A History of the Georgian Tradition
by Moondancer
The Georgian Tradition was founded in Bakersfield, CA on December 26, 1971 by George E. “Pat” Patterson III (deceased) and two others, known craftwise as Lady Persephone and Tanith. These three were the High Priest, High Priestess and Maiden of the Persephone Coven (which was the original Georgian coven).
The Georgians drew on published Gardnerian, Alexandrian and other traditional material. Patterson expanded the core training material derived from Ed Fitch’s Grimoire of the Shadows with material contributed by others as well as his own original writings.
By 1973, there were Georgian covens throughout California, mostly in the Southern California area, Texas, Oklahoma, New York, Florida, and elsewhere in the United States. In order to keep up with the far-flung tradition, the Georgian Newsletter was begun in 1974. This chatty and informative newsletter only missed one issue during the time that Pat was in charge of it, in spite of his 24-hour on-call job, and later in spite of the cancer which ultimately claimed his life. Following Pat’s death in 1984, the main branch of the tradition was led by Dean and Lady Fauna. Dean died some years ago, and Lady Fauna largely withdrew from any public activity prior to that.
Dean and Lady Fauna attempted to continue the Georgian Newsletterafter Pat’s death, but it ultimately ceased publication as a monthly, and went first to an annual, then infrequent publication. As of 1997, I’m not sure if it is still being published in any form.
The “Georgian Mountain Meet” was one of the first Pagan festivals in the country, it started in 1974 as a weekend campout, and at the height of its popularity, there were upwards of 100 people attending. It still continues, though on a much reduced scale, having missed only 2 years in its history, and both of them due to fire hazard.
Written by: Moondancer; edited by Mevlannen Beshderen (divided his original text into descriptive and historical sections)
Updated: November 30, 1997
Document GEORHIST ©1997, Moondancer
The above text formed the basis of the original Georgian website back in the 1990s. The current website, with more current and updated information can be found at https://www.georgianwicca.com. The above also contains a few factual errors that have not been corrected in order to preserve the historic naure of the document. The first “Mountain Meet” was actually held in 1976, not 1974. It took place while Moondancer was in Basic Training for the Navy at San Diego NAval Base. I have no idea why he managed to misremember that type of detail, but he did. There are also some questions as to when the Georgian NEwsletter began publication; the above states 1974, however, there are no copies of any newsletters from that date in the Georgian archives we have available to us, but the search cotinues. We may be surprised. The earlliest date we currently have is in 1976.
Ash, who is also a Georgian Elder (one of the many pointy hats she has worn over the years) is available for assisting other teachers in the Georgian Tradition ,but is not actively teaching in that Tradition herself. She is at present, the eldest known Georgian Initiate still living by date of initiation, since the passing of Zanoni Silverknife in 2020, Du Dragcorum in 2019 and Lady Tanith in 2015. Moondancer went to the West in 2013.
