. 6-8, 114-5; Richardson & Claridge, pp. 184, 191; An Outlook on Our Inner
Western Way, pp. 66-75.
7
Western Inner Workings, pp. 7-9, 109-22; An Outlook on Our Inner Western Way, pp. xi-ii; Richardson &
Claridge, pp. 148-50.
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current cultural context. On the surface, facets of his belief system like his Sangreal
Sacrament seems a rather demure, universalized and sanitized version of the Western
Tradition, reduced to its essential bits and having whitewashed much of its explicitly
Christian elements, infusing the remainder of the mass ritual with an anglicized
kabbalistic symbolism and approach. Even cursory analysis of Grays works show that
his tradition as extant in his texts is far darker than it would seem at first glace: a tradition
bathed in blood and harboring deep-seated racially exclusive sentiments on valid
membership to Western esoteric culture. Furthermore I will show how Grays synthesis
of an ahistoric tradition of the ancients amounted to his attempt at creating a
comprehensive network of Western esoteric traditions that would ally and reinforce all
Western esoteric beliefs to combat the influx of Eastern ideologies, which he saw as the
front line of invasion for the coming conflict between the East and West.
In analyzing and situating Gray, I will predominantly draw upon the theories of
Bruno Latour, Wouter Hanegraaff, Eric Hobsbawm, and Terence Ranger to show Gray as
an important node in the cultural network of mid-20th century esotericism. Gray drew
together traditionalist and various esoteric and academic discourses into a comprehensive
invented modern tradition that aimed at universalizing and modernizing Western esoteric
ideologies to assure their viability for future generations of Westerners. Since Gray is a
little-known figure in 20th century esotericism outside very specific circles (namely
magical kabbalistic, sabbatic witchcraft and late 20th century Celtic pagan revivalist
networks), I will use Latours actor-network theory to model the ways in which Gray
attempted to connect his own tradition with the traditions of various other Western
esoteric discourses, and the ways in which he attempted to build a comprehensive
network of Western esoteric actors through personal relation.
With the theoretical framework of ANT in place, an investigation of how
traditions claimed authority in the past will show how Gray attempted to network himself
into the existing esoteric discourses, while modernizing their legitimation strategies to be
competitive in a 20th and 21st century cultural network. Subsequently, an analysis of the
history of inventing traditions will show how Gray participated in a historical stream of
invented Western traditions. From there, an explication of Grays created tradition and
its influences will show how Gray attempted to craft a unifying Western tradition in the
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hopes of maintaining what he saw as the true and valid tradition of the West that spoke to
the racial-evolutionary needs of Western individuals, to assure the continuance of what
Gray perceived to be the proper tradition of Western culture, the populace of which he
claimed to be a distinct species of people.8 Subsequently, I will make explicit the
individuals and shorter esoteric cultural networks connected to Gray and the concepts
stemming from his invented tradition to show through whom and by which modernizing
and legitimating strategies Grays ideologies remain connected in present Western
esoteric networks.

Weaving traditions together in esoteric networks

To properly situate Grays writings and influence within 20th century esotericism,
demarcations that typically separate one strand of esoteric doctrines from another, and
marginalize esotericism from mainstream religion, must be circumvented. Particularly
for esoteric ideologies, less well-known originators of esoteric materials can be better
understood not within a hierarchically modeled culture with dominant purveyors of
knowledge and distinct in-groups and out-groups, but rather as a collection of participants
in a common discourse that communicate with and mutually define each other. No idea
develops in a vacuum, and particularly where esoteric tradition or transmission thereof
is concerned, an understanding of how authors, concepts, practitioners and detractors are
connected beyond explicit doctrinal sympathies provides a fresh avenue for critical
inspection. To this end, I adapted Egil Asprems method as outlined in his A Nice
Arrangement of Heterodoxies: William McDougall and the professionalization of
psychical research, utilizing Bruno Latours actor-network theory alongside David Hess
concept of two-way boundary-work.9
Originally an analytical framework coming from Science and Technology
Studies, and here taken up to elucidate heavily othered cultural contexts, the concept of
the cultural actor-network drastically alters the typical methods of inquiry into religious

8
Western Inner Workings, p. xiv.
9
E Asprem, A Nice Arrangement of Heterodoxies: William McDougall and the professionalization of
psychical research, Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, vol. 46, no. 2, January, 2010, pp.
125-7; B Latour, On Actor-Network Theory: a few clarifications, Soziale Welt, vol. 47, no. 4, 1996,, pp.
369-81; D Hess, Science and the New Age: the Paranormal, Its Defenders and Debunkers, and American
Culture, Madison: the University of Wisconsin Press, 1993, pp. 145-56.
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culture. Actor-network theory (or ANT) is a non-anthropocentric theory for analyzing

activities that draws together seemingly disparate phenomena to view them in a
contiguous web as phenomena networked together by actors. In Latours definition,
actors do not have to be human but must be granted as the source of an action.10 In
brief, rather than assessing phenomena on a hierarchical level, necessarily buying into the
ontology and politics of the phenomena inspected, and similarly refusing to succumb to
complete relativism, we would be better served intellectually by conceiving of currents in
culture as networks of connections that are not limited to purely human sources of action.
This expands the view of actors in society to potentially include literally anything, so
long as that thing acts to connect nodes in a network.11
As Latour outlines, this method works to subvert the typical topographical
modeling of society by reorienting concepts utilized in a hierarchical structure for use in
networks that by default have no a priori order relation; no top or bottom, no hard line
for demarcating local nodes based on scale or power. It attempts to do away with
geographical limitations, since networks are based on connection not proximity. Latour
uses the metaphors of a cable line, gas line and phone line which may all be in the ground
next to each other and never touch, or alternately how he could be a meter away from
another man in a telephone booth but more closely connected to his mother on the other
end of the telephone line than he is to the man just beside him.12 Additionally, a network
is simply comprised of well-connected or poorly-connected nodes, which frequently
connect with each other to strengthen otherwise weak bonds. Various connections are
woven together, supporting each other and multiplying relative contacts that would
otherwise fall short.13 In this, no network is bigger or smaller, but longer or
shorter.14 Latour says,
A surface has an inside and an outside separated by a boundary. A network is all
boundary without inside and outside. The only question one may ask is whether or not a
connection is established between two elements. The surface in between networks is

10
Latour, p. 373.
11
Ibid., pp. 369-73.
12
Ibid., p. 371.
13
Ibid., p. 370.
14
Ibid., p. 371.
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either connected but then the network is expanding or non-existent.15

This very functionally driven theorization works to our benefit because, as Latour points
out, the ways in which stronger connections reinforce weaker ones is a valuable
component for understanding the intricate interplay of forces otherwise ignored
academically in culture.
At first glance, this method of inspection can seem decidedly ahistorical, and less
pertinent outside the field of Science and Technology Studies. In his lecture Knowledge
in Transit, James Secord voices his qualms that ANT is too ahistorical even for history
of science, and that Latours call to ascribe agency to non-human actors is itself so
anachronistic it violates deeply held convictions and common methods of inquiry in its
own field of application (for instance requiring a utilization of some of the most recent
scientific findings and applying them to the events of the past, as with Latours treatment
of Louis Pasteur).16 Secord also claims that certain aspects of actor-network theory may
be more applicable for spatially related nodes that focus around a single center, as with
Pasteur and the farmers he worked with while developing his theories, than for
elucidating connections between competing nodes in a common network (like Pasteur
and the farmers with whom he worked).17 This critique is less pertinent here, as Gray was
working as the actor in the network attempting to braid together less well-connected
nodes in the esoteric discourse, and he worked predominantly in Britain with a few
pointed exceptions. Regardless, he seems to have worked exclusively with English
speakers, so the network is at least linguistically closed.
Secord claims Latours redrafting of the theoretical backdrop of historical analysis
is profoundly radical, but also incredibly useful in the way that it makes the basic data
points of process, reception and audience more flexible while emphasizing complexity,
interrelation, translation and boundary crossing.18 Latours reappraisal of how to
examine knowledge affords a vast frontier of investigation in stressing scientific
knowledge as a practice, particularly where imperial, post-colonial and industrial
capitalist politics are concerned.19 This provides a fantastic crossover point for the study

15
Ibid., p. 372.
16
J Secord, Knowledge in Transit, Isis, vol. 95, no. 4, Dec. 2004, p. 664.
17
Ibid., pp. 664-5.
18
Ibid., pp. 664-5.
19
Ibid., pp. 665, 669.
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of modern and post-modern esotericism (and religion) in recognizing the creation of

knowledge within any cultural context as a practice, that is, something done and
produced by actors specifically in relation to each other and the milieu of their networks.
In a cultural context where the scientific paradigm is dominant (as with the 20th
and 21st centuries), all social and cultural networks inevitably are connected to scientific
culture and its pursuits. All disciplines are in one way or another beholden to science as
the ultimate legitimating factor. A good example from within the academy would be how
investigations into the constituent components and products of society posit themselves
as social sciences. For modern esotericism, we could look to Crowley, who
emblazoned The Method of Science, the Aim of Religion, on the frontispiece of The
Equinox (which he subtitled The Review of Scientific Illuminism).20 Alternately, the
plethora of New Age appropriations of quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity to
explain otherwise religious phenomena would demonstrate such culturally driven desires
to claim the legitimacy of science.21
As an occult writer and practitioner in the 20th century, Gray continually attempts
to legitimate his enchanted esoteric ideologies through the academic discourses of
biology, psychology, sociology, and anthropology, and to this end seeks the material
vector of esoteric thought and culture in blood, genes and cultural identity. It was, in
fact, not the biological or racial doctrines which allowed for lasting connections in the
network of esotericism, but Grays uniquely woven tapestry of anthropology,
psychology, esoteric discourses and traditionalism which produced the strongest
connections to nodes in the esoteric cultural actor network. As a well-connected man in
20th century British esoteric circlesand a participant in 20th century culture so deeply
influenced by the means, goals and cultural products of scienceGray demonstrates the
overarching flexibility of ANTs applications for the academy more generally, in that so
long as scientific ideologies and doctrines are networked to (either through discourse or
method, in agreement or opposition), the social sciences can pull a vast amount of
pertinent analytical data from Latours (admittedly less historical) theory.

20
An online version of the first volume with the frontispiece image is available from the Ordo Templi
Orientis at < http://www.the-equinox.org/vol1/index.html>.
21
W Hanegraaff, New age religion and secularization, Numen, vol. 47, no. 3, 2000, p. 304.
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In sum, ANT provides us with a more useful view of Gray in light of his
idiosyncratic discourse and personally crafted esoteric order, as his ideology borrows
freely from available disciplines within the Anglo-Saxon world and does not abide by
classic in-group/out-group distinctions between academic and esoteric disciplines.
Through the lens of ANT the interdisciplinary selection of ideological components in
Grays system becomes easier to understand in the context of the invented authoritative
traditions of the past. Before examining Grays ideology, the historical trends of claimed
authority and invented tradition in Western esotericism will be further investigated.

