The Frosts – Pedophiles in our Midst

Not too long ago I wrote an article about sexual predators in the community and how we need to deal with these people through intolerance, confrontation, and talking about the perpetrators. In that vain I’d like to talk about the two most famous and well-respected living sexual predators in the international community, Gavin and Yvonne Frost.

To start Gavin and Yvonne Frost have stated that they will sue anyone for libel who makes false accusations about them (and I’m assuming that this is in regards to their spiritual pedophilia). So for full disclosure I will say that I have no evidence that either of them have ever committed a sexual crime. If I did I would be calling the FBI right now. What I do have, and why I consider them pedophiles, is a book authored by both Gavin and Yvonne Frost entitled the Witch’s Bible, and particularly the initiation ritual within that book, first published in 1972, republished as the Good Witch’s Bible in 1976, and republished again in a revised edition in 1999. Through out this article I’ll also refer to another article written by the Frosts, Going Public, and to articles they’ve posted on their blog, which so far are the only statements I have found from the Frosts themselves dealing with the allegations of pedophilia. Apparently there was also an article published in an issue of Green Egg, but I don’t even know which issue so finding it seems impossible.

To start, if you don’t know who Gavin and Yvonne Frost are they’re some of the most popular living authors inside of Wicca. They founded the Church and School of Wicca in 1969, and claim that they are the founders of the entire Wiccan religion (this goes hand in hand with claims that Gardner and Saunders did not practice Wicca and the Wicca religion didn’t actually exist until the founding of the Church of Wicca in ’69). They have authored numerous books on Wicca and have offered various correspondence courses in Wicca since the 70s.

The Frost’s have had a lot of controversy surrounding them for different reasons. They claim that just about every independent researcher on the subject is incorrect about Gerald Gardner founding Wicca and Raymond Buckland bringing it into the United States, as both of these acts were supposedly done by the Frosts. They were also against homosexuality and allowing homosexuals into Wicca, a position they later recanted. None of this crap really matters to me though. What does concern me is the biggest piece of controversy they’ve had, that they wrote an initiation ritual published in 1972 in the Witch’s Bible (and from what I hear also included in their correspondence course at one time) which encouraged pedophilia and incest.

Since then the Frost’s have remained unapologetic about the ritual. Most of their arguments in defense of the chapter are deflections that never address the real issue, the molestation of a minor.

The Frosts also have lots of powerful friends in the community. Notably the late author Isaac Bonewitz and owner and editor of Green Egg magazine Oberon Zell. They also have many detractors, such as author Raymond Buckland, author Lady Sheba, and author A.J. Drew, the last of which started a campaign against the Frosts because of that chapter a few years back.

So what did the Frosts write that was so appalling? The ritual is a bit different depending on if you’re male or female. It does however use the term child extensively, and it states that a child is ready for this ritual when they begin puberty, or rather when “the physical attributes of reproduction are present”. Drew claims that this includes children as young as ten years old, since a minority of children will begin puberty at this age. Most of us started puberty around twelve or thirteen though, and this is actually the average age. Bonewitz however made the claim that traditionally the age would be around fifteen or sixteen. Whatever the age is, the ritual is appalling.

To begin, the child is given a sponsor, which is usually the most recent initiate into the group of an opposite gender, however a special sponsor may be chosen if there is too large a difference in age or physique.

Prior to the ritual, at the youngest age possible, boys will have their penis circumcised and girls meanwhile will have their hymen broken, either surgically or at home by their mothers.

The girls are given two wooden phalluses (dildos) of different sizes and instructions on how to use them in order to prepare their vaginas for sexual intercourse over a period of one month. It’s also stated that they should be helped by their father or sponsor if they have any pain or difficulty using them.

The boys meanwhile receive instructions from their sponsors on how to have sex and what will be expected of them during initiation.

Then the children undergo a three day fast eating only bread, honey, and water. During that time they are shown a demonstration of two people having sex.

The ritual begins robed with some talk after which the initiate, a child with zero tolerance that has been starved for three days, is given a full glass of mead to drink. The child then disrobes, there is some more talking, and then they dance naked with their sponsor. After that the child and their sponsor leave the circle area and have sex with each other.

Some actual quotations from this chapter:

“It is hoped by Wicca that the first full sexual experience will take place in the plesant surroundings of the coven and that the spiritual as well as the physical aspects of the experience will lead the child to a complete life.”

“The horror stories through which the Establishment attempts to downgrade this aspect of Wicca and the threatened terrible consequences of obeying natural instincts cause Wicca to more time and trouble in preparation for the sexual experience than of old.”

“At the last sabbat or eshbat before the initiation, the female novice is given the sacred phallus and the instruction sheet in Table 5 so that she can learn to insert and remove the phallus quickly and comfortably.   She is also taught how she should lie and what she should do during the initiation ceremony.”

