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Necess ary Introductory History: This essay started out as an open letter I sent to
“alt.religion.druid” and other Pagan Usenet newsgroups
on Sept. 25, 1996 c.e. In October of 1996, the DCSG posted a
lengthy response to me in the same newsgroups and on their website,
written by its leader Janette Copeland and her husband Kalman
Mannis. Someday I will scan and post here excerpts from the various
documents, lecture transcripts, and graphics necessary to back
up my statements. I will incorporate into this page the contradictions
between her older claims, explanations offered by her and her
husbands a few years ago, her 10/96 explanations, and the results
of further research done about her.
Necessary Polytheological Disclaimer: The following material discusses one of the very
few “druidic” organizations I have ever felt the need
to denounce as unethical and dangerous to the physical and spiritual
health of its members. I strongly believe in and support the
existence of many different paths of Druidry, and happily refer
seekers to Druid groups that some might see as “competition”
to the ones I’ve started over the years, as can be seen
on my Current Druid Groups
& Friends page. I might think that some particular Druidic
group is silly, or unscholarly, or that it doesn’t resemble
my vision of ancient or modern Druidism — but such groups
are far different from the one discussed herein. Those of you
reading this who do not know me may want to read the other items
on my website, as well as my published articles and books, and
decide whether I seem to be a trustworthy source.
Necessary Legal Disclaimer: The following represents my personal opinions, based
upon facts I believe to be true, and is not the official opinion
of any organization whatsoever, though several Neopagan and Mesopagan
organizations have assisted in the ongoing research. Nonetheless,
if the Divine Circle of the Sacred Grove wants to sue me, I’ll
be delighted to get Janette Copeland and her senior assistants
on the witness stand to testify under oath…
Necessary Notation Explanations: Comments by Janette Copeland and Kal Mannis marked
“(7/2/91)” are taken from the transcript of a lecture
they gave in Seattle, Washington, on July 2, 1991 c.e., which
was attended and recorded by a representative of Ár nDraíocht Féin: A Druid Fellowship,
or “ADF” (they learned that lesson
— they don’t allow recording devices at lectures anymore).
Those marked “(10/96)” refer to the above mentioned
open letter written by Copeland and Mannis in response to earlier
versions of this essay, while “(10/97)” notes refer
to the DCSG website as of 10/15/97. Lastly, I have deliberately
chosen not to include the names of some former members of the
DCSG who have contacted me with information because, as one of
them put it, she “knows from experience how miserable they
can make life for people they don’t like.”
Why Bother?
Several people have sent me email over the
last few years, asking me why I keep saying negative things about
Janette Copeland and her Divine Circle of the Sacred Grove. “After
all,” they ask me, “doesn’t everybody have something
worthwhile to teach?” and, “Can’t we all just
be friends?” My response, of course, to the first question
is, “Maybe, but not always on what they think they can teach,”
and to the second, “Friends don’t cheat, steal from,
or lie to each other if they’re really friends.” Thus,
this essay.
It would take me weeks of doing nothing else
to dig up every scrap of information I have on these folks —
weeks taken away from far more important projects, which is why
this essay doesn’t get updated often. However, the total
number of pages ADF managed to gather about the DCSG before ceasing
our investigation was well over 2,500 and I’m gradually
finding parts of that mountain of documents floating to the top
of my office paper piles. As I said in 1996, that much evidence
goes well beyond any individual’s obsession or vendetta.
Janette’s husband Kal Mannis (10/96) took the very accumulation
of this much material as “proof” of a “vendetta,”
and quoted my use of the term as part of his argument! Later
in that (10/96) response he and Janette implied that the evidence
gathering “must have” been done through unethical or
illegal means, and the results can “therefore” be ignored.
I don’t consider tape recordings of public
lectures, interviews with (or email from) former members of a
group, and routine verification of what should be easily found
public records to be either illegal or unethical. The evidence
so gathered may make some guilty parties nervous or angry, but
that doesn’t change the legality, the morality, or the truth
value of what was found. If we were going to criminal court,
the rules would change, of course… All that aside for now,
let me just list a few things I believe to be true and ask a
few questions that need to be asked:
Who is Janette Copeland?
