{"id":7581,"date":"2015-11-09T15:31:06","date_gmt":"2015-11-09T22:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7581"},"modified":"2015-11-10T20:40:35","modified_gmt":"2015-11-11T03:40:35","slug":"the-passing-of-carl-weschcke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7581","title":{"rendered":"The Passing of Carl Weschcke"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"weschcke\"

Carl Llewellyn Weschcke<\/p><\/div>\n

First, the official announcement from Llewellyn, then my comments.<\/p>\n

It is with profound sadness we share the news of Carl Llewellyn Weschcke\u2019s passing. He passed peacefully on Saturday, November 7 surrounded by family. He was 85.<\/p>\n

Carl Llewellyn Weschcke was Chairman and the driving force behind Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd., the oldest and largest publishers of New Age, Metaphysical, Self-Help, and Spirituality books in the world.<\/p>\n

Weschcke was a life-long student of a broad range of Metaphysical, Spiritual and Occult subjects which led him to the purchase of the Llewellyn publishing company in 1961. He relocated the company to his home on Summit Avenue in St. Paul. The mansion was said to be haunted and became the subject of many investigations and news stories through the 1960s and 1970s and remains well-known to this day.<\/p>\n

Authors and booksellers referred to Weschcke as “the Father of the New Age” because of his early and aggressive public sponsorship of Astrology, Magic, Metaphysics, Paganism, Parapsychology, Tantra, Wicca and Yoga. Weschcke and Llewellyn contributed to the burgeoning New Age movement in the 1960s and 1970s, sponsoring Gnosticon Festivals, opening an occult school and bookstore, and publishing the occult newspaper Gnostica. He is a former Wiccan High Priest and played a leading role in the rise of Wicca and Paganism during the 1960s and 1970s. In the fall of 1973 Weschcke helped organize the Council of American Witches and became its chairperson.<\/p>\n

He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Babson College, studied Law at LaSalle University, and advanced study toward a doctorate in Philosophy at the University of Minnesota. In 1959 he was elected president of the NAACP\u2019s Minnesota branch and elected Vice President of the ACLU\u2019s Minnesota branch. In addition to book publishing he has worked in the pharmaceutical industry, furniture manufacture, and real estate management. With Llewellyn, he has worked in all aspects of the business and has co-authored ten books with Dr. Joe Slate of Athens, Alabama.<\/p>\n

Carl is survived by wife Sandra and son Gabe. Sandra is President and Treasurer of Llewellyn Worldwide and Gabe serves as Vice President. They plan to carry on Carl\u2019s legacy championing of alternative approaches to mind, spirit and body.<\/p>\n

Arrangements for a memorial will be forthcoming.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I had the privilege of staying with the Weschckes at their home in Marine-on-St. Croix for a few days in the early 1990s. (Although no formal offer was made, I think that Carl was hoping that I would come on board as an editor.) That four-book “Witchcraft Today” series that I edited for them in the 1990s was his idea.<\/p>\n

It’s true that he came from a line of German doctors and pharmacists, and originally he worked in the family pharmaceutical firm that made over-the-counter medicines\u2014cough drops and the like. He told me he used to look from his office window at a former soft-drink bottling plant\u2014the building that later become the Llewellyn headquarters in St. Paul.<\/p>\n

He did not start the company, but he and Sandra grew it from a small publisher of astrological almanacs and the like into its present form. He even added “Llewellyn” as his middle name.<\/p>\n

Another memory: having just a few hours to examine his private library, which filled a three-car garage (or was it a four-car?). It was like the whole history of esotericism in America, but I think that astrology was perhaps always his first love. Although their son, Gabe, was groomed to take over the business, at that time\u2014twenty years ago\u2014I did not feel that he shared the love of the astrology, Pagan, New Age, etc., product line. That does not mean that he cannot be an effective manager though.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First, the official announcement from Llewellyn, then my comments. It is with profound sadness we share the news of Carl Llewellyn Weschcke\u2019s passing. He passed peacefully on Saturday, November 7 surrounded by family. He was 85. Carl Llewellyn Weschcke was Chairman and the driving force behind Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd., the oldest and largest publishers of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,80,5,7,29],"class_list":["post-7581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-american-religion","tag-astrology","tag-paganism","tag-publishing","tag-witchcraft"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-1Yh","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":334,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=334","url_meta":{"origin":7581,"position":0},"title":"Llewellyn George, Patent Medicine, and\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 17, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Llewellyn George, Patent Medicine, and Pagan Publishing In 1993, when I was editing the Witchcraft Today series for Llewellyn Publications, I few up to Minnesota to spend a couple of days conferring with Carl and Sandra Weschcke, who own the company. Driving me around St. Paul in his black Cadillac,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10966,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10966","url_meta":{"origin":7581,"position":1},"title":"Interview with Carl Weschcke’s Biographer","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 10, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I once stayed a couple of nights at Carl Weschcke's house, when he lived out in Marine on St. Croix, and on the drive back and forth to the old Llewellyn Publications office in St. Paul I heard a lot of his stories \u2014 but I am sure there are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/melanie-marquis.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6","url_meta":{"origin":7581,"position":2},"title":"Reprinting "Crafting the Art of Magic"","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 13, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"A round of discussion on the Nature Religions Scholars Network e-mail list about the desirability of reprinting Aidan Kelly's book on the origins of Gardnerian witchcraft, Crafting the Art of Magick Book 1 (there was no Book 2), which came out a decade ago from Llewellyn Publications. Although primarily based\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"publishing\"","block_context":{"text":"publishing","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=publishing"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":653,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=653","url_meta":{"origin":7581,"position":3},"title":"Llewellyn Takes on a School Board","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 21, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Llewellyn, the largest New Age\/Pagan\/astrological publisher in the US, has pushed a North Carolina school board into a corner. When the board said that \"religious groups\" could distribute \"scripture\" in the school's, Llewellyn's publicist decided that the works of Silver Ravenwolf would qualify as well. Jason Pitzl-Waters has the details.\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":941,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=941","url_meta":{"origin":7581,"position":4},"title":"A Manufactured Conspiracy in Wiccan Publishing","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 24, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I have started reading Aidan Kelly's Inventing Witchcraft: A Case Study in the Creation of a New Religion, published by Thoth Publications but also available from Amazon. In simplest terms, it's an enlargement and reworking of Crafting the Art of Magic, Book 1, which Llewellyn published in 1991--Kelly's study of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"publishing\"","block_context":{"text":"publishing","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=publishing"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":390,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=390","url_meta":{"origin":7581,"position":5},"title":"Some Pagan Publishing Gossip","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 6, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Sarah Pike's new book, New Age and Neopagan Religions in America, just landed on my desk with instructions to review it for Nova Religio. Given that many contemporary Pagans are ambivalent at best about the \"New Age\" movement, it will be interesting to see how she sorts out and categorizes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/03\/BARBIE.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7581","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=7581"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7587,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7581\/revisions\/7587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}