Jason Mankey and High Priest: Raymond Buckland – Ep. 7

Jason Mankey is a high priest, author, and my very first returning guest. He’s decided to come back on M3 to talk about his latest biography on Raymond Buckland, High Priest.

Yes. Jason Mankey, who is a high priest, wrote a book called High Priest, about another high priest named Raymond Buckland.

Honestly, though… does Jason really need another introduction? This is his second time around, so if you want to hear more about his background, you can flip back to Season 1 where we go over all that stuff and Greek Gods.

In this episode, Jason tells me all about his newest book, High Priest. It’s a biography of Raymond Buckland, who is often hailed as “the father of American witchcraft” — a title which even made its way to the book’s cover. Most people don’t see the enormous amount of work that takes place when writing a book like this, including research, travel, and coordinating with many, many other people. In fact, this was the longest that Jason has ever worked on a book. But aside from that, who was Ray Buckland and why did we need a book about his life? We’re going to talk about all of that… and more. Plus, I had to figure out a new signature question to ask Jason at the very end.

You all know how this works, right? Maybe you do. Or maybe this is the first time you’re reading one of these articles. Either way, this is just some written highlights. If you want to get the full scoop, I always suggest watching the entire interview.

Let’s get to it!

Background

Does someone just wake up one morning and decide “well, I think I’ll write a biography today”? Perhaps, but that wasn’t the case here.

(By the way, if you’re looking for more on Jason’s background, like how he found his way to the craft in the first place, I’ll again refer you to Season 1)

Raymond Buckland died in 2017. And although his absence was felt within the community almost instantly, it took a few years for someone to come up with this particular project.

Almost three years later, during the height of the pandemic, Llewellyn (Jason’s publisher) decided that Buckland’s biography needed to be written… and that Jason should be the one to write it. Since he had never written a biography before, Jason was hesitant. He says he eventually accepted because it would be a challenge — and as a writer, sometimes it’s just fun to do something different.

High Priest

High Priest: Raymond Buckland, the Father of American Witchcraft. What a title for a book! And you know what? It took Jason about three years to write it, which represents the longest period of time (as of yet) that he’s ever devoted to writing a single book.

As you might expect from a biography, the book starts with Raymond Buckland’s childhood and ends with his legacy. But as you might not expect, the very first chapter includes an analysis of Buckland’s astrological star chart, which was written by Ivo Dominguez, Jr. What a fascinating way to open a book! It gives you such a wide perspective… introducing who Buckland could have been, as inclined by the stars, and then using the rest of the book to tell you who he actually was.

But that’s not the only interesting inclusion. Every chapter, in fact, has its own unique “add-on” (the book officially calls each one an “Exercise”) — and among them are quotes from Buckland’s other books or rituals that he wrote.

Special Privileges

In order to write this biography properly, Jason had to go through a number of sources. When he broke down his writing process for me in the interview, he said he had to start with an analysis of the written information (mostly from Buckland’s books) and then “talk to some people.”

It’s true… he talked to many people during this process — something which should be glaringly evident to anyone who reads the book, as there are excerpts and quotes littered throughout the text (we’ll talk about that later). Among all of those discussions, however, Jason says the most important were the ones with Raymond’s widow, Tara Buckland, who survived her husband. She talked to Jason “many, many, many times” and helped point him in the right direction.

Jason received a copy of Buckland’s unpublished memoir, which would have been called “So Little Time” (a title that Jason originally considered for High Priest, but Llewellyn ultimately chose the final name for the book). He said it was helpful in the sense that it contained a long list of things that Buckland did, but also not helpful because many of those things were related to cars he drove or radio stations that he appeared on. Apparently, Raymond Buckland really liked cars.

At the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magick in Cleveland, Ohio, however, Jason was given some very special privileges. They allowed him access to a collection of documents and pictures, including letters between Raymond Buckland, Gerald Gardner, and Monique Wilson — some of those letters actually appear in the book. Jason says that he doesn’t think anyone who writes books had seen those letters before… and they’re exciting because they had never been documented or written about. Beyond that, they represent a firsthand account of how witchcraft was born in the United States.