“We would like you to be initiated at the next coven meeting, which will take place on …. This means that, excluding your menstruation time, you have three weeks to prepare your muscles for introitus.  Your father or your sponsor will help you if you have any difficulties or pain.”

In 1999 (over twenty years after the book was first published) the Frosts added an introduction to this chapter, that among other things said that people shouldn’t be initiated in this way until they were 18. The actual disclaimer read “This chapter describes some of the more controversial practices of the old path taught in the earliest days of the Church and School of Wicca. No formal initiation into a group that practices the great rite should be done before the candidate attains the age of eighteen.” Despite the fact that there is now a disclaimer, this ritual for children entering puberty was espoused by the Frosts in their book for over twenty years, and the disclaimer itself states that it was a practice taught in the early days of the Church of Wicca. The initiation ritual itself remains unchanged.

The introduction goes over some issues with later rituals in chapter four, but they eventually come back to the initiation ritual and their defense of it. In it they equate this initiation procedure to sexual education, and talk about how fathers can’t bathe their children without being accused of molestation.

You might think I’m making all of this up or quoting things out of context. After all, it seems unbelievable that people as well respected and famous in the community as the Frosts would ever have published something like this. So I would implore you to read the initiation ritual in The Good Witch’s Bible. Don’t buy their book, but the offending ritual, and the 1999 introduction, are available in their entirety at this website.

I’ve scoured the Internet looking for some sort of response from the Frosts that explains this chapter. I’ve been looking for somewhere where they say they were quoted out of context or the ritual was never meant to be performed. I haven’t found that. What I have found is a lot of deflection and a lot of attacks aimed at their accusers.

To start the Frosts claim that attacking them over this is a violation of the Wiccan Rede. That is laughable. I don’t personally like the Three-Fold Law and I don’t think it has any spiritual validity, but this is by far the most bullshit interpretation of it I’ve ever seen. It’s the idea that pointing out that someone has admitted to being a pedophile by writing a ritual for others to use which involves child molestation is somehow against the Wiccan belief to harm none. Fortunately I’m not obligated to follow any interpretation of the rede, but I’d say that raping children is a far greater violation than tattling on someone for raping children. The Frosts then go on to state that anyone who would attack them is not a real Wiccan or Pagan. I don’t believe that’s true, but if it were I think that most moral and sane people who aren’t child molesters would rather not be labeled a real Wiccan or Pagan if that involved allowing child molesters to do what they do.

In their article, going public, particularly the section Wiccan vs Wiccan the Frosts deflect and obscure the issue while discussing the controversy around the Witch’s Bible. The Frosts claim they teach sex magic, and that’s what people take issue with, and never bring up the fact that they encouraged the sexual initiation of children. They describe a ritual they did between consenting adults, and state that they couldn’t get away with such a ritual today because of the rumor mill and people trying to regulate consensual sex among adult Wiccans.

This is a common tactic employed by the Frosts. They claim they are being persecuted because people have hang-ups about sex magic, or are trying to regulate ritual sexual activity between consensual adults. They talk about how society has changed and parents can no longer bathe their children. This whole controversy has nothing to do with sex magic, skyclad practices, or any kind of sexual activity between consenting adults. There are a lot of people in the community doing this, and no one gets upset about them. In fact even though Wicca may have become a bit more conservative since the free love consequence free sexcapades of the 70s, it is still incredibly liberal in terms of the general acceptance of alternative sexual practices among members. What this issue has always been about is the ritual sexual initiation of children which they wrote in a published book which is still in print today.

The Frosts also state that this controversy has actually caused their book to be more popular and sell more copies. While researching this article I came across a blog post written for parents about common tactics used by pedophiles so they could educate their children. A pedophile responded by thanking the author for giving him new ideas to prey upon children with. The author remarked that this is a common tactic used by pedophiles, to state that people speaking out against them and educating the general public about them are somehow helping them to try to scare the person into silence. It seems as if the Frosts are using the exact same tactic here.

The Frosts also responded to these allegations in a series of blog posts. In the first post, Witch Wars and their Cost, they label AJ Drew’s campaign against them as a Witch War. They also claim that these attacks directed against them harm their ability to do good in the community. The Frosts have done good in the community in the past, I won’t argue that. But that doesn’t make them exempt from being punished for their horrific acts, nor should we allow people to do horrific things because they sometimes do good things. In fact I don’t want these people doing good acts in the magical community. I don’t want them to be a part of the magical community. I don’t even want them to be a part of American society. Unfortunately they so far haven’t been caught breaking any laws, so there’s nothing that can be done about that.

The Frosts end the blog post by saying that the people who really gain from this are the Christian right wing Bush-run theocracy. Crazy liberal bullshit, but I would have to counter that the thing that is letting the Christian right win are self proclaimed Wiccans who write rituals that involve child molestation, not responsible Pagans who speak out against them.

