Isaac Bonewits

Phillip Emmons Isaac Bonewits (October 1, 1949 – August 12, 2010) was an American Neo-Druid who wrote a number of books on the subject of Neopaganism and magic. Bonewits was a public speaker, liturgist, singer and songwriter, and founder of the Neopagan organizations Ár nDraíocht Féin (ADF) and the Aquarian Anti-Defamation League.

Early life and education Bonewits was born on October 1, 1949, in Royal Oak, Michigan, as the fourth of five children. His father was a Presbyterian while his mother a Catholic. Spending much of his childhood in Ferndale, Michigan, he was moved at age 12 to San Clemente, California, where he spent a short time in a Catholic high school before he went back to public school to graduate from high school a year early. He enrolled at UC Berkeley in 1966 and graduated in 1970 with a Bachelor of Arts in magic, perhaps becoming the first Bonewits, in his article "My Satanic Adventure", asserts that the rituals in Satanis were staged for the movie at the behest of the filmmakers and were not authentic ceremonies.

Career 1970s: writer and editor

Bonewits' first book, Real Magic, was published in 1971. Between 1973 and 1975 Bonewits was employed as the editor of Gnostica magazine in Minnesota (published by Llewellyn Publications). He established an offshoot group of the Reformed Druids of North America (RDNA) called the Schismatic Druids of North America, and helped create a group called the Hasidic Druids of North America (despite, in his words, his "lifelong status as a gentile"). He also founded the short-lived Aquarian Anti-Defamation League (AADL), an early Pagan civil rights group. Bonewits was a regular presenter at Neopagan conferences and festivals all over the US, as well as attending gaming conventions in the Bay Area. He promoted his book Authentic Thaumaturgy to gamers as a way of organizing Dungeons & Dragons games.

In 1983, Bonewits founded Ár nDraíocht Féin (also known as "A Druid Fellowship" or ADF), which was incorporated in 1990 in the state of Delaware as a U.S. 501(c)3 non-profit organization. and in January 2006 was the keynote speaker at the Conference On Current Pagan Studies at the Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, CA.

Personal life Bonewits was married five times. He was married to Rusty Elliot from 1973 to 1976. His second wife was Selene Kumin Vega, followed by marriage to Sally Eaton (1980 to 1985). His fourth wife was author Deborah Lipp, from 1988 to 1998. On July 23, 2004, he was married in a handfasting ceremony to Phaedra Heyman Bonewits, a former vice-president of the Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans. At the time of the handfasting, the marriage was not yet legal because he had not yet been legally divorced from Lipp, although they had been separated for several years. Paperwork and legalities caught up on December 31, 2007, making Bonewitz and Phaedra legally married.

Bonewits' only child was born to Lipp in 1990. for which he underwent treatment. He died at home, on August 12, 2010, surrounded by his family. Greyland wrote in her book, 'The Last Closet: the Dark Side of Avalon':

Contributions to Neopaganism

In his book Real Magic (1971), Bonewits proposed his "Laws of Magic". These "laws" are synthesized from a multitude of belief systems from around the world to explain and categorize magical beliefs within a cohesive framework. Many interrelationships exist, and some belief systems are subsets of others. This work was chosen by Dennis Wheatley in the 1970s to be part of his publishing project Library of the Occult.

Bonewits also coined much of the modern terminology used to articulate the themes and issues that affect the North American Neopagan community. Pioneered the modern usage of the terms "thealogy", "Paleo-Paganism", "Meso-Paganism", and numerous other retronyms. Possibly coined the term "Pagan Reconstructionism", though the communities in question would later diverge from his initial meaning. Founded Ar nDraiocht Fein, which was incorporated in 1990 in the state of Delaware as a U.S. 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Developed the Advanced Bonewits Cult Danger Evaluation Frame (ABCDEF). Coined the phrase "Never Again the Burning". Critiqued the Burning Times / Old Religion Murray thesis (in Bonewits's Essential Guide to Witchcraft and Wicca). In his book Real Magic (1971), Bonewits proposed his hypothesis on the Laws of Magic, which were then elaborated in his RPG supplement Authentic Thaumaturgy. The book makes it clear it is an adaptation of the ideas from Real Magic to gaming with the Laws presented being abbreviated from those in Real Magic.