A Scorpio. After
earning his doctorate in physics and mathematics from
London University, Gavin entered the aerospace
industry. It finally took him to Southern
California, where he and Yvonne met in about
1966. Yvonne was a member of Mensa, the high
IQ society, and a graduate of Fullerton JC.
When a
shared interest in the occult and in alternative
spiritual paths brought them together, they moved to
St. Louis, MO, where they founded the Church and
School of Wicca in 1968. At that time
they started an occult correspondence school
teaching Witchcraft as a spiritual path, along with
astral travel, sorcery, astrology, and psychic
healing through the mails to a worldwide student
body. The church earned its religious
tax-exempt status in 1972. With the
publication of The
Witch's Bible and
later The
Magic Power of Witchcraft, the student body
grew. They taught thousands of students
the fundamentals of their spiritual philosophy.
Eventually
the Church developed branch covens and churches
across the United States. The actions
of some of those covens led to a rigorous IRS
investigation of the Church and the
Frosts. The Frosts successfully proved
that the Church was indeed a valid one. A
further consequence of the investigations was a
prisoner case and the federal appeals court ruling
which again validated the Church and School (Dettmer
v. Landon as referred to elsewhere on the site).
Although
officially the Frosts are semi-retired, they
continue to write books and to lecture at various
pagan gatherings around the nation. Each
year at Hallowe'en they can guarantee dozens of
radio interviews and several TV
appearances. This furthers the general
population's interest in Wicca and de-demonizes it.
They
have always been cutting-edge philosophers and have
made no bones about sexual activity within
covens. Their candor has alienated many
"plastic" pagans and caused the Frosts to be
controversial within the new-age metaphysical
subculture. That controversy itself has
generated many students coming to criticize who are
then surprisingly convinced by what we teach rather
than having their criticism find a base with what we
teach.