Janette Copeland (the main name she uses these
days and the default one for this essay) has used about a dozen
different aliases over her career — and I do mean aliases,
not “Craft names” — including Janette/Jeannette
Gordon, Laverna Gordon, Laura Garcia, Laurie Garcia, Gerri Garcia,
Laverna Copeland, Geraldine Gumm, and “Queen Druid.”
Law enforcement agencies in over a dozen states have files on
her under these various names. One former member of the DCSG
told me, “I was witness to several of her ‘name changes’
that she did in just one day at a local notary public.”
Janette’s date of birth has been variously listed by her
as 2/7/40, 7/2/40, 2/7/42, and 7/2/42.
(Important correction to earlier
versions of the above paragraph: “Jeanette Eileen Wilson” is not
one of Janette’s many alias, but another person entirely,
who was a member for a brief while and has been on her own separate
religious path for several years since. Many people, including
myself, confused her name with that of the
“star” of this
essay, and I apologize to her for the error. A visit to her
website will make
it clear that she is a very different person!)
Every public claim that
Janette has made about her background and training, secular and
religious, that was capable of being checked has proven to be
a lie. We’ll start with the nonreligious
claims.
What are Her Secular Credentials?
According to Domi O’Brien, former Preceptor
of ADF and dedicated tracker of purported credentials,
“Although Janette has claimed to be a
registered nurse who served in Vietnam, no record was found of
her having attended nursing school, having licensure or registration
as a nurse in any state in which we know she has ever lived or
which she has mentioned, or serving in the military. According
to one MD, formerly of DCSG, she showed [in the early 1990’s]
complete ignorance of the most elementary medical terminology
and practices. [Other] former members have noted that many of
her tales about service in Vietnam seem to be taken directly
from Elizabeth Scarborough’s The Healer’s War.”
Janette also said that she had been a nurse
in Vietnam during a time period when there were no female
military nurses there. So we are left with some simple
questions that should be easy for her to answer: Where did she
get her nursing degree, what kind was it, where was she stationed
in Vietnam and what was she doing there? In the (10/96) letter,
she rephrased the statement about having been a nurse and having
been in Vietnam, to allow them to be separate events, still without
revealing anything checkable about either claim.
Let’s look at another secular claim,
this time for her mother — who is (or was) Janette tells
us, “senile” (7/2/91) and thus conveniently unable
to explain any discrepencies in her daughter’s words. (This
is relevant primarily because it sets up claims about when Janette
was supposedly in England.) Domi writes:
“Janette has claimed that her mother
was an American registered nurse who became pregnant with her
while serving in England during WWII. A birth certificate that
appears to be Janette’s, in Texas, gives 2/7/40 as her birthdate
[well, it’s one of the ones she uses!].
After checking with Army historians at Ft. Lewis, WA, I confirmed
that she was not only conceived but born before any
American women were mobilised for WWII. Additionally, those US
nurses mobilised were not sent to England —
since England was an allied country with fully-trained English
speaking nurses, drivers, secretaries, etc .”
What are Her Druidic or Pagan Credentials?
Janette claimed (7/2/91) to have been initiated
into the British Circle of the Universal
Bond in 1942, that her parents were members, and that she
participated in their rites as a teenager. It’s unclear
whether the 1942 initiation was one of the ones she referred
to when she said (7/2/91), “I was initiated a Druid when
I was nine days old, and then I was confirmed as a Druid when
I was twelve years old.” What is clear is that the archives
of neither The Druid Order, BCUB, nor those of any other Druid
group now existing in England, has any record of her ever having
been a member or of having been initiated. None of the older
members of the Council of British Druid Orders (who would have
been around in England’s then tiny occult
community during the 40’s and 50’s) remember her or
her parents as members. Further, none of their Orders allowed
minors to participate in ritual until quite recently — let
alone initiating them as either babies or twelve-year-olds.
I published an early draft of the ADF Study
Plan in The Druids’ Progress, Report #2, for 1984
c.e., in which I publically invented the terminology
of “First, Second, Third, (etc.) Circle Druids.”
As I put it then:
“To begin with, I’m stealing the
idea of using ‘Circles’ of development and commitment
from the old Church of All Worlds, who in turn got it from Heinlein’s
[science fiction classic] Stranger in a Strange Land
(see Margot Adler’s Drawing
Down the Moon for details). Everyone’s familiar
with the idea of ‘inner circles’ that secretly run
supposedly democratic groups. In point of fact, every large organization
is actually run by a small number of people, regardless of what
they may tell the general public. This is due to factors involving
human communication capabilities and varying degrees of dedication,
as well as with the commonly mentioned (and less ethical) motives
of greed and power-hunger.
