The Order of Woodcraft Chivalry is a
scouting
Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement employing the Scout method, a program of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activities, including camping, woodcraft, aquatics, hiking, backpacking ...
-like movement operating in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
, which was founded in 1916 by Ernest Westlake. It was inspired by
Ernest Thompson Seton
Ernest Thompson Seton (born Ernest Evan Thompson August 14, 1860 – October 23, 1946) was an English-born Canadian-American author, wildlife artist, founder of the Woodcraft Indians in 1902 (renamed Woodcraft League of America), and one of ...
's
Woodcraft Indians
Woodcraft League of America, originally called the Woodcraft Indians and League of Woodcraft Indians, is a youth program, established by Ernest Thompson Seton in 1901. Despite the name, the program was created for non-Native American in the United ...
, and Seton was its honorary Grand Chieftain. Whilst largely being contemporary to
Baden-Powell's Scouting movement, it differed from it in that it does not have the perceived military overtones of Scouting, instead focusing on the virtues of kindness, fellowship and woodcraft. The Order was small compared to Scouts, having only 1,200 members by 1926.
By the 1950s it had ceased to have a major public presence. It still exists (2016) as a semi-formal network of personal friends with historic family links to the original formal organisation, with little interest in publicity and few surviving overt connections with the
Woodcraft Folk
Woodcraft Folk is a UK-based educational Youth organisations in the United Kingdom, movement for children and young people. Founded in 1925 and grown by volunteers, it has been a registered charity since 1965 Registered Charity since 2013. and a ...
or the
Forest School Camps
Forest School Camps (FSC) is an organization that is aimed primarily at children between the ages of 6 and 17. FSC has camps running throughout the year, the main ones lasting 13 nights during late July and August, with one week and weekend camps a ...
.
The Order accepted many premises of
Neopaganism
Modern paganism, also known as contemporary paganism and neopaganism, is a term for a religion or family of religions influenced by the various Paganism, historical pre-Christian beliefs of pre-modern peoples in Europe and adjacent areas of No ...
. It has been suggested by writer Steve Wilson that it provided the basis for the
New Forest coven
The New Forest coven were an alleged group of witches who met around the area of the New Forest in southern England during the early 20th century. According to his own claims, in September 1939, a British occultist named Gerald Gardner was initi ...
, and through that the Neopagan religion of
Wicca
Wicca () is a modern Pagan religion. Scholars of religion categorise it as both a new religious movement and as part of the occultist stream of Western esotericism. It was developed in England during the first half of the 20th century and was ...
.
History
Founding
Westlake was a
naturalist, anthropologist and traveller of
Quaker
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
upbringing, however in 1909 he began to fault Quakerism and extol the "old gods" of
paganism
Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christianity, early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions ot ...
. He was inspired by authors such as
Edward Carpenter
Edward Carpenter (29 August 1844 – 28 June 1929) was an English utopian socialist, poet, philosopher, anthologist, an early activist for gay rightsWarren Allen Smith: ''Who's Who in Hell, A Handbook and International Directory for Human ...
,
Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, Prose poetry, prose poet, cultural critic, Philology, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philo ...
,
Havelock Ellis
Henry Havelock Ellis (2 February 1859 – 8 July 1939) was an English physician, eugenicist, writer, progressive intellectual and social reformer who studied human sexuality. He co-wrote the first medical textbook in English on homosexuality in ...
,
Jane Ellen Harrison
Jane Ellen Harrison (9 September 1850 – 15 April 1928) was a British classics, classical scholar and linguistics, linguist. Harrison is one of the founders, with Karl Kerenyi and Walter Burkert, of modern studies in Ancient Greek religio ...
,
Tylor Tylor is an English surname and given name meaning “tiler”.
Tylor (surname)
*Charles Tylor (1816–1902), British minister and author
*Edward Burnett Tylor (1832–1917), British anthropologist
*Jud Tylor (born 1979), Canadian actress
*Mary Tyl ...
and
Frazer, and saw the Order as saving people from "the cul de sac of intellectualized religion" and reviving the "greater Hellas" of modern civilisation. He saw women as incarnations of God, to be "worshipped in spirit and in truth"; he revered the
Jack-in-the-Green
Jack in the Green, also known as Jack o' the Green, is an England, English folk custom associated with the celebration of May Day. It involves a pyramidal or conical wicker or wooden framework that is decorated with foliage being worn by a perso ...
, which he considered to be the English equivalent of
Dionysus
In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; grc, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity, and theatre. The Romans ...
, and held that the "Trinity of Woodcraft" consisted of
Pan,
Artemis
In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Artemis (; grc-gre, Ἄρτεμις) is the goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, nature, vegetation, childbirth, care of children, and chastity. She was heavily identified wit ...
and Dionysus.
The first
folkmoot ceremony of the Order was held at
Sandy Balls
Sandy Balls is of woods and parkland near the New Forest in Hampshire, England. Located between the village of Godshill, Hampshire, Godshill and the town of Fordingbridge, it is bounded on the western edge by the River Avon (Hampshire), River Av ...
, Westlake's estate on the northern edge of the
New Forest
The New Forest is one of the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in Southern England, covering southwest Hampshire and southeast Wiltshire. It was proclaimed a royal forest by William the Conqueror, featu ...
, on
Lammas
Lammas Day (Anglo-Saxon ''hlaf-mas'', "loaf-mass"), also known as Loaf Mass Day, is a Christian holiday celebrated in some English-speaking countries in the Northern Hemisphere on 1 August. The name originates from the word "loaf" in reference ...
