Biographical information
- Civil name: Thomas Kneitel
- Craft name: Phoenix
- Born: 1933, Brooklyn, New York (ARRL, 2008)
- Gardnerian initiation: 1 May 1972, in Raymond and Rosemary Buckland’s coven
- Died: 22 August 2008, DeLand, Florida (ARRL)
Historical photograph to be selected.
Professional life and encountering the Craft
Thomas Kneitel was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1933. Known professionally as Tom Kneitel, he became a prolific writer and editor concerned with amateur radio, shortwave listening and citizens-band communications. He worked on publications including S9 and Popular Communications, and wrote books on radio equipment and communications. The American Radio Relay League records his call signs K2AES and W4XAA and his 2004 induction into the CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame. This professional career, rarely mentioned in histories of Wicca, is an important part of his public biography.
Tom was married to Judith Kneitel, Judy, who contacted Raymond Buckland in October 1971 when she visited the museum to propose teaching astrology. Judith’s increasing involvement with the coven brought the couple into Gardnerian Wicca. She was initiated on 10 April 1972, taking the name Theos; Tom was initiated on 1 May and adopted the Craft name Phoenix.
High priest at Commack
During 1972 Raymond and Rosemary Buckland prepared to withdraw from regular leadership of the Brentwood coven. Judy and Tom received further training and degrees in preparation for succession, a process examined by Mankey using memoirs and contemporary records. On 17 November 1972 the Kneitels formally took over the group and moved it to Commack on Long Island.
Phoenix served as high priest alongside Theos, welcoming prospective members, training initiates and helping transmit Gardnerian ritual practices. The growth of covens descending from their group gave rise to the Long Island Line. As in other Gardnerian covens, priestly work combined ritual leadership, personal instruction and responsibility towards those seeking to approach the tradition.
Internal texts and coven organization
Theos and Phoenix prepared a document known as Notes and Guidelines, concerned with the practical running of covens and subsequently transmitted in some copies of the Book of Shadows. Mankey observes that commentators have interpreted it differently: some described it as an attempt to impose rigid rules, while others considered it supplementary organizational guidance. Its oathbound contents need not be reproduced to explain its historical place.
The presence of documents with a known authorship illustrates how Gardnerian practice continued to generate guidance after Gardner’s death while maintaining a shared initiatory core. Arguments over the authority of new high priestesses and priests were connected with a practical problem: how to preserve trust and continuity in a growing network of independent groups.
Disagreements with Raymond Buckland
Relations between Phoenix and Theos and Raymond Buckland deteriorated in subsequent years. They differed over recognition of initiatory degrees and revisions or additions to ritual texts. One controversy concerned initiations descending from Theo and Thain in Kentucky and spread through the New York Pagan community. Mankey compares retrospective testimony with Buckland’s original notes and finds strong evidence that the Kentucky couple received their third degrees in 1965.
Tom participated directly in public controversies. In 1975 an exchange of letters in Green Egg concerned Buckland’s use of academic titles. Kneitel questioned his credentials, and Buckland responded polemically. Mankey notes that there is no substantiated evidence for an accredited academic doctorate held by Buckland, while also acknowledging how personal the dispute became.
Other disagreements involved the acceptance of prospective members, including gay and lesbian candidates. In a later statement cited by Mankey, Tom asserted that the Kneitel coven had trained and initiated gay members. That testimony should be considered alongside contemporary evidence and does not in itself resolve every accusation made during the disputes. The controversies illuminate the difficulties of authority within an expanding Gardnerian network.
Later life and remembrance
Tom remained a significant radio-communications author and editor, becoming editor emeritus of Popular Communications. He and Judy moved to DeLand, Florida, in 2004. He died there on 22 August 2008, aged seventy-five, according to the American Radio Relay League obituary, which describes his extensive contribution to the literature of hobby radio.
In religious history Phoenix remains associated with the Commack coven and its initiatory descendants. He did not publish witchcraft books comparable with Buckland’s; his principal contribution was organizational and initiatory. Despite the disputes, Mankey recognizes Thomas and Judith as important participants in American Gardnerian expansion, and covens descending from them continue to carry their memory.
References and documentary sources
- MANKEY, Jason. High Priest: Raymond Buckland, the Father of American Witchcraft. Llewellyn, 2025, sobretudo capítulo sobre os Kneitel e as controvérsias da década de 1970.
- HUTTON, Ronald. The Triumph of the Moon. Edição revista. Oxford University Press, 2019, como contexto histórico da expansão gardneriana.
- HESELTON, Philip. Witchfather. Vol. 2. Thoth Publications, 2012, como referência à transmissão anterior a 1964.
- CLIFTON, Chas S. Her Hidden Children. AltaMira Press, 2006.
- American Radio Relay League — Prolific Author Tom Kneitel, W4XAA SK (2008).
- World Radio History — Popular Communications.