The Worker's Cauldron
A podcast about the cultural politics of the paranormal. Where Karl Marx shakes his fist at the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot speaks to us about the legacies of colonialism. We discuss the contemporary obsession with all things supernatural through a socialist, feminist lens and ask what our strange experiences and beliefs tell us about the society we live in.
The Worker's Cauldron
Gay Liberation and Witchcraft Part 1: The Mysterious Life of Leo Martello
We are back and in time for Halloween we are discussing, among other things, the first pagan pride “Witch-In” in New York’s Central Park on October 31, 1970. The organizer of the event, an eccentric Sicilian-American named Leo Martello, used his experience in the gay liberation movement to craft a (somewhat problematic) political identity for the emerging Wiccan religion. We discuss his life, influences, and how he related to the gay liberation movement after the Stonewall uprising.
Bonus: Cian Gill of the Wide Atlantic Weird Podcast joins us to discuss how 19th century folklorist “discovered” The Gospel of the Witches, which would later form the foundation of Martello’s stregheria
Sources:
Margot Adler, Drawing Down the Moon
Ronald Hutton, The Triumph of the Moon
Ethan Doyle White, Wicca: history, belief, and community in modern pagan witchcraft
MIchael Bronksi, A Queer History of the United States
Leo Martello, Weird Ways of Witchcraft, and Witchcraft: The Old Religion
Off the Grid, Out of the Broom Closet: Gay Activist & Village Wiccan Leo Martello
Rosemary Ellen Guiley, The Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft and WiccaGay Liberation Front Platform Statement, December 2, 1970
Harry Hay, “Statement of Purpose—Gay Liberation Front, Los Angeles, California”