The Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magick is the most unique museum in the Midwest. You need to visit, to book a tour right now, because this is the only place to see a carefully curated collection of authentic witchy artifacts from the 1940s to the 21st century.
Whether you’re a Muggle or a Magus, whether Disney or Dabbler, you will have a magickal time. You will learn and laugh — there is so much history — rare artifacts, vintage Samhain (Hallowe’en) decorations, witchy film memorabilia, vintage coven ceremonial tools, ornate pagan masks, hundreds of things at which you will marvel. And the gift shoppe: posters, books, crystals, and the beloved Buckland hoodie. Your professionally guided Magickal Mystery tour will give you a thorough overview of the history of Witchcraft in the United States.
Admission includes a guided tour, often led by Steven Intermill, director of the Buckland Museum. I met with him to learn something of the history of the museum, how he became involved with it, its collection and events. I began by asking Steven how he became interested in witchcraft.
He told me always interested in the fringe outsider arts. His lifelong interest developed as a kid, when he always got the UFOs, Bigfoot, magick and occult books at the Scholastic Book Fairs.
Steven discovered Gerald Gardner (considered the father of modern witchcraft) and Raymond Buckland (studied under and initiated by Gardner; he introduced Wicca to the U.S.) from just reading encyclopedic and beautifully illustrated books on witchcraft. He found photographs of “this wild-eyed man” Gerald Gardner. And Ray [Buckland] was discovered in old-school witchcraft paperbacks. Any time Steven found an old paperback book on witchcraft, he’d buy it.
He has had a copy of Ray’s book Here Is the Occult (circa 1974) for probably about forty years. Steven, while working at Waldenbooks in the 1990s, noticed that they were selling a lot of copies of Ray’s The Complete Book of Witchcraft. He thought it was pretty cool, remembered the author from his developing collection of occult books, and read Ray’s entire big blue book while ostensibly working. Thus, Gerald and Ray have been with Steven for a very long time.
Steven met Ray Buckland by taking a leap of faith, while working at another tourist destination here in Cleveland (a place that sells talismanic symbols of the winter solstice). One day he’d just gotten a little burnt out on leg lamps, and e-mailed Buckland about whatever had happened to his collection.
Ray put Steven in touch with Toni Rotonda (owner of the collection), and that e-mail really changed Steven’s life. Ray insisted that he should see the collection — “just a bunch of weird stuff in boxes.” Steven’s response was “I live for weird stuff in boxes.” So he met and teamed up with Toni in Columbus.
Ray founded the museum in Long Island, New York. He started off with a small basement museum, which a surprising amount of collectors have. Ray opened up the museum for public viewing, setting it up in a more mainstream location, and it really took off. Ray next moved the museum to Weir’s Beach, New Hampshire, for a couple of years. Due to Ray’s intense schedule, the collection was then put in storage, eventually being sold to some people in New Orleans. The collection didn’t quite thrive in the Crescent City and went through varied hands. Thanks to Velvet Reith (a prestigious person in the New Orleans Pagan community), the collection made its way back to Ohio.
Reith was helping to restore and show the collection, but she became ill. She contacted Ray to have someone reclaim the collection, and Toni Rotonda stepped up. he retrieved the collection from New Orleans and brought it to Columbus. Toni made it her life’s work to continue it, preserve it, to grow it into what it is today — to ensure its legacy. Toni’s main focus is that this collection is not hers, it’s everyone’s — it’s for the people, it’s for the future. As Steven says, there are a lot of weirdos out there, outsiders, a lot of people out there who feel very alone in this sort of thing [Witchcraft]. It’s important to have a metaphysical home, where people can go and be inspired, realise that they are not alone, and that there are other people out there who practice witchcraft and the occult.
The existence of the collection reinforces the idea of a vital Witchy community. The Buckland is very inclusive, a welcoming and safe space for all.
Visitors to the museum include people who are into different aspects of witchcraft and the occult, and people who are interested in the museum as history. This collection is priceless, irreplaceable and must be preserved as history. Any one case here could provide enough artifacts for a lifetime of studying, reading and enjoyment.
The museum may seem small, and it is a place that’s “underground”, completely self-funded, and relatively obscure. But it houses an enormous explosion of creative ideas and artifacts. There is no other museum like it in the U.S. The Buckland Museum displays its artifacts with respect for their story, their history and respect for those artifacts as an art form.
Steven became involved in setting up the museum in Cleveland when Toni brought the collection up from Columbus. Then there was an explosion of interest. Steven was initially running the museum part-time, but went full-time as director about five years ago. Now he spends all his days dedicated to preserving the artifacts and telling stories of various forms of the craft. It’s very obvious that Steven loves what he does.
