disinfozone/The_Info_Web
1
0
Fork 0
Code Issues Pull requests Projects Releases Packages Wiki Activity Actions
The_Info_Web/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Julian Leek.md

5.7 KiB
Raw Blame History

aliases created updated category tags summary relations
Julian Leek
2025-08-05 2026-10-15 Occult & Esoteric
Person
Astrology
Witchcraft
Illustrator
Julian Leek is the son of the witch and astrologer Sybil Leek, illustrator of her books, and custodian of her archive.
type with role start fn
relative_of Sybil Leek son 1982-10-29 2

Julian Leek is the son of Sybil Leek, the English witch, astrologer and occult author. He illustrated several of her books from 1969, spoke to the press on her death in Melbourne, Florida in October 1982, and is named in Annie Jacobsen's account of the Rudolf Hess affair as the person who maintains her archive.

Illustrator of Sybil Leek's books

The Library of Congress record for the 1969 Macmillan edition of The Sybil Leek Book of Fortune Telling carries the statement "Illus. by Julian Leek."1 The W. H. Allen edition of 1970 and the Collier Books paperback of 1969 carry the same credit.1 The Macmillan and Collier editions of Phrenology (1970) are credited "Illustrated by Julian Leek," and the 1969 Collier edition of Numerology credits "Graphics by Julian Leek."1 Sybil Leek's Book of Herbs (T. Nelson, 1973) was illustrated with drawings by Julian Leek, Stephen Leek and Gerda Davis.1

Death of Sybil Leek

Sybil Leek died on October 26, 1982, at Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne, Florida, after a nine-month illness with cancer. The New York Times obituary of October 29, 1982, listed two surviving sons, Stephen and Julian, the latter of Melbourne Beach, Florida. The funeral was held at a Melbourne funeral home, and her ashes were to be taken to England for burial.2

The United Press International report of October 27, 1982, quoted Julian Leek: "It's not a devil worship. It's not people running around naked. It's not sacrificing things. It is a scientific religion." The report stated that he said most people did not understand what his mother meant by witchcraft, that she claimed her family had practiced witchcraft since 1134, and that she had written 64 books. It recorded that she predicted the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy and that Richard Nixon would win the presidency after his defeat in 1960.3

The sources differ on her birth year. The New York Times gave her birth date as February 22, 1917, and her age as 65; the 2002 BBC broadcast gave 1923.24

The archive

In October 2002 the BBC programme Inside Out reported that Julian Leek, then living in the United States, was building a research centre in Melbourne Beach, Florida, to house "a huge archive dedicated to his mum." The programme's page credited its images of Sybil Leek to Julian Leek as copyright holder.4 Jacobsen cites an interview with him as "Sybil's son, who maintains her archive."5

The Hess affair

Jacobsen quotes Julian Leek: "Mum stayed silent about the Hess affair all her life," and, of the affair, "It's still officially classified."6

The 2002 BBC report attributed the horoscope claim to the "Second World War author Michael Salazar," who said that her role "was to provide phony horoscopes for the Germans who believed in Astrology." The report continues: "She apparently wrote a chart which convinced the Nazi Rudolf Hess to fly to England, where he was captured." Jacobsen gives the same sentence and cites the BBC report as its source.465

Jacobsen's account of the CIA

Jacobsen lists Sybil Leek among the people used in American programs, writing that "the CIA hired magicians, hypnotists, and even Sybil Leek, Britain's famous white witch,"7 and that "Leek advised the CIA on witchcraft and the supernatural."8 The 1972 Defense Intelligence Agency report by John LaMothe that Jacobsen discusses there quotes her as saying that "there is great danger that within the next ten years the Soviets will be able to steal our top secrets by using out-of-the-body spies."9

Footnotes

  1. Library of Congress catalogue record (MARC), The Sybil Leek Book of Fortune Telling (Macmillan, 1969), statement "Illus. by Julian Leek.", as transcribed at https://openlibrary.org/books/OL5694243M.json ; Open Library edition records for W. H. Allen 1970 (OL4060984M), Collier 1969 (OL18789328M), Phrenology (OL4728899M, OL5218669M), Numerology (OL5681613M) and Sybil Leek's Book of Herbs, T. Nelson 1973 (OL5417918M, contributors Julian Leek, Stephen Leek, Gerda Davis). ↩︎

  2. The New York Times, "Sybil Leek, 'Ordinary Witch from New Forest,' Dies at 65," October 29, 1982, section B, p. 8. https://www.nytimes.com/1982/10/29/obituaries/sybil-leek-ordinary-witch-from-new-forest-dies-at-65.html ↩︎

  3. United Press International, "Self-proclaimed witch, psychic, author and lecturer Sybil Leek died," October 27, 1982. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/10/27/Self-proclaimed-witch-psychic-author-and-lecturer-Sybil-Leek-died/7758404539200/ ↩︎

  4. BBC Inside Out South, "Sybil Leek, The South's White Witch," broadcast October 28, 2002. https://web.archive.org/web/20041230083428/http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/south/series1/sybil-leek.shtml ↩︎

  5. Jacobsen, Annie. Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis. Little, Brown and Company, 2017, p. 595, notes. ↩︎

  6. Jacobsen, Phenomena (2017), p. 15. ↩︎

  7. Jacobsen, Phenomena (2017), p. 27. ↩︎

  8. Jacobsen, Phenomena (2017), p. 112. ↩︎

  9. John D. LaMothe, "Controlled Offensive Behavior - USSR," ST-CS-01-169-72, Medical Intelligence Office, Office of the Surgeon General, July 1972. CIA-RDP96-00788R001300010001-7. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001300010001-7 ↩︎