{"id":13518,"date":"2023-12-15T20:13:30","date_gmt":"2023-12-16T03:13:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13518"},"modified":"2024-04-15T12:03:09","modified_gmt":"2024-04-15T18:03:09","slug":"the-pagans-the-unicorns-and-the-serial-killer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13518","title":{"rendered":"The Pagans, the Unicorns, and the Serial Killer"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/a>I have complained before about the relative lack of good American Pagan biography and autobiography. John Sulak’s biography of Oberon Zell (b. 1942) and his partner Morning Glory (1948\u20132014), The Wizard and the Witch<\/a> <\/em>was one of the exceptions.((Yes, Morning Glory either invented or co-invented the term “polyamory,” and she was aware of creating a Greek-Latin hybrid.)) While it was first published in 2014, Sulak and Oberon subsequently revised and enlarged it, splitting it into two volumes.  The link goes to volume 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s also a history of the American Pagan movement in the 1970s-1990s particularly, with a West Coast emphasis. In the early 1980s, the Zells lived at Greenfield Ranch, a ranch in the Coast Range near Ukiah, Calif., that had been divided into acreages for back-to-the-landers a<\/a>nd, yes, cannabis-growers, which meant the level of paranoia was fairly high. The ranch was raided by drug agents at least once, as I recall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My friend the Pagan songwriter Gwydion Pendderwen<\/a> lived there, and M. and I visited several times between 1978 and his passing in 1982. I have not been back since. Obviously much has changed.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the late 1970s the Zells got an opportunity to live at Greenfield Ranch as caretakers for an absenteee Pagan parcel-owner, and there they practiced a documented but neglected ancient technique for turning new-born Angora billy goats into true unicorns. These went on the Rennaissance Faire circuit\u2014later under the big top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As Oberon would say, they were hoping to influence “kids who saw the Unicorn and would recognize it for what it was\u2014not a fantasy creature made of moonbeams, just a small white animal with its own kind of beauty and heart and horn . . . . Those kids would make the connections and see that Magkick was possible and then go on to create their own contribution to that unique world-view [and] make their live whatever they want it to be.”1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

But something darker was afoot. <\/strong>Another Greenfield Ranch resident helped out with showing the unicorns at Renn Faires, etc., so much so that he was sometimes called “Unicorn Man.”<\/p>\n\n\n

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Morning Glory and Angora goat “unicorns.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

His name was Leonard Lake, and he was a serial killer<\/a>, although he had not really started on his murderous path at that time but apparently was planning it. There is plenty about him online<\/a>, but my introduction to his story came through Episode 1 of the Trace of the Devastation <\/em><\/a>podcast, a true-crime series about serial killers of the 1980s-90s in the California Gold Rush country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In that episode, “The Unicorn Man,<\/a>” you will hear Oberon Zell give his own honest self-appraisal of how he and others were fooled by Lake, whom they took to be just another back-to-the-lander, albeit with a more ex-military outlook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyone can be fooled some of the time. Consider this a footnote to Sulak and Zell’s books.<\/p>\n

  1. John G. Sulak, The Wizard and the Witch: An Oral History of Oberon Zell and Morning Glory <\/em>(Woodbury, Minn.: Llewellyn Publications, 2014) 180\u201381. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li><\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I have complained before about the relative lack of good American Pagan biography and autobiography. John Sulak’s biography of Oberon Zell (b. 1942) and his partner Morning Glory (1948\u20132014), The Wizard and the Witch was one of the exceptions.((Yes, Morning Glory either invented or co-invented the term “polyamory,” and she was aware of creating a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[214,75,247,5,12],"class_list":["post-13518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-animals","tag-california","tag-crime","tag-paganism","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-3w2","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8543,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8543","url_meta":{"origin":13518,"position":0},"title":"I Lived in Magic: A Video Biography of Oberon Zell","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 3, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Produced and directed by Danny Yourd (Animal Studio), this meditative interview with Oberon Zell (co-founder of the Church of All Worlds and the man who put \"Neo-Pagan\" into the American religious vocabulary in the 1970s) is a valuable piece of American Pagan history. (It can also be viewed at the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=soutrocknatub-20&l=am2&o=1&a=0738714828","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6487,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6487","url_meta":{"origin":13518,"position":1},"title":"The Zells’ Biographer on “Living Your Myth”","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"John Sulak, who co-wrote Modern Pagans for RE\/Search and worked for a decade on The Wizard and the Witch, the new biography of Oberon and Morning Glory Zell, gives interviewer Anne Hill his own take on the Zells, the writing process, the Church of All Worlds, and others in their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6280,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6280","url_meta":{"origin":13518,"position":2},"title":"Quick Review: The Wizard and the Witch","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"One of my earliest entries on this blog, clear back in 2003, was a complaint about the lack of biographical and autobiographical writing in American Wicca \u2014 and I would extend that to all types of new Paganism generally. That entry did mention Margot Adler's Heretic's Heart (1997), but I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"wizard and witch","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/wizard-and-witch.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3774,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3774","url_meta":{"origin":13518,"position":3},"title":"Being a Wizard Today","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 2, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"This link will take you to six-minute video wherein Oberon Zell of the Church of All Worlds and the Grey School of Wizardry discusses the school and role of the wizard in the modern world, with cameo appearances by two of the students. There is also brief mention of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"California\"","block_context":{"text":"California","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=california"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3550,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3550","url_meta":{"origin":13518,"position":4},"title":"Mojo and Materiality: 300 Goddesses","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"After Isis Oasis and Lucky Mojo, the final stop on the pre-AAR annual meeting \"Mojo and Materiality\" tour was the home of Oberon and Morning Glory Zell of the Church of All Worlds. They contribute to Pagan \"materiality\" through through their business, Mythic Images, which features Oberon's and other designers'\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/GoddessCollection_sm.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":809,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=809","url_meta":{"origin":13518,"position":5},"title":"Lady Sintana","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 5, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Morning Glory Zell and Tim\/Oberon Zell of the Church of All Words with Lady Sintana (right) at the Church of Wicca Samhain Seminar in 1978. Photo by Chas S. Clifton.)Jason Pitz-Waters links to a newspaper article about Sintana (Candace Lehrman) and the House of Ravenwood, one of the best-known covens\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13518"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13625,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13518\/revisions\/13625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}