Born in London on the 31 August 1934 Raymond Buckland came from a line of Gypsys. He was in fact a half-blooded Gypsy known as a poshrat. He was introduced to spiritualism and the occult by an uncle. Clearly this fascination with such areas has deepened and taken him to places he never thought of before.

Just prior to his death Gerald Gardner initiated Buckland into his British Coven (via his High Preistess).  It was Buckland who was responsible for introducing Gardnerian Witchcraft into America in 1964.  Buckland took caution when he was bringing Garnderian Wicca to the USA. Some people even thought he was being too cautious but Buckland wanted to ensure that only committed people with a true passion of the craft as a religion would be initiated into the coven.

A few years later he felt as though Gardnerian Wicca was not quite meeting his religious needs and was plagued by egotism and power trips which was exhibited by others within the craft.  He developed and founded a new tradition called Seax-Wica.  He based it on Anglo-Saxon heritage and made it more open and democratic.

In the early eighties he and Joan moved on to Virginia and established the Seax-Wica Seminary.  This was a correspondence school that grew to have more than 1,000 students worldwide.  They had plans to build a campus for it, but these fell through due to lack of funds.

In December 1984 Buckland moved to San Diego, where he phased out the seminary correspondence course.  By this time the Seax-Wica tradition was well established worldwide.

In 1992 after more than a quarter of a century working in and leading the craft in America, Buckland decided to retire from active participation.  He moved his family to a small farmstead in north central Ohio. 

Buckland is a much sought after authority on the occult, magic and the supernatural.  He was a prolific and diverse writer covering such subjects as mystery and fantasy fiction, screenplays, divination systems, spiritualism and metaphysical nonfictions.  He has averaged more than one book a year over the last thirty years.  He has also written numerous magazine and newspaper articles, television scripts for the ITVs 'The Army Game', a pilot script 'Sly Digs', for the BBC and for a short time was the personal scriptwriter for the English comedian 'Ted Lane'.  He served as technical adviser for the Orson Welles movie 'Necromancy', and worked with 'The Exorcist' director William Friedkin on a stage production of 'Macbeth'.

As well as writing Buckland his appeared in public promoting the craft all across America, he has been seen on BBC-TV in England, the RAI-TV in Italy and the CBC-TV in Canada.  He has also appeared extensively on stage in England as an actor and played small role character parts in moves in America.  Buckland was also a distinguished teacher on craft subjects and has taught courses at New York State University, Hofstra University, New Hampshire Technical Collage, as well as work for Hampton Virginia City Council.

Without doubt Ray Buckland can be considered amongst the top of Americas leading Witches and his contribution to the revival of Witchcraft in America is perhaps without equal.