Mary Ellen Tracy (aka Sabrina Aset) (born 1943) is the high priestess of the Church of the Most High Goddess, who was convicted in 1989 of a single misdemeanor count of running a house of prostitution in connection with the operation of the church, located in

West Los Angeles West Los Angeles is an area within the city of Los Angeles, California. The residential and commercial neighborhood is divided by the Interstate 405 freeway, and each side is sometimes treated as a distinct neighborhood, mapped differently by di ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. Tracy is a graduate of the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, i ...

, cum laude in chemistry, did graduate work in chemistry at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

, and received her masters in

Environmental Sciences Environmental science is an interdisciplinary academic field that integrates physics, biology, and geography (including ecology, chemistry, plant science, zoology, mineralogy, oceanography, limnology, soil science, geology and physical geo ...

/ Chemistry from

Portland State University Portland State University (PSU) is a public research university in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in 1946 as a post-secondary educational institution for World War II veterans. It evolved into a four-year college over the following two decad ...

The Church

According to Mary Ellen and Wilbur Tracy, the couple – both former devout and dedicated Mormons – created and founded the Modern Egyptian neo-pagan Church of the Most High Goddess following a

divine Divinity or the divine are things that are either related to, devoted to, or proceeding from a deity.divine< ...

revelation In religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing of some form of truth or knowledge through communication with a deity or other supernatural entity or entities. Background Inspiration – such as that bestowed by God on the ...

received at an oceanside cottage in

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to i ...

, California, in the year 1984. In testimony later given in a

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

superior court, Wilbur Tracy described "a brilliant light," through which "knowledge was being poured in without voice." Tracy further claimed that

God In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...

appeared to him as an old man, with flowing white beard and long white hair.

On April 24, 1984, in broad daylight, I had a revelation that changed my life and the way I perceive the world and others. However, because I was blinded by the ignorance of the modern education, which I foolishly accepted as knowledge, I did not immediately understand the full impact of the revelation. I failed to understand that the mind can perceive only what the mind can conceive. What I experienced was beyond my conception, while my perception was completely distorted by what I had been taught was enlightenment. It was only when I set aside my prejudices – those beliefs which I had been conditioned to accept as fact, but which were in fact false – that I began to understand the experience.

As a result of their alleged divine experience, Mary Ellen and Wilbur Tracy founded the Church of the Most High Goddess, with precepts based on their own research into ancient

Egyptian Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...

practices. Tracy, a

classical scholar Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

in her own right, assumed the role of High Priestess of the church, whose

divine Divinity or the divine are things that are either related to, devoted to, or proceeding from a deity.divine< ...

duties included engaging in sexual intercourse with congregants. According to Tracy herself, she had sex with over 2,000 men as part of a ritual of spiritual cleansing. In a post on her church's website, Tracy, who is bisexual, stated that she had had sexual contact with thousands of men and women over the course of her religious activities. As a result of her various legal difficulties, Mary Ellen Tracy was asked to permanently discontinue her voluntary work with the ''Placerita Canyon Nature Center'' in Newhall, California. During the late 1980s, ''The Newhall Signal'', a

daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports ...

published in Los Angeles County, presented a series of articles about the Church of the Most High Goddess, founded by Mary Ellen Tracy and her husband Wilbur Tracy, where sexual acts played a fundamental role in the church's sacred rites. The articles aroused the attention of local law enforcement officials, and in April 1989, the Tracy's house was searched and the couple arrested on charges of

pimping Procuring or pandering is the facilitation or provision of a prostitute or other sex worker in the arrangement of a sex act with a customer. A procurer, colloquially called a pimp (if male) or a madam (if female, though the term pimp has still ...

, pandering and prostitution. They were subsequently

convicted In law, a conviction is the verdict reached by a court of law finding a defendant guilty of a crime. The opposite of a conviction is an acquittal (that is, "not guilty"). In Scotland, there can also be a verdict of " not proven", which is co ...

in a trial in state court and sentenced to jail terms: Wilbur Tracy for 180 days plus a $1,000.00 fine; Mary Ellen Tracy for 90 days plus mandatory screening for STDs.

Film and television

During the early 1990s, Mary Ellen Tracy hosted her own

public-access television Public-access television is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is narrowcast through cable television specialty channels. Public-access television was creat ...

talk show series, ''Sabrina On ... ''. She has also appeared in a number of

x-rated An X rating is a rating used in various countries to classify films that have content deemed suitable only for adults. It is used when the violent or sexual content of a film is considered to be potentially disturbing to general audiences. Aust ...

films under a variety of stage names, including the ''Positively Pagan'' series, and ''Club Head 2'' (1991). On January 29, 1992, Mary Ellen Tracy was featured on a

television broadcast A television network or television broadcaster is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay television providers. Until the mid-1 ...

of ''

Donahue Donahue is the Americanized version of Irish surname Donohoe, which, in turn, is an Anglicized version of the ancient Irish name "Donnchadh" (sometimes "Donncha"). Donncha was a common “first name” in 9th Century Ireland, and when the use of ...

'', as well as ''

The Montel Williams Show ''The Montel Williams Show'' (also known as ''Montel'') is an American syndicated tabloid talk show, hosted by Montel Williams, which ran from 1991 to 2008. On January 30, 2008, the end of production of new episodes of ''The Montel Williams S ...

'', appearing with such other New-Age spiritualists as

Aidan Kelly Aidan A. Kelly (born October 22, 1940) is an American academic, poet and influential figure in the Neopagan religion of Wicca. Having developed his own branch of the faith, the New Reformed Orthodox Order of the Golden Dawn, during the 1960s, he wa ...

, First Officer of the ''Southern California Local Council of the

Covenant of the Goddess The Covenant of the Goddess (CoG) is a cross-traditional Wiccan group of solitary Wiccan practitioners and over one hundred affiliated covens (or congregations). It was founded in 1975 in order to increase co-operation among witches and to secure ...

'', and Avilynn Waters of the ''Los Angeles Nest of the

Church of All Worlds The Church of All Worlds (CAW) is an American Neopagan religious group whose stated mission is to evolve a network of information, mythology, and experience that provides a context and stimulus for reawakening Gaia and reuniting her children thr ...

''.

References

External links

Website for Sabrina Aset (Mary Ellen Tracy)''A Feminine Feminist'' by Sabrina Aset, High Priestess of the Church of The Most High Goddess
*

*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110711002545/http://ca.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.%5CCA%5CPLS%5C1996%5C19960828_0178.ca.htm/qx Find A Case: August 28, 1996 Sabrina ASET et al., Appellants v. Gil Garcetti, as District Attorney, etc., Appellant Appeal from Second Appellate District, Division 4, No. B087160]
Novelguide.com: Witchcraft and Neo-Paganism
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tracy, Mary Ellen 1943 births 21st-century American chemists American modern pagans American television hosts Converts to pagan religions Former Latter Day Saints Kemetism Living people Founders of modern pagan movements University of Miami alumni American women television presenters 21st-century American women Bisexual actresses American LGBT broadcasters LGBT clergy

The Church

Film and television

See also

References

External links