The first museum location was in Tremont in A Separate Reality, a record store on West 14th Street. Steven set up the Witchcraft Museum in an unused side room of that store. It quickly doubled in size. Unfortunately, the premises situation changed, so Steven found this perfect location in the old Brooklyn neighborhood; it’s near highways, relatively central in the Cleveland area — “and it’s been going gangbusters ever since 2019.”
To Steven, the purpose of the Buckland Museum is to educate, to show “who we are and who we aren’t.” To be a beacon for people to meet, to have workshops, and to learn about witchcraft while being surrounded by the atmospheric artifacts in the museum., and to have a landmark destination for witchcraft, where people’s destinies may lie.
Steven wants people to know that there’s nothing else like this museum — that it’s here for the duration — and it’s also a place of fun and joy. It’s for practitioners of all kinds of magic; a place where people can recognize and celebrate their own traditions. Steven is dedicated to making one’s museum visit both enjoyable and an incredible learning experience.
Steven describes and elucidates a particular item in the museum: the Protection Circle, the Magick Circle. That Circle was painted by Jesse Bransford, at that time chair of NYU’s art department. He’s created them all over the world. It’s a very important part of many people’s magickal practices, so it was important to have one in the museum.
The symbols that surround the circle are Jesse’s own versions of planetary symbols, planets of occult antiquity (a way of saying planets you can see without a telescope). Various paths of lights above Earth are represented in the circle.
Steven’s top five favorite artifacts: the first modern witchcraft coven’s ritual tools from Ray and Rosemary Buckland’s New York coven, and their Crescent Moon headdress — everything emanates from that headdress. Next artifact: the winter solstice — the Museum has some ashes from the 1969 Yule Fire of Ray Buckland’s original coven here in America, on Long Island. Third: the original props from the film The Love Witch. They were acquired pre-COVID, and Steven loves that film’s dry aesthetic, and the deeply accurate research done by the director. Fourth favourite is the 1945 Avalon High School Yearbook, which has an Ouija-based theme throughout. And then the last favorite: the uncut sheet of Ray Buckland’s Romany tarot deck. You see all 78 cards and the beautiful symbolism, a magnificently gorgeous deck.
Steven is seen by some as a professor of the occult, the wondrous strange practice of witchcraft of all types. Here is how he conjures museum events into being. Sometimes people ask if they can present here; there is also a list of people that they approach for an event. Steven and Toni are just starting their plans for 2025; there are some pretty good names in the works, but nothing finalized quite yet.
The Museum’s December 2024 event with Oberon Zell was dazzling. A very powerful and personable raconteur, Oberon has been in the forefront of the U.S. witchcraft movement from the 1960s through the present day. Oberon tells dozens of stories and history spanning those years. Steven is very thankful to call this prolific author a friend.
The museum folks love to have open dialogues with visitors who practice different styles of witchcraft and go into detail about their practices. The museum is a positive place where people can discuss and learn things — a repository of information, a magickal reference space.
Steven’s plan of study for himself is suitably esoteric. He “goes through sprees”; wants to find out all the information about different styles of witchcraft in turns. Steven gets hyper-fixated on one subject within the craft, or on magick in general. And when he feels like he’s kind of hit the rim, that’s when he moves on.
What are the future plans for the museum? Steven and Toni are working together on that. They want to continue giving a high quality experience to the guests. Pagan Pride involvement every year; more highly anticipated author events; more workshops; more wonderfully mystical group events. And some recent arcane acquisitions will be on display soon.
What Steven would like the average person who may not be familiar with the Museum to know — why they should visit and what they would take away from a wonderful tour of the Buckland Museum: If you lean Pagan, it’s a great place to be, to be around your people. If you don’t lean Pagan, it’s a great place to come and learn a little bit about a way of life which you may not have explored. No matter what, people tend to have a good time here. Some people see these sorts of things as dark and mysterious, but there’s also a lot of joy.
“We get a lot of self-described Muggles here, and it’s good when people come in and experience a little bit of magick,” he says. “So yeah, it is like music, it really can save your mind, save your soul. It elevates my mood every time.”
Magick, music, mystery at the Buckland Museum – book your tour now! So mote it be.
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Buckland Museum of Witchcraft & Magick, located at 2155 Broadview Road, Cleveland, 44109 (near the Zoo), consists of a magickal gift shoppe and exhibit space. Museum days & hours vary depending on season. Tours are highly recommended. One hour, beginning on the hour, and should be booked in advance online. Tours are $8 if paid online in advance, $10 at the door. More info at BucklandMuseum.org/.
[Written by Donna Shimko]
2155 Broadview Rd, Cleveland, OH 44109
Cleveland, OH 44113