Heather Denise Botting, née Harden, also known asLady Aurora, (born 21 September 1948), is a professor of anthropology at theUniversity of Victoria inBritish Columbia. The original high priestess ofCoven Celeste, she is a founding elder of the CanadianAquarian Tabernacle Church[1] and was the first recognized Wiccan chaplain in a public university.[2]
Heather Harden was born inNewmarket, Ontario. She was brought up a Jehovah's Witness, living on a small farm on the outskirts of Newmarket, where her parents raised chickens, pigs and ponies. She was heavily involved in4-H projects and showed the neighbor'sAyrshire cattle. At 14 she was involved in a near-fatal car accident, an experience which was to shape her future university research interests. At 15, she met her future husband,Gary Botting, at a cousin's wedding.[3] Conforming to the instructions of theWatchtower Bible and Tract Society, the controlling corporation ofJehovah's Witnesses, at high school she opted for the "special commercial" (as opposed to academic) program.[4] Since their potential union suffered the disapprobation of their respective parents, Heather and Gary eloped in October, 1966—only to discover that nobody had noticed, and it became inconvenient to tell anyone. As a result, they got married a second time, this time publicly, on 1 April 1967 when they realized that "April Fool's Day" fell on a Saturday, thereby generating a self-perpetuating April Fool's joke.[5][6] Only then did Heather return to high school, intent on eventually enrolling in university.
Heather Botting attendedMemorial University of Newfoundland andTrent University, majoring in anthropology. At theUniversity of Alberta, she received the highest marks in the entire university, guaranteeing her a prestigiousKillam Scholarship for graduate studies.[7] She completed her Master of Arts and Ph.D. degrees in theanthropology of religion with research on Jehovah's Witnesses—the religion she had left behind. Her dissertation "The Power and the Glory: The Symbolic Vision and Social Dynamic of Jehovah's Witnesses"[8] is an analysis of the power relations operative within Jehovah's Witnesses, focusing on a specific microsociety of individuals within the movement, "showing the levels of involvement, commitment, and status achieved within the sect by each person in the microsociety."[9] The raw research data for her dissertation was collected over a nine-year period from 1973 to 1982, and continued to be collected until she and Gary publishedThe Orwellian World of Jehovah's Witnesses through University of Toronto Press in 1984.[10] The book is an exposé of "Witness history, beliefs, and social imperatives,"[5] but more importantly focuses on the shifting doctrines and "mental regulating" of Witnesses through isolationism and dogma, comparing theWatch Tower Society's closed social paradigms with the thought control depicted byGeorge Orwell inNineteen Eighty-Four.[11] Debbie Morgan of theUnited Church Observer called it a "warning against the way religious doctrine can be created and used to enslave rather than to free."[12] Carl Rapkins of theNew York Tribune described it as "excellent and sophisticated—a rare treat."[13] The book sold out its first edition of 5000 copies within weeks of its release.[14] Shunned by her many Jehovah's Witness relatives, Botting focused her attention on developing a spiritual religion based on the paganism that her relatives so abhorred.
Botting received a second Master of Arts Degree in Religious Studies with a thesis on near death experiences from the University of Calgary before moving with her lawyer husband,Gary Botting, to Victoria, where she joined the faculty ofUniversity of Victoria as an anthropology professor,[15] teaching folklore, anthropology of religion and social justice.[16] Shortly after joining the faculty of University of Victoria, she was appointed as chaplain—the first recognized Wiccan universitychaplain in North America.[17][18]
In the summer of 1966, Heather Harden met her fiance's maternal grandmother,Lysbeth Turner (née Rendle), the younger sister ofThomas Edward RendleVC the first infantryman to receive theVictoria Cross in theFirst World War. After answering the "call to arms" ofGerald Gardner in 1940—when witches from across the south of England met in theNew Forest for the purpose of casting a protective charm over England and a spell on Hitler's nefarious designs[citation needed]—Lysbeth Turner had become Gardner's London-based High Priestess. She had introducedGary Botting to Gardner in 1953.[19] Realizing that most of her Canadian family had become committed Jehovah's Witnesses, in 1966 Lysbeth expressed concern to Heather that her tradition of the "Old Religion" (i.e.Wicca) would be lost forever. Heather had empathy for this situation, since she had grown up in Ontario in the 1950s, when it was not fashionable to admit one's First Nations heritage (in her case,Assiniboine-Sioux). Despite her being a Jehovah's Witness, Heather rose to the challenge, abandoned the faith of her youth and was initiated intoWitchcraft. Once they were married later that year, Gary and Heather Botting establishedCoven Celeste inPeterborough, Ontario - the firstWiccan coven in Canada. However, because of the severe social strictures placed upon them by Jehovah's Witnesses, including fear of being disfellowshipped, they stayed in the "broom closet" for years—the "gestation period" of Coven Celeste—discussing their new faith only with fellow pagans.[20]
The coven came to full development inSylvan Lake, Alberta, from where it "hived," with different members of the coven moving away, taking its traditions with them. Over the next 40 years it went through several permutations, spreading from Ontario east to Newfoundland and west to British Columbia, north to the Northwest Territories, and south as far asCorpus Christi, Texas. In keeping with the matrilineal tradition explained to Heather by Lysbeth Turner, Coven Celeste has been passed on to Heather's granddaughters, Phaydra and Ariadne.[21]
Michele Favarger attendedCoven Celeste rituals in Alberta in 1982 and subsequently formed the CanadianAquarian Tabernacle Church ("ATC") onVancouver Island, inviting Heather Botting (as "Lady Aurora") andGary Botting (as "Lord Pan") to become founding elders. The Bottings and Favarger, along with Favarger's partner and high priest Erik Lindblad, successfully campaigned theProvince of British Columbia to recognize Wiccan weddings.[22] By 1995Coven Celeste had become one of the mainstay covens of Temple of the Lady in Victoria, BC, and the ATC was conducting a prison ministry and most pagan weddings in the province—mostly led by Arch-Priestess Michele Favarger and High Priestess Lady Aurora.[23] Heather Botting then became High Priestess of Circle of the Wolfsong, the Victoria branch of the ATC, and her husband, Denis O'Brien, became the coven's high priest.[1]
Heather andGary Botting have four children, Tanya (born 1970), Trent (born 1975), Thomas (born 1979) and Tharian (born 1983).[7] They were divorced in 1999. In 2000, Heather married social worker Denis O'Brien, a Wiccan.[citation needed]