1921, with the sacred fire lit by four people dressed in colours of the
elements of each quarter, bringing greetings from the elemental powers in succession from north round to west. Despite these pagan themes, Westlake did not consider they were departing from
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
, and claimed that "one must be a good pagan before one can be a good Christian". He held that after his resurrection
Jesus Christ
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
had become dissolved into nature, and that by recognising the divinity inherent in nature people would come closer to Christ. Consequently, the Order promoted a "mystical and animist" view of nature.
The Order had a considerable influence in the founding of the Forest School Camps movement.
There is little evidence of interactions between the Order and the Woodcraft Folk, which was also a breakaway from the
Kibbo Kift
The Kindred of the Kibbo Kift was a camping, hiking and handicraft group with ambitions to bring world peace. It was the first of three movements in England associated with the charismatic artist and writer John Hargrave (1894–1982). The Kindred ...
and was similarly inspired by Seton. This may have been because the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry was non-political and had a mainly affluent middle-class membership (e.g. Westlake owned a country estate) while the Woodcraft Folk, which styled itself 'The Movement for Workers Children' in the 1920s, was predominantly a socialist working-class organisation at the time.
After Westlake
After Westlake's death in a motoring accident in 1922, the role of British Chief of the Order fell to Harry Byngham, who subsequently changed his name to Dion, short for Dionysus. Unlike Westlake, Dion Byngham found no attraction in Christianity, and zealously promoted paganism,
naturism
Naturism is a lifestyle of practising non-sexual social nudity in private and in public; the word also refers to the cultural movement which advocates and defends that lifestyle. Both may alternatively be called nudism. Though the two terms ar ...
and
phallic worship as a veneration of the life force. He started publishing an Order periodical called ''The Pinecone'', which contained many provocative items, including a nude Dionysus on the cover of one issue, a photograph of a nude Byngham and his semi-nude girlfriend in Grecian dress, and a verse play by
Victor Benjamin Neuburg
The name Victor or Viktor may refer to:
* Victor (name), including a list of people with the given name, mononym, or surname
Arts and entertainment
Film
* ''Victor'' (1951 film), a French drama film
* ''Victor'' (1993 film), a French shor ...
, who also introduced Byngham to the ideas of the famous
occultist
The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism an ...
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley (; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the pro ...
. All this brought Byngham into strife with many of the Christian members of the Order, which was primarily aimed at children and had, by its pacifist stance, particularly appealed to Quaker families as an alternative to Scouting. In 1924 Byngham was replaced as editor and in 1925 he was suspended from the Council of Chiefs after posing nude with his girlfriend for press photographs to promote nudism.
Between 1922 and 1927 the rituals of the order continued to evolve along
Masonic
Freemasonry or Masonry refers to Fraternity, fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of Stonemasonry, stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their inte ...
and quasi-Masonic lines, adopting elaborate titles and ritual equipment. In 1928 a compromise was accepted between the pagan- and the Christian-inclined members whereby the order would promote both the sanctity of nature and Christian ethics, while criticising the "repressive" aspects of Christianity. However membership fell. In 1929 the
Society of Friends
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abili ...
formally withdrew support for the Order, and by 1930 there were only 400 members remaining. In 1934 Aubrey Westlake, the son of Ernest, resigned as Chieftain, and in 1935 he left the order, depriving it of its meeting place at Sandy Balls. Steve Wilson argues that some of the pagan-inclined members split off to form the
New Forest coven
The New Forest coven were an alleged group of witches who met around the area of the New Forest in southern England during the early 20th century. According to his own claims, in September 1939, a British occultist named Gerald Gardner was initi ...
, which became the origin of the religion of
Wicca
Wicca () is a modern Pagan religion. Scholars of religion categorise it as both a new religious movement and as part of the occultist stream of Western esotericism. It was developed in England during the first half of the 20th century and was ...
.
Contemporary
Hutton stated in 1999 that "The Order continues to survive with a stable but small membership". In the 1990s Martin Westlake, son of Aubrey and grandson of Ernest, allowed the Order to celebrate its anniversary at Sandy Balls estate again.
[Wilson, Steve (1996). "Woodcrafting the Art of Magic". ''Aisling'' #8.]
A website in the Order's name exists and was last updated in Feb 2015.
It seems to be mainly used by existing members to post photographs, etc, and contains little to attract potential new members. The Order survives as a small network of personal friends linked to the earlier formal organisation.
The OWC is a co-host, together with the Liga Lesni Moudrosti (The Woodcraft League of the Czech Republic), of the Blue Sky! World Woodcraft Gathering which takes place every three years alternately in the UK and the Czech Republic. Started in 1996, the gathering in 2017 will be the 8th meeting and will be held in the UK. Scouts and Woodcrafters from Poland and other countries also take part.
References
{{reflist
Further reading
*Edgell, Derek. ''Order of Woodcraft Chivalry''.
External links
Trent University, California, OWC archive catalogue(Wayback Machine snapshot from May 22. 2018)
Forest School Camps history(Wayback Machine snapshot from January 4. 2006)
1916 establishments in the United Kingdom
Modern pagan organisations based in the United Kingdom
Non-aligned Scouting organizations
Scouting and Guiding in the United Kingdom
The Woodcraft Folk
Youth organisations based in the United Kingdom
Youth organizations established in 1916
Modern pagan organizations established in the 1910s