With ADF I want everything to be as open and
aboveboard as possible. We’re starting out by stating that
our structure is one of circles within circles. The more hard
work, dedication and time a person is willing to put into ADF,
the further they will progress towards the inner circles where
increasing power and responsibility will eventually be weilded.
The First Circle is composed of people who
have dedicated themselves to learning about Paganism in general
and Druidism in particular… The Second Circle is for those
who have decided that they want to take a greater role in the
affairs of a local grove, or to organize one if none exists in
their area… Membership in the Third Circle will be a rough
equivalent of having gained a Bachelor’s Degree at a good
university, and will also be the minimum Circle for holding clergy
credentials from ADF…” (Visit the ADF
website for current info on its training program, which has
changed “a bit” since then.)
I mention all this as grounding for what happened
next. Note that when DP#2 came out (in 1984/5) there
were no members of the First or Second Circles
and only one in the Third (myself as Chief Unindited Co-conspirator
of ADF). Nonetheless, within a few weeks of DP#2 arriving
as a back issue in her Fontana mailbox in 1987, Janette began
claiming in print and in speech (and still claims in 10/97) to
be “a Third Circle initiated Druid,” despite the fact
that no other Druid organization in the English speaking world
then used the term “Circles” for their degree system
(which was one of the reasons why I chose it in the first place)
and that the Third Circle initiation ritual hadn’t even
been written yet (it wouldn’t be, for several more years).
Did she “borrow” ADF’s terminology because she
intended her group to measure up to the same high standards that
ADF was proposing? That doesn’t seem likely, given her group’s
subsequent history. Or did she simply grab a nifty new title
because it sounded impressive? Either way, she ought to have
been honest enough to at least say where she got it.
Janette claimed at one point to have a Gardnerian
(that’s “Orthodox Wicca” for you non-Pagan readers)
Third Degree (High Priest/ess status) from a specific initiatory
line, current leaders of which denied knowing her when asked
by my Gardnerian wife. While Gardnerian traditions forbid revealing
the initiatory status of any (nonpublic) Gardnerian to any non-Wiccan,
and in many interpretations to any non-Gardnerian, Wiccan or
not, questions about lineage, that is, who someone
was initiated by, when asked among known Gardnerians, must
be answered, since lineage is the method used for quality control
and the judging of authenticity among Gardnerians. In July 1991,
she claimed to be a “Third Degree Priestess of Celtic and
Egyptian Wicca” — surprise — the same two trads
taught by Our Lady of Enchantment (“OLE,” see below)
when Janette was a student there for one year!
Janette has claimed to be a Pipeholder for
the Sioux, the Chumash, the Cherokee, and the Lumbee. Beket Edithsdottir,
a part-Indian member of ADF, asked the Sioux about this. Turns
out that only a handful of non-pureblooded Indians have ever
been made pipecarriers, and none of her aliases were on the list.
The Lumbee tribal attorney told another officer of ADF that Janette
was apparently “one of the fake Lumbee from California”
(the real Lumbee are in North Carolina). The Lakota Times did
an article on the fake Lumbee from California, who sell memberships
in their tribe so that people can claim to be Native American
for scholarships, small business loans, etc. One Native American
medicine person who read this essay last year asked, “Just
which branch of the Tslagi nation? or Choctaw nation? or Sioux?…
and wouldn’t it be appropriate to spell Choctaw correctly?
And why have no tribal attorneys come to her aid if she is a
pipecarrier?… this is especially the case
with the very political Choctaw and Tslagi nations."
When Janette joined ADF (under the name Janette
Gordon) in 1987, she claimed (on her membership application)
no background or experience in Druidism or other
forms of Paganism, and to have no group or publication
of her own. This was different from what she told Lady Sabrina
(head of OLE) that same year, that she had “been a druid
for 37 years” and that “most of her family were druids.”
Janette now claims (11/99) that the DCSG “is a non-profit
educational and religious organization, in existence since 1958.”
