46 Facts About Leo Martello

Leo Martello was an American Wiccan priest, gay rights activist, and author.

Leo Martello was a founding member of the Strega Tradition, a form of the modern Pagan new religious movement of Wicca which drew upon his own Italian heritage.

Leo Martello later claimed that when he was 21, relatives initiated him into a tradition of witchcraft inherited from their Sicilian ancestors; this conflicts with other statements that he made, and there is no independent evidence to corroborate his claim.

Leo Martello continued practicing Wicca into the 1990s, when he retreated from public life, eventually succumbing to cancer in 2000.

Leo Martello was born on September 26,1930, in Dudley, Massachusetts, being raised on a small farm rented by his father, the Italian immigrant Rocco Luigi Leo Martello.

Leo Martello spent six years at the school, later describing it as the unhappiest period of his life.

Leo Martello studied graphology and from the age of 16 began making radio appearances as a graphologist, writing stories for magazines.

Leo Martello later claimed to have experienced psychic phenomena as a child, sparking his interest in occultism.

Leo Martello later claimed that his father had informed him that his grandmother, Maria Concetta, had been a psychic known as a Strega Maga in her hometown of Enna, Sicily, Italy.

Leo Martello related that on one occasion, she had killed a Mafioso using magic when he threatened her husband for not paying protection money.

Leo Martello related that when he was 16, his father told him that he had cousins in New York City who wished to meet him.

Leo Martello never produced any proof to support his claims, and there is no independent evidence that corroborate them.

An anonymous woman who had known Martello informed the researcher Michael G Lloyd that during the 1980s, he had told her that he had never been initiated into a tradition of Witchcraft, and that he had simply embraced occultism in the 1960s in order to earn a living.

The Pagan studies scholar Ethan Doyle White expressed criticism of Leo Martello's claims, noting that it was "extremely doubtful" that a tradition of Wicca could have been passed down through Leo Martello's Sicilian family.

Leo Martello published a column titled "Your Handwriting Tells" for eight years that ran in the Chelsea Clinton News, and supplied various articles on the subject of graphology to different magazines.

In 1955, Leo Martello was awarded a Doctorate in Divinity by a non-accredited organization, the National Congress of Spiritual Consultants, a clearing house for registered yet unaffiliated ministers.

Leo Martello corresponded with California-based Pagan Victor Henry Anderson, and it was at Leo Martello's encouragement that Anderson established his Mahaelani Coven circa 1960.

Leo Martello claimed that in the summer of 1964, he moved to Tangier, Morocco, where he researched the history of the tarot, resulting in the publication of It's in the Cards.

Leo Martello began attending the Spiritualist gatherings that were operated by Clifford Bias at the Ansonia Hotel.

At some point High Priestess Lori Bruno founded a witchcraft coven and church, Our Lord and Lady of the Trinacrian Rose, in which Leo Martello was acknowledged as Elder.

In July 1969, Leo Martello attended an open meeting of the Mattachine Society's New York branch.

Leo Martello was appalled at the Society's negative reaction to the Stonewall riots, and castigated those gay people in the audience who accepted the categorization of homosexuality as a mental illness, accusing them of being self-loathing.

Leo Martello was involved in the GLF's campaign against The Village Voice's decision to ban the word "gay" from advertisements; the magazine preferred the term "homophile", which had been used by the Mattachine Society.

That month, Leo Martello was invited to a private meeting of these disaffected GLF members which resulted in the formation of the Gay Activist Alliance.

Leo Martello contributed a regular column known as "The Gay Witch", reaching his widest audience to date, authoring a variety of other articles that appeared in it.

In 1970, Leo Martello founded the Witches International Craft Associates, through which he issued The WICA Newsletter, set up to explain what Witchcraft and Wicca was to the wider public and to serve as a resource through which occultists could contact one another.

The Department refused, and when Leo Martello stated that the Witchcraft community would gather there regardless in their capacity as private individuals, he was threatened with police action.

Leo Martello gained the legal assistance of the New York Civil Liberties Union, who informed the Parks Department that they were in breach of the First Amendment.

Leo Martello never turned away anyone who genuinely needed his time and effort in the pursuit of a just cause.

Leo Martello fought long and hard for the freedom of Witches and Pagans.

In 1971, a young gay Wiccan named Eddie Buczynski contacted Leo Martello, and requested initiation.

Leo Martello introduced Buczynski both to other covens who might initiate him, and to Herman Slater, who would become his long-time partner.

Slater was ill with various medical complications, and on one occasion was rehabilitating at the New York University Medical Center when Leo Martello performed a healing ritual on him with the assistance of Buczynski.

Leo Martello would come to be known as a regular at The Warlock Shop, an occult store opened by Slater in New York.

In October 1972, Buczynski founded his own tradition of Wicca, termed Welsh Traditionalist Witchcraft, with Leo Martello becoming an early initiate and taking on the name of "Nemesis" within that tradition.

In turn, Leo Martello welcomed Buczynski into his La Vecchia tradition, and initiated him through its three degree system.

In November 1972, Leo Martello lectured at the first Friends of the Craft conference, held at New York's First Unitarian Church.

Leo Martello continued to encourage acceptance of homosexuality within the Pagan and Witchcraft community, authoring an article titled "The Gay Pagan" for Green Egg magazine.

Leo Martello expressed the view that homophobic Wiccans were "sexually insecure" and that they viewed the religion simply as "a ritual means of fornication".

Leo Martello was among the prominent male Pagans to endorse feminist and female-only variants of Wicca, such as the Dianic Wicca promoted by Zsuzsanna Budapest.

Doyle White noted that while Leo Martello faded from prominence as the head of the Strega Wicca movement, the tradition gained a "new public advocate" in Raven Grimassi.

Leo Martello was often noted for his scruffy appearance, with him typically wearing second-hand clothes.

Leo Martello defended the growing rise of feminists in Wicca during the 1970s, criticizing what he deemed to be the continual repression of women within the Pagan movement.

Leo Martello espoused the view that any Pagan who was involved in the US government or military was a hypocrite.

Leo Martello was critical of Wiccans who espoused a division between white magic and black magic, commenting that it had racial overtones and that many of those advocating such a view were racist.

Leo Martello thought it unimportant that many Wiccans had lied about the origins of their beliefs, being quoted by Pagan journalist Margot Adler in her book Drawing Down the Moon as having stated.