Building authoritative traditions

Gray focuses explicitly on tradition throughout his works. In large part, his
Sangreal Sacrament is an attempt to universalize and modernize various Western esoteric
discourses into a single updated Mystery. His evolutionary view of history and placing
of authoritative traditions in not just the past but also the present shows his desire to adapt
Western traditions to the modern context, despite his large qualms with the modern
world. To show how his legitimating strategy was successful enough to overcome the
repugnance of the structural, racial component of his tradition, it is first necessary to
understand how authority has been claimed by traditions in the past, and how the authors
of those traditions attempted to garner legitimacy in their own times. Thereafter, I will
show how Gray modernized and legitimated his unique mix of esoteric discourses,
traditionalism and academic sourcestrumping the impediments of his racialist
ideologiesto produce lasting connections in the cultural network of esotericism while
participated in a tradition of making traditions in the West.
In his Esotericism and the Academy, Wouter Hanegraaff outlines three models of
history used by religious and esoteric insiders to legitimate their ideologies, and Gray
utilizes all three in positing his version of the Western tradition as the ultimately
authoritative version.22 Below we will disentangle these three legitimating models of
history to the extent necessary to show how Gray implemented them in support of his
own tradition. Abstruse, diverse and imprecise use of prisca theologia (ancient

22
W Hanegraaff, Esotericism and the Academy, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2012, pp. 153-
256.
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theology) and philosophia perennis (perennial philosophy) has plagued wisdom

discourses since their inception. Moreover, in combination with rare and essential
references by a few authors in the Renaissancenoteworthy watershed individuals being
Marsilio Ficino for prisca theologia and Agostino Steuco for philosophia perenniswe
end up with a few very different models of history becoming conflated with one
another.23
Extracting quotes from Charles Schmitt, Hanegraaff outlines the differences
between prisca theologia, philosophia perennis, and the underrepresented third option
which Hanegraaff terms pia philosophia. Hanegraaff states that prisca theologia as a
historical framework placed authoritative wisdom in the distant past, framing history as a
degenerative process.24 In the early Renaissance newly available translations of texts
from the past could be seen as an appeal to original wisdom of the ancients that
superceded the authority of a corrupt and indulgent Church in the then present day.25
Philosophia perennis, on the other hand, attempted to preserve a continuity of the
transmission of wisdom from ancient sources through the revelation of Christ and onward
to Renaissance authors like Agostino Steuco through Christendom. Philosophia perennis
claims that authoritative wisdom is also ancient, perhaps pre-historical, but stresses that it
is universal or eternal, and that it has existed in all ages in various forms.26 This idea can
be seen in the writings of St. Augustine,27 and in the Renaissance it was implemented
rhetorically to marginalize the importance of newly available sources. For the
Renaissance, philosophia perennis operated in a conservatory function attempting to
protect the Christian status quo.

23
Esotericism and the pp. 7-12.
24
Ibid., pp. 7-9.
25
Esotericism and the Academy, p. 8.
26
Ibid., p. 9.
27
As Hanegraaff points out, Augustine makes a very clear statement in line with perennial philosophy in
his Retractiones I, xii, 3 (clarifying De Vera Religione, x, 19), in which Augustine states: Further, I said
this: "This is the Christian religion in our time; the safest and surest salvation is to know and follow it"; this
was said in accordance with the name, not in accordance with the truth of which this is the name. For the
truth itself, which is now named the Christian religion, existed and was not missing among the ancients
from the beginning of the human race, until Christ came "in the flesh" from whom the true religion, which
already existed, began to be called Christian.... I said: "This is the Christian religion in our time," not
because it did not exist in former times, but because it got this name in later times (translation by Eller,
The Retractiones of Saint Augustine, p. 176). The perennialist ideas are plain as day, as are their
conservative aims of maintaining a Christian status quo.
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The last model is pia philosophia, which Hanegraaff claims carried little weight
in the Renaissance context beyond a historical opinion. The view of history most similar
to Grays, pia philosophia is something of an evolutionary view of history, proposing a
progressive edification of mankind in anticipation of the final revelation.28 This last
view of history, as far as political implications are concerned, was more of an intellectual
curiosa, however this is also the view that is perhaps closest to the modern conception of
history, since it structures history around the concept of progress rather than
degeneration.
As Hanegraaff points out, this convoluted bundling of exclusively structured
macrohistories served the purposes of the defenders of ancient wisdom narratives, since
as insiders they could lay claim to divergent, unquestionable sources of authority: at first,
superior ancient wisdom through prisca theologia in a degenerative framing of history,
and then superior eternal wisdom through claiming the universality of all absolute
wisdom via philosophia perennis.29 As an apologetic weapon, this ambivalence allowed
for deft switching between strategic appeals to authority to evade the condemnation of
detractors and censors.
Gray attempts to modernize the Western esoteric traditions of the Medieval and
Renaissance periods so they may be viable in the modern day, and to this end Gray uses
the classical mixture of strategic claims to authority through all three above models of
history. In this way, Grays framing of tradition is very similar to that of Giovanni Pico
della Mirandola, who inaugurated Christian Kabbalah on the prisca theologia basis, but
with philosophia perennis authorities.30
Grays utilization of a progressive or evolutionary framing of history was
grounded in his own ancient authority of the Sacred Kings (similar to prisca
theologia)31 while stressing that genuine Western traditions existed in all times (like
philosophia perrenis) and had to be amenable to the cultural and intellectual context of
the periods they developed in.32 With modernitys emphasis on progress, Gray frames

28
Ibid., pp. 9-11.
29
Ibid., p. 11.
30
Ibid., pp. 54-6; see Grays Qabalistic Concepts and The Ladder of Light, which explicate the kabbalistic
system at the core of Grays Sangreal tradition.
31
An Outlook on Our Inner Western Way, pp. 16-20.
32
Ibid.,, pp. 123-39.
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history (and esoteric practice) as an evolutionary process, like the progressive edification
of mankind seen in pia philosophia.33 Thus, next I shall unpick how Gray crafted his own
version of legitimate authorities in the past as a part of his created tradition, and how he
utilized modern biological and psychological discourses to legitimate his invented
tradition.

Gray as Mystery-Maker
It seemed, much like Pico and other Renaissance esotericists, Gray had participated
in the Western tradition of making a new, ahistoric, original tradition that attempts to
lay claim to an ancient authority.34 Gray as a kabbalist and Mystery Maker seemed of
new importance in this light, so this section will investigate the intricacies of crafting
tradition. In their introduction to The Invention of Tradition, Eric Hobsbawm and
Terence Ranger make themselves very clear. A traditions ability to adapt is the deciding
factor in the traditions survival under changing social pressures.
Inventing traditionsis essentially a process of formalization and ritualization, characterized
by reference to the past, if only by imposing repetition. The actual process of creating such
ritual and symbolic complexes has not been adequately studied by historians.It is
presumably most clearly exemplified where a tradition is deliberately invented and
constructed by a single initiator.[W]e should expect [the invention of tradition] to occur
more frequently when a rapid transformation of society weakens or destroys the social
patterns for which old traditions had been designed, producing new ones to which they
were not applicable, or when such old traditions and their institutional promulgators no
longer prove sufficiently adaptable and flexible, or are otherwise eliminated.Such changes
have been particularly significant in the last 200 years.35
They continue, arguing that this implies both modernization and 19th century liberalism
got it wrong. We should expect to see the formalization of new traditions in the face of
sweeping social change. They continue,
More interestingly, from our point of view, is the use of ancient materials to construct
invented traditions of a novel type for quite novel purposes. A large store of such materials is

33
Ibid., pp. 9, 41-75, 111-22.
34
Gray makes clear all of his methods for making a ritualized tradition in Magical Ritual Methods,
specifically the chapters Making a Mystery, Speaking with Symbols, Constructing the Cosmos, and
Conditioning Consciousness. Pp. 18-131.
35
E Hobsbawm, Introduction: inventing traditions, The Invention of Tradition, eds. E Hobsbawm &
Terence Ranger, The Press Syndicat of the Univeristy of Cambridge, Cambridge, 2000, pp. 4-5.
 Wisner 14

accumulated in the past of any society, and an elaborate language of symbolic practice and
communication is always available. Some new traditions can readily be grafted onto old
ones, sometimes they can be devised by borrowing from the well-supplied warehouses of
official ritual, symbolism and moral exhortationreligion and princely pomp, folklore and
freemasonry.36
And here we have exactly Gray. Gray as Mystery Maker has crafted a modern tradition
that attempts to reify an identity that is at once decidedly claiming an esoteric tradition
projected into the past that is entirely Western, and which is also at times nationalistically
British.37 He was setting out a new tradition claiming ancient roots in the Sacred Kings,
plainly cobbling together kabbalah, Catholicism, pagan myths and Rosicrucianism, taking
rituals, symbols and morality from each to craft precisely a tradition of religion and
princely pomp, folklore and freemasonry.
Furthermore, Gray makes an explicit claim to a lineage of wisdom in his
Qabalistic Concepts. He says,
Earlier man worked instinctively mainly on an action-reaction basis. As we evolved,
rationality slowly but steadily replaced sheer impulsiveness as a control factor of our
behavior. Humans were becoming calculating creatures. Causes were being consciously
linked with effects. Schools of though and systems of philosophy were springing up wherever
intelligent humans were willing to devote time and energy to such purposes. As we might
expect, a number of these concentrated in Greece, which has been called the cradle of
Western civilization. True, the Greeks had drawn their traditions from Chaldea, Egypt,
India, and other ancient sources, but they were men of new minds, capable of putting old
concepts through a mental melting pot to generate fresh nuggets of golden thought. Perhaps
some very dormant genes were waking up in those days.38
Here, in an attempt to clarify and rationalize the necessarily Judeo-Christian Kabbalah,
Gray is constructing a tradition of wisdom that continues into his present mystical study.
Grays tradition of wisdom is decidedly modernized, utilizing current academic
discourses in taking a genetic bent on the provenance of wisdom, and a psychological
portrayal of the development of history that, when taken in sum, sounds very similar to
the pia philosophia intellectual curiosa of the Renaissance in its evolutionary framework.

36
Ibid, p. 6.
37
W Gray Working with Inner Light, eds. Jo Clark and Alan Richardson, Skylight Press, Cheltenham,
2011, pp. 59-63; See the pamphlet The British Mysteries, in Richardson & Claridge, pp. 148-150.
38
W G Gray, Qabalistic Concepts, Living the Tree, WeiserBooks, Boston, 1997, pp. 66-7.
 Wisner 15

And perhaps in this context, Grays racialist ideology and spiritual blood links
becomes more plain, though no less questionable. Jacobus Swart recounted, later in life
Gray claimed a mutual respect for a South African medicine man named Credo Mutwa,
who was himself a practitioner of a tradition and an author. Swart quotes Gray as saying
Credo Mutwa is trying to do for his people exactly what we [Gray and Swart] are trying
to do for ours, and that is to preserve and propagate their own Inner Tradition and as
such, we would show respect for his Tradition rather than try to invade or negate it,
and that we expect him to do the same for ours.39 The attempt to don a pluralistic
respect for different cultural traditions is here quite explicit, though the implication is still
that African traditions are only for Africans, just as Western Traditions are only for
Westerns. If Grays evolutionary approach to spiritual traditions is applied, the end result
would be that Western and African traditions are evolving toward different ends. When
taken in light of Grays belief in a coming conflict between the West and the East, his
attempts at relativism seem half-hearted at best.
Hobsbawm strikes on the idea of the adaptation of tradition, which parallels
Hanegraaffs theory that asserts magics ability to adapt and change, developing features
such as the separate-but-connected planes40 and the heavy influence psychology has on
20th century occultism.41 We can see a strong Jungian influence on Grays personal
interpretation of the Western tradition, and a strong inclination toward psychological
terminology such as individuation.42 In considering tradition as something adaptable,
and considering Grays adaptations of his own apparent influences, it seems that Gray also
participated in the esoteric lineage of utilizing academic authoritativeness in a
mechanistic or materialistic cultural context to lay claim to authoritative knowledge
which would provide it a competitive edge (like magia naturalis and occult science). By
utilizing academic discourses on identity and the mind, Gray is modernizing Western

39
Richardson & Claridge, 191.
40
W J Hanegraaff, How magic survived the disenchantment of the world, Religion, 33:4, 2003 pp. 369-
71.
41
Ibid, pp. 366-7.
42
Western Inner Workings, pp. 63-76, 98.
 Wisner 16

esoteric discourses under a contemporary legitimation strategy, attempting to make his

version of the Western tradition more competitive in modern esoteric networks.43
Thus we can begin to see how Grays invented tradition was successful despite
his racial doctrines. Through utilizing all three macrohistorical narratives of legitimation
Gray produced a solid authoritative point in the past via Sacred Kingship, projected into
the future with an evolutionary bent of historical developments and magical practices,
and assured a valid continuance of tradition into the present by emphasizing the perennial
qualities of traditional wisdom. On the other hand, the most robust connections produced
by Grays conception of the Western tradition were due in large part to his braiding
together of diverse discourses from the academy and esoteric disciplines to garner
institutional legitimacy from the academy to support the comparably weaker connections
in esotericism.
With this understanding of the invention of tradition, the historical means of
legitimating said traditions, and the structure of a network-modeled esoteric culture, an
excavation of Grays influences and the legacy of his writings will demonstrate how he
attempted to make his own Mystery with the explicit intent of unifying all Western
esoteric discourses for the coming insurgence of Eastern forces in the cultural conflict he
believed inevitable. Thus, the next section will examine the esoteric influences apparent
in the discourse of Grays tradition to lead us into an explication of his reliance upon
traditionalism, and the culturally exclusive doctrines inherent in his Royal or Holy
Blood.

