Take a photo tour of the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft & Magick, where crystal balls, black mirrors, and glowing robes honor the father of modern witchcraft.
“ When you think of witches , you think of nebulous form , ” order Steven Intermill , director of theBuckland Museum of Witchcraft & Magickin Cleveland , Ohio . “ But you number here , you see things that were used by actual witch , and it sparks in your promontory , ‘ These are people , too . ’ ”
Founded by Raymond Buckland , the man far-famed for contribute witchery to the US in the ‘ sixty , Cleveland ’s premier witchery museum is a individual - level sanctuary , its walls and display cases cluttered with a melange of supernatural - related object and ephemera . deep down , visitant can peruse everything fromtasseomancy teacupsand crystal ball to archival records of the Salem Wiccan trials and the eponymous founder ’s own sacred possessions .
Buckland was the first person in the United States to openly admit to practicing Wicca , the pagan , ground - centered religion whose followers are referred to as “ witches . ” He ’s also credited with forming America ’s first - ever coven , headquarter the like - tending grouping in Islip , Long Island .
Buckland Museum of Witchcraft & Magick
As Intermill explains , the Wiccan leader commence his career as a copywriter , but soon “ felt there was something spiritual in nature that was lacking . ” This led him to the body of work of Dr. Gerald Gardner , the so - called Father of Witchcraft , who operate a museum of magic on the Isle of Man .
Buckland and his married woman , Rosemary — whose coven names were Robat and Rowan , respectively — made a pilgrimage to the ego - governing British Crown Dependency , where the storied Wiccan subsequently take the couple under his backstage . Upon returning to the States , Buckland followed in his wise man ’s footsteps by deciding to exhibit his own solicitation of token via an appointment - only operation in his Long Island basement .
While puzzle out a day job forBritish Airways , the globetrotting Buckland was capable to amass artifacts from all over the world . Soon , his little museum was later on the subject of a 1972 documentary , Occult : X Factor Or FRAUD , and newsprint likeThe New York Timesbegan to take notice . The Metropolitan Museum of Arteven call for to feature some of Buckland ’s Outsider art piece in a striking exhibit .
Buckland Museum of Witchcraft & Magick
The Buckland Museum was the first of its kind in the US to take an anthropological approach to showcasing the supernatural . At first , the museum was a traveling show , make a motion between New Hampshire , Virginia , and New Orleans , where it was at long last placed under the care of Wiccan priestess Velvet Rieth , who was instrumental in save Buckland ’s pride and joy . As Rieth ’s health began to degenerate in 2015 , Intermill ’s partner at the museum , Toni Rotonda , retrieved the items and play them to the Temple of Sacrifice , a coven Buckland founded in Columbus , Ohio .
Intermill , who grew up pore over Christian Bible aboutUFOsandBigfoot , had always been drawn to the occult . “ I was working at another tourer destination here in Cleveland , and one day I was thinking to myself , I like witchcraft more,”Intermill says . “I emailed Ray [ Buckland],he put me in trace with Toni , we team up up , and the rest is history . ”
Buckland , who passed away in 2017 , authoredTheComplete Book of Witchcraft , a comprehensive and well - value guidebook to initiating covens . “ He was very generous , ” Intermill says of the founder . “ He was generous with his fourth dimension . He was generous with his thing . He was generous with his philia . ”
Buckland Museum of Witchcraft & Magick
Today , Intermill result small chemical group tour of duty through the museum ’s magical aisles , tell the story of Buckland , his relationship with Dr. Gardner , and the museum ’s development . Because the collection is just too tumid , Intermill rotates expose items into specific exhibits . presently on view is a show explore the tradition of read tea leaves , sport target on loan from theMuseum of Tasseomancyin Hamilton , Ontario .
Intermill notes that the museum welcome visitant from all walks of life , perhaps the most famous beingLil Bub , the feline Instagram superstar born with a constantly stuck - out tongue . “ Everybody ’s cool , everybody ’s receptive - minded , ” he tell . “ They tend to be people that have a creative spark to them — there ’s kind of a deflector theatre in front of the museum that keeps the jerks off . ”
The museum conductor was tolerant enough to apportion a few of his favourite standouts from the permanent collection with Thrillist , along with detailed explanation in his own words . ( But , of track , so as to genuinely experience the mystical powers exhale from this wonderland , you ’ve really pose ta make your way out toClevelandand see for yourself . )
Buckland Museum of Witchcraft & Magick
Buckland’s illuminated robe
“ The first thing visitors see when they walk in is our founder Ray Buckland ’s illuminated ritual gown in a billet of authorisation . He made it himself , it ’s very telling . He was very interested in the approximation of get one ’s own tool . And it ’s violet , of course of instruction — a foretoken of spirit . ”
Sybil Leek’s crystal ball
“ Leeks was an extraordinarily far-famed fortune - narrator , astrologist , and witch back in the 1960s — a material popularizer of the occult in America . And she was friend with our founder , Ray . This piece is luminescent — when you walk in , it ’s already glowing . ”
Original manuscript ofBuckland’s Complete Book of Witchcraft
“ One of my favorite pieces to share is the original handwritten ms ofBuckland ’s Complete Book of Witchcraft — quite fabled in the cult scene . A heap of multitude , their eyes light up , and they say , ‘ Is that Bucky ’s big blue Holy Writ of witchcraft ? ’
It ’s often people ’s starter book on the trade , because it essentially contains the seed for the vulgarisation of witchcraft in the 1980s . It ’s surprising — everything on the Sir Frederick Handley Page [ here ] is in the al-Qur’an . It exhibit Ray ’s focus , how he knew just what he wanted to express . ”
Antique mandrake root
“ peck of people bang mandrakes from pappa culture — Harry Potter , Pan ’s Labyrinth — and they ’re often surprised to see it ’s the real deal . There are a quite a little of legend about the mandrake — most magnificently , that they scream when you deplumate them out of the dry land . This is about 200 years one-time and carved to look like a woman carrying children , so it ’s what we consult to as a fertility totem . ”
Gerald Gardner’s personal items
“ We have some personal items that belonged to the great Witch Father Dr. Gerald Gardner , the founder of the modern witchery front . They were gifted to Ray by Monique Wilson : his tube , his wallets , and his attache pillowcase . Wilson was one of Gardner ’s top witches back in the twenty-four hours , and initiated Ray to the wiliness . It ’s really nerveless . ”
Black mirrors
“ We have a variety of scry mirror on presentation , the black mirror people gaze into to see fortunes , time to come and past — you know , ‘ Mirror , mirror on the wall . ’ We also have Ray ’s personal one . multitude love staring into it for farseeing periods of metre . ”
Buckland Museum of Witchcraft & Magick
Photo courtesy of Buckland Museum of Witchcraft & Magick
Photo courtesy of Buckland Museum of Witchcraft & Magick
Photo courtesy of Buckland Museum of Witchcraft & Magick
Photo courtesy of Buckland Museum of Witchcraft & Magick
Photo courtesy of Buckland Museum of Witchcraft & Magick