Their second article on the subject, Frost and Sex – Intacta, claims that the controversy is due to their encouragement of breaking the hymen surgically. It’s filled with historically inaccurate facts, but the main point here is the controversy has nothing to do with the hymen breaking, it has to do with the child molestation.

The final article they post deals with teenage sex education. Once again they try to label their initiation ritual as teenage sex education and an introduction to sex. I guess molesting children is sort of sex education, but they never explicitly mention that is the sort of sex education they’re talking about.

From there their information becomes insane. At one point they claim that 90% of teenage girls in this country are single moms. Think about that, 9 out of 10 teenage girls have children. That statistic is completely unbelievable to anyone who has ever gone outside. Keep in mind that teenage means 13-19, so even if all of the girls aged 14 and older have children, a large number of 13 year olds also have to have children to make this statistic work. Keep in mind too that married teenagers with children are part of the 10%, not the 90%, since they aren’t single moms. Seriously though it’s insane to suggest that even 50% of the 19 year olds in this country have children, because if you just talk to some people in that age range it becomes clear that isn’t true.

The Frosts then go on to discuss pregnancy parties where boys and girls get together in an orgy to do all the sex they can stand so the girls can get pregnant and have no idea who the father is. This is an urban myth. This is not happening. There are very few teenage girls out there who want to get pregnant. There’s definitely not enough to support this kind of party in one single location, let alone an epidemic of these parties sweeping the nation. Parties like this (and other sexual activities like rainbow parties) are common urban myths, but there’s never been any proof that they actually happen. For the most part kids are kids and although they may sometimes have sex they are not that sexually active on their own. They tend to be more conservative, explorative, shy, and afraid than adults. Orgies are largely the domain of old and unattractive people, and for most sexually active teens the scariest thing in the world is ending up with a baby.

All of this is a scare tactic though designed to make us think society will fall apart unless we embrace a more open method of sexual education and permissiveness for our children like the sex education taught by the Frosts which they have received so much controversy for. What is never explicitly stated though is that the method they endorse involves child molestation. It involves a father teaching his young daughter by using a dildo on her. It involves the child being shown live sex acts. And it involves the child being intoxicated and then expected to fornicate with another child in a ritual setting.

Some people argue that going after the Frosts like this is bad for the community. After all we have been accused of the ritual abuse of children, and coming out and saying that two of the most revered members of the community are ritual child abusers sort of makes all of the Christian fanatics right.

I’d argue that isn’t the case. Damage has definitely been done to the magical community here in this regard, but that damage was perpetrated by the Frosts when they wrote a ritual that involved the ritual abuse of children. However at this point what is damaging us is continuing to respect these people, allowing them to hold a position within the community, and trying to hide what they’ve done.

Here’s an interesting fact. Among Catholic priests there is a lower percentage of pedophiles than in the general population. Your child is far safer from sexual abuse being left alone with a Catholic priest you know than with a complete stranger. There are pedophiles everywhere and in every religion, and from time to time they’re going to show up in the magical and Pagan communities. The problem with the Catholic Church was not that their religion somehow caused their religious leaders to become pedophiles. The problem was that once the pedophiles were identified, the Church tried to hide it, and in doing so supported and encouraged the behavior.

Every time a Christian fanatic wants to call us all child molesters, the Frosts have given them a book they can point to. A book written by a pair that claim to be the founders of Wicca, who are regarded by many as elders, who are respected in the community, and who are positioning themselves in a place of power and authority within the national and international communities.

What we need to do is say that these people are sick and deranged fucks who have appropriated aspects of our spirituality and its name and perverted it, that we do not approve of these people, we do not respect them or their teachings, and we don’t want them as part of our community.

Some others have also claimed that although the Frosts published the ritual they do not know of it ever having been practiced, that no one has ever been hurt by it, and that all posts like this do is smear the good name of two respected Wiccan elders. I’d counter that just writing the ritual hurts all of us in the community, but there actually is an instance of rape within a Frost chartered church.

There’s a fellow named John Todd who went back and forth between being involved in various alternative religions and working for Jack Chic coming out against those same religions before finally being imprisoned for rape and child molestation. He’s clearly a very sick and deluded individual. In the 1970s, before all of the raping and in between periods of working with Chic, he opened an occult bookstore and got a charter for his group from the Frosts’ Church of Wicca.  An underage girl in that coven reported to police that she was forced to attend rituals skyclad and engage in oral sex with Todd. Gavin Frost and Bonewitz supposedly investigated the incident and revoked the Church’s charter after discovering numerous instances of underage sex and drugs. This is the proper thing to do in a situation like this, but it should be noted that the Frosts only took action after the activities had been reported to police and an official investigation was being done by law enforcement.