Orienting Gray and his influences

Grays cosmos is a patchwork of various influences, and in attempting to position
his works within 20th century esotericism, I will highlight both the major esoteric currents
concealed within his ahistoric formulation of the Western Tradition, and the apparent
social scientific theories he appropriated to legitimate it. As is so often the case with
authors of occult literature, Gray is bad at making his sources apparent, but through
biographical information and textual analysis we can make a short list. Though obviously

43
Qabalistic Concepts, p. 37; W G Gray, The Ladder of Lights, Samuel Weiser, Inc., York Beach, 1981, p.
104.
 Wisner 17

rooted in Judeo-Christian myths and rituals, several substantial undercurrents are tucked
just beneath the symbolic surface, such as Rosicrucianism,44 Theosophic and Golden
Dawn style occultism,45 traditionalism with a clear linkage to Ren Guenon,46 pagan
myths,47 and 20th century pagan revivalist practices.48 Discursively, Gray structures
significant components of the theory behind his magical system in the language of mid-
20th century academic studies of religion and psychology, thereby tapping institutional
cultural structures of legitimation. For instance, he frames his tradition in the
anthropological structure of an ethos, and explicitly as a process of individuation that
utilizes the unconscious mind.49 In a comprehensive overview of Grays tradition we
shall inspect (A) the esoteric elements of Grays discourse through personal influences
from Grays life before he began publishing, followed by his use of kabbalah,
Rosicrucian and Grail myths within his published system. In the subsequent three
sections are elucidations of Grays use of (B) traditionalism with relation to his racial
doctrines so similar to blood and soil, (C) anthropological and comparative religious
academic sources and (D) psychological theories in making esoteric traditions congruous
with the complexities of modern life.

(A) Grays woven Western esoteric discourse

To start extracting the esoteric discourses networked together in Grays tradition,
we need only look to his mass ritual, the Sangreal Sacrament. The performance of the
Sangreal mass first requires the prolonged, ritualized imaginative construction of a
mental or internal Grail Castle to house a Grail Temple, within which the actual
Sacrament can take place on a mental or imaginative level simultaneously with the
physical performance of the rituals. The Castle is built on an island, which itself is
shaped and divided like the Cosmic Cross50 by either a spring-fed river, or the walls of

44
Western Inner Workings, pp. 49-62; Sangreal Sacrament, pp. 24, 47-51.
45
See Qabalistic Concepts and Magical Ritual Methods.
46
An Outlook on Our Inner Western Way, pp.19, 51, 55-9, 129.
47
Ibid., p. 18.
48
Western Inner Workings, pp. 139-56.
49
An Outlook on Our Inner Western Way, 6-7, 43, 53, 63, 80, 90, 99, 111, 125; Working with Inner Light,
p. 13; Inner Traditions of Magic, p. 234, 252; Magical Ritual Methods, pp. 97, 171, 271, 300.
50
A circle that has been divided into four sections by a cross with arms of equal length. For a picture,
consult Sangreal Sacrament. P 31.
 Wisner 18

the Castle on the interior, and the ocean around the perimeter. The Castle itself is styled
around the Tree of Life, with various rooms accessible from a central lift representing the
various spheres of the Tree.51 The Grail Castle and its attendant progress toward
accessing the Grail Temple and performing the Sangreal Sacrament are explicitly
compared to Christian Rosenkreuzs Tomb from Rosicrucianism, while the Grail
Mystery is related to indigenous British Arthurian Legends and Grays ahistorical
Sacred King Old Faith.52 Here in this one symbols of the Grail Castle, we can see Gray
aligning pagan myths, kabbalistic symbols, and Rosicrucian narratives in a constructed
ahistoric modern tradition.53
Gray worked on the Sacrament ritual for several years before producing a version
in print.54 The roots of his system are obviously varied, but a few salient personal
influences rise immediately to the top. First and foremost is the undeniable influence of
Emile Napoleon Hausenstein (or ENH), who Gray met through a letter he wrote to the
periodical Occult Review concerning an article they published on Rosicrucianism with
which he disagreed. ENH was a well-versed esotericist, a member of the Ancient
Mystical Order of the Rosae Crucis (AMORC), and a one-time Martinist who knew
Gerard Encausse (better known under the pseudonym Papus).55 ENH would be one of
the most important influences on Gray in his early life. For instance, ENH suggested
that the young Gray join the military, which resulted in Gray leaving England for Egypt.
There he met another individual whose influence is apparent in the Grail Castle image of
the Sangreal Sacrament: the enigmatic Russian woman S or perhaps Sarah. S was a
member of an unnamed esoteric organization, and offered him both apprenticeship and
eventual initiation into her order. Whether he took these or not is unclear, but what is
clear is that over the five years he was stationed in Egypt, Gray began to formalize his

51
Sangreal Sacrament, pp. 29-36.
52
Sangreal Sacrament, p. 19; p. 47; pp. 54-6.
53
W Gray, Magical Ritual Methods, Samuel Weiser, Inc., York Beach, 1984. Gray made his methods for
creating a tradition completely explicit in Magical Ritual Methods, and the chapters Making a Magical
Mystery and Constructing the Cosmos are of particular interest here.
54
Gray first published the ritual as The Rite of Light in 1976, however elements of the ritual are apparent in
his magical diaries dating back to 1966. See Working with Inner Light, pp. 29-35, 109-18, 153, 169-70.
55
Richardon & Claridge, pp. 51-59.
 Wisner 19

concept of the genuine Western esoteric tradition around the Grail myth, an early
influence that shines through vibrantly in all Grays writings.56
Though Gray rather proudly never joined the AMORC to which ENH belonged,
the influence of Rosicrucianism is seminal, as the direct references to the tomb of
Christian Rosenkreuz and the prevalence of the Grail would attest. Attire and temple
setting for the ritual show explicitly Masonic influences, from the appearance of the ring,
girdle, and apron to the two pillars, alter and book with attendant lights, and areas
designated for both seating and celebrating.57 In fact, we can see explicitly Martinist
lineage apparent in the description for the portion of the ritual called Calling in the
Circle. The ritual is based off the Gnostic Hymn of Jesus, and is comprised of 32 calls
and responses that correlate to spheres and paths on the tree of life.58 Gray says,
Jesushad made it clear that where there were two or threegathered together in his
Name, his spirit would concentrate in the center of them. Such early gatherings of the few
faithful were often held in circular form for this very reason.Later the appearance of
the Grail was presumed to come among its Knights in the middle of their Round Table,
a sophisticated development of the old Stone Circles. Later still, the Templars
constructed their circular churches, and the Grail image was replaced by a red Rose,
emblematic of the Rose-Cross movement which assumed responsibility for the
continuing of the Mystery Tradition in Western Europe under more modernized forms of
thinking and advanced means of approach.59
For Gray, this singularly legitimate Western Tradition rising from the Rosicrucian
context was deeply anchored in kabbalistic symbols and allusions. For instance, a major
recurrent prayer said at crucial moments of opening or closing in the ritual is a symbolic
representation of major points on the Tree of Life.60
Furthermore, Grays kabbalah is decidedly Christian, as in the above-mentioned
prayer that is accompanied by the ritual act of tracing the sign of the cross over the body.
The Sangreal Sacrament is designed to structurally mirror the Catholic mass ritual, while

56
Ibid, pp. 60-73.
57
For pictures of attire and temple, see Appendices C and D; also Sangreal Sacrament, p. 58 for the layout
of the entire temple.
58
M Introvigne, Martinism: Second Period, Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, ed. W
Hanegraaff, Brill, Leiden, 2006, pp. 780-3; G Mead, The Hymn of Jesus, Echoes from the Gnosis, The
Theosophical Publishing Company, London and Barnes, 1907; Sangreal Sacrament, p. 74.
59
Sangreal Sacrament, p. 70.
60
In the name of the Wisdom, and of the Love, and of the Justice, and of the Mercy, or the One Eternal
Spirit. Sangreal Sodality, pp. 59-60, 62, 90, 92-4, 97, 101, 107, 120-1, 133.
 Wisner 20

symbolically utilizing the cosmological schema of kabbalah. The end result, in blending
Rosicrucianism with kabbalah (and the Christian with the pagan elements), is a
modernized Christian kabbalah that uses English letters and Masonically-styled ritual to
attempt union with supreme divinity through the holy blood. This ecstatic union,
Grays Perfect Peace Profound, is both the ultimate goal of magic and the hierarchically
ultimate reality. In pursuit of this Perfect Peace, the magician takes on the symbolic
cloak of the sacrificial king, seeking a death of the dross persona to be born again to
life in the exalted state of true Selfhood as aligned with the divine will.61
This experience of a transmutative rebirth became an explicit ideological feature in
his published works through the Sacred King or Priest-King, the willing sacrifice who is
the personal and transcendent identity of the Royal or Holy Blood. For Gray, the
Sacred King (as representing the Sangreal group-soul or being)62 is the distant authority
projected upon the past that becomes the lynchpin of his invented tradition and its
alternate view of history. In Grays Sacrament the celebrants identify themselves with the
Priest-King, the living stand-in for the slain mythic Sacred King, and sacrifice their
independent lives to the overarching will of an idealized Eternal Living Entity that is
the progenitor and Owner of all life. In a communion-like ritual, the celebrants bless,
offer and consume bread and wine to symbolize their own flesh and blood as well as that
of the Sacred Kings. Their shared communion symbolizes a spiritual kinship that
transcends the limitations of death, and simultaneously affirms a connection of ancestry
between each individual and all the Sacred Kings of the past; the symbolic
representation of the aspirants ego joined with all egos sacrificed in the past in pursuit of
this penultimate state of perfected being, mythologized as physical and symbolic willing
sacrifices to the Eternal Spirit of Life.63
Gray summarized self-sacrifice succinctly in Inner Traditions of Magic, saying
Self sacrifice means just what it saysto offer the Self without reservation to the
True Will of the Entity behind each individual which is their own Divine Spark or

