Janet and Stewart Farrar

The Mystica Encyclopedia · All entries · Rewritten September 2026

Janet and Stewart Farrar at a glance

Early lives and entry into Wicca

Stewart Farrar was a professional writer long before he became a Witch. He worked as a journalist and wrote novels and scripts for radio and television. In 1969, while writing for a British newspaper, he interviewed Alex Sanders, the flamboyant leader of what became known as Alexandrian Wicca, and was invited to attend a coven meeting. The experience led to his book What Witches Do (1971), one of the first sympathetic insider accounts of modern Witchcraft.

Janet Owen, born in London in 1950, was also drawn into the Sanders' circle in the same period. Both were initiated around 1970, and they soon formed a working and personal partnership. Janet received her second and third degrees in 1970 and 1971, and the couple left the Sanders to run their own coven.

Life in Ireland

Janet and Stewart were handfasted, a Pagan wedding rite, in 1972 and legally married in 1975. In 1976 they moved to Ireland, where they lived for the rest of Stewart's life, eventually settling in County Meath. Ireland gave them a landscape rich in myth and sacred sites, and their later writing reflects a strong interest in Celtic tradition. They trained students and initiated many Witches who went on to found covens in Europe, North America and elsewhere.

In the late 1980s and 1990s they worked closely with Gavin Bone, who became a co-author and partner. Stewart Farrar died in February 2000. Janet and Gavin continued to teach, travel and write together.

Major works

The Farrars are best known for books that combined practical ritual with explanation of its sources:

• Eight Sabbats for Witches (1981), describing the seasonal festivals of the Wiccan year.
• The Witches' Way (1984), covering initiation, the Book of Shadows and magical work; the two books were later published together as A Witches' Bible.
• The Witches' Goddess (1987) and The Witches' God (1989), surveys of deities from many cultures.
• Progressive Witchcraft (2004), written by Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone.

They also wrote on spells, healing and fairy lore, and Stewart continued to publish fiction.

Publishing the Book of Shadows

One of the Farrars' most significant contributions was bringing ritual texts into print. In the 1950s and 1960s the Book of Shadows, the ritual manual of Gerald Gardner's tradition, was meant to be copied by hand and kept secret. Versions had already leaked, often in garbled form. With the help of Doreen Valiente, who had worked with Gardner and written much of the ritual poetry, the Farrars published a substantial reconstruction of the text in their books, distinguishing Gardner's material from later additions and from sources such as Charles Godfrey Leland's Aradia.

Some initiates objected to the disclosure, but many historians regard it as a turning point that made accurate information available and allowed solitary practitioners to learn about the tradition.

Ritual and theology in their work

The Farrars presented Wicca as a nature-based religion centered on a Goddess and a God whose relationship is traced through the turning year. In their account of the eight Sabbats, the God is born at the winter solstice, matures through spring and summer, and dies at harvest, while the Goddess moves through her aspects as maiden, mother and crone. They explained how this cycle echoes older European folk customs, while being open about which elements were modern.

They also stressed polarity between priestess and priest, the importance of the priestess in leading ritual, and the idea that magic should be used for healing and help, not harm. These themes, drawn from Gardnerian and Alexandrian practice, became familiar to readers far beyond those two lineages.

Influence and legacy

Through their books, the Farrars became among the most widely read authors on Wicca in the late twentieth century. Their emphasis on the balance of the Goddess and God, the eight seasonal festivals and working in a coven shaped how many people understood the religion. Later, in Progressive Witchcraft, Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone argued for a flexible, experiential approach that goes beyond strict adherence to lineage.

Their work sits alongside that of other key figures in modern Pagan and occult history, such as Dion Fortune, whose novels and teachings influenced early Wicca. Concepts they described in detail, including the cone of power, are now standard vocabulary in Wiccan practice.

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