I think that when you combine all of these sources, Jason had a collective experience that made him the perfect person to write this biography (despite his multiple claims of not being a biographer).

Buckland’s Impact

I think the big question is this: why did we need a biography of Raymond Buckland? According to Jason, there’s quite a few reasons:

• Ray was one of the first public witches in the United States.
• He was one of the first American witchcraft writers.
• He brought the Gardnerian tradition into the United States.
• He helped come up with the “outer court” system that is used by many traditional witchcraft groups.
• He was one of the first witchcraft elders to say that you could be a valid witch through self-initiation.

That’s certainly a significant list. Would witchcraft exist in the United States without Raymond Buckland? Of course it would. But it would probably look pretty different from what we know today.

And then there’s the matter of his books…

Do you know how many people report that their introduction to witchcraft was through “the big blue book”? They are, of course, referring to Buckland’s Complete Book of Witchcraft, which has a strikingly blue cover and features the image of a very large pentagram.

It’s a lot of people. Go ahead, listen to all of my interviews and count how many times it’s mentioned when I ask people about finding their path to Wicca, witchcraft, or paganism in general.

And that’s just one book. As Jason explains during the interview, Buckland may have written approximately 60 (although some of those were much shorter pamphlets and self-published). Starting in the late 1980’s, Buckland became a full-time writer… and he continued to write until his passing.

The Buckland Collection

Llewellyn now has an entire Raymond Buckland collection that they are featuring, of which High Priest is a part!

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Again, Raymond Buckland wrote a lot of books.

What Others Think

In addition to all of Jason’s research, High Priest also contains experiences and remembrances from other notable names within the witchcraft community. As you flip through, especially in the second half of the book, you’ll notice small excerpts written by Tara Buckland, Silver RavenWolf, Selena Fox, Thorn Mooney, and others that detail some of their personal encounters with Ray.

I won’t spoil any of them. I think you should read it yourself.

On a personal note, however, I do have to say that I really enjoyed reading and sometimes re-reading some of these excerpts. I think it gives a really well-rounded perspective.

Other Books by Jason Mankey

Finding Jason Mankey

It isn’t difficult to find Jason Mankey online. A quick google search will pull up a ton of links for you, but you can also start here:

• Instagram @ the_silicon_valley_witch
• Twitter @panmankey
• TikTok @panmankey
• Facebook
• Llewelyn’s Author Page
• Personal Website
• Raise the Horns

If you’re interested in finding him in person, he’s got a pretty packed schedule of festival appearances coming up, which he goes over during the interview.

New Questions

As you may know by now, I ask every guest the same question at the end of these interviews. They have to tell me how they use sound or music in their personal practice.

So what do I do when someone comes back on the show? Do I ask them the same question again? Well… I’m not a big fan of redundancy, so this presented me with an interesting problem.

I had to come up with a new question. I decided to ask Jason about his favorite musical memory.

And to hear that answer, you’ll have to watch the full interview and hear it in his own words.

Conclusion

I truly enjoyed reading Jason’s latest book, but I was also really interested to learn more about his writing process and all of the background behind what actually goes into writing a biography — it’s a pretty monumental undertaking! Remember, that was almost three years of Jason’s life that went into the production of this book.

Llewellyn was kind enough to send me an advanced copy of High Priest so I could get familiar with the book before Jason’s interview — thank you Llewellyn! I decided to do a video review of the book, so if you’d like to watch that, too… you can find it on YouTube.

It was an honor to have Jason back on my show. I’m not sure what kind of witchcraft I did to convince him to do this for a second time, but it must have been effective. I can’t wait to invite him for a third time so that he can tell me all about his next book (which he teases if you listen to the full interview).

I’ve got more interviews coming up for you! As always, stay tuned for more soon!

Ah, you have made it to the end! Do you always read to the end? Or is this article just special? Well, either way… I have something to tell you. There are Amazon affiliate links on this page. If you use one of those links to make a purchase, Amazon will pay me a tiny commission. Now go buy some books!