61
See The Sangreal Catechism, W Gray, Sangreal Sodality Series Volume 4, Sangreal Ceremonies and
Rituals, Samuel Weiser, Inc., York Beach, 1986, pp. 22-38.
62
Sangreal Sacrament, p. xi- xii.
63
The Sangreal Sacrament, pp. 99-112, pp. 126-31.
 Wisner 21

Immortal Identity.Humanity offering itself to Divinity on the alter of its activities.64

In fact, in The Sangreal Sacrament, Gray states quite plainly that Celebrants and
Companions alike are offering themselves as Hosts to the Presence which they pray will
indeed enter them and live.65 The idea that one should subjugate ones typical, day-to-
day identity to a supernal identity is found in many sources, and Grays version,
emphasizing the sacrifice of the daily consciousness to the higher mind, is quintessential
of his invented tradition.
As an actor in the cultural network of Western esotericism, we can see that Gray
has attempted to braid together various mainstream and esoteric currents to attempt to
reinforce the weaker connections in the esoteric network. Relying of Christianity and
kabbalah as foundational components, he weaves Rosicrucian and Grail myths together
with the Sacred King image to produce a universalized esoteric tradition. He personally
associated himself with Rosicrucians and Martinists, as well as invoking the mythically
inflated locale of Egypt, to attempt to harness legitimacy from presumed authentic
esoteric discourses through an associate of Papus and the shadowy, secretive figure of
S, participating in a clandestine esoteric organization in the mythic home of Hermetic
philosophy, Egypt. However, Grays tradition also shows the distinctive influence of the
writings of one of the 20th centurys most influential traditionalists, Ren Gunon, and
thus the next section will address how Gray wove traditionalism into his invented
tradition, seemingly in an attempt to bolster the racial ideologies at the core of his
Mystery.

(B) Traditionalism and belonging by blood and soil

In the emphasis on Immortal Identity and divine kingship within the context of
traditions in the West, Gray seems structurally indebted to the writings of Ren Guenon.
Through poignant discursive connections to specific works of Gunons, Gray connected
his tradition with the Traditionalist school, emphasizing the importance of Western
traditions for Western individuals, and apparently attempting to lend a modicum of
legitimacy to his racial doctrines. Though there are distinctive similarities to be seen

64
Inner Traditions of Magic, p. 279.
65
The Sangreal Sacrament, p.. 102
 Wisner 22

with Julius Evolas works through the spiritually oriented conception of racial doctrines,
Evolas works were not widely circulated until the end of the 20th century outside of the
Italian language and it is thus unlikely that Gray was overly familiar with him.66
However, the resemblance between the works of the two men is marked. Grays specific
variant of traditionalism is unique when considered beside the writings of either Evola or
Guenon. Like both Gunon and Evola, Gray has serious doubts about the modern
world.67 Like Guenon (and unlike Evola) Gray recognizes some glimmer of authentic
Western tradition in Christianity, while like Evola (and unlike Guenon) Gray more
heavily relies upon and utilizes Western cultural facets like European paganism.68
In Western Inner Workings, Gray provides short explications of what he
determines to be major pertinent themes and discourses in the Western esoteric tradition.
In these chapters he covers sacred kingship, the Grail mythos, the Abramelin workings,
paganism of the sabbatic witchcraft sort, and in chapter eight what he called The
Mysteries of Melchizadek [sic].69 In this chapter Gray offers a description of a mystery
system that he claims is at the root of Freemasonry, wherein Melchizedek is identified as
the King of Righteousness or Ruler of Peace, who is held up as the exemplar to which
all aspirants strive, and a process of self-perfection follows which Gray claims is in
actuality the same ritual process as the Abramelin ritual dressed in new symbolic
clothing.70
The explicit link to Gunon comes on the first page of the chapter, wherein Gray
gives an etymological analysis of the name Melchizadek. Gray not only gives the root
for the name Melchizedek as Melki-Tsaddiq in a very similar form to that given by
Gunon in his The Lord of the World, but he also gives Melchizedek the title of Priest-
King, and similarly sites passages from Psalm 110 and Genesis 14 to support his claim.71
A few pages later he directly invokes the title King of the Universe, showing distinct

66
J Evola, Revolt Against the Modern World, Inner Traditions International, Rochester, 1995, pp. ix-x.
67
W Quinn, Gunon, Ren, The Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, ed. W J Hanegraaff,
Brill, Leiden, 2006, pp. 443-4; H T Hakl, Evola, Giulio Cesare (Julius or Jules) The Dictionary of Gnosis
and Western Esotericism, ed. W J Hanegraaff, Brill, Leiden, 2006, p. 346; An Outlook on Our Inner
Western Way, pp. 123-56.
68
Quinn, p. 442; Hakl, p. 345; Western Inner Workings, p. 109-56.
69
Western Inner Workings, pp. 109-22.
70
Ibid., pp. 111, 117.
71
Ibid., pp. 109-10; R Gunon, The Lord of the World, Sophia Perrenis, Hillsdale, 2004, pp. 31-2.
 Wisner 23

similarities to the title of Gunons book Le Roi du Monde (The Lord [or King] of the
World).72 These elements seems to be taken at least in piecemeal fashion from Gunons
book, where in chapter six Gunon analyses the Melchizedek figure and related myths
against the traditions of the East.73 Not only this, but in the same work Gunon covers
the Grail mythos, magical locations on the earth and sacred stones, three concepts also
held very highly by Gray.74 What is more, in his Sangreal Sacrament Gray calls his
Sodality the Order of Melchizadek in both the Anointing and Arousal sections of the
mass ceremony.75 Though this could similarly show the influence of Freemasonic orders
on Grays tradition, other works of Guenons seems to appear at least with a strong
conceptual affinity in Grays works.
For instance, Gray gives explications of the symbolism of the cross circumscribed
within a circle in almost every one of his books. It appears in his 1965 magical diary,
Western Inner Workings, Concepts of Qabalah, Magical Ritual Methods, and many
others.76 The Cosmic Cross, as Gray calls it, is one of the central symbols of his
magical system, being the basis for his seasonal rituals as well as the underlying structure
of his symbol for the Sangreal Sodality.77 In a surprising happenstance, Gunon
discusses the cross surrounded by a circle in connection with the swastika symbol in both
The King of the World and Symbolism of the Cross.78 In Symbolism of the Cross, Gunon
even says, If [the swastika] is compared with the figure of the cross inscribed in the
circumference of a circle, it will be seen that these are really equivalent symbols in
certain respects.79 Gunons analysis of the cross as being a symbol for the realization
of humanitys potential as well as the construction of the cosmos falls very much in line

72
Western Inner Workings, p. 114.
73
The Lord of the World, pp. 33-41.
74
Gunon, pp. 27-32, 54-61; W Gray, The Rollright Ritual, Helios Book Services (Publications), Ltd.,
Cheltenham, 1975.
75
The Sangreal Sacrament, pp. 61, 115.
76
Working with Inner Light, pp. 133-7, 160-5; Concepts of Qabalah, pp. 22-5; Magical Ritual Methods, pp.
47-55; W Gray, The Ladder of Lights, Samuel Weiser, Inc., York Beach, 1968, pp. 8, 62.
77
See specifically the version of Seasonal Occult Rituals that appears as Chapter 16 of Sangreal
Ceremonies and Rituals, p. 252; the seal for the Sangreal Sodality appears on the cover of all four volumes
of the Sangreal Sodality Series.
78
The King of the World, pp. 8-10; R Gunon, Symbolism of the Cross, Sophia Perennis et Universalis,
Ghent, 1996, pp. 54-6.
79
Ibid., p. 55.
 Wisner 24

with Grays use of the Cosmic Cross.80 With the lead in of these pointed similarities, it
seems likely that Gunon had a decided effect on Grays conception of tradition,
particularly since Grays emphatic Western Traditionalism, as he called it, focuses
around many of the same symbols as Gunons analyses of Western traditions.81 The
major difference is Grays outright rejection of Eastern ideologies.
In combination with the common focuses on tradition and the idea of sacred
priest-kings, Grays racialist and conservative political leanings seem consonant with the
ideologies of Julius Evola, though again it is highly unlikely that Gray read Evolas
works.82 This political affinity demonstrates how closely aligned with the mid-20th
century traditionalist milieu Grays created tradition is, despite its definitive
dissimilarities. Grays purposeful rejection of Eastern doctrines is contrary to both
Gunon and Evola, but he seems to specifically allude to this difference in the
introduction to Western Inner Workings. Gray says,
For many years, the publishing market of the English and European Literary world
have been flooded with a variety of books dealing with Oriental occultism. This has
proved of great interest and attracted a considerable number of devotees, disciples, and
what might be termed sub-culturalists, all seeking spiritual safisfaction with they
evidently could not obtain from existing orthodox religions and established mystical
systems. There are two reasons for this. One is that such resources proved inadequate to
supply the urgent spiritual needs arising in the souls of those who were incarnating in the
West. The other is that such souls appeared unaware of, or unwilling to develop the
wealth of potential already present within themselves as a genetic spiritual inheritance of
the Western world. So they took what seemed to be the easiest way out of their
difficulties and grabbed at anything exotic and available that looked like a ready-made
remedy for their inner deficienciesit is all too frequently found that our modern back-
to-the-landers are embracing foreign philosophies and Oriental outlooks on life which are
at considerable variance with indigenous [read: Western] spiritual systems. Not that this
is wrong per se, but only that it encourages undue dependence on imported ideology and
neglects the cultivation of our inborn genetic consciousness.83

80
Ibid., pp. 1-22, 46-53; Western Inner Workings, pp. 157-89.
81
Gray also calls practitioners of the Western tradition Western Traditionalists, An Outlook on Our Inner
Western Way, pp. 19, 129-30, 143, 154.
82
Revolt Against the Modern World, pp. ix-x.
83
Western Inner Workings, pp. x-xi.
 Wisner 25

The condescension is palpable when he says, Not that this is wrong per se,... and
coupled with his call on the same page that Western communities are best preserved
by organizing and developing [their] inherent resources until these [communities]
become as self-sufficient as possible,84 we can begin to see how Grays anti-
Orientalist leanings could quickly lead into overtly racist, if not fascistic, tendencies.
It is an undisputed fact that Gray was openly racist for nearly all of his life, and
believed the Western esoteric tradition was explicitly and exclusively for Westerners.85
In fact, he and Bobbie wrote a pamphlet attempting to organize a Native British
Mystery order with decidedly racist overtones.86 His racist attitude is inexorably tied to
his conception of the Sangreal or Holy Blood. Later in life, he called himself a
racialist, but the reality of it is that no matter how much rationalizing and cleaning up
he could do, his known distaste for niggers, as he was prone to say, was bitter and
unapologetic.87 Over his life his views would become less overt, and he would openly
recognize the validity of all cultures spiritual pursuits, albeit only for the people
originally of those cultures.88 Presumably, in line with Grays evolutionary view of
magical pursuits, other peoples spiritual systems were likely hierarchically under
Western practices, despite his claim that all traditions speak to their own culturally valid
reality.89 In light of Grays openly racist sentiments, the above passage from the
introduction of Western Inner Workings would seem a direct critique of Guenon,
especially in light of Gunons corpus of works dealing with Eastern philosophy and his
conversion from Christianity to Islam.90 Paired with Gunons analysis of the cross
within a circle as being not too different from the swastika, Grays racial doctrines fall
beneath a new shadow.
Shockingly, in An Outlook on Our Inner Western Way, Gray gives a chilling
reading of World Wars I and II through the metaphorical device of sacred kingship.91 He

