Ly De Angeles

Ly de Angeles (born December 1951) is an internationally renowned author, Tarot consultant, witch and screenwriter. [1] . She is currently considered one of the worlds most respected and influential writers on a variety of topics relating to paganism, witchcraft, Celtic magic and spirituality, and Western occultism.

Early life

De Angeles was raised in Mosman, Sydney, and spent most of her childhood learning her now passions of reading, and writing. At age 11 an essay was entered into the Book Week of the Year Competition for Australia, and won. She was awarded the first dictionary she ever owned and had her first newspaper write-up, photographed alongside the [then] Mayor of Mosman.

During the same year her mother separated from her father and her grandmother moved into the family home to assist in looking after both Ly and her sister. Her grandmother had, until that time, been the proprietress of the Rembrandt Hotel in Kings Cross (which subsequently burned down in 1981 killing 19 people). She was well known as a psychic and Ly was to learn from her example.

During her teen years de Angeles was pro-active in several areas including the protests against the Vietnam War, the movement of women towards individual rights and liberation and the push to ban vivisection.

In 1968, at age 17, Ly began training with the Independent Theatre, North Sydney, where she studied Shakespeare, the history of theatre, acting for stage and screen and directing. [2] . She enjoyed working with others in this field so upon graduating she formed her own small school in collaboration with a friend who taught contemporary dance.

Also, in 1968, Ly took her first initiation as a priestess and witch with a coven in Edgecliff, Sydney.

In 1972 she joined the Women’s Electoral Lobby and gave birth to her first child as a single mother. She and her baby son went to live, temporarily, with another single mother and [then] best friend, to Blackheath in the Blue Mountains. When her friend had to return to her home in South Africa de Angeles moved back to Sydney.

The following year she met an Englishman and fell in love. Because he refused to simply live with her she agreed to marry him. This was a mistake for de Angeles and it was destined to be an on-again, off-again, ultimately doomed, relationship as demands for Ly to conform to the traditional role of wife were met with indignation and rebellion.

Also in her early 20’s Ly left the world of theatre behind for what were to be many years. She began working in the budding IT industry and focused much more on her studies of all things magical and mystical, including traditional religions, indigenous spiritual ways of the sacred, myth and legend and the history and magic of the Celtic people. All this time she raised her young son, often with the aid of her very supportive mother and grandmother. On the job front she entered into the infant IT industry.

In 1977, in a last-ditch attempt to salvage her partnership, de Angeles and son left Australia for England to join her partner in the Midlands village where he grew up. Despising the lifestyle there she finally gave up on the relationship and returned to Australia, after only two weeks.

She returned to the Sydney witchcraft and magical scene, linking up with a who’s-who of like-minded others. She had several works published in current New Age magazines and began teaching several subjects, all related to magic and the occult, at the New Awareness Centre in Lindfield, Sydney. As the many occult movements continued to grow Ly also became entrenched in the international witchcraft network, and even more involved in the study, practice and teaching of witchcraft, tarot, and other divinatory sciences.

Her work in IT blossomed and she began working free-lance, transforming companies from manual to computerized and training staff. In 1978 she was offered a job at Harper and Row (now HarperCollins) where she met anthropologist, and author, Neville Drury, who was currently an editor. The two became close friends and spent time sharing information and holding shamanic workshops, along with Moses Aaron, a renowned story teller.

In 1980 Ly was with a coven on the North Shore of Sydney and it was through them she gained her high priesthood and her charter to initiate others. She ‘hived’ off from them and formed her own coven called Crystalglade, inheriting several initiates from the previous group.

It was also during this time that Ly began reading Tarot for the public.

In 1981 she initiated the man who was to become father to her other two other children. Their first child, a son, was delivered by a midwife at their home in Wahroonga, Sydney, in March of 1982. Not long after Ly, her partner and her two sons moved to highland Victoria as a result of meeting many like-minded others at the first Mt. Franklin pagan gathering, held annually just outside Castlemaine, Victoria.

Later, when Ly became pregnant with her last child, the family moved to Blackheath. During that time Ly was busy writing training notes for her Outer Circle students when Neville Drury came to visit. He read the notes, suggesting that if she ever added the rituals of esbats and sabbats she should send him a copy.

Not long after her daughter was born in September 1983 the family moved back to Victoria where they lived for many years. Ly continued the Outer Circle workshops, began the Victorian branch of her coven and taught the first of hundreds of workshops on Tarot. She learned silver-smithing from the renowned metal sculptor Russell Petherbridge, while living in a cottage in the shadow of Mt Kooroocheang, and she completed the notes for Neville. This was to be Ly’s first published book, The Way of the Goddess, Unity/Prism, UK, 1987.

Career

De Angeles arrived in Byron Bay, New South Wales in 1991 and she has continued to write prolifically. She currently works with initiates of the Covenant of Wildwood Gate, a coven, both physical and in cyber-space, whose inner-circle is based in the region around her home. Her Tarot clientèle followed her and her reputation spread to embrace a secure practice with a national and international reputation and a star-studded clientele.

She began her next series of Tarot Collectives, trained in martial arts and body-building, became deeply involved in youth affairs and environmental issues, and has also directed and produced many successful stage and street productions:"Wild and Wise Women's Festival – Director, Coordinator, 1992"Wearing of the Green Pageant (Celtic Festival) – Director, Coordinator, 1996"Rocky Horror Show (Youth Services) – Director, Producer, 1999""Jesus Christ Superstar – Director, Concept Design, 2000""Romeo and Juliet, A Contemporary Version – Co-Director, Concept Design, 2001""Jesus Christ Superstar II – Director/Performer, Concept Design, 2002""Vertical (Youth Activity Centre Production) – Coordinator, 2002"

She is a 2nd Dan Iaido practitioner (a traditional Japanese art of the Sword) and, until recently, was director of the largest dojo of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere where there were an equal number of female and male practitioners.

Her publisher has recently released her latest book based on the years of training workshops. It is Tarot Theory and Practice, Llewellyn Worldwide, USA, 2007 ISBN: 9780738711386.

She is currently working on several projects, now also including film and screenplays.De Angeles’ most recent works include writing and directing, in collaboration with a large crew, her first film The Redemption of Joe Frame, a provocative story that explores the often fine line between mysticism and madness. It is headed, along with Ly and her friends, to the European Film Festival circuit.

Ly is also an archer.

Her website is http://www.lydeangeles.com

Authorship

De Angeles has authored several works, both fiction and non-fiction:
*"The Way of the Goddess", (1987)
*"The Way of Merlyn", (1991)
*"Witchcraft - Theory and Practice", ISBN 1-56718-782-X (2000)
*"Genesis - A Legend of Future Past", (2002)
*"The Feast of Flesh and Spirit", (2002)
*"When I See the Wild God", ISBN 07387-0576-4 (2004)
*"The Quickening (Visionary Fiction)", ISBN 0-7387-0664-7 (2005)
*"As a contributor to the anthology - Pagan Visions for a Sustainable Future", Llewellyn Worldwide, USA, ISBN 0-7387-0824-0 (2005)
*"The Shining Isle (Visionary Fiction)", ISBN 0-7387-0834-8 (2006)
*"Tarot Theory and Practice", ISBN 0-7387-1138-1 (2007)

References

External links

* [http://www.lydeangeles.com www.lydeangeles.com]
* [http://www.myspace.com/lydeangeles www.myspace.com]