In 1996 I asked, was she lying to ADF then or is she lying to
her followers now — or both? Janette stated (10/96) that
she had lied to ADF when she joined, then shifted the discussion
to how she joins groups to support them and learn from them (she
certainly does — see the next section). But why did she
feel the need to lie to ADF in the first place, or was it OLE
to whom she was lying, or does she simply lie as seems most useful
on any occasion?
As Domi puts it:
“Ms. Copeland’s tales of her initiations
and magical connections in her (7/2/91) lecture in Seattle contradicts
her written account (10/96), which contradicts what she told
ArchDruid Cyndie Sallee (Greenwood Grove, NRDNA, Seattle) whose
credentials and background are well-known and verifiable. The
discrepancies between her statements and ordinary history are
great, and the discrepancies between her claims of credentials
and practices, and the actual practices and credentials of the
groups she claims initiations in, are extraordinary.”
A Prolific — If Marginally Competent —
Plagiarist
Janette says now (10/97) and has said for
several years, “I, the Church council members, and other
professionals have personally written and prepared all seminary
courses, regular class material and special lectures that the
Divine Circle of the Sacred Grove offers.” Yet in 1996,
her beginning “Druid” correspondance lessons were ones
she had plagiarized from the OLE’s Wiccan correspondance
lessons, which Janette “Gordon” took from September
1987 onward. I know this because I was able to compare pages
from both. They were identical down to the typos and
spelling mistakes in the originals (though Janet added
quite a few extra ones).
Here’s what one former member wrote me
about the authorship of the DCSG materials:
“I am one of the walking wounded. That
is what several survivors of the DCSG refer to themselves as.
I had practiced Wicca for sometime before I met these people
while they were in Fontana, California. After being sucked in
(I am ashamed to say), I was eventually made privy to information
that got me thrown out of the group. I found lessons that Janette
had struck over (in her own hand) and then noted that they should
have her name and her logo asigned to these works… No one
would talk to me or believe me when I went to them and said that
these people were doing things that were so far outside the law
it was unreal. They demanded that all of their students prepare
a certain number of spells, essays, poems or even music that
then becomes part of “their library.” When I left I
took all of my work off their computers and out of their files,
that really made me some enemies within the group… I have
offered to go into any court that I need to in order to verify
the plagiarism that I witnessed, and would still do so.”
But Janette is a thrifty lass. Not only did
she copy over OLE’s lessons word for word, she also copied
over OLE’s advertising copy and layouts, introductory brochures
(including references to available facilities and services),
and even their logo! Well, she did say she liked to join groups
and learn from them! In November 1999, the DCSG website said
that all the correspondance classes were being “updated
and revised.”
Eventually, Janette began using stationery
for her “Divine Circle of the Sacred Grove: A Druid Fellowship,
A Non-Profit Religious Association” — thus stealing
half of ADF’s name, our legal status (which she shouldn’t
have needed if she was already incorporated in California, and
then in Washington, as she claims), part of our logo, and our
basic stationery design. In June of 1991, her promotional materials
were a mix of OLE’s and ADF’s (including our infamous
four-page Membership Form), and her logo incorporated the Awen used by the Mesopagan Druids.
In 10/97, she was calling her group “The
Divine Circle of the Sacred Grove, Order of Druids, Seed Bearers
of the New Millennium, Church and Seminary of the Old Religion”
on the splash page of her website. It was still the DCSG “Church
and School of the Old Religion” on some of the inside pages,
but at least she was still using the 1991 logo!
In November 1999, her website was using the
names “Divine Circle of the Sacred Grove,” “Sacred
Grove Apothecary,” and “Sacred Grove Sanctuary, Concho,
AZ.” The website however, was mostly incomplete and has
now (10/00) vanished.
More Weird Stuff
In public lectures in Seattle in 1991, Janette
claimed to have been previously invited to become a member of
the Board of Directors of ADF, but to have declined because the
Board “was a group marriage” and she didn’t want
to sleep with me — thank all the Goddesses! — but that,
she said, didn’t matter since I “was gay” anyway
(well, I do try to remain cheerful…). Later she said that
she had been an ADF Board member, but doesn’t
say with whom she then slept. (A note for those surfing in here
from non-Druidic parts: I
founded and led ADF for thirteen years, and no, she never
was a member of the Board of Trustees or the Board of Directors,
nor was she asked to be!) Ironically enough, one former DCSG
member told me, “Janette was in a group marriage herself.
