1930 - 2000

Dr. Leo Louis Martello was an American Witch, hypnotist, graphologist and activist for civil and gay rights, and publicly prominent in modern witchcraft since the 1960's.

Born in Dudley and raised in Worchester and Southbridge, all in Massachusetts, Martello is a descendant of Sicilian Witches, or streghe, a heritage he knew little about as a child, except for his father's references to his resemblance to his grandmother. He was baptized a Catholic and claims that the six worst years of his life were spent in a Catholic boarding school. He had psychic experiences early in life, and in his teens began studying palmistry and the Tarot with a Gypsy. By age 16, he was making radio appearances giving handwriting analyses, and selling articles.

Martello was educated at Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts, and Hunter College and the Institute for Psychotherapy, both in New York City. After moving to New York at age 18 he learned about his ancestral heritage from cousins who said they ahd been watching him for years for his potential in the Old Religion. His grandmother, Maria Concetta, was renowned in her hometown of Enna, Sicily, as the local strega, whom people sought for help when the Catholic Church failed them. She was reputed to be a jettatore, one who has the ability to cast the evil eye. She was said to have cursed a Mariosi to his death by heart attack, after he beat up her husband and threatened him unless he pad monthly protection money. Secretly, Concetta was a high priestess of the Goddess of the Sikels, who were the founding inhabitants of Sicily.

On September 26, 1951, Martello was initiated into his cousins' secret Sicilian coven, and became a mago, a male witch. The initiation involved a blood oath to keep the secrets of the coven and its members.

In 1955 Martello was awarded a doctor of divinity degree by the National Congress of Spiritual Consultants. He became an ordained minister (Spiritual Independents, Nonsectarian), and served as pastor of the Temple of Spiritual Guidance from 1955 until 1960. He left that position to pursue his interests in witchcraft, parapsychology, psychology and philosophy, and no longer accepted the theology of the National Congress of Spiritual Consultants.

He also did work in hypnographology, the study of handwriting obtained under hypnotic age regression, and worked professionally as a graphologist, analyzing handwriting for business clients. He was founder and director of the American Hypnotism Academy in New York from 1950 to 1954 and was treasurer of the American Graphological Society from 1955 to 1957.

From 1964 to 1954 he lived in Tangier, Morocco, where he studied Oriental Witchcraft. In 1969 shortly before publication of his first book on Witchcraft, Weird Ways of Witchcraft, Martello, with the permission of his coven, decided to go public as a Witch, in order to promote the truth about Witchcraft. Subsequently, he contacted and was initiated into the Gardnerian, Alexandrian and Traditionalist traditions. He was the first public Witch to champion the establishment of legally incorporated, tax-exempt Wiccan churches; paid legal holidays for Witches; and Wiccan civil rights activities and demonstrations.

To further these goals, Martello founded the Witches Liberation Movement and the Witches International Craft Association (WICA). In 1970, he launched publication of the WICA Newsletter and Witchcraft Digest, which had a circulation of about 3,500 by the mid 1980's.

Colorful and outspoken, Martello received much publicity in 1970 for organizating a "Witch-In" in Central Park on Samhain (All Hallow's Eve). The city parks department at first refused to issue a permit for the Witch-In but relented after Martello secured aid of the New York Civil Liberties Union and threatened to file a suit for discrimination against a minority religion. The Witch-In, attended by about 1,000 persons, was filmed and made into a documentary. Martello then formed the Witches Anti-Defamation League, dedicated to ensuring Witches religious rights. By the late 1980's, chapters of the League were being established in every state in the United States.

He drafted a "Witch Manifesto." which called for a National Witches Day Parade; the moral condemnation of the Catholic Church for its torture and murder of Witches during the Inquisition; a $500 million suit against the Church for damages and reparations to the descendants of victims, to be paid by the Vatican; and a $100 million suit against Salem Massachusetts for damages in the 1692 trials. He foresaw that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 would enable the establishment of Witchcraft temples and churches.

Martello made his living primarily as a writer, graphologist and lecturer. He made numerous public appearances to educate others about the Craft and to speak at major Pagan/Wiccan festivals and gatherings. He compared the Craft to an underground spring which has existed for centuries and predates the Judeo-Christian and Muslim faiths, and occasionally rises to the surface in small streams and lakes. The modern Craft movement reflects a worldwide rising of this underground spring, coming with such force that it cannot be dammed by enemies. The spiritual force behind the renaissance is comprised of the reincarnated souls of those murdered as Witches by the Inquisition. Martello defined a Witch as a wise person who is in control of his or her life. He was of the opinion that too many persons enter the Craft and that there is too much emphasis on personalities in the broad neo-Pagan community. His Sicilian tradition teaches that a wrong must be rectified in this life and not left ot "karma" in a future life. the Witch must not permit injustices. His own philosophy, as outlined in How to Prevent Psychic Blackmail (1966), is one of "Psychoselfism: sensible selfishness versus senseless self-sacrifice."

Martello authored numerous magazine articles and books. Other major published credits include: Witchcraft: The Old Religion; Black Magic; Satanism and Voodoo; Understanding the Tarot; It's Written in the Cards; It's Written in the Stars; Curses in Versus; Witches' Liberation and Practical Guide to Witch Covens; Your Pen Personality; and The Hidden World of Hypnotism.

The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft
Rosemary Ellen Guiley