84
Ibid., p. xi.
85
Richardson & Claridge, pp. 146-51.
86
The Sangreal Sacrament, p. xii; Richardson & Claridge, p 142, p. 146-51; Inner Traditions of Magic, p
252.
87
Richardson & Claridge, p. 146, p. 161.
88
Ibid, pp. 187-91.
89
Western Inner Workings, p. 240.
90
The King of the World, p. 69.
91
An Outlook on Our Inner Western Way, pp. 70-5.
 Wisner 26

affirms that after World War II the cultural conflict that spurred both wars became
predominantly an East-West conflict with the entrance of Japan and America into the
fray. 92 Further, the use of the atom bomb introduced alien, anti-life forces into
humanitys spiritual domain.93 Though he claims that the threat posed by the atom bomb
is a common threat to all traditions on Earth, he affirms that the end result of the Second
World War was to solidify a division between Eastern and Western cultures. He says,
So our last War ended on a very nasty note indeed. Nobody won it and everybody lost it.
Worse still, it left us on a line leading to a future conflict between Traditions of West and
East, which could crash our civilizations and culture completely.The important thing is
that we should stay with the spirit of our own Tradition so that it presents no challenge to
any other, yet consolidates the Way of the West within acceptable areas satisfactory for
our survival, complementary to other cultures, and in a manner necessary for the future of
mankind.94
Though his sentiments could be taken with less of an edge under the banner of a universal
threat to mankind, the inevitable conclusion one must come to upon reading the above is
that should a conflict arise between the East and the West, Gray would obviously hope
for a victory of Westerners over Easterners. With such possibilities weighing on Grays
mind, the road to racial politics seams paved for him in the discourses of traditionalism
and late 19th/early 20th century reactionary and nationalistic Continental politics.95
The fact is, Grays ideology frequently broaches upon the doctrine of Blood and
Soil. Despite having no known connections to what Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke called
the British Nazi Underground in his 2002 book Black Sun, Gray seems to have been
prey to many of the same racial fears that motivated neo-Nazi groups in the UK during
the 1950s and 60s.96 Blut und Boden in Germany emphasized hereditary belonging to the
Germanic people (Volk) and ownership/cultivation of the land those people inhabited,
while aggrandizing the rural way of life and a sense of belonging to the Germanic

92
Ibid., pp. 71-2.
93
Ibid., p. 73.
94
An Outlook on Our Inner Western Way, p. 74.
95
C Levy, Fascism, National Socialism and Conservatives in Europe, 1914-1945: Issues for
Comparativists, Contemporary European History, Vol. 8, No. 1, 1999, pp. 97-126; A Richter, Blood and
Soil: what it means to be German, World Policy Journal, Vol. 15, No. 4, pp. 91-8; P Betts, The New
Fascination with Fascism: the case of Nazi modernism, Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 37, No. 4,
2002, pp. 541-558; E Gomel, Aliens among us: fascism and narrativity, Journal of Narrative Theory, Vol.
30, No. 1, pp. 127-30, 133-8, 140-5.
96
N Goodrick-Clarke, Black Sun, New York University Press, New York, 2002, pp. 30-51.
 Wisner 27

culture through language, custom and a blood-based concept of ethnicity.97 This is, in
fact, explicitly Grays view on who counts as Western. Again in Western Inner
Workings, Gray says it is time that some souls already incarnate recognize the
significance of a spiritual factor bound up with their own blood which was once called
Sang Real or Blood Royal.98 The italics are his own, as apparently the spiritual forces
bound up with their own blood were in pressing need of explicit recognition. He
continues Each chapter of this book may be considered as a separate thread of one single
theme connecting our inner lives together like an unbreakable blood-link between family
members of a common faith.The Sangreal is something you either belong with by birth
and blood inheritance, or you do not, but might yet claim it if you would.99 The blood
link and the emphasis on genes already begins to beg possible Nazi sympathies, even
though Gray fought the Nazis in World War II and utilizes kabbalah as a central
structural feature of his tradition.100
Then we get the soil connection. In explaining the rustic ancient roots of his
Western tradition, Gray states,
by personifying and relating with the invisible powers and energies of life encountered
on Earth by humans trying to support themselves and their families, our Inner Tradition
of the West became cultivated and propagated from one generation to another. No matter
how superior and sophisticated we may suppose ourselves in the midst of our modern
technology, our roots are rural, and if we seek them we shall have to trace them to the
soil from which they sprang.101
Again, the italics are Grays own. Here we can see Grays holding up of rural life and
ideals, his distrust of the modern world, and his reliance on heredity and breeding as key
factors in belonging with his Sangreal Tradition. He has modified the blood and soil
concept to include all Westerners among the in-group, but the method of exclusion and
the implications are all the same. Moreover, this is not the only instance of Gray showing
blood and soil affinities.

97
Richter, pp. 91-8; R J Evans, The Coming of the Third Reich, Penguin, New York, 2003, pp. 125, 211,
228.
98
Western Inner Workings, p. xii.
99
Ibid., p. xii.
100
Richardson & Claridge, pp. 87-8.
101
Western Inner Workings, p. 7.
 Wisner 28

This Western group identified by blood, genes, hereditary belonging to the

cultural in-group and geographical origin from European ancestry and kinship with the
land appears in every book Gray wrote. We can see it in The Sangreal Sacrament. Gray
states plainly, anyone of Western origins and descent may have Royal qualities in
themselves if they are able to rule or govern their own behavior.Furthermore they have
inherited characteristics from their ancestors which enable them to become whatever they
will make of themselves. It is quite inaccurate to believe that we are all equal by
birth.102 This deep criticism of the key liberalist doctrine of universal equality would
seem to show that even if Gray were not directly knowledgeable on Evolas works, he at
the very least also read Gunon, held spiritually driven racial ideologies to be deeply
structural to his conception of tradition, believed the ancient pagan ways to be core facets
of the same tradition (as we shall see), focused on the concept of sacred kingship as
Evola did, and questioned the primacy of modernity.
Gray has one strong point of differentiation from Evolas doctrines beside Evolas
utilization of Eastern philosophy: though Gray was disappointed in and questioning of
modernity, he accepted it and sought to bring the traditions of the West into a modern
framework that assured their viability for modern Westerners. Evolas outright rejection
of modernity makes his doctrines difficult to square with fascism, but the same is not true
of Gray.103 And though Gray explicitly sets himself apart from the Nazis, the exclusive,
magically bolstered material ideation of tradition bound to genes/blood and culture/soil
shows definitive affinity with certain fascist ideologies, even if he did not publicly claim
them in an explicit manner.104
Here we can see that in the web of Western esoteric ideologies Gray has
attempted to unify Western esoteric actors around a common Western identity, similarly
to the ways in which post-war neo-Nazis and fascists attempted to herald a common
European identity, to obscure the horrors of Nazi racial extermination agendas and
prepare the white populations of the world for a coming cultural conflagration.105
Through appeals to tradition and native ways, and a conception of identity and

102
Sangreal Sacrament, p. xii.
103
Revolt Against the Modern World, pp. 302-11, 358-66.
104
Ibid., p. 176; Richardson & Claridge, pp. 148-50.
105
Goodrick-Clarke, pp. 30-1, 34, 37-9.
 Wisner 29

belonging founded upon genetic heritage, the similarities to both Nazis and neo-Nazis is
very apparent, though Gray had no public association with either. Furthermore, it would
seem that Gray includes at least practitioners of Judaism in the Western identity,
showing a distinct dissimilarity to the pointedly anti-Semitic neo-Nazis of Britain in the
mid-20th century.106 Grays racial ideologies were exceedingly unpopular among nearly
everyone with whom he associated himself, and it can be seen plainly how Gray
attempted to cover up his racial doctrines in flowery language and sideways nods like
Blood Royal and belonging with the blood.
The situation gets more interesting when we consider Grays use of academic
sources. He claims at the beginning of Western Inner Workings that the book is a unique
experiment in spiritual sociology, and if we take into account Hitlers use of both
anthropology and biology to ground his own racist doctrines, the similarities to National
Socialist ideologies become almost inescapable.107 And though Gray would pointedly
reject the ideologies of Adolph Hitler and the Nazis in his writings, it is evident that
through blood and soil styled doctrines and appeals to academic anthropology, Gray
attempted to utilize very similar legitimating strategies as the Third Reich for his racial
doctrines.108 Thus, a better understanding of Grays academic influences seems founded,
as anthropologically grounded framings of culture utilized to legitimate racial distinctions
based in a genetic vector brings Grays ideological system soundly to the threshold of
National Socialism.

(C) Academic exposure

One of the methods of modernizing and unifying esoteric discourses that Gray
utilized to successfully create lasting connections in the esoteric cultural network was the
incorporation of modern academic conceptual frameworks for the illumination of esoteric
ideologies. Grays emphasis on Sacred Kingship begins to show some of the effect that
comparative and anthropological studies of religion had on Grays magical system
through apparent familiarity with James Frazers The Golden Bough and Robert Graves

106
Ibid, 32, 43; An Outlook on Our Inner Western Way, pp. 36-7, 46-7.
107
Western Inner Workings, p. ix; Levy, p. 105.
108
Western Inner Workings, p. 240; An Outlook on Our Inner Western Way, pp. 72-3; Working with Inner
Light, pp. 13-4, 24-6.
 Wisner 30

The White Goddess. The Sacred King symbols centrality in Grays system beside
perennialized pagan myths attests to his cognizance of The Golden Boughs
universalizing implications through the comparative method.109
The Sacred King as the willing sacrifice of his people, and the role of the
magician acting symbolically as a sacrificial king, is a pointed similarity between the
information presented in Frazers work and the details behind Grays formation of his
anachronistic esoteric tradition. Though the centrality of the Sacred King theme is never
explicitly tied to Frazer by Gray, the influence is marked for its similarly perennializing
and cross-historic tone. It is also interesting that Grays texts have a similarly
meandering style to Frazers opus, though Gray tends to wax more briefly. Beyond being
noted by Richardson and Claridge in The Old Sod as a work well known to Gray, his
familiarity with the poet Robert Graves expansion on The Golden Bough is also evident
in his treatment of Celtic myth and pagan goddess worship.110 One of the clearest links
comes through an explication of the sphere on the Tree of Life associated with Venus,
Netzach, which ties the dog-priests of ancient Sirius cults to homosexual acts and
modern celibacy in Christian priests.111
Frazer is not the only anthropologist whose discourse Gray appropriated. He also
utilized mid-20th century anthropological models, as evidenced by Grays
conceptualization of the Ethos. In a 1965 magical diary commenced poignantly (in a
Gravesian sense) on May Day, Gray gives his clearest attempt to relay the essentials of
magical practice within his Mysteries. In the first entry from May 1st of 1965 titled The
Mysteries, Gray demonstrates another connection to academia, this time a familiarity
with then-contemporary anthropological theories of religion, most likely through the
works of Clifford Geertz. In the very first lines Gray announces,
The Mysteries are a Consciousness-Pattern workable on both sides of the Veil, so that
participants from each side can meet and co-operate with each other. First, there has to
be a basis or background, on and against which activities can take place among
individuals on personal or group levels. This is the Ethos. It may be Racial, or

