An English witch and astrologer who moved to America in the 1960s, she gained considerable notoriety by making public and reviving witchcraft in the Western world.
Her hallmarks were a hooded cloak, loose dresses, and a jackdaw named Mr. Hotfoot Jackson, which sat on her shoulder.
She constantly wore a crystal necklace, which she inherited from her medium grandmother, Russian by birth. Leek was born in 1923 in Midland, England. According to her, her family inherited witchcraft for many generations, the roots of the family on the maternal side can be traced to the old religion of 1134 in Southern Ireland, and on the father's side - among the occultists close to the Russian imperial court.
Lik's mother had golden red hair, which is said to be the most common color among witches. All members of her family possessed the abilities of a medium. She claimed that her most famous ancestor was an English sorceress named Molly Lee, who died in 1663.
Lee was buried at the very edge of the local church cemetery, Leek said. After a while, the vicar and others went to open Lee's cottage and, shocked, saw her or her ghost: she was sitting in a chair with a jackdaw on her shoulder.
The vicar and the inhabitants of the town opened her grave, pierced her heart with a stake, threw a live jackdaw into the coffin and reburied it with a sorceress. Lik, who had a high intellectual level, early showed her writing talent. She was taught at home by her grandmother until local officials forced her to go to school. The girl was then twelve years old.
She studied for four years and graduated at the age of sixteen. Lick was nine years old when she first met Aleister Crowley, a frequent visitor to their home. She remembered him as a handsome man, with piercing eyes and enormous animal magnetism.
Promotional video:
Crowley took her with him on walks, they climbed the rocks, he recited his poems to her, which inspired her to write her own. He also explained to Lik how important words with power are and what the power of sound is.
From Lick's recollections, Crowley announced to her grandmother that little Sybil had been chosen to become a medium when Crowley left his occult pursuits. The last time she saw him was in 1947, shortly before his death. When Lick was fifteen, she met and fell in love with a famous pianist and conductor, twenty-four years her senior.
They married shortly after her sixteenth birthday and set off on a journey through England and Europe. When she was eighteen years old, the pianist died. She returned home. She was later initiated into a community in the south of France, in Georges de Loup, a town in the mountains near Nice. This area was popular with the Cathars in the Middle Ages.
As Lik recalls, she was initiated in place of her elderly Russian aunt, who was the high priestess of the witch community and died. Returning to England, Leek moved to live in Burleigh, a hamlet in the heart of the New Forest. She lived there among the Roma and joined the Khorsa community, which had existed for over 700 years. In time, she became the high priestess. In addition, she owned three lucrative antiques stores.
According to some reports, she married a man named Brian and gave birth to two sons, Stephen and Julian, who also inherited the family gift of mediums. In the 1950s, on an early spring day, as she walked alone in the New Forest, she had a mystical vision.
She said that it was as if she was enveloped in a bright blue light and she came to a state of great peace and understanding that her life goal was to preach the old religion.
Advertising in the press brought her fame, and this attracted many tourists and the press to the village.
The antiquity business has collapsed due to the onslaught of autograph collectors, and her landowner has refused to renew the lease until she publicly denies that she is a witch. She refused, closed the store and left for New Forest. In the early 1960s, she moved to the United States to raise the newspaper buzz again and decided to settle in America.
Leek first lived in New York, but found it a gloomy city, especially dreary in the winter. She moved to Los Angeles, where she met Crowley's former secretary, Israel Regardie. In her later years, she lived alternately in Houston and Florida. She worked as an astrologer, became the publisher and author of her own astrological journal.
In 1968, her first book, The Witch's Diary, was published. The book described what it was like to be a "modern woman" practicing magic. This book aroused great readers' interest.
Lik began to appear frequently at press conferences. In total, Leek has written over sixty books and has also reviewed international newspapers. She liked to repeat that she had never "preached" witchcraft, but only looked for an explanation in the religious philosophy of holism, showing how it differs from Satanism.
She did not approve of nudism in rituals, which was a sine qua non in some witchcraft traditions. She believed in curses, which is why she stood apart from most other witches who belonged to neo-pagan traditions. Lik wrote and talked a lot about reincarnation, as she was guided by the spirit of Madame Helena Blavatsky, co-founder of the Theosophical Society.
Lik was especially fond of snakes and birds. Jackdaw (raven family) accompanied her at all gatherings until the bird's death in 1969. Leek also had a hand held boa constrictor named Miss Sashima. Lick suffered from illness in recent years and died in Melbourne, Florida in 1983.