In 1991, she was living with Richard and Kal, under one roof,
here in Duvall, Washington. I saw her french kissing Kal who
was not her legal husband, but openly her lover.” Now that
doesn’t bother me much, because I approve of kissing and
of group marriages, but it does seem to be another example of
Janette accusing others of actions she does herself.
During her “Third Circle” initiation
rites, Janette ordained candidates to the Order of Melchesidek
(a Catholic and Mormon term based on Jewish traditions) and informed
them, most of the way through the ritual and with a knife to
their throat, that they would now have to give ten percent of
their income to the DCSG for the rest of their lives. This from
a woman who claimed on her website, “We attempt to be examples
of high moral and ethical standards in all our workings and with
all whom we come in contact.” Now, tithing is a perfectly
respectable religious practice and many legitimate religious
groups encourage or require it — but they don’t surprise
their members with it under circumstances where they would fear
to refuse.
But there’s even more history of cultish
behavior by Janette. One woman who was in the Washington DCSG
grove for a short time told me, “The weirdest thing I witnessed,
which is what prompted me to write my letter to her, was a re-dedication
ritual, where… everyone present but myself and a couple
of other newcomers knelt before her and pledged their lives and
total devotion to her. It really gave me the creeps. She had
never even participated in a ritual with us before.” This
was about the time that Kal Mannis was saying (7/2/91) that,
“Now, one of the things you’ll find is there are some
people who are, what, heavily into power. If anybody tells you
they’re not power junkies that are in this? They’re
lying…” and Janette said that very same night, “I’m
not asking anyone to bow down, fall into the Druids, or any organization.”
At one point in Janette’s checkered career,
Arizona police were investigating her in connection with the
missing bodies of twin babies, which were moved by her from St.
John’s, Arizona past Gallup, New Mexico and the Zuni Reservation
over to Ramah, New Mexico. It turned out that they had died of
“natural causes,” but other investigations revealed
that she had taken at least two other children from their parents,
“adopted” them — without bothering to tell the
state or the parents that she had done so —
and moved to other states with them. Perhaps the fact that, as
she said (7/2/91) in Seattle, she is unable to have children
of her own, can explain this obsession she has with other people’s
kids — but she zeroes in on them fast. One correspondant
told me that some friends who had just joined the DCSG were asked
by Janette if she could be their newborn baby’s “godmother.”
Brrrrr.
Perhaps most significantly, when these issues
were being discussed on the nets, an MD, then Chief Healer of
DCSG, and a member (along with his wife) of the DCSG “Council
of Lore” — yet another term stolen from ADF —
and the author of the DCSG herbalism course, investigated several
of Janette’s disputed claims. He was disturbed by his findings,
and wrote her a letter (he sent me a copy) asking humbly for
some explanation of the discrepancies. Her response was to hold
a secret board meeting and excommunicate both him and his wife
(apparently seeing her as only an extension of him). Janette’s
(10/96) version of this history is dramatically different, of
course, and contains allegations which I hoped would lead to
a lawsuit by the physician. But other members have told me similar
stories of being tossed out for asking questions — something
that happened to me with several sleazy groups back in the 60’s
and 70’s.
And Her Knowledge?
None of this Olympic-class dishonesty even
touches on her gross ignorance about both Druidism and Wicca.
She claimed at her lectures, for example, that Wicca was invented
by the Druids for people who weren’t smart enough to be
Druids! Kal Mannis put it a little more diplomatically, if equally
unhistorically, when he said (7/2/91):
“…in the late fifties and early
sixties there were certain people [from the alledged “American
Druids” group] that were assigned as teachers and recruiters,
that would go off into the United States and different areas
of the United States and start organizing and teaching the Druid
way and a modified Druid way, which in the Americas became commonly
known as Wicca; most of the people who practice Wicca were taught
by these people originally.”
I’ll bet that comes as a real shock to
all those early Gardnerian and Alexandrian Wiccans in the U.S.
and Canada, who thought what they were doing had started in England,
just because they went to England to get initiated and nobody
there said it was watered-down Druidism from America. I probably
shouldn’t even mention here all those “Family Tradition
Witches” who practice Generic Wicca but claim that their
beliefs and practices predate Gardner (and therefore “certainly”
predate any effort by American Druids in the 50’s to create
Wicca), except that one of those sorts of tale-spinners is probably
responsible for much of Janette’s nonsense.
