Speculum Lunae

COVEN DE WICCA GARDNERIANA

Biographical information

  • Civil name: Edith Woodford-Grimes
  • Craft name: No public records
  • Born: 18 December 1887
  • Gardnerian initiation: Before 1939; undocumented
  • Died: 1975
Edith Woodford-Grimes (Dafo) smiling in a black-and-white portrait, wearing a checked coat.

Life and contribution to the Craft

Edith Rose Woodford-Grimes, known as Dafo, belonged to the esoteric circles Gerald Gardner encountered in the New Forest area. An elocution teacher, she participated in the Rosicrucian theatre associated with the Crotona Fellowship. Ronald Hutton identifies her as Gardner’s most securely documented collaborator before the public emergence of his witchcraft. She worked with him in the activities from which the Bricket Wood coven emerged and, according to the coven’s own history, served as its first high priestess. She gradually withdrew in the early 1950s, particularly as publicity increased. Her role in Gardner’s reported initiation is frequently asserted, but the precise circumstances remain debated.

A young Edith Woodford-Grimes in a studio portrait, wearing a dark dress and a long necklace.

Philip Heselton reconstructs Edith’s life before witchcraft in Witchfather, his two-volume biography of Gerald Gardner, and explores it further in the chapter “A Witch called Dafo” in In Search of the New Forest Coven. Born Edith Rose Wray in Malton, Yorkshire, on 18 December 1887, she was employed as a lady’s maid in Baildon in 1911. She married Samuel William Woodford Grimes in 1920 and began teaching English, literature, and dramatic art in Southampton in 1924. Between 1930 and 1934 she attended courses at the London Academy of Music, earning a qualification in elocution. Although the academy also taught music, Edith taught speech and dramatic expression, not music, as some accounts have mistakenly stated. She became close to the Mason family, whose interests included Theosophy, Rosicrucianism, and Co-Masonry. In 1935 she joined several family members in resigning from the British Co-Masonic federation. She later played an important part in theatrical activities of the Crotona Fellowship, where she met Gardner.

The name Dafo itself requires care. Heselton reports that she had been known as Daff in her family since childhood, and suggests that Gardner’s use of Dafo was probably an affectionate nickname rather than a formal Craft name. Accordingly, the initiatory-name field reads ‘No public records’. Heselton considers her involvement in Gardner’s 1939 initiation likely, but his reconstruction of the participants and ritual is partly conjectural and should not be mistaken for direct documentation.

A young Edith Woodford-Grimes wearing a wide-brimmed hat and a coat with a stole.

Edith’s importance to Gardner is also reflected in his correspondence with Cecil Williamson. In letters written in June and August 1951, Gardner referred to “the Witch”, that woman’s daughter, and “the Coven”. Heselton argues that “the Witch” was Edith, suggesting that Gardner regarded her as a particularly important figure within the group. This remains an identification based on the wider evidence: the quoted passages do not explicitly name her.

Edith continued to be a point of reference for Gardner. Doreen Valiente first met him at Edith’s home in late 1952. By then Edith was concerned that public knowledge of her religious activity could damage her livelihood. After the 1957 coven split, Gardner took Jack Bracelin and Dayonis to visit her and seek her assessment of the proposed new priestly leadership, according to Dayonis’s later testimony recorded by Heselton. In 1960, Lois Bourne found letters among Gardner’s papers in which Edith sharply criticized his pursuit of publicity and questioned some of his more recent associations within witchcraft. This testimony shows that, even when no longer regularly active, she remained concerned about the direction of the Craft.

References consulted

  • HUTTON, Ronald. The Triumph of the Moon. Oxford University Press.
  • ARANTES, Flávio Lopes. Raízes da Wicca Gardneriana.
  • Biographical and historical material.
  • HESELTON, Philip. Witchfather: A Life of Gerald Gardner. Vol. 1: Into the Witch Cult. Loughborough: Thoth Publications, 2011, pp. 195–228.
  • HESELTON, Philip. Witchfather: A Life of Gerald Gardner. Vol. 2: From Witch Cult to Wicca. Loughborough: Thoth Publications, 2012, pp. 491–494, 533–534.
  • HESELTON, Philip. In Search of the New Forest Coven. Fenix Flames Publishing, 2020, ch. 2, “A Witch called Dafo”, pp. 9–36.

Image credits: British Traditional Wicca.