109
J Frazer, The Golden Bough, The MacMillan Press Ltd., London, 1978, pp. 1-14, 59-63, 109-40, 348-72,
756-76; W Gray, The Ladder of Lights, Samuel Weiser Inc., York Beach, 1981, pp. 163-79; An Outlook on
Our Inner Western Way, pp. 16-39; Sangreal Sacrament, pp. 85-125.
110
Richardon & Claridge, p. 125; R Graves, The White Goddess, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, London, 1966,
pp. 24, 140-64; The Ladder of Lights, pp. 161-79.
111
The White Goddess., p. 51-4; The Ladder of Lights, p. 80.
 Wisner 31

Religious. It may be Qabalistic, Gnostic or plain Witch. Whatever it is, it consists of

Symbols and the arrangement and use thereof. Just as the Chessboard and men are
Symbols from the activity of Chess, so are the Mystery Symbols the means by which
players on both sides of the Veil play the same game.112
This presents a direct link to anthropological discourses that directly applies Geertzs
description of culture and the practical functioning of religion.
In Ethos, World-View and the Analysis of Sacred Symbols, Geertz relates the
anthropological viewpoint, saying the moral (and aesthetic) aspects of a given culture,
the evaluative elements, have commonly been summed up in the term ethos, while the
cognitive, existential aspects have been designated by the term world-view.113 He
continues that the ethos is the tone, character, and quality of an individuals life within a
culture, and the worldview is their concept of nature, of self, of society. These two
elements support each other in a religious system through belief and ritual, which
confront and mutually confirm each other; the ethos is made intellectually reasonable
by being shown to represent a way of life implied by the actual state of affairs which the
world-view describes, and the world-view is made emotionally acceptable by being
presented as an image of an actual state of affairs of which such a way of life is an
authentic expression.114
In this way, for Geertz, religion is an attempt to conserve and convey the meanings of a
given culture in terms an individual can use to interpret and mediate his life. Most
importantly, this meaning can only be stored in symbols.115
Religious symbolism as retold through myth or enacted through ritual is directly
felt by the individual. In this way, symbolism encompasses in ritual and belief what that
culture knows about the world, the emotional character of lived existence that view of the
world supports, and how the individual should act as a part of that world. As a result,
Geertz says we find that though we might expect there to be, for instance, a culture that
develops an ethical system without an ontological paradigm, they are not apparent. He
says, The tendency to synthesize world-view and ethos at some level, if not logically
necessary, is at least empirically coercive; if it is not philosophically justified, it is at least

112
Working with Inner Light, p. 13.
113
C Geertz, Ethos, World-View and the Analysis of Sacred Symbols, The Antioch Review, vol. 17, no.
4, Winter, 1957, p. 421.
114
Ibid., p. 421-2.
115
Ibid., p. 422.
 Wisner 32

pragmatically universal.116 For Gray, as an esoteric insider, the philosophical qualms of

Geertzs approach could likely have been trumped by the perceived reality of this
pragmatically universal facet of religious cultures.
In appropriating Geertzs use of ethos, Gray makes the choice to approach the
evaluative aspects of magic as a lived practicethe Mysteries as magical culture.
Through the ethos, he makes a magical worldview intellectually reasonable and magical
practice emotionally palatable. The explicit ontology of Grays magical culture is that it
is comprised of individuals on both sides of the Veil, that is both human and non-
human/discarnate beings. Any Mystery, as a magical religion, conveys the lived meaning
of that Mysterys magical culture. As a successful modernizing and legitimating strategy
that created robust connections in the networks of Western esotericism, we can see
Grays conceptual use of the Ethos living on in the sabbatic witchcraft tradition in such
works as Tubelos Green Fire: Mythos, Ethos, Female, Male and Priestly Mysteries of
the Clan of Tubal-Cain by Shani Oates. This is particularly evident in the fourth section
of the book, where Oates describes the Clan Ethos, covering what the sacred is in their
view, what their Mystery Tradition is comprised of, the meaning of their ritual
implements in a ritual context, and the nature of their initiations among other topics.117
Gray even gets an explicit reference in the section.118
The remainder of Grays 1965 diary makes explicit how to construct a Mystery
through Qabalistic practice: with a Lodge that imparts ritual ethics, a Temple, a
mystical cosmological structure via the Tree of Life, and a plethora of symbolic tools for
constructing a magical cosmos through practice from the process of making tea to the
cosmic circle cross emblem, or a kiss.119 From this relatively early point is Grays
published magical career (still 1965), his kabbalah is the central fixture of his worldview,
out of which he attempts to create a universal Western magical tradition that could apply
to all Western esoteric context.

116
Ibid., p. 422.
117
S Oates, Tubelos Green Fire: Mythos, Ethos, Female, Male and Priestly Mysteries of the Clan of
Tubal-Cain, Mandrake of Oxford, Oxford, 2010, pp. 213-63.
118
Ibid., p. 229.
119
Working with Inner Light, pp. 21-3, 56-62, 133-6, 185-8.
 Wisner 33

(D) Psychologized mysteries for the modern malaise

In his reliance on kabbalistic symbols, we begin to see Grays attempts to
concentrate on a perceived magical tradition that is historical. Though his version of this
tradition has been modernized with a disenchanted, scientized discourse (through
framings of magical practice as spiritual and material evolution, frequent uses of
mechanical metaphors relying upon technical/professional and craft trades, and a framing
of both the world as material and the magical process as one of materialization)120
Grays tradition aims at making the magic of his perceived ancient tradition easily
intelligible for the modern mind.121 This is where Gray was particularly successful at
building deeply networked connections in the web of Western esotericism, and the
connections he drew were lasting. Gray demonstrates a wide exposure to sources in
various Western traditions, showing knowledge of major works and figures ranging from
the Essenes122 to the Golden Dawn,123 A. E. Waite124 to George Gurdjief,125 Enoch-
Metatron126 to Abramelin,127 the Comt de Gabalis to the Book of Raziel,128 animal
magnetism to Christian Science.129 As he lays plain in An Inner Outlook on Our Inner
Western Way, Gray aims at modernizing the traditions of the Middle Ages and
Renaissance so that magical culture can continue into the future as a single tradition.130
Here we can see the comprehensive effort at unifying and modernizing that
characterizes Grays attempt at crafting a tradition that could braid together all strands of
Western esotericism into a singularly networked cultural entity. He attempts to lengthen
esoteric networks by interrelating them through the equalizing and legitimating force of
academic discourses, and in so doing attempts to strengthen otherwise weak connections
in the network of esotericism to Western culture at large. His attempt to modernize and

120
Ibid., pp. 43-4, 48-9, 56, 70-2, 75, 81-2; Qabalistic Concepts, pp. 11, 30-1, 117, 132, 272-4, 292; Ladder
of Lights, pp. 161, 182; An Outlook on Our Inner Western Way, pp. 43, 58-60, 73, 108.
121
Ibid., pp. 129-33.
122
Qabalistic Concepts, p. 297.
123
Inner Traditions of Magic, pp. 13-36.
124
An Outlook onOour Inner Western Way, p. 101.
125
Inner Traditions of Magic, p. 18.
126
Ladder of Lights, p. 212. See also A Orlov, The Enoch-Metatron Tradition, Mohr Siebeck, Tbingen,
2005.
127
Inner Traditions of Magic, p. 140.
128
Ladder of Lights, pp. 29-30, 191.
129
Outlook on Our Inner Western Way, pp. 66-8.
130
Ibid., pp. 123-56.
 Wisner 34

draw together the Western traditions of the past simultaneously was a legitimating
strategy very similar to those of the Renaissance, utilizing the philosophia perennis mode
of eternal wisdom alongside a thoroughly modern view of history as a progressive,
evolutionary improvement of mans state of existence within cultural bounds.
A disenchanted, mechanically-described and materially oriented world based in
anthropological models of culture was only one method of modernization that Gray relied
upon to attempt to update and interrelate magical beliefs for the future. Another very
prominent facet of his written works is his steadfast implementation of the psychological
language of Carl Jung. In fact, Gray even traces the efficacy of the cosmic circle cross
image back to Jungs archetypes and dream analyses.131 He frequently used the language
of the subconscious, collective unconscious and individuation in attempting to elucidate
his descriptions of magic.132
One excellent example of Grays attempts to interrelate various Western traditions
in a modernized context comes again in Western Inner Workings while Gray is discussing
the Abramelin mystical activities. He states, Carl Jung describes [awareness of Immortal
Identity] as the individuation process, but it was described a lot earlier and more
succinctly as Delphi as Know Thy Self.133 Here, through the psychological discourse
of Carl Jung, Gray bring ancient Greek religious worship and the temple at Delphi
together with Abramelin, attempting to connect two shorter religious networks through
the longer, modern network of Jungian psychoanalysis. He attempts to find affinity with
modern culture through a tradition made nearly atomistic in its pursuit of individuality.134
Gray says, Not only is individualization encouraged, but until a Soul becomes
sufficiently individualized to assert its Inner Identity in an independent Light, (or be

131
Qabalistic Concepts, p. 37.
132
An Outlook on Our Inner Western Way, p. 126; The Sangreal Sacrament, p. 133, p. 144, p. 206. For a
discussion of the use of magical squares metaphorically explained through the relation of Rorschach
blotters to the subconscious mind, see p. 165-6. For an explication of invocation and the use of divine
names that draws on the collective unconscious, see W Gray, Sangreal Sodality Series Vol. 4: Sangreal
Ceremonies and Rituals, Samuel Weiser, Inc., Yorke Beach, 1986, p. 10-1.
133
Western Inner Workings, p. 98.
134
Sangreal Sacrament, p. 181; Magical Ritual Methods, p. 207. Note that human individuality is
identified with Malkuth, the sphere on the Tree of Life representing the material world. In Richardson &
Claridge, at the beginning of Chapter 4, in an unattributed quote of Grays (presumably from his original
autobiographical text based upon the use person pronouns) reads Religion was collective whereas Magic
was individual, and I was all for individualism. (61)
 Wisner 35

born again) it cannot properly enter the Kingdom of Heaven, or come into its own as
that it willed. This is the real meaning of Magic.135
In spite of his very modern mentality and desire to make the Western traditions
viable for the modern world, Gray also displays his pointed disillusionment, verging on
barely-masked disgust, with the modern world.136 His disillusionment seems connected
with his experiences during and just after World War II. In his Sangreal Sacrament,
Gray says,
There is nothing like a catastrophe for bringing out the nobility and contemptibility of a
human soul. On the whole during the last World War, incredible courage and comradeship
emerged among even the least likely types of people. It became evident that some began to
say, If we had anything like this kind of Spirit among us in peace time there wouldnt be
any wars. Perhaps an odd remark, but that was their recognition of the Sangreal in those
days. Alas, the War had not been over officially for very long before the majority of folk
slipped back into their usual rat-race-greed-grab style of earthliving [sic].137
Gray continues to say, Why should we have to wait until some unspeakable
horror demands the best blood from us inbrutal sacrifice? Why not call up the
best blood we havenow and devote it to spiritual sacrifice [that we may]avert
the bloodiest of holocausts?138 This sums up Grays position with modernity
and hopes for esotericism rather succinctly. Rather than being beaten down by
the brutality of modernity, we could hope to guide our own cultural trajectory
through history using esoteric disciplines to ensure ideal results for the spiritual
evolution or Western people.
Gray was impressed and disappointed by mans capacity for inhumanity,
and seemed deeply dissatisfied with the modern world, particularly in light of the
East-West conflict he saw as the direct product of the wars of modernity and
modern methods of living and governance. He says in his Inner Traditions of
Magic, To those who control the States and Organizations throughout this world,
what does any individual Soul amount to?...A component to be processed
according to requirement, serviced as necessary, and eliminated in an economical

