This one goes out to the queer, and to the lonely.
For so many of us who deviated down the occult aisles, Scott Cunningham was our first. We likely didn’t know he was gay, that wasn’t part of what he shared, but he made this other crucial choice that opened a magic and unexpected door to a way of relating to the living world, to ourselves, and to magic. And then he lived the craft and labour of that choice with incredibly generous dedication. He left 22 books in his 36 years, before he crossed to the summerland in 1990, taken by AIDS-related cryptococcal meningitis.
The crux of the change he made, a change that unleashed ideas and philosophies and practices of nature-based spirituality on white North America and ushered in the most popularity Wicca and witchcraft had ever seen, was that he validated and empowered the lonely…
This episode was produced with research support from the incomparable Amy Townes Booth.
Works Cited
Cunningham, Scott. Earth Power: Techniques of Natural Magic. Llewellyn Publications; 1st edition (May 8 2013)
Cunningham, Scott. The Truth About Witchcraft Today .Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 1994.
Cunningham. Scott. Wicca: A Guide For the Solitary Practitioner. Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications,2004
Kraig, Donald Michael. The Magical Life of Scott Cunningham. Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2012.
Wilkens, John. “Chet Cunningham, Author Who Defied Writer’s Block by Churning out 450 Books, Dies at 88.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 24 Mar. 2017, 9:55am, www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-chet-cunningham-20170324-story.html.
Hagerty, James R. “Chet Cunningham’s Advice to Writers: ‘Put Your Butt in the Chair and Do It’.” The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, 31 Mar. 2017, 12:25pm, www.wsj.com/articles/cunninghams-advice-to-writers-put-your-butt-in-the-chair-and-do-it-1490968800.
Martin, L.J. “Remembering Chet Cunningham.” Wolfpack Publishing, 5 Aug. 2017, wolfpackpublishing.com/remembering-chet-cunningham/.
Ashworth, Christine. “Scott Cunningham.” Christine Ashworth, christine-ashworth.com/scott-cunningham/.
Click to access ImpactCOVID19LGBTpersons.pdf
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0008429817710971
https://codepen.io/PHPSiteScripts/full/zoPGGm
https://books.openedition.org/obp/4390?lang=en
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43285/adams-curse
http://rictornorton.co.uk/homopho4.htm
https://www.femalefirst.co.uk/features/witching-hour-lgbtq-and-paganism-1205509.html
