Remembering Raven Grimassi 1951 – 2019 - Part I

Remembering Raven Grimassi, April 12, 1951 – March 10, 2019

The Wild Hunt - March 12, 2019

Raven Grimassi, 67, crossed the veil peacefully on March 10, 2019, after deciding to cease treatment for pancreatic cancer following a long struggle with the disease. Grimassi spent his last months with family and friends. The announcement of his crossing came from his wife, Stephanie Taylor-Grimassi, via a public post on Facebook.

Grimassi was an exceptional teacher and scholar within the Pagan community. The author of twenty books, he began writing on Witchcraft in 1979 and published continuously for the next 45 years on Italian Witchcraft. He founded his own system of practice in 1980, the Aridian Tradition.

Grimassi was born to an American father and Italian mother. His father was a paratrooper during WWII and met his mother in 1944 during a campaign in Gragnano, a town south of Naples on the Amalfi Coast. After the war, the couple married and came to the United States. The youngest of three children, Grimassi began exploring Witchcraft at the age of 13, moving away from Catholicism. In 1969, at the age of 18, he began his formal studies of Witchcraft, specifically Wicca. He became fascinated with the similarities between Wicca and the version of Italian Witchcraft that he learned about through his mother.

Grimassi continued his studies through 1974, observing traditional Wicca practice and teaching. Afterward, he started the Coven of Sothis in San Diego and also became of a member of the First Temple of Tiphareth, where he augmented his occult knowledge by studying the Kabbalah. Through that study, he met Donald Michael Kraig, author of Modern Magick and Modern Sex Magick, and through Kraig’s connections was subsequently initiated into Brittic Wicca.

Grimassi would, however, ultimately remain focused on Italian Witchcraft.  He met Scott  Cunningham, another prolific Pagan author, and they were initiated in into Grimassi’s Aridian Tradition of Italian Witchcraft in 1980.

Grimassi had written on Italian Witchcraft for The Shadow’s Edge, a magazine on the subject that he managed and edited, as well as other publications like Moon Shadow and Raven’s Call. In 1981, Grimassi began his serious exploration of Italian Witchcraft with the publication of The Book of the Holy Strega and a two-volume set entitled The Book of Ways. These breakthrough texts fully demonstrated Grimassi’s command of Witchcraft and his rise to becoming one of the most recognized modern Pagan authors.

Grimassi had a central objective to his writing: “to preserve the Old Ways.” He saw himself as a “tender of the roots of tradition.” He was an educator on the “old ways” of pre-Christian European religion, not only writing extensively but appearing for interviews in television and radio. He traveled extensively to teach and appear at festivals and conferences across the country.

In an interview with Wiccan/Pagan Times, Grimassi remarked, “My books are about the spiritual roots that nourish us. My basic theme is that we are the spiritual descendants of those who cleared the road before us, the well-worn Path. It is up to us to extend the Path further now, and to leave the continuing legacy to yet another generation. I advocate seeking a balance, embracing the traditional teachings left in the wisdom of our ancestors while at the same time looking inward for discernment and relativity.”

Grimassi was deeply committed to education and teaching. He co-founded the Ash, Birch and Willow Tradition (ABW) whose purpose is “to aid the training of practitioners and clergy in the religious and spiritual traditions of Witchcraft, Wicca, Paganism, Heathenism and other Earth based traditions.” Grimassi was also the co-director of the Fellowship of the Pentacle – an umbrella organization for his work through various sources.

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I can't say much about Raven Grimassi that hasn't already been said. All of the words will not capture his whole experience. It seems like divine providence that his family--which had to move often due to his father's astronautics career for a military contractor--moved to San Diego where so many of those outside of the fray could go to plant the seeds of new ideas which were not accepted back east and elsewhere in the mainstream. In other words he created his own life path, and helped pave it for others to follow.... especially in light of his unique work.


Birth.... Life.... Death and to a new arising. He is now the morning and the spring..


In Memoriam: Raven Grimassi (Patheos)

Author Raven Grimassi Has Passed (Llewellyn)


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