For those who have recently entered the Magical Milieu of MOTO, Simon Goodman (d.1991) was a foundational figure in Australian Wicca and Paganism. When he died he left much of his collection of books, papers and correspondence to Murdoch University Library, where I was working at the time. Simon is still a controversial figure, as witnessed recently in some on-line and personal discussions. So whilst I have already made available some material from his collection on the Resources page, I thought I’d continue the project. And, in keeping with his heritage of of good-natured provocation, post something a little interesting. : )
These ‘Notes on hereditary and traditional British Witchcraft‘ are interesting for many, many reasons. For this (proactive) post the most relevant point is the conclusion an 80′s weekend gathering of UK Craft bigwigs, lineage holders etc came to. Provided of course these notes are accurate. Anyway, the conclusions read:
space
“Basic Problems:
i. The craft offers no adequate means of spiritual growth.
ii. The craft has an ethical system, but does not offer adequate solutions to inflated egos.
iii. Egocentric High Priestesses are particularly prone to arise in the craft.
iv. Coven leaders do not necessarily adequately explain why power is being raised, with the possibilities of exploitation.”
space
Anyway…if you can read the handwriting, you’ll find much to interest you. And if you are kind enough to do what I can’t be bothered doing and transcribe the bugger, please send us a copy for the other MOTO readers. Ta 
Download here.
UPDATE: Andrew B. Watt has kindly started the task of transcription here. THANKS Andrew!
"We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. And whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. For some strange reason I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. And you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the way God’s universe is made; this is the way it is structured." ~
“A religion without a goddess is halfway to atheism” ~
How does my spiritual practice and daily life serve the earth?
How does my spiritual practice and daily life affect the poorest third of humanity?
How will my spiritual practice and daily life affect the generations to come in the future?
"It is through your body that you realize you are a spark of divinity."
“For most of us, however, we only think seriously of food or sex or money when it becomes a problem, which is to say when we feel we are not getting our share. When we find ourselves in that situation then I regret to say that meditational visualisations are really not the best way to remedy the lack. … We are here in a physical condition in a physical world and while in that state we have to abide by the laws appropriate to it.”
"The biblical texts have been strained out through a Greek/Latin mindset, which is very surface and static. I sometimes think it would have actually have been better if Western culture had based so called "Western religion" on Greek philosophy, rather than middle-eastern, because then at least you'd have all one thing. It would be eternally consistent. But what we have now is sort of half of each. And you're left with a basically schizophrenic tradition." 
"Can a horse tell you what it means to be human? How can a horse get beyond the boundaries of being a horse and say what it means to be human? Why do we think a human being can say what it means to be God? And yet we’ve done that; we’ve done that and we said that we’ve got it so right that if you don’t believe it we’ll burn you at the stake. That’s a very strange idea." ~
Well his conclusions/basic problems are right. I havent read the transcript, but will do later.
Nothing’s changed, eh? Simon was a bit of an eccentric but his thoughts were always clear and linear. I visited him in hospital during his final illness and he was still clear headed and fixed in his faith, despite the shortcomings he acknowledged in its practice.
Thank you for sharing this material Peregrin
I would like to see the complete paper , participle part D.
Dave Finnin -Co-Founder of the Roebuck
HI Dave – this was all that was there. I will be revisiting the collection soon, and contacting someone who may be able to fill in some gaps – some documents were stolen or lost in transit before being deposited with the library. If I find the item I will let you know and place a link here
Thank you Peregrin, I hope you can find the lost papers.
Dave Finnin
Peregrin,
I deposited my transcript as basic text into a comment box, which promptly vanished. Can you confirm that it exists as a comment before I re-add it?
[...] in 1991, and left his collection of papers to Murdoch University. Among them was a paper which Peregrin supplied as a PDF to his readers — a set of notes on Traditional and Hereditary British W…. I was interested (and continue to be interested) in such things, so I began the transcription of [...]
Ok, so I got up through the top of page 18 in the original PDF, and I’ve posted it to my blog. It’s rough going in places there, and this Simon Goodman (like me) is a visual thinker; there’s a couple of drawings that I haven’t tried to reproduce. But I have posted the transcript to my blog.
Hi Andrew – THANK YOU so much for this transcription. It is a great service to everyone. I will link to your blog now… ta. I think the original may have disappeared because of the length? Not sure. Anyway, thanks again…
I have knew some of the folks who were at that meeting, and the notes do not reflect their views on traditional British Witchcraft as they have expressed them to me.
Hi Dave – that is great input, thanks. The notes that show these views are not Simon’s – not in his handwriting. Not that it is important in our practice, just would be interesting to know their exact provenance
Ta. Love your website by the way 
Spending quite a few years as a Gardnerian Priestess, before walking an Esoteric Christian path I can say I agree with those ‘basic problems’
Hi.
Interesting blog!
A couple of questions though: Why is it so difficult to differentiate between British Traditional Witchcraft and British Traditional Wicca?
The title of the blog post is a bit misleading to me, although the notes you provided do mention the roebuck, village witchcraft and a piece on the Royal Windsor Coven, it’s still mixed with Gardenerian and Alexandrian traditions that are Wiccan. Robert Cochrane for one criticized Gardner a lot and I always thought that practitioners of Wicca and Traditional Witchcraft, mostly were at odds with each other, am I wrong?
Even when I read academic texts on magic, Paganism, the New Age etc. it seems like “witchcraft” means Wicca to most people. Are the claims of the existence of a Traditional British Witchcraft as opposed to Wicca not valid? I have yet to find an academic text on Traditional British Witchcraft, the Cochrane kind.
I would really appreciate hearing your thoughts on this!
Interesting. Came across your blog researching for my next book. very helpful. I knew Simon back in the 70s. Thank you for refreshing my memory. Ly de Angeles.