It’s important to note too that although Todd had a history of psychological issues prior to starting that coven (which was why he was discharged from the military), he was not known to have raped or molested anyone prior to working with the Frosts’ teachings and starting a group with their charter. Now we have a psychologically unstable and delusional person who has not only been allowed a position of leadership in their group but has also been handed an initiation ritual that involves child molestation. Surprise, surprise, he ends up raping young girls. So yes, some people have definitely been hurt, the members of John Todd’s coven.

And just because no one else has ever been caught it doesn’t mean that this initiation ritual has never been used by any other group. Not only was this presented as an initiation ritual for members of the Church and School of Wicca, which has many members, but it was also printed in a book which could be bought by non-initiates who wanted to learn and practice Wicca.  It’s hard to believe that Todd is the only instance where this happened. In fact there have been claims of this ritual occurring outside of Todd’s group, although I haven’t found any evidence besides hearsay.

So what can be done about the Frosts? When Mr Drew tried to expose the Frosts years ago he went about it in a very extremist fashion, and made a lot of enemies because of it. His attacks on innocent third parties in the matter for not fully supporting him, burning effigies of the Frosts, and his own issues with certain members of the community gave the Frosts, and their supporters, the very fuel they needed to deflect the issue and turn the situation into an attack against Mr Drew, and by proxy anyone who came out against them as mindless supporters of Mr Drew. He managed to make the community a little bit more aware of the Frosts, but did almost as much to hurt his cause as help it.

What we need to do is simply not tolerate these people and speak out against them. This means not supporting them financially, not supporting companies that support them, and speaking out against them. To do this we can:

1. Obviously don’t buy any book written by Gaven and Yvonne Frost and don’t buy correspondence classes from their School of Wicca or buy any books published by their publishing label Godolphin Books.

2. If you notice their book in your local occult bookstore, ask to speak with the owner or manager and inform them about Chapter IV of the Witch’s Bible and give them the relevant information they need to look it up. Just because they own an occult bookstore doesn’t mean they’re all knowing and have read everything they sell. Also tell them that if they continue to carry books written by the Frosts you’ll have to take your business elsewhere, and you’ll suggest to your friends that they do the same. Magical communities are very small and brick and mortar bookstores operate with low profit margins, so even a boycott by a small fraction of the local community can bankrupt these small stores.

3. If you notice their books in a local chain store, like Borders, ask to speak with the manager and inform them that the Frosts have published pedophiliac literature in the past (if they actually carry the Good Witch’s Bible, have the manager read some of the offending passages). More than likely they’ll claim they have no control over ordering, so ask for the number of someone who does. You may get bounced around a lot, but that’s good. The more employees you bring this up to the better. One complaining customer may not make a difference, so the more waves each of us can make in these companies the better our chances of getting these authors removed from store shelves. Be sure to mention your spiritual path and the fact that you’re a customer of their occult/metaphysical section. Also mention the fact that if they continue to carry these titles, you will be boycotting them and suggest to your friends that they do the same.

4. Write to the publishers of their books and tell them that you’re going to boycott all books published by them if they continue to publish titles by the Frosts. Right now the Frosts are published by their own label Godolphin Books, which is pointless to write to, just boycott it, Weiser Books, and Reward Books, which I can’t find any online information about.

5. If you notice an online retailer you use, like Azure Green, is carrying their books, write to them and inform them of the material in chapter IV of the Good Witch’s Bible and tell them that you’ll take your business elsewhere if they continue to carry this book.

6. Do not hire or allow the Frosts to speak at any event you have control over. Also don’t attend any events that they are appearing at. If you notice they will be speaking at an event near you or one that you’d like to go to, contact the event organizers and inform them that you will not be attending because of the Frosts and tell them you’ll be recommending your friends do the same.

7. Talk about the Frosts and Chapter IV with your friends. Talk about it at any groups you attend in your local community. If you have a website or blog, write a post about the Frosts and chapter IV of the Witch’s Bible. Try to convince others not to support the Frosts and to join you in your efforts against them.

8. Remember to always be polite when dealing with people. Use words such as please and thank you and speak with a nice tone, even when someone disagrees with you or refuses to comply. Don’t expect stores and publishers to stop supporting these authors just because you complained. It’s only once a lot of people complain that these companies will take notice. And if you get angry with them, they’ll ignore you. If you’re nice they may not instantly do what you want, but they’ll make a note that someone was upset.

9. If someone does try to argue with you and defend the Frosts, simply point out chapter IV of the Witch’s Bible. Show them exactly what it says. The ritual itself is indefensible and the Frosts openly claim they wrote it. Don’t be dragged down into name-calling, making personal attacks against Frost supporters, or advocating physical or magical attacks against the Frosts. That is the sort of thing Mr Drew did, and it ultimately hurt his cause.