135
Inner Traditions of Magic, p. 283.
136
See Inner Traditions of Magic, Authority fears spiritual independence, pp. 264-6 and Man still a
Spiritual Savage, pp 281-4.
137
Sangreal Sacrament, p. 162.
138
Ibid., p. 163.
 Wisner 36

manner.139 He believed that by preserving the core of the Western Esoteric

Tradition for future generations, updated to be compatible with modern Western
minds, Westerners could assure a positive future for themselves that continues
evolving toward spiritual perfection in the face of the present, disenchanted
situation.140 In making conjecture on the place of magic in the future, Gray says,
The practice of magic in the 20th century and probably more so in the twenty first, is
especially for human Souls who are coming of age sufficiently to seek their own Spiritual
heritage of independence in the kingdom of Light which no Darkness covering the face of
the earth can ever extinguish.For the sacrifice of a self which was no more than a slave of
physical circumstancesSouls emerge into a state of Spiritual Selfhood in which they direct
their own destiny by the Light of Divinity declaring Itself through them with the Creative
Word of Will.141
For Gray, the only way forward was seeking the best possible spiritual state, typified for
him in the transformative experience found across the abyss of insanitythe Dark Night
of the Soul expressed through the willing sacrifice of the Sacred King; a spiritual death
and rebirth attained in Perfect Peace Profound.142
With this view of the modern world, Gray sought to network together what he
saw as the extant remains of the authentic traditions of the past with a modern renovation,
so as to address the mental anguish of modern living. Perhaps most importantly, he saw
the functional union of all Western esoteric organizations behind the single purpose of
seeking Immortal Identity (through individuation) for the evolution of individuals within
Western culture in preparation for the rising tide of East-West conflict which seemed, to
him, an inevitable byproduct of modern history.
With this comprehensive overview of Grays system in mind from (A) to (D), the
connections in Grays personal esoteric network will show through whom and by which

139
Inner Traditions of Magic, p. 282. Gray makes himself perfectly clear: An employable unit to be used
and disposed of by death.
140
The Sangreal Sacrament, p. 183-6; W Gray, The Rollright Ritual, Helios Book Services (Publications),
Ltd., Cheltenham, 1975, p. 48, p. 60; Most directly addressed in Inner Traditions of Magic, under the
Ritual in the Life of an Initiate and The Significance of Magic in a Nuclear Age, pp 220-84; in The
Tree of Evil Gray elucidates what a Qliphothic or averse worldview to that of the Tree of Life would look
like. To Gray, it could be summarized as materialism, instability, greed, lust, ugliness or disharmony,
cruelty, apathy, ignorance, antipathy, stupidity, atheism and darkness. (p. 18)
141
Inner Tradition of Magic, p.283.
142
Sangreal Ceremonies and Rituals, pp. 49-50, pp. 56-8; The Sangreal Sacrament, p. 59, p. 102, pp.117-
9, pp.137-9; W Gray, An Outlook on Our Inner Western Way, Samuel Weiser, New York, 1980, pp. 28-39;
Seasonal Occult Rituals, pp. 4-6.
 Wisner 37

strategic appeals to modern authoritative knowledge Grays conception of the Western

tradition succeeded in building lasting connections in the cultural network of esotericism.
His ability to combine esoteric discourses with traditionalism, anthropology and
psychology vastly outpaced the comparable weakness of his racial ideologies in a
network of Western esoteric traditions, as we shall see in the following two sections.

Network connections built and lost

After fighting in World War II, Gray married the woman who would be his wife
until his death, Bobbie, and lived in Cheltenham, networking himself with many of his
contemporary practicing occultists, predominantly in Britain but also elsewhere in the US
and South Africa. 143 He started his own esoteric order, the Sangreal Sodality, and made
connections through correspondence and tumultuous friendships with various notable
individuals in the qabalistic and blooming Wiccan and pagan revivalist circles. Notables
include Gareth Knight, a member of Dion Fortunes Society of Inner Light (to which
Gray briefly and tumultuously belonged)144 and author of various works on Qabalah;145
Roy Bowers, also known as Robert Cochrane, the founder of the Sabbatic witchcraft
traditions seminal group, The Clan of Tubal-Cain;146 several Wiccan authors like Doreen
Valiente and Pat Crowther;147 author of and musician in the Celtic revival tradition RJ

143
Richardson & Claridge, pp. 96-103.
144
Ibid, pp. 138-143.
145
Ibid, pp. 152-60; G Knight, A Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism, WeiserBooks, Boston, 2001.
Gray and Knights shared Qabalistic background yields many commonalities, namely an unmanifest
absolute divine principle that is totally transcendent (Ain) and a cosmos where reason is ultimately
transcended (p.53: 1); a notable debt to the writings of Dion Fortune (pp. 53-4); a tendency to make racial
distinctions on a metaphysical level (p. 60: 26); and a panentheistic organization of the cosmos using the
Tree of Life, relating Malkuth and Kether to material existence as a human being in the world and the
supreme Godhead respectively (p. 65, pp. 191-2).
146
The Clan of Tubal-Cain was a Cochranes Craft coven; that is to say a unique, traditionally-styled
seasonal/sabbatic non-pagan witchcraft order, which developed a pantheon and ritual system deeply
contrasting its Gardnerian peers of the 1950s and subsequent sectarian incarnations in the decades since
(such as the American Joseph Wilsons 1734 Tradition). Roy Bowers met a strange end, attempting suicide
near the summer solstice with belladonna and lithium, and dying in early July of 1966 (Richardson &
Claridge, pp. 134-5). The transcripts of his letters to William Gray show that he and Bowers shared a
consonant interest in sacrificial Sacred King myths. Copies of his letters to various individuals are provided
by the Estate of E J Jones, and can be found at < http://www.cyberwitch.com/bowers/>.
147
W Gray, Working with Inner Light: the magical journal of William G. Gray, eds. J Clark & A
Richardson, Skylight Press, Cheltenham, 2011, p. 8.
 Wisner 38

Stewart;148 and Jacobus Swart, a kabbalist from South Africa who would become Grays
magical heir in charge of continuing the Sangreal Sodality.149
For all but Bowers (who met an untimely death) and Jacobus Swart, Grays
vehement racism was a serious point of contention, and frequently caused fiery endings
to otherwise fruitful relationships. For instance, Gareth Knight recalls being warned of
Grays unpleasantness by a friend before meeting him in 1964.150 The two would be
good friends for many years, but eventually disagreed so heatedly over the issue of
allowing non-Whites into the Society of Inner Light (and Theosophy in general) that the
mention of Knights name would cause Gray to boil over with scathing verbal attacks.151
In fact, one of the only person Gray maintained a congenial relationship with throughout
the entirety of their interactions was Jacobus Swart, and Swart openly believes in Grays
racialist perspective on the esoteric disciplines of the West, particularly the Sangreal
Gray started. Swart says,
Each race carries its own unique record of superphysical and subjective phenomena through
its bloodstream, and these memories constitute our fables, legends, gods, heroes and what
have you. They cannot be forgotten because they are locked within our genes as a blood
record. I fully agree with Bill that a brotherhood of a specific Tradition is not going to work
for all races, but only for those who carry the legends and past within themselves. I believe
the most mystical tie to be the blood tie, the Blood Soul. This Blood Soul can only be
communicated to those who possess it, and all the members, with their respective
connections to this Blood Soul, become like one man, one great soul the Sangreal in our
case.152
It is easy to see how though a cloak of cultural relativism is appropriated to obfuscate
potentially caustic racial doctrines, there is still a strong core of racial and cultural
division inherent in the leadership of the Sangreal Sodality. Each culture has its own
tradition, and in Grays view an individual should stay within the traditions of their
particular cultural group. Thus, we can assess the networking strength of Grays racialist
ideals. Despite the upheaval and derision his racism bred in his personal life, it did not
dramatically stunt his networks, and this is mostly the result of his ability to connect

148
R Stewart, Robert John Stewart, Dreampower.com, 2007, June 5, 2012, < http://img2.ranker.com/
user_node_image/6400/1000177795/full/memes-photo-u11.jpg>.
149
Richardson & Claridge, p. 162.
150
Ibid. p. 153.
151
Ibid, pp. 152-60.
152
Richardson & Claridge, p. 189.
 Wisner 39

esoteric disciplines with academic and traditionalist discourses.153 It seems that even
though most were unwilling to let his racism go unquestioned in the end, there were
plenty willing to conveniently rationalize or overlook it. Even his biographers, Alan
Richardson and Marcus Claridge, say William G. Grays real and supposed racism is a
complex issue a sentiment replete with the typical rationality of an indulgence of
privilege.154 Open racism is never a truly complex issue beyond a matter of personal
prejudice, and Grays spiritual justifications of racialist doctrines do not make his open
racism any more complex than an apologist would wish to make it.
What is clear is that even when Grays racism lost him friends and colleagues,
few people did away with his esoteric ideas after cutting personal connection with him.
Certainly his affinity for pre-historic Britain and its myths garnered him supporters and
enthusiasts, even continuing into today. The musician and author RJ Stewart, for
instance, has very obvious ties to William Gray that he publicized in his own writings in
print and online. Despite yet another untoward termination of association, Stewarts
Merlin Tarot uses the same attribution of Tarot trumps to the Tree of Life that Gray
uses, a highly unique attribution with no clear printed precedent in other sources
explicitly concerned with Tarot.155 In an article available on his website, Stewart relays a
meeting he had with Israel Regardie in 1976. The meeting happened through the
networking of Gray himself, who knew Regardie previously. Stewart recounts some of
their conversation, and then,
without preamble or explanation, he [Regardie] told me [Stewart] that I would
continue to develop inner work started by Dion Fortune and continued by W G Gray. We
moved on to anecdotes about other senior occultists, and it occurred to me to ask a
question that had long been in my mind. What about the Paths of the Tree of Life in the
Golden Dawn system, I asked, they seem to be confused. Yes, replied Regardie, and
intentionally so. There is another layout that is only taught when you challenge the
published one...but you know that layout already. As indeed I did, having been taught it
by W G Gray.156

153
Ibid., pp. 152-78, 191, 194-6.
154
Ibid., p. 151.
155
R J Stewart, Memoir of W G Gray, 2003, <http://www.dreampower.com/memoire.html>; For a
diagram of Grays attribution, see Appendix C.
156
R Stewart, A Healing Encounter, Dreampower.com, 2007,
<http://www.dreampower.com/regardie.html>.
 Wisner 40

Here, Stewart alone claims an external authority for Grays attribution of the Tarot cards
to the tree of life through Israel Regardie, a man highly regarded as one of the foremost
occult writers of the 20th century. The connection is not entirely implausible, as Regardie
penned a glowing introduction for Grays Inner Traditions of Magic.157
Upon inquiring further with Mr. Stewart, his reply was that Grays attribution of
the Tarot cards to the Tree was in line with a Renaissance construction of the universe.
Though the authoritative claims of Grays attribution are uncorroborated by other
sources, the justification seems rational enough. For instance, similarities to Agrippas
triple division of the cosmos in De occulta philosophia can be seen in Grays attribution
of the Moon, Sun and Star trumps to the Middle Pillar as representing the sub-lunar
(Malkuth to Yesod), planetary (Yesod to Tiphareth) and celestial (Tiphareth to Kether)
spheres.158 Gray provides a comprehensive and fascinating explication of his approach to
the Tarot from within his own tradition in one of his last works, The Sangreal Tarot: A
Magical Ritual System of Personal Evolution.159 In it, he explicitly ties the Tarot trumps
and suits through Fools journey as an archetypal heros journey to the Grail and
Arthurian myths on the basic background of the Tree of Life, here again showing his
varying influences, this time from the Golden Dawn and Rosicrucian-styled initiatic
orders.160
Whatever the case may be for the variety of relationships Gray had that went sour,
people who had associations with him valued his esoteric teachings apparently above
their personal misgivings about him.161 Gray managed to personally connect his network
of the Sangreal to a variety of different people, most of whom did not participate in his
mystery. However, the fact remains that he lengthened his own network by association
with Gareth Knight, Israel Regardie, R J Stewart, Jacobus Swart, and many notable
figures in the sabbatic witchcraft tradition. The fact that his biographers go through such
pains to make him appear truly relativistic in his view of the cultures of non-Westerners

157
Inner Traditions of Magic, pp. ix-xi.
158
H C Agrippa von Nettesheim, De occulta philosophia libri III, Apud Godefridum, & Marcellum,
Beringos, frates, Lugduni, 1550, available in full scan through the Universiteitsbibliothek Basel at
<http://www.e-rara.ch/doi/10.3931/e-rara-278>.
159
W Gray, The Sangreal Tarot: A Magical Ritual System of Personal Evolution, Samuel Weiser, Inc.,
York Beach, 1988.
160
Ibid., pp. 209-38.
161
Various accounts of personal relationships failing are given in Richardson & Claridge, pp. 152-96.
 Wisner 41

should show how deeply drawn to his esoteric teachings many who disagreed with his
racial ideologies were. His attempts to network to and ally himself with all traditions he
perceived to be Western were, in the end, most fruitful among the practitioners of the
sabbatic craft, and the connections he fostered to the ideologies of the burgeoning pagan
revivals of the late 20th century will show this duly.