Janette appears to have been a student and/or
lover of a man called Barney Taylor, a.k.a. “Fr. Eli”
(not to be confused with Tony Taylor of Keltria,
who is a jolly good fellow). Fr. Eli founded the “Druidic
Craft of the Wise” back in the 70’s, by mixing Mormonism,
Naturopathy, UFOlogy, Wicca, Rosicrucianism, and Scientology.
He talked a lot about the Order of Melchesidek, and was described
by several former members as engaging in extreme exploitation
of his members. Like Janette, he was also investigated by local
police in connection with the mysterious death of a child belonging
to a member. Janette now (10/96) admits the connection and claims
to have left him for “ethical reasons.” For a current
site teaching the DCW materials visit the DCW
Lance & Grail page, but be warned that their historical
statements are extremely unscholarly and unreliable.
The DCSG’s teaching materials consists
of the same sort of mishmash that Fr. Eli taught, and bear no
resemblence to any historical system of Druidism, ancient or
modern. There are plenty of different Druid (and Wiccan) groups
around to choose from today, no one needs to give their money
to — let alone entrust their physical and spiritual safety
to — blatant con-artists.
Now folks can be as Pollyanna-ish on all this
as they like. However, education of the Pagan Community in Seattle
and Los Angeles about Janette’s history resulted in her
skipping town and looking for a new community of marks. In October
of 1997, she found one in Phoenix, Arizona, but later moved to
rural Arizona, where she began throwing Pagan Festivals and dragging
in unsuspecting Big Name Pagans from other parts of the country
to boost her image. If people are determined to be victimized
by her, there’s nothing I or anyone else can do to stop
them. As the old saying goes, “there is a seeker born every
minute.”
The Bottom Line:
Lying about one’s experience and qualifications
is not at all unusual in the metaphysical community, or any other
unregulated and uncertified community, for that matter (including
large parts of American Protestantism). Dealing with pompous
spouters of nonsense and unverifiable-claim makers is just part
of the work we spiritual pioneers have to do. If I exposed every
single bull-thrower I encountered in the New Age or Neopagan
communities, I would spend all my time doing nothing else. Thus,
I do not denounce people without a great deal of solid evidence,
in this case gathered over a period of several years, from many
sources, of serious wrongdoing.
At best, Janette Copeland/Gordon/Garcia/Gumm/Etc.
is a liar, a plagiarizer, and a con-artist (who may or may not
be conning herself as well). At worst, innocent people could
be seriously hurt by her and her associates, physically, financially,
or spiritually.
One correspondant told me, “You can’t
imagine the amount of damage that they did to the people that
they walked away from in Fontana alone.” Unfortunately,
I can, which is why I’ve written this essay and intend to
keep it in circulation until Janette of the Many Aliases and
her friends are out of the Druid business for good.
So I will not stop speaking
out against her and her psuedo-Druid organization. They are an
insult and a shame to all sincere Druids and Pagans, past or
present. As one Arizona Pagan wrote me, “This whole matter
makes me livid! We have a hard enough time without criminal idiots
like her making the rest of look bad in the eyes of the non-Pagan
communities.”
Those of you who are unfamiliar with it may
want to look at my Advanced
Bonewits Cult Danger Evaluation Frame and review this essay
with those parameters in mind. The DCSG is one of the very few
Pagan groups to score high in the danger zones of “cultic”
behavior.
I can only end this discussion appropriately
with quotes from Kal and Janette themselves, taken from the (7/2/91)
talk in Seattle:
Kal: “The Druids are also people of their
word, which is essentially the law. All you have to offer is
your word. If you can’t keep it, then, nobody — then
you’re essentially breaking your law, the law as you created
it. Okay? And you have no power. Our power lies within ourself
and our commitment to our word. If it can’t be kept, our
lives don’t work.”
Janette: “A Druid takes an oath that they don’t break
their word and tell a lie, and that gets very difficult.”
It certainly does, Janette, especially when
people are taking notes and keeping track of you — which
some of us at least will continue to do for many years.
Spring 2007 note: I continue to receive
email from additional victims of the DCSG at least once every
other month. I’ll incorporate these into another update
of this page Someday.
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