Gundella the Spiritualist?

I don't know whether to be flattered or embarrassed that Professor Emeritus at Brown University, Robert Mathiesen, an American medievalist, Slavist, and historian of Western esotericism is a reader and seemingly a fan of my Gundella blog. I am definitely embarrassed because he has to sift through all of my inane musings on the subject of witchcraft which I am not even remotely (un)well-versed in and equally flattered because seemingly hardly anybody has taken any interest in the small covens which operated in the Midwest in the 20th century. 

Mathieson curiously observes "To judge by a number of hints in Kuclo’s published writings, this group of witches had been influenced by the magical wing of Spiritualism." 

As for the Midwest covens, of which very little is known, and I am quite pleased to be one of very few people who have inadvertently dug into the phenomenon out of admiration for the folk hero Gundella, he states, "Somewhat less well documented is a circle of women operating as a 'coven of witches' within the Order of the Magi, an esoteric order founded by Olney H. Richmond (1844-1920). Most of the little we know about this circle comes to us through a Chicago dealer in occult books, Donald G. Nelson, and from him through John M. Hansen. A second circle of Witches, in northern Michigan, is known only from the reminiscences of the late Marion Kuclo, or 'Gundella' (1930-1993), who had been initiated into the circle by a relative of hers when she turned 18." 

It's very interesting that Mathieson concentrates on the so-called Spiritualist aspect of Gundella's philosophy because in a sense it would make a logical link in my attraction to both she and Eber Brock Ward, a notable and openly active Spiritualist who I have researched extensively on the sheer basis that he led a very interesting and varied life. 

In another observation on American Magic he writes, "There are also 'New-Thought families' and 'Spiritualist families' of many generations’ standing. Here things get somewhat more complicated, because as early as 1865 some Spiritualists were actually calling themselves Witches, claiming that Witchcraft and Spiritualism were essentially one and the same exercise of natural human powers. These Spiritualist-Witches were accustomed from earlier Spiritualist practice to meet in circles and raise power within those circles. Additionally, such a circle ideally consisted of twelve male-female pairs plus one Medium, thirteen people in all. Such circles were easily relabeled Covens. They are, if you will, Coven-Witches. Gundella (Marion Koclo [sic]) in Michigan was almost certainly such a Coven-Witch with at least two generations of such ancestors before her."

I don't really know what to make of these aforementioned points of contention concerning the melding together of Spiritualism and witchcraft except that it makes perfect sense from a layman's perspective. However, my instinct is that Gundella, while taking a half court jester approach to the subject, also believed in the concept of the so-called traditionalist witch. Maybe only as a convenient justification of her outward public behavior outside of the notoriously secretive coven but in her mind the belief justified the bombast.