Origin from 1967
An independent eclectic Wiccan tradition that originated in a university ritual-studies class in the San Francisco Bay Area, unrelated in lineage to the ceremonial Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn beyond its borrowed name. Its self-composed liturgy, written rather than inherited from an initiatory line, spread widely through later American Wicca.
Facts
Organisation
GovernanceAutonomous covens, authority conferred by initiation 3 Polity DetailOriginally governed by the Red Cord Council, dissolved in 1976 in favor of coven autonomy, with the group agreeing by consensus to call itself a Tradition rather than an Order from then on. Isaac Bonewits characterized NROOGD as the quintessential and probably first California Eclectic Wiccan tradition, near the liberal or heterodox end of the spectrum of Wiccan orthodoxy he described. 3 Belief
Defining Doctrinal PositionNo fixed pantheon or liturgy; each practitioner composes their own 2 Originated from a "Witches' Sabbath" ritual Aidan Kelly composed for a 1967 graduate ritual-studies seminar at San Francisco State University, then developed into a full eightfold-wheel liturgy; the group's own composed rites, rather than a claimed unbroken initiatory line, spread through American eclectic Wicca in the decades after. Origins
Origin Period Place of OriginSan Francisco Bay Area, California, United States 1 FounderA group of friends including Aidan Kelly, e.l.f. Silverlocke, Glenna Turner and Judy Kellogg (Greenwood), who signed a founding charter on 31 October 1967. 1 Status
Practice Status Detailliving-tradition, with no central authority or spokesperson; member covens are found principally in the San Francisco Bay Area and elsewhere in California, the American Southwest, the Pacific Northwest, the East Coast, Canada and the United Kingdom. 3 Learn More
A Ritual Written for a Class That Kept Going
The New Reformed Orthodox Order of the Golden Dawn began as a class assignment. In 1967 Sarah Erif Thunen taught a graduate seminar on ritual at San Francisco State University, and she asked a student, Aidan Kelly, to write a Witches' Sabbath for the class to perform. The exercise did not end when the semester did. Kelly and a group of friends, among them e.l.f. Silverlocke, Glenna Turner and Judy Kellogg, kept meeting, kept refining the liturgy into a full eightfold wheel of seasonal rites, and signed a founding charter on Halloween 1967.
The name is a joke with a straight face. It borrows the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn's name while having no lineage connection to it at all, ceremonial magic society and Bay Area Wiccan circle sharing only a label. What NROOGD actually offered the wider Wiccan movement was different and, in its way, more consequential: proof that a coven could write its own liturgy from scratch and have it work, rather than needing an unbroken initiatory chain back to Gerald Gardner's England.
That composed liturgy did not stay contained. Pieces of it, and the working method behind it, spread into the wider eclectic Wicca that grew through the 1970s and after, an influence larger than the tradition's own small membership would suggest. It remains active as one strand within modern eclectic Wicca in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond.
Connections
Belongs to Tradition
Wicca, Religions Self-identifies as an eclectic Wiccan tradition; composed independently rather than descending from Gardnerian lineage.
Source Margot Adler, Drawing Down the MoonMargot Adler
Governed By Polity
Not Equivalent To
NROOGD borrowed only the Golden Dawn name: it originated independently in a 1967 San Francisco Bay Area college ritual-studies class (e.l.f. Silverlocke, Glen Turner, Judy Greenwood and Aidan Kelly), with a self-composed liturgy unrelated in lineage or initiatory line to the ceremonial Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
Source Margot Adler, Drawing Down the MoonMargot Adler
Originated In
Source Margot Adler, Drawing Down the MoonMargot Adler
Present in Region
Founded in Berkeley, California in 1967-1970 as a college class project that continued as a working coven and Wiccan denomination.
Source New Reformed Orthodox Order of the Golden Dawn (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Sources
1. Margot Adler, Drawing Down the Moon
Margot Adler, Viking Press (1979); Penguin Books, revised edition (2006), 2006Originated In: United States, Stored origin-place property on this entity, cited to this source: San Francisco Bay Area, California, United States
2. Chas Clifton, Her Hidden Children
Chas S. Clifton, AltaMira Press, 2006
3. New Reformed Orthodox Order of the Golden Dawn (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, WikipediaPractices section, accessed 2026-09-07
In 1976, the governing body of the NROOGD called the Red Cord Council was dissolved, and a consensus decision to call the Order a Tradition was made.
History section, accessed 2026-09-07
Bonewits considers NROOGD to be the quintessential (and probably the first) "California Eclectic" Wiccan Tradition, near the "liberal/heterodox" end of his Wiccan spectrum of "orthodoxy/heterodoxy."
Geography section, accessed 2026-09-07
NROOGD member covens are primarily based in the San Francisco Bay Area, yet practitioners are found all over the State of California, The Southwest, the Pacific Northwest, the East Coast, Canada and the UK.
- Present in Region: California
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