Maintained connections: sabbatic and Sangreal survivals

The two shorter networks within the longer network of Western esotericism that
most strongly connected to Gray in the present are the sabbatic witchcraft tradition and
Grays own (admittedly less well-known) Sangreal Sodality. Gray networked robust
connections with notable figures in the early years of the sabbatic craft tradition,
including its founder Roy Bowers. Perhaps Grays deep disillusionment with the modern
world was what gave him such an easy affinity with the pagan revivalists and
reconstructionist movements. Certainly, Grays traditionalist approach to Western
traditions would have been sympathetic to the intellectual context of many mid-20th
century pagan and witch groups. The intellectual camaraderie between Gray and Roy
Bowers cannot be made more clearly than through Bowers own letters to Gray, and the
subsequent elucidations of Bowers works by his followers after his death. In fact, the
working group for Grays Occult Seasonal Rituals was comprised of William and Bobby
Gray, and at least Patricia Crowther and her future husband.162 In The Roebuck in the
Thicket: An Anthology of the Robert Cochrane Witchcraft Tradition, Mike Howard
claims that Gray worked with not just Bowers and the Crowthers, but also Sybil Leek and
Doreen Valiente.163 He dedicates several pages of the introduction of Bowers magical
tradition to discussing Gray as a major magical player of Cochranes life.164 The two
were likely cross-pollinating ideas between each other, though this remains relatively
obscure as only Bowers half of the letters are available publicly.165
In his short appraisal of Gray, Howard summarizes a chapter of Grays Western
Inner Workings (misquoted as Western Inner Traditions) in which Gray provides an

162
E J Jones & R Cochrane, The Roebuck in the Thicket: An Anthology of the Robert Cochrane Witchcraft
Tradition, ed. M Howard, Capall Bann Publishing, Somerset, 2001, p. 20.
163
Ibid., p. 20.
164
Ibid., pp. 19-25.
165
Again, for Bowers half the letters to Gray see < http://www.cyberwitch.com/bowers/>.
 Wisner 42

elucidation of the worldview and rituals of the Clan of Tubal Cain as an anonymous
pagan group of West Country origin.166 Gray gives a fine explication of sabbatic
witchcraft, though throughout he refers to them as pagans, contrary to their self-
identification as witches.167 He provides a basic description of their pantheon, makes
explicit how these pagans are not Satanic witches, delineates their calendar year of
celebrations against the typical astrological festivities of the equinoxes and solstices, and
relays a variety of their prayers and rituals.168 The most explicit connections to Bowers
Clan come through the ritualized Mill and Maze dances and the depiction of the stang
or bifurcated staff which functions as the focal point of the Clans circular gathers.169 He
also focuses on their use of the castle image as the spiritual stronghold of the Clan
encircled by the rings of Life, Death and Time.170 His inclusion of the witchs Clan
alongside Abramelin operations, Rosicrucian and Grail mythos, Christian mysticism, and
Melchizedekian orders in the first volume of his Sangreal Sodality Series shows that he
sought to create a total tradition of Western practitioners in the esoteric cultural
netowrkhe wanted to make a Mystery that could encompass all esoteric discourses he
saw as Westernthrough his Sodality of Royal Blood.
Grays personal order, the Sangreal Sodality, still exists presently though its
public presence is small even within the occult community, and its presence with reliable
points of contact has been sporadic since Grays death. With Jacobus Swart as the only
reliable point of contact, the Sodality is presently headquartered in South Africa. The US
cell, Japanese cell, and Oceanic cells have all gone silent, with the Affiliated Temples
and Lodges, section of their website still Under Construction.171 Besides a very low-
traffic Yahoo! group, the Sodalitys webpage is the only apparent current Sangreal entity
that offers any live connection to practitioners. The Sodality continues to publish Grays
works on a much smaller scale than while Gray was still alive, but nevertheless the

166
The Roebuck in the Thicket, pp. 20-24; W Gray, The Sangreal Sodality Series Vol. 1: Western Inner
Workings, Samuel Weiser, Inc., York Beach, 1983, pp 139-56.
167
The Roebuck in the Thicket, p. 21.
168
Western Inner Workings, pp. 140-1, 145-9, 154-5.
169
Ibid., pp. 148-9, 151.
170
Ibid., pp. 147.
171
The Sangreal Sodalitys website and bookstore can be found at < http://www.sangrealsodality.com/
site/>.
 Wisner 43

Sodality is continuing to propagate the creation of new connections between nodes in the
Western esoteric cultural network through the publications of Jacobus Swart.
Grays successes in producing lasting connections in the esoteric network can be
seen through the discursive influence he had on the sabbatic craft and the continuing
work of his Sangreal Sodality. With Grays claims to ancient, universal traditions of
esoteric knowledge, his frequent utilization of academic psychology and anthropology
from his time in the 20th century, and his very conscious attempt to demonstrate methods
in constructing magical traditions, his modernized tradition seemed to bear renewed
import. Discursive connections to Gray still manifest through publications like Shani
Oates Tubelos Green Fire. And though the mention of a magical Sodality of
Witchblood and a Sodality of Sacred Flesh and Blood comprised of sabbatic craft
practitioners in Andrew Chumbleys Azotia would seem to harbor some of Grays
blood-based identity membership, this text also circulates in shorter esoteric networks.172
Through connection to the sabbatic craft and the individuals he networked with in the
wider scheme of esotericism in general, we can see that it was not Grays racialist
doctrines that were the most robust, but rather the discursive identity elements bolstered
with the modern legitimating support of anthropology, psychology and traditionalism that
proved the longest lasting connections.

Conclusion
We set out in this paper to answer the question, How did Grays conception of
the Western esoteric tradition successfully build and maintain connections in the cultural
network of 20th century Western esotericism despite his unpopular racial doctrines?
The answer to this question is two-fold: one side is the approach he took to networking,
and on the other is the approach he took in developing his ideology. A key strength of
Grays attempt to network together Western esoteric ideologies and practitioners was the
breadth and variety of individuals he contacted. In the framework of ANT, the diverse
personal connections he developed was one of the most important aspects to the
endurance of his conception of the esoteric tradition. Had his personal network been
shorter, his tendency to break off contacts would have profoundly stunted the reach of his

172
A Chumbley, Azoetia, Xoanon, Cheshire, 2002, pp. 3, 18, 37.
 Wisner 44

ideas. Through the interrelation of several disciplines, Grays ideas were able to maintain
their own connections through subsequently developed esoteric discourses.
In legitimating his tradition in the context of those that came before him, Gray
utilizes all three Renaissance models of history through the ancient authority of the
Sacred Kings (prisca theologia), the universal and eternal nature of esoteric teachings as
presented in his tradition (philosophia perrenis) and an evolutional framing of history and
magical practice as pushing mankind progressively toward the goal of attaining Immortal
Identity (pia philosophia).
Though Gray may have been largely contrary with regard to other people, his
tradition was highly compatible with the desire for an overarching Western tradition
through his universalizing and modernizing strategies relying on academic anthropology
and psychology in tandem with traditionalism. Grays biologically grounded racist
ideologies, though perhaps the impetus behind his creation of a comprehensive Western
esoteric tradition, were the weakest of his connections in longer esoteric networks. The
relative success of his conception of the Western esoteric tradition came more strongly
through his interrelation of esoteric, anthropological and psychological discourses with
traditionalism. The East-West conflict Gray saw an inevitable has yet to commence, and
likewise the unified modern tradition of Western esoteric practitioners he sought to
manifest has not come to fruition either. Conversely, the networks Gray wove together
from a variety of esoteric circles have matured, and concepts like the holy blood
connected with the Grail mythos and Western traditionalism have seen great expansion,
forming more robust connection to mainstream Western culture.173
Grays invented tradition did manage to synthesize a number of shorter Western
esoteric discourses and networks into a single conception of the Western tradition, and
this fact is attested to by the diverse writings of esoteric practitioners like Alan
Richardson, Marcus Claridge, R J Stewart, Mike Howard and Garth Knight.174 Though

173
For instance, the renewed interest in Native British and Celtic myths in the 1990s, and the symbolic
themes in popular books like Holy Blood, Holy Grail and The Da Vinci Code. Though definitive
connections between the authors of the aforementioned works and Gray are not apparent, similarities like
the Grail as a being not an object, and Sang Graal/Sangreal or holy blood as central symbolic features
tied to the Grail personage are notable.
174
R J Stewart, Celebrating the Male Mysteries, Arcania, Bath, 1991; G Knight, The Archetype of
Merlin, The Blue Stones of Merlin, Merlin and Nimue, The Book of Merlin, ed. R J Stewart, Blandford
Press, London, 1989, pp. 55-79.
 Wisner 45

his comprehensive personal network of practitioners could not withstand the vitriol of his
personality or the vehemence of his racial doctrines, Grays ideas remain deeply
networked within the circles of sabbatic witchcraft and late 20th century Celtic
revivalism, despite lurking beneath the surface of both.
Though Grays version of the Western esoteric tradition was disadvantaged by his
racialist ideologies, in the end the networked strength and relatively successful
connectiveness of his invented tradition in the cultural actor-network of Western
esotericism grew most successfully through his uniquely woven blend of Western
esotericism, traditionalism, and academic discourses. Gray built soundly networked links
between individual actors he frequently helped foster intellectually through discourse,
conceptual explication of the invention of tradition, and formation of esoteric (and not
racial) identity in the subsequent generation of nodes in the esoteric web.
 Wisner 46

Appendix A
Gray in Sangreal ritual attire
<http://www.sangrealsodality.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=24&Itemid=24>
 Wisner 47

Appendix B:
Example of a Sangreal Temple from the Sangreal Sodality webpage, at
<http://www.sangrealsodality.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=24&Itemid=24>
 Wisner 48

Appendix C: Grays attribution of Tarot cards to the Tree of Life

from Qabalistic Concepts p. 223.
 Wisner 49

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